Lee Wha Rang, October 3, 1999
Gen. Ridgway - "The Chinese and Koreans are in appearance but a shade above the human beast."
In 1945, Gen. George Patton wanted to hire Nazis to run post-war Germany. Patton's rational was that Nazis were the most experienced technicians around and besides, the Nazi party was just a political party not much different from the Republican party, These fellows killed some Jews, so what? The American news media went into a frenzy over Patton's 'political insensitivity' and Ike was forced to sack Gen. Patton (who died in a "car accident' shortly thereafter).
If the Gestapos had been rehired and put in charge of Germany, then they might have continued their massacre of the Jews and other 'sub-humans' in the name of anti-Communism. After all, Karl Marx was a Jew, Stalin was half-Jewish and killing off all Jews would help put an end to Communism. The liberation brought out tens of thousands of 'hidden' Jews and the Gestapos would have had a field day killing them. Fortunately for the Jews, Nazis were not allowed to continue their Jew hunt in Germany.
Photo: Gen. Hodge (in uniform) with Rhee.
This 'Nazi Gestapo scenario' actually happened in South Korea. The Korean version of Patton was Gen. Hodge, an obscure dwarfish man with limited military or political competency from Deep South.
Hodge knew little about Korea and indeed, he couldn't care less about Korea. Hodge often stated at staff meetings (records of his staff meetings are now declassified) that he despised the Korean people and their leaders (including Rhee Syngman).
For example, at the Oct. 3, 1945 staff meeting, Hodge said:
"Running Japs is the minor problem. The Koreans bleat loudly about being robbed and beaten by Japs but there is little evidence of this... .. I do not know a more 'muddle-headed' bunch of individuals. In looking back at their history one sees that the Koreans have raped, pillaged, and murdered at any opportunity. They love to beat up people."
His notion of the Koreans was accurate of 'his Koreans' - those traitors who were trained to be butchers by their Japanese masters. His primary concern was to complete his tour of duty in Korea without rocking the boat and earn another star before his retirement. He wanted to keep Korea quiet and peaceful at all costs.
Photo: Col. Kaneyama (Kim Suk Won), the ranking Korean traitor (3rd from right standing, in dark glasses) celebrating a victory over a Korean nationalist unit.
The Korean 'Nazis' were those Koreans who had worked as policemen for the Japanese. When Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, these traitors went into hiding. Some were hunted down and killed by their victims. The Korean nationalists who had been working underground or in hiding came out into the open to celebrate the "Liberation". They wanted to punish those Koreans who were after them for so long for the Japanese.
But the "Liberation" was short-lived. The US Military Government retained the Japanese officials and their Korean collaborators in South Korea and intensified their campaign against the nationalists (labelled "Communists" - although most of them were not). The table was turned and the nationalists became the target of massacre once again by the same pro-Japanese traitors who now took orders from the Americans.
Photo: Cheju "Red bandits" about to be shot.
The US troops and their Japanese allies went into a killing frenzy. They killed nationalist leaders Kim Ku, Yo Wung Young and others. In the 'April 3rd Incident' alone, South Koreans led by American "advisors" murdered 80,000 (about 14,000 documented so far) "armed Red bandits" on Cheju Island in 1948 - about 26% of the Cheju population of 300,000 at the time.
Photo: Another bandit killed.
'Armed Red bandits' were hunted down and killed all over South Korea under the US Military Government in Korea (1945-1948). The number of the Koreans killed is estimated to be about 600,000! This is an astronomical figure amongst a population of 20 million. Some scholars dispute this figure and put it at about 100,000. But if 26% of the Cheju islanders were killed in one "incident", 600,000 in all of South Korea from 1945-1948 may even turn out to be an under-estimate.
Photo: Col. Kaneyama working for a new master killing the Korean nationalists. To his credit, Kaneyama told his American recruiter that he was ashamed of his actions during the Japanese occupation.
One must emphasize that only a handful of the Americans have committed war crimes in Korea. Most Americans were not aware of what was going on. Indeed, the US State Department told Gen Hodge to dismiss pro-Japanese and his Japanese friends.
For example, in a Sept. 14, 1945 cable, the US State Dept., concerned about Hodge's actions in Korea, instructed MacArthur:
"For political reasons it is advisable that you should remove from office immediately: Government-General Abe, Chiefs of all bureaus of the Government-General, provincial governors and provincial police chiefs. You should furthermore proceed as rapidly as possible with the removal of other Japanese and collaborationist Korean administrators."
On Sept. 15, 1945, Hodge informed the State Dept.:
"The removal of Japanese officials is desirable from the public opinion standpoint, but difficult to bring about for some time. They can be relieved in name but must be made to continue in work. There are no qualified Koreans for other than the low-ranking positions, either in government or in public utilities and communications.... All political groups seem to have the common ideas of seizing Japanese property, ejecting the Japanese from Korea, and achieving immediate independence. Beyond this they have few ideas... Korea is completely ripe for agitators."
