A Case Study Of Korean Traitors Inside Shanhaiguan Pass In The Post-Anti-Japanese War Period

Although researchers from China and Korea have made certain progress in the study of Chinese traitors and Korean traitors(or pro-Japanese group)respectively,there are still space for the research of Korean traitors in China.Therefore,this paper focused on the cases of Korean traitors in Chinese mainland after the end of the Anti-Japanese War,and gave a comprehensive analysis of the cases from multiple perspectives.This thesis seeks to supplement and improve the research on foreign traitors in China.In addition,it can expand the research scope of history study of Korean residents in China in the 20 th century.This paper focused on the cases of Korean traitors in Tianjin,Wuhan and Shanghai.The first-hand materials used are documents from Tianjin Archives,Hubei Archives,Shanghai Archives and “National History Museum” in Taiwan Province.This paper mainly adopted the research methods of historical analysis and text analysis,and studied the relevant pleadings,trial transcripts,court verdicts and other texts of each case in detail,and analyzed them in combination with the social background,character relationship,and the position of government at that time.After the end of the Anti-Japanese War,there were cases in Tianjin,Wuhan and Shanghai where Koreans were accused of treachery,which indicated that the issue of Korean traitors had become a common problem in major cities of China at that time.This paper made a comprehensive analysis of these cases from three levels: individual perspective,legal perspective,and national perspective.From the individual perspective,the report of Korean traitors shows the strong demands of the Chinese and Korean people for the liquidation of traitors after the war.From the legal perspective,Korean traitors who were accused for justice were seldom charged as traitors legally,which was related to the particularity of Korean identity and the application of relevant laws of traitors.From the national perspective,the problem of Korean traitors attracted great attention.The verdict of the Korean traitor cases originated from people’s individual reports,but the Korean delegation in China,the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Judicial Administration of the National Government were also actively involved in this issue during the trial process and also after the judgement was over by local courts and procuratorates.The Korean delegation in China believed that “As nationals who have obtained Japanese nationality,the Traitors Punishment Act should not be applied to them.” The position of the Republic of China’s authorities was also consistent with it,arguing that “According to the precedent legislation,Korean residents who served under the Japanese invaders’ urging order should be exempted from treason.”To sum up,under the background of China’s liquidation of traitors,there were also cases in which Koreans were accused of being traitors in Chinese mainland.However,similar to the situation in Korea,the liquidation of Korean traitors was also not going well.The cases went through the process of public reports,judicial trial,final judgment and later negotiation,which not only showed the strong demands of Chinese and Korean people to punish traitors,but also reflected the complexity of the application of relevant laws on traitors.At the same time,multiple factors such as the intervention of external forces,the problems in international law and the consideration of diplomatic relations overlapped with each other.In a word,the unsuccessful liquidation of Korean traitors was closely related to the complicated historical reality at that time.