Timeline: Part One (Eastern Awakening)

1900s
1900: Boxer Rebellion flares up in China.

April 2, 1900: Murder of 23 Korean citizens in Shanhaikwan, most of them teachers at a local school, had sparked again tensions between Seoul and Beijing.

June 5, 1900: The Empress Dowager of China demands the Gwangmu Emperor to hand over reformist Kang You-wei for execution in China, and to stop sending troops at the behest of the 'foreign devils.' The Korean reply is that Kang is "advised" by the Korean government to go to Hong Kong instead. Kang was never caught or handed over to the Chinese authorities.

June 7, 1900: Boxers cut off the railroad between Beijing and Tianjin, cutting the besieged foreigners off.

June 13, 1900: Boxer Rebellion was now in full swing and spread across North China.

June 17, 1900: Dagu Forts in Tianjin seized by the Allies.

June 18, 1900: The Empress Dowager orders all Boxers to kill all foreigners. The Korean government regarded this as war. Meanwhile, Seymour's allied expedition, in which Korea has no part yet, failed due to fierce Chinese resistance.

June 19, 1900: Korea again declares war against China. All troops were to be mobilized on the Yalu River.

June 20, 1900: siege of Beijing by the Boxers begins. Foreign legations were trapped.

June 25, 1900: The Empress Dowager offered a truce. It was rejected by the Allies.

July, 1900: Tianjin Massacre: 600 Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries were massacred by the Boxers.

July 2, 1900: 40,000 Korean troops cross the Yalu to "secure" Manchuria.

July 3-11, 1900: Korean troops and militiamen fend off 23,000 Boxers who were threatening the Gando area.

July 5, 1900: The Imperial Korean Marines' 1st Regiment, trained and modeled after the US Marines, land in Tianjin.

July 8, 1900: Korean, Japanese, and Russian troops declared Manchuria "secure". A Korean force, 20,000 strong, however, struck southwest to Beijing. Reports of looting by foreign troops widespread, in which the Korean government and army denied despite some contrary evidence.

July 14, 1900: Colonel Kuriya of the Imperial Japanese Army leads the Nine-Nation Alliance in capturing Tianjin. Among his staff was a Korean captain who will be later known as Syngman Rhee, who will later retire as a major in 1903 and go to the United States. He personally led the attack on the final Boxer holdout in Tianjin.

July 19, 1900: Korean troops are now halfway and start beseiging area with their famed multiple rocket launchers. They also introduce for the first time modern flamethrowers, albeit they are mounted on carriages.Chengteh captured and destroyed by Korean troops.

August 1, 1900: Korean troops reach Beijing. They in disproportionate numbers, kill about 100,000 Imperial and Boxer troops.

August 2, 1900: Korean troops reach the Foreign Legation. Meanwhile, the Koreans secure the Guangxu Emperor, the Empress Dowager fleeing from Xian before.

August 4, 1900: Other Allied troops reached the Legation.

September, 1900: Beijing was completely secured. Occupation the Nine-Nation Alliance commenced, with barbaric atrocities committed by the occupying powers. Gruesome in detail was the Korean method of practicing rifle with condemned Boxers.

1901: With 2,234 reported Korean dead, the Parliament had decided that the troops be sent home except in Manchuria.

September 7, 1901: Boxer Protocol signed. Russia got the lion's share of reparations, much to Korea and Japan's chagrin, as both contributed to the majority of the troops and the dead.

November 1, 1901: Prime Minister Shin resigns over the failure to recover Korean war dead.

1902: Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed between the two countries. Korea meanwhile had sent observers to the Philippines in the American attempt to crush the rebels.

1903: Korea concluded a secret treaty with France in response, or rather, in envy of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.

July 28, 1903: Russian, Korean, and Japanese representatives signed a secret protocol in St. Petersburg dividing Manchuria into three spheres. Russia will occupy the north, Japan the coast, and Korea the remaining territories. All three parties are not satisfied in the partition in the end.

