We live in a world where international war crimes tribunals don't let nations get away with massacring civilians any more. Eichmann was arrested, brought to trial in Jerusalem and executed. Pinochet is under house arrest in London awaiting extradition. Maurice Papon was convicted in France for his role in deporting Bordeaux's Jews during Nazi rule. William Calley was tried and convicted for his role in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war. But there is a terrible Korean story that has not yet found redress.

In July 1950, US troops massacred hundreds of defenseless and pleading women, children and men at Nogun-ri, a hamlet 150 miles south of Seoul. These killings occurred just a few weeks after the North Korean army massively attacked South Korea at the beginning of the Korean war. During the next three years, more than three million Koreans died, so vast a number that the massacre at Nogun-ri was never the topic for investigation and the men who pulled the triggers and gave the orders were never punished. Today, almost 50 years later, as an investigative panel of US officials is looking into the massacre at Nogun-ri, other similarly barbarous episodes in the Korean history are being reported for the first time in English-language media. On November 22, North Korea charged that US troops killed at least 800 residents of a village in North Hwanghae province in October 1950.

On a recent trip to Korea, I spoke with numerous people about these mass killings. Much to my surprise, Koreans know of other cases of civilian massacres, at least one before the war began. Professor Nak-chung Paik related to me the story of Cheju island. In 1948 (two years before the North Korean invasion), thousands of people were killed under the aegis of a US administration that suppressed an uprising for independence from Japan--and from the US. Known for its seedless tangerines, Cheju island is a popular tourist destination for Koreans. The story of the Cheju uprising and massacres is one they carry with them in their everyday understanding of their world. This coming spring, Harvard University is sponsoring a conference to bring this horrific slaughter to public attention. American understanding of the causes of the Korean war may never be the same.

Under South Korean law, Professor Paik informed me, murder's statute of limitations is 15 years. As surprised as I was when he raised this point, his good-natured smile and round face came to an abrupt halt when I related to him that murder has no statute of limitations in the US. As we pondered the injustices and terror visited upon the victims at Nogun-ri, we sat in silence. At last, we nodded in agreement that the standards used in the Hague should also be applied to Korea.

My father was a career military man, and I grew up on Army bases in Taiwan, Germany and on both US coasts. I, for one, do not want to see old-timers humiliated for being put in untenable positions and this happens in all wars. By nature, I try not to be vengeful. Not to punish the men who murdered at Nogun-ri, however, would be an even greater affront to the American conscience. At the same time as Nogun-ri has entered the political lexicon of America, the US government rightfully insists upon holding war crimes tribunals for Serbs suspected of perpetrating acts of violence against unarmed civilians. If the Nogun-ri killers are not brought to trial, how logically can we bring any Serbian to trial? How can we allow Israel to bring any Nazi to trial and punishment?

If we are to be consistent and hold American, German and Serbian perpetrators of war crimes to the same standard, the men who pulled the trigger at Nogun-ri should be brought to trial. (One of them has already admitted his role in the killings.) Otherwise we implicitly send a clear message that Americans are above the law. Even more ominously, we will be saying that an Asian life is not worth that of a European.

As the Korean War approaches the half-century mark, no peace has ever been declared. Tens of thousands of American soldiers continue to keep watchful guard at the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. North Korea reportedly is able to deliver nuclear warheads on Japan in the event of new hostilities. Last but not least, the U.S. possesses the most awesome and unchallenged war capability in all of history. Since World War II, we have already fought two major wars in which millions of Asians died.

Despite these high stakes, many Americans may be more inclined to look the other way than to consider a long-overdue overhaul of our stance in Korea. If we were to do so, we would have to admit that we were wrong to sanction the massacres of thousands on Cheju island who wanted little more than what we fought for in World War II--the right of peaceful self-determination for all people. We would have to confront the horror of the millions who died in the war that followed. Clearly US actions in Korea have not measured up to our own standards of proper conduct.

Every single Korean I spoke with expressed a heart-felt desire for reunification of the country. Families continue to be divided with no possibility of even communicating with each other. Even more than in divided Germany--where I lived for seven years--people yearn for reunification and have struggled desperately to achieve it. Although President Kim Dae Jung has released many political prisoners, he continues to hold those who refuse to promise never to say anything positive about the North, according to Sun Joon shik, director of the Seoul International Human Rights Film Festival. In 1970, Mr. Sun decided to take a first-hand look at North Korea, and he crossed over through China. After spending a week traveling around, he returned to Seoul where he was promptly imprisoned for the next seventeen years simply for taking this illegal trip.

The status quo in Korea has "made in the U.S." written all over it. While it would be a small first step for the US government to take, a full processing of the massacres at Nogun-ri could become an important vehicle to help open our minds to new possibilities. Conversely, failure today to address adequately war crimes perpetrated by Americans in the past will only fuel the fires of anti-Americanism--and with good cause. That is one reason, perhaps the most compelling, why we must punish those responsible for the killings at Nogun-ri. Most importantly, taking responsibility now for Nogun-ri might help prevent future military ventures in Asia.
 
 

A professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology, George Katsiaficas recently returned from South Korea, where a new translation of his book on 1968 is in its third printing. He is the editor of New Political Science. His book, The Subversion of Politics, won the 1998 Michael Harrington award.