Early Days
The KLA brought together many Korean guerilla armies that proliferated in Northern Korea, Manchuria and mainland China during the 1920s. After the declaration of war by the Provisional Government against Japan and Germany on December 9, 1941, the units of the KLA participated on the allied side in the Chinese and Southeast Asian theatres. The Regulation regarding the activities of the Korean Liberation Army, imposed by the Chinese Nationalist Government upon the provisional government in 1941, placed the KLA under the supreme authority of the Commander-in-chief of the Chinese army. This regulation was repealed in 1944, after the provisional government had achieved improved financial standing and greater importance in the eyes of the Chinese government.
The KLA was not idle during this period. The KLA sent troops to fight alongside British soldiers in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, including the outskirts of Burma and India. In 1943, socialist-aligned guerilla groups joined the KLA, and their leader, General Kim Wonbong, became the deputy commandant of the KLA. Its numbers were continuously boosted by the influx of Koreans escaping from the Japanese army (into which some in mainland Korea had been impressed) and through the recruitment of Koreans living in China. From its humble beginnings with an officer corps of 30 men at its foundation in 1941, the KLA grew to a substantial force with almost a thousand in active service by the end of the war. Thousands more were recruitable in Manchuria and Mainland China.
Read more about this topic: Korean Liberation Army
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