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Why were there no war crimes trials for the Korean War?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Sandra Wilson
Sandra Wilson*
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the Korean War of 1950-53, U.S. authorities were determined to pursue atrocities perpetrated by North Korean and Communist Chinese forces through legal channels, in keeping with the standards they believed they had set after the Second World War. Yet, their plans foundered in Korea, despite extensive groundwork for prosecutions. Four factors were responsible. First, it was difficult to find reliable evidence and to identify and apprehend suspects. Second, U.S. officials rapidly lost confidence in the idea of prosecuting national leaders. Third, the lack of clear-cut victory in the conflict necessitated a diplomatic solution, which was incompatible with war crimes trials. Fourth, the moral standing of the West, and hence its authority to run trials, was undermined by the large number of atrocities committed by the United Nations side. Thus, the U.S. plan for war crimes trials was dropped without fanfare, to be replaced by an anti-Communist propaganda campaign.

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Journal of Global History , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , July 2021 , pp. 185 - 206
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 I thank Robert Cribb for his comments on drafts of this article, Sharon Williams Chamberlain for help in locating archival sources, and Su-kyoung Hwang, Grace J. Chae, Andrew Webster and Paul Taucher for expert advice.

2 William Stueck, Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and Strategic History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 125; William Stueck, The Korean War: An International History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 369, 370; William A. Taylor, ‘The United Nations’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Korean War, eds. James I. Matray and Donald W. Boose, Jr. (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014), 101–02; Denis Stairs, ‘The United Nations and the Politics of the Korean War’, International Journal 25, no. 2 (1970): 302–20.

3 Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt and Dean Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals: the Politics of Justice after The Second World War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 42–57.

4 See Article 6 (a) of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, signed in London, 8 August 1945: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.2_Charter%20of%20IMT%201945.pdf, accessed 29 April 2021.

5 An exception is Yang Chŏng-Sim, ‘Hankukchŏnchaengki mikunŭi chŏnchaengpŏmchoe chosawa ch’ŏ-li - Chŏnchaengpŏmchoe chosatanŭl chungsimŭlo’, Hankukminchokuntongsayŏnku 64 (2010): 401–40. This articles focusses on U.S. investigations of war crimes. For an English-language synopsis, see https://www.earticle.net/Article/A129115, accessed 29 April 2021.

6 For the Holocaust see Peter Novick, The Holocaust and Collective Memory: The American Experience (London: Bloomsbury, 2000). Particularly influential in creating the impression that Japanese military atrocities were morally equivalent to the Holocaust was Lord Russell of Liverpool, The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (London: Cassell, 1958).

7 Jae-Jung Suh, ‘Truth and Reconciliation in South Korea: Confronting War, Colonialism, and Intervention in the Asia Pacific’, Critical Asian Studies 42, no. 4 (2010): 503–24. I am grateful to Su-kyoung Hwang for guidance on this matter.

8 Jinwung Kim, A History of Korea: From ‘Land of the Morning Calm’ to States in Conflict (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), 367–407.

9 Stueck, The Korean War, 10–12, 56.

10 Ibid., 3.

11 Hakjoon Kim, ‘North Korea’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Korean War, eds. Matray and Boose, 35–47.

12 This paragraph is based on Stueck, The Korean War; Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History (New York: Modern Library, 2011), 3–35; Wada Haruki, trans. by Frank Baldwin, The Korean War: An International History (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014); Kim, A History of Korea, 407–21; Martin Gilbert, Descent into Barbarism: A History of the Twentieth Century 1934–1951 (London: HarperCollins, 1998), 865–96, 899–902, 906–7, 910–19.

13 Xiaobing Li, ‘Military Stalemate’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Korean War, eds. Matray and Boose, 383.

14 ‘The Korean War Armistice Agreement: Panmunjom, Korea, July 27, 1953’, https://www.usfk.mil/Portals/105/Documents/SOFA/G_Armistice_Agreement.pdf, accessed 29 April 2021.

15 War Crimes Division, Judge Advocate Section, Korean Communications Zone, ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 1, National Records and Archives Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NARA), RG554, Entry A1/1342, Box 220.

