The GI Who Chose China

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Korean War ended, a few American prisoners of war chose to go with their captors and try life under communism, instead of heading home to the USA. David Hawkins was one of them. He told his story to Chloe Hadjimatheou in 2012.

Photo: American, and South Korean POWs who refused repatriation. An African-American prisoner is singing a Chinese folk song to entertain his companions at the Songgongni camp while they wait. 1954.(Credit: Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching
0:25.7	and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.2	You're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service, and this week we're
0:36.6	delving back into our archive to bring you stories from the Korean Peninsula.
0:41.6	Today we're going back to 1953 when the Korean War came to a halt and
0:46.4	thousands of prisoners from both sides of the conflict were faced with a choice
0:51.0	whether to return home or to go with their captors once the war had
0:55.5	ended.
0:56.5	Chloe Hadjimuthieu spoke to one of the small number of American prisoners of war who chose
1:02.3	to go to China. This podcast was first
1:05.3	broadcast in 2012. It's autumn 1953 and Pathy news is reporting on an
1:11.9	unprecedented repatriation of prisoners of war.
1:15.0	In Korea, Operation comeback begins.
1:19.0	22,500 Chinese and North Korean troops take the winding road to freedom. It is their own wish. a The system of allowing prisoners to choose whichever country they wish resulted in only 21 Americans and one British Marine electing not to return home.
1:40.0	I don't think it ever occurred to the US or the army that there would be GIs who
1:48.4	would choose to go someplace else other than their own country. My reasoning was they really have
	...

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