JUST IN – Trump's Director of National Counterterrorism Kent resigns: "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." pic.twitter.com/j9zm0TxV7w — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 17, 2026

from The Conservative Treehouse: Responding to questions about whether Japan would send military ships to the middle east to participate in escorts through the Strait of Hormuz, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi noted the current constitution blocks Japan from conducting overseas military operations. Exactly as we outlined when President Trump first made the request via […]

from Bannons War Room: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

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  Throughout its history under Japanese rule, Korea served as a reservoir of manpower and resources for Tokyo’s ambitions. Following the outbreak of World War II in Asia, many Koreans hoped that the Allies would liberate them from Japanese rule. Nevertheless, a large number of Koreans also became active participants on Japan’s side during the war. The impact of the Japanese occupation of Korea, particularly during World War II, continues to affect the Korean peninsula to the present day.   The Japanese Occupation of Korea Before WWII The Meiji Emperor, photograph by Uchidi Kuichi. Source: Cleveland Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons   Japan’s imperial designs on mainland Asian territory began long before World War II. Until the 19th century both Japan and Korea were largely isolated from the rest of the world due to the fear of foreigners disrupting the established order. This changed in the mid-19th century after Japan was forcibly opened to international trade by American gunboats. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan looked to create its own empire in mainland Asia. Korea was a vital strategic asset both as a stepping stone for imperial enterprises in northern China and as a buffer protecting the Japanese home islands from the Chinese.   The First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was fought between Japan and the Qing Empire for control of the Korean peninsula. The Chinese forces suffered a humiliating defeat and China was forced to release Korea from its tributary relationship. The prospect of increased Japanese influence was opposed by Queen Min, the leading figure in the government of her husband King Gojong. As the queen looked to the Russian Empire as a counterweight to Japan, she was assassinated by Japanese agents in August 1895.   Japanese officers during the invasion of Korea, 1910. Source: History.com   The brutal murder outraged Koreans and strengthened Russian influence on the peninsula. In an effort to assert Korea’s independence, Gojong proclaimed himself emperor in 1897. However, Russia’s unexpected defeat in the Russo-Japanese War gave Japan a free hand in Korea. In 1907, the Japanese forced Gojong to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Sunjong. Three years later, Japan formally annexed Korea.   Japan encouraged settlement by Japanese civilians in the peninsula and created a military administration. Tokyo claimed that Koreans were backward people and ruthlessly modernized the land, even growing trees not native to the region. Korean was banned and locals had to adopt Japanese names. Tens of thousands of Korean peasants and soldiers resisted Japanese rule by forming “righteous armies.” The Korean resistance fighters routinely staged attacks from Manchuria, serving as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.   Korea and the Second Sino-Japanese War Image of the Pearl Harbor attacks, 1941. Source: United States Army   When Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937, it used Korea as a logistical base for its operations. It also hoped to crush Korean independence fighters that were based on Chinese soil. For Koreans, Japan’s decision to expand its empire was devastating. They could expect more hardship and conscription into the Japanese military. It also meant that the United States and Europe would pay more attention to what Japan was doing in the territories it occupied.   As a result of brutal pacification tactics, the efforts of Korean resistance fighters were futile. In 1932, Emperor Hirohito narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a Korean nationalist, and many Japanese military and civilian officials were also targeted. However, many pro-independence organizations had been shut down or driven off the peninsula. Japan successfully forced large numbers of Korean children into Japanese state schools and moved forward with its forced assimilation policy. Unlike Japan’s attack on China or seizure of French Indochina, Tokyo’s occupation of Korea did not yet warrant much criticism from the outside world.   When the Pearl Harbor attack took place, Japanese settlers and military servicemen celebrated while Koreans waited ominously. Japanese secret policemen, or Kempetai, raided the British and American consulates in Seoul. The personnel there were forced into house arrest until their release. Local industries were given quotas to produce any equipment needed for the coming struggle. Korean nationalists were also encouraged by the Japanese attack. With the United States joining the war against Japan, the Koreans held out hope for liberation.   Korean Resistance During WWII Headquarters of the Korean Provisional Government in Chongqing, China. Source: ichongqing.info   Despite having been exiled from their homeland, Korean nationalists vowed to fight against Japan until they were removed from the country, and several organizations were formed to attack Japanese military facilities. The Korean nationalists had established the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in 1919, which had developed into a full-fledged government-in-exile over time, with a Constitution and legislative and executive branches. By 1940, it was based in Chongqing, the new capital of Kuomintang China, with the support of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.   In 1940, President Kim Ku of the Provisional Government formed the Korean Liberation Army, composed of exiled Koreans, and requested Allied support in forming a force capable of fighting the Japanese. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the Provisional Government formally declared war on Japan in December 1941. The KLA received assistance from the American Office of Strategic Services and fought the Japanese Army in Burma and China. By the end of the war, it had a plan in place, called Operation Eagle, to restart an insurgency in Korea with Allied assistance. This proved unnecessary when Japan surrendered and WWII came to an end.   Other Korean nationalists envisaged a different future for Korea. Kim Il-sung and other Korean communists went north to fight alongside the Soviets and Chinese Red Army. The Korean Volunteer Army assisted the Soviet advance into Manchuria and North Korea in 1945. They challenged the Provisional Government’s authority, leading to the partition of the peninsula between north and south.   Koreans in the Japanese Military Park Chung-Hee (center) President of South Korea during the Cold War, was a Japanese collaborator, 1974. Source: National Security Archive, George Washington University   Despite the ruthlessness of Japanese rule and the efforts of Korean nationalists, many Koreans collaborated with the Japanese and served in Tokyo’s military. Park Chung-Hee was a young officer who joined the Kwantung Army, the Japanese occupation force in Manchuria. He ended the war as a lieutenant and subsequently joined the South Korean Army and became president in the 1960s. Other future South Korean generals followed a similar path: Paik Sun-yup and Chung Il-kwon were soldiers in Japan’s army that became military and civilian leaders in South Korea during the Cold War.   Initially, Japan was opposed to allowing large numbers of Koreans into its military. Tokyo had concerns that allowing Koreans to gain access to firearms would encourage an uprising against Japanese rule. However, the demand for manpower during the war resulted in larger numbers of Koreans joining the Japanese military. Military academies accepted a small number of Koreans as students and Korean soldiers in Japanese uniform were assigned to garrison duty.   By 1944, Koreans were allowed to serve as enlisted personnel if they could speak Japanese and be trusted by officers. Those that did gained a reputation as brutal fighters. Many Koreans were ordered to serve as guards for Allied POW camps. In Manchuria, Koreans served in a unit called Gando Special Force, a unit assigned to hunt down Chinese rebels in the region. Some were implicated in war crimes; over 100 Koreans were designated war criminals by the Allies after the war.   Korean Laborers and Comfort Women American soldiers with a captured Korean laborer in New Guinea, 1943. Source: Warfare History Network   During its imperial years, Japan institutionalized the practice of slave labor to help maintain its empire. While Japanese officials may not have trusted Koreans to fight for them, they had no problem forcing them to work. While the exact number is unclear, it is estimated that 1.2 million Koreans were employed as forced laborers around the empire during the war. Around 725,000 of these worked in Japan for Zaibatsu, large industrial enterprises that assisted Japan’s war effort. The remainder went to work elsewhere.   Throughout their advances in Asia and the Pacific, Allied troops ran into Korean labor units frequently. Many workers were bewildered to find themselves so far from home in a war that they wanted no part in. On the Tarawa Atoll, US Marines captured a little over 100 Koreans forced to build defenses. The death toll was horrendous, and thousands of Koreans were killed by Allied troops after being caught up in battles on islands they were forced to work on. In Japan, Koreans were also victims of American air raids. Tens of thousands of Koreans were killed by the two atomic bomb attacks in 1945.   Japan also institutionalized the use of sex slavery. This practice was employed throughout the empire and Korea was no exception. Thousands of Korean women were forced to act as “comfort women” in Japanese garrisons across the empire. Many were press-ganged and forced to serve Japanese servicemen for years on end. While Japan has apologized for this practice, it remains a sore point in Japan and South Korea’s relationship to this day.   End of the War and Korean Independence American soldiers of the Eighth Army march into Korea after the Japanese surrender, 1945. Source: US Naval Museum   As it became clear that Japan was losing the war, the government in Tokyo hoped that it could negotiate a peace agreement with the Allies that could allow it to retain some of its colonies including Korea. However, the Allies were in no mood to negotiate about this and demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender. At the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, Allied diplomats proposed a postwar commission to determine Korea’s status upon gaining independence. Despite tensions between the Western Allied delegates and the Soviets, one thing was agreed upon: there was no future for Japanese rule in Korea.   Ultimately, the Soviets and Americans agreed to temporarily partition the country until the disputes between communist and noncommunist Korean factions could be reached. On August 9, Soviet forces of the 25th Army along with Kim Il-sung’s Korean Volunteer Army entered the mountainous frontier of North Korea and pushed south to the 38th parallel, the agreed demarcation point. In September, American GIs of the Eighth Army landed in South Korea and began to demobilize the Japanese garrison so that they could return to the Home Islands. Japanese civil administrators remained in South Korea briefly to help the Americans with the government.   In the wake of Allied troops came Korean nationalists of all stripes. Syngman Rhee, a Korean who spent many years in exile in the US, returned to take control of the new Republic of Korea. He sought to monopolize control and ruthlessly targeted opponents that he considered communist. Kim Il-sung was even harsher: he set up a Stalinist-style regime in the north. Both Koreas came to blows in 1950 with the start of the Korean War. Japan’s rule may have ended, but the suffering of the Korean people did not.

