Welcome to BASE21

by Sharon Black

In the early morning of Sept. 4, the owner of a small pepper farm on a mountain slope near the village of Yuhyang, south Korea, made an astonishing and gruesome discovery. The floods and rains from Typhoon Rusa had exposed the skeletal remains of men, women and children.

A tiny skull the size of a cigarette box was evidence that infants were among those who had been laid to rest in the mass grave. According to reporters from the online ohmynews.com service, the remains of over 200 victims were uncovered at this site.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is believed that 2,000 inmates from the Jinju and Masan prisons were brought to the village of Yuhyang and Yuhyan-san region and murdered by President Syngman Rhee's dreaded police soon after the Korean War began on June 25, 1950.

Syngman Rhee was educated and trained in the United States. During that period, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur had taken operational command of all military actions and was therefore responsible for the south Korean army. It is impossible for the Pentagon not to have known about the bloodbath that was taking place.

These skeletal remains and mass graves corroborate eyewitness accounts of the events. Park Jin Gyu, an 80-year-old witness, recalls the massacre. He remembers the pouring rain, the terror that followed and what he was forced to do.

"The victims were brought here in four trucks. The victims were seated huddled in the middle of the trucks. Two armed police guarded the prisoners on each truck. After they arrived, the victims were ordered to stand up and get off the trucks. The police mercilessly beat those who were slow getting up with rifle butts.

"I was told that they came from Jinju and that there were about 200 prisoners in this group."

Park continued, "There were survivors that escaped and I knew one of them.

"I believe it was in the evening of the massacre. One survivor hid in a house by the elementary school. The police caught him the next day and shot him. I was there to bury him.

"I was ordered by a policeman to prepare and bring a lunch to this man. I knew him. Yu was a tall man in his 20s.

"Yu gulped the food down with no problem. Before he died he shouted 'Long live the Korean People's Democratic Republic' three times and jumped into the hole he dug for himself. The police shot him and Yu died after a few convulsions."

This is just one account; there are many more that are emerging. On Sept. 11, some 20 members of the Pusan Area Association of Massacre Victims' Families held a mass burial ceremony at the site where seven sets of remains were reburied.

The veil of Western racism and anti-communism has hidden the truth about the horrendous massacres that took place under U.S. direction before, during and after the Korean War. But the courage of countless everyday people in Korea and the work of the Korea Truth Commission and many others is exposing the long-hidden truth.