Choe Sang-Hun has filed a remarkable and grisly account of South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s attempt to document some of the atrocities of Korea’s last war. Apparently hundreds of dead have been uncovered, many with their hands bound by wire and shot in the head. To read Choe’s article, please go here.
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20 Comments
Chilling.
I somehow feel that contrition is not enough.
I also feel like I should go far, far away from this place and never return.
It would be more precise to say “document some of the atrocities by the South in Korea’s last war.
Director Lee Sang-woo reportedly felt obliged to take on the topic of Nogeun-ri. Will this get made into a movie? Will Lee do it? If so, what angle will the director pursue?
“I think they killed up to 7,000 people there,” Park said. “Every day for seven or eight days, I saw four trucks in the morning and three trucks in the afternoon coming loaded with people.”
“”Many of those human butchers and their children are now rich and powerful,” said Ja, 65, referring to those who killed his father.”
Tribunals? Accountability? Apologies? Compensation?
“Tribunals? Accountability? Apologies? Compensation?”
Is there any guess why the leaders in Pyongyang will fight to the death rather than unify?
“Tribunals? Accountability? Apologies? Compensation?”
But if an American soldier farts in Itaewon…
Yes, very chilling, but this does not surprise me considering this kind of mass killing happens in every war.
How can you tell what religion someone is? What their ideology is? Most peasants support their next meal ticket and are not informed enough to know which group is right or wrong.
Korea, Balkans, Indo-China, Africa, Ireland, Timor, Turkey, Iraq….just to name a few.
War = atrocities and innocents are always caught up as collateral damage.
This is one of the most gut-wrenching issues for anyone to face in modern Korean history. In terms of group affiliations, it is hard to find the “good guys” as so much evil and injustice ran rampant between the years of national liberation and the close of the Korean War – and one may say it still runs amok to this day north of the 38th Parallel.
Tragically, this aspect of Korean life for the common person is much more typical than what we may like to believe today living in South Korea. Through the centuries, mass executions by the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols and the Koreans themselves have been visited more often than not on the hapless innocent common people as the guilty.
Still, history hardly excuses these excesses. And, at least in terms of the years covered by establishment by the Republic of Korea, national reconciliation is probably in order. For now, we can forget anything even similar taking place within the DPRK. Still, that comparison is irrelevant for the victims’ survivors.
The US, reeling from its first real war with an Asian nation and facing a new ideological adversary in 1945, was very much unsure of itself. Fanatic anti-communism matched with latent and recently wartime-enforced racism did not help matters during the US occupation when several outrages took place. Later, during the war, N Korean and Chinese soldiers often wore civilian clothing, hiding their weapons until the most opportune moments, often firing from within the midst of civilians – a tactic the US would later face again in Vietnam.
South Korean villages, before and during the Korean War, often switched affiliations with socialist/communist politicians and with right wing ones. “Affiliation” is perhaps an overstatement of political sophistication for many villagers. In those days, basic survival and freedom from harassment were key elements in forming “affiliations.” Furthermore, as elsewhere and in other times, this kind of turmoil allowed for rascals of all sorts to finger “enemies” out of personal animosity or greed for the others’ wealth/position to new, incoming regimes.
While not to condone many of the tragedies connected with US Forces, one can imagine how well a 24-year-old captain from Oklahoma, for example, might be able to comprehend what may be taking place under his command – not to mention the cultural and language barriers.
These alibis do not, of course, apply so well to the Koreans on both sides of the conflict. And as such, political cynicism is once again at work as part of the motivation for national reconciliation.
Given that, there is a temptation to say, “Let bygones be bygones and let’s just move ahead, putting this nastiness behind us.” But so doing, we would be adding one final layer of injustice on top of the victims and their survivors. So, some sort of national reconciliation is belatedly in order. But it will be a real test to the political maturity of the Korean people if this can be accomplished in a fair and forgiving manner — or as part of a vengeful vendetta. Thanks to the passing of the decades, we probably will see more of the former than the latter. But, once again, time will tell.
Sad, very sad.
Has anyone else noticed that the investigation into the killing of North Koreans is being charged to a body called the “Truth and Reconciliation Commision” but the investigation which exonerated Koreans of killing and torturing allied soldiers in WW2 was called the “Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Imperialism”?
