The Korean War claimed many civilian casualties and had a huge negative impact on the life expectancy and population of the Korean people.
But the massacres committed by both sides at that time are now being forgotten.
The following US military reports are part of a criminal record of large-scale executions of POWs and civilians by North Korean and Chinese forces.
It also includes descriptions of torture and brutal killing methods.
the Taejon massacre of September 1950, there were many female victims, some of whom were killed with their babies on their backs.
Nearly 500 political prisoners were shot dead in the Yongchong massacre and their bodies were doused with petrol and burnt.
In September 1950, landowners and government officers were burned alive in Suchon Jail by North Korean communists.
Elsewhere, in June 1950, between 150 and 200 South Korean wounded soldiers were killed by North Korean soldiers at Seoul University Hospital.
In September of the same year, some 266 South Koreans were killed in Taehwangchon.
Many of the victims were also tortured before their execution, and not only were bayoneted but also some had their eyes gouged out and one had his genital sliced off.
The following are some of the atrocities committed against POWs in the Korean War.
Hill 303 massacre
Naedae murder
Sunchon tunnel massacre
Ku-Jang-dong train massacre
Prisoners of war captured by the North Korean and Chinese armies were also "re-educated" in the camps to cooperate with the communists and were forced to confess to imaginary crimes.
Chinese and North Korean guards often tortured prisoners of war by beating, tying them in painful positions and making them stand for long periods.
Sometimes prisoners were locked up for days in very small cells.
In winter, prisoners were forced to run barefoot in the extreme cold. When water was poured on them by Chinese guards, it immediately froze, but the prisoners were left to "reflect" for several hours.
Such torture using the cold is called "冻刑” and is also seen in the torture of Falun Gong followers. In the Ghulija incident in 1997, Chinese police sprayed water on Uyghurs in freezing weather and caused serious frostbite.
Communist re-education in "confession of imaginary crimes, self-reflection and cooperation with the Communist Party" was also carried out on Japanese prisoners of war who were interned in Siberia and then sent to the Fushun camp.
They are called "中帰連(returnees from China)".
South Korean POWs captured in North Korea are reported to have been forced to work as slave labour in coal mines. Some of the victims were detained for nearly half a century as "working animals".
The massacre of civilians on the South Korean side is known as the Bodo League massacre.
The massacre on Jeju Island already started in 1948, tens of thousands of people were killed and many islanders fled to Japan.
British archives also has some reports about the mass execution of civilians by the South Koreans, including women and children.
However, an American military adviser seem to have decided not to mention the mass executions because it would be internal interference.
There are still POWs interned in North Korea who have not been able to return home.
Despite the many war crimes committed during the Korean War, no one has been tried as a war criminal under international law.
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There are claims that Koreans were forcibly conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army for years, but Korean men wanted to join the army even to the point of writing petitions sealed in their blood. The number of volunteers was always higher than the capacity.
Allied POW interrogation reports show that Japanese soldiers rarely discriminated against Koreans and that they studied at the same military school and some of them became officers. One of my grandfather's superiors in North China was a Korean.
It is often said that Koreans were forced to change their names to Japanese names during the Japanese occupation, but this is not true.
They were allowed to use Japanese names.
Not only civilians but also some Koreans who joined the Japanese army kept their Korean names.
Comfort women existed after WW2 as well.
To recruit prostitutes for the Korean and UN forces, the Korean government continued to use the name "慰安婦" which Japan had named during wartime.
The following articles are all about comfort women for the US and UN armed forces.
According to the 1952 "Special Comfort Women Performance Statistics" in the Korean Army's personnel files, 89 “comfort women“ belonging to 4 platoons in Seoul and Gangneung provided sexual services to 204,580 servicemen per year.
American military comfort women were also known as 洋公主(Western princesses).
Here are some articles from the 1950s and 1960s on the subject of the "Western Princesses".
You hate Japanese so much that you dare to ignore the important things.
The US military used Japanese and Korean comfort women after WW2.
South Korea and North Korea have been trafficking women and forcing them into prostitution even in recent years.
After WW2, many Japanese women were raped by Allied troops, so the Japanese government established comfort stations for Allied troops in an attempt to reduce the number of victims.
Children born during the occupation were called GI babies.
During the occupation, the GHQ censored the Japanese press, so this is not widely known.
Now, the relationship between the U.S. military and the Japanese people in Japan today is good, and we are sincerely grateful for the relief efforts following the Great east Japan Earthquake.