Question: Why was the country Japan turned into a colony divided at the 38th parallel at the end of WWII?

full_context: Document 1: Japanese war crimes: Outside Japan, different societies use widely different timeframes in defining Japanese war crimes. For example, the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910 was enforced by the Japanese military, and the Society of Yi Dynasty Korea was switched to the political system of the Empire of Japan. Thus, North and South Korea refer to "Japanese war crimes" as events occurring during the period of Korea under Japanese rule.By comparison, the Western Allies did not come into military conflict with Japan until 1941, and North Americans, Australians, South East Asians and Europeans may consider "Japanese war crimes" to be events that occurred in 1942–1945.Japanese war crimes were not always carried out by ethnic Japanese personnel. A small minority of people in every Asian and Pacific country invaded or occupied by Japan collaborated with the Japanese military, or even served in it, for a wide variety of reasons, such as economic hardship, coercion, or antipathy to other imperialist powers.Japan's sovereignty over Korea and Formosa (Taiwan), in the first half of the 20th century, was recognized by international agreements—the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) and the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty (1910)—and they were considered at the time to be integral parts of the Japanese Empire. Under the international law of today, there is a possibility the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was illegal, as the native populations were not consulted, there was armed resistance to Japan's annexations, and war crimes may also have been committed during the civil wars.
Document 2: Division of Korea: A Soviet - US Joint Commission met in 1946 and 1947 to work towards a unified administration, but failed to make progress due to increasing Cold War antagonism and to Korean opposition to the trusteeship. Meanwhile, the division between the two zones deepened. The difference in policy between the occupying powers led to a polarization of politics, and a transfer of population between North and South. In May 1946 it was made illegal to cross the 38th parallel without a permit.
Document 3: Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea: The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea (Japanese: ; Korean: , , "Hanil Gibon Joyak") was signed on June 22, 1965. It established basic diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea.
Document 4: Korean War: Soviet generals with extensive combat experience from the Second World War were sent to North Korea as the Soviet Advisory Group. These generals completed the plans for the attack by May. The original plans called for a skirmish to be initiated in the Ongjin Peninsula on the west coast of Korea. The North Koreans would then launch a "counterattack" that would capture Seoul and encircle and destroy the South Korean army. The final stage would involve destroying South Korean government remnants, capturing the rest of South Korea, including the ports.
Document 5: Division of Korea: At the Tehran Conference and the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union promised to join its allies in the Pacific War in two to three months after victory in Europe. On August 8, 1945, three months to the day after the end of hostilities in Europe, and two days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Soviet troops advanced rapidly, and the US government became anxious that they would occupy the whole of Korea. On August 10, 1945 two young officers -- Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel -- were assigned to define an American occupation zone. Working on extremely short notice and completely unprepared, they used a National Geographic map to decide on the 38th parallel. They chose it because it divided the country approximately in half but would place the capital Seoul under American control. No experts on Korea were consulted. The two men were unaware that forty years before, Japan and pre-revolutionary Russia had discussed sharing Korea along the same parallel. Rusk later said that had he known, he ``almost surely ''would have chosen a different line. The division placed sixteen million Koreans in the American zone and nine million in the Soviet zone. To the surprise of the Americans, the Soviet Union immediately accepted the division. The agreement was incorporated into General Order No. 1 (approved on 17 August 1945) for the surrender of Japan.
Document 6: Korea: In North Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Chinese and Vietnamese - speaking areas, Korea as a whole is referred to as Chosŏn (조선, Joseon, (tɕoshʌn),, (朝鲜), Cháoxiǎn, (朝鮮), Chōsen, Triều Tiên (朝鮮) lit. ``(land of the) Morning Calm '').`` Great Joseon'' was the name of the kingdom ruled by the Joseon dynasty from 1393 until their declaration of the short - lived Great Korean Empire in 1897. King Taejo had named them for the earlier Kojoseon (고조선), who ruled northern Korea from its legendary prehistory until their conquest in 108 BC by China's Han Empire. This go is the Hanja 古 and simply means ``ancient ''or`` old''; it is a modern usage to distinguish the ancient Joseon from the later dynasty. Joseon itself is the modern Korean pronunciation of the Hanja 朝鮮 but it is unclear whether this was a transcription of a native Korean name (OC * T (r) awser, MC Trjewsjen) or a partial translation into Chinese of the Korean capital Asadal (아사달), whose meaning has been reconstructed as ``Morning Land ''or`` Mountain''.
