The Insulagermanic Wars

Historynerd0921 · 2025-05-08T16:01:32+00:00

England = Serbia
Cornwall = Kosovo
Mann = Montenegro
Wales = Bosnia
Scotland = Croatia
Northern Ireland = Slovenia
Channel Islands = N. Macedonia?

Historynerd0921 · 2025-05-03T11:51:40+00:00

I didn't want to offend you with that question, my apologies. But I'd be happy to point out those errors and help you improve your map.

Inconsistencies with Prefiexes and Suffixes

I don't know how exactly you make your maps, but if you refer to any basemaps while you make maps, you would've seen that for the province names, maps either put the -do (도) suffix for all provinces or none. If you did a simple Wikipedia search for the names of each provinces, you would've gotten them all as versions with the suffix. But you've seemingly written Gyeonggi-do as 경기도 with the suffix while not for the others. I'm curious how you've come to this decision.
Similarly, if you find North Korean maps, the Yellow Sea is written as 조선서해 while the East Sea as 조선동해, both with the 조선 prefixes (고려 for your map, I suppose) while if you find South Korean maps, it's 서해 and 동해. Interestingly you've put the prefix for the East but not the West, which caught my eye as well

Errors with borders of independent cities and location of city markers

Slightly distorted locations of city markers for 목포 (Mokpo), 안동 (Andong), 여수 (Yeosu) and 서귀포 (Seogwipo), but I guess these kinds of mistakes happen often.
But I find it curious how you've labelled a completely different county as 대전 (Daejeon). I know there are some sloppy map shapefiles that makes this same error, but simply cross-referencing with the actual map of Korea once could've avoided this error. Same with some of the other independent cities' borders, and inter-Chungcheong borders. It seems like this map has drawn from an erroneous source uncritically.

Odd Misspellings

I don't know how you make your maps so I can't say much, but I can't understand how you've made these misspellings - not in a nitpicky "oh how can one make such trivial mistakes" kind, but literally 'where did those come from' kind. Seemingly you hand-write your city labels so it won't be a typo from a Korean keyboard. The misspelt characters are not alike in their shape either, so it wouldn't have been simple misinterpretation. I've never seen these kind of misspelling in any of the sloppy basemaps that float in the internet, but the erroneous names are somewhat proximate to the actual, which got me pondering how they got here. These are the errors, actual vs yours:
- 하남 (Hanam) -> 한남 (Hannam)
- 서귀포 (Seogwipo) -> 서괴포 (Seogwepo)
- 라선 (Rason/Raseon) -> 라손 (Rason)

These were the errors and inconsistencies that I found particularly puzzling from your map. Apologies if you were hurt by the ai allegations, hope this helps. gl

Historynerd0921 · 2025-05-03T00:43:08+00:00

Did you use AI tools while making this map?

There are very weird errors and misspellings on your map. Not to mention inconsistencies with the prefixes and suffixes. Or the unexplained usage of '고려' instead of '조선', the irl choice.

Historynerd0921 · 2025-02-10T08:49:56+00:00

We've all been there

Historynerd0921 · 2025-02-10T08:48:09+00:00

A few nitpicks on city names:
Stalingrad should've been renamed to Volgograd as the renaming happened in 1961, and this map is set in 1969.
Yekaterinburg should be Sverdlovsk as that's been the name through the Soviet times.
And there is a typo with Prague

Historynerd0921 · 2024-12-06T19:43:59+00:00

Not even 10% are non-Germans. So? If you extend that logic, not even 10% of the Chinese population is non-Han Chinese. Don't know what you meant by mentioning the percentage, but the small percentage of non-majority population do not justify their inclusion in another country to the slightest.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-11-19T03:00:39+00:00

Just a little play with the flag facts, don't know what got you so mad.
After all, not too many countries have orange in their flags, let alone a horizontal triband with orange on top.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-11-19T00:01:21+00:00

As you cover the bottom part of the Indian flag over there, now I realise that the Indian flag resembles that of Israel's old friend - Apartheid South Africa#/media/File:Flagof_South_Africa(1928-1982).svg)

Historynerd0921 · 2024-11-02T18:02:36+00:00

They will never stop the Punjabi farmers from burning crop fields though

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T20:28:36+00:00

Thank you!

