A Fractured Liberation: Korea under US Occupation

After liberation in 1945, Koreans erupted with hopes for reform that had been bottled up during forty years of Japanese imperial rule. Arguing that permanent North-South division was far from inevitable, Kornel Chang explores the movement for a unified Korean social democracy and its suppression by anticommunist US military authorities. A New Yorker Best Book of the YearShortlist, Cundill History PrizeA poignant return to Korea’s forgotten “Asian Spring”—a moment ripe with possibility denied by the postwar US military occupation.When Japanese imperial rule ended in August 1945, the Korean peninsula erupted with hopes of freedom, independence, and equality. Workers threw themselves into union activism and took control of factories. Peasants occupied formerly Japanese-owned farmlands, and women demanded a level playing field, politically and economically.A Fractured Liberation brings to vivid life the brief but intense moment in postwar Korea when anything seemed possible, but nothing was guaranteed. The country had been abruptly split into US and Soviet military occupation zones, but, as Kornel Chang shows, activists sought self-governance throughout a unified Korea. These mostly left-leaning efforts were bolstered by American supporters, including New Deal liberals, Christian socialists, and trade unionists.The Koreans’ greatest obstacle, however, proved to be the rigidly anti-communist US military government in the south, which curbed protests and muzzled reformers. As concern over the Cold War’s superpower rivalry overshadowed local democratic aspirations, the United States narrowed the possibilities for Korean independence, helping to cement the North-South divide and ensure decades of authoritarian rule on both sides.