Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident (여순반란사건), October 1948.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

Wednesday, October 19th, marks the anniversary of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," written in English also as the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident" or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," one of several bloody exchanges in Jeollanam-do last century, and one whose background serves to foreshadow the violence of the Korean War two years later. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in South Jeolla province, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in hundreds or thousands of deaths, depending on the source.

October 19th, anniversary of the Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident (여순반란사건).

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

Tuesday, October 19th, marks the anniversary of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," written in English also as the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident" or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," one of several bloody exchanges in Jeollanam-do last century, and one whose background serves to foreshadow the violence of the Korean War two years later. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in South Jeolla province, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in hundreds or thousands of deaths, depending on the source.

English-language information is limited, though the placards around Suncheon provide some background. From the placard that stood in front of Suncheon Station until it was razed and rebuilt in 2009:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

An excerpt from the book The Korean War 1945 to 1953, available from Google Books, reminding us there was brutality on all sides:

The civilian rebels included at least 70 teachers. The head of the Yosu's People's Committee was Song Uk, prinicipal of the Yosu Girls' Middle School---the girls were described as "redder than the inside of a watermelon" and proved it when, armed with Japanese rifles, they fought in the vain defense of the city.

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

Here's an excerpt from a 1948 report by Carl Mydans---the man who took some of those photographs for Life---that appeared in Time magazine:

When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

A placard on the Suncheon National University campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

A few other posts in the "1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident" category provide a little more information and sources. In November 2008 Life magazine opened its archives to Google Image searches, providing over 100 pictures of violence in Yeosu and Suncheon in the 1940s, and in the Jeolla provinces in the 1950s. Be warned, the photographs are understandably graphic. Since my first posts in 2007 and 2008, more contemporary AP reports have trickled out via a Google News archive search, providing at least one-sided coverage of the violence and additional information about the area. From a report by Tom Lambert available in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on October 25, 1948:

Golden rice fields, streets, and the police compound are strewn with the bodies of an estimated 600 bodies killed in last week's revolt here.

The article continues, mentioning two of the "yanks" who saw action (named in the aforementioned Time piece by Mydans as well):

Lieutenant Greenbaum said anti-American epithets were hurled at him by the rebels. Lieutenant Mohr's boot heel had a hole shot in it by police, who, he said, "were shooting at everything."

When they were through executing bound antileftists and police, the rebels armed high school aged youths with Japanese rifles. Ten of those were slaughtered yesterday when they tried to storm the postoffice, then held by loyalists.

Col. Won Yong Duk, who took part in the loyalist assault on Sunchon, said 180 rebels were captured by his forces.

When Suncheon was retaken, every man in each house was taken to the grounds of a Japanese-built school for questioning. Police kicked and clubbed them. One policeman wearing an old Japanese helmet butted the suspects he was interrogatig.

Along the road flanking the school grounds an estimated 500 women awaited the outcome of the questioning. They could see some of the suspects mauled and beaten. Only the women's eyes betrayed their anxiety.

Further down the road, at a plaza, the bodies of the 22 newly executed men were strewn. On their bodies were small squares of white canvas on which were painted in indelible ink the hammer and sickle over a pair of clasped hands.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine. See also here.


Bodies of the 22 executed at the school, by Carl Mydans for Life magazine.

61st anniversary of start of Yosu Rebellion.

Monday is the 61st anniversary of the start of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident," or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," or however you would like to render it in English. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in Jeollanam-do, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in, depending on the source, hundreds or even thousands deaths, and foreshadowed the larger war that would come two years later. This year's anniversary snuck up on me, so I prepared little new material, and instead I'll direct your attention to what I wrote in October, 2008, and to the collection of posts in the "1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident" category.



That's one of several pictures from Yeosu in late 1948 taken by photographers for Life magazine. There are others on this Korean blog, some of which are graphic.

Here's what's written on the placard outside of Suncheon Station:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

Here's a small excerpt from a book The Korean War 1945 to 1953, quoted last year, reminding that there was brutality on both sides:

The civilian rebels included at least 70 teachers. The head of the Yosu's People's Committee was Song Uk, prinicipal of the Yosu Girls' Middle School---the girls were described as "redder than the inside of a watermelon" and proved it when, armed with Japanese rifles, they fought in the vain defense of the city.

