 During the U.S.-supported postwar autocracy of President Syngman Rhee , survivors of No Gun Ri were too fearful of official retaliation to file public complaints . Survivor Yang Hae @-@ chan said that he was warned by South Korean police to stop telling others about the massacre . Following the April Revolution in 1960 , which briefly established democracy in South Korea , former policeman Chung Eun @-@ yong filed the first petition to the South Korean and U.S. governments . His two small children had been killed and his wife , Park Sun @-@ yong , badly wounded at No Gun Ri . Over 30 petitions , calling for an investigation , apology , and compensation , were filed over the next decades , by Chung and later by a survivors ' committee . Almost all were ignored , as was a petition to the U.S. and South Korean governments by the local Yongdong County Assembly . 
