This dissertation reveals how religious factors affected the development of the Korean War. Much prior research has analyzed the causes and nature of the Korean War, in part because of the war’s impact upon later events, from the Cold War to the presentday geopolitical standoff. Though the war has been much-studied, religious factors have rarely been included in these analyses. This de-emphasis of religion may be a justifiable simplification in general war historiographies, but not in the specific case of Korea. This current study uncovers the unique role of religion in Korean-American relations and in Korean culture and politics, prior-to-and-during the time of the Korean War. The Korean War ushered in a time of intimate collaboration between state and non-state actors, unparalleled in American diplomatic and military history. Because American missionaries had been working among Koreans for many years, they possessed the language skills, human connections, and geographical knowledge that the US military lacked. From the early days within the Pusan Perimeter through the late period at P’anmunjom, American missionaries were highly visible on the frontline, at the negotiation table, and in the POW camps. They were also important to the battle of propaganda. Their letters and reports aroused sympathy in America for the Korea people. In addition to the contributions of American Missionaries, the effect of Korean Christians was an equally important factor to the shaping of the conflict. Churches were rather influential within Korean society; clergymen were active in Korean politics; and many of the top politicians were Christians. Christianity was a major obstacle to Communist control of the North and subversive activities in the South. With the assistance of foreign funding, churches were transformed by the ravages of war into an important source of charitable assistance for millions of impoverished refugees. Although this study looks at religious factors in general, the discussion focuses primarily on Protestant churches and Protestant missionaries. These Protestant churches, of all religious institutions in Korea, exerted an influence far disproportionate to their percapita membership. Similarly, these Protestant missionaries, of all religious actors, had significant influence upon the American military and upon the American public. In particular, the majority of missionaries who stayed behind and worked effectively with the Korean government and US military were from the American Presbyterian missions. They took the initiative on relief efforts and set the standard for others to follow. This dissertation makes an important contribution to religious history as well. In the process of assessing the impact of Christianity upon the Korean War, this dissertation begins by examining Christianity’s development within Korea, primarily from the arrival of American missionaries in the late Choson period. Christianity is found to have had a strong impact upon Korea’s social development, internal politics, and foreign-relations. The Christian community was an important part of the independence movement against Japanese control. When one considers that South Korea has emerged today as one of the most Christianized of nations, that every elected Korean president has been a Christian, and that Korea now sends out more missionaries than any nation besides America, then the historical value of such a study of into Christianity’s origins becomes clear.

An overlooked dimension of the Korean War: The role of Christianity and American missionaries in the rise of Korean nationalism, anti -colonialism, and eventual civil war, 1884--1953

Land Redistribution in Korea

This thesis deals with the influence of German philosophical doctrines on the development of heavy industry in South Korea under president Park Chung Hee in the 1970s. It argues that Park’s dictatorship in the 1970s was an archetype of ‘technocratic heavy industrialisation’ with the goal to undergo a very compressed and rapid transition to a heavy industry based economy following the post-Vietnam War detente. Park’s political economy originates from a very German strategy in overcoming ‘systemic vulnerabilities: scarce natural resources and an ominous foreign security threat’. This was to be achieved through the imposition of a military-led authoritarianism and the mobilisation of the entire population in preparation for ‘total war’. In the 1930s and 1940s, political economy of techno-fascism was introduced in Manchuria by the Japanese Army, with German counsel, which was later emulated by the postwar Japanese government and Park’s regime in the 1970s. In the 1970s, Park needed to broaden his ruling coalition, with the military on one side and business on the other, in order to launch his program of heavy industrialisation. Park was also inclined to provide ‘side payments’ to the population to placate democratic militancy opposing his dictatorship. To achieve these goals, Park introduced the term ‘Miracle on the Rhein’ to describe West Germany’s postwar economic rise from the ashes as a model to follow for South Korea. With this economic model and based on German doctrines of total war that were refracted into Korea by way of Japanese colonisation Park introduced the techno-fascist institutions that were to overcome the South Korean predicaments of scarce resources and the Northern Communist security threat. This thesis addresses Park’s dictatorship in terms of mobilisation of national human capital and financial resources, allocation of mobilizeised resources to those specific sectors that accounted for heavy industrialisation, and the social consequences of these policies. To overcome developmental backwardness due to the country’s very late industrialisation, Park adopted Gerschenkron’s catch-up strategy in his pursuit of rapid industrial development. Park then deployed German doctrines and ideas in his pursuit of the industrial transition, which had a substantial impact on educational reform, the socio-economic order and property distribution in South Korea. This thesis shows that Park’s heavy industrialisation had fostered a state-business alliance and a political compromise between the elites and the emergent middle through the state’s intervention into the structure of property ownership while the skill-less labour class remained marginalizeised.

Miracle from the Rhein to the Han River:heavy industrialisation of South Korea and its social consequences under Park Chung Hee

Approximately 75% of the Korean farmers are ten? ants operating farms that average $y2 acres in size. Out of the produce, one-third to three-fourths of the crop goes to the landlord, while the tenant pays all expenses ? including taxes in many cases, although this is illegal. The situation is due to the large num? ber of tenants wanting land, with no alternative em? ployment available, so that they bargain against each other through gifts and services above the customary or legal rental agreements. The conditions are so serious that in the winter and spring whole communi? ties of peasants are reduced to eating roots and bark to keep alive. "The spring suffering" is a period when almost all farmers face a food shortage. Rents are paid in kind and, when the farmer has sold his share of the rice, paid his debts and bought cheap millet to eat, there is not enough food left for the family to live on through the winter months. Tenancy and poverty have been increasing, in spite of increased production. Japanese interests have taken over much of the best rice land

Arthur C. Bunce

Papers

The Future of Korea: Part II