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Northeast China (Manchuria) is well known to Koreans as a place that served as a major base for independence movements and the center stage for armed resistance against Japan. The independence movements carried out from the region therefore constitute a major part of modern Korean history and holds considerable significance for the modern to contemporary history of Northeast China as well. Armed struggles against Japan created huge ripple effects since they were an intense form of resistance toward Imperial Japan's colonial rule of Korea and its forced occupation of Northeast China.

Poet Hwang Ji-woo once recited "Who on earth were those who gave up their home town, children, elderly parents, and even their own lives to follow a path without promise, whose nameless bodies have been buried in ice?" Those words imply just how dangerous it was to take part in independence movements under Imperial Japan's rule, especially armed struggles, because it placed not only the life of oneself, but the lives of their family and loved ones at risk as well. No wonder people used to say that "joining independence movements is bound to ruin up to three generations of a family."

Realistic Need to Highlight Northeast China

Koreans continued to engage in various forms of organized armed resistance across Northeast China (Manchuria), mainly between the late 1910s and the early 1940s. Particularly worth taking note of is the activities of the Joseon Revolutionary Army against Imperial Japan's invasion, mainly around the Dongbiandao (東邊道) region of southern Manchuria. This is because the army fought fiercely against the Japanese for nearly a decade, which is longer than most other groups or organizations that carried out independence movements. The army had a rather sophisticated, progressive grasp over political affairs and used various tactics based on political principles and an organized system, which brought them much success in combat both domestically and overseas. The army is also significant for holding on to a broad range of nationalistic beliefs up until its final stages by 1938 as it maintained its independence and collaborated with Chinese armed forces to fight against Japan.

I obtained my doctoral degree in 1997 based on my thesis titled "A National Liberation Movement and the Organization of the Korean Revolutionary Party in Manchuria." The thesis presented a summary and analysis of collective struggles the Korean Revolutionary Party and the Chinese went through together against Japan in southern Manchuria in the 1930s. I thereafter continued to study national movements Koreans carried out in Northeast China as well as Korea's modern to contemporary relations with China and Japan. This has also resulted in a book published last year about "Yang Se-bong, the Last Joseon Revolutionary Army Commander in Southern Manchuria" (Seoul: Yeoksa gonggan, 2016).

Although most Koreans may not be particularly interested in the area that used to be Manchuria and is now referred to Northeast China, it is nevertheless an important area that needs to be studied from various angles and perspectives. It is not only where the histories of the Korean kingdoms of Gojoseon, Koguryo, and Balhae as well as those of northern nomadic ethnicities have been based. It will therefore be necessary to deepen our understanding in various aspects of the area including politics, economy, diplomacy, security, international relations, and culture as we review Korean independence movements, developments in Korea-China relations, Japan's invasion and rule, and border area cooperation that took place in Northeast China. Diverse angles need to be applied in order to approach and study the development of Northeast China (Manchuria), the rivalries foreign powers went through over the region, the historical issues that currently exist between Korea and China around the Amnok (Yalu) and Duman (Tumen) rivers, North Korea's relations with China, and matters involving unification and ethnic Koreans living in China. And it would also be necessary to develop a comprehensive understanding of Manchuria and Primorsky Krai by employing a practical, strategic approach to study the areas and their international relations.

Views on Korea-China Resistance Against Imperial Japan

The year 2017 marks the seventy-second year since the end of the Second World War and the Asia-Pacific War and the eightieth year since Japan's invasion of China launched the Second Sino-Japanese War. Around August 15, 2015, which was the seventieth anniversary of Korea's liberation, all sorts of related events were held in China, Japan, southeast Asia as well as in the West. Russia celebrated the seventieth anniversary of its victory over the war against Germany by holding a grand ceremony on May 9, 2015 and a couple of months later, China also attracted much attention domestically and overseas for holding a nationwide celebration commemorating its victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan.

Despite each sustaining a tremendous amount of human and material damage from respectively going to war with Germany and Japan, the Soviet Union (Russia) and China both take pride in their victory against Nazi Germany and militaristic, imperialistic Japan. Even though Koreans also hugely contributed in direct and indirect ways to obtain liberation by fiercely and persistently engaging in independence movements all over the world while under Japan's colonial rule, such facts and their significance have not yet been properly recognized.

Chinese scholars stress the fact that the Second World War broke out eight years later than the Manchurian Incident of September 18, 1931 and that Germany's defeat in May 1945 came three months earlier than the end of China's War of Resistance Against Japan. Such facts suggest that China fought the longest against Japanese fascist forces, which kept them from invading the Soviet Union, served as the eastern section of the Asia-Pacific War's battlefield even after the war broke out in 1941, and played a significant role in checking Japan from invading the United States.1) Lately, the Chinese government and scholars have particularly been displaying the tendency to highlight and widely promote about the pivotal role China played in the Second World War as if they are running an operation in response against the Abe administration's failure to be forthright about Japan's wartime aggressions.

