A review by mtyanco
The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings

3.0

The roots of the Korean War go back much further than the war itself (1950-1953). That much this book really makes clear. The division began with Japanese occupation between 1910-1945. North Koreans see the war as beginning in 1932 with anti-colonial uprisings against the Japanese and their collaborators in Manchuria. Kim Il Sung and the North Korean leadership fought the Japanese occupiers, whereas South Korean leadership after 1945 consisted largely of the much detested collaborators of the Japanese occupation. The U.S. military government, however, saw it as a black and white issue of communism and anti-communism. They were willing to turn a blind eye to atrocities committed by the Rhee regime. Cumings argued that South Korea committed much more atrocities than did North Korea at the time, but I don’t know enough to confirm or deny that. Whatever the case, Cumings wants Americans to have a clearer view of the Korean war than simply bad North, good South.