The Reason he had to Point His Rifle at His Man
Testimony of platoon commander Jae Joon Yoo of the Blue Dragon Unit "I'd like to pray and lay flowers for broken souls of the innocent victims."

Pusan= Hwang Sang Cheol/ reporter of "The Hankyoreh21"
(e-mail= rosebud@hani.co.kr)

In 1966, Jae Joon Yoo, now 61, was 3rd Platoon commander, 6th Company, 2nd Battalion of the Blue Dragon Unit assigned to Vietnam. He told profound stories regarding the civilian killings by Korean soldiers. I met him when I was tracking the stories of massacre in hamlet of Tho Lam in Tuy Hoa town, Phu Yen Province. This incident in which 46 residents died was covered by the January edition of monthly magazine and by KBS 2, a major Korean TV network on February 10.
"On May 14, 1966, the 1st Platoon, 6th Company, 2nd Battalion of the Blue Dragon Unit herded residents of Tho Lam village into one place and launched a search operation. It was 8:40 am. when 1st Platoon commander Woo Sik Choi approached a cave that was suspected as a hiding place for the Viet Cong. As he drew near to the entrance, grenades exploded suddenly injuring him. He was transferred to the hospital by helicopter. Angry and frustrated members of the 1st Platoon then indiscriminately opened fire at the residents...¡¯the story from monthly magazine and TV of KBS TV documentary ended here.

In its efforts to unearth the truth about the story, , weekly news magazine in Korea, was able to obtain the address of Jae Joon Yoo, then platoon commander whose platoon was sent to the site for a counteroffensive 15 minutes after Commander Choi was sent to the rear. Obviously, his stories could not reveal the whole truth about the mass killings. However, he spoke frankly about all of his experiences on the battlefield without trying to hide a single detail. / Editor "Don't shoot, you bastard!¡±Platoon commander Yoo pointed his carbine at him. A huge blaze was swallowing the village as it belched out black smoke. The man he aimed his gun at was not a Viet Cong. Neither was it a Vietnamese civilian. It was one of his Korean soldiers--an angry noncommissioned officer of the 1st Platoon with bloodshot eyes. ¡°She is a wife of a Viet Cong. I have to shoot her.¡± ¡°No, put your gun away!¡± In front of them stood a 40-year-old women trembling, her face white with fear. An innocent looking girl, around the age of five or six, was standing next to her. ¡°Don's act carelessly or I'll pull the trigger.¡± A series of shots continued and they shook the whole village. Platoon commander Yoo kept his gun pointed at the soldier and eventually the noncommissioned officer put his gun down and left.

Everyone was going mad.

The eyes of the soldiers of the 1st Platoon were filled with rage. Four members of the platoon were injured including the platoon commander. ¡°Everyone was hot for vengeance. So was the officer. He wanted to take revenge for the commander.¡± Yoo saw a resident being shot to death when he tried to save his life by running away. Corpses were lying here and there but he doesn't remember how many dead bodies were there. ¡°I wasn't keeping track of the dead. Neither was I able to do it nor was it necessary to do so. I didn't see the bodies gathered in one place.¡± He presumes that civilians were killed, considering the situation back then. ¡°Soldiers opened fire at anything that moved or ran. Sometimes, they shot dogs. If that woman and the girl tried to ran away, soldiers would have shot them.¡±
He relates that he didn't lose his mind. After the noncommissioned officer left, he told the woman to leave the operations area. She nodded and left with the girl. He watched them go until they were out of his sight. ¡°I could see that she was grateful from her look. I am sure that they survived." Yoo said he once let a boy run away from Korean soldiers in another village.
One day in October 1966, the 2nd and 3rd Platoons were supposed to attack a village after sunrise. Yoo showed the 2nd Platoon commander to the entrance of the village and was returning to the 3rd Platoon when there was the loud sound of an explosion. ¡°Boom!¡±I checked over the radio and learned that one soldier had died and three, including the commander, were injured. Two Viet Cong that were hiding along a little stream had thrown hand grenades and escaped.
When it was bright, the troops entered the village, firing from some 50 meters from the entrance. All of a sudden, soldiers shouted. ¡°There a boy is running away!¡± They said a boy, seven or eight, ran into the forest. Some members of the platoon that were searching the houses rounded up a group of seven villagers and gunned them down. The boy ran when he saw that they were so infuriated. These men tried to run after the boy but Yoo held them back. ¡°We can't kill them all. Let him go so he can return to take revenge for his family later.¡±
Yoo ordered his men not to kill recklessly. However, in order to survive on the battlefield, one must kill. ¡°We were passing through the village when I heard a gun shot. One man shot an old woman in her 70s. ¡®Why did you shoot her?¡¯ I asked. He answered that she got in his way. It was a combat situation in wartime.¡±
Yoo aimed his rifle at his men in order to save the lives of civilians in Tho Lam. However, it was only very unusual situation. He also had experienced the very opposite. He witnessed the death of the civilians whose lives he tried very hard to save.

Lamenting the Souls of Three Vietnamese

(Photo) ¡°What I saw was what it was. What I didn't see was what it wasn't.¡± Jae Joon Yoo spoke honestly about his experiences during the Vietnam War.