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

And from a 1948 report by Carl Mydans---the man who the photographs for Life---that appeared in Time magazine:

When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

The placard on the Suncheon National University campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

Source.

Commission finds at least 439 civilians killed during Suncheon massacre.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has found that 439 civilians were killed in and around Suncheon during the 1948 Yosu-Suncheon Rebellion, but that the number could be higher since some families didn't want an investigation this time around. Or as the Hankyoreh puts it:

“If you include those people whose whereabouts have not been confirmed, the figure could increase further, to 2,000.”

The numbers would be much higher if they included non-"civilians" such as military and police, and I'm not sure the motivation for focusing only on a particular demographic, one so vaguely defined in the English-language press. Here are two excerpts from a book titled The Korean War 1945 to 1953:

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

. . .

Yosu was defended house-to-house and the city suffered devastating damage. The entire city "is in ashes, still surrounded by horrors and terrors," according to a graphic account. "All kinds of notices cover the walls of the town in the form of orders, appeals, and threats issued by both sides. Dead bodies and broken furniture are scattered over the rice fields and house lots . . . Many groups of beggars are digging in the ashes for whatever they can find . . . The police station and martial law headquarters are crowded with suspects awaiting trial . . . We learned that more than 1,200 persons were killed as of November.

From a November 8, 1948 TIME magazine article:

The rebels approached Sunchon city peacefully; but as soon as they entered the city, police opened fire. Joined by a company of soldiers guarding the city bridge, the rebels fired back. After a short, sharp battle they were in full control. The hundred or so cops who surrendered were lined up against the wall of the police compound and riddled. Then the rebels, joined by part of the citizenry, paraded through the city under North Korea's Communist banner, singing "Ten thousand years to the North Korean People's Republic!"

Star-Spangled Shirt. When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

According to a placard commemorating the scene of violence in front of Suncheon Station

The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policemen, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.

In August, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that 160 civilians were killed in Gurye county both during and shortly after the Yosu-Sunchon Incident, since many fled to Gurye and Jirisan. Hundreds more were killed throughout the country, according to that commission. With the tendency here to put history in quotation marks and to have substantially different regional and generational interpretations of events, take all the numbers and accounts you hear with healthy quantities of salt.

What is called the 1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident, or Rebellion, or Insurrection, was in response to a government crackdown on a communist uprising on Jeju Island. President Roh Moo-hyun issued an apology (twice) for the government's role in it, and the commission in the news today is looking for an apology as well. Keep in mind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is hardly ever about truth or reconciliation. I'm actually surprised no mention of the US military was made in the papers today, because usually the US is held responsible for violence before and during the Korean War.

Pictures of Korea from the 40s and 50s from Life magazine.

Life magazine has posted its photo archives on Google. There are roughly 200 for "Korea," mostly taken in the 1940s and 50s, most during the Korean War. There are a few showing the aftermath of uprisings in 1948, which I figured may have taken place in Suncheon and Yeosu. The Yosu-Sunchon Uprising happened in October, 1948, and the photographer Carl Mydans was also a journalist who filed stories on the incident. I won't link to those pictures directly, as they're of bloodied corpses, but you can browse the gallery yourself. My hunch was confirmed when I saw the sixteen pictures of "Yosu," some of which are unpleasant, taken by Mydans. "Seoul" turns up more pictures.



You also get some interesting results for "Cholla," a common old spelling of "Jeolla." Again, some are quite unpleasant. Here's one showing Hwasun county, outside of Gwangju.



And here's one of present-day Yeongam:



There are a couple photographs of Nim Churl Jin, an "ex-Communist guerilla" who spent two years "in the hills," reuniting with his family who had thought he was dead. Perhaps the hills refer to the area around Jirisan. Here's one from "Cholla-Namando" with the caption

Ex-Communist guerrilla Nim Churl Jin, homesick, ill & disillusioned with Communism, after two years in the hills with guerrilla forces, walking down road to his family's home.

The photos of Nim were important enough to warrant mention on an older version of the photographer's Wikipedia page, which says Margaret Bourke-White considered them among the most important of her career. The recent edition of the page says Bourke-White worked around the Jiri mountains, which were a refuge of Communist forces.

