No. 003
Freedom did not mean everything that had been lost could return overnight.
The Summer Korea Was Free Again
For Freedom
1945 was a year that changed the world.
In May, Germany surrendered and the war in Europe came to an end. Berlin lay in ruins. Paris, liberated the year before, was finding its way back to everyday life. Britain emerged victorious, but exhausted by six years of war, rationing and economic hardship. Spain, under Franco’s dictatorship, stood increasingly apart from post-war Europe.
Three months after the war ended in Europe, liberation came to a peninsula more than 8,000 kilometres away.
15 August 1945.
After 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, Korea was liberated.
In Korea, the day is remembered as Gwangbokjeol (광복절).
Gwangbok literally means “the return of light.”
After 35 Years, the Light Returned to Korea
At noon on 15 August, the Japanese Emperor’s announcement of surrender was broadcast by radio. Not everyone immediately understood what the announcement meant. But the news spread, and by the following day people were filling the streets. Korean flags appeared again. Crowds gathered. People shouted manse — “Long live Korea.” Thirty-five years of colonial rule had ended. But liberation could not return everything that had been changed or interrupted over those decades. A country could regain its freedom on a single date. Culture, knowledge and everyday practices took longer. Korean alcohol was one of them.
Freedom Came. The Old Drinks Didn't.
Before colonial rule, Korea had a rich culture of gayangju — alcohol brewed at home with rice, water and nuruk, with recipes varying between families and regions.
Colonial taxation and licensing brought home brewing into sharp decline, and in 1934 licences for private household brewing were abolished.
Liberation came in 1945, but the lost knowledge did not simply return. War, food shortages and later restrictions on using rice for alcohol disrupted Korean brewing once again.
Korea regained its freedom in 1945. Its old drinks needed much longer to find their way back.
The Long Way Back
Today, old Korean drinking traditions are finding new life.
Brewers are recovering forgotten recipes from historical texts, passing down family traditions and making nuruk by hand. Some carefully reconstruct historic drinks. Others combine old techniques, local rice and traditional fermentation to create something new.
Old knowledge is meeting a new generation — and becoming part of Korean drinking culture again.
A Glass for 15 August
We do not know what people drank on 15 August 1945.
Perhaps makgeolli, yakju or soju. Perhaps nothing at all. But somewhere, there may have been a special drink — carefully brewed and saved through the years of colonial rule for a day worth celebrating. And when liberation finally came, perhaps someone opened it.
We cannot know. But every 15 August, it is tempting to imagine: After 35 years, with freedom finally returned — what did they raise their glasses with?