By I appreciate all the e-mails people have sent me on this topic which I have unfortunately been late getting to, but will now address it:
In the opening months of the Korean War, the South Korean military and the police executed at least 4,900 civilians who had earlier signed up — often under force — for re-education classes meant to turn them against Communism, the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced Thursday.
The government killed the civilians out of fear that they would help the Communists who were invading from the north and forcing South Korean and American forces into retreat during the first desperate weeks of the war, the commission said.
Although the panel has reported on similar civilian massacres in the past, the announcement Thursday represented the first time that a state investigative agency confirmed the nature and scale of what is known as “the National Guidance League incident” — one of the most horrific and controversial episodes of the war.
The anti-Communist and authoritarian government of President Syngman Rhee had set up the league to re-educate people who had disavowed Communism in the months before the war, and forced an estimated 300,000 South Koreans to join. At the time, the government was facing a vicious and prolonged insurgency by leftist guerrillas. [New York Times]
Usually I say read the rest of an article, but don’t bother with this one because it just more of the same from Choe Sang-hun who continues to beat this dead horse of executions committed by the South Korean government prior and during the Korean War. Choe continues to try and frame this issue as being something that has until now been unknown in Korean society, which is not true.
In South Korea the tragedy of the communist guerrilla war has been well known for years with the publication of Cho Jeong-lae’s groundbreaking book “Taebaek Sanmaek” that in great detail describes the effects of the guerrilla war and the follow on Korean War on the civilians who lived in the small South Korean village of Beolgyo. The battle of ideology led to many indiscriminate killings by both the ROK government as well as by the communists. Cho’s book was eventually made into in my opinion the best Korean film ever made, “Taebaek Mountains” in 1994 starring Ahn Sung-kee and directed by award winning director Im Kwon-taek.
Frankly I am surprised they have only been able to find 4,934 people executed by the Rhee government. You also have to wonder how many of these people were actually innocent civlians instead of communist guerrillas? Maybe the amount of killings by the Syngman Rhee government wasn’t as bad as widely believed?
The Korean Truth & Reconcilliation Commission is only gathering evidence of something people in Korea already know about. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be recovered and documented, however the people in the T&R Commission shouldn’t be the ones doing it. As regular readers of the ROK Drop know, I have long been against the T&R Commission because of how they have politicized their findings along with the sloppy historical research they have done. This is reason enough to justify why President Lee Myung-bak plans on disbanding the T&R Commission.
Choe as probably many of you know from No Gun Ri fame has been continuously publishing these articles in an attempt to pressure the Lee government to continue funding the T&R Committee. If the T&R Commission didn’t conduct historical research like Choe and his other reporter buddies at the AP did with the No Gun Ri story then I would be more inclinded to support the committee.
By the way speaking of No Gun Ri, I do find it interesting that the Truth & Reconciliation Commission was able to find plenty of bones at these other sites, but at No Gun Ri not one bone has ever recovered. Why doesn’t Choe write about that?
1:40 pm on December 10th, 2009 1
“Choe continues to try and frame this issue as being something that has until now been unknown in Korean society, which is not true.”
Choe isn’t the only one who does this all the time. Many expats do it as well..
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December 10th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
First I’ve heard of the massacre. All I’ve ever heard about was ‘No Gun Ri’. Altho I have seen many pictures of reported massacres, this is one of the first explanations I have read.
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1:55 pm on December 10th, 2009 2
I dunno… is there any possible group in Korea that would not politicize this finding? The fact that this discovery is happening at all is political — many conservatives would love to let this stay buried (pun intended) and forget that this ever happened.
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4:25 pm on December 10th, 2009 3
Thanks very much for the post covering this issue. For someone like me who finds the commission’s work inherently interesting (as a historian, “reconciliation” is a wonderful buzzword that screams “relevance” for my profession, which we don’t often get to do), I’m glad to see it challenged.
