Marmot’s Vacation Day 1: Road to No Gun Ri

The double railway bridge at Nogeun-ni (No Gun Ri), where US troops killed an undetermined number of refugees in late July, 1950.

OK, so with my well-earned (if I may say so myself) week vacation, I find myself on the road in lovely Yeongdong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, where I’ve come to check out a couple historical and architectural sites of interest in the area before I move on to elsewhere.

Okcheon Samyangni Catholic Church

OK, this was supposed to be one of the highlights of my trip. The beautiful Okcheon Samyangni Catholic Church in Okcheon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do was one of the first properties to be listed on the Cultural Heritage Administration’s Registered Cultural Properties List when the list was promulgated in 2002.

Unfortunately, when I arrived in Okcheon, I learned it was undergoing renovation. Shit. Well, at least I got to take a photo of the steeple.

The church’s history goes back over 100 years, but the current structure was completed in 1955. French missionaries founded the church, but in 1953, administration of the local dioceses was transferred to the Maryknoll Fathers of the United States. The church you see today is believed to have been designed by Ralph Deblanc, an American Catholic friar in Cheongju who just so happened to have majored in civil engineering at university, a useful skill set in Korea at the time. When it’s not covered in scaffolding, it’s really quite pretty.

Old Schoolhouse of Okcheon Jukhyang Elementary School

Well, they certainly don’t build ‘em like this anymore.

This pretty little Japanese-built wooden schoolhouse was built in 1936, and is remarkably well-preserved. Listed as Registered Cultural Property No. 57, the old schoolhouse is now used by the elementary school as a museum. It has three classrooms, which now house an Okcheon-gun educational history exhibit, a Jukhyang Elementary School history exhibit, and an alumni donation exhibit.

Coincidentally, this schoolhouse produced a number of notable figures, including Catholic poet Jeong Ji-yong (believed to have defected to North Korea during the Korean War) and late First Lady Yuk Young-soo.

You know, I’ve actually taught in a classroom just like this one.

Nothing says “nostalgia” like some dosirak on a wood-burning stove.

Nobody playing hookie, I hope.

Some 1980s vintage Lucky Goldstar (now LG) computers. Probably can’t run GTA San Andreas on them, but on the positive side, you probably can’t run Windows Vista on them, either.

Hmmm… old classroom maps. Somewhere, a tear comes to Baduk’s eye.

Some old textbooks — the ones on the top are from the 60s and 70s, while the ones on the bottom are from the Japanese colonial era.

I should offer a word of thanks to one of the teachers of at Jukhyang Elementary School, who was kind enough to open up the old school house and show me around.

Leave it up to the Japanese to remove an ancient stone pagoda from an old temple site to use as an elementary school garden ornament. Guess I can’t fault them that much — they’d hardly be the last administrators in Korea to do play “Relocate the Cultural Treasure to Somewhere it Doesn’t Belong.”

Nogeun-ni (No Gun Ri)

This was the ultimate destination of Day 1.

The Japanese-built double railroad bridge at Nogeun-ni needs no introduction, but just in case, here it goes — depending on whom you ask, the US military, acting on orders to shoot refugees trying to cross American lines, either intentionally slaughtered over 200 civilian refugees under and around the bridge on July 26—29, 1950 in what is now called the No Gun Ri Massacre, or a chaotic battlefield situation combined with North Korean infiltration of refugee columns and inexperience on the part of US troops in the midst of a panicked retreat led to the accidental killing of a much fewer number of refugees near the bridge.

For their work in reporting the massacre, AP’s Choe Sang-hun, Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza were awarded a Pulitzer in 2000 — the link has all their pieces on the subject. Their report was not without controversy — GI Korea criticizes AP at length, so give it a read. Another guy who was a tad upset was OhMyNews founder Oh Yeon Ho, who wrote about the incident for the Korean magazine “Mal” six years before Choe, Hanley and Mendoza “discovered” the incident.

Anyway, the Wikipedia page (linked above) details the controversy over the incident. Frankly, I have no idea what happened; the only thing I think I know is that AP, the US military, survivors groups and the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Committee don’t really know what happened, either. And given the chaotic situation at the time, I doubt very much we ever will know.

Coincidentally, if you’re travelling to Nogeun-ni (it’s a 12,000 won taxi ride from downtown Yeongdong-gun) hoping to speak with survivors and their families, you’re going to the wrong town. The villagers who were attacked were from Jugong-ni, which is a couple minutes up the road to Yeongdong from Nogeun-ni.

There are many such bullet holes in and around the bridge.

A T-shirt left by a visiting group. The anniversary of the attack was just last week.

Much as the sign would suggest.

The double railroad bridge has been designated Registered Cultural Property No. 59. Say what you will about the Japanese, but they did erect some pretty pieces of civil engineering.

A painting near the bridge, with US warplanes bombing and strafing the refugees on the railroad tracks while US soldiers machine-gun refugees hiding under the bridge. According to the description of the incident given at the site, the residents of Jugong-ni were eventually led to the area around the bridge by the US Army after they were ordered to evacuate their village. Then at noon on July 26, the refugees on the tracks were bombed and strafed by the USAF, while from that afternoon to the morning of July 29, US troops machine-gunned refugees seeking shelter under the bridge.

That’s what it says, anyway.

I’m no military science major, but I don’t believe the F-15 was operational as of July 1950.

Like the DMZ, the area around Nogeun-ni has a serene beauty to it — lots of green hills and valleys full of fruit orchards. The region is particularly renowned for its grapes, which thrive thanks to the dramatic morning—afternoon temperature differences. Lots of dragonflies around the bridge, too.

A memorial park is currently being constructed around the bridge, and should be complete by 2010.

Nogeun-ni is particularly relevant now with the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission releasing Sunday the results of its investigation into another alleged mass killing by US troops during the war, this time at the Gokgyegul Stream in Danyang, Chungcheongbukdo on Jan 20, 1951.