Korea had been occupied by Japan for 40 years when they were defeated. So who could run Korea? The last Emperor was poisoned in 1920. Well luckily a pro western “provisional government” had been set up in China and received much funding to play lets pretend. After the USA occupied Southern Korea back comes no longer Provisional but appointed President Syngman Rhee, a man who had only been away a few decades. If you smell a fish, for gosh sake don’t join the Bobo league. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The printing on this stamp might lead you to believe this stamp was North Korean instead of South Korea. The fact was in the 1950s there was not much difference between the two in terms of economic development. This stamp might imply South Korea liked their tigers, but perhaps not enough. In 1900 you could have found Siberian tigers in Korea. By 1990, both Koreas had lost them though Siberian tigers still exist across the North’s border with Russia.
Todays stamp is issue A121, a 30 Hwan stamp issued by South Korea in 1957. This was from the final redrawing of an issue that had been around since 1953 but had to reflect the hyper inflation of the period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.
Japan began formally administering Korea in 1905. The Emperor was forced to abandon his Throne in 1910. He was poisoned in 1920. After which there was a large uprising against the Japanese. The Japanese brutally put down the uprising and sent the leaders that survived into exile in China, Some of those folks gathered in Shanghai under Syngman Rhee and began putting forth that the rebellion was not inspired by the murder of the Emperor but instead that they were inspired by a speech given in English by former USA President Wilson laying out points of peoples movement toward independence and democracy. Syngman Rhee had been a Christian Missionary and worked with the YMCA. Obviously the fish is begining to smell but the USA and the KMT in China began supporting this Korean “Provisional Government”.
During World War II it was decided that Korea was one of the occupied nations needing liberation from the Axis, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/09/usa-1943-korea-is-listed-as-a-country-to-be-liberated/ . Syngman Rhee, remember this is nearly a quarter century after the rebellion of 1920 came out of a retirement in Hawaii to go to Washington to be a part of liberation. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Americans landed unopposed at Inchon and the Russians crossed into the North. The division was only to be tempoary although the Soviet Army left after a communist regime was set up in the North. The American occupation of the south continued and Syngman Rhee was made President in 1948. He was 73. The north refused Korea wide elections and the UN endorsed Rhee’s regime as the legitimate government of all Korea.
Rhee was an outsider to Korea so not all were ready to support him. Much of the development had been owned by Japanese and while such things were quickly nationalized in the North, in the South there was less change. Rhee began to label all opposition to him as communist spys from the North. Several hundred thousand suspected trouble makers were rounded up and sent to a series of reeducation camps known as the Bobo League. When the North invaded the South in 1950 prisoners at the camps were liquidated before South Koreans withdrew south.
After the end of the war the camps did not reopen but resistance still grew. The constitution was reinterpreted to allow Rhee to seek reelection. His last reelection effort in 1960 at age 85 was helped immensely by his opponent having died before election day. Protest got large and the USA sent a plane to get Rhee safely out of the country. On the flight out, Rhee’s Austrian wife went to the cockpit and gave the American pilot a large diamond. Rhee’s first wife had been Korean but remember he had spent so many years abroad and his second wife had been an interpreter at the League of Nations. Rhee had spent much time there with his hand out, excuse me, making his case for the Korean people. Rhee died in 1965 and afterward his body was returned to Korea. After Rhee’s death his wife Franziska moved to Austria for a few years but from 1970 was able to return to Korea and live in the old family home with her adopted son and his family.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering how these folks come of out of nowhere to fill the void in an ex colony. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.