Hodge reluctantly obliged by retitling the Japanese as 'advisors'. But by and large, Gen. Hodge managed to ignore the State Dept. He ran Korea as if it were his farm and treated the Koreans as either his cattle to to be feed or coyotes to be killed off.
In his Feb. 2, 1946 (after his letter of resignation was turned down), Hodge wrote:
"I do not know who have been the experts on Korea who have advised and guided the State Department in their disregard of my recommendations. It may be the educated Koreans in the Unite States. It certainly has not been anyone who has seen and really knows Korea since the war."
"I hope that it can be impressed upon the Department that here we are not dealing with wealthy US educated Koreans, but with early [sic], poorly trained, and poorly educated Orientals strongly affected by 40 years of Jap control, who stubbornly and fanatically hold to what they like and dislike, who are definitely influenced by direct propaganda and with whom it is almost impossible to reason. We are opposed by a strongly organized, ruthless political machinery designed to appeal to the millions of this type."
Photo: Gen. Dean, the "Butcher of the August Uprising", receives homage from a Korean police chief. Dean was captured in the Daejun battle by partisans in 1950 but he was repatriated unharmed in 1953.
Even today, few foreign and Korean reporters know about this genocide and war crimes against the Korean people. For Hodge closed down "leftist" news organs in Korea and imposed press censorship. Those few American reporters who worked in Korea were gagged as well and those who spoke out were prosecuted as leftist agitators.
Hodge's May 4, 1946 Ordinance #72 (South Korea's infamous National Security Law was based in part on this ordinance) defined 'crimes against the United States' as:
"Acts or conduct in support of, or participating in the formation of, any organization or movement dissolved or declared illegal by, or contrary to the interests of, the occupying forces. Publishing, importing or circulating printed, typed or written matter that is detrimental of or disrespectful to the occupying forces."
"Organizing, promoting, publicizing, aiding or attending any public gathering, parade, or demonstration for which no permit has been granted. Knowingly making any false or misleading statement, orally or in writing, to any member of or person acting under authority of the occupying forces, in a matter of official concern; or in any manner defrauding, misleading or refusing to give information required by the Military Government."
Hodge justified his brutal campaigns against the "agitators" in his March 29, 1946 statement:
"I am enough of an imperialist to want to preserve the standards of living; we've achieved in the US and I firmly believe that we have benefited the nations into which we have extended our influence. All nations with a high standard of living have been imperialist. Our imperialism hasn't been a bad imperialism."
Here you have the American viceroy to Korea openly extolling American 'imperialism' (his own word!) in Korea and not a single American raised objection to this imperialist.
The US CIA's Korea analyst (Dr. Cline) shared Hodge's anti-Korean sentiment. In a March 10, 1948 CIA internal report, Cline stated:
"The Korean leadership is provided by that numerically small class which virtually monopolizes the native wealth and education of the country... Since this class could not have acquired and maintained its favored position under Japanese rule without a certain minimum of collaboration, it has experienced difficulty in finding acceptable candidates for political office and has been forced to support imported expatriate politicians such as Syngman Rhee and Kim Ku. These, while they have no pro-Japanese taint, are essentially demagogues bent on autocratic rule."
Dr. Cline apparently relied on Hodge's cables and was not aware of the 'leftist' (i.e., the nationalist) leaders of Korea who were under arrest or killed off by Hodge. The CIA was made to believe that it was either the pro-Japanese or expatriate demagogues.
Photo: A proud American advisor and a grieving woman
Many officers of the Korean army resented Hodge's oppression of the Korean people. In fact, they resented having to take orders from the Americans. American captains ordered around Korean "generals" and American NCO's treated Korean "captains" as their 'nigger' boys.
Those English-speaking officers (for example, Jung Il Kwon and Paik Sung Yup who worked for the US Counter Intelligence) who snitched on their fellow officers, cow-towed to and curried favors with the Yanks were despised as traitors who were much worse than the pro-Japanese traitors.
For example, on October 19, 1948, the 14th and 6th regiments refused to participate in the massacre of Cheju islanders and mutinied. The rebels occupied Yosu and Sunchon. They killed 1,800 pro-Japanese police and corrupt officials. The rebels reestablished the People's Committees, which were disbanded by Hodge in 1946.
The rebels demanded that the American military leave Korea immediately. They called for land reforms, a purge of the police and Japanese collaborators and those who promote division of Korea.
Photo: Captured Yosu rebel soldiers waiting for execution
US military advisers led by Captain James Hausman organized a massive campaign to suppress the rebels. Korean officers suspected of being anti-American ('leftists' agitators) were arrested and shot. The US advisers were commonly referred to as 'mi-kuk-nom' (Yankee devils) amongst many Korean officers.