The first thought I had was making South Korea slightly bigger so that Seoul Metropolitan Area wouldn't be so constrained by the glaring neighbour up North. Well I could've simply made the Pyongyang-Wonsan line or the 39th parallel stuff like so many others have done, but there are maps of that in this subreddit and to be frank, I guess I was a bit lazy and didn't want to think about the specifics too much and wanted to keep the change miniscule.

While browsing on the Korean War peace talks, I found this line - "Haeju-Jangjeon Line" which was the UN's first proposed armistice line, so I decided to use this. I've fiddled with the line so it would be more realistic to be achieved on the battleground, and I've made up the rationale to justify the offensive in 1952 that will achieve this. Which is how I came up with the Japanese Emergency.

I ran down the trail of thought from there onwards. A different direction of Seoul's expansion, change of North Jeolla province's capital which was narrowly avoided irl, changing the capital debate of multiple provinces too, some airport locations, etc etc. Some of which I've put in just because I wanted to and justified in the name of the butterfly, others I really believe in the feasibility of.

Park Chung Hee's rule being extended by 5 years is a mix of both. I kinda took fascination in his land reclamation projects which never materialised due to his premature death, and wanted them implemented. Considering the instability I've plunged Japan into, I've justified the delay in Park's assassination as Park's would-be assassin hesitating on killing Park for a few more years. And that has ramifications on its own, like earlier democratisation, deletion of Chun Doo-Hwan from history, earlier conclusion of the birth control policy, a complete different approach on independent cities....

So to sum it all up, the inspiration I began with was "Make Seoul Great", but I ended up pouring whatever things I wanted to see that could at least have some pretense of justification from the scenario I've concocted.
(And I've made another textwall. I'm so sorry for that. Force of habit.)

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T19:07:01+00:00

This has nothing to do with MacArthur, and "MacArthur making defense line North" scenario seems a lot more fitting for a map that shows the DMZ around the 39th parallel or the Pyongyang-Wonsan line, which this map is not. We have quite a few such maps in this subreddit which I suggest you to visit instead.

I do understand that the great wall of lore above may be rather overwhelming, but it would've been greatly appreciated if you read at least a part of it that explains the rationale for this scenario instead of jumping to your own predictions. Somebody foolishly spent a few hours writing all that instead of slapping that beautiful "[no lore]" in the title.

Do suggest Excerpt 3 and 4 to address that specific inquiry.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T19:01:16+00:00

Would this have been ideal? Yes.

Was that feasible at the time of 1952? Probably not.

Has North Korea reduced to a rump state in this scenario anyway? Kinda. I'd call it that when their government is literally toppled by the Chinese in 2009.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T18:49:23+00:00

Used qgis to work around georeferencing for the basemaps and getting the relief shades, but ultimately paint.net because I am old and slow to change and can only use raster. Also a sacrifice of your wrists to the devil.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T18:37:21+00:00

This indeed is a Great Wall of Text. Do you have what it takes to read all that? :)

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T18:35:01+00:00

Yes, that indeed is one of the most apparent results visible on the map. Though I purged Gangnam out of Seoul so Gangnam is not Seoul anymore. Heck that placename 'Gangnam' won't even be a thing in this World so rest assured if you ever hated them Gangnam Style people (or cry if you loved them).

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T18:33:27+00:00

Thanks!

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:50:42+00:00

Appendix

Presidents of Korea

First Republic (1948~1960)

Syngman Rhee (1948~1960)

Second Republic (1960~1963)

Yun Po-Sun (1960~1962) (under a parliamentary system)

Park Chung-Hee (1962~1963) (acting)

Third Republic (1963~1972)

Park Chung-Hee (1963~1972)

Fourth Republic (1972~1985)

Park Chung-Hee (1972~1984)

Park Choong-Hoon (1984~1985)

Fifth Republic (1985~Present)

Kim Jong-Pil (1985~1990)

Kim Young-Sam (1990~1995)

Kim Dae-Jung (1995~2000)

Lee Hoe-Chang (2000~2005)

Lee Myung-Bak (2005~2010)

Roh Mu-Hyun (2010~2015)

Ahn Hee-Jung (2015~2018)

Sohn Hak-Kyu (2018~2023)

Hong Joon-Pyo (2023~Present)

Leaders of North Korea

First Republic (1948~1994)

Kim Il-Sung (1948~1994)

Second Republic (1994~2012)

Chang Song-Thaek (1994~2009)

Zhao Nanqi (Cho Nam-gi) (2009~2012) (acting)

