The bombing of
Wunson ’... more
savage and stupid

than Coventry’ -

N the mountains of Korea
sons of British mothers

lie rotting in the wind; a
meal for great vultures
wheeling ~ overhead. No
words of mine are needed to
stress the importance of find-
ing out why they are there
and what will be the outcome
of this dangerous develop-
ment in the Far East.

The London Daily Werker sent
me to Korea to get facts at the

first hand and report them to the
British public. And so I arrived in

Korea on July 16 and stayed for _

five weeks.

Of course, before I went I knew
that the Americans were bomb-
ing heavily and fighting badly. I
knew that Syngman Rhee’s troops
only existed as scattered units

and there was no longer a “South

Korean army”; that effectively
this was a war between America

knowledge in the world. But I

admit I was mentally unprepared
for all I found.
After all, five years ago we and
the Russians were allies of the
Americans in the war against the
Nazis. Since then, Roosevelt and
his colleagues have gone and
atomic diplomacy bas taken their
place. But still, what I saw the
Americans doing in Korea shook
me to my heels. I suppose all my
life I’ve been listening to the
propaganda about erica being
a civilized nation and some of
this must have sunk in. Somehow,
_ I never thought of the Americans
doing exactly what the Nazis did
until I saw it. with my own eyes.
We still talk of Coventry as an
example of malicious and futile

bombing, but the Americans have

_ gone far ahead of the Nazis in
what they politely term “satur-
ation bombing’. America’s style
of waging war in Korea is on the
Same pattern as the Nazis, but,
bearing in mind the size of the
- country, even more savage and
just as stupid.
Wunson is a much smaller town
han Coventry, not nearly as large
as the London suburb of Wal-
thamstow. During its first heavy
raid in July, B-29 Superfortresses
flung 500 tons of high explosive
bombs into the town — 60 tons
more than Coventry got on that
terrible night 10 years ago. No
targets were aimed at. MacAr-
thur’s communique admitted that
there was “heavy cloud” which
_ “prevented the evaluation of the
effect of the raid.” Actually visi-

bility was nil at the time, for it.

was raining hard.

In Coventry there were 1,000

- ¢asualties that night. During the

_ first rain on Wunson there were

1,249 killed and the northern half

_ of the town was wiped out. In
August,
wiping out the other half. No

military objective was claimed —
other than that this town was a

rail center. _ : :

_ A thousand tons of bombs; a
town obliterated; over 4,000 cas-
ualties in all; tens of thousands

_. made homeless and bereaved —

all to damage a railtrack. Does
it make sense? This is bombing
_ in the fashion that no British

= |

“edge,

the raid was repeated,

The girl in this picture is now dead, one of the thousands of

corpses like Belsen
and Buchenwald’

Korean patriots murdered by the Syngman Rhee regime because
they dared to speak and act for a free and united Korea. This
picture was one of many such found among South Korean docu-

town ever met. I saw Coventry
and I was in London all through
the “blitz” and I saw Wunson
after these raids. It was far-worse
than the worst the Nazis ever
did.

e

The: farther south you go, the
more common becomes this type
of total obliteration. Pyongtak.
Chochiwon, Taichun no longer ex-
ist as towns. There are some
bomb shattered houses at the
then you can look clear
across to the bomb shattered
houses at the opposite edge. The
people have gone, but still the
Americans come most days and
bomb the rubble. :

It is no secret that roads and

_ rails run through these towns and

it is equally no secret that this
type of bombing is least effective
of all in destroying such military
objectives. Much more can be told
of the Americans’ failure in mili-
tary bombing and strafing where
military security is not, involved—
but that will have to wait.

Their ground strafing is in the
same style. I have seen fighter
bombers hesitate and circle for
10 or 15 minutes before trying to
attack a military objective which
was defended by light ackack,

and then make a half-hearted run >

over the target—too high for ef-
fective dive-bombing—get rid of
their load and then streak for
home, doubtless to discuss the
dangers of war, And I have seen
them take run after run over a
field or a stretch of road, firing
all their machine-gun ammunition
and even rockets from a height
of no more than 300 feet when

there was nothing about but civil--

ians — and myself — lying in a
ditch. : ; : j
It takes the pure Nazi mentality

to kill a woman and child in cold

blood—using for the purpose a

few thousand horsepower and a .

firepower of over 100 machine-gun
bullets a second. I have seen this
happen,

She was the only person on that

Stretch of the road because every-
one else had dropped into ditches

when the plane was heard. It was |
_ not a mistake by the pilot because

By ALAN WINNINGTON

in Korea, with good eyes, you can
distinguish a woman from a mile
away or more. Typically, this
one was carrying a baby strapped
to her back and .a big bundle on
her head and wearing a long bil-
lowing white skirt. The pilot knew
he was blasting a woman and
child because he just casually
opened up his guns and went on.

People used to say: “But I
know some Germans. Nice people.

