By Mark Davis

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Republic of South Korea is prospering as a nation. Not only has it grown into an economic powerhouse, it has hosted world-class events, including the 1988 Summer Olympics and this summer's World Cup.
 

But the fledgling democracy is haunted by a dark past, much of it related to the chaotic events surrounding World War II and the subsequent Korean War.

These events were full of massive bloodshed, political upheaval and lawlessness, which crested into a tsunami of unprecedented destruction.

American history books tell students that the United States "saved" South Korea from communist North Korea and its Chinese allies between 1950 and 1953. What hasn't been reported, until recently, that the "saving" came at a high price” the deaths of thousands of unarmed civilians, poor villagers who were caught in the crosshairs of an advancing North Korean army and young, inexperienced U.S. soldiers on the run.

No event better exemplifies this than what happened at a South Korean railroad trestle near the village of No Gun Ri in late July 1950. Several hundred refugees, mostly women and children, were gunned down by American soldiers, obeying commanders who were fearful of communist infiltrators among the refugees.

"The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare From the Korean War" tells the provocative story from every conceivable angle, from Korean survivors to U.S. veterans to declassified military and government documents. It's a powerful, heart-wrenching tale that brutally highlights the worst aspects of war. It's not a story for the meek. Innocents die violent deaths. Survivors, on both sides,struggle with the consequences for the rest of their lives. Pain and disappointment drip from the pages. There's no real happy ending.

In many ways, "No Gun Ri" is more of a cautionary tale than an investigative expose. It wisely puts into context that what happened at No Gun Ri is nothing new. It painstakingly depicts zealous leaders, infected by inflammatory rhetoric, issuing orders that at the time seemed necessary but over the years prove ruinous. Above all, "No  Gun Ri" is about the survivors and what they remember, most of it not pleasant. Their stories are told fairly and passionately.

Take, for example, Chung Koo-hak. He was the "last survivor" of No Gun Ri, rescued by his guilt-stricken older brother days after the slaughter. The 8-year-old was barely alive; most of his face had been blown off. He endured years of reconstructive surgery. He and other survivors fought an uphill battle to receive compensation from Seoul and the U.S. government, long stuck in self-denial about the incident.

Officials didn't listen until the fall of 1999, when Associated Press reporters Charles J. Hanley, Sang-Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza first reported about the massacre. Their Pulitzer Prize-winning articles stunned America and the world. Koo-hak never overcame his shock over the killings.

"Even if it's war, you can't just order your soldiers to shoot women and children," he said. "The Americans may not have thought we were human beings,because we were living in such destitute  places, like animals."

In "No Gun Ri," the AP reporters have combined previous reports and have added new material that further sheds light on the early days of the Korean War. One of those revelations is that American commanders explicitly told their troops to stop fleeing Korean civilians at any cost, including firing on them, to prevent enemy infiltrators into U.S. lines.

Through declassified documents and other data, the reporters gave numerous examples of such orders. One came from Col. Raymond D. Palmer, who ordered 8th Cavalry Regiment troops to "shoot all refugees" trying to cross. However, the day before, 5,500 civilians were spared. Thousands more died in the following weeks when bridges were blown up all across South Korea to stop the invading North Koreans.

American fighter pilots played a role in the killlings too, according to AP reports. A 1950 "action summary" from the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge, reported pilots strafed Korean civilians "in accordance with information received from the Army that groups of more than eight to 10 people were to be considered troops, and were to be attacked."
 

The reporters primarily focused on No Gun Ri and the famed 7th Cavalry Regiment -- the same regiment that lost more than 250 soldiers in an ill-fated attack on Plains Indians in 1876. The leader of that group? Gen. George Armstrong Custer. That regiment was responsible for many Indian killings in the 1800s.

Ironically, the 2nd battalion of the 7th Cavalry was responsible for shooting indiscriminately into a large crowd of Korean refugees at No Gun Ri.

One survivor said it was a hellish scene: "flies thick on corpses; dead babies atop dead mothers; faces bloated to twice their normal size; white maggots  "as big as fingers" squirming in bodies; water pooled around them turned to grayish yellow muck; the dead's bulging, staring white eyes."  Said one American soldier, "We just annihilated them. It was about like an Indian raid, back in the old days."

The authors have a penchant for detail. Startling eyewitness accounts from the Korean and American sides give the book a hearty dose of humanity. This colorful storytelling makes "No Gun Ri" an instant historical classic. The authors carefully point out that killings of unarmed civilians is associated with Vietnam, particularly the My Lai massacre. It really began, they report, during the Korean War.

Until the articles came out, the U.S. government denied that such killings took place. The reporters didn't find any proof the communists infiltrated refugee groups. Finally, the Pentagon issued a report which said scared GIs fired upon  civilians, but there was no evidence of orders for "deliberate killing."

"No Gun Ri" proves the opposite is true. The bitter truth of history, even after 50 years, can be the hardest lesson to learn.

 Mark Davis  is books editor at Daytona Beach News-Journal