American troops come ashore at Incheon; Korea splits at the 38th parallel
A month after Soviet troops swept into northern Korea, the United States had yet to put a single soldier on the peninsula. On September 8, 1945, Lieutenant General John R. Hodge and the XXIV Corps landed at Incheon to occupy Korea south of the 38th parallel, a day after General Douglas MacArthur's Proclamation No. 1 declared U.S. military control and English the official language there. The United States Army Military Government in Korea began that day, with no Korean speaker in Hodge's command and no plan beyond holding the line against Moscow.
Two American officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, drew the 38th parallel on a map in Washington on August 10, 1945, mainly to keep Seoul under U.S. control before the Soviets got there. That improvised line, meant as a temporary occupation boundary, hardened into a permanent border. It drew the United States into a war five years later, and 28,000 American troops are still stationed in South Korea today.
QHow did American soldiers behave toward Korean civilians during the occupation?
US troops committed rape and looting during the occupation of southern Korea, though on a smaller scale than Soviet forces did in the north. Widespread racism among American personnel toward Koreans compounded the abuse, coloring how ordinary Koreans experienced their supposed liberators. Hodge's command had no clear guidelines from Washington on how to administer the territory, leaving individual units largely to their own conduct on the ground. The behavior undercut the American claim to be a liberating force rather than another occupying power. This shaped local politics from the earliest weeks of the occupation onward.
QWho did Hodge actually answer to once his boots hit Korean soil?
Hodge reported directly to General MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, not to the State Department or anyone in Washington, D.C. That chain of command meant Korea policy ran through a military headquarters focused on occupied Japan rather than through diplomats with regional expertise. Hodge had no clear guidelines from the US government on how to actually administer the country he now controlled, so decisions on the ground were made largely ad hoc by a general with Pacific combat experience but no political guidance. Korea policy was folded into MacArthur's Tokyo command rather than run separately.
QWhen did Soviet troops first cross into Korea, and how far ahead of the Americans were they?
Soviet forces entered northern Korea in early August 1945, roughly a full month before Hodge's XXIV Corps ever reached Incheon on September 8. That head start let Moscow's troops establish facts on the ground in the north while Washington was still deciding how to respond, prompting American planners to scramble for a southern occupation zone specifically to keep the Soviets from claiming the entire peninsula. The month-long gap between Soviet entry and American arrival meant the two occupying powers started from very different positions of control, one already established, the other still assembling its staff.
