In the second year after the end of the Korean War, a steamship full of soldiers in Nationalist uniforms was slowly driving from South Korea to the island of Taiwan.
These soldiers were not really the Nationalist soldiers who had participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, but the volunteer soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Nationalist Army.
According to later statistics, these
There were 14,000 volunteer soldiers who went to Taiwan
。
These heroic sons and daughters who threw their heads and spilled their blood to defend their homeland,
Why did he suddenly go to Taiwan after the war when he was supposed to return to the mainland of his homeland after the war? Are these special volunteer soldiers undertaking new tasks or missions?
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(People's Volunteers)
Why did the Korean War, which could be truncated in one year, drag on for two years?
In July 1953, after three years of bitter fighting, the United States, South Korea and other countries finally signed an armistice agreement that made them disgraceful, which also made the long-awaited chinese and North Korean people cheer.
But in fact, the United States also waited for nearly 2 years for this armistice agreement
As early as 1951, the United States felt that this battle made it difficult to fight any longer, and planned to negotiate with the Chinese and North Korean militaries.
But the initial negotiations ended in failure.
Why didn't the two sides negotiate the armistice in 1951 and extend the Korean War backwards by 2 years?
This is because during the negotiations in 1951, there was one place where the two sides did not negotiate: that is
Repatriation of prisoners of war.
(Scene of signing of the Korean War Armistice)
Before we get to the specific issue of repatriation, we first need to understand,
There were many prisoners of war in the People's Army and the United Nations Army at that time
: In June 1951, the Mainland People's Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army were taken prisoner
There were more than 2,000 U.S. troops, more than 800 British prisoners of war, and more than 200 Turkish prisoners of war
And the United Nations army, led by the United States, was in the same time period.
In total, about 21,300 people from the People's Volunteer Army and about 150,000 people from the Korean People's Army were captured.
After seeing this number, a friend will ask:
Why was there such a difference in the number of prisoners of war between the two sides in 1951?
This is because at the beginning of the Korean War, the U.S. military landed in the Inchon area, from which the Korean People's Army was cut off from the north and south of the Korean People's Army.
This was an important reason why a large number of Korean People's Army fighters were captured during the one-year period of the war.
And for our army,
When I first entered North Korea, it still took some time to understand the mechanized combat methods of the US military.
It is worth mentioning that in the war after June 1951,
Only about 100 Volunteers were captured by the U.S. army, and the number of U.S. prisoners of war continued to rise after June 1951.
(U.S. prisoners of war in the Korean War)
Thus, after realizing the difference in the number of PRISONERs in the hands of the two sides, the Volunteers and the United Nations also proposed two different exchanges of views between the prisoners of war at the negotiating table. Our attitude is very painful,
At the negotiating table, we will return as many prisoners of war as we have here
You have also returned the people who should have been returned to us, and everyone went back to their homes and sought out their mothers. The un army's opinion is: let the captured soldiers choose where to return after release.
Those who want to go back to North Korea can go back to North Korea, and those who want to go back to South Korea can go back to South Korea
The United Nations called this method of repatriation of prisoners of war
"Voluntary repatriation"
But after hearing about the repatriation method given by the Un Army,
The Volunteers immediately objected, and why?
It turns out that we have long seen through the tricks of the UNITED Nations army: such a method of repatriation of prisoners of war is nominally "voluntary repatriation", but in fact?
In U.S. prisoner-of-war camps, what kind of torture would they inflict on fighters so that their repatriation was "voluntary"?
None of this is known.
(Prisoners abused by the U.S. military during World War II)
The so-called "voluntary repatriation" proposed by the United Nations at the negotiating table, even Ridgway, the later commander of the US military in the Korean battlefield, could not look at it: first, the "voluntary repatriation" of the United Nations army under the banner of the "United Nations" itself violated the regulations on prisoners of war in the Geneva Convention; second, if the two sides really released prisoners of war according to the standard of voluntary repatriation.
In the end, these American prisoners of war clamored to stay on the mainland. Isn't that lifting a stone and dropping it on your own feet?
Thus, the armistice negotiations in June 1951 were ultimately not negotiated because of the release of prisoners of war.
The two sides fought intermittently for another 2 years, and only then did the unwinnable UN forces once again obediently sit at the negotiating table.
How different the treatment of prisoners of war between the two armies was, ridgway was worried about the American troops running away
Ridgway, the commander of the U.S. army, believes that the "voluntary repatriation" method is not reliable, because he has always worried about what the U.S. troops who have been captured by the volunteers will do if they really voluntarily stay on the mainland or North Korea
Looking at the treatment of prisoners of war on both the Volunteer Army and the United Nations Army, we will find that Ridgway's concerns are not empty.
On the Korean Peninsula in 1952, a special "Olympic Games" was held. At that time, North Korea and South Korea were in the midst of war, so why did they suddenly hold an "Olympic Games"? Originally
The location of this particular Olympic Games was not set up elsewhere, but happened to be set up in our volunteer army's own barracks.
The athletes participating in the Olympic Games are prisoners of war from the United States, South Korea, Britain, Turkey and other countries. The Olympic Games are also very rich in sports,
Including popular sports in the West: American football, baseball, basketball, but also volleyball and athletics that we are familiar with.
Not only did a large number of prisoners of war voluntarily participate in the Olympic Games, but a considerable number of PRISONERs of war of the United Nations army served as videographers and journalists on the spot, and reported the grand situation of the Prisoner of War Olympic Games to the world.