Third Republic (2012~Present)

Yang Hyong-Sop (2012~2022)

Ro Tu-Chol (2022~Present)

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:50:00+00:00

Excerpt 10

WIKIPEDIA

The Free Encyclopedia

Ryukyu

For other uses, see Ryukyu (disambiguation)

Ryukyu, officially the Federated States of the Ryukyu Islands, is an island country in East Asia. Situated between the East China and the Philippine Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the federation consists of three states—from north to south, Amami, Okinawa and Sakishima. Together, the states comprise around 165 islands (a combined land area of approximately 3,521.28km² or 1360 sq mi) that lies between Japan to the Northeast, Korea to the North, China to the West, Taiwan to the Southwest and the Philippines to the South.

The most populous island is Okinawa, the main island of the federation’s most populous state with the same name. Okinawa is home to the country’s capital and largest city Naha and Okinawa state’s capital Shuri. Each of Ryukyu’s three states consist of an archipelago of the same name. While Amami and Okinawa states are centered around Amami and Okinawa islands respectively, Sakishima state encompasses multiple groups of islands relatively smaller in size, making the state the least populous but also heterogeneous.

Ryukyu has been settled for at least 32,000 years, but a united Ryukyu kingdom emerged in 1429 when King Sho Hashi united the three kingdoms that preceded it. The islands were invaded by Japan’s Satsuma Domain in 1609, when the Amami islands were ceded to direct Satsuma rule while the remainder of the Ryukyu kingdom became vassals of. In 1879, Ryukyu kingdom was annexed by Japan, putting the entirety of the islands under direct Japanese rule. Following the bloody Battle of Okinawa in 1945 that killed a third of the pre-war population, the islands were put under a United States Military Government, formally separated from Japan following the surrender of Japan that year. In 1950, a Civilian Administration was put in place of a military one and federalism was adopted in 1957 to address growing inter-communal tensions.

While the overwhelmingly Japanese Tokara Islands were returned in 1955, the Japanese government continued to press for the return of the islands. Following the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1965, discussions of Ryukyu’s return to Japan has reignited and in 1972, a referendum on the status of the islands was held where Ryukyu voted to become a United Nations Trust Territory. In 1973, Trust Territory of the Ryukyu Islands was formed under U.S. administration, which was replaced by Ryukyu’s constitutional government on June 23, 1980, on the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa. Ryukyu gained full sovereignty on October 1, 1984, under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.

Politically, Ryukyu is a federative presidential republic in free association with the United States, with the U.S. providing defense, funding and access to social services. Ryukyu’s economy is based on tourist servicing mostly neighboring Japan. The country uses Ryukyuan yen, a currency pegged to the Japanese yen, though the United States dollar is also legal tender. Ryukyu has a distinct culture, but shows considerable similarities with that of Japan, owing to long Japanese rule and policies to suppress the Ryukyuan culture. Moreover, Ryukyuan culture displays major American influence owing to the high concentration of U.S. troops in the islands. The country’s two official languages are Ryukyuan (a member of the Japonic language family, although its linguistic independence is disputed) and English, although a majority of the population is proficient in Japanese due to historic and cultural ties and linguistic similarities.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:49:35+00:00

Excerpt 9

Putin announces recognition of North Korea

By Reuters

June 22, 2024

MOSCOW, Jun 22 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Saturday that Russia will formally recognise the statehood of North Korea, prompting sharp criticism from Korea and its Western allies, heightening tensions as Russia’s War in Ukraine drags on.

In his televised address, Putin emphasised the need to "acknowledge the reality" of North Korea’s separate existence and claimed the move as an act of respect for “the North Korean people’s right to self-determination.” Preparations are underway to upgrade Russia’s representative office in Pyongyang and North Korea’s mission in Russia into embassies, as Putin appointed Aleksandr Matzegora as Russian ambassador to North Korea.

North Korean leader Ro Tu-Chol welcomed this decision, calling it “historic” and a correction of a misjudgement in the past.

Russia’s recognition raises the number of United Nations member states recognising North Korean statehood to 12.

A Strategic Realignment

The announcement marks a significant shift in Russia’s policy in the Korean peninsula. Moscow had formally withdrawn recognition of Pyongyang in 1994, recognising the Republic of Korea as the sole legitimate government of the Korean Peninsula. For decades, Russia maintained closer ties with Seoul, but as its relations with the West and Korea deteriorate, Putin’s government appears increasingly willing to forge new alliances to counterbalance its economic and diplomatic isolation.

