Survivors of the No Gun Ri Incident

"Bridge at No Gun Ri: Survivors' Petition"

Presented to the South Korean and United States governments in 1997

American troops joined the conflict in Korea in early July 1950, a couple of weeks after the North Koreans invaded the South. The arriving U.S. troops were totally unprepared for the powerful North Korean attack. During the bloody chaos of those first days, a company of the Seventh Regiment of the First Cavalry Division killed an estimated three hundred friendly, unarmed civilian refugees at the South Korean village of No Gun Ri. The killing took place over the course of three days, from July 26 to July 29, 1950.

After the war, South Korea was controlled by strict military governments that tried to keep the incident at No Gun Ri quiet. In 1997, with a more liberal president in power, survivors of the killings at No Gun Ri petitioned the South Korean government and the United States for compensation and an apology for the slaughter of their loved ones. Their petition was rejected. After five decades of trying to relate their story, the survivors seemed to have reached a dead end, but the Associated Press (AP), a large international news agency, took up their story. AP launched a massive investigation, sifting through hundreds of boxes of once top-secret U.S. military documents at the

National Archives, tracking down and then interviewing more than one hundred Korean War veterans, and reconstructing the unit movements of a First Cavalry battalion to prove that it was in fact at No Gun Ri at the time in question (which the U.S. Army had denied). The investigation provided substantial documentation supporting the survivors' accounts. For its report on No Gun Ri, the Associated Press won a Pulitzer Prize.

Things to remember while reading this excerpt of "Bridge at No Gun Ri: Survivors' Petition":

• Murder of civilians is against the laws and customs of war as expressed in the Articles of War, the military laws ruling the armed forces during the Korean War. Anyone who intentionally murders or rapes civilians during wartime is subject to the death penalty or life in prison.
• The Associated Press's search for eyewitnesses on the U.S. side was successful: "Six veterans of the 1st Cavalry Division said they fired on the refugee throng at the South Korean hamlet of No Gun Ri, and six others said they witnessed the mass killing. More said they knew or heard about it…. Ex-GIs agreed on such elements as time and place, and on the preponderance of women, children and old men among the victims."
• The U.S. Army had noted at least one incident in which North Korean soldiers infiltrated into American lines of defense by posing as refugees, according to the Associated Press report. At the time of the No Gun Ri incident, the First Cavalry Division had issued the order: "No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in case of women and children."

Excerpt from "Bridge at No Gun Ri: Survivors' Petition"

Eun-yong Chung, Representative of Petitioners of No Gun Ri Incident

His Excellency Bill Clinton
President, The United States of America
September 10th, 1997
Dear Mr. President:

We, the remaining families of the Korean War victims who were killed or wounded by U.S. soldiers from July 26th to 29th, 1950, are petitioning for your recognition of the incident, a formal apology and compensation ….

Even though it has been 47 years since the slaughter of July 26th through July 29th, 1950, the incident still lives in our hearts and our minds daily. We are still suffering from the vivid memory of this unforgettable day.

Some survivors live with permanently disfigured bodies (without one eye or nose and so on). Others are in sorrow because they live without their families. About 400 souls roam around high above the killing field….

The atrocious act was not committed during warfare. We request that you review the following references sincerely and take proper measures to allow us our basic human rights.

Summary of the Incident

The following is an account and testimony of those who survived the incident:

At the beginning of the Korean War, around noon of July 23, 1950, two American soldiers and one Korean policeman arrived at Chu Gok Ri, Yongdong Eup, Yongdong Gun, North Chungchong Province. They ordered the villagers to evacuate the village at once, because that area would become a dangerous battle field.

Most of the villagers who heard that command took refuge in Im Ke Ri (a mountain village), which was located about 2 kilometers away from their hometown.

On the evening of July 25th, 1950, a group of American soldiers rushed into Im Ke Ri and ordered the villagers to gather together. They promised to take the villagers to a safe place, towards Pusan (City).

About 500 to 600 refugees, led by the American soldiers, walked through Chu Gok Ri, towards the south. When the group of refugees arrived at Ha Ga Ri, Yongdong Eup, which is about 1.5 kilometers away from Chu Gok Ri, it was late in the evening.

The American soldiers then led all of the refugees into a nearby stream, and ordered them to stay there that night. Overnight, many refugees witnessed a long parade of U.S. troops and vehicles towards Pusan.

At dawn, July 26th, the refugees had found that the U.S. soldiers had disappeared. Therefore, the refugees marched south on their own, following the Seoul-Pusan freeway where no one else was there except the refugees.

Around noon of July 26th, 1950, when the refugees group arrived at No Gun Ri, Hwanggan Myon, Yongdong Gun, suddenly four or five American soldiers appeared and stopped them from moving ahead. These soldiers commanded the refugees to stand on the railroad tracks and inspected the personal belongings of the refugees. Of course the American soldiers could not find any weapon.

However they sent a radio message for a machine gun and bomb raid towards the refugees. Then the soldiers fled. Shortly afterwards, planes flew over and dropped bombs on the refugees, and fired machine guns at the refugees.

From this unlawful and brutal attack many refugees were killed. Those who survived escaped into a water tunnel just below the railroad. After a while, U.S. soldiers forced the survivors out of the small water tunnel and pushed them all into larger tunnels nearby.

Then from July 26th to July 29th, 1950, U.S. soldiers constantly fired bullets at both openings of the tunnels, killing lots of people each time. The refugees had to make barricades with the dead bodies, and hid under blankets hoping that bullets wouldn't reach the inside. From the 26th to the 29th, the villagers had nothing to eat nor to drink.

Whoever stepped out from the tunnels was immediately shot. Only a few men managed to escape during the nights.

U.S. medics visited the tunnels a couple of times during the period. U.S. soldiers were supposed to treat the wounded. However they were just observing the situation of the refugees.

The U.S. soldiers disappeared on the 29th.

We can never imagine why U.S. soldiers had to kill these innocent refugees over the four-day period. However, one thing we are sure of is that it was not an accident. Also it didn't happen during a combat with the North Korean Army. The U.S. soldiers deliberately killed the innocent villagers of Im Ke Ri, Chu Gok Ri, etc.

We are testifying that U.S. soldiers assaulted Korean civilians before North Koreans occupied the areas of the massacre. At this time 118 people have been identified as victims, 100 people were murdered, and 18 people were left with severe injuries. There is an estimated 400 people who were killed….

Please conduct a thorough investigation on the survivors and the actual site, and find out which of the 1st Cavalry Division committed such a grave mistake. We want the truth, justice and due respect for our basic human rights.

We thank you for your kind attention again. May God bless you and your country.

Respectfully yours,

(SIGNATURE) Eun-yong Chung, Representative of Petitioners of No Gun Ri Incident

What happened next…

Three-and-a-half years after the petition was filed, on January 11, 2001, President Bill Clinton, in cooperation with the South Korean government, finally replied to the petition ers, acknowledging (but not apologizing for) the loss of lives at No Gun Ri.

Eun-yong Chung, the representative of the survivors who signed the petition, lost his five-year-old son and three- year-old daughter at No Gun Ri; both were killed in the mas sacre. Chung was in his seventies at the 1997 signing of the survivors' petition.

The United States proposed building a memorial near No Gun Ri dedicated to Korean civilians who lost their lives in the war. It also planned to establish a scholarship fund for Korean students in memory of the dead.

Did you know…

• A one-year U.S. Army study in 2000 concluded that U.S. soldiers killed unarmed Korean civilians, but that they had acted without intention, due to the confusion of the surroundings. The study denied the accusations that the soldiers were acting on orders from their commanders.
• Major General William Kean, commander of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Division, which was stationed near the First Cavalry at the time of the No Gun Ri killings, issued a memo to all commanding officers in his division, saying, as reported by the Associated Press: "All civilians seen in this area are to be considered as enemy and action taken accordingly." Kean's order is a violation of the rules of war, according to most historians.

Where to Learn More

Becker, Elizabeth. "Army Admits G.I.'s in Korea Killed Civilians at No Gun Ri." New York Times, January 12, 2001, pp. A1 and A8.

Web sites

"Bridge at No Gun Ri: Survivors' Petition." Associated Press (AP). [Online] http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/nogunri/petition.html (accessed on August 14, 2001).

McIntyre, Jamie. "All-encompassing Probe Ordered into Alleged Korean War Massacre." CNN.com. [Online] http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/30/korea.pentagon.02 (accessed on August 14, 2001).

"President Clinton Statement on No Gun Ri, January 11, 2001." The United States Embassy, Seoul, Republic of Korea. [Online] http://www.usembassy.state.gov/seoul/wwwh42zv.html (accessed on August 14, 2001).

Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley, and Martha Mendoza. "Bridge at No Gun Ri." Associated Press (AP). [Online] http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/nogunri/story.html (accessed on August 14, 2001).