BOOK REVIEWS, NORTHEAST ASIA
VOLUME 93 – NO. 1
THE KOREAN WAR IN ASIA: A Hidden History | Edited by Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Asia/Pacific/Perspectives. Lanham; Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. x, 226 pp. (Tables, map, B&W photos.) US$35.00, paper. ISBN 978-1-5381-1190-1.
Introduction: The Korean War, the region, and the world / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- A fire on the other shore? : Japan and the Korean War order / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- The Korean War and Manchuria : economic, social, and human effects / Mo Tian
-- From one divided country to another : the Korean War in Mongolia / Li Narangoa
-- Victory with minimum effort : how Nationalist China 'won' the Korean War / Catherine Churchman
-- The psychology of the Korean War : Okinawa and the fear of World War III / Pedro Iacobelli
-- A war across borders: the strange journey of prisoner no. 600,001 / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- The life and death of line-crossers : the secret Chinese agents of UNPIK / Catherine Churchman
-- The United States, Japan, and the undercover war in Korea / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- Epilogue: Northeast Asia and the never-ending war / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, editor of the volume under review, in addition to writing the introduction and epilogue has contributed three excellent chapters, each of which is an updated version of earlier work that has appeared elsewhere, including in Asia Pacific Journal and the Journal of Asian Studies. Methodologically, the book focuses on nation-states as well as provinces and regions, with chapters on China’s Northeast (Manchuria), Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan. The authors draw on a rich body of primary and secondary sources and present a wealth of original material. The articles highlight the interaction between the war and the lives of everyday people, including soldiers, prisoners of war, herders, base labourers, interpreters, and teachers.
The book is part of Morris-Suzuki’s broader work on grass-roots perspectives of “informal life politics” in Asia over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this book she argues that the geographic impact of the Korean War on Asia was uneven, affecting some individuals, groups, and areas more than others.
The collection begins with an exploration of Japan’s role in the Korean War. This history is often examined in the context of the economic impact of the conflict on the Japanese economy, but Morris-Suzuki shows how the Japanese military participated in activities hidden from public view by the Japanese government and the United Nations Command (UNC). Although UNC officials denied that Japanese soldiers participated in the war, American military officers ordered them to work in support missions, especially as crew for American landing craft and seamen in mine-sweeping operations. Approximately 8,000 Japanese were involved in the conflict, Morris-Suzuki points out, more than the number of UNC soldiers raised by France (3, 421), New Zealand (4,720), and the Philippines (7,420). In response to these activities, American occupation officials retained imperial naval officers who had been scheduled to be purged. The war also spurred the growth and transformation of the National Police Reserve, a forerunner of Japan’s Self-Defence Force.
Two chapters in the collection examine the impact of the war on North Korea’s allies, China and Mongolia. Mo Tian presents a fine piece on the relocation of industries within Manchuria in the early 1950s, the expansion of the region’s armament industry, and the mobilization of civilians into “patriotic compacts,” designed to discipline workers and raise “voluntary” contributions for the war effort. From the point of view of transnational human linkages, however, we still lack detailed studies of the wartime background to the creation of the Yanbian autonomous zone in 1952, the views of Korean-Chinese about the conflict, and the North Korea-Manchuria border crossings of Korean refugees and family members.
Li Narangoa explores the contributions made by the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) and Mongolian-Chinese (Inner Mongolians) to the war. The MPR sent livestock (horses, goats, cows, and sheep) to North Korea, while Inner Mongolia participated in the war as part of China’s “Resist America Aid Korea” campaign. In addition to livestock, the Chinese province sent cavalry units to Korea. These mounted soldiers suffered heavy losses from US air attacks and were later converted into two infantry units and an artillery regiment. This story is largely unknown, as histories tend to treat Chinese involvement in the war in monolithic terms. The conflict itself accelerated Inner Mongolia’s assimilation into the newly created People’s Republic of China and reinforced the territorial division of Mongol populations in Northeast Asia.
Another chapter by Pedro Iacobelli examines the role of emotions, especially fear, amongst Okinawans during the Korean War. He points out that the fighting recalled the traumatic experiences of the islanders during World War II.