16 ‘Enemy in Full Retreat in South Korea’, The Times, 29 September 1950, 4; Our Own Correspondent, ‘Atrocities in South Korea: Civilians Massacred in Retreat from South’, The Times, 5 October 1950, 6; ‘500 South Koreans Murdered by Reds; Guards Slay 6 F.I. Prisoners – Troops Race to Rescue 1,000 American Captives’, New York Times, 16 October 1950, 1, 4; ‘New Atrocity Reported: Army Hears 60 War Prisoners were Slain above Pyongyang’, New York Times, 22 October 1950, 3; ‘Survivors Reveal Red Horror’, Decatur Daily (Alabama), 23 October 1950, 1; ‘U.S. Prisoners Murdered in Rail Tunnel’, Canberra Times, 23 October 1950, 1; ‘Americans Massacred in Korea’, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW), 23 October 1950, 1; ‘Atrocities by Korean Red Troops: Offenders to Stand Trial’, China Mail (Hong Kong), 24 October1950 and ‘North Koreans to Pay for Atrocities’, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 24 October 1950, both in UK National Archives, Kew (hereafter NA (UK)), LCO53/159; Our Correspondent, ‘N. Korean Army “a Rabble”: 25,000 Men Left’, The Times, 25 October 1950, 3.

17 War Crimes Division, Judge Advocate Section, Korean Communications Zone, ‘Information Extracted from Final Historical and Operational Report’, 31 May 1954, 3, NARA, RG153, Entry 182, Box 1.

18 Dong-Choon Kim, trans. by Sung-ok Kim, The Unending Korean War: A Social History (Larkspur, CA: Tamal Vista Publications, 2009), 110–18, 166–7.

19 Duane L. Wesolick, ‘Atrocities’, in Encyclopedia of the Korean War, ed. Tucker, 56.

20 Ibid.

21 Kim, The Unending Korean War, 167–8.

22 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea, Truth and Reconciliation: Activities of the Past Three Years, 69, 75–80. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/ROL/South_Korea_2005_reportEnglish.pdf, accessed 17 October 2019. See also Su-kyoung Hwang, Korea’s Grievous War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), especially Ch. 5; Kim, The Unending Korean War; Dong Choon Kim, ‘Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres – the Korean War (1950–1953) as Licensed Mass Killings’, Journal of Genocide Research 6, no. 4 (2004): 523–44; Suh Hee-Kyung, ‘Atrocities Before and During the Korean War: Mass Civilian Killings by South Korean and U.S. Forces’, Critical Asian Studies, 42, no. 4 (2010): 573–85; Charles J. Hanley, ‘No Gun Ri: Official Narrative and Inconvenient Truths’, Critical Asian Studies 42, no. 4 (2010): 589–622.

23 Kim, ‘Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres’; Kim, The Unending Korean War, 163–4.

24 Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-Rym, ‘Time Running Out on South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, Stars and Stripes, 19 January 2010, https://www.stripes.com/news/time-running-out-on-south-korea-s-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-1.98156, accessed 29 June 2020. See also Richard Spencer, ‘More than 100,000 Massacred by Allies during the Korean War’, Telegraph, 29 Dec. 2008, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/4015742/More-than-100000-massacred-by-allies-during-Korean-War.html, accessed 7 February 2020; Cumings, The Korean War, 201–2; Suh, ‘Atrocities Before and During the Korean War’, 566–73; Kim, ‘Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres’, 524, 532–6.

25 Charles J. Hanley and Jae-Soon Chang, ‘AP: U.S. Allowed Korean Massacre in 1950’, CBS News, 5 July 2008, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap-us-allowed-korean-massacre-in-1950/, accessed 7 February 2020.

26 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 23–4.

27 Cumings, The Korean War, 187–90.

28 See William Clark Latham Jr, Cold Days in Hell: American POWs in Korea (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2012), 28–30.

29 For first-hand accounts see Lewis H. Carlson, Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War: An Oral History of Korean War POWs (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).

30 Ibid., 2–3.

31 Philip D. Chinnery, Korean Atrocity! Forgotten War Crimes 1950–1953 (Shrewsbury: Airlife, 2000), 266; P. J. Greville, ‘The Australian Prisoners of War’, in Australia in the Korean War 1950–53, Volume II: Combat Operations, ed. Robert O’Neill (Canberra: Australian War Memorial and Australian Publishing Service, 1985), 533. For an overview of crimes against Americans and South Koreans see, for example, ‘Testimony of James M. Hanley, Colonel, United States Army, Camp Atterbury, IND’, in Korean War Atrocities: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 3, December 4, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954), 149–56.

32 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals, 77–8. The figures given here exclude trials held by the Soviet Union and the PRC. On the national trials see also Philip R. Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial: Allied War Crimes Operations in the East, 1945–1951 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1979); Hayashi Hirofumi, BC-kyū senpan saiban (The Class B and C War Crimes Trials) (Tōkyō: Iwanami shoten, 2005); Yuma Totani, Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region, 1945–1952: Allied War Crimes Prosecutions (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

33 Kerstin von Lingen and Robert Cribb, ‘War Crimes Trials in Asia: Collaboration and Complicity in the Aftermath of War’, in Debating Collaboration and Complicity in War Crimes Trials in Asia, 1945–1956, ed. Kerstin von Lingen (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 14.

34 Ibid., 10–11, 15.

35 Neil Boister and Robert Cryer, The Tokyo International Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War Two (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008); Richard Minear, Victors’ Justice: the Tokyo War Crimes Trial (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971); Arnold C. Brackman, The Other Nuremberg: the Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (New York: Morrow, 1987); Timothy P. Maga, Judgment at Tokyo: the Japanese War Crimes Trials (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001); David Cohen and Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); Kerstin von Lingen, ed. Transcultural Justice at the Tokyo Tribunal: The Allied Struggle for Justice, 1946–48 (Leiden: Brill, 2018); Viviane E. Dittrich, Kerstin von Lingen, Philipp Osten and Jolana Makraiová, eds. The Tokyo Tribunal – Perspectives on Law, History, and Memory (Nuremberg Academy Series No. 3, Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2020).

36 Joseph B. Keenan, ‘Opening Statement of the Prosecution’, in United States, Department of State, Trial of Japanese War Criminals, Documents: 1. Opening Statement by Joseph B. Keenan, Chief of Counsel; 2. Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East; 3. Indictment (United States Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1946), 1.

37 Ibid., 3–4.

38 Report of Robert H. Jackson, US Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, London, 1945. ([Washington, D.C.]: Department of State, 1949), 49. On the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, see Whitney R. Harris, Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg (Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1954); Bradley F. Smith, Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg (New York: Basic Books, 1977); Robert E. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg (New York: Harper & Row, 1983); Ann Tusa and John Tusa, The Nuremberg Trial (London: Macmillan, 1983); George Ginsburgs and V. N. Kudriavtsev, The Nuremberg Trial and International Law (Dordrecht: M. Nijhoff, 1990); Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials (Boston: Knopf, 1992); Joseph E. Persico, Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial (New York: Viking, 1994); Francine Hirsch, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

39 ‘Atrocities by Korean Red Troops: Offenders to Stand Trial’.

40 Brigadier General K.B. Bush, Adjutant General, ‘Trial of Accused War Criminals’, 28 October 1950, and ‘Rules of Criminal Procedure for Military Commissions of the United Nations Command’, Exhibit 6 attached to War Crimes Division, Judge Advocate Section, Korean Communications Zone, ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’, 31 May 1954, NARA, RG153, Entry 182, Box 1.

41 See documents in NARA, Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1951, 000.1-000.76, Box 723.

42 Colonel George W. Hickman Jr, Command Judge Advocate, to Oliver Bertram, Far East Land Forces, Singapore, 31 January 1951, 1, NA (UK), ‘Korea War Criminals’, LCO53/159. See also Commanding General, U.S. Eighth Army, to French Military Mission, Tokyo, 7 November 1950, NARA, RG554, Records of General Headquarters, FEC, SCAP, and UNC. Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division. Secret General Correspondence 1950. 000.3-000.92, Box 611.

43 Colonel James M. Hanley, Chief, War Crimes Division, Field Memorandum No. 1, 14 November 1950, Exhibit 9 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

44 Colonel James M. Hanley, Chief, War Crimes Section, to Colonel Robert L. Lancefield, Army Staff Judge Advocate, Eighth U.S. Army Korea, 21 February 1952, 5, NARA, RG338, Eighth U.S. Army, 1944–56, Adjutant General Section. General Correspondence 1952: 000.1 to 000.93, Box 507.

45 Ibid.

46 Hickman to Bertram, 31 January 1951, 2.

47 R. A. Savory, Letter to the Editor, The Times, 4 October 1950, 7.

48 Hickman to Bertram, 31 January 1951.

49 ‘Mr. Truman’s Rendezvous with Gen. MacArthur: Vital Talks on Far East Policy’, The Times, 14 October 1950, 6.

