If there is one aspect of the No Gun Li massacre story on which Korean Americans across the age spectrum agree, it is that the U.S. government should launch a formal investigation into rumors of other mass killings of civilians by U.S. forces during and after the Korean War. Terry Lee reports on reactions within the Korean American community of northern California. Lee is an editor of New California Media, a collaboration of 100-plus ethnic news organizations founded by PNS whose web site address is www. NCMonline.com.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A generational divide is opening up among Korean Americans as last week's news of a massacre of Korean refugees by American soldiers at No Gun Li sinks in.

Korean Americans who lived through the Korean War are finding it almost impossible to believe such an atrocity could have been carried out under U.S. command. American soldiers, after all, are still widely viewed as the great protectors of freedom by those who harbor vivid memories of the killings, mass starvation, poverty and chaos of the war years. Where a deep vein of anger remains over the war, it is directed against communism and North Korea.

Younger Korean Americans, by contrast, who had no personal experience of the war, appear more apt to believe the story and to express anger over what they see as the U.S.'s betrayal of their community. Far quicker to assert their Korean identity than their elders, many of these Korean Americans are demanding that the U.S. government apologize.

If there is one issue on which both old and young tend to agree, it is the need for a formal investigation into not only No Gun Li but rumors of other war-related massacres that have long circulated within their community.

Mr. Kyung-Ho Choi of Santa Clara, Ca., typifies the sentiments found in interviews with Korean Americans in their 60s and 70s. "I am sure that the killings took place due to North Korea's sabotage," the 68-year-old South Korean War veteran asserted. "Sadly enough, those kinds of killings (of civilians) to stop North Korean were common during the war."

Another Korean elder from Northern California who asked that his name not be used also blamed North Korea and communism for the killings. "I still dream about the first death I witnessed during the war," he said. "But we have to know where to aim the blame for what happened." He added that he felt deeply saddened by the news of No Gun Li but accepted it as a casualty of war.

Younger Korean Americans, including those born and educated in the United States, exhibit no such tolerance. Nam Hong, a 38 year old journalist working in San Francisco, says he always had doubts about the U.S. role in Korea, shaped by his knowledge of what he called "typical U.S. geopolitics -- acting as protector of freedom, yet killing innocent women and children."

Hong and other Korean Americans say there has long been speculation about mass killings of Koreans by American armed forces both during and after the war, with victims numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Best known, perhaps, is the alleged massacre on Cheju Island of an estimated 50,000 Korean civilians. Another allegedly occurred on Suwon in 1948 and another at Yeosu, that same year. News of such incidents invariably attributed them to military actions to suppress communist insurrection instigated by North Korea.

Seung Kyui Im, the 53 year old editor of the Korea Times in San Francisco, says he had heard about atrocities committed by American soldiers but had always dismissed them as propaganda. "No Gun Li made me look at the United States differently," Im said. "The victims should receive proper apology and compensation from the U.S. government. The South Korean government should support the victims and demand an apology from the United States."

Dr. Yoen-Cha Shin Chey, director of the Korean Center of San Francisco who herself lived through the Korean War, believes the United States should conduct a formal investigation to see if more killings occurred. "If true, these killings of helpless people would be nothing different from Kosovo, East Timor or what Hitler did. The United States should find out the facts and clarify what really happened."