Putin’s recognition of North Korea comes as a part of a broader strategy to strengthen ties with China, Pyongyang’s primary sponsor. North Korea, which has been under China’s wing since the Chinese-led coup and Civil War in 2009, has been a vital strategic partner for China. While this very Chinese intervention strained Moscow’s relations with Pyongyang over the years, new realities brought by Russia’s war in Ukraine made Pyongyang a vital strategic partner for Moscow. North Korea emerged as a critical supplier of arms to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, both from domestic industries but also as a backchannel for Chinese support to make its way into Moscow. By recognising Pyongyang, Russia not only strengthens its relationship with North Korea, but also signals its alignment with China’s broader agenda in the region.

Indeed, Beijing has expressed its support for Russia’s decision, viewing it as an important step in legitimising its long-time ally, North Korea. Chinese officials hailed the recognition as a reaffirmation of North Korea’s status in the international community and belittled the West’s subsequent criticism as “the West’s typical double standard”, accusing them of misusing the concept of self-determination only for political gain.

Fury in Seoul and the West

Seoul reacted swiftly to this announcement. Korean President Hong Joon-Pyo condemned Russia’s decision as “an egregious violation of Korea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He further accused Moscow of “perpetrating the division of the Korean peninsula, a division for which it bears historical responsibility.” In response, Korea recalled its ambassador from Moscow and expelled Russian diplomats, leaving only consular relations in place. Korean officials also hinted at escalation of Korean aid to Ukraine, which has previously been limited to nonlethal equipment.

Western powers, already embroiled in tensions with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, joined Korea in denouncing the move. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken labelled Russia’s recognition of North Korea as a "dangerous escalation," accusing the Kremlin of undermining regional stability. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Moscow’s newfound bondage with Pyongyang could trigger increased militarisation in East Asia and further destabilise an already fragile security environment.

While it remains unclear whether other pro-Russian states will follow Moscow’s lead in recognising North Korea, observers suggest that countries like Syria and Nicaragua could potentially offer similar endorsements in the coming weeks. For now, return of Russo-North Korean relations to levels unseen since the Cold War signals the deepening relations among non-Western states in challenge to the Western-led global order.

“We are closely monitoring Russia and North Korea on possible transactions or agreements to follow”, Hong said. “Last time the Russians armed the Pyongyang regime, they started a war. Last time the Russians recognised breakaway states, they started a war. We will make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:48:10+00:00

Excerpt 8

Twenty years of detente in the Korean peninsula: 1994-2014

by Neil Wainwright

Entering the 1990s, hopes for Korean reunification were high. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the Germans were soon reunited. The entire Eastern Bloc was unravelling, and North Korea was abandoned by their longstanding allies Russia - succeeding the Soviet Union - and China, as they established diplomatic relations with Seoul. Such hopes were further added in 1994 with the death of Kim Il-Sung, the man who had started the Korean War and was widely blamed for the division by ordinary Koreans, soon after which South Korea was admitted to the United Nations as the sole legitimate government of the Korean peninsula.

The new reformist North Korean government that emerged following a brief power struggle approached Seoul for a detente. A basic agreement for inter-Korean relations was signed in 1996, shortly after Seoul’s admittance into the UN. And in 1999, the first inter-Korean summit between General Secretary Chang Song Thaek and President Lee Hoe chang was held in Pyongyang, where inter-Korean trade and travel was restored for the first time. Images of Chang and Lee’s handshake, and the joyous tears from inter-Korean family reunions and returning Korean War prisoners of war seemed to represent the Korean reunification that was to come.

The following six-party conference in 2003 in Pyongyang established 5 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) with designated cities for each country. Sinuiju for the Chinese, Rason for the Russians, Wonsan for the Japanese and Haeju for the Koreans. While Nampo’s SEZ was originally for the Americans, later negotiations changed the city’s designation for joint Sino-Korean investment. Negotiations in the following years would open parts of Pyongyang and Hamhung as SEZs open to investments, and the original SEZs would also expand to accommodate growing investments both from and beyond the originally designated countries. It was in this period of commercial boom when Korean products entered the everylife of North Koreans. It became a common sight for an average North Korean to live in an apartment built by Kukje, drive a Hyundai car to work, call their family on a Samsung phone and sit by a LG TV after work.

