The Japanese Communist Party and Korea

Hong Eulsoo, a Korean who lived through the Japanese colonization of Korea, recalled that one of the slogans of the Communist Party of Japan was "Independence for Korea."

Hong who had studied in Japan remembered that most of the Korean students in Japan were "infatuated" with Communism. Apart from being the new force at that time, Communism was thought to be well-organized, systematic and logically reasoned out.

Hong who later became a teacher turned businessman noted that the Communist Party of Japan's support for Korean independence was far from altruistic. Rather, the Party's main objective was to overthrow the Japanese Imperial government.

"They reasoned that by helping Korea become independent, Japan would lose a tremendous source of income, the government would fall, and the Communists could step in," recalled Hong in the book Under the Black Umbrella Voices from Colonial Korea 1910 - 1945.