The history of prisoners of war (POWs) is a prominent theme in the book. Catherine Churchman notes that most of the Chinese prisoners had been soldiers in Nationalist armies and that almost half of all Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) had been in Communist armies for less than a year. In the context of the anti-communist violence in the POW camps, the soldiers re-lived China’s civil conflict. Although the Nationalist government may not have secretly colluded with the US to mobilize the prisoners, it sent instructors into the camps to preach anti-communism and democracy. Churchman does not explore the Nationalist concept of democracy in the 1940s and 1950s, but points out that most of the Chinese prisoners had quite limited knowledge of the politics surrounding their fate, being “entirely at the mercy” of their camp commander (95).
Morris-Suzuki takes up the POW theme in her chapter, which explores the remarkable history of prisoner 600,001, a Japanese soldier captured by the UNC while fighting for the Chinese communist army in Korea, and whose history highlights the linkages between the Korean War, World War II, and the Chinese Civil War. This history raises wider questions about the composition of the CPV.
Narangoa suggests, for example, that some of the Inner Mongolians in the CPV had served in armies under the Japanese, and it is likely Chinese communist forces also consisted of former warlord soldiers.
The last two chapters examine the relationship between POWs and secret American intelligence operations during the conflict. Churchman focuses on the history of Unit 8240, United Nations Partisan Infantry Korea (UNPIK), made up of Chinese POWs who were coerced into making extremely dangerous “line-crossing” intelligence missions into North Korea. Not only did these operations violate the Geneva Accords on POWs, a large majority of the recruits appear to have been killed or captured.
In the last chapter, Morris-Suzuki examines the history of “Z Unit,” a US intelligence organization anchored in Tokyo and involved in numerous “line-crossing” missions, including infiltrating into North Korea, invasive interrogations in Japan, and training UNPIK recruits. In one case, which later became public knowledge, the unit kidnapped a prominent Japanese leftist and attempted to force him to become a spy.
There are some limitations to this volume. Koreans are secondary actors in the analysis, and the use of “Asia” in the title is a bit misleading as the book primarily discusses Northeast Asia and Taiwan. Absent from the analysis are other Asian participants in the conflict, notably India, the Philippines, and Thailand. Even so, the book makes a significant and original contribution to our understanding of the Korean War and is a welcome addition to the literature on the conflict.
Steven Hugh Lee
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Last Revised: February 28, 2020
--------------
This book takes a fresh look at the Korean War by considering the conflict from a Northeast Asian regional perspective. It highlights the connections of the war to earlier conflicts in the region and examines the human impact of the war on neighboring countries, focusing particularly on the ways in which the Korean War shaped regional cross-border movements of people, goods, and ideas (including hopes and fears). It also considers the lasting consequences of these movements for the region’s society and politics.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This remarkable book’s unique approach makes it one of most important works we have on the Korean War. Rather than attempt to answer traditional questions regarding origins or battle tactics, it traces the domino effect of the war on governments and peoples peripherally related to the actual slaughter itself.
VOLUME 93 – NO. 1
THE KOREAN WAR IN ASIA: A Hidden History | Edited by Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Asia/Pacific/Perspectives. Lanham; Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. x, 226 pp. (Tables, map, B&W photos.) US$35.00, paper. ISBN 978-1-5381-1190-1.
Introduction: The Korean War, the region, and the world / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- A fire on the other shore? : Japan and the Korean War order / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- The Korean War and Manchuria : economic, social, and human effects / Mo Tian
-- From one divided country to another : the Korean War in Mongolia / Li Narangoa
-- Victory with minimum effort : how Nationalist China 'won' the Korean War / Catherine Churchman
-- The psychology of the Korean War : Okinawa and the fear of World War III / Pedro Iacobelli
-- A war across borders: the strange journey of prisoner no. 600,001 / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- The life and death of line-crossers : the secret Chinese agents of UNPIK / Catherine Churchman
-- The United States, Japan, and the undercover war in Korea / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
-- Epilogue: Northeast Asia and the never-ending war / Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, editor of the volume under review, in addition to writing the introduction and epilogue has contributed three excellent chapters, each of which is an updated version of earlier work that has appeared elsewhere, including in Asia Pacific Journal and the Journal of Asian Studies. Methodologically, the book focuses on nation-states as well as provinces and regions, with chapters on China’s Northeast (Manchuria), Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan. The authors draw on a rich body of primary and secondary sources and present a wealth of original material. The articles highlight the interaction between the war and the lives of everyday people, including soldiers, prisoners of war, herders, base labourers, interpreters, and teachers.