January 28, 1904: Russia formally renounced the secret treaties, and had its army mobilize in Manchuria.

January 30, 1904: The Korean government orders a general mobilization.

February 1, 1904: The Japanese government orders a general mobilization.

February 8, 1904: Japan attacks Port Arthur. However, Admiral Heihachiro Togo was unable to dislodge the Russian fleet there despite inflicting on the enemy considerable casualties. Korean troops near the dividing line between the supposed spheres clash with Russian troops there.

1905: Russo-Japanese War ends.

1905: Korean Boy Scouts founded.

1906: Korea sends some "observer" troops to the American Philippines.

1907: Korea imports its first automobiles from the United States. Seoul was the first Korean city to have automobiles.

1907: The Hague Conference. Korea attends the conference with its three delegates. President Roosevelt vetoes Exclusion Act against Koreans, citing the Korean-American treaty. Congress passes it nonetheless, sparking public anger in Seoul.

1908: Railway accident near Pyongyang's train station claim at least 112 fatalities. Overheating of the steam train was to blame.

1909: Emperor Gwangmu abdicates in favor of his son, Sunjong, citing ill health.

1910s
1910: Eulsa Treaty with Japan: start of the Korean-Japanese Amity Treaty.

1910: Emperor Sunjong, upon hearing of the discovery of the South Pole, assigns the Science Ministry to study ways in how to colonize at least the coasts of Antarctica. Many thought he was insane, but some fear that failing to do so might do harm to Korean prestige.

1911: The population of Korea, according to the Census, stands about 12,000,000, excluding Hainan.

1911: New uniforms for the Imperial Korean Army are issued, probably as a response to the Japanese changing their own uniforms. It was based on the new uniform of the United States Army which is brown. The headgear is like the same field cap the OTL North Koreans used.

October 10, 1911: Wuchang Uprising in China leads to the demise of the Manchu dynasty and its replacement by a Republic. There is some evidence that the Koreans funded the uprising, but none can be proven.

1912: First Korean dreadnaught was acquired from Britain.

1913: Imperial Korean Army's Aerial Unit was established, in response to the Japanese doing so a bit earlier. At that time, they are using balloons. Aircraft were not used until 1914.

June 8, 1914: a Russian ship named the Admiral Bellingshausen lands in what is now OTL Wilkes Land, Antarctica. It will establish a scientific station called the Mirnyy Station.

1914: World War I. Korea joins the Allied side, participates in the Kiaochow landings along with Japan and Britain. Korean rocket ships proved to be decisive factor in capturing the German-held fort.

1915: Koreans sent a division to German East Africa, as well as their First Fleet to the Pacific for hunts against German submarines.

1915: Twenty-one demands by Japan given to China. Korea was shocked by the demand but did little more than protest alongside the United States.

1915: Meanwhile, Russians move in Outer Mongolia and Kashgaria to "secure" them from rebellion.

1916: Paul Lettow-Vorbeck was captured by Korean troops in German East Africa. He will become a prisoner of war until the conflict ends. His German troops are still conducting guerrilla warfare until the end of the war.

1916: Yuan Shikai, the last Emperor of China, abdicates and later dies.

1917: Russian Revolution topples monarchy. United States enters the war.

1918: Central Powers surrender.

1918: Japan lands troops to the Russian Far East, to be later joined by Korea.

January 21, 1919: The Gwangmu Emperor dies, mourned by millions. He was the Victoria or the Meiji Emperor of his era, his admirers say.

1919: The Soviet Union officially gave up claims to Finland, the Baltic States, and Poland. However, it made a protectorate over Tannu-Tuva, Inner Mongolia, and Kashgaria. March 1 rallies in Seoul and other Korean cities claim 623 lives. The protesters demand more voting rights and the extension of franchise to women. Meanwhile, thousands of Loyalist White soldiers emigrate to the West and to the then little-known land in Antarctica. Kolchak and his supporters were offered by the Imperial Korean government to set up a state in the former Russian Far East, but then, the Kolchak loyalists had ran afoul of the White leaders in the Russian Far East such as Colonel Semyonov, later succeeded by Baron Ungern von Sternberg. Kolchak later opted to go to Mirnyy and set up a White Russian state there.

