The About-Face

Chapter 5 explores Korean lobbying during World War II. Rhee managed to build on the notoriety he received in the 1920s, but also to adapt his message to take advantage of the anxieties and ambitions of that moment. In the anti-Japanese environment after Pearl Harbor, Rhee was able to portray Korea as the first victim of Japan and to link Theodore Roosevelt’s betrayal of Korea in 1905 to the causes of World War II. Rhee’s assertion that Korean manpower could substitute for American manpower in the Pacific War was far-fetched to the point of deceitful, but it grabbed the attention of Americans with family members in uniform. Rhee’s lecturing, writing, and media appearances during the war turned him into a minor American celebrity and provided the Koreans with new allies across the United States. The complexity of alliance politics with China, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, coupled with Korean factionalism, prevented the recognition of the Korean Provisional Government during the war. However, Rhee’s lobbying and the sympathy it aroused for Korea was a key factor behind the American decision to suggest the temporary division of Korea.