A Korean film highlights a forgotten massacre

As North Korean soldiers advanced southward in the summer of 1950, many South Korean civilians fled their homes. That's where the film A Little Pond picks up.

A few hundred villagers, all dressed in white robes with their belongings strapped to their backs, are traveling along a dirt road through the mountains.

Upon reaching No Gun Ri, they encounter American troops, who bark commands at them in English. "Everyone sit down, don't move, stop right there and sit down."

Later, the families restart their march along a nearby railroad. That's when they hear the roar of fighter jets and the strafing begins.

Bodies are scattered across the tracks after the onslaught. The villagers hide wherever they can, but the soldiers continue firing at them. Only a couple of dozen people survive.

Film will educate people

Seventy-year old Yang Hae Chan is an actual survivor of No Gun Ri; he lost 12 family members there.

He says he's glad the victims' story is finally being told.

"I don't think young Koreans know much about the war," Yang says. "The education system here doesn't really teach what happened. I think the film will help educate people not only about No Gun Ri, but about the war in general."

Looking back into history

Journalist Choe Sang-Hun is co-author of a book on the No Gun Ri incident. He says until recently, if Koreans complained about war-time atrocities carried out by allied forces, they were called North Korean sympathizers. Choe says the film A Little Pond, is breaking this taboo.

"I think there is a strong tendency among South Koreans, especially conservative South Koreans, not to delve too deeply into South Korea's recent, painful history. Any attempt by liberals to look back into South Korean history and to focus on the unsavory aspects of the history, is seen by the conservatives as a political smear campaign."

There is still much debate over whether North Korean troops had infiltrated the group of No Gun Ri villagers or if US soldiers knew they were firing on civilians. But the film makes it seem pretty clear cut.

Anti-American?

A Little Pond's director, Lee Sang-woo, acknowledges that some might label his film anti-American, but he says that was never his intention.

Lee says he has no hatred toward US soldiers, but like many Koreans, he does have some mixed feelings. He says he only wanted to make a movie that depicts how civilians, like the ones at No Gun Ri, are often collateral damage during a war.

No Gun Ri survivor Yang Hae Chan hopes Korean audiences don't take home an anti-American message either.

"We victims are not anti-American," he says. "We just want the US to explain why they killed so many civilians and just be more honest about what happened."

Yang says he hopes that an official apology will come soon, one No Gun Ri survivor died just this week and now including himself, there are only twenty left.

Author: Jason Strother (Seoul)
Editor: Grahame Lucas