Politics23 November 1945

Return of the Provisional Government Leaders

Also called: Return of the Provisional Government

On 23 November 1945, three months after liberation, Kim Gu and fourteen other Provisional Government leaders landed at Gimpo airfield on a US military plane. Because the US Military Government refused to recognise them as a government, they had to come home as private individuals.

Provisional Government leaders photographed before their return home — Chongqing, 3 November 1945
대한민국 임시정부 - 국사편찬위원회 · Public domain · Source

News of liberation on 15 August 1945 reached Chongqing, but Kim Gu, who had been on the verge of launching the advance into Korea, lamented that since Koreans had played no part in ending the war their voice in the world would be weak. The US Military Government south of the 38th parallel refused to recognise the Provisional Government and admitted its members only as individuals.

Leaving Chongqing on 5 November and waiting in Shanghai, fifteen leaders including Kim Gu, Kim Kyu-sik and Yi Si-yeong landed at Gimpo on the first plane on 23 November, and a second group of 23 including Jo So-ang and Hong Jin followed on 2 December (via Gunsan) — 26 years after the government was founded in Shanghai. Staying at Gyeonggyojang, Kim Gu went on to lead the anti-trusteeship movement and the North–South talks.

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States and rulers at the time: Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea — Chairman Kim Ku
Places: Gimpo Airfield, Provisional Government Building, Chongqing

People

Kim Gu1876 – 1949
key figure · Known as Baekbeom; founded the Korean Patriotic Organization and led the Liberation Army as Chairman of the Provisional Government
Kim Kyu-sik1881 – 1950
participant · Envoy of the New Korea Youth Party to the Paris Peace Conference, later Vice-Chairman of the Provisional Government
Yi Si-yeong1869 – 1953
participant · Younger brother of Yi Hoe-yeong who went into exile with his brothers, helped found the Sinheung school, served the Provisional Government as Minister of Justice and Finance and became the first Vice President of the Republic of Korea
Jo So-ang1887 – 1958
participant · Author of the Doctrine of Three Equalities, the basis of the 1941 Founding Principles

Before and after

Earlier: 1945 US Army Military Government in Korea
Later: 1945 Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers

Themes that include this event

The Korean Provisional Government1919 – 1945
From Shanghai to Chongqing, 1919 to 1945 — founding and crisis, the Patriotic Organization’s attacks, the wanderings across China, the Liberation Army and the return home