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Korean War Atrocities: Interviews with Prisoners of War Documentary Film
YouTube ^ | n.d. | The Big Picture, U.S. Army, Signal Corps Pictorial Center

Posted on 12/09/2015 10:09:37 AM PST by WhiskeyX

The US reported that North Korea mistreated prisoners of war: soldiers were beaten, starved, put to forced labor, marched to death, and summarily executed.

The KPA killed POWs at the battles for Hill 312, Hill 303, the Pusan Perimeter, and Daejeon—discovered during early after-battle mop-up actions by the UN forces. Later, a US Congress war crimes investigation, the United States Senate Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee of the Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations reported that "... two-thirds of all American prisoners of war in Korea died as a result of war crimes."

Although the Chinese rarely executed prisoners like their Korean counterparts, mass starvation and diseases swept through the Chinese run POW camps during the winter of 1950--51. About 43 percent of all US POWs died during this period. The Chinese defended their actions by stating that all Chinese soldiers during this period were suffering mass starvation and diseases due to the lack of competent logistics system. The UN POWs, however, disputed the claim by pointing out that most of the Chinese camps were located near the easily supplied Sino-Korean border, and that starvation was used to force the prisoners to accept the communism indoctrinations programs, which were running in full swing after the starvation was over.

Cont.

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: atrocities; koreanwar; pow; warcrimes
Cont. ---

The North Korean Government reported some 70,000 ROK Army POWs; 8,000 were repatriated. South Korea repatriated 76,000 Korean People's Army POWs. Besides the 12,000 UN Command forces POWs dead in captivity, the KPA might have press-ganged some 50,000 ROK POWs into the North Korean military. Per the South Korean Ministry of Defense, there remained some 560 Korean POWs detained in North Korea in 2008; from 1994 until 2009, some 79 ROK POWs escaped the North.

The North Korean Government denied having POWs from the Korean War, and, via the Korean Central News Agency, reported that the UN forces killed some 33,600 KPA POWs; that on 19 July 1951, in POW Camp No. 62, some 100 POWs were killed as machine-gunnery targets; that on 27 May 1952, in the 77th Camp, Koje Island (now in Geoje), the ROK Army incinerated with flamethrowers some 800 KPA POWs who rejected "voluntary repatriation" south, and instead demanded repatriation north.

In December 1950, National Defense Corps was founded, the soldiers were 406,000 drafted citizens. In the winter of 1951, 50,000 to 90,000 South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers starved to death while marching southward under the Chinese offensive when their commanding officers embezzled funds earmarked for their food. This event is called the National Defense Corps Incident.

COMMENT

There have been some recent comments repeating Communist false propaganda claiming the North Koreans or Chinese were not committing war crimes or atrocities against the American prisoners of war (POWs). Here is some of the too graphic evidence to the contrary.

1 posted on 12/09/2015 10:09:38 AM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

I wrote several interviews with Korean War vets for our local paper’s Nov 11 edition.
One fellow had been a Crew Chief on a B-26 medium bomber, shot down over NK.
He told me that one particular North Korean had worked for the US Army in Japan and spoke English. The guy would force the man to dig a fresh grave and then get in it and recite the Lord’s Prayer.
He was told that when he said, “Amen,” he would be shot in the head.
This happened dozens of times in his nearly 3 years in the prison but he said “I never broke.”

I’d love to post this story...


2 posted on 12/09/2015 10:14:48 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: WhiskeyX

And somebody may wonder why I get a little incensed with the ungrateful snots movement on campuses these days. Those ungrateful snot wouldn’t last 5 minutes. Not just ROK’s, US G.I’s suffered a crap load and continue to today. Tough living conditions? Go back to your dorms asshats, and clean up your rooms.


3 posted on 12/09/2015 10:17:55 AM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: WhiskeyX

Later


4 posted on 12/09/2015 10:27:10 AM PST by gaijin
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To: rktman

Amen sometimes I am ashamed of being a Millennial it amazes to see people my age act like selfish spoiled brats and PC socialist.


5 posted on 12/09/2015 11:36:56 AM PST by StoneWall Brigade (MARANATHA)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

My uncle was in the 24th division occupation duty in Japan when the war started. His was the first unit to see combat in Korea in July 1950. He said after they held in Pusan and Inchon happened and they were driving the norks back and had made it to the yalu river his unit stopped. He overheard the officers asking the colonel do we go down into the village and camp there today? The colonel thought for a few seconds and said no, it is not a defensible position, sit our defensive positions up here on the high ground we can always go in tomorrow.

That night the chinese hit the UN lines. My uncle said of all the nights he was in Korea that particular night was his best nights sleep up until the big pull out. His buddy woke him up around midnight and said wake up the forward defensive posts are firing, my uncle said that is normal sometimes and went back to sleep. Around 2:00am his buddy woke him up again and said the second line of of defense where some of the tanks are have opened up, the chinese have attacked we are bugging out.

As they boarded trucks they came upon a rear echelon unit the chinese had managed to sneak around and hit, mainly cooks and such. They had killed tied one GI up spread eagle naked and castrated him before bayoneting him. He had already seen the norks cruelty and vowed never to be taken prisoner. He truly hates the norks and chinese with a passion.


6 posted on 12/09/2015 12:12:42 PM PST by sarge83
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To: sarge83

Dad was an old timer, born in 1906.
He served as a civilian Hump pilot in the CBI.

Later, in purchasing for the Army at Zama and elsewhere.


7 posted on 12/09/2015 12:21:22 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: sarge83

Dad was an old timer, born in 1906.
He served as a civilian Hump pilot in the CBI.

Later, in purchasing for the Army at Zama and elsewhere.


8 posted on 12/09/2015 12:21:32 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

I got a friend who’s dad was a transport pilot that flew C47’s over the Hump during the war.


9 posted on 12/09/2015 12:30:08 PM PST by sarge83
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To: WhiskeyX

I had a relative who was in the war there. He said that the Chinese would round up whole villages and march the civilians in front of their troops as they advanced, using them as a human shield.


10 posted on 12/09/2015 3:59:57 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: sarge83

My dad was a Hump pilot.


11 posted on 12/09/2015 6:05:20 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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