The politics of memory in the Korean War get short shrift in comparison to the oxygen-sucking Sino-Japanese history wars, and North Korean recollections of the Korean War are typically assumed to be monolithic as well. I’m hoping to get some headway made on your multiple links and think more about this topic; thanks again for a winning post.
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December 10th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Adam thanks for the comment. Here is a list of prior postings I have done on this issue you may find of interest:
http://rokdrop.com/2008/05/20/rehashing-korean-war-era-executions/
http://rokdrop.com/2008/07/08/rehashing-korean-war-executions-again/
http://rokdrop.com/2008/12/09/rehashing-korean-war-executions-again-again/
I also recommend reading my No Gun Ri writings as well if you haven’t yet:
http://rokdrop.com/2005/07/26/revisiting-nogun-ri/
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8:46 pm on December 10th, 2009 4
I can’t see how it could ever be an unknown fact when so many people were beaten to death in the streets by cops or taken away, never to be seen again(often on tips made by neighbors who had a grudge to settle).
As for Nogun-ri…just because no bones were found doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Not too long ago, for example, construction workers found the grave of Chinese soldiers killed during the battle of Chipyongni mere meters away from a farmer’s field.
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December 10th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
“I can’t see how it could ever be an unknown fact”. If its covered up for many years and an embarrassment to many south koreans today, I can see it easily. You can’t?
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December 10th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
My point is that the evidence is there for anyone who wants to see it.
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December 11th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I do not live in Korea and for me it would not be considered ‘common knowledge’. Sometimes knowledge comes serendipidously, as this did for me.
December 11th, 2009 at 7:19 am
They launched an entire archeological excavation of the area just like they did with other sites of alleged killings and found nothing. This doesn’t mean no one died there, but what it means is that people died there is far fewer numbers. I recommend reading my Forensics of No Gun Ri posting along with my other writings on the subject:
http://rokdrop.com/2005/07/26/revisiting-nogun-ri/
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8:51 pm on December 10th, 2009 5
…Hell, I’ve read testimonials written by UN soldiers in which they recall being appalled by the way Korean cops mistreated the civilians.
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8:52 pm on December 10th, 2009 6
OK I HAVE TO GO, READERS PLS FORGIVE ME FOR MY HARSH WORDS, I JUST WANT TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT EVEN SOME OF US LOSE OUR TEMPER FOR PEOPLE LIKE MARCUS, LEON LAPORTE THE FAKE, RETIRED GI, LAFORDUDAY, LEMMY, JUNIOR, ETC.. THEY ARE A BUNCH OF DISRESPECTFUL BU\NCH OF IDIOTS WHO DESERVE A DOSE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE.
ONE GOOD REASON WHY I DECIDED TO DO THIS? THEY WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR HATRED TO CHIRSITANS SO MIGHT AS WELL TELL THEM STRAIGHT TO THEIR FACE THAT THEY ARE HOPELESS, AND LET THEM FEEL THAT NOT AT ALL TIMES CHRISTIANS WILL HOLD THEIR PEACE!
I LOVE MY FAITH! AND NOBODY SHOULD RIDICULE IT! IN THE SAME TOKEN THAT THEY LOVE THIS YUCKY FORUM, ROK DROP THE WORST! WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT ONLY DIRTY WITH THEIR MOUTH BUT PROMISCUOUS IN ALL THEIR WAYS. SEXUALLY PREOCCUPIED PEOPLE (S.O.P.) THAT IS HOW WE CALL CHRISTLESS AMERICANS WHO ARE SO RUDE AND MEAN!
THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING ME!
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December 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am
“CHRISTLESS AMERICANS” eh?
Who are you to judge?
Calling a whole nation CHRISTLESS and HOPELESS is speaking for God which is wrong according to God and I know you are no prophet.
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December 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I feel unwanted and left out.
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9:23 pm on February 7th, 2010 7
[...] the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has done AND its agenda over the years (be sure to see also this and this, and the links within). God knows I don’t trust them, even though I think the work [...]