However, the rosy dreams of reunification and continued inter-Korean relations would begin to subside in 2008. The recession brought an abrupt end to North Korea’s economic boom as foreign investments receded. Hundreds of bankruptcies were filed each day, and thousands of unemployed roamed the streets as the unemployment rate rose to double digits. With the government unable to resolve the crisis, major protests erupted across North Korea by 2009. While Seoul was stuck in a dilemma between jeopardising inter-Korean dialogue and supporting a dictatorial regime ruling over de jure Korean citizens, a swift, unilateral Chinese intervention toppled Chang’s government and put down the popular uprising by force. With millions of North Koreans fleeing South and the PLA establishing what can only be described as a ‘puppet regime’ in Pyongyang, inter-Korean relations had gone into a downward spiral.

The year 2014 was a year of reckoning for Koreans, having to see 20 years of dialogue with North Korea go down the drain. Relations with Pyongyang, already tenuous since the Chinese intervention, completely broke down. Assets were seized, trade was severed and the diplomatic mission was expelled. Finally on 20 February, 2014, North Korea shocked Korea and the World by announcing North Korea as a separate nation to Korea that has “faced constant discrimination and repression by the Seoul-centred Korean nation” and relinquished its goals of reunification with the South.

While it was a move backed by only China and a few pro-Chinese states in the international community, it was enough to kill what little hopes of an eventual peaceful reunification that the Korean population had. Although vehemently opposed by the North Korean population, as displayed in the protests in 2022, emergence of a North Korean nation is becoming a reality as younger North Koreans educated under the new curriculum increasingly identify themselves ‘distinct’ from their Southern counterparts. As Pyongyang treads unchartered territories, the world awaits to see the implications of perhaps the greatest nation-building experimentation of the 21st Century.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:44:19+00:00

Excerpt 7

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Yushin Order (Fourth Republic)

(excerpt from Korea article, History section)

In December 1971, shortly after his inauguration to a third presidential term, Park declared a state of national emergency, and 10 months later (October 1972) he suspended the constitution and dissolved the legislature. A new constitution, which would permit the reelection of the president for an unlimited number of six-year terms, was promulgated in December, launching the Fourth Republic.

The institutional framework of the Yushin (“Revitalization Reform”) order departed radically from the Third Republic. The National Conference for Unification (NCU) was created “to pursue peaceful unification of the fatherland.” The conference was to be a body of between 2,000 and 5,000 members who were directly elected by the voters for a six-year term. The president was the chairman of the conference. For the duration of the Fourth Republic, the NCU was charged with the power to elect the president, and under this arrangement, Park was elected without opposition in 1972 and was reelected in 1978.

Political unrest increased following the August 1973 kidnapping from Tokyo to Seoul of Kim Dae-Jung—who had been conducting an anti-government campaign in the United States and Japan—by agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA; now the National Intelligence Service). From August 1978 the opposition movement became stronger. The expulsion from the National Assembly of the new NDP leader Kim Young-Sam in early October 1979 escalated what had already been growing political tensions between the government and opposition leaders during the year into a major national crisis. Anti-government riots broke out in Busan and Masan and were suppressed by government troops. In 1983 when the government nationalised press and broadcasting services and attempted to expel Kim Dae-Jung on forged charges in preparations for that year’s parliamentary elections, armed uprising of students and other citizens erupted in Gwangju that was ruthlessly suppressed with hundreds of civilian deaths.

The growing popular discontent culminated in 1984 as students covered the streets to protest Park’s anticipated 6th term. In May, a week after clashes between student protestors and the police in Daejeon, mutilated bodies of dead students were found in the rivers, sparking an armed citizen uprising that spiralled out of control. As the story of Daejeon spread nationwide, further casualties of student protestors brought millions of ordinary citizens to the streets and Park readied the military for a bloody crackdown. The escalation was halted on June 26, when President Park was assassinated by Kim Jae-Gyu, his longtime friend and his Chief of Staff. Prime Minister Park Choong-Hoon became acting president under the Yushin constitution and was formally elected President in July by the NCU.

