General Order No. 1 divided Japanese surrender areas in Korea at the 38th parallel in 1945.
Issued after Japan's surrender, the order directed Japanese forces north of the line to surrender to the Soviet commander and forces south of it to surrender to the United States commander. The instruction was a military arrangement for accepting Japan's capitulation, not initially a permanent political partition plan.
The 38th parallel later became the boundary between the Soviet-backed occupation zone in the north and the American-backed occupation zone in the south. In 1948, separate governments were established, creating the division that eventually led to the Korean War.
General Order No. 1 also required Japanese forces to disclose their deployments, preserve equipment, and surrender to designated Allied commanders. It was approved by President Harry Truman on 17 August and issued on 2 September 1945.