◼︎ Records of the Guerilla Suppression Captain Cha Il-hyeok In December 1950, as the national army and the allied forces began to retreat again with the Amnok River in sight, the Combat Police was established in Jeonju. Their mission was not to defend the front lines, but to suppress the guerrillas inland. In order to suppress the guerrillas numbering up to 25,000, the Taebaeksan District, Jirisan District, Unmunsa District, and the Railway Mobile Unit Combat Police Command were established, and Captain Cha Il-hyeok was put in charge of the 18th Battalion under the Jirisan District Combat Police Command. He then recorded the entire process from the establishment of the Combat Police to the last guerrilla suppression through his 'Battlefield Records'. ◼︎ Letters from the Commander of the Suppression Captain and the One-Armed Guerilla Captain The second mission given to the 18th Battalion, which had not even received proper training, was to defend the Chilbo Power Plant, the only power plant in South Korea. At that time, the friendly forces were trapped and surrounded at the Chilbo Power Plant. There were 2,500 guerrillas around the Chilbo Power Plant. However, the 18th Battalion only had 105 members. Thanks to Captain Cha Il-hyeok's wit, the battle ended in a miraculous victory for the punitive force. Then, a letter arrived from the guerrilla leader. It was a request for leniency, saying that both sides had agreed to prevent the destruction of the Chilbo Power Plant and send down unarmed personnel such as simple collaborators. What on earth did Cha Il-hyeok choose? ◼︎ The ideological war led to tragedy... The battle with the guerrillas, who had fortified themselves using mountain terrain, was so tenacious that it lasted five more years even after the creation of the combat police. At first, both sides tried to reduce the casualties of civilians, but as time passed, the war escalated into madness, and civilian massacres continued in the name of 'battle' and 'ideological verification.' One of them was the incident where the 18th Battalion's Company Commander Kim Yong-un, whose family was killed by the guerrillas, voluntarily went to his hometown to avenge himself and killed the guerrillas' families. This incident, which was not reported at the time, is recorded in Captain Cha Il-hyeok's records without any omission. ◼︎ The commander of the punitive expedition who collected the body of the guerrilla leader When Lee Hyun-sang, the guerrilla leader, was killed in the final stages of the punitive expedition, the government put Lee Hyun-sang's body on display in Seoul. However, when the exhibition was over, even his relatives refused to claim Lee Hyun-sang's body. Captain Cha Il-hyeok collected it and cremated it at the Seomjin River. From Cha Il-hyeok's battle record: '...Peace will not come to this land right away just because Lee Hyun-sang is killed. Peace will come to this land when we reveal why we fought among ourselves and shed blood. Would a farmer who works in the fields from dawn know what communism and democracy are? Isn't this war an inevitable fratricide?' New History Special Episode 106 - The Record of Guerilla Suppression Commander Cha Il-hyeok, Another War (2012.6.28.) http://history.kbs.co.kr/