While we now understand that there are two Koreas, at least the 21st Century finds South Korea free and independent. It was not always so. For some time, Korea was under the political and military influence and occupation of Japan. This came to light just a few short weeks ago: "The leaders of Japan and South Korea wrapped up a meeting here Monday with what was at best an agreement to disagree about how Japan is handling the legacy of its occupation of the Korean peninsula.
The past dominated the present during the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. The leaders spent more than an hour and a half discussing historical accounts in Japanese textbooks of the 1910-45 occupation period and 10 minutes on the more immediate problems of the day, such as North Korea's development of nuclear weapons" (Demick A3).
What is important to remember is that Korea, in the century before 1950 was a bouncing ball sort of area, first under the historic influence of China, then various attempts by France and even the U.S. to establish trade- as well as sending Christian missionaries. Korea had an emperor at the time, but the emperors tended to be weak and there was a constant struggle between conservatives who wanted all foreign influences out of Korea, and progressives who wanted Western influence as a means of commercial and economic growth.
But, it was Japan that exerted the most influence. While Japan always was influential, Korea became quite literally a Japanese colony after the Russo-Japanese war. In 1905, "the Japanese forced the Korean government to agree to a protectorate. In 1907 they compelled the emperor to abdicate, and in 1910 they annexed the country to the Japanese empire" (Kang 528c). Was the U.S. concerned? Not really, according to most historians, even though there was a brief invasion of Korea by American marines in the mid-19th century.
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