_ Where would they find the people

who would do things the Nazis
are supposed to do?” Think it
over, I know some Americans.
Nice people ...

e

Going down to Taichun in
South Korea, I kept hearing a
report that a large number of
“political prisoners’ had been
slaughtered near there, That is, a
larger number than were murder-
ed in the towns between Seoul
and that city. Some said 3,000,

‘some said 4,000.

As is often the case in Korea,
the facts were worse than the
rumor.

Try to imagine Rangwul valley,
about five miles southeast of Tai-

chun on the Yongdong road, Hills —

rise sharply from a level floor
about 100° yards across and a
quarter of a mile long. ;

In the middle you can walk
safely, though your shoes may
roll on spent American cartridge
cases that carpet the ground, But
at the sides, you must be careful,
for the rest of the valley is a thin
crust of earth covering corpses
of more than 7,000 men and wom-

em. One of the party with me _

stepped through nearly to his hip
in rotting human tissue.

Every few feet there is a fissure
in the topsoil which you can see
into a gradually sinking mass of

‘flesh and bone, The smell is some-
thing tangible, that seeps into

your throat. For days after, I
could taste that smell. All along
the great death pits, waxy dead
hands and feet, knees, elbows,
twisted faces and heads burst
open by bullets stick through the
soil.

When I read of the Nazi mur-
der camps at Belsen and Buchen-

ments which fell into the hands of the Korean People’s Army.

ee?

wald, I tried to imagine what they
were like. Now I know I failed.

All six of the death pits are six

‘feet deep and from six to 12 feet

wide. The biggest is 200 yards
long, two are 100 yards long and
the smallest 30 yards long. The
local peasants were forced at rifle
point to dig them and it was from
them I got the facts. :

On July 4, 5 and*6, all prisoners
from jails and concentration
camps around Taichun were taken
in trucks to the valley—after first
being bound with wire, knocked
unconscious and packed like sar-

dines on top of each other. Sixty,

truckloads of over 50 each were
driven into the valley, shot and
flung into the pits. The peasants
were made to cover the filled sec-
tions of the pits with soil.

For the next 10 days, prisoners
from other places were concen-
trated ‘in the emptied jails and
the peasants went on digging. On
July 16, the People’s Army smash-
ed the American Kum River de-
fence line and at dawn the next

day the slaughter of the remain-

ing prisoners began. On this day
37 truckloads of at least 100 each
were killed—over 3,700—including
many women.

American officers, with officers
of the puppet army, went in jeeps ©
each day to supervise the butch-
ery. Every witness agrees on this,
and I asked several separately to
show me where the jeeps and the
Americans stood. There were
emptied packets of American cig-
arettes lying around, All of the
thousands of cartridge cases on
the ground were made in America.

I picked up a handful of M-1 and
carbine cartridge cases which I
still have. Every one was fired at |
a Korean patriot.

This was only one of the mas-
sacres carried out at American
instruction. Every town, even
every village has its murdered
democrats to mourn. The lowest
estimate puts the number of dead
political prisoners at 200,000 since
June 25, but the figure may be aS
high as 400,000.

In Suwon, which was the head-
quarters ofthe Americans and
Syngman Rhee after Seoul fell,
I mct Hong Kung Un, a member
of the Suwon People’s Committee,
who seized an abandoned rifle 0M
the night the Americans retreated
and rushed into the local police
station,

He was too late. The prisoners
he was trying to save had been
driven into one cell and machine —
gunned, When Hong Kung Un got
‘there, only three of the 38 were —
still able to speak a little, Now _
only two are alive. I saw the cell,
splintered timber and encrusted =a
blood. John J. Muccio, America?
ambassador, and American ad-
visors were in the town when thé —
order for this crime was give.

This is the real story of what

_ is happening in Korea—the story

concealed by the huge propaganda

lie of the daily press throughout

the western world. —

@ Alan Winnington is the London
Daily Worker’s correspondent
in Peking. This is part of his
report to the British people 0?
his return to the Chinese: capita!
after five weeks in the fi
with the Korean People’s Army:

en

Prices go up

be cut in half yet again.”

war production at the
already sending up prices of
other necessities.”

Sheep is probably the

‘down under’

HE pre-war Australian pound, in terms of S. table
; > ydney vege
T prices, is now worth about four shillings, or one-fifth, reports
The Pega’ Sydney left-wing weekly. The Australian ingen
+g Pp average, is worth abou lings
sixpence compared with pre-war, eae ee
Veterans are pressing for a 50 percent increase in wat
gratuities, to compensate for inflation losses. The war gratuities’
are due for payment early next year.

Sixpence to four shillings, this will mean that the gratuity will

The Tribune blames the Menzies government's war drive 45
u that is now racking Australian —
Menzies,” says the Tribune, “has openly declared
that the nation’s labor and resources are to be turned over t?
expense of consumer goods. This iS —
homes, meat, woollen goods and

In Australia, the world’s leading sheep country, meat ie Ab
relatively, i today. py I
leg of lamb sells from 12 shillings to 11 atilings

& main cause of the inflation

SYDNEY

\

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 22, 1950—PAGE ‘