According to an estimation made by Chinese scholars, a total of nearly 35 million casualties occurred in China during its war with Japan between September 18, 1931 and August 15, 1945, a colossal number that amounts to 2.5 times the total number of casualties that occurred over the First World War. About 20 million out of that 35 million were sacrificed from the Second Sino-Japanese War alone, while around 2 million Japanese soldiers were killed over the same period. However, the tally of Japanese soldiers killed in combat in China came up to around 500,000.2) These numbers indicate that China suffered a tremendous loss from its war with Japan that resulted in 40 times more casualties than what the invader sustained.

Chinese scholars previously considered the duration of China's resistance against Japan as identical to that of the so-called Second Sino-Japanese War, which lasted eight years from when Japan started to invade mainland China through the Lugouqiao (盧溝橋) Incident of July 7, 1937 until Japan's fall on August 15, 1945. However, they have recently begun to extend their definition of that duration to fourteen (or even fifteen) years, arguing that Japan's attack began with its invasion of Manchuria on September 18, 1931 since it prompted the Chinese public into form volunteer armies while many provincial forces also joined in the fight to resist Japan.

Such a tendency seems to reflect the view that it is necessary to newly appraise the wartime actions of the Chinese public, the Kuomintang government, the provincial forces led by military cliques related to Zhang Xueliang (張學良), the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces or the Northeastern People's Revolutionary Army and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. The reason I agree with this view is because many Koreans actually joined forces with volunteer armies or provincial troops in China from 1930 until the early 1940s to carry out collective armed resistance against the Japanese. For instance, the Joseon Revolutionary Army (led by Commander Yang Se-bong) in southern Manchuria and the Korean Independence Army (led by Commander Yi Cheong-cheon) in northern Manchuria united forces with volunteer armies associated with China's Kuomintang to fiercely fight against Japan until around 1938. Many Koreans such as Yi Hong-gwang, Heo Hyeong-sik, Choe Yong-geon, and Kim Chaek each joined and actively participated in either the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces under the Chinese Communist Party's Manchurian Provincial Committee, the Northeastern People's Revolutionary Army, or the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

From the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, many Koreans (or people of Korean descent) relocated to Northeast China (Manchuria) as Japan launched a full-scale invasion upon Korea, and went on to carry out intense anti-Japanese movements in China that developed into the core of independence movements operated overseas in modern Korean history. As the Chinese and Koreans increasingly found themselves in similar situations because of Japan's invasion of Northeast China in September 1931 (also referred to as the September 18th or "Mukden" Incident) as well as the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937 and the Asia-Pacific War in December 1941, the Kuomintang government and the Chinese Communist Party extended a considerable amount of support toward anti-Japanese movements led by Koreans in Northeast China and other locations within its territory. This is also why they expressed earlier and greater interest than other foreign powers in Korea's independence and future.

The Recent Chinese Understanding and Its Implications

In a speech titled "To Create a Beautiful Future of China-ROK Cooperation and Achieve Asia's Revitalization and Prosperity" given at Seoul National University on July 4, 2014, the current Chinese leader Xi Jinping mentioned the following about Korea-China relations.

"When Japanese militarism viciously waged wars of aggression against China and Korea in the first half of the twentieth century, Japan came to annex Korea and occupy half of China's territory, destroying both countries and causing their people to suffer greatly. At the height of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the two countries' people were both cast into a life-or-death situation in which they depended on and helped one another. The Korean Provisional Government building, the Maheon Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall in Shanghai, and the Korean Liberation Army monument in Xian are all proof of that impressive, unforgettable time in history.”

Through the speech, Xi Jinping focused on Korea-China relations by specifically underlining Korean independence movements and the unified resistance the people of Korea and China carried out against Japan. And at a study session focusing on the "Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression," the Chinese president is also said to have called for further efforts to study the war in-depth. He is also said to have particularly pointed out that the locality of the war and the Chinese Communist Party's role in "overcoming adversity" were key to China's victory.

Based on these facts, we can gather that President Xi Jinping is highly interested in and fairly knowledgeable about the resistance against Japanese aggression in China's modern to contemporary history and its link to China's relations with Korea. Korean scholars should therefore seek ways to conduct joint studies and engage in academic exchange with their Chinese counterparts to better grasp the significance of the independence movements and armed resistance Koreans were involved in alongside the Chinese and build a common understanding of history between the two countries for the sake of peaceful co-existence and prosperity.

Nationalistic sentiments have been on the rise lately in East Asia due to differing perceptions of history and conflicts over territorial issues. Such sentiments should be kept from developing to an extreme so that Korea, China, and Japan may peacefully co-exist and prosper in the long run. This year marks both the seventy-second year since Korea gained its liberation and China won its war against Japan. That gives all the more reason to thoroughly study from diverse angles the invaluable experience and heritage the people of Korea and China left behind together as they collectively resisted Japan's imperialistic invasions and to devise ways for us to better discover and learn the lessons from such studies.

1. Liu Jianguo (劉建國) & Bi Wanwen (畢萬聞), “Kangzhan shengli yu jinri zhongguo - Jinian kangri zhanzheng yu shijie fan faxisi zhanzheng shengli 70 zhounian” [The Anti-Japanese War and China Today: Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the Anti-Fascist World War], Dongbei shidi [History and Geography of the Northeast], No. 3 (2015), 3.

2. Ibid., 4.