Document 7: Korea under Japanese rule: Korea under Japanese rule began with the end of the short - lived Korean Empire in 1910 and ended at the conclusion of World War II in 1945. Japanese rule of Korea was the outcome of a process that began with the Japan -- Korea Treaty of 1876, whereby a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business officials sought to integrate Korea both politically and economically into the Empire of Japan. A major stepping - stone towards the Japanese occupation of Korea was the Japan -- Korea Treaty of 1905, in which the then - Korean Empire was declared a protectorate of Japan. The annexation of Korea by Japan was set up in the Japan -- Korea Treaty of 1910, which was never actually signed by the Korean Regent, Gojong.
Document 8: Qing dynasty: In 1884, pro-Japanese Koreans in Seoul led the Gapsin Coup. Tensions between China and Japan rose after China intervened to suppress the uprising. Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang signed the Convention of Tientsin, an agreement to withdraw troops simultaneously, but the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895 was a military humiliation. The Treaty of Shimonoseki recognized Korean independence and ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan. The terms might have been harsher, but when Japanese citizen attacked and wounded Li Hongzhang, an international outcry shamed the Japanese into revising them. The original agreement stipulated the cession of Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, but Russia, with its own designs on the territory, along with Germany and France, in what was known as the Triple Intervention, successfully put pressure on the Japanese to abandon the peninsula.
Document 9: Korean War: Korea was ruled by Imperial Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Imperial Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, and liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces -- supported by the Soviet Union and China -- moved into the south on 25 June 1950. On 27 June, the United Nations Security Council authorized the formation and dispatch of UN forces to Korea to repel what was recognized as a North Korean invasion. Twenty - one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.
Document 10: Korean War: Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and—by agreement with the United States—occupied Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently occupied the south and Japan surrendered. By 1948, two separate governments had been set up. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the defense of South Korea, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.
Document 11: Division of Korea: The division of Korea between North and South Korea occurred after World War II, ending the Empire of Japan's 35 - year rule over Korea in 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union each occupied a portion of the peninsula, with the boundary between their zones of control along the 38th parallel.
Document 12: Korean War: On the night of 10 August in Washington, American Colonels Dean Rusk and Charles H. Bonesteel III were tasked with dividing the Korean Peninsula into Soviet and U.S. occupation zones and proposed the 38th parallel. This was incorporated into America's General Order No. 1 which responded to the Japanese surrender on 15 August. Explaining the choice of the 38th parallel, Rusk observed, "even though it was further north than could be realistically reached by U.S. forces, in the event of Soviet disagreement...we felt it important to include the capital of Korea in the area of responsibility of American troops". He noted that he was "faced with the scarcity of US forces immediately available, and time and space factors, which would make it difficult to reach very far north, before Soviet troops could enter the area". As Rusk's comments indicate, the Americans doubted whether the Soviet government would agree to this. Stalin, however, maintained his wartime policy of co-operation, and on 16 August the Red Army halted at the 38th parallel for three weeks to await the arrival of U.S. forces in the south.
Document 13: History of Korea: After the end of WWII in 1945, the Allies divided the country into a northern area, protected by the Soviets, and a southern area protected primarily by the United States. In 1948, when the powers failed to agree on the formation of a single government, this partition became the modern states of North and South Korea. The peninsula was divided at the 38th Parallel: the ``Republic of Korea ''was created in the south, with the backing of the US and Western Europe, and the`` Democratic People's Republic of Korea'' in the north, with the backing of the Soviets and the communist People's Republic of China. The new premier of North Korea, Kim il - Sung launched the Korean War in 1950 in an attempt to reunify the country under Communist rule. After immense material and human destruction, the conflict ended with a cease - fire in 1953. The two nations officially remain at war because a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.
Document 14: Korean War: Korea was considered to be part of the Empire of Japan as an industrialized colony along with Taiwan, and both were part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In 1937, the colonial Governor-General, General Jirō Minami, commanded the attempted cultural assimilation of Korea's 23.5 million people by banning the use and study of Korean language, literature, and culture, to be replaced with that of mandatory use and study of their Japanese counterparts. Starting in 1939, the populace was required to use Japanese names under the Sōshi-kaimei policy. Conscription of Koreans for labor in war industries began in 1939, with as many as 2 million Koreans conscripted into either the Japanese Army or into the Japanese labor force.
Document 15: Japanese colonial empire: Korea was occupied and declared a Japanese protectorate following the Japan -- Korea Treaty of 1905, and officially annexed in 1910 through the annexation treaty.
ground_truth: it divided the country approximately in half
sub_queries: what nation did japan turn into a colony Answer: Korea
why was Korea divided at the 38th parallel at the end of wwii Answer: it divided the country approximately in half