Comments on: War Behind The Wire: Koje-do Prison Camp

By: Bill Mahar

Bill Mahar — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:14:31 +0000

The first POW Camps located at a school in Pusan were staffed by the 8070 MP Escort Guard & POW Processing Co. comprised of members of the 8th. Army Stockade & Sugamo Prison personnel from the Tokyo area The unit arrived in Pusan in late August 1950. In December time frame of 1950 some members of the 8070 went to Koje-do to look at the feasibility of setting up POW enclosures because of the large number of POW's on the mainland(Pusan) I believe the 60th. General Depot was the designated command on the island. On Koje-do I was an interrogator with the unit's record section, duties were to interrogate all seriously ill or dying prisoners to ascertain there statistics were correct when the records were transmitted to Red Cross and the POW's country of origin. Had access to all compounds with my interpreters(Chinese & Korean). Worked among thousands of POW's alone & unarmed no problem. Pusan POW Camp held a Russian woman & her young child, whose husband was an adviser to the North Korean Forces, he fled and left them, Russian Embassy in Tokyo stated they were unaware of any Russian advisers with Communist Forces. Also Pusan Camp had they North Korean Lt. who had ordered the massacre of U.S prisoners, who had been bound with telephone wire before being shot up in the Taejon area early on. He was kept in a small compound beneath the flag pole in front of the school.
Pretty grim times, but interesting.

Bill Mahar

By: Fred E. Ervin

Fred E. Ervin — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:11:20 +0000

I was also on Koje-Do Island at the time Gen. Dodd went into the compond to see if the Prisoners were being treated alright, They kept him in side of the compond for three days, I was on radio duty in my Company ( Co. K, 9th inf Regt., 2nd Inf Div) the night he was released from the compond. I woke up my Comander Officer ( Capt Worrick, From New York) and told him of theGeneral being realesed, I do not know if his name is spelled right. But he was a fine Company comander.

By: rogers marshall

rogers marshall — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:09:35 +0000

I was a platoon sgt in charlie co 38ty inf and this is a very outstanding article. If an order would have been given to destroy us it would have been successful . Hundreds would have been killed by us, but evidently the numbers alone would have overwhelmed and destroyed us. In reality we were the prisoners . I stood guard at the tower General Boatner was on giving orders. I was his body guard for about 4 hours. He was a tough but fair General officer. I have presented and given talks about this and you would be surprised no one knew or could remember this. Almost every time it was to Korea veterans and they were the ones surprised about the capture of Dodd.

By: Paul Marrero Sr

Paul Marrero Sr — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:35:49 +0000

Thank you for explaining what happened at those prison camps. I never realized there were that many problems with the POW's. Now if someone could help me find which POW outbreak the 44th ECB participated in I could tell my story with much more accuracy.

By: Ralph Hodge

Ralph Hodge — Sun, 09 May 2010 20:57:35 +0000

My unit, the 38th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, arrived on Koje-do circa 23 April,1952. As young grunts, fresh from five months on the line, we thought being assigned to guard POWs would be a "walk in the park". Little did we realize then that we would become embroiled an epic situation that would have a serious impact on the outcome of that god-awful " Forgotten War."

During the cloudy mid afternoon of 7 May,1952, Roger Patrie,a dear friend, and I saw, from a distant of approximately 150 yards, a flurry of activity ,including a high degree of yelling at a sally port of POW compound; the "honey bucket" details were returning to the compound. At that time, Roger and I, were returning from visiting a refugee village located on a hillside directly across from the two lane dirt road from what we soon learned was Compound #76. The commotion was that of the POWs capturing, and dragging into the compound, BG Francis Dodd,Commander. As we exited from the village for our mile- long "report immediately" walk to our area, we passed the many POW compounds located along the left side of the road. At the highest point of the roofs of each hootches located nearest the road, stood stern-faced POWS in uniforms waving North Korean flags, while the POW's in each compound we passed were not only shouting, loudly, vile anti american slogans,but the POWs in the compounds were parading around with crudely written signs in English , some of which read menacingly: "WE WILL KILL DODD IF OUR DEMANDS ARE NOT MET",etc, and and some POWs were even conducting bayonet drills utilizing hand- made wooden rifles. Succinctly,the images of that day and the incredulous events which followed will for me, last in perpetuity.

Ralph Hodge

By: Heydon Buchanan

Heydon Buchanan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:10:06 +0000

Excellent article.

I've read an assorted collection of articles on Koje-Do over the years, but I've never read any that had such incredible detail. What strikes me is the chaos and the horror of life at Koje-Do. I end up believing that the U.S. was basically "innocents abroad" in trying to understand the conflict as they lived it (e.g., prisoners as combatants and being intentionally captured to fight from within).

I'm particularly interested in Koje-Do because my father was in service there during six months of that Hell. He was commanding officer of the 96th Military Police Battalion.

He received a letter of commendation from General Dodd dated 1 May 1952 on completion of a portion of the interview operation done. That was the day Dad rotated out of the region. A week later, Gen. Dodd went down to talk with the prisoners, and he was taken captive. As my father recounted the capture, he would become a bit excited as he recalled, "I told him not to go down there! I told him (the Gen.) that I couldn't protect him there! But, he was the commanding officer."

There are a number of other interesting details to share concerning Koje-Do, but it's very late and I'm too tired at this point. (I probably shouldn't have stayed up to read the article and it was impossible to stop once I had begun.)

One point before closing–to give a touch of atmosphere to that horror, I remember another point my father emphasized. It was the extreme hatred between the South Koreans (guards principally) and the North Koreans. It was so severe that the guards were ready to fire at the slightest infraction (or even one imagined).

Again, excellent article.

Heydon Buchanan

By: William Russell

William Russell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:54:42 +0000

Another interesting insight into the Koje-do incident is Ha Jin's
novel, "War Trash," presented from the side of a Chinese
translator imprisoned at the facility.

Also, what is unbelievable about the Koje-do riots and Dodd"s
capture, is the nature and sophistication of the weapons that
were made behind the wire.

William Russell
Korean War Veteran

By: Andrew Salmon

Andrew Salmon — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:47:49 +0000

An interesting and important article – and one that is, from my (very limited) knowledge of the Koje-Do POW situation, even-handed.

FWIW, Koje-do is today the site of two of S Korea's largest shipyards, which raises the question: Who, in 1950-53 could possibly have guessed the incredible strides South Korea would take in first economic and later, political terms? North Korea, on the other hand…

Viewed with the benefit of 59 years hindsight, the American/UN intervention on behalf of South Korea must, surely, be one of the most successful operations since WWII.

The 60th annivesary of Kim Il-sung's blitzkrieg falls next June. Given the dearth of public interest in this savage and dramatic, but largely forgotten war, I am very pleased to see that there is at least one able historian – Dr Allan Millet – keeping the flame alight.

Andrew Salmon
Seoul
http://tothelastround.wordpress.com/