SOME EXCERPTS FROM "KILL 'EM ALL," A 50-MINUTE DOCUMENTARY AIRED ON BBC-TV's "TIMEWATCH" SERIES IN FEBRUARY 2002. PRODUCED BY OCTOBER FILMS OF LONDON (JEREMY WILLIAMS, PRODUCER; TOM ROBERTS, DIRECTOR)
Kill ‘em All Draft Script Korea #19
(Jackman) “Kids. There was kids out there. It didn’t matter what it was, eight to eighty, blind, crippled or crazy, they shot ‘em all. It just seemed like all Koreans were the enemy.”
(Wenzel) “We were just shooting openly, we didn’t aim at somebody we just pointed our rifles and shooting. And in that ten minutes it went on it was a nightmare in itself. The guilt’s still with me, I can’t get rid of the guilt. I can’t find peace of mind. Absolution’s not there.
Suh Jong Gap: “And then they dropped bombs on the contained group of people.”
Chung Koo-Ho: “Suddenly a huge explosion erupted”
Yang Hae Chan: “After the strafing and bombing, everything went quiet. Then I saw the American soldiers re-appear. They started checking through the dead and living, poking the bodies lying on the railway line with their bayonets. Those who were still alive were forced to get up at gunpoint and the Americans herded us further down the railroad tracks. So those of us who survived the bombing were made to move on again.”
Joe Jackman “The old man , yes, right down the line he’s running down the line, kill ‘em all, so what do you do, and of course, there was a lieutenant screaming like a mad man, fire on everything, ‘Fire on everything, kill ‘em all.’ I shot too. Shot at people. I don’t know if they were soldiers or what. Kids, there was kids out there, it didn’t matter what it was, eight to eighty, blind, crippled or crazy, they shot ‘em all.”
Joe Jackman “There was a hell of a lot of fire going, a hell of a lot of shooting, a hell of a lot of shooting, because I know the infantryman used to carry ten fifteen bandoliers of ammunition and even help machine gunners carry ammunition. There was a hell of a lot of expenditure of ammuntion.”
Larry Levine. “It was probably the first time a lot of, if not all of them had been okayed to fire on people, so the firing turned into a frenzy.”
Yang Hae Chan: “The floor inside the tunnel was a mix of gravel and sand. (vision) People clawed with their bare hands to make holes to hide in. Other people piled up the dead, like a barricade, and hid behind the bodies as a shield against the bullets.”
George Early: “Everybody just ceased moving. Nobody was moving over there. They were either dead or so seriously wounded they couldn’t move or if they were alive they weren’t moving because they would know they would get fired on some more.”
Yang Hae Chan: “I clung to my mother and despite her pain and injuries she hugged me tightly. I cried like mad. I was so scared of the dead bodies piled up inside the tunnels. I still have vivid memories of people crying and moaning because of the shooting. There were so many cries in the tunnel. I can still see bodies writhing in agony.”
Jackman: “What do I know? Everybody knews, knows the god dam thing what happened. The troops were ordered to shoot the civilians, they shot them. Now you going er court marshal the troops instead of the god dam big shots.”
Buddy Wenzel “There was a little girl running down the tracks which I thought I had killed. There’s not a day goes by that it doesn’t bother me. I dream of that little girl quite a bit, and, and that little girl particularly I’m holding by the hand. I don’t see her face but I know it’s her because the way her haircut is – black, trimmed straight across at the bottom. And I wake up. Cold sweat, shaking, scared. And I won’t go back to sleep, scared the dream will come back on me. You can’t forget, no matter how much you try, no matter how much medication you take, its there, it just eats you alive. And the older you get the harder it is. We were in hell and we only made it halfway back. Nobody knows. If I could turn the pages of time back, I would have never joined the service. I would have stayed home like a good little boy, learned a trade and settled down. And I wouldn’t have all this to live with. But I can’t.”