"A CAGEY GAME"

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 64, 13 September 1945, Page 7

"A CAGEY GAME"

JAPANESE IN KOREA

SEOUL, September 12

Sixteen thousand American troops had already been landed in Korea, and they finished cleaning out the Japanese troops from the capital, Seoul, on Monday, said Lieut.-General Hodge. The Americans expected to link up with the Russians today. He estimated that there were 300,000 Japanese troops in southern Korea.

General Kozuki, the supreme commander of the Japanese forces in Korea, had done everything possible to facilitate the Americans' occupation, General Hodge said. The Japanese were disarming themselves, and doing a good job. The Americans were supervising this and taking over the arms, but they had to leave the Japanese some small arms as a protection against the Koreans. The Americans had to use the Japanese governmental machine until they could get the Japanese back to Japan. Meanwhile the Japanese had released political prisoners. . The political situation was chaotic,

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vvith no central theme except the desire for immediate independence, said General Hodge. There were many factions, each claiming the largest representation and accusing the others of collaboration.

"My guess is that the Japanese will return to Korea, or try to, later on, because it is so closely tied up with the Japanese economy," he said. "I know the Japanese are playing a cagey game, and the Allied Powers must keep them out of Korea."