New Jersey; Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, 2019. xii, 435 pp. (Table, map, B&W photos, illustrations.) US$35.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-691-16622-3.
The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War provides a sophisticated and insightful approach on the issue of prisoners of war (POWs) and their repatriation—issues which have often been reduced to footnotes in the literature on the Korean War (8). Monica Kim explains how the United States utilized POW repatriation in order to strengthen its position in the hegemonic struggle with the communist bloc in Korea’s post-colonial era. Kim also shows how individual POWs struggled to maintain their subjectivity in the face of pressure from various international actors. She does this by redirecting her focus from the battlefield to the interrogation room, which the US saw as a place to showcase its liberal principles, such as “freedom of choice” and “the right of individual self-determination” (8). What the POWs actually encountered, however, was endless suspicion, surveillance, and investigations aimed at identifying communists.
The main body of the book consists of two parts. The first half titled “The Elements of War” has three chapters that explain the historical and political contexts under which the interrogation rooms of the Korean War were created. Above all, Kim shows how a surveillance system and counter-intelligence network were institutionalized as a form of governance in South Korea under the American military occupation (chapter 1), and how the policy makers in Washington, DC actually treated the issue of POW interrogation and repatriation (chapter 2). Here, the author masterfully shows the gap between the perspectives of US officials and Korean POWs towards the sovereignty of South Korea. The United States legitimized its military occupation of South Korea by arguing that the Korean people were not ready to govern themselves. What the Koreans expected, however, was the establishment of their own government and not a new foreign occupier. In 1948, the US recognized South Korea as the only lawful state on the Korean Peninsula, whereas the sovereignty of North Korea was rejected. The communist POWs in US custody consistently expressed their state’s sovereignty through uprisings and hunger strikes, demonstrating that the conflict within the POW camps was not solely for ideology but also for recognition of statehood.
Subsequently the author sheds light on the American interrogators: who they were, how they were trained, and how they actually interrogated POWs in Korea (chapter 3). One fascinating aspect of the book is that it shows how the war between the US and Japan affected the interrogation rooms of the Korean War. Japanese Americans joined the US military to show their loyalty, and by doing so, could be recognized as real American citizens. The US sent these former “enemy aliens” to language training and to the Korean Peninsula where thousands of “Oriental” POWs had to be investigated. For the Korean POWs, to be interrogated by the Japanese (American) soldiers even after liberation from Japanese colonial rule surely felt like double victimization. Stories such as that of the understudied Japanese American soldiers add to the book’s depth.
The second half of the main body, “Humanity Interrogated,” depicts the violent aspect of voluntary repatriation by capturing the dynamics of the interrogation rooms in four sites: Koje Island and below, on, and above the 38th Parallel. First, Kim demonstrates how the communist POWs in the largest US- and UN-run POW camp in Korea tried to uphold their subjectivity by kidnapping the camp commander, Brigadier General Dodd (chapter 4). Thereafter, she describes the South Korean anti-Communist paramilitary youth groups that were created and supported by US forces and the South Korean government, and which played the role of everyday interrogators inside the POW camps (chapter 5). Finally, she provides stories of the Korean POWs who chose to be repatriated to neutral nations (chapter 6) and the American POWs who decided not to go back after being persuaded by the Chinese and North Korean militaries (chapter 7). Throughout these chapters, readers can get a sense of the enormous pressure the POWs were under to side with the US and thus advance the imperial ambitions that were hidden in its voluntary repatriation policy. The POWs who made decisions that ran counter to US interests were labeled as fanatics, traitors, or brainwashed.
One of the book’s weaknesses is that it sometimes uses unnecessarily inaccessible language to explain rather straightforward content, especially in the introduction and first two chapters. Moreover, the book requires considerable background knowledge about Korean history, American politics, and international law. An appendix explaining names, events, and places would have been helpful. Those factors may frustrate nonacademic readers or those unfamiliar with the research topic.
Last but not least, the greatest contribution of this book is to demonstrate that “the experiences of ordinary people on the ground” is an important aspect of political history (358). From African American POWs who refused to be repatriated over concerns of racism in the US, to Japanese American interrogators who saw their work as a loyalty test, this book shows how a myriad of personal motivations and national interests intersected to constitute the Korean War.
Eun Hee Woo
Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin