Republic of Korea in Yeokcheon - Chapter 68



Only Krnovel

#68. Are you really evil? (re-edited on 5.11!)

June 13, 1945, 5 p.m.

The President’s Office at the General Government Complex.

Lee Kang-cheol returned from sending off Roosevelt and was taking a short break.

The fatigue I had accumulated recently from attending the surrender ceremony, meeting Chiang Kai-shek, and dealing directly with Roosevelt was so severe that my head was pounding.

“Ugh! It’s a forced march, a forced march. “It’s a shame that old man Roosevelt returned quickly.”

It’s already been 10 months since I went through the wormhole and arrived in 1944.

As I was living my life going straight ahead without any hesitation, I was so hectic that it felt like 10 days had passed, not 10 months.

Still, I somehow managed to get through it.

Even so, since the restoration of the Korean Peninsula was so reassuring in terms of manpower and materials, it was easier than expected to defeat the Kwantung Army and occupy Manchuria, and for the time being, the expansion of the Soviet Union was suppressed as much as possible.

And as a member of the victorious nation, he boarded the battleship Missouri and signed the surrender agreement after the United States. He even received an apology from Japan’s Hirohito, so even if he couldn’t get 100 points, it seemed like he would get 90 points.

“But the problem starts now…”

There are so many things going on here and there that there are more than one problem that needs to be solved.

Now, we must begin work to liquidate pro-Japanese groups in earnest, and hold war crimes trials against Japanese soldiers and Japanese people.

In addition, we must control the vastly expanded territory and achieve national integration, including the Chinese, Japanese, Mongolians, and even Russians, who have become new citizens, while also developing industry and the economy.

In addition, while keeping China’s unification in check, national defense had to be strengthened and the Soviet Union’s provocations had to be monitored.

“Ugh! “Why do you have so much to do?”

When I thought about it, it was so horrible that I couldn’t help but scream.

smart!

While Lee Kang-cheol was performing a screaming show alone, imagining a future full of thorns, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes, please come in.”

“That’s me.”

“Ah, Chief of Staff. “Come in.”

“What are you doing?”

“Have you been busy these days? I was so tired that I was resting. “But why?”

“no. My head is on the verge of exploding too. If it’s okay, would you like to have a drink of soju for the first time in a while? “Is it almost dinner time?”

“Is that so?”

“Now let’s take a breather and live a bit. “If you keep doing this, you’ll die.”

“ha ha ha! “Okay, let’s have a glass of soju sometimes.”

“Please leave.”

It has been some time since the limited ban on alcohol for the expeditionary force was lifted.

No matter how urgent the excuse was, I couldn’t control it too much, so I was letting go little by little as time went by.

However, there were still quite strict restrictions on gathering with people of this era outside of official settings, as there was concern that alcohol might lead to a slip of the tongue.

Anyway, Lee Kang-cheol and Go Seok-man left the government office and headed to the new town south of Yongsan, where the families of the expeditionary force had moved en masse.

Here, the families of the expeditionary force who came down from the riverside built new modern houses, forming a kind of town. Security was controlled from the entrance, so it was safer than other places, and above all, there were restaurants that the families of the expeditionary force started as a pastime.

The existing restaurants in Seoul were not safe in terms of hygiene or taste, and there were security issues, so Lee Kang-cheol and other expeditionary force officers often visited this neighborhood when they wanted to eat or drink.

As I entered the restaurant with a simple sign saying ‘Mom’s’, a woman in her 50s greeted me warmly.

“Are you here?”

“Yes, boss. “Is business going well?”

“Ho ho ho! “I started it as a pastime, but it’s done so well that I’m worried.”

“ha ha ha! If it goes well, that’s good. “We’re going to have some accompaniment while we eat dinner, so please serve it appropriately.”

“Yes, Commander.”

After a while, kimchi hotpot was boiling deliciously in the room.

“Well, you worked hard. “Let’s have a drink!”

“My brother also had a hard time. for!”

“nice! good night!”

“Ugh! These days, this is better than sleeping with my wife.”

“Hey! “You bastard!”

“Fuhahaha!”

“ha ha ha!”

After giving and receiving like that, before I knew it, the third bottle of soju was on the table.

“older brother.”

“huh?”

“Now is the time to build up our internal strength.”

“That’s right, so when I was alone earlier, I couldn’t help but scream. “There must be a lot of pending issues.”

“Hehehe! That’s right. “First of all, now that the war is over, we need to take care of the acquired territory and people.”

“Hmm, after all, Manchuria is the biggest problem, right?”

“That’s right. Territories acquired from Japan, such as Hokkaido, have been decided to be controlled by the United States for the time being, so if we slowly send people to integrate them, there will be no problem. Of course, you shouldn’t leave it like that.”

“If we just trust the U.S. and leave it alone, we will destroy the territory. Well, as I will say at the Cabinet meeting, we will also have to pay attention to the territory acquired from Japan from now on.”

“That’s right. Anyway, my point is that it has less urgency compared to Manchuria. “First of all, the populations can’t be compared, right?”

“That’s not true.”

Hokkaido, the largest and most populous territory acquired from Japan, has a population of about 3.3 million.

