Excavation Team at No Gun Ri Comes Up Empty

I can’t say I’m not surprised:

The search for the remains of victims of a U.S. massacre during the 1950-53 Korean War is likely to end Wednesday with no remains found, officials said, adding that the remains may have been damaged by heavy rains or taken away by their bereaved families. [Yonhap] (HT: Reader)

Just think this team could not find any evidence to support a massacre at No Gun Ri, yet the journalist concludes the article by repeating the mythology:

In July 1950, U.S. soldiers opened fire on approaching South Korean refugees at Nogeun-ri, about 160 km south of Seoul, believing North Korean soldiers were hiding among them, according to a 2001 Pentagon report. Hundreds of South Koreans, including many women and children, are believed to have been killed.

The Pentagon Report never supported the claim that “hundreds” were killed yet that does no stop people from repeating this claim over and over again. If the only things you know about this issue is from the media than you know nothing about No Gun Ri. I highly recommend, if you haven’t already, to read this posting supported by fact instead of mythology, about what really happened at No Gun Ri. It is a bit long, but it takes longer to explains facts than to report mythology thus please take the time to read it if you haven’t already.

The body count mythology surrounding No Gun Ri was long ago highly cast into doubt by the US aerial surveillance of the area one week after the alleged incident took place where no evidence of a massacre could be found. You can try for yourself and see if you can find the massacre:

Aerial footage of the bridge in question at No Gun Ri.

If you couldn’t spot a massacre don’t feel bad because both imagery and forensic experts from both the US and South Korea could not find any evidence of a massacre either. This is why I’m not surprised that the excavation team searching around No Gun Ri found no evidence of this massacre as well.

Despite all the evidence against it, the term “hundreds” is still commonly used by the media, such as in this latest Yonhap article, when no evidence can be produced to support this outside of the claims of the Korean witnesses. These same Korean witness also just so happen to be demanding a multi-million dollar compensation payment from the US government.

Additionally, notice how quiet the media has been of this story. One buried story by Yonhap about this significant story and that is it. Imagine if the excavators did find evidence of a massacre what the headlines would be.

It just so happens that I visited the No Gun Ri site in June and saw for myself the excavation taking place:

Excavation site on the hill side at No Gun Ri.

They had the place staked off in grids like a typical archaeology site and when I visited they had found nothing and two months later they had to admit formally that there was nothing. Despite the claims that nothing could be found because of heavy rains and bodies being removed let me give you a perfect example of how absurd this claim is.

Korean recovery team working with Australian soldiers to recover Korean War remains.

To this day bodies and artifacts from the Korean War period continue to be found at former battle sites. Some how the heavy rains didn’t remove these artifacts and bodies. The sites are filled with every day artifacts from the soldiers that fought there:

Recovered Korean War artifacts on display at the Korean War Memorial June 25, 2007.

How come none of these every day items have been found scattered around the No Gun Ri area? The No Gun Ri mythology states that about 700+ people were moving along the railroad track that day on July 26, 1950 when US airplanes strafed and bombed the refugee column leaving bodies blown to pieces, wagons burning, and the refugees possessions scattered across the countryside. None of this physical evidence can be found at No Gun Ri, yet at Korean War battle sites from the same time frame excavators continue to find these types of artifacts:

Recovered Korean War artifacts on display at the Korean War Memorial June 25, 2007.

However, the search for the truth of what happened at No Gun Ri ended long ago when this issue took on political and ideological contexts to where the No Gun Ri myth makers have to much to loose by admitting they were wrong about what happened at No Gun Ri. Thus the sliming of an entire generation of Korean War veterans with the mythological claims of “hundreds” of civilians “massacred” at No Gun Ri will continue despite all the evidence saying otherwise.