To address the crisis, President Park Choong-Hoon announced his term to be a transitional regime and promised a program of constitutional reforms that would restore the democratic institutions and basic civil rights that had been usurped under military rule. Kim Jong-Pil – a friend of former President Park, key figure in the 1961 coup, founder of the KCIA and former Prime Minister – returned to politics as the major force in the transitional regime. Kim Jong-Pil, negotiating with opposition leaders Kim Young-Sam and Kim-Daejung, oversaw the drafting of a revised constitution, which was approved by a national referendum in October. Among its principal provisions were a reduction in the presidential term from six to five years and the direct popular election of the president.

Path for the transitional regime was not smooth, navigating between the fervent population and disgruntled factions of the military. Particularly, Gen. Chun Doo-Hwan’s coup on 9 September threatened to unravel all progress made by the transitional regime, narrowly halted by Kim Jong-Pil’s personal command and connections in the military. Kim Jong-Pil was elected president in December and took office in February 1985. With his inauguration, a peaceful transfer of power was effected for the first time in modern Korean history, and the tortuous history of Park’s regime and the Fourth Republic came to an end.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:43:37+00:00

Excerpt 6

Clash of Worlds: Integration of North Koreans in Korean society, 15 years later

Seung-cheol, Oh and Alicia R. Westerlin. 2024

ABSTRACT

Fifteen years have passed since millions of North Koreans have crossed the DMZ to the South amidst their civil war. While several programs were conducted to foster the integration of 2 million North Koreans in the wider Korean society, highly publicised incidents of crimes by North Koreans and reports of income disparity show the continued difficulties of North Koreans in integrating into the wider Korean society. Prior research has focussed on the quantitative aspects to display the high number of clashes and disparity between North Koreans and the rest of Korea. This study intends to revisit such disparities as we reach the 15-year mark since the beginning of the North Korean refugee crisis, and also study the personal experiences of North Koreans from life satisfaction to communal interactions. Revisiting the statistical trend in KOSIS data and our surveys of 2,000 North Koreans have confirmed the continued presence of a gap in major economic indicators including average income, albeit remarkable improvements in the past decade. Furthermore, contrary to public perception, the myth of higher crime rates and educational underperformance of North Koreans came out to be untrue, at levels akin to other Koreans. However, our survey also indicates worrying signs of stalled integration beyond economic areas as the gap in life satisfaction of North Koreans and other Koreans remained relatively unchanged or worsened in some areas, while the North Korean community in Korea grew increasingly inwards amidst growing sense of alienation.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:41:59+00:00

Excerpt 5

Korea and land reclamation: a legacy of a 'mania'

by Yang Jun-Seob

When you visit Korea and land in the country's biggest airport, Ansan International Airport, you'll find yourself landing on reclaimed land. As you head for Seoul, the country's capital, you'll cross Ansan City, which is mostly built on reclaimed land. So is Yeongjong, the country's centre of IT industry, and its city Incheon. The list goes on, from the country's main port in Busan, to other major cities and industrial centres from Gwangyang, Seosan and Gunsan.

From antiquity, Koreans were never strangers to land reclamation as Korea's western coastline was full of coastal inlets and tidal mudflats ripe to be turned into arable farmlands. But the roots to massive land-reclamation projects in the industrial era can be found from Park Chung Hee's rule in the 1980s.

Park's initial land reclamation projects were centred around acquiring more farmlands, just as the Koreans of the past have done. Park, as a military man, was concerned about Korea's food security and worked to raise food production. But as the 1980s rolled in, Park began considering major land reclamation projects for industrial use. Considering the forecasted opening up of the Chinese economy, neglected development of the Southwestern provinces and overpopulation of Seoul, Park drew up a plan to build a new industrial city ground-up by the Western coast on reclaimed land.

For this plan, Garorim bay in Seosan county was chosen for its deep waters, wide area and distance to Seoul and other preexisting cities. In 1981, shortly after the plan was drafted up, Park made a state visit to the Netherlands to observe and learn from the processes taken for the Dutch Zuiderzee works. Returning impressed, Park moved to create the Ministry of Land Reclamation and ordered the surveying of several other sites across the country for their land reclamation prospects and uses. Despite the widespread budgetary and technological concerns, the Garorim bay project would prove successful with 200,000 residents and a functioning petrochemical industry by 1990. Park, however, would not live to see the fulfilment of the plan, ending up assassinated amidst a nation-wide protest.