1919: Treaty of Versailles signed.

1920s
January 2, 1920: Kolchak later leaves Russia via a Korean ship. He describes his exile an unnecessary roughness by Sternberg's forces, and then the Japanese, then the Koreans.

May 6, 1920: Kolchak and his forces lands in Mirnyy station.

June 7, 1920: Korea later gives to the Japanese some special post office rights, but not in Manchuria.

July 3, 1921: Founding of the Korean Communist Party.

August 23, 1921: Hundreds of other White Russian exiles land in Vostok station. Many agreed to build a new Russia in Antarctica, free from both the Bolsheviks and Ungern von Sternberg, even if it is under the supervision of Korea. They were helped by the Imperial Korean Navy, who wanted to establish a new naval research station in Antarctica.

1921: Mongolia becomes a Communist state.

September 3, 1921: Japanese announced that they could not leave the Russian Far Eastern Republic, now purged of Communists and and led by Baron Ungern-Sternberg], behind. Industrialization begins at the Russian Far East.

1922: Washington Conference ends. Korea given the same naval ratio as Italy and France in the ships it was allowed to possess. The Korean delegates, as well as the Japanese, naturally protested. The Koreans are concerned that the Japanese had still more ships than the IKN, so the Imperial Korean Navy Staff decided to concentrate on huge coastal defense ships instead of aircraft carriers, in which Korea had one being constructed in response to the Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho.

1923: North Goguryeo Railway Company was privatized by the government, citing financial problems and competition from the Japanese South Manchurian Railway.

1923: The government report on education states that only 63% of Korean school children finish elementary school. A new law was signed December 2, revamping the educational system and patterns it on Japan's.

March 5, 1924: Korean Prime Minister at that time stabbed by a communist assassin. As a result, mass arrests occured against Communists.

1925: The Aerial Unit of the Imperial Korean Army became the Imperial Korean Air Force.

February 4, 1925: Korean Fascist Party founded in Chongjin.

April 24, 1926: Sunjong/Yeunhui of Korea dies, replaced by his cousin Euimin. Millions in Korea mourn at his death.

May 5, 1926: Euimin gets the reigning title of Yeongjong.

1926: The Science Ministry had found out that Antarctica at best would be a Siberia for prisoners. Wilkes Land was chosen as the site for future labor camps. Meanwhile, the White Russian colony in Antarctica had now a population of about 4,000.

July 8, 1927: The Korean Parliament, led by the Liberal Party, liberalized the voting franchise. Voting still for males, though.

1928: Zhang Xuolin was assassinated by Korean agents in Manchuria. The Korean Intelligence service led by An Jung-geun was dissatisfied by Zhang's plans to consolidate his power at the expense of Korea.

1928: It was reported that the rice crop of Korea fell short 20% of expected harvest. Kaoliang instead was planted, but it was for the record, unpopular with the public.

1929: Korean Premier at that time forced to resign after a scandal in which he allegedly received kickbacks from a Chinese corporation that turned out to be controlled by Zhang Xuolin's civilian associates.

1929: Stock market in New York collapses, eventually triggers the Great Depression.

June, 1929: Riots between coal miners and management in Kumgang left 43 miners dead.

May 23, 1929: A Korean expedition found traces of oil in Manchuria, but later keeps it as state secret until after World War II.

1930: A Sun-Yatsenist Party, the Korean National Democratic Socialist Party, takes over the majority of seats within the National Assembly. Alliance with the Fascists who had 12 seats and the Chongu Party with 34 seats required.

1930s
1930: Korean claim to Antarctica officiated.

