I think I’ll continue making posts here and there based on a collection of US military documents from early postwar occupied Korea that I discuss in my last posting.
After this year’s “state of the union” speech by the US president, we were told not to take policy pronouncements he made in the speech related to reducing dependence on certain oil imports “literally.” I guess the same principle might be applied to this interesting discussion of a new US military government sponsored radio station which one US general wanted to let the Koreans have in order to “let off steam in what he called ‘vox pop program'” According to the notes for a September 16, 1945 corps staff conference:
“It was not to be a closed government station but was to be open to all political parties, including the Communists. The principle of free speech was to be observed although every applicant would have to submit a written statement of his talk before permission was granted. [The general] wanted to be sure that no seditious statements were made.” (Vol. 1 75)
