CDKW00508 - News from Koje

In these New York Times clippings from 27 May 1952, reporter Murray Schumach details troop orders in Koje, but also concerning reports from the Koje Island prisoner-of-war camp. These reports indicated that hundreds had died within the camp since the previous September, when North Korean and Chinese forces had begun attempts to capture the camp and repatriate its prisoners. Schumach’s report is indicative of the approach taken in North America to the war, referencing the Chinese and North Koreans as “the reds” and describing their fighting as a “savage struggle.” Schumach also recounted that the most recent new arrivals to the camp as guards—including Canadian and British troops—were informed that prisoners should not be killed even if they were subversive, not for moral or ethical reasons, but because it could aid Communist propaganda efforts against the United Nations Forces. The public nature of this reporting also illustrates why the Canadians were likely so upset that a portion of their brigade had been assigned to the camp, as it placed Ottawa publicly on the hook for a decision they had not made and privately disliked. In fact, the reports of the violence of Koje Island led the British to imply that this would not have happened under their control as it has under the Americans, and Pearson expressed Canadian distaste for the decision in the House of Commons.