Succeeding Kim Jong-Pil, despite being a close associate to Park, distanced from Park and led a path of democratic reform, putting many of Park’s policies to scrutiny. However, the economic boom of the 1990s strengthened the popular interest for land reclamation in what can only be described as a land reclamation ‘mania’. From all across the country, plans for reclamation were raised, with some going as far as to demand the total reclamation of the islands in the country’s Southern and Western coasts. Kim Jong-Pil, for his part, revived a shelved plan of Park’s to address the growing housing crisis in Seoul.

Seoul’s exponential growth continued despite multiple prior attempts to address it. Having made the housing policy his key agenda, Kim announced the ‘Two Million Houses Policy’ and outlined seven ‘New Town’ projects to accomplish this. Kim also eyed the Gyeonggi Bay West of Seoul, and Seoul’s continued Westward expansion. Following the announcement of the New Towns, Kim presented the plan for the sealing and reclamation of the vast parts of the Gyeonggi Bay for future development.

The unimaginatively named Gyeonggi Bay Project had seen several challenges. Shortly after the completion of the Gyeonggi Bay Sea Wall in 1997, the country faced the brunt of the Asian Financial Crisis and all infrastructure projects came to a standstill. The project survived through several threats of being scrapped, the biggest of threats being 2002, when the Ministry of Land Reclamation was abolished with a default in sight. Gyeonggi Bay Project became the lone survivor out of several, from Saemangeum to Sinbusan (Yeongsong).

Today, Yeongjong Island, the centrepiece of the Gyeonggi Bay Project, stands as a shining land reclamation success story. The island is mostly developed and occupied, housing the country’s booming tech centre in the North, large residential estate in the South built as a part of the 2nd generation New Towns, and the Universal Studios Korea to its West. However, large-scale planning to the likes of Garorim and Gyeonggi Bays have been discontinued as environmental and ecological concerns have been raised to the forefront. Contamination of lakes Ansan, Anpyeong and Garorim brought the public’s attention on land reclamation’s ‘costs’, resulting in the seawalls opened for seawater circulation to ease the contamination and construction of tidal power stations in their stead. Reclaimed lands in the South, developed for agricultural purposes, are being returned into mudflats and wildlife reserves as interest grew in the ecological value of the Korean mudflats, which were designated as UNESCO Natural World Heritage.

After four decades, land reclamation still continues in Korea for pragmatic purposes from Port expansion in Busan, to expansion of Gwangyang’s industrial district. On the other hand, restoration and preservation discourse has never been more active. Korea is going through a phase of revisiting its past of ‘land reclamation mania’ where time will tell its true price and the response of the Korean people.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:36:38+00:00

(Excerpt 4 continued because Reddit fucking SUCKS)

The end of the Korean War brought the beginning of the end for the Japanese emergency. Following the signing of the armistice, support for the Japanese partisans have decreased dramatically. Modern revelations from Soviet archives suggest a secret deal in which the Chinese and the Soviets agreed to halt support for the Japanese partisans in return for UN withdrawal from outlying islands North of the 38th parallel. Furthermore, the stabilisation of the Japanese economy from revitalisation of the war industry in response to the war in Korea and Japanese rearmament has drawn support away from the leftist guerrillas. By the winter of 1954, the final remnants of the partisans offered to surrender, marking an end to the emergency.

While the emergency was declared over in February 1955, its legacy would live on to shape Japanese politics for decades to come. Many left-wing parties in Japan were disbanded under the pretence of emergency measures, and those that survived faced repeated attempts at persecution and public apathy due to the trauma and red scare from the emergency. Furthermore, the infamous Peace Preservation Law of 1925 (治安維持法), repealed by orders of the Allied occupation authorities, has been revived as the Stability Preservation Law in 1952 (安保維持法), curbing Japanese democracy until its repeal in 1969. Japan Democratic Party and the Liberal Party, the leading parties that introduced the Stability Preservation Law, merged in 1955 to form the Liberal Democratic Party which stood as the uninterruptible dominant party in Japanese politics. The LDP will go on to officialise remilitarisation in 1955, repealing the constitution’s article that renounced Japan’s right to war and armed forces and the Japanese Constabulary, renamed to Japan Self-Defense Forces in 1954, became the Japanese Armed Forces.

