On June 25, Slate ran a series of photos taken during the Korean War. Pretty good stuff, even if the scare dance is a bit surreal.
(HT to reader)
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On June 25, Slate ran a series of photos taken during the Korean War. Pretty good stuff, even if the scare dance is a bit surreal.
(HT to reader)
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19 Comments
Force of habit?^^
Shouldn’t it read “Magnum Photos” or “Magnum Photos on Slate.com” instead of Salon?
great photos!
Excellent pics. The square dance shot is really freaky. Picture #22 of Sokcho is also pretty unbelievable. The main street, eh?
Great pics!!
Great pics, thanks for the link…
I’m working on a doco at the moment about an Australian pilot who was a POW in North Korea and China. One of the things a lot of ex POWs talk about is their “re-education” in Chinese prisons, and how silly some of the attempts were to turn them over to communism.
Yet I never once heard about anything as bizarre as what the Americans were doing in picture 2. Check out the photo. No wonder the NK soldiers didn’t want a bar of capitalism — they’re being forced to wear masks and line dance under a giant statue of liberty for fuck’s sake! Incredible…
#5: Hoju: Do you make wild baseless suppositions in your “doco” as well?
The “youngest N.K. prisoner” phot is freaky too. Midget commando.
It’s Slate, not Salon.
Lol… is the girl in pic #20 giving the GI a lap dance?
It’s been changed to “square dance.” Hilarious. Now it sort of makes more sense. Sort of.
Allemand right, do si do! Opchugi, opchugi! Swing your partner, round and round! Kim Il Sung is a son of a (Beep)! Allemand left!
wedge, I don’t think I made any wild and baseless suppositions. Look at he picture, no arguing with it. The mismanagement of NK pows in places like Koje-do is pretty well-documented in any case.
Who said America forced them to do what they were doing in Pic 2? Koje-do was “mismanaged” in the sense that the POWs did pretty much what they wanted.
If I had to guess, I’d say these POWs were of the faction that didn’t want to be repatriated north and they were showing their enthusiasm for all things American. I’d probably be doing the same thing if the alternative was a life under the Great Leader and his wacky cult.
Wedge, good point! As I recall, letting the prisoners do pretty much what they wanted led to the uprising.
It’s a fascinating pic.
What character/isations can the folk theatre derived masks be said to take on?
Actually, I hadn’t even thought about that possibility, but its a good point.
The statue of liberty seems a very elaborate thing for ther prisoners to make, however. And from what I’ve read the hardcore prisoners were staunch communists and dealt prety brutally with those who wished to change sides (hanging them up on tent poles by their testicles and drowning them was one favorite trick). I can’t imagine this would have been a good environment for voluntary sqaure dancing. On the other hand, by the time of the peace talks the number of prisoners who didn’t want to go back to the DPRK was huge, so maybe you’re right…
And there seems to have been segregation by compounds, which would have made it safer…
Perhaps the masks were worn so that they wouldn’t be recognised and targeted for reprisals by the communists.
Marmot! Don’t be like the Korean press - FIX THE HEADLINE!
(sigh) I know honestly now that I have no life worth speaking of, because every day I come back and check to see if the title is fixed yet…