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The Other Panmunjom: Mutiny or Revolution on Koje Island?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Extract
On May 7, 1952—in a twist of events that journalist Murray Schumach of the New York Times would later describe as “the strangest episode of the Korean War”—a group of Korean Communist prisoners of war “kidnapped” US camp commander Brigadier General Francis Dodd of the Koje-do POW camp. Located just off the southern coast of South Korea, the island contained the largest US-controlled camp during the Korean War.
POW Joo Tek Woon, who was the spokesman elected by the members of Compound 76, had placed multiple, repeated requests to meet with Dodd, and that afternoon, Dodd finally agreed to meet with Joo. They met at the main gate of the compound, the barbed-wire fence between them. A small group of prisoners of war accompanied Joo, and one of them served as a translator. The list of topics to be discussed was lengthy, ranging from mundane complaints about camp logistics to the larger issue of POW repatriation, which was the last remaining subject of debate at the ceasefire negotiations taking place in the village of Panmunjom.
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References
Notes
1 Murray Schumach, “Gen. Dodd Is Freed by Koje Captives Unhurt and Happy,” New York Times, May 11, 1952.
2 Details from Case File #33; Box 8; Post Capture Summaries; Historical Reports of the War Crimes Division, 1952-54, War Crimes Division, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General; Record Group 153; NARA, College Park, Maryland (hereafter “Case File #33”).
3 Alexander Liosnoff Collection, Box 1, Folder: Korean War Press Releases and Wire Service Teletypes (Brigadier General Francis T. Dodd), Hoover Institution Archives. (A version of Zalburg's narrative appears in the Chicago Daily Tribune on May 12, 1952, in “20 Tanks Scare Reds into Freeing Dodd: Army Rushes Force to POW Island by Ships.” At that time, Zalburg was working as an International News Service correspondent.)
4 “A Time to Pause and Reflect,” Madison Press, Madison County, OH, May 23, 2009.
5 “Use Force to Release Hostage if Necessary, Gen. Ridgway Rules,” Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1952; “UN Rejects Red Terms to Free General,” Atlanta Daily World, May 10, 1952; “Koje Fantastic,” New York Times, May 11, 1952.
6 Lindesay Parrott, “U.S. General Seized by Red Prisoners at Koje as Hostage,” New York Times, May 9, 1952.
7 “UN Rejects Red Terms to Free General,” Atlanta Daily World, May 10, 1952.
8 Murray Schumach, “General Believed Unhurt,” New York Times, May 10, 1952.
9 Alexander Liosnoff Collection, Box 1, Folder: Korean War Press Releases and Wire Service Teletypes (Brigadier General Francis T. Dodd), Hoover Institution Archives.
10 Special to the New York Times, “truman endorses u.n. truce stand rejected by reds; He Denounces as ‘Repugnant’ to World Foe's Insistence on Repatriation of Captives backs ridgway ‘package’ Acheson and Foster Also See Allies Offering Fair Terms for Cease-Fire Accord truman endorses korea truce stand,” New York Times, May 8, 1952.
11 Case file #87, Box 5, POW Incident Investigation Case Files, 1950-1953; Office of the Provost Marshall; Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1; Headquarter, US Army Forces, Far East, 1952-1957; Record Group 554; NARA, College Park, Maryland.
12 “Truman Endorses UN Truce Stand Rejected by Reds,” The New York Times, May 8, 1952.
13 There is a great deal of scholarship examining and analyzing the development of international humanitarian law especially after 1945. For a general overview, see Geoffrey Best, War and Law since 1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997) and his other monograph, Humanity in Warfare (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980). A significant book on Panmunjom is Hakjae Kim, P'anmunjŏm ch'eje ŭi kiwŏn: Han'guk Chŏnjaeng kwa chayujuŭi p'yŏnghwa kihoek [The Origins of the Panmunjom Regime], (Seoul: Humanitas, 2015).
14 Box 7; Post Capture Summaries; Historical Reports of the War Crimes Division, 1952–54, War Crimes Division, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General; Record Group 153; NARA, College Park, Maryland.
15 Case File #33.
16 Case File #33.
17 Case File #33.
18 All quotes directly from interrogation transcripts in Case File #33.
19 Case File #33.
20 Transcribed copies of these statements are contained as evidence within Case File #33.
21 Case File #33.
22 Case File #33.
23 Case File #33.