On Thursday, May 12, 2005, members of the Korea Truth Commission, Yoomi Jeong, Kim Hyo Seok and Lee Sin, made the first stop of an 18-city tour. The purpose of the tour is to explain what happened at the Gwangju People’s Uprising in South Korea 25 years ago and the role not only of miltary dictator Gen. Chun Doo-hwan in the massacre that followed but the role of the Carter administration as well. The presenters gave a painful description of what happened at Gwangju. They were warmly received by everyone in attendance at the Central NJ Coalition for Peace and Justice (CNJCPJ) in Lincroft, NJ who were deeply moved by what they heard. The CNJCPJ unanimously voted to contribute $200 to help the Korea Truth Commission cover the cost of spreading the word about what happened at Gwangju. As a sign of international solidarity with the Korean people, the CNJCPJ voted by acclamation to make the presenters honorary members of CNJCPJ.

Gen. Chun Doo-hwan was a puppet of the USA and in May, 1980 when the Gwanju People’s Uprising occurred protesting the dictatorship of Chun Doo-Hwan who got into power through a military coup, the hostage crisis was going on in Iran. It appears that the Carter administration was fearful of the same type of popular uprising occurring in Korea as occurred in Iran and the US sent military reinforcement to support dictator Chun Doo-hwan.

At first, the participants in the uprising applauded the arrival of US military ships erroneously believing that the US was supporting the democracy they were demanding. However, it did not take long for them to see that it was just the opposite of what they thought and the brutal, savage massacre of civilians, including children, began. People were shot in the back. Others were forced to help dig mass graves and then were shot to death falling into the graves they had just dug. Others had nails hammered into their skulls, killing them. All sorts of horrible types of dismemberment were perpetrated against innocents and the brave souls who demanded an end to the dictatorship.

The shameful role of the US in this horrible, unspeakable violence, murder and terror imposed on the Koreans at Gwangju is something that destroyed the previously positive image of the US government in South Korea. The US government lost any credibility it might have had there prior to this incident.

Of course, the US role in Korea has been terrible for the past 60 years. At the conclusion of WWII when Harry Truman was president, the US insisted on dividing this single nation in two, North and South.

Then in 1950, (still under Truman) the US began the invasion and bombing of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or “North Korea”) in the Korean War (1950-1953). As a result of carpet bombing, only one building was left standing in the DPRK. The invasion and illegal war against the Korean people by the US, as well as the massacre in Gwangju in 1980 are war crimes and, therefore, crimes against humanity.

The US government owes reparations and an apology to the Korean people for the unprovoked slaughter and needless death and destruction in their beleaguered nation. It also owes the Korean people an apology for needlessly dividing their nation which will be reunified one day.

Yet, in spite of all of what the Koreans have endured at the hands of the US government for the past 60 years, the Bush administration has ratcheted up the sabre-rattling against the DPRK. History shows that the US government is willing to bomb other countries mercilessly and, in fact, already did so to the DPRK and that it is willing to use nuclear weapons against another country, which it did twice to Japan. The USA still remains the only government in the world to use nuclear weapons against another country.

It bears noting that Harry Truman wrote in a letter to Bess when he was still courting her expressing his own racism towards people of the yellow race and insulting Chinese people. The actual quote is truly sickening, especially from someone who was president of the USA. Is it mere coincidence that this racist decided to drop the atom bomb on a people of the yellow race? A racist who hates the Chinese because they are of the yellow race will also translate that hatred to the Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and others. How many people of the yellow race, including Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese and Cambodians were killed due to the imperialist, racist, militarist policies of the US government under Truman and in subsequent administrations?

Is it a mere coincidence that Jimmy Carter, whose idol was Truman, promoted and tolerated the massacre at Gwangju? Perhaps, but we may never know for sure.

Of course, the bombings in Hiroshima and the DPRK, as well as the massacre at Gwangju would not have occurred only based on one person’s bigotry. They also had to serve the interests of monopoly capital, which they did. They occurred due to imperialism, due to the military-industrial complex and the greed of capitalism.

Given the history of abuse of Korea by the US government, it has no moral or legal standing to demand that the DPRK dismantle any nuclear weapons it may or may not possess. Before the US government can claim that right, it must first begin unilateral disarmament, cease interference in the reunification of Korea and make reparations to the Korean people. Until that happens, its demands of the DPRK will continue to have no legitmacy.