July 1931: Conflict between Korean and Chinese farmers sparked riots in Manchuria.

September 18, 1931: Manchurian Incident. Japanese troops, using a pretext that the Chinese sabotaged the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway, occupied Manchuria. Korea, fearing that the Japanese might annex Manchuria, decides on a surprising suggestion: why not revive the Manchu dynasty at least in Manchuria.

February 1, 1932: Japanese gunboats bombard Nanjing.

1932: Manchukuo was born, and became a Japanese-Korean puppet.

1932: Kim Song-Ryong founds the first settlement on Baeguk, called Baeseong, with 200 prisoners, some are prisoners from the Kumgang strike.

1933: Adolf Hitler elected Chancellor of Germany.

1933: Japanese foreign ministry had proposed

1934: Baron Sternberg, President of the Far Eastern Republic, was assassinated [by the Imperial Korean Intelligence and Cipher Service], to the relief of many who groaned under his tyrannical regime.

1934: Another Antarctic city founded, called Sunjongdo, with 200 more prisoners.

1934: Seven Central Asian SSRs created: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Karakalpakstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and [West] Uyghuristan.

1935: Official Korean census reveals population of 26 million in Korea and 2 million in Hainan.

1935: A group of Esperantists moved to Antarctica, partially to escape the Soviet Union [who then banned Esperanto], and to establish a colony of Esperantists where Esperanto is the official language. It was called Frigidoj and composed of the central part of OTL Marie Byrd Land.

1935: Japan opens up three prison camps a part of OTL Marie Byrd Land, called Kainankoku by Japan.

1935: [October] Six more prison camps were founded in Baeguk.

October 3, 1936: Far Eastern Republic's plan to liberate the Soviet Union was stopped by Japan, the latter believing it was too embarassing.

1936: The League of Nations investigates harsh conditions in Baeguk. The prison population, now 1,200, were suffering from starvation. The Koreans responded by giving them more food and better facilities, but this does not satisfy the League. Attempted sanctions proved to be abortive and later makes point of the League's weakness.

March, 1937: The Norwegians and the British commonwealth open some small research stations in their share of Antarctica.

April, 1937: The Argentines, Chileans, and the Brazilians do the same, almost simultaneously.

May, 1937: The Mexican President later order the Mexican "colonization" of Antarctica with prisoners. Definitely, Mexico is jealous of the other Latin American states.

1937: Start of the Sino-Japanese War. Korea did not intervene, though it permitted veterans to serve under the Japanese banner as volunteers.

1937: Korean nationalist leader Kim Gu becomes prime minister. He plans to expand Baeguk for the glory of the Korean Empire, and the liberation of "our Vietnamese brethren."

1938: Tannu-Tuva requested annexation to the USSR as an SSR. It was granted immediately and the country becomes the Tannu-Tuva SSR.

1938: Imperial Japanese Army suddenly withdrew from the FER, on the orders of the new FER president, believing that he could defeat the Soviets alone. The IJA reluctantly agreed.

1938: Lake Baikal incident between Soviet, Mongol, and Far Eastern units. Far Eastern gunboats open fire on Soviet positions. Soviets interpret this as an act of war and Stalin declared war on the 4th of September.

1939: Baeguk now had 7,200 inhabitants, Bellingsgauzenia about 11,000, Kainankoku had 18,000 inhabitants [suspiciously huge due to Chinese prisoners], Maudland by Norway 800, France's Adelie had 450, the British colonies in Antarctica had a combined territory population of 4,000. The Latin American nations had a combined population in their colonies about 3,000, while the Esperantist nation had about a thousand inhabitants. The Nazis, not to be sidelined, had the New Swabia colony founded with 900 inhabitants, and they try to conduct weapons research there in the Antarctic cold. Antarctica's population had been growing at an increasingly alarming rate.

