Photo-documentation:
Summary Report of U.S. Veterans Delegation to Korea, August 2 - 9, 2001, a
project of the Korea Truth Commission (KTC) planned with members of Veterans For
Peace (VFP). Yoomi Jeong, Deputy Secretary General, Korea Truth Commission,
served as guide and translator.
by S. Brian Willson
August 21, 2001
VETERAN MEMBERS OF THE DELEGATION:
James Gary Campbell
Korean War (Army)
Presbyterian Church
(USA) minister (ret.)
VFP member at large
Edward A. Everts
World War II (Army Air Corps)
Activist, TV
Producer
VFP member of Green Mountain Chapter (VT)
Michael (Mickey) Grant
Vietnam War era (Marines), served as
civilian in Laos during Vietnam War
Filmmaker/Director
VFP member
at large
John C. (Jack) Ryan
MP (Army) at nuclear weapons site
Former
FBI agent
Co-Director Catholic Worker House
VFP member at large
S. Brian Willson
Vietnam War (Air Force)
Author/Activist/Executive Film Producer
VFP member of John Steinbeck
IV Chapter (CA)
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One of 18 "execution photos" taken of some of the 1,800 Korean
civilians/political prisoners removed from the Taejon Prison in early
July 1950, suspected of having "socialist or communist" sympathies,
immediately prior to their execution by South Korean police acting under
orders from Syngman Rhee in concert with U.S. military officers. Photo
taken by U.S. Major Abbott, Army Liaison Officer, with a Leica camera,
developed and printed by attaché office staff. Lt. Col. Bob E. Edwards,
the U.S. Army Attaché in charge of documenting the executions, was
quoted as saying, "General treatment of Prisoners of War after
evacuation from front has been good." Photo from U.S. National Archive
collection. |
U.S. military officers overseeing South Korean executions of
civilians "suspected of collaborating" with the "communists," near
Taegu, South Korea, April 1951. Photo taken by U.S. Korean Military
Advisory Group (KMAG) and reproduced from U.S. National
Archives. |
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Our delegation traveled 1,350 ground miles to Kwangju (South Cholla
Province) and to Chinju, Masan, Hamanhn, Eryung, Changnyung, Pusan, Ulsan,
Kyongsang, and Taegu (each in South Kyongsang Province). We visited 12
representative sites at which massacres were committed in 1950-51 by U.S.
forces, or South Korean paramilitary and military units under the command of
U.S. forces, meeting many of the survivors and receiving extensive, riveting
testimony from more than two dozen witnesses. Several of these sites have only
recently been revealed, including: (1) a rugged mountain location near Kwangju
where reportedly a biological (mycotoxin T-2?) or chemical (gas or herbicide?)
warfare agent (a "whitish powder" or mist sprayed from light planes) was used
causing a dark skin discoloration prior to killing several hundred villagers
in the fall of 1951, suggesting death from a type of hemorrhagic fever; (2) a
newly discovered second Japanese mine near Kyongsang that served as a
depository for hundreds of bodies; (3) the Jin Chi Ryung railroad tunnel near
Chinju; and (4) the Wonbuk railroad tunnel near Masan. These latter two
tunnels, where civilians were murdered in the summer of 1950, are 90 miles
from the now famous No Gun Ri railroad viaduct massacre site.
The grief and rage experienced by Koreans who survived numerous traumatic
assaults on their families and villages, especially from 1945 to 1953, have
been psychically stored for more than 50 years without chance for expression
due to fear of repression, even death. This deeply repressed rage and grief is
called "Haan" in Korea. Only recently has it been "safe" for these survivors
to publicly express their memories. Thus, the revelations of atrocities are
still unfolding, likely to number in multiples of hundreds before all of the
stories are finally public.
We visited the Kwangju Cemetery and Memorial where many of the victims of
the May 1980 Kwangju Massacre are buried. General Chun Doo-Hwan had taken over
the military in a coup and declared martial law. Thousands of protesters were
expressing outrage throughout Korea, with Kwangju witnessing the most robust
of demonstrations. As many as 2,500 Kwangju residents were murdered with the
complicity of U.S. political and military officials. It's worth noting that
this massacre took place during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, who came into
office in 1977 on a pledge of promoting human rights as a center of his
foreign policy. Yet the "first priority" of the Carter administration in 1980
as communicated to Korean military officials was the "restoration of order in
Kwangju" through use of "firm anti-riot measures," to assure prevention of
"another Iran" in South Korea. It is also worth noting that the U.S.-friendly
but ruthless dictator, the Shah of Iran, had been deposed in January 1979, and
on November 4, 1979, Islamic militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and
took hostage its 62 staff members.
We visited the 51-year-old U.S. Koon Ni bombing range (the "Vieques of
Korea"), once referred to by the U.S. as "nightmare range," at the village of
Maehyang Ri (South Chungchong Province), 50 miles south of Seoul. This bombing
range is vigorously opposed by most Koreans. We also visited the 56-year-old
DMZ (Kyonggi Province), 25 miles to the capital's north, which involuntarily
divides as many as ten million Korean families. We participated in a march,
rally, and cultural event in Kyongsang with the 350-strong Reunification
Vanguard of young people traveling to various Korean locations promoting
reunification. We attended and spoke at a rally of the Daewoo workers in Seoul
attempting to forestall the "neo-liberal" sale of Daewoo to foreign investors.
We had an interesting meeting with representatives of the Korean Truth
Committee on the Vietnam War (regarding conduct of the 312,000 Korean soldiers
who fought there as mercenaries for the U.S.). They have active projects in
Vietnam making apologies and reparations. This Committee is comprised of a
handful of Korean soldiers and concerned citizens, and is instructive for our
Vietnam veterans in the U.S.
We stood in solidarity with the Korean Women Against U.S. Occupation, a
silent rally held weekly in front of the largest U.S. military base in Korea,
Yongsan, in downtown Seoul. At this event we were under the watchful eye of a
dozen or so men believed to be agents of the "secret" Korean National
Intelligence Service (NIS), formerly the KCIA. These apparent agents reported
informally to one of our delegation members that they were well briefed about
our presence in Korea, as well as the date of our scheduled departure. They
admitted they would be relieved once we departed Korea.
We interviewed several former long-term political prisoners, all of whom
served long prison terms for violating the unbelievably draconian South Korean
National Security Law prohibiting discussion of reunification. Some activists
have been executed for advocating Korean reunification, numerous others
sentenced to life imprisonment. Recently, many prisoners have been released
due to a relaxation of the law's rigidity, and to pressure exerted by domestic
and international human rights organizations.
Two of the long-term prisoners we met (now released) had been students
nearly 20 years ago at a university in the United States where they were
watched by Korean agents working with the complicity of the FBI and other U.S.
officials. The two were returned to Korea, along with 20 other Korean
students. They were originally sentenced to death, others to life
imprisonment, for discussing their reunification dreams on campus. Jack Ryan
of our delegation had been involved in verifying information on the two
students when he was still an FBI agent in the Midwest. Ryan was later fired
from the FBI for refusal to investigate as "domestic terrorist suspects"
several U.S. nonviolent peace activists. Among those suspects were the four
participants in the 1986 water-only Veterans Fast For Life who sat daily on
the steps of the Capitol in Washington for 47 days protesting lawless U.S.
policy in Central America. Delegation member Brian Willson was one of those
fasters.
Delegation members Grant and Willson, two principals of Santa Cruz Film
Associates, are making a documentary on the history of the U.S. in Korea.
Seventeen hours were videotaped during this trip. The final documentary will
be transferred to 35mm film when completed.
Evidence we garnered makes it clearer that the original, callous author of
the most egregious post-WW II crimes in Korea was the U.S. government. Its
decision (surprisingly with the Soviet Union's approval) to divide Korea upon
the August 15, 1945 surrender of the Japanese, and the subsequent
U.S.-directed reign of terror that led directly to the civil war, then the
so-called "police action," where as many as five million were killed, to be
followed by extensive periods of military dictatorships supported by the U.S.
government, have ensured continuous U.S. hegemony over Korean sovereignty.
Protection of "our way of life" (National Security Council Document 68,
1949-50) originally demanded total suppression of dissent in Korea to assure
success of our containment of "communism" (i.e., elimination of independence
movements) as enunciated by U.S. State Department officials Dean Acheson and
George Kennan. The assault has left deep scars and 37,000 U.S. troops at 100
military installations preventing reunification. All this intervention carried
out against the wishes of the vast majority of the Korean people must rank as
one of the cruelest tragedies of the Twentieth Century.
We are grateful to the Korea Truth Commission (KTC) and Veterans For Peace
(VFP) for the opportunity to have represented them in this visit to South
Korea. We commend VFP's support of the KTC's June 23rd War Crimes Tribunal in
New York City. We urge VFP to reaffirm in every possible way its continuing
support of the ongoing work of KTC and the Korean people's efforts to reunify
their Peninsular country absent U.S. troops and weapons.
APPENDIX
Maps of North and South Korea from CIA public
records
The U.S. decision to demarcate Korea into two
sections in 1945 politically divided a country that had been unified for 5000
years, and most Koreans have a deep yearning for reunification. The
demarcation line on these maps divides 10 million families. 37,000 U.S. troops
at 100 installations in South Korea stand in the way.
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Thirty-nine Korean civilians "suspected of being communists" are
tied up to poles and blindfolded, with bull's eyes pinned over their
hearts, just before being shot by South Korean Military Police firing
squad, April 14, 1950, more than two months prior to the beginning of
the "hot" war, ten miles northeast of Seoul, Korea. Six U.S. Army
officers observed this execution. Photo taken by Donald Nichols of U.S.
OSI (Office of Special Investigations), District #6. Photo reproduced
from U.S. Archives. |
Korean civilian #33 being untied from pole to be placed in coffin
after being shot by South Korean military police firing squad, April 14,
1950, more than two months prior to the beginning of the "hot" war.
Thirty-nine Koreans, suspected of being "Communists," were executed on
this day at this site, 10 miles northeast of Seoul, Korea. Six U.S. Army
officers observed this execution, including the U.S. Army Attaché. Photo
taken by Donald Nichols of US OSI (Office of Special Investigations),
District Office No. 6. Photo reproduced from the U.S. Archives. |
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