Among them was none other than Park Jung Hee (the future president who continued to call Americans 'mi-kuk-nom' in private conversations to his last day. Some Korean historians suspect that 'mi-kuk-nom' ordered Park's assassination) who was a member of the South Korean Workers Party. Park saved his neck by fingering his fellow Party members after suffering days of electric shock tortures.
The rebels fled to the Chiri Mountains to wage partisan warfare against the Americans. The American 'advisors' conducted a torched earth campaign against the rebels by burning farm villages and killing rebel supporters en mass. The massacres were blamed on the rebels.
Photo: Gen. Chae Byong Duk - Chief of Staff (the least capable, most hated, and Rhee's most favored pro-Japanese traitor) tells his American handlers how he would take Pyongyang in three days. Chae ordered the Han River bridges blown up and fled south when the War broke out. He was killed by his own men.
During the Korean War, the UN troops under Gen. MacArthur killed at least one million civilians, often burning down villages and machine gunning the inhabitants. The UN troops committed tens of thousands of 'Mylai massacres' in Korea. The Vietnamese version involved only a handful of civilian dead and many Americans denounced the perpetrators. The Korean version involved tens of thousands dead and the perpetrators were given medals and praised as heroes.
Photo: My place of birth Kapsan was totally destroyed by the Americans. See for example, An American GI and a North Korean Farmer
Unlike in the Vietnam War, the order to kill unarmed civilians came from the top. For example, on January 8, 1951, Gen. Ridgway issued an order to:
"Shoot any civilian suspected of being a Communist before they become prisoners.. The Chinese and Koreans are in appearance but a shade above the human beast. It is by the use of such human canaille that the Soviets are destroying our men while conserving their own."
In this 'United Nations' commander's Nazi thinking, Koreans and Chinese were not human beings and therefore, killing them was not genocide and no war crime. This man should be placed at the top of our list of war criminals.
Photo: UN Commander Gen. Ridgway, a neo-Nazi racist, believed Koreans and Chinese were not humans and wanted to use poison gas on them.
If the Americans had committed such hideous crimes, then how come no Korean has spoken out? Hodge's press censorship was still in place until recently (or perhaps, it still is). Those who spoke out were often arrested for aiding the "enemy", tortured and executed. Police informers were everywhere, phones were tapped and the butchers opened mail. Even Internet access logs were tracked to discourage people from surfing 'pro-North' webs on the Internet.
Strangely, the most outspoken accuser of the war criminals was the very American who organized and trained the butchers - Col. Donald Nichols. His conscience drove him to insanity. Nichols blamed his Korean servants for the genocide but never admitted to the fact that he was one of the Americans who hired the butchers and had given them the license to kill.
If anyone, Nichols and other Americans like Hodge, Hauseman, Ridgeway and MacArthur - who recruited, trained, armed and handled the butchers - should be held responsible. Ultimately, the 'buck' should stop at President Truman's grave. Hitler killed no Jew himself but he is responsible for killing six million Jews. These Americans have committed crimes against the Korean people, even though they may not have dirtied their lily-white hands with Korean blood.
Not all American commanders were racists and many of them were against the war. For example, on December 17, 1952, Gen. Eisenhower said:
"There is no sense in the UN, with American bearing the brunt of the thing, being constantly compelled to man those front lines. This is a job for the Koreans. We do not want Asia to feel that the white man of the West is his enemy. If there must be a war there, let it be Asians against Asians, with our support on the side of freedom."
If Ike had been in command of the Far East Theater instead of 'bug-out' MacArthur, there would have been no genocide or civil wars in Korea, China and Vietnam.
It is true that lately some Americans with conscience have begun to look into this shameful chapter of the American history. Prof. Bruce Cumings is a long-time recorder and critic of the crimes committed by the US Military Government in Korea. He has been labeled a 'Communist stooge' in America and South Korea, even though Pyongyang shuns him because of his criticism of Kim Il Sung. Prof. Cumings has the courage and conscience to tell the truth.
All of the so-called Korean governments in the past either participated or looked other way while the people were massacred by foreign and domestic butchers. With Kim Dae Jung, a Korean nationalist (or is he?), in the Blue House and the butchers of the people on the run - at least for now - some of the victims have surfaced into the open. They want justice done now. They want to bring lawsuits against the butchers and their American handlers. They want the Hague War Crime Tribunal to put the criminals on trial. They feel that the Tribunal should not waste its resources on Serv 'war criminals' whose crimes pale in comparison to the crimes committed by the butchers of the Korean people.
Maybe, just maybe, the Korean people may have at last a true leader in Kim Dae Jung who is on their side, who is not serving a foreign master and who wants justice, freedom and prosperity for the Korean people. The Korean people must elect leaders who will protect them from foreign and domestic war criminals. The Korean people must expose and take the butchers, dead or alive, to courts of justice of Korea, the United States and the world, so as to ensure that the Korean people shall never be massacred again.