Spring of 1939: The poorly-led FER army was destroyed without Japanese help by the Soviets. The remnants flee to Bellingsgauzenia, being ostracized for a while by the Bellingsgauzenian population. The USSR annex the Far Eastern Republic as an SSR and North Sakhalin becomes the Sakhalin ASSR, an ASSR for Korean Russians. Alexander Hegay becomes the leader of this SSR. Moscow and Tokyo entered a non-aggression pact.

September 1, 1939: Germans invade Poland. Start of World War II.

October 2, 1939: Japan and Korea signed a non-aggression pact, but no alliance resulted.

World War II [Early 1940s]
1940: Japanese control of Manchukuo intensifies, as the Kwantung Army officers tell the Manchus that the FER's fate will befell them if they kick out the Japanese.

January 1940: The Korean government at that time is under control of the Revival Party led by historian Park Eun Sik, in alliance with the Korean Fascist Party. However, Syngman Rhee, the leading opposition leader, is pro-United States and therefore perceived as a lackey by the Revival. The ideology ot the Revival Party, despite being ultranationalist, is being held by former anarchist Shin Chaeho, who was now advocating a neo-libertarian but also ultra-nationalist Korean state. The mutual incompatibility of the doctrines of it and the Fascists [or United Nationalists for a correct Korean translation], and as well as a moderate leftist named Yuh Woon Hyung, led to the collapse of the coalition. To save the government, the Revival government arrested the Communists and supporters of Yuh [called the People's Party], but decided not to fix the troubles with the Fascists due to Italian pressure.

March, 1940: Japan establishes a puppet Chinese state in Nanjing.

March 12, 1940: Bessarabia divided into Moldovan SSR and a new Budjak-Ruska Roma ASSR [later SSR in the 1980s] of the Ukraine, the political unit that will later enable the Gypsies to get a permanent homeland. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast was also formed in the FESSR.

April, 1940: Korea allows Japan to use Hainan as a transit point for their troops, but not as a base.

July, 1940: Emperor Euyeong of Korea [OTL Prince Euimin], declared the Revival Party illegal due to use of "excessive force against innocents and political rivals."

August 2, 1940: Euyeong was arrested by the police and paramilitary group of the Revival Party. He was held in a small palace in Pyeongyang. Prince Imperial Ui was enthroned as Saejong. Although a puppet, Saejong also secretly opposed the Revival Party.

September 22, 1940: the Japanese occupy Vietnam and the rest of Indochina.

September 27, 1940: the Axis Powers have been formalized. The Koreans however, decided to be neutral for a while, wanting to make sure the Axis will win the war.

November, 1940: Korean Liberal Party leader Syngman Rhee and Kim Gu nearly escape with their lives to Baeguk. Although they wanted to establish a government in exile in Hainan, this was lated viewed as dangerous. Together with Army officers loyal to Euyeong, they convince the officials in Baeguk to release the prisoners and form an army of exiles against the Revival Party.

November 23, 1940: Park Eun-Sik mysteriously dies.

November 29, 1940: The Korean Fascists later merge themselves and the Revival Party into the Imperial Destiny Assistance Association, similar to efforts in Japan.

March 27, 1941: Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Hawaii and spies on the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

April 5, 1941: Brigadier General Hong Sa-ik leads a military coup against the IDAA, but fails. He escaped arrest, however. This was the only the first attempts of a coup against the IDAA. Many of them fail until June.

June, 1941: Hong Sa-ik finally succeeds in overthrowing the IDAA government, with himself declared provisional Prime Minister until Rhee returns. Shocked, Saejong abdicates and restores Euyeong to the throne, in absentia.

July, 1941: Most of the Korean military and people now support Hong and begs to keep it out of World War II. Hong promised that. Unfortunately, history is against him.

July 13, 1941: Japan and the Soviet Union sign a Neutrality Pact. The Soviet Union was invaded by Germany at that point and did not want a second front, not when they finally disposed of the Whites.

