hankyoreh

The Nogeun-ri civilian massacre, a much chronicled event in 1950 that divulged one of the most grueling scenes of the Korean War, has hit bookstores in South Korea and is to advance to Europe in the form of a cartoon book.

Nogunri Story Volume 1, a 612-page hard-cover illustration by Park Kun-woong, is the latest art work on the tragedy in South Korea where efforts to remember it have gained momentum in recent years through documentaries, theater plays, a novel and a movie.

"It's a history we should remember. If we forget, it will repeat over and over. There is an idea that usually goes around that during the war we can kill people. I want to break this notion," Park said.

Based on a novel by Chung Eun-yong, a survivor of the incident who lost his two children to it, the cartoon opens with rural scenes of Nogeun-ri (also spelled as Nogunri), Yeongdong County, North Chungcheong Province, where a little boy plays with his sister floating a paper boat on a village stream. Soon, the village people receive an order from U.S. soldiers to leave their homes in advance of North Korean communists and, during their toilsome evacuation, U.S. warplanes appear and strafe hundreds of them as they walk along a railroad track. Survivors cornered under the railroad bridge are machine-gunned.

As well as its subject, the book is notable with its unique materials. By using hand-made traditional Korean paper hanji and paint brushes and pencils, the illustrations look like a collection of emotive oriental paintings in black and white.

The cartoon is also to be published in France by Vertige Graphics and in Italy by Coconino Press next month, its publisher is Sai Comics, which focuses on alternative, independent comics.

Talks are underway for publication in Spain and Germany as well, it said.
Seoul, Nov. 28 (Yonhap News)