Was the KLA/Independence Army 'useless' because they only had 2,000 troops?

This is a common talking point I hear from Ilbe-brained juniors or some people in their 20s. (I even saw it indirectly in the comments of my post on Clien the other day.)

First, if you look at the context and background of how these 2,000 troops were organized...

1. Formed in a foreign country decades after the nation fell. It had been over 30 years since we lost sovereignty. Our own military had been disarmed and disbanded decades prior, so there was no direct support. The overseas Korean community was much smaller and more scattered than it is now.

2. The instability of the Provisional Government (KPG) in Shanghai. People often imagine the KPG operating out of a safe building in a neighborhood like LA Koreatown, but in reality, the Nationalist Government supporting them was getting wrecked by Japan. They had to move their capital 3 or 4 times. Japan occupied all major cities and controlled major transport routes. While we call it the 'Shanghai' Provisional Government, Japan occupied Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Nanjing most of the time. They were basically a government on the run under constant threat of bombing. Comparing them to De Gaulle’s Free French—De Gaulle had the UK mainland (which Germany never occupied) and a base of remaining regular army troops. The difficulty level for the KPG was on a whole different planet.

3. About that '2,000' number. This wasn't small. Even compared to other resistance movements in exile, it holds up. Czech, Polish, and Norwegian exile forces were also in the thousands, and that was right after their countries fell. Comparing that to a country that had been gone for decades shows a clear difference. Even the Free French started with a few thousand when they first organized in the UK. Their numbers only exploded after D-Day when they got domestic support.

4. Constraints on forming an army. Previous large-scale armed forces were mostly wiped out during the Free City Incident or the Japanese 'South Korean Mop-up Operation.' Plus, the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact led the USSR to forcibly relocate independence fighters in their territory so they wouldn't provoke Japan. For example, General Hong Beom-do and his followers were basically forced into Central Asia.

Independence armies or resistance groups are usually small vanguard forces meant to trigger a domestic response once they cross the border.

In that context, you had 2,000 people putting their lives on the line for a country that vanished decades ago with no guarantee of success. It makes me sad and frustrated to see fellow Koreans belittling them as 'useless' or 'insignificant' under the guise of being 'objective.'

그런 상황 속에서... 확실하지도 않은 수십년전에 망한 조국 독립을 염원하며, 목숨을 건 2천명 정도의 군대였습니다.. 이런 독립군을 같은 한국인이 '객관'이라는 잣대로 별 영양가 없고 의미없었다라는 식으로 비하한다는게 저는 참 슬프고 안타깝네요.