50 Wing Commander C. Marshall to M. T. Walker, Foreign Office, 15 December 1953, NA (UK), WO208/4005. See also Walker to Marshall, 11 December 1953, in same file.

51 Air Ministry to Sir G. Jebb, 21 November 1953, NA (UK), WO208/4005.

52 Major General Edward M. Almond, General Staff Corps, Chief of Staff, ‘Investigation and Prosecution of War Criminal [sic]’, 14 July 1950, Exhibit 1 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

53 Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command, to Commander-in-Chief, Armed Forces of North Korea, 20 August 1950, Exhibit 3 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

54 ‘Proclamation by the Heads of Governments, United States, China and the United Kingdom’, 26 July 1945, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers: The Conference of Berlin (the Potsdam Conference), 1945 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945), Vol. 2, 1476.

55 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals, 67–103.

56 Robert Cribb, ‘“Conventional War Crimes”’: the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Ill-Treatment of Prisoners-of-War and Civilian Internees’, in The Tokyo Tribunal, eds. Dittrich, Lingen, Osten and Makraiová, 177–99.

57 On command responsibility see Guénaël Mettraux, The Law of Command Responsibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Totani, Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region; Gideon Boas and Lisa Lee, ‘Command Responsibility and Other Grounds of Criminal Responsibility’, in Australia’s War Crimes Trials 1945–51, eds. Georgina Fitzpatrick, Tim McCormack and Narrelle Morris (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2016), 134–74; L.C. Green, ‘Command Responsibility in International Humanitarian Law’, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 5 (1995): 319–41; W.H. Parks ‘Command Responsibility for War Crimes’, Military Law Review 62 (1973): 1–104; Andrew D. Mitchell, ‘Failure to Halt, Prevent or Punish: the Doctrine of Command Responsibility for War Crimes’, Sydney Law Review 22, no. 3 (2000): 381–410.

58 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals, 58–63; Cribb, ‘“Conventional War Crimes”’.

59 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 1, 4.

60 Chinnery, Korean Atrocity!, 56–61.

61 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 14–15.

62 Stanley L. Falk, Bataan: The March of Death (New York: W.W. Norton, 1962), 175.

63 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 23–4.

64 Robert J. Bunker, ‘Biological Warfare’, in Encyclopedia of the Korean War, ed. Tucker, 77–8; Conrad C. Crane, ‘Atomic, Chemical, and Biological Weapons’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Korean War, eds. Matray and Boose, 179–82; Charles S. Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number: Exploiting Korean War POWs at Home and Abroad (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 66. All these authors note that the claims are highly implausible.

65 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 33.

66 From CINCFE Tokyo to DA Washington, 13 July 1950, NARA, RG554, Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1950, 000.3-000.92, Box 611.

67 See, for example, the judge’s comments in Trial of Kishi Yasuo and 14 Others, Hong Kong, March-April 1946, NA (UK), WO235/993.

68 ‘Information Extracted from Final Historical and Operational Report’, 1.

69 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 6.

70 Hanley to Lancefield, 21 February 1952, 1–2.

71 Letter from Lawrence E. Nobles, Colonel AGC, Adjutant General, Eighth United States Army Korea (EUSAK), ‘War Crimes Activities’, 6 March 1952, NARA, Eighth U.S. Army, 1944–56, Adjutant General Section, General Correspondence 1952: 000.1 to 000.93, Box 507.

72 Hanley to Lancefield, 21 February 1952, 5.

73 For a description of the War Crimes Division’s investigative procedure in Korea see ‘Statement of Lt. Col. Jack R. Todd, JAGC, Chief, War Crimes Division, Office of the Zone Staff Judge Advocate, Headquarters, Korean Communication Zone, Korea’, in Korean War Atrocities: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 2, December 3, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954), 77–86.

74 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals, 42–57, 67–103.

75 See, for example, ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 14–24.

76 Special Report to the United Nations Relative to the United Nations Prisoners of War in the Hands of the Enemy, [5 November 1951], NARA, RG554, Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1951, 000.1-000.76, Box 723.

77 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 6–8.

78 Ibid., 13.

79 Ibid., 32.

80 Ibid., 6–8.

81 Ibid., 6–8, 12, 14–26; Memorandum by Lt Colonel John W. Wiseheart [Chief of War Crimes Division], 12 July 1952, 3–4, Exhibit 21 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

82 Hanley to Lancefield, 21 February 1952; Report by Col. Lancefield, Army Staff Judge Advocate, EUSAK, 3 March 1952, in same file.

