
PROBLEMS ON THE PENINSULA. In this October 17, 1951 file
photo, a mother cradles her injured son in her arms while
sitting on the ground in Panmunjom, Korea. The new Public
Broadcasting Service documentary Korea: The Never-Ending War
examines the lasting social and political costs of the Korean
War — a conflict largely forgotten in the U.S. (AP Photo, File)
From The Asian Reporter, V29, #09 (May 6, 2019), page
7.
PBS’ Korea eyes social, political tolls
of Korean War
By Russell Contreras
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — To escape the poverty of South Texas
migrant camps, Homer Garza joined the U.S. Army. Months later he
and his company found themselves surrounded in South Korea by an
invading North Korean force.
Garza’s story is one of many shared in the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary Korea: The
Never-Ending War. The film, a production of WETA Washington,
examines the lasting social and political costs of the Korean
War — a conflict largely forgotten in the U.S. It also tells the
story of a war that redefined the region from the perspective of
families, U.S. veterans, and journalists.
Filmmaker John Maggio said he wanted to create something that
wasn’t focused solely on the views of ambassadors and historians
but real people affected by the war. In addition, he wanted his
project to explain why tensions between North and South Korea
remain nearly 70 years after a series of diplomatic blunders and
violent massacres.
"I also was curious. My uncles fought in the Korean War and
never talked about it," Maggio said. "My granduncles were in
World War II and always talked about it."
Former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry is among those interviewed in
the film. But instead of merely laying out strategic mistakes
made by the U.S., she details how an imaginary border — the 38th
parallel — dreamt up by the U.S. eventually divided her family.
Such painful family separations, and the legacy of violence,
still define tensions that remain today.
"North Korea was completely flattened," Terry said. "China
gets involved and (Chinese Chairman) Mao Zedong lost his own
son."
The Korean War, which took place from June 1950 to July 1953,
claimed millions of Korean lives and more than 50,000 U.S.
troops in a conflict between North Korea backed by communist
countries and South Korea, a military dictatorship supported by
the U.S. The war ended in a stalemate, and tensions would
continue through 13 U.S. presidents. There was even a diplomatic
meeting in the New Mexico desert in 2003 between North Koreans
and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson trying to chill
heated rhetoric after North Korea announced it was developing
nuclear weapons.
Maggio said the Korean War was a precursor to the Vietnam War
and defined how the U.S. would participate in its own series of
massacres against civilians caught up in the Cold War domino
game. For example, an investigation team, led by former
Associated Press correspondent Charles Hanley, later uncovered
atrocities committed by U.S. troops against helpless South
Korean refugees during the early days of the war. The AP spent
months tracing veterans in some 130 interviews by telephone and
in person and a dozen former G.I.’s spoke out to document a
massacre under a bridge near No Gun Ri that claimed the lives of
hundreds of people.
Garza, who arrived after the No Gun Ri massacre, confirmed in
the documentary that soldiers were given orders to shoot
anything that was in front of them.
"To understand North and South Korea today, you have to look
at the war 70 years ago and the people hurt by it," Maggio said.
That’s why the conflict today can’t be reduced to tweets from
U.S. President Donald Trump or rebuttals from current North
Korea leader Kim Jong Un, Maggio said.
"People living there now still are living this war," he said.
"It remains raw."
Russell Contreras is a member of The
Associated Press’ race and ethnicity team. Korea: The
Never-Ending War is streaming online at <www.pbs.org/weta/korea-never-ending-war>
through May 28.
|