Meritorious Service Record

As the commander of the 9th Military Region of the Chinese Nationalist Government, Xue Yue provided extensive material support for the Korean Liberation Army’s (KLA) resistance against Japan. In July 1945, members of the KLA’s 1st Branch 3rd Unit requested operational funding from Xue Yue for their military activities.
In March 1945, he secured the safety of 40 Korean student soldiers who had been forcibly conscripted into the Japanese army but managed to escape. He then arranged for their transfer to KLA Commander Lee Cheong-cheon (李靑天). Notably, he not only facilitated their enlistment into the Korean Liberation Army but also discussed their potential deployment in Operation Eagle, a joint military operation with U.S. forces. He provided necessary logistical and strategic support for these efforts.
On January 20, 1944, Japan forcibly conscripted Korean university and technical college students under the guise of the Student Volunteer Army (學徒志願兵) system. Many of these student soldiers, after being assigned to Japanese military units, attempted to escape. Depending on their location, some were transferred to the Chinese Nationalist Army (中央軍) or the Chinese Communist Eighth Route Army (八路軍). Those taken in by the Nationalist Army were later integrated into the Korean Liberation Army, where they continued their anti-Japanese resistance efforts. Some of these recruits also received specialized training in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to participate in joint Korean-American military operations against Japan.
Xue Yue played a crucial role in assisting these Korean student soldiers by ensuring their safety, providing training and logistical support, and coordinating military operations with the Korean Liberation Army. By July 1945, he had secured and transferred a total of 120 Korean student soldiers to the KLA.
The South Korean government awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Independence Medal) in 1977.