Salon’s Photos from the Korean War

by Robert Koehler on June 28, 2008

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)

{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

1 figbash June 28, 2008 at 10:58 am: Force of habit?^^
Shouldn’t it read “Magnum Photos” or “Magnum Photos on Slate.com” instead of Salon?
2 hardyandtiny June 28, 2008 at 11:05 am: great photos!
3 globalvillageidiot June 28, 2008 at 11:22 am: Excellent pics. The square dance shot is really freaky. Picture #22 of Sokcho is also pretty unbelievable. The main street, eh?
4 David June 28, 2008 at 12:05 pm: Great pics!!
5 hoju_saram June 28, 2008 at 1:27 pm: 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…
6 Wedge June 28, 2008 at 5:08 pm: #5: Hoju: Do you make wild baseless suppositions in your “doco” as well?
7 Michael June 28, 2008 at 5:29 pm: The “youngest N.K. prisoner” phot is freaky too. Midget commando.
8 ap June 29, 2008 at 1:16 am: It’s Slate, not Salon.
9 bumfromkorea June 29, 2008 at 1:44 am: Lol… is the girl in pic #20 giving the GI a lap dance?
10 MrMao June 29, 2008 at 1:46 pm: It’s been changed to “square dance.” Hilarious. Now it sort of makes more sense. Sort of.
11 MrMao June 29, 2008 at 1:56 pm: Allemand right, do si do! Opchugi, opchugi! Swing your partner, round and round! Kim Il Sung is a son of a (Beep)! Allemand left!
12 hoju_saram June 29, 2008 at 2:45 pm: 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.
13 Wedge June 29, 2008 at 8:55 pm: 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.
14 lirelou June 29, 2008 at 11:13 pm: Wedge, good point! As I recall, letting the prisoners do pretty much what they wanted led to the uprising.
15 rothkowitz June 30, 2008 at 12:03 am: It’s a fascinating pic.

What character/isations can the folk theatre derived masks be said to take on?
16 hoju_saram June 30, 2008 at 10:45 am: 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…
17 hoju_saram June 30, 2008 at 10:46 am: And there seems to have been segregation by compounds, which would have made it safer…
18 hoju_saram June 30, 2008 at 10:54 am: Perhaps the masks were worn so that they wouldn’t be recognised and targeted for reprisals by the communists.
19 figbash July 2, 2008 at 12:33 pm: 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…