Annotation source: Seoul Metropolitan Archive
Annotation and image link: https://archives.seoul.go.kr/item/49
Annotation
In the 1940s, Imperial Japan conscripted Korean laborers, deployed them as civilians attached to the military, and utilized them for war efforts through the South Seas Government that controlled the Pacific islands, including Micronesia. From June to August 1944, the U.S. Navy occupied the Pacific islands, such as Saipan, Tinian, and Peleliu islands, which were territories previously under Japanese control, and captured Korean POWs on these islands. Those POWS who were believed to have the most valuable information were interrogated on multiple occasions, including at the frontlines and in the POW camps in Honolulu, Hawaii. After their information was assessed by military personnel on Angel Island, California, the POWs were again interrogated at Camp Tracy in California.
The POWs were then sent to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin where they were further interrogated, if necessary. The Joint Intelligence Center (JIC), a joint agency of the U.S. Army and Navy, took charge of this process. The Captured Personnel and the Material Branch (CPMB) of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), War Department, participated on the side of the Army.
This is a report based on the interrogations of three Koreans, Bakdo Lee, Seunggeun Paik, and Kinam Kang on April 11, 1945, based on the special questions for interrogation of Korean POWs that had been prepared earlier [US-16]. These three POWs were captured on a Pacific island, imprisoned in a camp in Honolulu, Hawaii, and sent to the camp in California as they were considered to have high level information. Due to their injuries, the POWs were hospitalized in the Letterman Hospital close to Camp Tracy and the interrogations were done at the hospital.
A number of statements by the POWs do not seem to have reflected the actual situation within Korea. For example, based on another interrogation report of Bakdo Lee, one of the three POWs, he was not in an ideal position to have accurate information about the on-the-ground situation in Korea. He was born in Gyeongsangnam-do (Southern Gyeongsang Province), Korea in 1925, completed elementary school there, went to the middle school in Osaka, Japan, traveled to Sakhalin and Honshu in the1940s, and was conscripted by Japan in April 1944.
For the “comfort women”-related questions, the POWs said that all Korean “comfort women” (“prostitutes” in the original document) that they saw in the Pacific were volunteers or had been sold by their parents into prostitution. The POWs stated that direct conscription of women by the Japanese would be an outrage that the old and young alike would not tolerate.
Within Korea, it was difficult for Koreans to obtain accurate information about “comfort women”, because the Governor-General in Korea punished anyone who allegedly spread rumors regarding “comfort women.” This aspect is confirmed by the fact that another POW, Giyeon Kim, could not answer the questions about “comfort women” in his questionnaire.
The U.S. forces seemed to have paid attention to anti-Japan sentiment among Korea regarding forcible conscription of Korean girls as “comfort women.”
Contributors
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team, 2015~
[Organization] City of Seoul, Women and Family Policy Affairs Office 2011~
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team, 2015~
[Organization] National Archives and Records Administration 1934~
#JIC #MIS #special_questions #psychological_warfare
Download file: https://international.ucla.edu/media/files/US-17-MIS-CPMB-Extract-of-Interrogation-1538-Composite-Report-on-Three-Korean-Navy-Civilians,List-No.-78-Dated-28-Mar-45-Re-Special-Questions-on-Koreans-lz-20t.pdf