In November of the same year, the Blue Dragon Unit carried out a large scale mopping-up operation named the 'Yong An Mission¡¯in Son Tinh, Quang Ngai province. On the third or fourth day of the operation, the 3rd Platoon delivered an attack on a village. People ran about in confusion and were all rounded up. There was a mountain path leading to next target but it seemed that they could easily be attacked on that trail. Yoo selected three men in their thirties from among the villagers. He ordered each of them to bring a sickle and placed them at the head of the group to lead the army. After climbing for some time, they came to a board placed under a rock. He could feel the warmth through the board. It was great target for sharp shooter, but Korean troops could survive because of the three Vietnamese at the front.

That day in the afternoon, a man of the 3rd Platoon was wounded. He was shot in the anus so it was not possible to give him a morphine shot. Other soldiers tore down a door, laid him on it and the three Vietnamese and one member of the platoon carried him. Yoo ordered the platoon to move to the road. When the situation had calmed down a bit the three men begged Yoo to free them. ¡°You'll die if you go now. Just wait a little longer.¡± He told them. There was high possibility that the Korean soldiers on the mission will shoot them. Yoo wanted them to live and in order to calm their fears, he wrote them 'a letter of personal reference'. ¡°These men cooperated with Korean soldiers. Let them live.¡± He wrote. He signed the note and handed it to them telling them to show it to Korean soldiers when they come across them.

At that moment,1st Platoon commander Kim (first name unknown) who was fighting some 100 meters away from Yoo radioed him. Kim said that his platoon would come to join Yoo's platoon. Two, three men of the 1st Platoon carried a corpse on their shoulders wrapped in a blanket with blood dripping down. Commander Kim who arrived with them glanced at those three Vietnamese and suddenly picked up his M16. It all happened so quickly. ¡°These are damn Vietnamese...!¡± Then he gunned them down. There was no time to stop him. Those helpful Vietnamese fell down drenched in blood. ¡°You, son of bitch! Stop it!¡± Yoo jumped up infuriated but it was useless. ¡°1st Platoon, retreat!¡± Kim ordered as he ignored Yoo and went down to company base. (We asked around to find the then 1st Platoon commander Kim. We were able to talk to him on the phone a week later. ¡°That never happened.¡±He strongly denied the incident. In response to this, Yoo said¡°Would you want to admit that you killed people? But I saw it with my own eyes.")

Those Vietnamese did not die instantly. ¡°They were twisting their bodies in pain like snakes; that's how I can describe it.¡± An artillery man liaison officer who couldn't bear to see them suffering any longer pulled the trigger. ¡°Bang! Bang! Bang!¡± went the gun. He chose painless death for them. "They died because I held them back.¡± Yoo said Kim was blinded with anger because he lost his men. Yoo recalls that he witnessed same kind of revenge the day before.

The 1st and 3rd Platoons joined together and were heading to the next target. They placed a rocket bomb in a cave presumed to be a Viet Cong stronghold and blew it up with TNT. The two platoons met with fierce resistance from the village. The 1st Platoon went into the village. Yoo led a squad to surround the village and delivered an assault from all sides. Troops killed five or six men escaping the village and seized a rifle. They were wearing military uniforms similar to Korean troops. A machine gunner and an assistant to the 1st Platoon died during the combat in the village. The 1st Platoon Commander came to a corpse of a Viet Cong. ¡°His lips turned blue with anger. He fixed a bayonet on his rifle and threw it at the dead body. The rifle stood up stuck in the corpse and he ripped its stomach. He was so enraged and frustrated.¡±

(Photo)Sad spirit of three Vietnam people

I Want to Meet the Girl

In the evening of the day the three friendly Vietnamese died, Yoo had to experience the tragedy of war again. He was sitting with his soldiers down at the company base when he heard a gunshot. Yoo instinctively got down on the ground. ¡°Where did it come from?¡± Soldiers were mumbling with confusion as they covered their faces. Then he saw that one of his men's hands was bleeding. ¡°Are you shot?"¡°No, sir.¡±The soldier had shot himself in his hand. Yoo was shocked. "Why did you shoot yourself?¡± He shouted angrily and said that he would never be transferred to the rear. Yoo posted him on sentry. The wounded man walked away bleeding. When he was gone, the 1st squad commander came up to Yoo and begged him.¡°He is an only child.¡± The soldier was later sent to hospital. When Yoo came back to Korea, he met the soldier in Jinhae Hospital. When they came face to face, the soldier tried to hide.¡°Don't hide. This is not a battlefield.¡± Then the man reluctantly came and greeted him.

Five years ago Yoo had gastric cancer and underwent an operation in which part of his stomach was removed. He spent all his money he had saved from working on an ocean liner on the operation. When he fought in the war in Vietnam he was in his mid-twenties but now he is over 60. He didn't try to cover up the civilians killings by Korean soldiers by saying ¡°It was hard to tell civilians apart from the Viet Cong.¡±

¡°Facts should be told honestly without anything being hidden. There were good things and bad things people did as human beings. It was wrong to shoot noncombatants. I hoped that they could dodge my bullets but I as a soldier, I had to fire. There must be people who were killed by my men... I did things I should not have done as a human. When I think of the victims, I regret and repent my behavior. Many years have passed and those who killed innocent people should be able to pray and lay flowers for the broken souls so that they can rest in peace.¡±

Yoo said he would like to meet the girl he saw in Tho Lam if she is still alive. He asked us to find the girl for him. ¡°I don't know what I should say to her if I get chance to met her. She must be deeply hurt with the scars of the war still with her and I can't tell her that she's alive because of me...¡±

(296th edition of "The Hankyoreh21"/ 14. Feb, 2000)