The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1942-02-23
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON


~ PETER EDSoN
Dolly Moaitev Washington
Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23-
All sorts Of queer conferences
ore held in Washington every
day but one Of the strongest
is scheduled for Feb. 27-Morch
] when q Korean Liberty Con.
ference of Korean revolution
ory potriot meets with the hope
OF setting up on onti-Joponese
movement which the United
Stotes will recognize and sup
port as q drive to sabotage Jo-
pon's war production and tc
work for restoration Of Korean
independence.
Strangely enough. this is
one revolution which is not to
be Matched behind guarded
doors in some forgotten ottic
up q back olley. The Korean
revolution wants publicity and
it hos q press oeent (unpoid)
who Iobors for the couse just
because he loves Koreans and
hates Jops.
The Kore patriots in
America even want to brood
cost by short wave q message
to their q million conquered
countrymen at home, telling
them to blow up bridges, to
mine highways, to destroy Jap
ammunition plants. The Jops.
soy the Koreans, have SOFTER
ed q lot of radio receiving sets
orouad Chosen, the Jop name
for koreo, in order to spreod
Japanese PROPAGANDA, and the
Korean potriots think these
same sets would receive and
"speok Korean" propaganda
just as we'll.
NOW We CAN HELP
To the 5000 Koreans in the
United Stotes and Hawaii, the
dote Of this forthcoming Lib
erty Conference is significant,
for it was March |, 1919, thot
the Koreans staged their lost
open revolt against their Jop-
.onese masters. The United
Stotes couldn't support the ko-
reon independence movement
at that time becou.c Jopon
and the United Stotes we're
allies in World War |. Also, it
was without American protest
that the Korean emperor OBJ
dicoted onC the japanese took
over. Thot wos otter the Rus
so-Joponese wor.
The coll for this Korean
Liberty Conference comes from
67-yeor-oId Dr.. Synem q n
Rhee, who was Struggled into
Shanghai ir q coffin to lead
the furtive revolution q years
oeo. Or. Rhee wos the first
president Of the Korean Re-
public. He wos q student OF
Woodrow Wilson's at Prince
ton and he was and still is q
believer in Wilson's doctrine OF
self determination for small
peoples, despite what happen
ed in the intervening years.
Rhee was imprisoned as an oei-
totor for seven years ohd wos
tortured as onI> on Oriental
con torture his fellow man, one
Of the fovorite devices being to
beat the backs Of the out
stretched fingers with bamboo
switches. When excited, Rhee
still blows on the backs Of his
hands in an unconscious ces-
ture Of nervousness.
Out of prison, Rhee came to
the United Stotes and he hos
worked indefotieobiy for ko-
reon independence ever since.
Most Of the time, nobody
would listen. Korean independ-
ence was sold down the river
at Versailles. Today, Rhee sees
another chance.
STILL FIGHT ON
There is q Korean national
~orny Of 5000 exiIes fighting
with the Chinese, soys Rhee.
and there ore IS, 900 eueriI-
los in the Monchukuoon hills.
There is q provisional Korean
government in Chung king
needed by dnother Korean po-
triot named Kim Koo. Gener-
oIissimo Chang koi-shek and
his wife have given privote
funds to help this movement.