Where did the Stars and Stripes in Gwanghwamun Plaza come from?

The title of the documentary refers to a massive pro-Yoon rally on March 3, 2025, in Gwanhwamun Plaza, Seoul (shown near the beginning of the video). There are hundreds if not thousands of US flags, along with the Korean national flag, the Taeguki, and the flag of Israel (????). Coincidentally, the US Embassy in South Korea is located at Gwangwhamun. One wonders why this documentary doesn't have English subtitles. A lot of the declassified US documents, and some of the old newsreel narrations are in English; Nancy Snow a former US official is interviewed a few times throughout in English. Unfortunately there is a lot of discussion from Korean scholars and the narrator that is in Korean and is not translated to subtitles in English. Too bad, this is an incredible investigative report and history.

This South Korean produced documentary based on a massive amount of US archives and historical film describes and documents US propaganda operations in South Korea by the US Information Agency. The operations were even more extensive than I ever dreamed and carried out an influence operation generational in scope and imbedded in the South Korean psyche. It has to be noted that these US information operations are part of much larger US world wide, country specific, information/propaganda operations. The "country plan" for implanting US favorable attitudes in South Koreans, despite US support for dictators, and the bloody suppression of popular democratic/independence uprisings early in the US occupation after WWII, (like the Jeju uprising and others related to it) and then later again in 1980, in Kwangju, were an eye opener for me. The ticker tape parade for dictator Park Chung-hee in NYC was over the top. The US produced a quota of newsreel propaganda for Park's benefit and use at home. The declassified documents revealed the US information policy related to the dictatorships, foreshadowing the US two faced reaction to Yoon and his impeachment.

One of the most interesting aspects of this to me, was that these early US information office operations were tailored in Japanese for those Koreans over 40, and of course were in Korean for the population generally, and in English for those with access to the right education resources. This reminded me of the Japanese effort to make Koreans and Taiwanese "Japanese," earlier in the 20th Century. This looked like an effort to make Koreans "American." Many South Koreans learned conversational English listening to programming on US Armed Forces TV or even a higher level for elites enrolled and sponsored in US exchange programs. At one point editors of South Korean school newspapers were subject to regular exposure to US information publications distributed to them, and cultural presentations and activities at US information and culture centers in four major cities. In the mid eighties during the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship these came under attack from college activists in the democracy movement.

When I watched this documentary and read the US documents and listened to Nancy Snow the former director of the US Information Agency, I realized that the same thing has been going on in Taiwan: US influence operations, exchange programs, cooptation of the formerly pro-Japanese legacy elites, US driven propaganda, etc. Chinese culture has a natural appeal no matter what the polls or propaganda may show about people's political attitudes. Therefore, emphasis on Chinese literature, ethics, and history in Taiwan school texts is being systematically removed to weaken natural ties to the mainland. Japanese history during the colonial period and Pacific War is likewise also misrepresented in Taiwan's education and media as is the role of Taiwan's WWII collaborators.