No Gun-ri Misreporting Continues

UPDATE: The US media has once again joined the Korean media in the No Gun-ri myth making. Here is the headline on the front-page of Yahoo:

South Korea Plans No Gun-ri Massacre Memorial

Notice once again the word “massacre”. Remember what I said before that when reporting something untrue, that if you keep repeating it over and over again people will eventually believe it. That is why every No Gun-ri article contains the word “massacre” and “hundreds” killed though the evidence clearly shows that isn’t what happened.

To put the “massacre” debate to rest let me show everyone what the definition of “massacre” is from dictionary.com:

the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.

Read my series of postings and then ask your self if the soldiers planned an indiscriminate, barbarous act of revenge or plunder that day at No Gun-ri. It was a tragedy not a massacre.

Now let’s take a look at this article:

South Korea said Thursday it would build a park in memory of victims of the U.S. Army’s mass killing of South Korean refugees at the village of No Gun Ri.

The park will be built at the scene of the 1950 attack during the Korean War, said Choi Jeong-pil, an official with a government commission on the shootings.

The facility will be named “No Gun Ri History Park” and will include a memorial for the victims and a museum, Choi said.

Notice the article makes no mention that the US offered to build the memorial and had money set aside for scholarships for the children of No Gun-ri victim’s families, which they refused because they are still holding out for more money.

The No Gun Ri killings were documented in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story by The Associated Press in 1999, which prompted a 16-month Pentagon inquiry.

Notice the the mentioning of the Pulitzer Prize winning story and no mention of the debunking of that article that used fraudulent witnesses and information. Guess who wrote the article on the front page of Yahoo? The AP of course. Yahoo links only to AP News articles which means the AP is going to do everything possible to continue the myth making of No Gun-ri. Unfortunately the article does not show who the author is. Could the author of this article be one of the same authors of the original AP article tooting their own horn?

Estimates vary on the number of dead at No Gun Ri, 100 miles southeast of Seoul. U.S. soldiers’ estimates ranged from under 100 to “hundreds” dead. Korean survivors say about 400, mostly women and children, were killed. Hundreds more refugees were killed in later, similar episodes, survivors say.

Notice the body count mythology once again of “hundreds” killed. These two articles are perfect examples of the mythology that continues in both the US and Korean media over the No Gun-ri issue. What else I find interesting is that no park is being constructed for the Korean civilians killed by South Korean, North Korean, Chinese, or Allied soldiers during the war. Also notice no compensation claims are being made against these other countries either, only America. I wonder why?

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The myth making over the No Gun-ri tragedy continues:

The South Korean government said Thursday it will soon begin construction of a park in memory of hundreds of Korean civilians killed by U.S. soldiers during the early stage of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The government has earmarked 19.1 billion won (US$20.3 million) for the construction, scheduled to begin in October for completion by the end of 2009, at the site of the massacre, according to officials.

I find it interesting that this park and monument is now going to be constructed after the US government offered to build the park and monument along with a scholarship fund for the children of No Gun-ri survivors, but the No Gun-ri victim’s families said they wanted more money and thus the monument was never built.

About a month after the war broke out in June 1950, a group of U.S. soldiers shot dead hundreds of Korean refugees in the small village of No Gun-ri, 230 kilometers south of Seoul, although they promised the refugees a safer hiding place, according to reports.

The South Korean government concluded 150 were killed, with 55 wounded and 13 missing. Thirty of the victims are still alive, claiming as many as 400 were killed in the massacre.

I find it also interesting that Yonhap reports “US soldiers shot dead hundreds of Korean refugees” and then in the very next paragraph says that the Korean government only concluded 150 people were killed. I may be a product of the US public education system, but in my book 150 does not equal “hundreds”. But really who cares when you are into myth making? You might as well say “thousands” were killed at No Gun-ri because that statement is just as true as saying “hundreds”. There is a whole lot of evidence that shows 150 people did not die under the Bridge at No Gun-ri. The lowest estimates are in the 20s, I tend to think about 50 maximum.

Here is a trivia question for everyone. Guess who started the mythology about 400 people dying at No Gun-ri? You will need to read fact #4 to find out, but it just goes to show that if you keep saying the same lie over and over again eventually people will believe it. The media wouldn’t lie would they?

Also I do not agree with the term “massacre” to describe what happened at No Gun-ri. I don’t consider No Gun-ri a “massacre”, I consider it a tragedy because the soldiers at No Gun-ri did not maliciously decide to kill civilians that day. There was a number of factors that led to this tragedy and using a term like a “massacre” only feeds into the anti-US mythology built around this issue.

What bothers me so much about the continuing No Gun-ri criticism in particular by the Korean media is the effort to down play the significance of the US military in the Korean War because some people feel the US did not have noble intentions in defending Korea during the war and should not feel a debt of gratitude to the US for saving Korea. Creating a stereotype of these veterans as war criminals is just another way to slowly degrade the Korean public’s image of America.

What is further troubling is that many of these veterans from the war are passing away and cannot defend themselves as this new revisionist history is being created about them. It is a shame and no one seems to be speaking out against it. That is why I found it so important to educate people about No Gun-ri and hopefully restore some honor to the Korean War veterans that have been tarnished by this tragedy by both the US and Korean media. I just hope that fair minded people will give Korean War veterans a chance to restore the honor they have lost by the unfair reporting, sensationalism, and politicization of this tragedy.

I highly recommend that everyone read my prior series of postings on No Gun-ri and draw your own conclusions before believing the myth making of the media.