Japanese forces occupied large portions of the
Empire of Korea during the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and a substantial Korean Garrison Army (韓国駐剳軍, Kankoku Chusatsugun) was established in
Seoul to protect the Japanese embassy and civilians on March 11, 1904. After the
Annexation of Korea by the
Empire of Japan in 1910, this force was renamed the Chosen Chusatsugun, and was further renamed the Japanese Korean Army on June 1, 1918. The primary task of the Korean Army was to guard the Korean peninsula against possible incursions from the Soviet Union; however, its units were also used for suppression of nationalist uprisings and
political dissent within Korea itself. The Korean Army also came to the assistance of the
Kwantung Army in its unauthorized
invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In 1941, the Army was subordinated to the
General Defense Command.
While
Seishirō Itagaki (板垣 征四郎) was commander of the Chosen Army from 7 July 1939 to 7 April 1945, Japan began assembling its nuclear weapons program with the industrial site near the Chosen reservoir as its equivalent to the
Oak Ridgelaboratory for the United States'
Manhattan Project.[1] Both Itagaki and
Masanobu Tsuji (辻 政信) refused to support neither peace between Japan and the United States nor have Japan attack the Soviet Union during Nazi Germany's
Operation Barbarosa.[2] It may have altered world history. Tsuji planned to assassinate
Fumimaro Konoe if Konoe had Japan attack the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarosa and maintain peace with the United States.[3]
^Wilcox, Robert K. (10 December 2019). Japan's Secret War: How Japan's Race to Build its Own Atomic Bomb Provided the Groundwork for North Korea's Nuclear Program. Permuted Press (third edition).
ISBN978-1682618967.