83 Lancefield Report, 3 March 1952; Nobles, ‘War Crimes Activities’.

84 ‘Historical Report for Period Ending 31 December 1952’, 27–8.

85 Ibid., 14–15, 23–4.

86 Ibid., 14, 32. Details of the cases referred to appear on 14–19.

87 Ibid., 16.

88 ‘Atrocities by Korean Red Troops – Offenders to Stand Trial’.

89 Hickman to Bertram, 31 January 1951, NA (UK), LCO53/159.

90 Draft Memorandum by the Acting Officer in Charge of Korean Affairs (Emmons) to the Assistant Secretary of State to Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk), Washington, D.C.: ‘Department Policy Towards War Crimes in Korea’, 10 October 1950, in Foreign Relations of the United States 1950, Vol. VII, Korea (United States Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1976), 923–5.

91 Ibid.

92 See, for example, Douglas MacArthur, ‘Statement First Anniversary of Surrender’, reprinted in Government Section, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Political Reorientation of Japan, September 1945 to September 1948: Report of Government Section, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949), 756–7.

93 ‘Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference on 15 October 1950’, in Foreign Relations of the United States 1950 Vol. VII, Korea, 949, 954; ‘Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs [Rusk], undated: Addendum to Notes on Wake Conference October 14’, in ibid., 961–2.

94 Draft Memorandum by the Planning Adviser, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs (Emmerson), (Washington): ‘United States Course of Action with Respect to Korea’, 6 November 1950, 1064.

95 Ibid., 1061.

96 On the ‘purges’ in Japan see Hans H. Baerwald, The Purge of Japanese Leaders Under the Occupation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959).

97 Ivan Morris, Nationalism and the Right Wing in Japan: A Study of Post-War Trends (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), 212.

98 ‘United States Course of Action with Respect to Korea’, 6 November 1950, 1061.

99 Wada, The Korean War, 210.

100 Brigadier General C.W. Christenberry, Deputy Chief of Staff, Eighth United States Army Korea, to Commander-in-Chief, Far East Command, no date but c. August 1952, 1–2, Exhibit 24 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

101 Hanley to Lancefield, 21 February 1952, 1–2.

102 Colonel Lawrence E. Nobles, Adjutant General, to Chief, War Crimes Section, 6 March 1952, 1, Exhibit 20 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

103 Wiseheart memorandum, 1, Exhibit 21 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

104 Memorandum by Colonel Lancefield (Staff Judge Advocate), 17 July 1952, 1, Exhibit 22 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

105 Radio message from Commander-in-Chief of UN Command, 26 August 1952, 1, Exhibit 27 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

106 Radio message from Commander-in-Chief, UNC, Tokyo, To CG AFFE MAIN, ‘Change of Action’, 8 September 1953, Exhibit 27 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

107 Stueck, The Korean War, 261–262, 276; Latham, Cold Days in Hell, 215; Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number, Ch. 3; Monica Kim, The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019), 171–210; Monica Kim, ‘The Intelligence of Fools: Reading the U.S. Military Archive of the Korean War’, positions: Asia critique 23, no. 4 (2015): 716–22.

108 Major General Thomas W. Herren to Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command, ‘Status of Prisoners of War to be Tried for War Crimes and Post-Capture Offenses’, 19 August 1952, 1, Exhibit 26 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’.

109 Ibid., 1–2.

110 ‘U.S. Troops Accused of Mass Murder’, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW), 31 August 1950, 4; ‘North Korean Note to U.N.’, The Times, 17 April 1951, 4; ‘North Korean Charges Against U.N. Forces’, The Times, 22 November 1951, 4.

111 Letter from George W. Hickman Jr, Command Staff Judge Advocate, to Colonel Burton F. Ellis, JAGC, Corps Staff Judge Advocate, 20 May 1951, NARA, RG554, Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1951, 000.1-000.76, Box 723.

112 Boister and Cryer, The Tokyo International Military Tribunal, 111.

113 Crane, ‘Atomic, Chemical, and Biological Weapons’, 179, 182; Bunker, ‘Biological Warfare’, 77; Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number, 66.