In fairness, there is a more pressing need to “reconcile” with the North, given the current ongoing climate of animosity on the peninsula, and also taking into account the friendship these days between the former allies and the ROK, but still…
Here is the Hanky’s heartrending story of several poor camp guards - volunteers, mind you, and not mobilized - who still struggle with the fact that their honor has been hurt to this very day.
But what about their victims? Its well documented that Koreans developed a particular reputation for brutality amoung the pows who suffered under them. Not all of them of course. But I recall a story of an allied soldier who saw his mates executed by a Korean guard who lined them up and bayoneted them through their anus’. There are many other testimonies, see here:
http://forum.axishistory.com/v.....p?t=120130
(also a link back the the ‘Hole)
Any thoughts?
Here’s that heartrending link:
http://hani.co.kr/arti/english.....96269.html
I just find it hand to accept that Koreans can so readily do the handwringing thing (and I think its a good idea, BTW) for their fellow Koreans, but can’t for the pacific pows.
Excellent point, hoju_saram (#11)
I don’t know how much teeth this commission has, as they’re not out there to prosecute anyone, but rather just to investigate. I hope the process is enlightening for some. However, it’s all just politics, isn’t it, and that doesn’t make me comfortable. I cringe when I’m reminded that the Korean war crminals were cleared of responsibility, and each time the word “Japanese collaborator” comes up it used to discredit current political enemies, not to provide any healthy self-reflection.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Fucking Commies, that is what they are.
Hey, these people joined Communists.
And, if these soldiers didn’t do their job (killing Commies), entire Korea would be under Kim Jongil.
Freedom is not free. You have to kill to get it and keep it.
Or, Kim Jongil’s kind will have your wife, kids and your bank account.
Killing is necessary.
Although Roh appears to as unpopular on this site as he is in any other given place, I think the man deserves full credit for attempting to get the body-politic come to terms with some of these historical issues. I believe the government is also soon to open a museum on Jeju to commemorate those massacred there in a scorched-earth policy that saw tens of thousands of victims massacred, who were far from agents of COMINTERN or “bbalgengi”but merely deeply unhappy at American employment of police employed by the Japanese etc, and saw themselves as slipping from one form of colonial occupation to another.
Here’s to a round of applause for Mr Roh, for his sterling work on truth and reconciliation, attempts at regional development and attempts to overcome the regionalism and mccarthyism that have driven Korean politics for too long. Even if most of those attempts have been largely neutered. Who’s with me?! Erm…? Why’s it gone so quiet?
Perhaps this means that this a beginning towards a level-headed approach to Korean history rather than shameful polemics that is so often engaged in.
It is also very, very strange to me that one of the best journalists of Korean extraction writes in English for the New York Times rather than a Korean newspaper. Perhaps there is a story in this as well but it is beyond my telling.
Baduk, you choose the unpopular and retarded position on every issue. You do this for no reason that I can tell. You are like a fountain of stupid.
“The fact that these bones have remained abandoned so long and so close to where we live means that our society is still at its barbarian stage,”
Well said.
@14
And here we have our highly moral Christian cheering on the murder of innocent village people caught up in war. …and he’s cheering on the slaughter because of differences in political ideology. Can I get an amen?
“Freedom is not free.” Not only is it a catchy jingo that instantly justifies every single incidence of “collateral damage,” but it also sounds like the title of a potential country music chart-topper (just substitute “ain’t” in for “is not”).
But here’s a question for you baduk, was killing the children necessary? Please justify this without justifying mateomiguel’s comment #17.
These are not really new findings, as for example the so-called “Bodoyeonmaeng Affair” was made public as soon as the political control was liberalized at the turn of the 1990s, even if officially nominated bodies have begun to treat these things only lately. (I’m reading a Hankyoreh story on this from June 1990 via KINDS).
Bodoyeonmaeng was an association for so-called converted communists founded in 1949. It was supposed to “protect and guide” (bodo 保導) them to live as proper ROK citizens, but as was told in the IHT story, they were rounded up after the outbreak of the war and executed en masse.