September, 1941: Korea signs the Anti-Comintern Pact, to allay fears of being pro-Allied. He also made the IDAA traitors to fascism and accused them of being secret communists. However, it will resign in protest later.

October, 1941: Korea declares however, perpetual neutrality in the war. The other anti-Comintern pact members questioned him, not since he locked up the fascist IDAA. It was later proven after World War II that some of the IDAA are Cominten paid, after all.

October, 18, 1941: Hideki Tojo becomes Japanese Prime Minister. He is suspicious of Hong, who once studied in a Japanese military academy as an exchange student.

November, 1941: Joseph Grew warns the US State Department that Japan is planning to attack Pearl Harbor. This was later dismissed.

December 8, 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, and starts to attack the Philippines and US-held islands. As a result, the Americans, British, New Zealanders, and the Dutch declare war on Japan, the Canadians doing so a bit earlier. Thailand was also attacked.

December 9, 1941: China and Australia declare war on Japan. Korea remained neutral.

December 12, 1941: Japan lands troops on the Southern Philippines.

December 13, 1941: General Tomoyuki Yamashita pushed into Malaya, having forced Thailand into submission into an Axis country.

December 18, 1941: Japanese surround Hong Kong.

Rest of December, 1941: Japanese land troops on Sumatra, Borneo, and Sarawak,

December 25, 1941: Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.

January 2, 1942: Manila was secured by the IJA.

January 8, 1942: Japanese have penetrated the defense lines of Kuala Lumpur.

January 10, 1942: Hong Sa-ik orders a full mobilization. In the end, about 2 million Korean troops were mobilized, ready to defend the peninsula from the Japanese or the Soviets.

January 25, 1942: Thailand declares war on the US and UK as Japanese occupy the Solomons.

February 3, 1942: Japanese bomb Surabaya, Dutch East Indies.

February 16, 1942: Manchurian troops accidentally open fire on Korean forces in the Yalu, near Siniuju. However, the Koreans think it was intentional.

February 27, 1942: Battle of Java Sea culminates in a Japanese victory.

March 11, 1942: US General McArthur was forced to leave the Philippines, leaving behind ill-equipped American and Philippine troops at Corregidor and Bataan.

April 5, 1942: Japanese attack the British naval bases at Sri Lanka.

April 9, 1942: Bataan falls to the Japanese: the Americans and the Filipinos are put on a Death March.

April 15, 1942: Hong Sa-ik recalls all Koreans in the IJA in China. A fourth refuse to do so and accept Japanese citizenship. This again put suspicions by Japan that the Korean government is really pro-Allied.

April 18, 1942: The US conduct the Doolittle air raid against Japan. Some of the bombers land on "neutral" Korea. Again, the Japanese are running out of patience with the Hong government.

April 29, 1942: Burma Road in Lashio cut off by the IJA.

May 3, 1942: Japanese land on Tulagi on the Solomons.

May 4-8, 1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea leads to an American naval victory, albeit a costly one. USS Yorktown limped back to Pearl Harbor.

May 5, 1942: The IJA launched an artillery strike on Corregidor, Philippines. The Americans there surrender a day later.

May 15, 1942: Full mobilization of Imperial Korean armed forces is completed. Korea is well-fortified, the General Staff knowing Japanese tactics very well. The main weakness is that Hainan was largely neglected.

May 20, 1942: Burma was fully "secured" by Japan.

May 30, 1942: Syngman Rhee was sent a message by secret agents of Hong that if Japan attacks, he must go to Washington to lead the government in exile.

June, 1942: Syngman Rhee left Baeguk for Chile.

June 7, 1942: Japanese invade the Aleutians.

June 18, 1942: Manhattan Project started by America.

July 8, 1942: A Kwantung Army platoon "accidentally" strays into the Yalu. However, it was defeated by the IKA and wiped out.

'''July 12, 1942: The Japanese declare war on the Korean Empire, accusing them of massacring the IJA soldiers. Hong knew this was the time.'''

July 14, 1942: Kwantung Army launched an attack on Korea via the Yalu. However, it was met with fierce Korean resistance. Interestingly, Tojo ordered not to involve the Imperial Japanese Navy on the operation. This was later a fatal strategic flaw, only doing a blockade and a token occupation of Jeju island when it was too late.

July 18, 1942: Koreans retreat to the mountain redoubts of Hainan, preparing for a last ditch resistance.

July 21, 1942: Koreans unleash chemical weapons against the Japanese at Mupyeoni, and it eventually costed the Japanese 2,234 lives directly attributed to the independent Korean discovery of Sarin gas.

July 30, 1942: the IJA later captured Cheongjin. Japan had held the northernmost parts of Korea at that point, due to strategic retreat by the Koreans to the mountains.

August 2, 1942: German commanders initiate a practice raid on Iceland. However, they were captured by the British and with the help of the Icelandic police, some who will become the basis of the Iceland Republic Defense Forces.

August 8, 1942: Savo Island became a naval battleground between American and Japanese ships; the Japanese won.

August 18, 1942: Japanese airfield in Wewak, New Guinea destroyed by US planes.

August 19, 1942: Sakhalin has been detached from the FESSR. The Far Eastern SSR have been renamed the Far Eastern Soviet Federated Socialist Republics. Sakhalin has been renamed the Sakhalin Korean SSR.

August 20, 1942: Sarin again has been used by the Koreans to break the deadlock in Rason. 2,234 Japanese and Manchurian troops die, but 452 Korean troops alongside 1,204 civilians also die.

August 21, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria, now fed up with the Korean chemical attacks, launched bacteriogical weapons against the Koreans, straight from Unit 731, against the northern Korean city of Huichon. 13,324 civilians die.

August 23-29, 1942: Japanese marines, 13,000 strong, overwhelm the Korean defenders in Jeju island, using chemical weapons. 2,233 Korean soldiers and twice that amount for the civilians die.

September 8-12, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombards Seoul with massive civilian casualties. However, it failed to destroy the morale of the civilians as the Koreans have installed heavy anti-aircraft facilities in their cities.

September 10, 1942: Japanese launched an amphibious operation against Busan, when it was learned and confirmed that the Korean police lynch ethnic Japanese residents in that city.

September 13, 1942: Busan falls to the Japanese; IKA troops retreat.

September 15-29, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army had created a perimeter in Jeolla province called the Busan Perimeter. Fortified, the Japanese could launch numerous raids against the retreating Korean forces.

October 8, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Naval Infantry launch an offensive against Hainan. Hainan, although the least defended part of the Korean Empire, it will be months before the island fall due to Korean and local resistance, as well as heavy usage of traps and guerrilla tactics.

October 21, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Manchukuo Army had already occupied Northern parts of Korea; basically the Hamgyeong Sanmaek mountain ranges. It was only a matter of miles before the IJA reached Pyeongyang.

November, 1942: Allies conduct Operation Torch against the Vichy French forces in Morocco and Algeria and were successful.

November 22, 1942: The battle for Stalingrad begins.

November 29, 1942: Korean suicide bombers blow themselves up at an Imperial Japanese Army detachment. As the war dragged on, the Japanese-occupied territories of Korea will be strung with suicide bomb attacks that at the war's end the Japanese created civilian volunteer kamikaze units.

December 6, 1942: A Korean agent in the Imperial Manchukuo Army named Park Chung Hee had received his orders from Hong to spread chaos in Manchuria. In the next few days, bands of Korean guerrillas have infiltrated the Manchurian countryside.

December 15, 1942: US troops have defeated the Japanese in Buna, New Guinea.

December 17-28, 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army had launched an amphibious landing on Incheon, but it was repulsed by the Imperial Korean Army

January 15, 1943: Casablanca Conference between Roosevelt and Churchill. They lay out conditions for postwar Europe.

January 30, 1943: Hainan had been declared secure by Japan. However, guerrilla war is still endemic until liberation of that island.

February 2, 1943: Germans surrender at Stalingrad after failing to capture the city and also due to hunger and cold.

February 18-29, 1943: The Imperial Korean Army launched a new offensive against the Japanese in the Busan Perimeter. It succeeds, but Busan and surroundings are still under Japanese control. Heavy casualties on both sides.

March 3, 1943: Hong is instructed by a cable by Syngman Rhee, now in Washington, to smuggle out Euyeong out of the country.

March 18, 1943: Euyeong was successfully smuggled out to friendly Russian territory.

March 21-28, 1943: "The Week of Rage"; Korean civilians rioted in Japanese occupied territories, but brutally suppressed by the Kempeitai. The already high civilian casualties, estimated as 5,000, could be much higher if not sleeper agents of the Korean intelligence services tipped them off.

April 12, 1943: Germans and Italians were driven out of Africa. Rommel was captured by the Allies and will be used as the head of the provisional German government, at Rhee's insistence. Rommel said he is a German first, but never a Nazi.

June 1943: The American strategy of driving up the Southwest Pacific by "Island Hopping" continues.

July, 1943: Polish resistance leader Wladyslav Sikorski learns that the plane he will fly to Africa is rigged by Axis agents and cancels his trip. However, the plane had an inherent technical problem so the trip was cancelled.

August 8, 1943: The Japanese launch a new drive against Pyeongyang.

August, 1943: The Russians win the Battle of Kursk.

September 3, 1943: Italy surrenders to the Allies; Mussolini was captured but later released by German paratroopers to head a rump state in North Italy.

September 9, 1943: Japanese capture Pyeongyang.

September 18, 1943: the Manchurian uprising begins: groups of Manchurian guerrillas, aided by the Koreans, revolt in Manchuria. This hampers the Japanese war effort against Korea.

October 8, 1943: Another Japanese air raid in Seoul costed 9,000 lives.

October 28, 1943: Hideki Tojo was assassinated in Japan by a Korean intelligence officer disguised as an IJA officer. That unknown officer blew up the Army building along with himself rather than be captured.

November 1943: Cairo Conference with Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai Shek, and Syngman Rhee. China and Korea were accepted as Big Powers and Korea promised to return to China Hainan at war's end. However, for some reason, Manchuria will be under UN trusteeship until it was proven that it wished to join China. Rhee assured Chiang, however, that Manchuria will be returned to them at the end of the war. This was not to be.

November 21, 1943: Gypsy officials in the Soviet Union urged a more brutal offensive after they learned that the Nazis are to send the Roma into death camps.

December 9, 1943: Japanese special forces fail to capture the Korean leadership in the Diamond Mountains after the Korean forces tipped them off.

December 12-31, 1943: The IKA launched a new offensive against Japan in Pyeongyang and Busan. Busan was finally liberated by the 25th, but Pyeongyang was still under Japanese control by the year's end.

January, 1944: The fight for Monte Cassino begins. US troops attempt to breach the German defense at Monte Cassino, but fail. Sikorski was informed that the Russians are setting a pro-Russian Polish government, different from the one set up in London. Hong Sa Ik, desperate for a victory, decides on a dangerous gambit.

January 23-February 23, 1944: The "Hong Sa-ik's Offensive:" This was the offensive that drove the Japanese nearly back to the Yalu River. The Imperial Korean Army launched a savage chemical weapons attack at the Pyeongyang front, coupled with aircraft stashed from secret airfields at the Diamond Mountains. The Japanese retaliate using chemical weapons of their own, but the Koreans had the advantage and February 23, the Japanese were holding only the northernmost Korean provinces, and dug in. The repeated chemical attacks had taken toll on both Korean and Japanese casualties, numbering 400,000 in military casualties alone, and almost 600,000 for the civilians. This will be a controversial point in the history of the Japanese-Korean front in World War II.