Introduction: The Commonwealth’s Korean War at 75

Abstract

25 June 2025 marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. Yet, this brutal three-year conflict involving all the major Cold War combatants remains largely ‘forgotten’ outside the Korean peninsula except amongst historians who have long realised its global importance. The historiography, though, continues to be dominated by works focused on the United States. The role played by the Commonwealth countries involved in the Korean War are comparably few and are overwhelmingly written as discrete national histories. However, for each of these countries the conflagration had a distinctly Commonwealth dimension to it since their troops fought alongside each other and their diplomats coordinated policy together in a way never seen again. This special section, therefore, will fill a significant gap in the historical literature by examining a wide range of aspects of the conflict from a Commonwealth-wide perspective. This introduction will thus outline the Commonwealth-focused topics covered in each article – Prime Ministers’ Meetings, casualty and funerary arrangements, Japan as a forward base, the Battle of Kapyong, the air campaign, and the experience of ordinary soldiers at the 38th parallel – and why collectively this special section represents the most comprehensive study of the Commonwealth’s Korean War.