"The Bamboo Prison" - (1954)

 

                                          

This film was actually banned in a number of cities after the Korean War. It came out just about a year and a half after the Armistice was signed at Panmunjom.

Robert Francis, the young actor who played the Juinor officer in the 1954 film "The Caine Mutiny"  plays a young POW who gives into Korean brainwashing and receives special privileges. But he is not what he seems. He is working with another POW played by Brian Keith to find information that can be used by the United Nations to prosecute the North Koreans for War Crimes and end the war. They were sucessful in doing so.

E.G. Marshall plays a Priest, but he is also not what he seems to be. He is actually an Intelligence  Agent placed by the Russians in the camp. Richard Loo and Keye Luke play two of the North Koreans. And a young Aaron Spelling plays a role as a POW named Skinny. Of course he went on to higher things producing hit TV shows, so it is interesting to see him act.

I won't go too far into the film's plot as it would serve as a spoiler. Suffice to say that this film is a very important link in understanding the complexities of the War, which never resulted in a treaty. As in most wars, there are no real winners.

In reality, several of the POW's who served the North Koreans were offered amnesty to return home but remained in North Korea making propaganda films for the Communists. We will never know whether any of those men sacrificed going home to remain as American agents as all information on that subject is still "Classified."

Interesting note about Robert Francis, who made two films in 1954; "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Bamboo Prison." The following year he played in two other films before dying in a private plane crash in California. He was only 25 years old. We will never really know far he would have gone in making films, but judging by his first two, he would have made quite a mark. At a time when Marlon Brando and James Dean were playing the anti-hero roles, Robert Francis was playing clean cut "boy next door" roles.

This film is one of only 3 films made regarding the subject of brainwashing and abuse of American prisoners of war during the Korean War were dramatized in "P.O.W." in 1953 and also "Prisoner of War", starring Ronald Reagan in 1954. I don't  count "The Manchurian Candidate" starring Frank Sinatra, as that was made in 1962.

Still, that film stands as a very realistic portrayal of the Mind Control used by the Communists during the war to create "sleeper agents" living in the United States, although it takes place after the war had been over almost 10 years.

My Father's Army Wallet

My father was a towering figure to me when I was a small fry. My perception of him changed over the years as I grew older; circumstances and reality ultimately prevailing. But when I was about 5 years old this pigskin wallet; which my father carried for 3 years while serving out his time at Fort Dix during the Korean War waiting for a Hardship Discharge; was to me the epitome of manhood. It was kept in his dresser drawer. As far as I was concerned, if only I could be a grown man and have a wallet like that I would never want for anything else in the way of self-esteem. The wallet was always promised to me. It was to be mine “when I grew up.”

So, when my father passed away in December of 2001 I came into possession of this treasured and revered shrine. I received it by mail from my father’s second wife; he remarried after my mother’s death in 1984. She was a loving companion to him for 16 years until he passed away, and I appreciated the gesture honoring this age old pact concerning the wallet.

Some things never live up to the memories attached thereof; but not so with this wallet. Rather, it contained all that I had remembered; plus some unexpected surprises, all of which left me even more confused than I already was about my relationship with my father; which, to say the least, was strained. In fact we had not spoken for almost a decade before he died. We never made that transition and put the past behind us. Neither one of us was capable of taking the first step towards reconciliation, I suppose, but that’s the truth. And that lack of a reconciliation made this wallet even more important. It serves as the only real "link" to my father.

Now, holding the wallet in my hand for the first time in over 40 years; since 1969 give or take; I opened the shrine and relived the excitement of being a child again, looking into my father’s world. The problem was, now I was older than he was when he had promised the wallet to me. Maybe this was going to be anti-climactic as the wallet had been in his dresser drawer for decades since I’d last seen it. So, I thought,what could be new?

Apparently; along with all of the things I remembered as having been in the wallet; my father had been adding stuff to it since I’d seen it last. I remember the Reserve ID card; I now even have one myself; and the crucifix and the penny were always like Sacred Relics to me. The crucifix comes from the Shrine of the Little Flower in Oak Park, Michigan. It was a gift to my father from his older brother Roy, who had served in the Navy during the Second World War. He used to go around the country while on leave, visiting all of the Catholic Shrines. The penny; dated 1950, the year in which my parents were wed; is the one my Mom carried in her shoe on their wedding day. I know this story to be true because I used to hold it in my hand and ask her about it. I never got tired of hearing that story.  

