Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast. Episode 162, The Best of Frenemies, Part 8.

Today we close out our look at Japan-Korea relations with a quick look at the relationship

between South Korea and Japan.

First, though, we have to discuss the modern history of South Korea, or to give it its legal name,

the Republic of Korea.

The South was established as an independent state on August 17, 1948.

Its first president, chosen by the Americans for his westernized attitude and his close

relationship with the U.S., none other than our old buddy

Singhman Rhee.

Rhee's new Korean government was American-backed, but like many American-aligned states during the Cold War,

it was not a democracy in fact, though it was one in name.

Re's government, for example, suppressed calls for tenancy and land reform among the nation's

agricultural class.

Remember that under Japanese rule, most farmers in Korea had been tenants.

After the Japanese were ejected from Korea, however, rich Koreans, particularly those affiliated

with Rhee, stepped into the role of landlord vacated by the Japanese.

Cry's for land reform were treated as communist agitation, and the instigators were accused

of being aligned with Kim Il-sung and the North, which, to be fair, some of them were.

Rhee and his allies were able to steer the new state successfully through the Korean War,

though it was devastated in the process.

The ancient capital of Seoul, for example, was a big symbolic center for the South,

but it was nearly flattened by the war as it changed

...