9781422285961

The Korean War

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Japanese war effort. Japan eventually began conscripting Koreans into its army. Japan Defeated, Korea Divided By the summer of 1945, World War II was nearing an end. Nazi Germany had surrendered in May, bringing the war in Europe to a close. Japan con- tinued to fight on, but its strategic situation was hopeless. In July, the United States successfully tested a terrible new weapon: the atomic bomb. On August 6, a single atomic bomb dropped from an American warplane destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Two days later, the USSR (which was also called the Soviet Union) declared war on Japan. Soviet troops poured into Manchuria, a Japanese- occupied region in northeastern China. While it had fought against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had previously honored a neutrality pact with Japan. On August 9, the United States dropped another atomic bomb. This one obliterated the city of Nagasaki. Hirohito, Japan’s emperor, announced his nation’s surrender on August 15. American officials were concerned that Soviet forces would move south from Manchuria and occupy the entire Korean Peninsula. The United States proposed that Korea temporarily be divided into Soviet and

Japanese officials arrive on the battleship USS Missouri to sign the official surren- der documents ending the Second World War, September 15, 1945. The United States and its allies arranged for Japanese sol- diers in Asian territories that they had captured to surrender to the nearest Allied forces. In the north- ern zone of Korea, the Soviets accepted the surren- der, while U.S. troops con- trolled the southern zone.