(Prisoner of War Olympics)
The successful holding of the Prisoner of War Olympic Games can actually reflect what kind of treatment UN prisoners of war enjoyed in the camps of the Volunteer Army at that time: Just imagine,
If a prisoner of war who does not have enough to eat and wear warm clothes on weekdays may be powerless to walk around the barracks
How is it possible to participate in high-intensity sports like basketball and football? And as early as Chairman Mao's leadership of the Red Army,
We have developed a policy of "preferential treatment of prisoners"
Whether it is the Japanese on the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War or the nationalist troops captured on the battlefield of liberation, we will give preferential treatment to all of them, and criticize and educate these people who have gone to the battlefield, so that they can return to the ranks of the people. We do this because we are the people's army.
Many of the soldiers who were captured on these battlefields were also poor people who were deceived by officers and forcibly dragged to the battlefield by the invaders.
However, the Mainland People's Volunteers and the Korean People's Volunteers, captured by the United Nations Army, were not so lucky. In the barracks of the United Nations Army
，
There is a prisoner-of-war camp called "Geoje Island". In this prisoner-of-war camp, the captured warriors had to squeeze into a small, confined space
Locked by barbed wire covered with barbs, if you are not careful, you may rub your skin by squeezing each other, and the food is also the spoiled moldy food left by the LOGISTICS of the United Nations Army, which makes the physical condition of the prisoners of war often problematic, and the United Nations army ignores it. In the Regulations of prisoners of war of the Geneva Conventions,
The ratio of soldiers requiring care and custody of prisoners of war to prisoners of war was 1:20, compared with 1:33 in THE CAMPs of the United Nations Army
Armed forces fighting under the banner of the "United Nations" have flagrantly violated the important international regulations restricting war.
(Captured North Korean soldiers)
By July 1953, the UN forces, which had suffered repeatedly on the battlefield, finally had to make "concessions" on the issue of prisoners of war in the armistice agreement. However, at the final moment, the United States played another "word game" with the world, and US President Harry S. Truman said:
We will no longer release PRISONERs by "voluntary repatriation", but will release PRISONERs on a "non-coercive" basis.
So, what is the difference from "voluntary" to "non-mandatory"?
The difference is similar to the boss who no longer requires employees to "voluntarily leave work," but instead says to employees:
"You can work overtime or you can't, and I don't force you. As for whether you work overtime or not, you can see for yourself. ”
And the United States released a "non-coercive" signal, which means to announce to the world:
"We are not going to torture or otherwise allow these prisoners of war to be voluntarily allowed."
(U.S. President Harry S. Truman)
But
What the United States "did not voluntarily" do does not mean that it is unwilling to let others do it for him, and the person who replaced him is Chiang Kai-shek.
After hearing about the U.S. "non-coercive" release of prisoners program,
The Kuomintang immediately sent more than 400 agents to the Korean battlefield to be in a prisoner-of-war camp guarded by the United Nations army.
In the prisoner-of-war camp, these Kuomintang agents pretending to be "prisoners of war" immediately became the "leaders" in managing the food, clothing, and housing of the PRISONERs of war by bribing the officers of the UN PRISONER-of-War camps. In the camp, these agents firmly controlled the food and fresh water distributed by the US military to the prisoners of war, demanding that the prisoners of war "show loyalty" to them and be willing to go to Taiwan with them after the war before giving the prisoners food. Those who do not comply will be beaten or even killed by them.
According to the U.S. soldier guarding Geoje Island, he often heard the sound of beating people in the prisoner-of-war camp in the middle of the night, but the U.S. military guards who were responsible for taking care of the prisoners' food, clothing, shelter, and discipline in the camp turned a blind eye to them.
(Geoje Island Prisoner of War Camp)
Dissatisfied with the sabotage of the agents and the mistreatment they suffered, many volunteers and Korean People's Army fighters committed suicide in prisons as a sign of loyalty. Between 1951 and 1952, captured fighters launched several riots to try to escape the UN barracks, but unarmed they fell tragically under the machine guns of the US army. In 1952, there was a captured warrior,
After much hardship, a five-star red flag was raised on Geoje Island, and this five-star red flag later became a witness to his lifelong loyalty.
After the war, 14,000 PRISONERS were forced to taiwan
After torturing the volunteer soldiers several times without success, more than 400 agents wanted to psychologically completely destroy the soldiers' defenses, while the soldiers were asleep late at night. They use coercion, or cajoling,
On the naked backs of the soldiers, tattoos of the Nationalist army "blue sky and white sun" were tattooed, and a series of words such as "Long live Chairman Chiang Kai-shek" and so on.
When the warriors woke up, the spies said to them triumphantly:
"The words engraved on you will be a shame for the rest of your life when you return to your hometown."
In desperation, about 14,000 volunteer soldiers in the bloody battlefield of the country.
In January 1954, he was forced to put on the clothes of the Nationalist army and take a steamship to Taiwan, separated from his hometown.
(Prisoners of war held by UN forces)
Why did the mainland not object to the 1953 negotiations when the UN forces proposed a "non-coercive" release of prisoners?
The reason is that in the armistice negotiations at that time, the Soviet Union and North Korea also participated in the armistice negotiations on the release of prisoners.
Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union who had opposed the release of PRISONERs by UN forces, died in March 1953
The Korean People's Army, on the other hand, paid about 500,000-700,000 casualties in the war. Therefore, the voices of the Korean people calling for an armistice are also growing.
The mainland needed to respect the majority opinions of the Soviet Union and the DPRK in the negotiations, so it agreed to the final release of prisoners of war.
Later, some of these veterans of the volunteer army who had been separated from their hometowns for a long time returned home to visit their relatives as Taiwan businessmen in the 1980s and 1990s, and some returned to the mainland of the motherland. But no matter where they are,
As long as there are fighters who shed their blood for the cause of defending their country, they will always be our heroes.