60th anniversary of the Yosu Rebellion (여순반란사건)

I've combined two posts I wrote back in December on the topic of the 1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident---or Rebellion---a military insurrection that was part of a number of bloody clashes that would foreshadow the coming Korean War. The rebellion started when a battalion of soldiers from Yeosu refused to go to Jeju to put down the insurrection taking place there. They marched from Yeosu to Suncheon, their numbers swelling to roughly 2,000. The resultant crackdown on communists and "communists" resulted in, depending on the source, the murder of hundreds or thousands. I don't want to get too much into it because I don't have access to anything beyond the few mentions on English-language websites, and don't know much outside of what I've posted here.

But before I get to the reposts, I'd like to direct your attention to a small excerpt on the rebellion from The Korean War 1945 to 1953 by Hugh Deane. The book actually appears to be a compilation, with some authors---Bruce Cummins in particular---of questionable impartiality, but nevertheless it's worth a look considering how little information on the incident is available in English. You can find a few relevant pages here, but I'll quote a bit below.

The civilian rebels included at least 70 teachers. The head of the Yosu's People's Committee was Song Uk, prinicipal of the Yosu Girls' Middle School---the girls were described as "redder than the inside of a watermelon" and proved it when, armed with Japanese rifles, they fought in the vain defense of the city.

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

. . .

Yosu was defended house-to-house and the city suffered devastating damage. The entire city "is in ashes, still surrounded by horrors and terrors," according to a graphic account. "All kinds of notices cover the walls of the town in the form of orders, appeals, and threats issued by both sides. Dead bodies and broken furniture are scattered over the rice fields and house lots . . . Many groups of beggars are digging in the ashes for whatever they can find . . . The police station and martial law headquarters are crowded with suspects awaiting trial . . . We learned that more than 1,200 persons were killed as of November.

Syngman Rhee declared that Korea had "never had as amny triators in its history" and seized the opportunity to get a repressive and conveniently vague National Security Law enacted. Immediately aimed at what remained of the South Korean left, from the beginning it victimized also many thousands without left links or thoughts. All major organizations were scrutinized and purged. By the spring of 1950 nearly 60,000 people had been jailed, of whom 50 to 80 percent were charged with violations of the National Security Law. The constabulary was purged; over a thousand officers and enlisted men were arrested. The National Assembly was not immune. By October of 1949 sixteen assemblymen were in jail.

But the cities and towns were more easily dealt with than the countryside. A thousand or more participants in the Yosu uprising escaped into the nearby Chiri Mountains, which rose 6,300 feet and were capped by hundreds of acres of thick forest. They became part of a guerrilla war organized principally by the South Korea Workers Party that soon engulfed large parts of the south.

Some of the TIME magazine accounts that follow confirm what was written in the book, and the author actually references one of the articles. Also on the topic, you can find a few pictures via a Naver search, though be warned they are unpleasant.

The first repost is on three placards around Suncheon that mark points of significance during the incident. The second contains two TIME magazine articles from November, 1948.


* * *




I've come across a few placards around Suncheon marking notable places during the Yosu-Sunchon Incident of 1948 (which also known as the Yosu Rebellion, the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, and other variations). I haven't found many internet sources in English on the internet, so I find these placards kind of useful. I'd also be interested to know what happened during this time---between World War II and the Korean War---in other areas of Jeollanam-do (specifically Gangjin). Anyway, for a little background on the incident, there are two articles here and here.

I've come across three placards so far: at Suncheon Station, at Dongcheon River, and at Suncheon National University. I originally assumed 관련지 meant "placard," but looking in the dictionary I see "관련" means "relation, connection, association." All three of the placards marking sites associated with the incident are two-sided, and all three contain the following text on one side:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

I didn't change any errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, or spacing, and I didn't alter any of the romanization.

On the flip side of the placard in front of Suncheon Station is the following:

Suncheon Station bore witness to the early stages of the Yosun Incident. The insurgent forces used Suncheon Station as a base to attack downtown Suncheon while they were extending their influence outside Yeosu. At 8:39 Oct. 20, 1948, abotu two thousands of the insurgent forces left Yosu by train and other vehicles, and arrived at Suncheon Station at around 09:30 without facing any resistance. Two companies of the 14th Regiment, which had been dispatched to Suncheon, joined the insurgent forces under the command of 1st Lt. Hong Soonsuk. The joint forces were able to easily break through the resistance of the police troops who were defending Gwangyang Saguri (a three forked road) and the bank of Dongchun Stream, and advanced toward downtown Suncheon. The current building of the Suncheon Station was rebuilt in October, 1960.

