@BowesChay

Post by @BowesChay

@BowesChay · Oct 28

80%

Credible

The United States' bombing campaign against North Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953) was one of the most devastating aerial assaults in human history. The relentless assault obliterated the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's infrastructure and claimed countless innocent civilian lives. The U.S. dropped an astounding 635,000 tons of bombs (including 32,557 tons of toxic napalm) thats more than the total used in the entire Pacific Theater of World War II. This relentless bombardment leveled 85% of North Korea’s buildings, with Pyongyang 75% destroyed, Hamhung 80%, Sariwon 95%, and Wonsan 80%. Civilian deaths are estimated at 1.2-1.5 million, roughly 12-15% of the pre-war population of 9 million, with one report citing 282,000 killed directly by bombings, the rest from disease, starvation and cold. The DPRKs rural areas were not spared either, U.S. attacks on dams like Toksan and Chasan in 1953 flooded rice fields, triggering famine and leaving 5 million homeless, people were forced into caves and dugouts. US General Curtis LeMay admitted, "We burned down every town in North Korea," while Irish American General Emmett O’Donnell noted in 1951 that the peninsula was a "terrible mess" with "no targets left." This policy, described by historian Bruce Cumings as bordering on genocidal, indiscriminately obliterated 78 cities and countless villages, leaving a legacy of trauma, resentment and suspicion that obviously informs current feeling. Of course the scale of destruction remains essentially unacknowledged in the the West, where North Korea is simply the bad guy capable of only sinning, never sinned against. I hope this helps inform a deeper understanding of what actually happened there.