  Transylvania, a land famous for its culture, identity, and its association with Dracula, was the target of a vicious struggle between Hungary and Romania during the first half of the 20th century. Like Alsace, Galicia, and Silesia, it was a heavily contested territory that became a brutal battleground during and after World War I. While Romania was awarded Transylvania in 1919, it was compelled to give up Northern Transylvania during WWII but was given the whole of Transylvania in 1945 after switching sides near the end of the conflict.   Transylvania in the Habsburg Empire Emperor Franz Joseph, the last monarch of the Habsburg Empire. Source: Jewish Press   For much of its medieval history, the region of Transylvania had been closely part of the Kingdom Hungary. By the beginning of the 18th century, Transylvania became an independent principality under the Habsburg Dynasty. The region had a mixed population of Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Roma, and other peoples. The authorities in Vienna granted the territory some autonomy because it had been an independent region after the 1848 uprising. Vienna hoped to placate the different minority communities in the region and sought to rule the region benignly.   However, the Compromise of 1867 which created the Dual Monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire caused major issues for the Romanian community in Transylvania. The principality was abolished and the territory came under the Hungarian Crown. This made the local population vulnerable to Magyarization, the policy of cultural assimilation into Hungarian society. This led to an awakening of Transylvanian Romanians, who believed that they were facing serious threats to their identity. Efforts by ethnic Romanians to protest were met with force, contributing to the destabilization of the Habsburg Empire. This especially became prominent in the late 19th century with the rise of modern European nationalist movements.   When Romania gained independence in 1878, many Romanian nationalists sought to build their state by unifying it with other territories outside the country with large Romanian communities. Transylvania was high on this list because of its prominence in Romanian culture and national identity. Part of Romania’s justification for entering WWI on the Entente side was to seize Transylvania from the Habsburg Empire. Despite Romania’s heavy losses, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire created a power vacuum for Romania to exploit.   Territorial Dispute After WWI Romanian Catholic Bishop Iuliu Hossu in the National Assembly reading the Act Union of Transylvania, 1918. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Despite being temporarily forced out of WWI by the Central Powers, Romania reentered the war after the Habsburg Empire disintegrated. The Hungarian Monarchy crumbled in the face of the Aster Revolution, which brought to power a government that sought to demilitarize Hungary. However, when the Romanian National Council informed the government in Budapest that it intended to take control of much of Transylvania, Hungary rejected it and insisted that it had legal jurisdiction over all of Transylvania.   On November 12, 1918, Romanian forces crossed the demarcation line on the Mureș River and faced no opposition. They received assistance from Transylvanian Romanians, who believed that they were on the verge of unity with their brethren in Romania proper. This was followed by elections in the National Assembly for Romanians in Hungary and Transylvania. Candidates supporting unification did very well. The Hungarians were powerless to stop these events because they lacked credibility in the region and their military was almost nonexistent.   On December 1, 1918, the National Assembly for Romanians in Transylvania and Hungary convened in Alba Iulia. This body unanimously voted to unify Transylvania with Romania, offering equal rights to the non-Romanian population. Facing Hungarian protests in the international media, Romanian troops kept advancing to maintain control over the territory and deny Hungary the ability to contest its control. Hungarian Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi was forced to resign, leading to the rise of Hungary’s first communist government and setting the stage for the Romanian-Hungarian War of 1919.   Start of the Romanian-Hungarian War Béla Kun, the de-facto leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, 1919. Source: Wikimedia Commons   In March 1919, a former officer of the Austrian Army, Béla Kun, led a revolution that created a communist government in Budapest. He combined Hungarian nationalism with revolutionary socialism and vowed to oppose any reduction of Hungarian territory. The ruthlessness of his revolutionary policies enraged other European governments, who feared that the whole continent could fall to communism. In the eyes of King Ferdinand of Romania and his government, Kun was a particularly dangerous threat.   In March 1919, Romanian Prime Minister Ion Brătianu sent a letter to representatives of other Entente governments calling for Romanian control up to the Tisza River. This was rejected, but Entente leaders hoped to negotiate a solution and sent South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts to meet with Kun. The latter refused to back down, insisting that Romanian forces fall back to the Mureș River. King Ferdinand received word that the Hungarians were repressing Romanians in the areas of Transylvania they still controlled. As a result, he ordered the army to prepare a general offensive aimed at defeating the Hungarian Red Army.   Hungarian forces noted the Romanian preparations and launched a preemptive strike. This failed and Romanian forces pushed forward with a plan to drive onto the Tisza River. Over the next several months, the Romanians emerged victorious in several pitched battles against the Hungarians. Their forces, backed by France, pushed to the Tisza and repelled a Hungarian counterattack. By August 1919, Romania successfully seized Budapest.   The Treaty of Trianon Signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Versailles, 1920. Source: Visit Bratislava   Romanian forces remained in Budapest until November 1919 while a new Hungarian government more acceptable to the Entente was established. The Trans-Tisza region remained under occupation for an even longer period because Romania wanted guarantees that it could keep control over Transylvania without Hungarian interference. The Entente was pleased with Romania’s actions and promised to support its territorial claims. This formed a major component of the Treaty of Trianon.   As the Versailles Conference established the new order of Europe, the question of what Hungary’s borders would be remained. The weakness of the state meant that Romania had a stronger hand at the negotiating table. Despite the new Hungarian government’s pleas that the status of the disputed territories should be determined by a plebiscite, the Entente issued an ultimatum that insisted on Hungary ceding territories to its neighbors.   On June 4th, 1920, Ágost Benárd and Alfréd Drasche-Lázár signed the Treaty of Trianon on behalf of the Hungarian government. This confirmed Romania’s control over Transylvania and deeply weakened Hungary. It also fueled the rise of Hungarian Admiral Miklós Horthy’s nationalist dictatorship. Thousands of ethnic Hungarians living in the region left while many others remained, hoping that Hungary would one day return to retake the territory. Many Hungarian nationalists were enraged with the terms they faced and vowed to recover Transylvania when they were strong enough to do so. For King Ferdinand, the Trianon Treaty validated Romania’s decision to enter WWI.   Second Vienna Award Ethnic Hungarians welcoming back Hungarian troops during the Romanian withdrawal from Transylvania, 1940. Source: Fortepan Archive   From 1920 to 1940, Romania maintained control over Transylvania and sought to incorporate its population into Romanian society. The country underwent political turmoil common to Central and Eastern Europe in the interwar period. In 1930, Prince Carol von Hohenzollern took power in a coup and led an autocratic government as King Carol II. Notwithstanding his German roots, he began to suspect Nazi Germany of supporting far-right factions in his country that he considered a threat. The mistrust between Germany and Romania encouraged Admiral Horthy to seek closer ties with Berlin.   The close ties between Germany and Hungary paid off for Budapest. In 1936, they gained some territory back in the north through the First Vienna Award. This was followed by Horthy’s greatest feat: convincing Germany to back Hungary’s claims over Transylvania. Romania was concerned about the Soviet Union and could not afford to pick fights with other European powers. King Carol tried to gain support from the British and the French, but this failed with the Fall of France in 1940. As a result, Bucharest started to cede territory it gained after WWI.   In 1940, Germany mediated an agreement between Hungary and Romania called the Second Vienna Award. At the Belvedere Palace in Vienna on August 30, 1940, Romanian Foreign Minister Mihail Manoilescu and Hungarian Foreign Minister István Csáky signed the accord, relinquishing North Transylvania to Hungary. King Carol ordered the Romanian army to withdraw. Romanians living in the territory were offered Hungarian citizenship or told to leave. This contributed to the fall of Carol and the rise of Marshal Ion Antonescu in Bucharest.   Romania Regains Permanent Control After WWII Romanian troops in Transylvania in the aftermath of switching sides to the Allies. Photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei, 1944. Source: Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow/Moscow House of Photography   Despite Romanian anger at losing control over Transylvania to Hungary, Marshal Antonescu feared the Soviets more and signed the Pact of Steel and Anti-Comintern Pact to join the Axis Powers. For the next several years, Romanian forces battled alongside other Axis countries, including Hungary, with the aim of controlling Bessarabia (modern-day Moldova) and Bukovina. Their forces advanced deep into Soviet territory. Transylvanians were obliged to fight in either the Romanian or Hungarian militaries or assist the Axis war effort in other ways. The Jewish and Roma communities in Transylvania were subject to discriminatory legislation and abuse, but were left alone until Germany’s takeover of Hungary, after which both communities began to face deportation and extermination.   As Romania’s military fortunes deteriorated, Antonescu found himself under attack from Romanian politicians that wanted out. On August 23, 1944, Antonescu was ousted in a coup led by King Michael and Romania signed an agreement with the Soviets to cease hostilities. Subsequently, Romanian forces advanced alongside the Red Army and retook North Transylvania from Hungary. Regent Horthy was also under threat: he was ousted in a coup by pro-German factions that vowed to fight on. It was a lost cause and Hungary was overrun by Soviet and Romanian forces in 1945. Both Hungary and Romania would remain under communist rule in 1989.   The Allies did not want either Romania or Hungary to fight over Transylvania again and the Soviets hoped to appease Romanian anger over the loss of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. In 1947, treaties signed in Paris reversed the terms of the Second Vienna Award and granted Romania full control over Transylvania. This was the final time the region changed hands, marking an end to one of the most intense border disputes in 20th century Europe.

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