Liberated Korea from Above

by Robert Koehler on June 22, 2007

Jeju University has released hundreds of aerial photos taken of Korea by the US Navy immediately after Japan’s surrender in WWII. The Chosun Ilbo (English) has some of the photos, while the Kyunghyang Shinmun (Korean) has some more.

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 sewing June 22, 2007 at 4:13 am: The second photo on the Chosun Ilbo article…interesting to see that Dongdaemun Stadium (or its predecessor) and the baseball diamond were already there.

FYI, in the foreground, on the north (near) side of Cheonggyecheon, across the street from Dongdaemun, is the Seoul Electric Co.’s (or whatever it was called at the time) streetcar yards.
2 bulgasari June 22, 2007 at 5:12 am: The second photo at the Chosun (showing Dongdaemun) is also erroneously marked “Jinsen” (Incheon).

I looked several times on naver last night for links to other photos, but it seems the article Robert linked to was only posted today (and a great link it is). Don’t know why there was a lag (US military photos don’t rate highly, maybe?). I posted links to other photos and memorials of the arrival of the American occupation forces (including photos taken by a soldier whose hobby was taking photographs of Seoul’s environs and inhabitants in 1945-46) here.
3 robert neff June 22, 2007 at 12:27 pm: Robert and Bulgasari -

Great links and pictures….love these old pictures. I actually need to upload some more of mine…and some of the letters – of course with Robert’s permission.
4 keith June 24, 2007 at 4:20 pm: Interesting pics. Interesting to see Dongdaemun, as I work around there.
5 Korea Beat July 2, 2007 at 2:03 pm: I just posted up a full translation with pics.

http://koreabeat.com/?p=62