There are other things in the wallet which I remember well; the draft status cards, which run from 5-A to 3-R. The first indicates that he was eligible to be called for Korea, while the second one shows he is no longer available. There were also a few things which my Dad had added to the wallet; things which I found puzzling; given the nature of our non-relationship.

The first was an old Buffalo nickel with his birth year on it; 1931. I’d sent that to him in 1981 for his 50^th birthday. At the time I was already out of the Navy and working for Military Sealift Command. We were so polarized that I never even stayed with my parents when in New York; about once or twice a year. Instead I stayed with my friends Mark and Lois in Belle Harbor. But yet I still sent the old man a birthday gift; one which he obviously treasured, though he never said a word to me about it. I had even wondered if he ever received it; but never asked. Finding that nickel was quite a surprise for me; did he keep it because I’d sent it? Or was it simply because it was a nickel? 

But the real showstopper was this letter; the contents of which were not extraordinary in any way; I had written many letters home which far outdid this one. It was one of the few not addressed to my Mom and maybe that’s why he kept it. I’ll never know. We hadn’t spoken to one another in a civil manner for years before we finally broke off contact altogether in the early 1990’s. The one exception was when he called to tell me that Nana; my grandmother; had passed away. He said he was calling out of obligation. I thanked him and we hung up. I never saw or spoke to him again after that.

Time is a funny thing. Sometimes we forgive; and maybe even forget. I don’t know whether or not I will ever reach that point in connection with my relationship to my father. It’s simply too complicated. Besides, he’s gone and the conversation would be kind of one sided. But I have to believe he must have liked something about me. Or else why would he have carried that letter?

"The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot" by Blaine Harden (2015)

On September 21, 1953 a North Korean pilot got into the seat of the MIG-15 to which he was assigned to and flew away to South Korea. The story of Lt. No Kum Sok‘s flight to freedom was a story which instantly dazzled the world. But for the weary Lieutenant No it was the culmination of a dream he had held close since he first saw Kim Il Sung speaking from the top of a pile of fertilizer 7 years earlier. He wanted to go to America.

Blaine Harden has taken one of the most fascinating events of the Korean War and placed it at the center of a unique and highly readable book not only about the man who flew the plane; but also the story of Kim Il Sung and how he got to be on top of that fertilizer pile in the first place.

World War Two was the result of the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to correctly address all of the problems which had sparked that war in the first place. Coupled with the heavy handed financial burdens placed on Germany, the treaty was actually a recipe for the next war.

So it was with the end of World War Two. Treaties and alliances were made which would ultimately shape the post war world and lead to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Against this backdrop were the political positions and politics of countries like Vietnam and Korea in Southeast Asia. Just as with the former colonies in Africa which were abandoned soon after the war ended, the fate of these 2 nations rested upon the needs and desires of the United States and the Soviets.

Kim Il Sung was the product of the war against the Chinese in the 1930’s and then the war against Japan in the 1930’s and 1940’s. By the time the second conflict ended Korea was indiscriminately cleaved in half at the 38^th parallel; leaving families torn apart from one another in much the same way that the division of Berlin would do to the German people. The political vacuum left in the North was quickly filled by Kim, who had fashioned himself into the role of “Great Leader” much as Stalin had become “Uncle Joe” and Mao became “Chairman Mao.”

As the United States became somewhat complacent with her place in the post war world, the Russians and the Koreans were scheming to consolidate their positions in the hierarchy of worldwide Communism. There was no dispute that Uncle Joe was the head; it was more a question of how close you could be to the top. And Kim wanted to be there with all his heart.

The Soviet Union had just gotten their first atom bomb when Kim Il Sung decided he wanted to re-unify the two halves of his country. No Kum was just 17 when his father died and his country invaded the South. His family had enjoyed immense privileges under the Japanese rule while working for a Japanese firm. When the war ended so did the family’s largesse.

