Cold Days in Hell: American POWs in Korea

10. Mutual Suspicion

10 Mutual Suspicion When I’ve lost about  pounds, I don’t roar very loud. Maj. Harold Kaschko In June of , prisoner morale at Pyoktong hit rock bottom. The days grew warmer, the snow disappeared, and after seven months of captivity, the filthy, malnourished prisoners were finally allowed to bathe in the Yalu. The survivors also began receiving clean clothes and more food. For many, however, these improvements came too late. Several hundred Americans had already perished, many of them teenage soldiers barely out of boot camp. The deaths continued, largely due to the lack of adequate medicine or treatment. The Chinese blamed shortages on U.S. air attacks. They also restricted captured doctors from treating their fellow prisoners. The Chinese made an exception for Bill Shadish and a few enlisted medics, who were allowed to care for men in the enlisted compound. Without medicine, however , they had to rely on rudimentary solutions, such as soaking infected limbs in hot water. The gaunt, sickly prisoners spent most of their waking hours on work details or in political reeducation classes, where they heard distortions and outright lies about their own country. As May turned to June, the death rate among the enlisted soldiers finally began to diminish, but the survivors now faced the prospect of interminable imprisonment in the filthy mud huts along the Yalu. At random intervals, the prisoners were summoned for apparently meaningless interrogations. One day, for example, an interrogator presented Bill Funchess with a map and ordered him to indicate the locations of all Japanese military bases. The lieutenant had served there only briefly before the war and had spent most of that time on maneuvers. The interrogator deemed this explanation “uncooperative,” so Funchess designed a map of Japan with imaginary military installations, making sure to fill in the available white space. The opening epigraph is from Lech, Broken Soldiers, . 190 chapter 10 Although these “talks” rarely involved physical coercion, the prisoners learned to detest them because of the suspicions they inspired in others. As Cdr. Ralph Bagwell later recalled, “Everyone who was taken out was under suspicion by the other men.” By the summer of , many prisoners had already lost faith in their countrymen. The harsh winter conditions brought out the worst in some prisoners, and food was so scarce that any inequity, real or perceived, inspired harsh resentment. The Chinese segregation of prisoners by race, rank, and nationality further contributed to a corrosive spirit of “every man for himself.” The interrogators shrewdly exploited this paranoia by publicly rewarding cooperative prisoners with food and tobacco while punishing groups en masse for the recalcitrant behavior of others. The Chinese also targeted the most outspoken prisoners, labeling them “reactionaries ” and torturing them in various ways. When a man broke, the Chinese would pressure him into further cooperation by threatening to expose his earlier deeds. The Peace Appeal In the officers’ compound, a new Chinese commandant, Ding, had repeatedly demonstrated his impatience with officers who were foolish enough to defy him. Father Kapaun was dead, and so was Maj. Thomas Hume, the victim of a savage beating for speaking out during a propaganda speech. Other prisoners were simply beaten, tortured, or starved until their resistance faded. Meanwhile, the death rate spiked among the imprisoned officers . Most were older and had slower metabolisms, and their bodies had held out longer against the ravages of starvation. In the spring of , however, the cumulative effects of malnutrition and disease finally began taking their toll. To survive, the Americans copied the Turkish prisoners, who were collecting grass and weeds in order to boil “weed tea.” The foul-tasting liquid turned their urine green, but it also provided the desperate men with lifesaving nutrients. The Chinese chose this moment to subject their sick and demoralized captives to yet another humiliation. First, they assembled the prisoners for a “peace rally” and pressured them to elect representatives to a “peace committee .” When this effort proved dissatisfactory, the Chinese handpicked prisoners for the committee, including several recently tortured officers. Like the earlier “committee” at Kanggye and a similar organization at Camp mutual suspicion 191 Twelve, the committee at Pyoktong was then forced to draft a letter asking “the Five Great Powers” to peacefully resolve the current conflict. After rejecting several drafts, the Chinese finally procured a suitable document and assembled all of the officers and a few...