Daejeon Site #2: Collage and Truth

This picture released by the American Military of the site in 1950 (taken by Major Abbott on his Leica Camera in July of that year), overlaid on a more contemporary photograph shows exactly what has been at stake in Daejeon over the past 15 years or so. The inhuman activities of Abbot at this time, paradoxically provide a window into the past that makes the recovery of remains possible. This knowledge is constantly shifting and changing, dependent on the sources themselves but also the revelations that come from looking at the topography on site. The mountains in this case are very much a witness, or a provide a constancy that it is hard to obtain from the accounts of local people after so much time has passed.

I was told last week that even though it is a rumour at the second (and longest) massacre site that the government disposed of the remains when building the road, in reality the elderly witness to what occurred at that time mistook the new road for the original one that had existed somewhere else. In which case, there could be much to be found in a completely different place. This kind of work is never an exact science. Probably a mixture of accounts resembles the truth (including Winnington's own). All that exists is rumour and supposition that must be collated and inspected in the light of genuine facts. One clear fact is that bone fragments and "black rubber shoes' have been uncovered by farmers in this valley for some time. But to find the precise source requires opportunities much like in the transhistorical overlapping of images seen above.  

There are similar opportunities that arise from Winnington's own evidence, particularly when we consider things like the capacity of military trucks at the time and the evidence he gained via a translator. I hope to cover a few of these soon.

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Picture from Shim Gyu Sang's article showing the expected "pits" at the first massacre site

Actual excavation in a picture taken yesterday, showing the first two "pits". There should be another shorter one directly in front according to the information available

As something of an addendum - and using information from the a series of articles written by the journalist Shim Gyu Sang over the past few days in South Korea - similar patterns emerge to do with Winnington's own report.  Of the six "pits" that Winnington discovered in his pamphlet it is clear now that the first three are at massacre site number one, whilst the fourth and fifth (including the longest one by the road of 200 yards) are at the second site, with the sixth in the far distance at the third massacre site. It looks very much like the third massacre site is the one found by using the mountains as topographical markers in the picture at the top of this post.