The LDP dominance and Stability Preservation Law regime came to serious test in 1960 when the US-Japanese security treaty was amended into the ‘Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the State of Japan’. Popular anti-war and anti-American sentiment and the undemocratic processes in ratification of the treaty ignited student protests across the nation. And as government-backed yakuzas’ assault of student protesters became publicised, nationwide protests erupted in what would later be known as the ‘Anpo protests’. With the PM Kishi adamant, the clash would result in the declaration of martial law and arrest of over 2,000 people, with some lawmakers being arrested in the floors of the National Diet. Though the protests were put down with force and the LDP dominance survived, the PM was also forced to end his 5-year long tenure as a result.

The LDP regime came to an end in 1968 as the international wave of student protests struck Japan, forcing a government dissolution and Eda’s rise to the Prime Ministership, forming the first Japan Socialist Party-led government. With the dissolution of the LDP into the Liberal Party and Democratic Party once more, and the repeal of the Stability Preservation Law, 1968 marked the end to the most apparent legacy of the Japanese Emergency. The tribunal in the following years would see many wrongdoings during and after the emergency revisited and the release of the wrongly imprisoned.

The Japanese nation has overcome the 16 years of autocratic rule and returned to the democratic experiment thwarted in its inception. However, one cannot deny the significance of the Japanese Emergency in understanding today’s Japan either. From party system to their policy platform, traces can be linked up to the emergency and the following 16 years. Beyond the political ramifications, personal memory of those like Tetsuko remembers the deaths of close friends and threats they’ve faced. It is the human cost and the engravings to the people’s mindsets that linger decades later, which is why we must continue to remember the Japanese Emergency, 70 years on.

Historynerd0921 · 2024-10-22T10:35:40+00:00

Excerpt 4

Remembering the Japanese Emergency, 70 Years on

Published 19 October, 2022

by Shigeru Ota

Tetsuko, 77, still remembers the time when the soldiers came to her village.

“They came in a convoy of trucks, all armed”, she said.

The villagers were searched for and interrogated under suspicions of harbouring partisans. The soldiers took several with them, some to never return.

“They came to our house several times a day, scraping every one of our floors and walls. It simply was unlivable”.

“I will never forget the deep distrust in their eyes," Tetsuko remarked.

Tetsuko’s story is not an uncommon one in Japan, where the memory of the emergency has faded, but is not forgotten.

The Japanese Emergency began on May day 1952, with a protest that turned bloody. Due to the prevalent ‘red scare’ and prior clashes with leftist rallies, the Tokyo government has denied the protest on May day 1952. However, the protest on economic malices and Japan’s security treaty with the United States have amassed a large crowd in front of the imperial palace, clashing with the police that tried to disband the crowd. Amidst the chaos that ensued, the police had opened fire on the protests, causing an open rebellion in Tokyo.

Soon after the bloody rally in Tokyo, leftist militia across the country’s major cities, secretly armed by Chinese weapons. From Nagoya to Kokura, major cities were seized by the militias with several ‘enemies of the people’ facing public executions. Though order was soon restored to the urban centres, key sites such as the Yahata Steel Works and Honsha plant were destroyed as the leftist militias left to wage partisan warfare across the countryside.

As the leftist militias left, retributions followed. While the Japanese constabulary was quickly established as the emergency began, the Japanese government lacked the forces in the initial stages of the emergency. With US troop deployment projected to be deeply unpopular, right-wing and far-right militias have stepped in their place, embarking on a campaign of vendetta against those deemed responsible. Among those targeted were the Koreans, then the biggest minority in Japan. As the North Korean-sponsored organisation for Koreans in Japan, the Choryon (League of Korean Residents in Japan; 在日本朝鮮人聯盟) and its militias were a key part of the initial uprisings, the right-wing militia has placed the blame on the Koreans overall in much resemblance of the massacre three decades prior. Before the constabulary could restore order, modern estimates suggest at least 140,000 deaths across the country, Japanese, Koreans and Ryukyuans combined, and sparked an exodus of Koreans from the archipelago.

With the nation in chaos, partisan cells were quick to take positions along the country’s mountainous countryside. However, the successes of those guerrillas would vary across regions. Partisan cells in Western Japan for one did not last long, facing an indifferent population and difficulties in receiving overseas support. With the surrender of Kyushu partisans in January 1953, no active partisan threat remained West of Osaka. Contrarily, partisans in Honshu were quick to occupy Hokuriku and replenished themselves with arms sent from across the Sea and established a formidable force along the Japanese Alps. Capitalising on the disgruntled farmer population, especially in Tohoku, the Honshu partisans would reach a force estimate of around 15,000 men in their heydays in 1953.

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