HOMELY PLANET

Over the last year or so, the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been shedding light on the anti-communist massacres that took place here during the opening months of the Korean War. While extrajudicial killings of suspected leftists were known to have taken place, it now appears as if the government of Lee Syng-man murdered over 100,000 unarmed citizens over the course of a couple months, with the tacit approval of the U.S. military.

Lee was a fierce red-baiter/hater, and was concerned that the hordes of communist/socialist political prisoners he put behind bars would join the forces of the North once "liberated" by pressing North Korean forces. So rather than risk this reinforcement, he and his government ordered all of them shot and thrown into mass graves.

Of course the North operated similarly, summarily executing thousands of citizens who sympathized with the South, but it appears now that the latter was much more vicious in carrying out the task, at least in the early days of the war. Desperation produces blood-chilling results.

I'm reading a fascinating book on Mao Tse-Tung right now, and haven't even gotten to the point where he seizes total power in China. But during his ascension, he oversaw purges within the Chinese communists that resulted in the torture and executions of tens of thousands of people.

To say these actions boggle the mind does not pay service to the real impact of them. But I often think of these mass killings when I ponder my own relative happiness; they make me aware of my own absolute insignificance, how unlucky historical placement can end in a statistical death. But so can an earthquake, for that matter. But at least nature is amoral

I love history, but it's really fucking depressing most of the time.