Patriots, Traitors and Empires is an account of modern Korean history, written from the point of view of those who fought to free their country from the domination of foreign empires. It traces the history of Korea’s struggle for freedom from opposition to Japanese colonialism starting in 1905 to North Korea’s current efforts to deter the threat of invasion by the United States or anybody else by having nuclear weapons. Koreans have been fighting a civil war since 1932, when Kim Il Sung, founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, along with other Korean patriots, launched a guerrilla war against Japanese colonial domination. Other Koreans, traitors to the cause of Korea’s freedom, including a future South Korean president, joined the side of Japan’s Empire, becoming officers in the Japanese army or enlisting in the hated colonial police force. From early in the 20th century when Japan incorporated Korea into its burgeoning empire, Koreans have struggled against foreign domination, first by Japan then by the United States. Some protests were peaceful; others involved riots, insurrection and sustained guerrilla war. After the US engineered political partition of their country in 1945, the Koreans fought a conventional war, from 1950-1953. Three million gave their lives. When the Japanese Empire collapsed in 1945, Koreans erupted in joy, quickly organizing an independent state, the Korean People’s Republic. Joy turned to bitterness when the US refused to recognize the new republic, and soon declared war on it. Hungering for self-determination, land reform, and an economy directed to local needs, Koreans turned to communists as leaders, who had established great moral authority in the anti-colonial struggle for freedom. They looked to the Soviet Union for inspiration. But a communist Korea, a Korea that handed control of the country’s land, resources, and factories to farmers, cooperatives and state-owned enterprises, clashed with the aspirations of US policy planners, mainly Wall Street lawyers and bankers. The latter sought a world in which US corporations and investors would be free to scour the globe in search of lucrative trade and investment opportunities. Patriots, Traitors and Empires, The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom is a much-needed antidote to the jingoist clamor spewing from all quarters whenever Korea is discussed.
Author Biography:
Stephen Gowans is an independent political analyst whose principal interest is in who influences formulation of foreign policy in the United States. His writings, which appear on his What’s Left blog, have been reproduced widely in online and print media and have been cited in academic journals and other scholarly works. Some articles have been translated into many languages. He has lectured on foreign affairs and is a frequent guest on The Taylor Report, a University of Toronto current affairs radio program. His most recent book is Washington’s Long War on Syria (Baraka 2017), which also appeared in Chinese (Taiwan). Stephen Gowans lives in Ottawa.