Even this increased explosively as mainland Japanese people immigrated after the Meiji Restoration, and the population of Hokkaido in the 1870s was less than 200,000.

“Hokkaido has 3.3 million people, and southern Sakhalin has less than 400,000 Japanese and our compatriots combined. Additionally, Okinawa has 600,000. Even if you add up all the remaining islands, it would be about 100,000. In total, it’s less than 5 million. However, there are as many as 43 million shares…”

“How many people are there in Manchuria? This is different every time you hear it, right? Some say it will be 50 million, while others say it will be 43 million.”

“Even your daughter-in-law won’t know that. Unlike Joseon or Taiwan, Manchuria has never conducted a proper census, even for Japanese people.”

“okay?”

“Yes, we did, but the General Affairs Office of the State Council and the National Tax Department of the State Council, which investigated at the same time, are different.”

“shit! “What’s wrong?”

“Well, you have to think about the characteristics of Manchuria. It is a vast territory spanning 1.2 million km2. Borders also did not function properly. So, in a way, it’s natural in this day and age.”

“So how many people are there?”

“I think it would be reasonable to think of the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and even Russians as totaling around 43 million. In any case, the only basis is to follow the Japanese colonial rule’s last investigation.”

“Sigh, it starts with a sigh.”

“Hehehe!”

Lee Kang-cheol knew to some extent, but when it became reality, he couldn’t help but sigh.

The total number of Koreans in the Korean Peninsula, China, and Japan is estimated to be 30 million.

In this case, problems with identity are bound to arise.

It was a very serious problem because trying to assimilate it could actually work.

“What about us Koreans in Manchuria?”

“It’s not entirely clear either. According to database data, according to data published in 1995 by a person named Park Chang-wook, the number was 2.16 million in 1945, and according to data published by Kim Geerman in 2005, it was 1.82 million.”

“Damn it! “What on earth is right?”

“There is no way to know 100% accurate numbers now. This is very complicated. “Until we conduct an accurate census later, we have to make estimates.”

“Then can we just set it at 2 million as previously known?”

“I think we can catch it like that.”

“Hmm, our compatriots are no slouch either.”

“Well, the Japanese intentionally encouraged immigration to develop Manchuria. There are many farmers who came from the Samnam region. It is not for nothing that the majority of Donggando residents are our compatriots. ”

“Anyway, it’s our land now, so there’s no problem…”

The problem is the Chinese.

“Is there no way to reasonably reduce the proportion of Chinese people? “This is a serious problem, right?”

“Honestly, there are no special measures. “We have no choice but to encourage them to escape to China as much as possible.”

“How do I induce it?”

“We must use all means. “It is impossible to kick them all out, but we must at least reduce them to less than half or one-third of the current size.”

“Is that possible?”

“Of course it is difficult. But it’s something you absolutely have to do, right?”

“This is really difficult. Where on earth are you sending so many people? And since they are people who have settled down and lived there, they will fiercely resist if you try to force them out…”

“Brother, aren’t you thinking too hard? It’s the 1940s? “It’s not the 2020s.”

“Don’t I know that? But how do you do it?”

“First of all, most of the Chinese living in Manchuria today have not immigrated for a long time. “It was a place that the Qing Dynasty became interested in after the Beijing Treaty of 1860, and the population of all of Manchuria at that time was estimated to be around 3 million.”

“I knew the population was low due to the pension policy, but it was smaller than I thought?”

“That’s right. Anyway, from then on, the population of Manchuria began to increase, and it increased in earnest after 1904, when the Qing Dynasty completely opened Manchuria. It reached 10 million in the 1900s, 20 million in the 1920s, and exceeded 40 million in the 1940s. In other words, the majority of the population is Chinese who immigrated in the past 20 years, and if you expand to 30 years ago, one in four people today is not originally from Manchuria.”

“Hoo?”

“In addition, it is said that the male to female ratio was over 120 to 100. Of course, the male is 120cm, which means it is a typical immigrant country. In other words, even if it is forced out to some extent, it is bullshit to say that it is the home that has been passed down from generation to generation.”

“…”

Lee Kang-cheol thought about what Go Seok-man was saying.

Without even thinking about it for long, the idea was to expel the Chinese as much as possible, even by using coercive means.

“Do you really understand what you are saying right now?”

“I know very well. You will probably be criticized a lot. There will be severe criticism internationally as well.”

“I know you well…”

“Brother, this matter is not something to be approached naively. We are in a position to take responsibility for the future of our country. “If we think about the future of our country, we must accept some degree of criticism.”

“The criticism against me is not scary. “If this is done wrong, the entire country will be criticized for a long time.”

“Do I not know you? What I mean is, I don’t mean to stuff you into a train car in the middle of the night like some kind of Georgian butcher. “Physically, that doesn’t make sense.”

“then?”

“You’re preparing a gift for that guy Mao right now, right?”

“Why is that? ah! “Maybe you?”

“Hehehe! “If you’re giving a gift, why don’t you give it properly?”

“you···.”

“why?”

“Are you really an evil guy?”

“…”

Instead of answering, Go Seok-man took a sip of soju.