What Every American Should Know About the Korean War and American POWs
Potter had lost both of his legs in the Second World War. It was his dogged pursuit of the truth involving these wicked war crimes that led to the hearings being responsible for over two hundred pages of testimony. A formal report came out on January, 11th, 1954, from these hearings that exposed the stories of murder, torture, starvation, medical experimentation and a host of other cruelties versus United Nation forces, which were predominantly American. The foundation for this investigation was built as early as 1950, when word began to reach General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters that American prisoners were being tortured by the North Koreans. He promptly set up a War Crimes Division at the site of his command, with the intent of preparing evidence to present to the United Nations. Hundreds of photographs documenting this abuse that were presented at the Potter hearings came from the files of MacArthur’s War Crimes Division. Much of this evidence was presented at the Potter hearings, proving conclusively and beyond any shadow of a doubt that atrocities had been perpetrated against United Nations military personnel.
Many separate incidents of inhumane treatment were recalled by the men who had been there. On August 14th through the 16th of 1950, forty five Americans were captured by the North Koreans at a place simply known as Hill 303. All of these prisoners were led to a ravine, their hands tied, and then they were shot. Only five managed somehow to survive. Even more vicious was what has come to be known as the Sunchon Tunnel Massacre, which occurred on October 30th, 1950. One hundred and eighty American prisoners of war that had already survived a forced death march and been denied food for four or five days were loaded into railroad cars. Upon arriving at their destination, under the pretense that they were going to be fed, they were taken in groups of forty and shot by North Korean forces using Russian burp guns. Private First Class John Martin, of Ferndale, Michigan, was one of those who were lucky enough to live through this horror. He testified before the Potter commission and recounted how the prisoners were told to crouch down.
“So when we all ducked down, some more of them came up over a little rice paddie and just opened up,” he said. After they were shot, a member of the firing squad proceeded down into the ditch to check the prisoners. “They went down and kicked somebody, and if he groaned they shot him again or bayoneted him, and then kicked somebody else.” One hundred and thirty eight soldiers lost their lives on that terrible day.
The Potter report revealed more wicked acts by the Communists. On September 27th, 1950, sixty American prisoners of war were slaughtered in Taejon. Only one man, a Sergeant Carey Weinel of Kansas City, Missouri, was able to make it through alive. He remembered how the North Koreans aimed at his head, but only managed to hit him in the neck, hand and collarbone. Faking death, he was tossed in a ditch and buried alive. He remained in the ditch for over twelve hours until he felt it was safe to make good his escape under cover of darkness.
In a separate incident, the bodies of five American airmen were found in the Muju area in December of 1950. Their flesh had puncture wounds in as many as twenty different areas from bamboo spears. They had been tortured in such a way so that no one single perforation was enough to have caused death all by itself. Lt. Col. James T. Rogers, who hailed from Greenwood, S.C., was a medical officer with the First Corps. He spoke at the Potter hearings, saying that his post-mortem examination after the bodies had been found revealed obvious evidence of torture. “By the nature of the wounds, I am of the opinion that the instrument of torture had been previously heated. After torturing them with the superficial wounds, they bayoneted them with the same instruments and these fellows were left to bleed to death.”
Sergeant Wendell Treffrey was a native of Terryville, Connecticut, and a member of the army hospital corps. He was with the 1st marines at Chosin Reservoir when he was captured with other Americans. Here is what he suffered in his own words.
“They took our heavy clothing, and shoes, and left us with only a pair of fatigues. It was about 20 below zero. We found out, when we backtracked on Dec. 1 to the point of capture, that our wounded had not been returned to the American lines, as promised in the surrender agreement. Our wounded were still lying there, all frozen. We marched two days. The first night we got some hay and slept in the hay, cuddling together to keep warm. The second night we slept in pigpens. That night I froze my feet. I got marching the next sixteen days after that. During that march all the meat had worn off my feet, all the skin had dropped off, nothing but the bones showing. After arriving at Kanggye, they put us up in mud huts. There we remained until early January 1951. Then they moved us in oxcarts about 10 miles south of Kanggye, until April 25. A Chinese nurse came around to care for the wounded the first three days. She had a bag at her side stuffed full of newspapers, and a big pair of shears like we cut hedges with around the house. She said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I stuck my feet out from under the blankets and showed her the raw bones of my feet. She told me to lie down on my back, so I slid down. She started to clip off my toes. She missed the joint about a sixteenth of an inch, and hit the solid bone. She crunched them off, took them all off except the two big toes. Then she took that dirty newspaper and wrapped it over the blood and pus and tied it on with a piece of string. Then she went out. I said to the other fellows: ‘How do you like that?’ I tore my comforter open and ripped out some cotton. Then I ripped up a pair of fatigues and made bandages over the cotton. I took care of my feet all winter long. The other three men who were with me died. By April 25, I was the only one alive in our group.”
Private Charles Kinard told of being wounded and captured in the battle of Seoul during July of 1951. He was stripped of clothing and possessions and then tortured repeatedly. He was forced to run around with rocks in his shoes, causing his feet to bleed. Then he was burnt with lit cigarettes. His ration’s can opener was inserted into an open wound on his left shoulder and twisted in. When Kinard tried to remove it he was beaten. The only medical attention he was able to receive, he had to perform on himself.
The Potter hearings found that the evil and vile acts that the Communists carried out against Americans were no different from Soviet tactics against the Poles in the Katyn Forest Massacre of 1940-1941. Fifteen thousand Polish officers were systematically killed by the Russians, to crush any Polish resistance. The North Korean actions in Korea were consistent with the Communist philosophy of exterminating their enemies, no surprise given the Soviet backing of the North Koreans.
No war crime trials were held after the armistice that ended the Korean War. The North Koreans and Chinese were never held accountable for their despicable actions. The courage of the men that were the victims of these monstrous acts should never be forgotten and what happened to our prisoners of war at the hands of the enemy is something that every American should know about the Korean War.
