Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Battle of Bocheonbo

Also called: Pochonbo raid

Many Koreans fought in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army led by the Chinese Communist Party. In June 1937 its Korean unit, helped by an underground network at home, raided the Japanese police post and other offices at Bocheonbo in Gapsan, South Hamgyong.

After the Manchurian Incident, Korean socialists in Manchuria joined the anti-Japanese guerrillas led by the Chinese Communist Party. These units were reorganized in 1936 as the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, and its Korean members formed the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland that year, a national united front of Koreans in Manchuria that also built a network inside Korea.

On 4 June 1937 the army’s Korean unit, with help from that network, crossed the Yalu and attacked the police post, township office and other buildings at Bocheonbo in Gapsan County, South Hamgyong. Widely reported in Korean newspapers, the raid showed that armed resistance was continuing. Kim Il-sung, who led it, later founded the North Korean state, and North Korea makes much of the battle. Under Japanese suppression the army withdrew to the Soviet Maritime Province around 1940.