114 Cumings, The Korean War, 190; Kim, ‘Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres’, 537–8.

115 Our Special Correspondent in Korea, ‘Seoul After Victory’, The Times, 25 October 1950, 5; Kurt Hahn, ‘Outrages in Korea’, Letter to the Editor, The Times, 3 November 1950, 5; ‘Atrocity in Korea’, Sun (Sydney), 7 December 1950, 11; Our Own Correspondent, ‘Executions in South Korea’, The Times, 18 December 1950, 6; ‘Executions in Korea’, Illawarra Daily Mercury (NSW), 19 December 1950, 4; Cyril Ebor, ‘Atrocities in Korea’, Letter to the Editor, The Times, 20 December 1950, 7; ‘Mass Murder in Korea’, Northern Standard (Darwin), 22 December 1950, 1.

116 Rowland and Hwang, ‘Time Running Out on South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’; Cumings, The Korean War, 201–2; Suh, ‘Atrocities Before and During the Korean War’, 566–73; Kim, ‘Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres’, 524, 532–6.

117 Telegram, the Ambassador in Korea (Muccio) to the Secretary of State, Seoul, 21 December 1950, in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Korea, Vol. VII, 1587.

118 From SCAP Tokyo to Department of State, Washington, D.C., 19 December 1950, NARA, RG554, Records of General Headquarters, FEC, SCAP, and UNC. Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1950. 000.3 – 000.92, Box 611.

119 ‘Punishment of Personnel Guilty of Mistreatment of Prisoners of War’, undated but after 11 April 1951, 2, NARA, RG554, Adjutant General’s Section, Operations Division, Secret General Correspondence 1951, 000.1-000.76, Box 723.

120 Acting Secretary of State to Embassy in Korea, 18 December 1950, in Foreign Relations of the United States 1950 Vol. VII, Korea, 1567.

121 Latham, Cold Days in Hell, 215.

122 Ibid., 41; Cumings, The Korean War, 173, 176–7.

123 UK Delegation to the United Nations, New York, to Foreign Office, 31 October 1953, NA (UK), WO208/4005.

124 Latham, Cold Days in Hell, 19.

125 Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number, 147.

126 Chinnery, Korean Atrocity!, 217–18. Such stories provided the basis for Richard Condon’s novel, The Manchurian Candidate (New York: New American Library, 1959), which, in turn, provided the basis for John Frankenheimer’s 1962 movie with the same title.

127 Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number, 86–7.

128 Ibid., 147–8, 190.

129 ‘Department of the Army Plan for Exploiting Communist Mistreatment of U.S. Prisoners of War’, no date, Exhibit 50 attached to ‘Final Historical and Operational Report’, 2, 4.

130 Korean War Atrocities: Report of the Committee on Government Operations Made Through its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations by its Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities Pursuant to S. Res. 40 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954). https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/KW-atrocities-Report.pdf. Records of the hearings are contained in three publications. See Korean War Atrocities: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations United States Senate Eighty-Third Congress, First Session Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 1, December 2, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954; https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/KW-atrocities-part1.pdf); Korean War Atrocities: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations United States Senate Eighty-Third Congress, First Session Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 2, December 3, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954; https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/KW-atrocities-part2.pdf); Korean War Atrocities: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Korean War Atrocities of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations United States Senate Eighty-Third Congress, First Session Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 3, December 4, 1953 1953 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1954; https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/KW-atrocities-part3.pdf), all accessed 29 April 2021.

131 ‘Memo re: Executive Session, Subcommittee of the Senate Investigating Committee, Sen. Charles E. Potter (R., Michigan)’, 30 November 1953, 2, NARA, RG319, Entry A1 134-A, Box 36, Folder ZA 01 99 77, Korean War Atrocities, Folder 1 of 2.

132 Carlson, Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War, 2–3.

133 Korean War Atrocities: Report, 15, 16.

134 George A. Furness to Editor, ‘Release of Sugamo Prisoners’, Nippon Times, 21 August 1955, NARA, RG59, C0043, Reel 34, folder: M-2.7 War criminals 1955. Furness argued that the mooted trials for crimes in Korea had been abandoned for political reasons, and that Japanese war criminals, similarly, should be released for political reasons.

135 Young, Name, Rank and Serial Number, 129–34.

136 ‘Department of the Army Plan for Exploiting Communist Mistreatment of U.S. Prisoners of War’, 1.

137 Ibid., 2.

138 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals, 103, 140.

139 Wilson, Cribb, Trefalt and Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals.