The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War

Though, the follow up response by Major Robert Bateman did discredit several of the many witnesses that were part of the Associated Press' story, there are still many unfilled holes that are left unanswered by both accounts. I have read both Bateman's and the AP accounts, as well as anything that I could get my hands on in regards to No Gun Ri, and the fact of the matter is that though they both dispute the numbers of dead, there is still the matter of the orders that were passed on (these were never even disputed in the Army official report on the No Gun Ri incident http://www.army.mil/nogunri/) to shoot civilians who were attempting to cross lines. Also, there have been numerous reports of similar incidents which occurred throughout the peninsular war similar to No Gun Ri perpetrated by US, ROK, and DPRK forces. I lived in Korea for several years and actually visited the site under that bridge, and the fact is, the bullet holes are there (this was before the Korean Government had them cemented over in an attempt to stop further investigation in 1999) the people there believe it happened, regardless of numbers. Bateman's book is thorough in its coverage and a must-read in regards to this incident, and the contrast which exists between the two books only shows that there is never really one rendition of history, that to understand events in our pasts is not to choose sides and to close our minds. They both give differing sides to one story, and the truth must lie somewhere in between. There may be no real answer to the exact numbers of people who died under that bridge, but in the confusion of that war, only three years long, millions of civilians were killed. With scared, unprepared, under-lead, under-equipped young soldiers fighting tooth and nail for their very lives, with orders to fire on civilian refugees who were ubiquitous throughout the battlefield, many of those killed were a result of American fire. Though this book has brought a lot of heat on American actions in the war, the fact is we should take it as an indictment of ¡°War¡± it self. It shows that when war is determined to be the method of resolving conflict, people make mistakes, people die, and often times the lives of ¡°others¡± of another race, come second to ones own.

This book is an important document of an otherwise unknown atrocity of war. Mendoza teaches at my school, and I have spoken with her on the issue of the credibility of the North Korean events at No Gun Ri described in the book. The truth is that their main witness (who was only main after 60 minutes chose to focus on him) is in fact fraudulent. This, however, is one unfortunate event and one person in the huge process of research and interviews that has gone into this book and it has received far more press than it is worthy. One mentally disturbed man should not discount the hours and years of effort on behalf of the journalists and the suffering of countless Koreans. Don't let the yellow press mislead you into believing that this may not have happened. It did, and everyone with a conscience should read this book as it is the best available report on this event. Let me tell you first hand that Martha Mendoza's credibility is NOT questionable. She is a jounalist with the highest ethics, and this is a book worth reading.

Hanley's book provides the reader with a view of American war from an antagonist point of view. 90% of causualties during the Korean War were sustained by South and North Korean citizens. Hanley connects the citizens of a small South Korean village to the reader and leads them into the No Gun Ri massacre. The accounts of the villagers are extremely viseral to truly convey the real gore that took place with the landing of the 'Gerryowens'. The book takes many points of view throughout describing both US and South Korean experiences. I recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn more about the Korean War.

...the authors found documentation showing that there were orders to strafe refugees and kill them when they tried to cross lines. The Pentagon report was a whitewash because it acknowledged the killing done by some scared soldiers, but carefully deflected attention away from the evidence showing that the air force and the army were ordered to kill civilians.Returning to the bridge itself, some of the critics don't seem to realize that even the Pentagon acknowledges that a massacre occurred. As for the poor training of the soldiers, it's not exactly a leftist viewpoint to say that America began the Korean War with troops who were very green. It's common knowledge.

This is an important--and extremely well told-- book about a massacre of Korean civilians by U.S. troops during the Korean War. If the story of the killings at No Gun Ri had been made public at the time instead of covered up for 50 years, the atrocities that happened during Vietnam might never have happened. This book, written by the reporters who discovered the documents that prove there were official U.S. military orders to kill Korean refugees, reminds me of Iris Chang's excellent Rape of Nanking. The reporting is fair to both sides, and draws from interviews with Koreans and U.S. veterans who were there. Terrific reporting, a riveting story.