The placard on the banks of Dongchun/Dongcheon is about 15 minutes away. From Suncheon Station, walk west toward the river. Follow the pedestrian on-ramp to your right and start walking north along the river. It is on the east side of the stream, along the walking path, tucked under Suncheon Bridge (순천교).



The placard reads:

The Suncheon Bridge (Jangdaedari) and the bank of Dongchun Stream witnessed the first fierce combat between the police and the insurgent forces at the time of the Yosun Incident. On October 20th, the Suncheon police and right-wing youths from adjacent regions established a defensive line at Gwangyang Samguri, but failed to keep the insurgent forces from advancing to downtown Suncheon because the 4th Regiment, a support troop from Gwangju, joined the insurgents. During the combat, most of the policement escaped from the spot, some were killed, and only about 50 retreated to the Suncheon Police Station.

The third placard I found is located on Suncheon National University, behind the graduate school / language center (대학원 / 어학원), number 2 on this map. If exiting the building, turn left and at the street turn left, and the placard will be visible a few meters on your left.

The placard says "여순사건관련지 - 순천농림중학교 (현 순천대학교), or Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (presently Suncheon National University). According to the Suncheon University site, the Farming and Forestry middle school was established in 1946, became a high school in 1951, a vocational high school in 1965, a technical college in 1973, a college in 1979, a four-year college in 1982, and finally Suncheon National University in 1991.

The placard reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

Suncheon Northern Elementary School (presently 전남순천북초등학교) is located about a half-kilometer south of Suncheon University.


* * *


The TIME magazine website has two little articles about the Yosu-Sunchon Incident, both from November, 1948.

First is an article from November 1, 1948, titled "From One Source."

One day last week, Radio Moscow announced that Russian troops had begun to pull out of North Korea. On the same day, a Communist-inspired revolt broke out in Korea's southern tip.

The Russian withdrawal in the north worried South Koreans more than did the vest-pocket southern uprising. The Russians were leaving behind them a firmly installed Communist regime with a well-trained army of 150,000. The departure of the Red army was intended to bring pressure on the U.S. to withdraw its troops, leaving a South Korean constabulary and militia totaling about 60,000 to face the far stronger northern force.

Dr. Syngman Rhee, President of the two-month-old South Korean Republic, was in Tokyo visiting Douglas MacArthur at the time. Said MacArthur: "I will defend Korea as I would my own country—just as I would California."

With MacArthur's words to encourage them, the South Korean army energetically set about crushing the revolt. It had begun one morning before dawn, when 40 Communist members of a brigade stationed in the far southern port of Yosu shot their officers and bullied their sleepy comrades into attacking the city police station. They took over all of Yosu, then headed north, picking up confused recruits along the way. By the time they reached Sunchon, a city of 75,000, their force had grown to
around 2,000.

Brigadier General Song Ho's loyal troops quickly drove the rebels out of Sunchon, and chased them back into the rough, hilly country to the south. It was hard to tell friend from foe. Both loyal and rebel troops wore U.S. uniforms and carried U.S. weapons. Loyal troops finally put on white armbands. Said young Lieut. Colonel Kang Yung Noon: "What sadness that we had to fire our first bullets against our own brothers."

At week's end government forces had retaken most of the territory won by the rebels; they expected to recover Yosu soon. Asked who was responsible for the revolt, President Rhee said: "We really do not know." Then he pointed a finger to the north and added: "But all of our troubles come from one source."

Next is a report from November 8, 1948, filed by Carl Mydans, who was accompanying the government troops.

The pretty little valley of Sunchon ("Peaceful Heaven") rests neatly at the bottom of the rugged Chiri Mountains, twelve miles north of the port of Yosu. On the morning of Oct. 20, Sunchon's farmers were harvesting their rice, when they heard a siren and the rattle of small arms from the railroad station. They looked up to see 2,000 rebel soldiers and 400 civilians swarming off a train from Yosu.

The rebels approached Sunchon city peacefully; but as soon as they entered the city, police opened fire. Joined by a company of soldiers guarding the city bridge, the rebels fired back. After a short, sharp battle they were in full control. The hundred or so cops who surrendered were lined up against the wall of the police compound and riddled. Then the rebels, joined by part of the citizenry, paraded through the city under North Korea's Communist banner, singing "Ten thousand years to the North Korean People's Republic!"

Star-Spangled Shirt. When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

"Get the Americans Out." Two days later, entering Yosu, the town where the revolt began, the government troops were much better behaved. The Communists' occupation of Yosu revealed the pattern they would like to impose on all South Korea. After arrest and murder of police and loyal leaders, the rebels took over all communications, banks, schools and food distribution. They established a "People's Committee" as the new government. The "People's Committee" announced: "Our two-point program: 1) to oppose, to the death the killing of our brothers, and 2) to get the Americans out of here."

Though the recapture of Yosu has temporarily stalled the revolt, most of the rebel troops have, melted off into the countryside and mountains with their weapons. Yosu's fall was not the end of a war; it was only the beginning. The general civilian point of view was expressed by one woman we found squatting in a shack on the outskirts of Yosu just after the fight had gone by her door. When we asked her whom she was for she replied: "I'm for you. You are the strongest."

The Suncheon Agricultural and Forestry School is present-day Suncheon National University. A few days ago I posted about the placards around Suncheon that mark notable sites during the rebellion. The one on the campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

There are a few articles on the rebellion from the New York Times. I thought their archives were free, but since they're not, I can't get to them. Anyone interested can comb through these search results.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Gurye massacre.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission has released its findings in a probe into civilian killings in Jeollanam-do right before the Korean War. KBS has the story:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has announced probe results on a civilian massacre incident that occurred around the time of the Korean War.

It confirmed that during an uprising in the Yeosu and Suncheon areas in Jeolla province just before the Korean War, the police and military killed some 160 civilians in Gurye county between late 1948 and July 1949. The killings were justified by saying the civilians were cooperating with rebels and attempting to enter the then labor party.

The commission says another 600 were killed in Cheondo county in North Gyeongsang Province and 140 in Ganghwa, Gyeonggi Province by police and military on charges of collusion with North Korean communists.

The commission says most of the victims who were farmers were killed without due legal process. It is calling for a state apology and memorial projects.

These commissions are always a little iffy and political, and could also be called "Truth and Reconciliation Omission," so initially you'll have to take the story with a grain of salt. However I don't have any reason to doubt civilians were rounded up and killed in Gurye county given what went on throughout the region and what little I've read about Gurye's history. Matter of fact they had a small service for 12 victims of the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, or whatever term you'd like, of 1948, near Gurye's Bongseongsan mountain in 2007. I can't quite tell if it's a funeral service, an excavation, or if the human remains are being reinterred.



For a little more reading from this blog on that rebellion, browse this category. More on this latest story and the incident in Korean here and here.

Korea in 1950 National Geographic.

The same Dave's poster who brought to light this article on Korea in a 1919 National Geographic also brings us an article on South Korea from the June, 1950 issue. It's available here as a .pdf file. An interesting article and collection of photos from right before the Korean War broke out.

Of local interest is a little passage on page 21 of the file:

During my sojourn in Korea there were, paradoxically, few Communist disturbances near the border between North and South Korea. But Communist agents and troublemakers were busy on the island of Cheju and in the southern Province of Cholla.

While I was at the Hwasun coal mine near Kwangju one afternoon, the American adviser told me that Communist trouble was expected that night.

After sundown his Japanese-built home was crowded with the Korean manager's and assistant manager's families, who felt safer in an American billet because, from what I heard, the Communist policy at the time avoided as far as possible arming American citizens.

Suddenly the lights went out. Communists had thrown a chain across the high-tension power line. We passed part of the night on watch with our carbines handy.

I was given the task of watching the side of a hill close to the house. It was late June and I could see faint lights on the hillside. One excitable member of our group was certain that they were glowing cigarettes smoked by Communists while waiting for a general attack.

But the lights were only fireflies! Reassured of this everybody felt much safer, and I went to sleep. Throughout the night there was some shooting in the vicinity between Communists and Korean police.

I haven't the time to look too much into it today, but a quick google search turns up other mentions of the Hwasun mine. North Korea's news agency issued a release in 2006 that reads in part:

The Koreans will never forget the monstrous massacres committed by the U.S. imperialists but certainly force them to pay for the blood shed by them. Rodong Sinmun Monday says this in a signed commentary, 60 years since the U.S. imperialists massacred workers in Hwasun Coal Mine, South Jolla Province, the first mass-killing of Koreans after their occupation of south Korea.

On August 15, 1946 the U.S. made a surprise attack on the coal miners on their way to Kwangju to participate in the event to mark the first anniversary of the liberation of the country and killed them by mobilizing troops, planes and tanks.

Other sources are even more angry and averse to the truth, believe it or not:

Then why did the US military government scheme to disband the people’s committees? It wanted to enforce colonial rule over south Korea. It outlawed and dissolved the people’s committees. Where the people’s committees did not break up, the Americans committed atrocities of massacre with bayonets and tanks. Before the Korean war, they massacred civilians in Namwon, workers at the Hwasun Coal Mine, large numbers of people during the October resistance struggle and the participants in the Ryosun resistance struggles. These horrible butcheries were all the outcome of the US military government’s “operations for slaughtering civilians”.

The October resistance struggle of 1946 known as the Taegu disturbance was the largest people’s uprising after liberation started by about 600,000 people in the area of North Kyongsang Province in quest of new politics and a new life. The US military men fired rifles and machine guns at random at the participants in the uprising and crushed wounded people with tanks. At least 300-1,000 civilians were killed, thousands of people got lost and tens of thousands got injured.

The savagery of the GIs became more naked in the massacre of participants in the Jeju Island popular uprising. The US military government committed indiscriminate killing of people on Jeju Island with the object of disbanding the people’s committees which had struck roots in the masses of people. At that time the US military governor prattled, “The US needs the territory of Jeju Island, not its people”, and the GIs slaughtered more than 70,000 islanders. Most of them were civilians.

Anyway, there was quite a bit of "Communist trouble" in the region between the end of World War II and the start of the Korean War. TIME magazine has a couple contemporary articles on the 1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident here, and you can learn a little about the notable sites in those two cities by reading the placards around town.

TIME magazine on the 1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident.

The TIME magazine website has two little articles about the Yosu-Sunchon Incident, both from November, 1948.

First is an article from November 1, 1948, titled "From One Source."

One day last week, Radio Moscow announced that Russian troops had begun to pull out of North Korea. On the same day, a Communist-inspired revolt broke out in Korea's southern tip.

The Russian withdrawal in the north worried South Koreans more than did the vest-pocket southern uprising. The Russians were leaving behind them a firmly installed Communist regime with a well-trained army of 150,000. The departure of the Red army was intended to bring pressure on the U.S. to withdraw its troops, leaving a South Korean constabulary and militia totaling about 60,000 to face the far stronger northern force.

Dr. Syngman Rhee, President of the two-month-old South Korean Republic, was in Tokyo visiting Douglas MacArthur at the time. Said MacArthur: "I will defend Korea as I would my own country—just as I would California."

With MacArthur's words to encourage them, the South Korean army energetically set about crushing the revolt. It had begun one morning before dawn, when 40 Communist members of a brigade stationed in the far southern port of Yosu shot their officers and bullied their sleepy comrades into attacking the city police station. They took over all of Yosu, then headed north, picking up confused recruits along the way. By the time they reached Sunchon, a city of 75,000, their force had grown to
around 2,000.

Brigadier General Song Ho's loyal troops quickly drove the rebels out of Sunchon, and chased them back into the rough, hilly country to the south. It was hard to tell friend from foe. Both loyal and rebel troops wore U.S. uniforms and carried U.S. weapons. Loyal troops finally put on white armbands. Said young Lieut. Colonel Kang Yung Noon: "What sadness that we had to fire our first bullets against our own brothers."

At week's end government forces had retaken most of the territory won by the rebels; they expected to recover Yosu soon. Asked who was responsible for the revolt, President Rhee said: "We really do not know." Then he pointed a finger to the north and added: "But all of our troubles come from one source."

Next is a report from November 8, 1948, filed by Carl Mydans, who was accompanying the government troops.

The pretty little valley of Sunchon ("Peaceful Heaven") rests neatly at the bottom of the rugged Chiri Mountains, twelve miles north of the port of Yosu. On the morning of Oct. 20, Sunchon's farmers were harvesting their rice, when they heard a siren and the rattle of small arms from the railroad station. They looked up to see 2,000 rebel soldiers and 400 civilians swarming off a train from Yosu.

The rebels approached Sunchon city peacefully; but as soon as they entered the city, police opened fire. Joined by a company of soldiers guarding the city bridge, the rebels fired back. After a short, sharp battle they were in full control. The hundred or so cops who surrendered were lined up against the wall of the police compound and riddled. Then the rebels, joined by part of the citizenry, paraded through the city under North Korea's Communist banner, singing "Ten thousand years to the North Korean People's Republic!"

Star-Spangled Shirt. When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

"Get the Americans Out." Two days later, entering Yosu, the town where the revolt began, the government troops were much better behaved. The Communists' occupation of Yosu revealed the pattern they would like to impose on all South Korea. After arrest and murder of police and loyal leaders, the rebels took over all communications, banks, schools and food distribution. They established a "People's Committee" as the new government. The "People's Committee" announced: "Our two-point program: 1) to oppose, to the death the killing of our brothers, and 2) to get the Americans out of here."

Though the recapture of Yosu has temporarily stalled the revolt, most of the rebel troops have, melted off into the countryside and mountains with their weapons. Yosu's fall was not the end of a war; it was only the beginning. The general civilian point of view was expressed by one woman we found squatting in a shack on the outskirts of Yosu just after the fight had gone by her door. When we asked her whom she was for she replied: "I'm for you. You are the strongest."

The Suncheon Agricultural and Forestry School is present-day Suncheon National University. A few days ago I posted about the placards around Suncheon that mark notable sites during the rebellion. The one on the campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

There are a few articles on the rebellion from the New York Times. I thought their archives were free, but since they're not, I can't get to them. Anyone interested can comb through these search results.

Placards about the Yosu-Sunchon Incident around Suncheon (여순사건관련지)

I've come across a few placards around Suncheon marking notable places during the Yosu-Sunchon Incident of 1948 (which also known as the Yosu Rebellion, the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, and other variations). I haven't found many internet sources in English on the internet, so I find these placards kind of useful. I'd also be interested to know what happened during this time---between World War II and the Korean War---in other areas of Jeollanam-do (specifically Gangjin). Anyway, for a little background on the incident, there are two articles here and here.

I've come across three placards so far: at Suncheon Station, at Dongcheon River, and at Suncheon National University. I originally assumed 관련지 meant "placard," but looking in the dictionary I see "관련" means "relation, connection, association." All three of the placards marking sites associated with the incident are two-sided, and all three contain the following text on one side:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

I didn't change any errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, or spacing, and I didn't alter any of the romanization.

On the flip side of the placard in front of Suncheon Station is the following:

Suncheon Station bore witness to the early stages of the Yosun Incident. The insurgent forces used Suncheon Station as a base to attack downtown Suncheon while they were extending their influence outside Yeosu. At 8:39 Oct. 20, 1948, abotu two thousands of the insurgent forces left Yosu by train and other vehicles, and arrived at Suncheon Station at around 09:30 without facing any resistance. Two companies of the 14th Regiment, which had been dispatched to Suncheon, joined the insurgent forces under the command of 1st Lt. Hong Soonsuk. The joint forces were able to easily break through the resistance of the police troops who were defending Gwangyang Saguri (a three forked road) and the bank of Dongchun Stream, and advanced toward downtown Suncheon. The current building of the Suncheon Station was rebuilt in October, 1960.

The placard on the banks of Dongchun/Dongcheon is about 15 minutes away. From Suncheon Station, walk west toward the river. Follow the pedestrian on-ramp to your right and start walking north along the river. It is on the east side of the stream, along the walking path, tucked under Suncheon Bridge (순천교).



The placard reads:

The Suncheon Bridge (Jangdaedari) and the bank of Dongchun Stream witnessed the first fierce combat between the police and the insurgent forces at the time of the Yosun Incident. On October 20th, the Suncheon police and right-wing youths from adjacent regions established a defensive line at Gwangyang Samguri, but failed to keep the insurgent forces from advancing to downtown Suncheon because the 4th Regiment, a support troop from Gwangju, joined the insurgents. During the combat, most of the policement escaped from the spot, some were killed, and only about 50 retreated to the Suncheon Police Station.

The third placard I found is located on Suncheon National University, behind the graduate school / language center (대학원 / 어학원), number 2 on this map. If exiting the building, turn left and at the street turn left, and the placard will be visible a few meters on your left.

The placard says "여순사건관련지 - 순천농림중학교 (현 순천대학교), or Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (presently Suncheon National University). According to the Suncheon University site, the Farming and Forestry middle school was established in 1946, became a high school in 1951, a vocational high school in 1965, a technical college in 1973, a college in 1979, a four-year college in 1982, and finally Suncheon National University in 1991.

