By Seoul based historian Robert Neff who sometimes posts over at the Marmot’s Hole has a good article posted over on Oh My News in regards to the Goje Island POW camp that held all the North Korean and Chinese prisoners captured during the Korean War. Take a look at how violent this POW camp was:
The toll of the Koje Incident was immense. The incident greatly embarrassed the United States and caused many nations, including American allies and the International Red Cross, to question the UN Forces’ conduct at the camp. During the three-day stand-off, a large number of anti-Communist prisoners in Compound 76 were executed by the Communists prisoners, these unidentified corpses were later cremated in a funeral pyre, 40 ft. long and 6 ft. wide. It was estimated that in the nine months of unrest in the camp, 102 prisoners were killed by the UN forces while 689 prisoners were victims of the “civil war inside the stockades. [Oh My News]
Make sure to read the rest, but you can also found out more about what happened on Goje Island I highly recommend you read my posting on, Heroes of the Korean War: General Haydon Boatner, who was the man that ultimately brought order and control back to the POW camp.
Now here is a question for everyone, should then President Harry Truman be brought up on war crimes charges for allowing POW’s to be treated in such a way that were extreme violations of the Geneva Convention?
It is the sad reality. No mistake...
10:31 am on May 12th, 2009 1
They are going to miss us when we are gone. Given the alternatives, the one prison camp any sane person would choose if they had to would be a United States one. One of my father's good friends was captured by US forces in late 1944. Despite the Nazi propagada at the time he remembers being quite relieved. He remembers that he actually gained a few pounds much like today's Gitmo gut.
11:31 am on May 12th, 2009 2
GI Korea,
I don't understand what you are trying to insinuate with the poll question. I read the whole article and even did a name search and did not find Truman mentioned once. Are you implying he authorized or was even aware of the problems that existed in the camp?
Many of those same conditions even exist is some of our countries state prison facilities today because of overcrowding and ethnic and gang conflict. I wouldn't suggest that any of the governors or wardens are criminals because they haven't been able to make things better.
If you are suggesting the charge of war crimes should be based on the North Korean statements of alleged atrocities in the box on the side, then you are playing the same game you accuse the people of being "useful idiots" of playing.
11:34 am on May 12th, 2009 3
correction: countries = country's
2:32 pm on May 12th, 2009 4
JoeC,
I'm pretty sure GI's point was that – this is the kind of incident that has been typically used by staunch critics of the US military and US foreign policy over the decades to justify their generally negative view of both.
In fact, especially among South Koreans, but also a trend among segments of American educated society, the US in Korea has been blamed for any real or claimed atrocity committed by South Korean authorities during the war — and before and sometimes after. If a single US military adviser is in the area, he must have been the force behind all actions. Since the US had influence on the ROK government, it must have been controlling or at least permitting all the bad things to happen. And so on…
And thinking about what kind of case they would likely make here: surely Truman was aware on some basic level about such a long, protracted problem in a POW camp in the isolated war the nation was fighting.
And the US was in control of the camp. So, it was responsible for what went on in it…right?
That is the kind of thing you'd hear.
8:15 pm on May 12th, 2009 5
Tried posthumusly? I realize the question is hypothetical, but it ignores the fact that a dead person cannot face his accusers or choose to give testimony. A more realistic question would ask if there should be a truth and reconciliation commission.
12:10 am on May 13th, 2009 6
The conditions at the camp were horrid and there was hundreds of deaths of prisoners. These were all in violation of the Geneva Convention that the US had just recently signed before the start of the Korean War. How could Truman not know what was going on at Goje? If he didn't know then he was being lied to by someone.
Only after Dodd was taken prisoner was something done about this camp. The Goje Incident is one of the dark spots of US military history during the Korean War.
I am insinuating the logic that many people are using today to try Bush administration officials for war crimes. If Bush is guilty of war crimes for pouring water over the heads of three terrorists then there should be a whole lot of people tried for war crimes after what happened on Goje Island.