한국전쟁기 염산면 기독교인 학살의 원인과 성격

Abstract

Many civilians were slaughtered during the Korea War. Christians were among the primary victims. Most of the Christian victims neither had political power of any sort or rich enough. Then, why those Christians were slaughtered in large numbers in the name of peoples' liberation? This study starts with that question and examines the killing by the left wings of two Christian congregation in Yumsan Myon, Youngkwang Kun, Chonnam Province during the War. The history of churches in Yumsan Myon began in 1908. The Yawol Church was the first church, and survived through the Japanese colonialism. The second church, Yumsan, was founded after the liberation from the Japanese yoke. Therefore, there were two churches in the area when the Korean War started. The churches in Yumsan Myon were founded by local people who were open to the outside world. The the church members were very active in the community and acted as bridge to the larger world. They provided modern education to the locals and were concerned about national problems. But financially they were not better off than non-christians in the region. In fact, most of them were poor farmers. This study found out some reasons why they were slaughtered by the communists. The first reason is that Christians had supported the southern government. The second reason was the geographical characteristics of Yumsan Myon which provided a safe haven for leftists. The third reason was the delayed recovery of the region by the southern government. In conclusion, it was not an ideological conflict that resulted in the Christian massacre in Yumsan Myon but the extreme situation caused by war--people were forced to perceive each other only in terms of ‘we’ or ‘they.’