75 years of silence: The continuing need for acknowledgment, accountability, and reconciliation between the United States and the Korean people
Stephan Sonnenberg, Youjoung Kim, David Miller, and 3 more authors
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2023
Our report emphasizes the centrality of the United States’ involvement in many of the atrocities that occurred in Korea during the 20th century. We highlight the role and the opportunity for the United Nations to supporting long-neglected efforts to promote truth-telling, justice, reparations and secure guarantees of non- recurrence in Korea.There is abundant evidence of grievous wrongdoing by the United States and its agents on the Korean Peninsula. As a result of South Korea’s democratization and liberalization since the late 1980s, victims and their surviving families in recent decades have become more emboldened to share their experiences with historians and human rights activists. Documents and evidence gathered from communities around Korea reveal a massive campaign by the U.S. military and their South Korean allies, beginning in 1945 and lasting well into the 1980s, to hunt and kill guerrillas and communist sympathizers across South Korea, often causing wanton casualties among civilian populations. Civilians were frequently the intended targets of such operations. Many instances of the violence targeting civilians were committed either directly by U.S. government agents or carried out by South Korean officials with the full endorsement and operational and financial support of the U.S. authorities. These acts were unconscionable, and caused immeasurable suffering for countless Korean families and communities.This report explores the perspectives of victims and their surviving family members,who continue to live with the consequences of this violence. The report highlights what these families believe must be done today, decades after the original atrocities took place, to see that justice finally be done for these communities. Many of the victims with whom we spoke were focusing their energies on ensuring that such heinous acts never happen again, not only in Korea but anywhere in the world. Regrettably, the United States has not appropriately responded to the repeated calls by victimized communities, civil society activists, academics, and historians to accept its ethical, legal, and financial obligations towards the individuals and communities devastated by its unlawful actions.As a nation and a staunch ally to the Korean people, it is paramount for the U.S. to address its past wrongdoings and take long- overdue steps toward accountability, remediation, and reconciliation.