Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War
An Oral History of Korean War POWs
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War presents a devastating oral history of Korean War POWs.
The Korean War POW remains the most maligned victim of all American wars. For nearly half a century, the media, general public, and even scholars have described hundreds of these prisoners as "brainwashed" victims who uncharacteristically caved in to their Communist captors or, even worse, as turncoats who betrayed their fellow soldiers. In either case, these boys apparently lacked the "right stuff" required of our brave sons.
Here, at long last, is a chance to hear the true story of these courageous men in their own words-- a story that, until now, has gone largely untold. Dr. Carlson debunks many of the popular myths of Korean War POWs in this devastating oral history that's as compelling and moving as it is informative. From the Tiger Death March to the paranoia here at home, Korean POWs suffered injustices on a scale few can comprehend. More than 40 percent of the 7,140 Americans taken prisoner died in captivity, and as haunting tales of the survivors unfold, it becomes clear that the goal of these men was simply to survive under the most terrible conditions.
Each survivor's story is a unique and personal experience, from missionary teacher Larry Zeller's imprisonment in the death cells of P'yongyang and his first encounter with the infamous killer known as The Tiger, to Rubin Townsend's daring escape from a death march by jumping off a bridge in a blinding snowstorm. From capture to forced marches, isolation, permanent camps, and torture, Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War is one of the most fascinating and disturbing books on the Korean War in years-- and a brutally honest account of the Korean POW experience, in the survivors' own words.
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Carlson's We Were Each Other's Prisoners was an oral history of WWII POWs; he returns to that form here, offering a well-researched account of the experience of American POWs and a few Western civilians captured by Communist forces during the Korean War. The many first-hand accounts here meld into a chronological narrative via Carlson's annotations and analysis that place reports of atrocities (such as death marches and mass executions) into a historical context. Typical aspects of prisoner-of-war life such as diet, mail as punishment or reward, "guard-baiting" and reprisal are offset by accounts of starvation, indoctrination, brutal executions and collaboration. The testimony's directness is potent: "When they got through shooting, they came around and stepped on everybody and pounded on them with their rifle butts." Postwar effects of incarceration on the former prisoners and their families are detailed; the wives emerge as heroes, pushing their husbands to treatment, enduring their nightmares and working to resocialize them. Carlson wrote the book, he notes, to counter popular misconceptions about Korean War POWs he feels were perpetuated by The Manchurian Candidate book and film (wherein a POW is brainwashed and sent to kill the U.S. president) and other Cold War cultural fallout. While the book is probably too weighted toward testimony to find general readers, buffs and survivors will take it to heart.