No Kum did well in school and made sure to spout the “party line” whenever necessary. He was granted entry to North Korea’s fledgling Air Force and trained as a pilot. At the same time Kim Il Sung was asking Uncle Joe for some of the new MIG’s which the Soviets had developed. They were not faster than the Sabre’s flown by American pilots; but they could climb higher, giving them the advantage in surprising our bombers, which were pulverizing North Korean cities. 

When Uncle Joe relented and sent the fighters and pilots to North Korea for the training of the Korean Air Force, No Kum was selected to be among the trainees. Unknown to him at this point was that the US Government had a standing $100,000 reward for anyone who could; or would; steal a combat ready MIG and fly it to the South.

When No Kum finally gets his chance he goes for it, landing in South Korea. From there the book becomes an even more remarkable story, as he learns to fend his way through Western type red tape. He was also used by the CIA and the State Department for propaganda newsreels and press conferences.

This book has a lot to give; and it does so from the very first page. The carpet bombing of North Korea; which killed on a level not seen since the fire bombings of Japan and Germany; is explored in sufficient detail for the reader to actually learn something. And the authors summary of the history of Korea in relation to the Japanese and the Chinese is spot on, and does much to help explain the insanity which came to roost in North Korea and occupies the seat of government to this very day.

No Kum Sok finally got his money, a college degree and is still alive today as Kenneth Howe. He lives in Florida.

The Panmunjom Incident - 1976

For years I have been looking for more information on what I have always called the Panmunjom Incident. Although I have looked for the story everywhere, in order to bolster my own memory, I have found very little about it. It was only the other day, while googling the phrase “incident while trimming trees in UN observation zone in Korea 1976” that I was able to find out anything at all. The article was posted only 3 years ago. So I decided to test my memory against that of the article. Here goes;

I had just finished with my enlistment papers in August of 1976 in preparation for entering the Navy by the end of September. I had been out of high school for 4 years at this point and was cognizant of the need to find a new direction out of Brooklyn, and the sea seemed to be the most likely route of escape for me.

I was working at H and A Foods on Kings Highway at the time.  It was just after lunch when the first news of what had happened in Korea came over the radio. The way I remember the story; and have always told it; was that 5 American Captains had entered the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to trim a tree which was blocking the UN Observation post’s view of the zone from the Southern side. The tree trimming was supposed to be done on a rotating basis between the two sides, which have been at war since 1950. No armistice has ever been signed.

When the Captains and their men reached the disputed tree they were attacked by North Koreans who used the axes to kill the Americans and the South Koreans. The United States re-acted by placing 40,000 troops on high alert while scrambling fighter jets and B-52’s to circle the demilitarized zone while the Army Corp of Engineers went out with a bulldozer and ripped the tree up entirely by its roots. It was one of President Ford’s finest hours; maybe his only one; but yet I could not even find reference to it in his own autobiography!

Having a good memory can be infuriating, as I have wanted to write about this piece of history for several years, but wanted to check my facts first. But there was nowhere to turn for information until this article appeared on the website Environmental Hippie. I have no idea why it was posted there.

This is the tree after pruning and before the monument was placed. There appear to have been pictures along with the article, but they are not visible on my computer. These photos come from the Wikipedia site. Here is the link to the article on Environmental Hippie;

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/history/news-axe-murder-incident

Notice that I didn’t get too much wrong. It was apparently only 2 American Captains that were killed by the North Koreans and I did not know that the tree was planted by the late Kim Il Sung, was the leader of North Korea at the time. The article also states that there were 8,000 troops on alert, a figure I am willing to dispute as there were 40,000 American troops in Korea at the time, and you can bet that they were all on alert. In addition, the tree was not ripped up as I thought by a bulldozer. Rather it was sawn off at stump level while our planes circled overhead and the North Koreans stood impotently by. A few years after the incident, a plaque honoring the 2 fallen officers was placed on the stump in their honor.

There is no point to this story other than I want to set the record straight about the Panmunjom Incident; particularly that it did, indeed, happen. History is precious and needs to be preserved. Well, that may just be the point of this whole post.