Korean Freedom Fighters

     The Manchurian Tales is about Russian Koreans, specifically about a smaller group of Russian Koreans that ended up in Manchuria and called themselves uhl mao zeh.  Therefore, although anti Japanese guerrilla groups, the Korean Freedom Fighters, were mentioned, there was no detailed explanation or discussion of the freedom fighters.  One of the characters in the book joins the Korean guerrillas and ends up getting killed.  Later, in the chapters dealing with the Korean War, mention is made that much of North Korea's People's Army, the in min gun were made up of experienced Soviet cadre.  There is also mention of the palchisan, the guerrilla or special operations units that were made up of many former Korean Freedom Fighters. 
     The South Korean army did not have the benefit of so many experienced combat veterans.  To be sure, there were some former Korean Freedom Fighters who did not stay in the north and ended up in the newly created South Korean army.  In fact, the commanding general of the newly formed South Korean army was a former freedom fighter.  However, in contrast to the north, the number of former freedom fighters in the South Korean army was very small.  Additionally, the experience gained by these former freedom fighters did not necessarily translate well into regular army, and South Korea did not have a Special Operations unit at the time.
     Many of the Korean Freedom Fighters who were in leadership roles held lofty, somewhat inflated titles.  For instance, Kim Il Sung was a division commander in the freedom fighter army and held a rank of a general.  However, the men he actually commanded may have numbered  a couple of hundred at most!  It would have been a stretch to even call him a battalion commander, he was actually more like a company commander.  Small wonder then that when he later joined the Soviet Red Army, he was first made a company commander and later promoted to a battalion commander.  The Korean Freedom Fighters purposely inflated their titles/ranks and numbers to give the Japanese the impression that there were a lot more of them than there really were! 
     The freedom fighters were formed almost immediately with the Japanese occupation of Korea after the Russo Japanese war, before annexation took place.  In 1906, a year after Japanese occupation there were already groups of freedom fighters operating in Korea.  However, just as it was mentioned in The Manchurian Tales, the new freedom fighters lacked proper military training.  Korea did not have a modern army before Japanese occupation, so there was no place for young men to received modern military training.  Later, some of the freedom fighters escaped to China and received some training from the Chinese.  However, China's own army was no great shakes at the time so the training must not have been all that good.  It wasn't until the Soviets got involved that the freedom fighters began to not only receive better training, but some combat experienced former soldiers, the Russian Koreans and other Koreans who had served with the Red Army.
     Despite their valiant effort, the Korean Freedom Fighters were badly outnumbered and outgunned.  Most of the skirmishes were squad or platoon sized fire fights, no major battles to speak of.  The Japanese, despite the fact that they were busy fighting the Chinese in a full scale war, still managed to get the Korean guerrilla movement under control.  By 1940, the Korean Freedom Fighters left southern Manchuria and northern Korea where they were fighting the Japanese.  Some ended up in China and fought the Japanese as Chinese guerrillas or soldiers, others went to Russia where they were put into Red Army units such as the Siberian Infantry Brigade where Kim Il Sung served out the war.  After WWII, some remained in the Soviet Red Army, others either volunteered or were sent to North Korea to form the new People's Army.  Those who served in China mostly came to North Korea, although some may have chosen to stay in China.