In October 1950, the Goyang Geumjeong Cave Massacre occurred. [87], In 2006–2010, artist Park Kun-woong and Chung Eun-yong published Nogunri Story, a two-volume graphic narrative that told the story of the massacre and the half-century struggle for the truth through thousands of drawings, based on Chung's 1994 book. [50] The Pulitzer committee reaffirmed its award and the credibility of the AP reporting. Ten years earlier, members of the U.S. military killed a large number of South Korean refugees under and around the bridge, early in the Korean War. The Army rejected survivors' demands for an apology and compensation. [4]:xiv Four years after this 2001 report, the Seoul government's inquest committee certified the identities of a minimum 218 casualties. In the predawn hours of July 29, the 7th Cavalry Regiment withdrew from No Gun Ri. [4]:120, 157, 161 fn27[23]:596, Regarding the aerial imagery that the U.S. report said suggested a lower death toll, the South Korean investigators, drawing on accounts from survivors and area residents, said at least 62 bodies had been taken away by relatives or buried in soldiers' abandoned foxholes in the first days after the killings, and others remained inside one underpass tunnel, under thin layers of dirt, out of sight of airborne cameras and awaiting later burial in mass graves. [nb 12] In addition, interview transcripts obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests showed that the Army had not reported repeated testimony from ex-soldiers that, as one put it, "the word I heard was 'Kill everybody from 6 to 60'" during their early days in Korea. [93], Of all American wars, the Korean War is believed to have been the deadliest for civilians as a proportion of those killed, including North and South Korean[43]:206 non-combatants killed in extensive U.S. Air Force bombing throughout Korea, and South Korean civilians summarily executed by the invading North Korean military. No Gun Ri Memorial Peace Park, built with $17 million in government funds and featuring a memorial, museum, and peace education center, opened in October 2011. [2], The invasion caught South Korea and its American ally by surprise, and sent the defending South Korean forces into retreat. [12]:128 In that same year, the U.S. Armed Forces Claims Service in Korea dismissed one No Gun Ri petition by asserting that any killings took place during combat. They continued down the road, were stopped by American troops at a roadblock near No Gun Ri, and were ordered onto the parallel railroad tracks, where U.S. soldiers searched them and their belongings, confiscating knives and other items. [4]:129, The report questioned an early, unverified South Korean government estimate of 248 killed, missing, and wounded at No Gun Ri, citing an aerial reconnaissance photograph of the area, said to have been taken eight days after the killings ended, that it said showed "no indication of human remains or mass graves". Writing to the Army inspector general's office in May 2001, the lawyers also pointed out that numerous orders were issued at the war front to shoot civilians, and said the U.S. military's self-investigation – "allowing enforcement to be subject to the unbridled discretion of the alleged perpetrator" – was an ultimate violation of victims' rights. The AP's methods and conclusions were defended by the AP in a lengthy, detailed refutation[49] and by others. News reports pointed out that the U.S. review, in describing the July 1950 Air Force memo, did not acknowledge that it said refugees were being strafed at the Army's request. [7] In 1950, just before the outbreak of the Korean War, the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, had about 20,000 alleged communists imprisoned. [17] In one case a US officer is known to have sanctioned the killing of political prisoners so that they would not fall into enemy hands. [12]:69–72 Recalling the air strike, Yang Hae-chan, a 10-year-old boy in 1950, said the attacking planes returned repeatedly, and "chaos broke out among the refugees. [12]:126, In 1994, Seoul newspapers reported on a book Chung published about the events of 1950, raising awareness of the allegations inside South Korea. This time, the U.S. claims service responded by again citing what it claimed was a combat situation, and by asserting that there was no evidence the 1st Cavalry Division was in the No Gun Ri area, as the survivors' research indicated (and as the 1961 official U.S. Army history of the war confirms). [11]:142–43 October 14, 1999. During the 1990s and onwards, several corpses were excavated from mass graves, resulting in public awareness of the massacre. The Korean-language work was also published in translation in Europe. A Pentagon spokesman said this would not affect an ongoing Army investigation of No Gun Ri, noting Daily was "just one guy of many we've been talking to". "[67] American lawyers for the No Gun Ri survivors rejected that rationale, saying that whether 7th Cavalry troops acted under formal orders or not, "the massacre of civilian refugees, mainly the elderly, women and children, was in and of itself a clear violation of international law for which the United States is liable under the doctrine of command responsibility and must pay compensation". [4]:x The Army report dismissed the testimony of soldiers who spoke of orders to shoot at No Gun Ri because, it said, none could remember the wording, the originating officer's name, or having received the order directly himself. [11]:244 In 2007, excavations at several places near the bridge turned up little. Historians and experts on the Korean War estimate that the full total ranges from at least 60,000–110,000 to 200,000. [nb 2] A liaison officer of the sister 8th Cavalry Regiment had relayed word to his unit from 1st Cavalry Division headquarters to fire on refugees trying to cross U.S. front lines. [77]:19, In South Korea, the No Gun Ri story inspired works of nonfiction, fiction, theater, and other arts. Racked with thirst, survivors resorted to drinking blood-filled water from a small stream running under the bridge. [17] American witnesses also reported the scene of the execution of a girl who appeared to be 12 or 13 years old. positions. However, they pointed to gaps in the U.S.-supplied documents dealing with 7th Cavalry and U.S. Air Force operations. The incident was little-known outside Korea until publication of an Associated Press (AP) story in 1999 in which 7th Cavalry veterans corroborated survivors' accounts. They recalled the ground fire beginning with a mortar round landing among the refugee families, followed by what Levine called a "frenzy" of small-arms fire. In addition, South Korean military specialists questioned the U.S. reconnaissance photos, pointing out irregularities, including the fact that the No Gun Ri frames had been spliced into the roll of film, raising the possibility they were not, as claimed, from August 6, 1950, eight days after the killings.[4]:App. The U.S. government should take responsibility. "[59], Journalists and scholars subsequently noted that the U.S. report either did not address or presented incomplete versions of key declassified documents, some previously reported in the news media. [19][nb 3] [74][75] Nevertheless, Army Secretary Caldera said early in the investigation that he couldn't rule out prosecutions,[76] a statement that survivors later complained may have deterred some 7th Cavalry veterans from testifying. [12]:202, The disclosure in 2006 that Pentagon investigators had omitted the Muccio letter from their final report, along with other incriminating documents and testimony, prompted more calls for action. [24][25], After the UN offensive in which South Korea recovered its occupied territories, the police and militia groups executed suspected North Korean sympathizers. The Americans refused.[14][53]. position. "[56] A joint U.S.-Korean "Statement of Mutual Understandings" issued with the reports did not repeat the U.S. report's flat assertion that no orders to shoot were issued at No Gun Ri. [34] No evidence has emerged, however, that the U.S. military investigated the incident at the time. It was missing without explanation from its place at the National Archives. [5] In 2005, the National Assembly created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Republic of Korea to investigate these allegations, as well as other human rights violations in southern Korea during the 20th century. Ryoo, Maj. Moo-Bong, Republic of Korea Army (May 2001). [23]:82–83 That night, the 7th Cavalry messaged division headquarters, "No important contact has been reported by our 2nd Battalion." [33]:199 Evidence of high-level knowledge also appeared in late September 1950 in a New York Times article from Korea, which reported, without further detail, that an unnamed high-ranking U.S. officer told the reporter of the "panicky" shooting of "many civilians" by a U.S. Army regiment that July. [4]:i–ii The final weeks were marked by press reports from Seoul of sharp disputes between the U.S. and Korean teams. Some also recall planes returning that second day to fire rockets or drop bombs. [1]:100–01[33]:176 Citing the Eighth Army order of July 26 to stop refugees, the Korean report concluded that the 7th Cavalry was "likely to have used all possible means to stop the approaching refugees". [64] Lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition party in South Korea criticized the U.S. [8][9] On the night of July 25, that division's 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment,[nb 1] hearing of an enemy breakthrough, fled rearward from its forward positions, to be reorganized the next morning, digging in near the central South Korean village of No Gun Ri. The first troops landed on July 1, and by July 22, three U.S. Army divisions were in Korea, including the 1st Cavalry Division. [11], Under the leadership of Kim Il-sung, the Korean People's Army attacked from the north on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War. [19] "They were dying down there. [29], In their report, South Korean investigators acknowledged that no documents showed specific orders at No Gun Ri to shoot refugees. [11]:137–38, During the killings, the 2nd Battalion came under sporadic artillery and mortar fire from the North Koreans, who advanced cautiously from Yongdong. [96][97] But the 1999–2001 investigation was the last conducted by the United States. [23]:x, Korean War incident in which South Korean refugees were killed by US forces. [33]:209 Said South Korea's national security director, Oh Young-ho, "We believe there was an order to fire. [92][93][94]:118–19[95]:121, The commission alleged that the U.S. military repeatedly conducted indiscriminate attacks, failing to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. The act also envisioned a memorial park at the No Gun Ri site, which had begun attracting 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a year. Biblioscholar (2012). Gay 29 August - Refugee are fair game.jpg", "File:No Gun Ri 15 - 8th Cavalry 9 August - Shoot all refugees.jpg", "Kill 'em All: The American Military in Korea", "Kill 'Em All: American War Crimes in Korea", "No Gun Ri victims officially recognized: 218 people", "In the Face of American Amnesia, The Grim Truths of No Gun Ri Find a Home", "Stranded Enemy Soldiers Merge With Refugee Crowds in Korea", "A War Crime against an Ally's Civilians: The No Gun Ri Massacre", "Chung Eun-yong, Who Helped Expose U.S. Killings of Koreans, Dies at 91", "South Korean who forced US to admit massacre has died", "Book accuses AP journalists of sloppy journalism", "A War of Words on a Prize-Winning Story: No Gun Ri authors cross pens on First Amendment battlefield", "AP responds to questions about prize-winning investigation", "U.S. to Revisit Accusations Of a Massacre By G.I. [1]:93[nb 5] "Most fighter-bomber pilots regarded Korean civilians in white clothes as enemy troops," South Korean scholar Taewoo Kim would later conclude after reviewing Air Force mission reports from 1950. [17] Some managed to escape that first night, while U.S. troops turned searchlights on the tunnels and continued firing, said Chung Koo-ho, whose mother died shielding him and his sister.

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