During the Korean War, American soldiers killed thousands of Korean civilians unnecessarily. One massacre took place in 1950 under a bridge in No-Gun-Ri, South Korea. The soldiers thought the generals had given the order to kill, but they hadn't (Choe et al). For nearly fifty years, the Korean deaths went mostly unnoticed until a few investigative reporters at the Associated Press uncovered documents about the incident. The case was reopened almost fifty years later by a group of investigative journalists and the massacre was exposed to the world. Fortunately, muckraking does still exist as demonstrated by The Associated Press’ investigative series on “How American Soldiers Early in the Korean War Killed Hundreds Under a Bridge in No-Gun-Ri, South Korea”. …show more content…
The main author of the article was Sang Hun-Choe. Sang Hun-Choe joined The Associated Press in 1994. He was a graduate of Hankuk University in Seoul and is a veteran of the South Korean army. Before he was in the AP he was a political reporter in South Korea. Martha Mendoza also contributed to the article. She joined the AP in 1995 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Charles J. Hanley was the third contributor. He joined the AP in 1968 in New York. Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry who shot the Korean civilians told the AP that they shot 300 South Korean civilians at No-Gun-Ri. The gunners killed the civilians without thinking twice. The soldiers thought that the generals gave the order to annihilate them, but they had not. One Korean civilian told the investigators that she saw all the civilians under the bridge being gunned down. Another Korean civilian tried to tell the soldiers that the people under the bridge were not bad but the soldiers thought there were communist spies in the group and shot at them again (Choe et al)