The placard reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

Suncheon Northern Elementary School (presently 전남순천북초등학교) is located about a half-kilometer south of Suncheon University.

Beolgyo (벌교)

A few days ago I visited the town of Beolgyo, in Boseong county. It's thirty minutes away by bus, has 19,000 people, and is known for its Japanese colonial architecture, for its violent 1940s, and for being the setting of the novel Taebaek Sanmaek. Before I get into the post, I'll link to two great posts from two great bloggers: (1) this one, from The Marmot's Hole, has good pictures and talks about Beolgyo's history, and (2) this one, from Antti Leppanen, talks a little about the sites mentioned in the novel.

Here's a little background from The Marmot's Hole:

If you’ve got an interest in contemporary Korean history, there’s plenty to see and feel in Beolgyo, a town that is, for all intents and purposes, a product of Japanese colonial policy. The town was developed as a transportation center to ship agricultural goods from the Jeolla provinces to ports like Yeosu. The Japanese also engaged in a number of ambitious but divisive land reclamation products in the area. The Japanese penetration of the region and the colonial projects they pursued intensified class and ideological conflicts in the Beolgyo area that long outlived colonial rule. Jo’s The Taebaek Mountains examines this colonial legacy and the tragic conflicts that ripped South Korean society in the years between Liberation and the end of the Korean War.

Beolgyo’s downtown area is a place only a Japanese colonial administrator could love. Which, in a way, makes it kind of interesting. Like Gunsan, there are a number of old colonial-era buildings maintained as reminders of Korea’s difficult past. The town does get a fair number of visitors who come looking for the different places described in Jo’s book. Many of them, including the old Japanese Financial Collective building, Kim Beom-woo’s home, the Japanese-style Boseong Inn (now called the Namdo Inn), and the Sohwa Bridge, where mass executions took place during the 1948 Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising and, in the novel, rightists and leftists apparently traded turns executing political opponents.

Overall it was a pretty rotten trip, but I'll talk about that below. Here are some pictures, sans captions. For some reason, the spacing and text get screwed up whenever I preview, and what looks like one space here becomes three spaces in the published version. After about four tries, I've given up on explanatory captions, and instead refer you to my flickr page for more information. Here are photos of: Rainbow Bridge, Beolgyo Pogyodang, a Joro spider, an abandoned church, a view of Beolgyo from Buyongsan Park, the Financial Collective building, Beolgyo Station, another Japanese-style building, and Hoejeongni Church.

There are 40-some pictures on my flickr page, and further information about these sites, or about a Beolgyo self-guided walk-through can be found on the Galbijim page.

Anyway, the trip was pretty shitty. The tourist map I was able to find hanging in town said "you are here," but I was not "here." It took me a long time to realize that the map had been moved some 5 blocks away, a big difference in a small town. The map showed the location of 16 sites from Taebaek Sanmaek, though I was only able to find 7. The small mountain, 부용산 (Buyongsan) had maps along the trails, but they seemed more for decoration than for guidance, and basically pointed in contradictory ways. And, I had to put up with pretty aggressive and abusive behavior from some of the local students. Screams of "Fuck you," curses and taunts in Korean, the finger, and having a tennis ball thrown at me made me really happy to finally get back to the bus terminal.

Korean students tend to be disrespectful to foreigners as their default behavior. Unless they are taught to act otherwise, its fairly common to get shouted at, to get pelted with "하이이이이" (mispronounced "hi"), "hello," "hey," "you," "and other misused salutations. I teach my students how to greet me on the first day of school, and I don't tolerate "hi," "hey," "you," "come here," or "hello," nor do I respond to people shouting my name. I've been with plenty of foreigners who consider this behavior cute, or polite, or a demonstration of Koreans' curiosity, or interest in English, or interest in foreigners, and I've seen it explained in journals as a liberating experience, as English does not have the various speech levels Korean does (thus many Koreans incorrectly assume that politeness need not be minded in English). I ignore the "hi"s, and "hello"s, and "나이스투미츄"s on the street, and I always request that Korean speak to me in Korean. Sadly, I've been around foreigners who respond to every piece of shit who yells "hi" at them, and it sort of undermines what I'm doing. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly how the habit of shouting at foreigners came about, but it's one I try not to encourage.

Update: A write-up I did for the Gwangju News was published in the October, 2007 edition. Click here to visit their page, which links to a .pdf file of the October issue.