Other events in this phase
Korean Liberation Transition3Currency Stabilization and Legal Tender
Proclamation No. 3 of September 1945 defined supplemental military yen marked “A” and existing yen currency as legal tender south of the 38th parallel, while banning other currencies. It shows that USAMGIK had to secure monetary and transaction order as part of the first stage of occupation government.
Legal-tender designation did not itself stabilize prices. As the Japanese control economy collapsed and repatriation, unemployment, and shortages converged, the relationship between money and goods destabilized quickly.
Commodity and Rice Policy Failure
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History notes that USAMGIK introduced a free rice market in October 1945, but hoarding and price surges forced a return to controls. KCI studies likewise frame commodity controls and rice policy as repeatedly undermined by weak administrative capacity, unrealistic controlled prices, and the absence of production policy.
This is not an isolated economic record. It is a background node for the 1946 rice-collection program, the Daegu October unrest, and the political instability around the Joint Commission period. It should be read alongside records on rice collection, labor action, and food unrest.
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