The book is part of Morris-Suzuki’s broader work on grass-roots perspectives of “informal life politics” in Asia over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this book she argues that the geographic impact of the Korean War on Asia was uneven, affecting some individuals, groups, and areas more than others.
The collection begins with an exploration of Japan’s role in the Korean War. This history is often examined in the context of the economic impact of the conflict on the Japanese economy, but Morris-Suzuki shows how the Japanese military participated in activities hidden from public view by the Japanese government and the United Nations Command (UNC). Although UNC officials denied that Japanese soldiers participated in the war, American military officers ordered them to work in support missions, especially as crew for American landing craft and seamen in mine-sweeping operations. Approximately 8,000 Japanese were involved in the conflict, Morris-Suzuki points out, more than the number of UNC soldiers raised by France (3, 421), New Zealand (4,720), and the Philippines (7,420). In response to these activities, American occupation officials retained imperial naval officers who had been scheduled to be purged. The war also spurred the growth and transformation of the National Police Reserve, a forerunner of Japan’s Self-Defence Force.
Two chapters in the collection examine the impact of the war on North Korea’s allies, China and Mongolia. Mo Tian presents a fine piece on the relocation of industries within Manchuria in the early 1950s, the expansion of the region’s armament industry, and the mobilization of civilians into “patriotic compacts,” designed to discipline workers and raise “voluntary” contributions for the war effort. From the point of view of transnational human linkages, however, we still lack detailed studies of the wartime background to the creation of the Yanbian autonomous zone in 1952, the views of Korean-Chinese about the conflict, and the North Korea-Manchuria border crossings of Korean refugees and family members.
Li Narangoa explores the contributions made by the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) and Mongolian-Chinese (Inner Mongolians) to the war. The MPR sent livestock (horses, goats, cows, and sheep) to North Korea, while Inner Mongolia participated in the war as part of China’s “Resist America Aid Korea” campaign. In addition to livestock, the Chinese province sent cavalry units to Korea. These mounted soldiers suffered heavy losses from US air attacks and were later converted into two infantry units and an artillery regiment. This story is largely unknown, as histories tend to treat Chinese involvement in the war in monolithic terms. The conflict itself accelerated Inner Mongolia’s assimilation into the newly created People’s Republic of China and reinforced the territorial division of Mongol populations in Northeast Asia.
Another chapter by Pedro Iacobelli examines the role of emotions, especially fear, amongst Okinawans during the Korean War. He points out that the fighting recalled the traumatic experiences of the islanders during World War II.
The history of prisoners of war (POWs) is a prominent theme in the book. Catherine Churchman notes that most of the Chinese prisoners had been soldiers in Nationalist armies and that almost half of all Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) had been in Communist armies for less than a year. In the context of the anti-communist violence in the POW camps, the soldiers re-lived China’s civil conflict. Although the Nationalist government may not have secretly colluded with the US to mobilize the prisoners, it sent instructors into the camps to preach anti-communism and democracy. Churchman does not explore the Nationalist concept of democracy in the 1940s and 1950s, but points out that most of the Chinese prisoners had quite limited knowledge of the politics surrounding their fate, being “entirely at the mercy” of their camp commander (95).
Morris-Suzuki takes up the POW theme in her chapter, which explores the remarkable history of prisoner 600,001, a Japanese soldier captured by the UNC while fighting for the Chinese communist army in Korea, and whose history highlights the linkages between the Korean War, World War II, and the Chinese Civil War. This history raises wider questions about the composition of the CPV.
Narangoa suggests, for example, that some of the Inner Mongolians in the CPV had served in armies under the Japanese, and it is likely Chinese communist forces also consisted of former warlord soldiers.
The last two chapters examine the relationship between POWs and secret American intelligence operations during the conflict. Churchman focuses on the history of Unit 8240, United Nations Partisan Infantry Korea (UNPIK), made up of Chinese POWs who were coerced into making extremely dangerous “line-crossing” intelligence missions into North Korea. Not only did these operations violate the Geneva Accords on POWs, a large majority of the recruits appear to have been killed or captured.
In the last chapter, Morris-Suzuki examines the history of “Z Unit,” a US intelligence organization anchored in Tokyo and involved in numerous “line-crossing” missions, including infiltrating into North Korea, invasive interrogations in Japan, and training UNPIK recruits. In one case, which later became public knowledge, the unit kidnapped a prominent Japanese leftist and attempted to force him to become a spy.
There are some limitations to this volume. Koreans are secondary actors in the analysis, and the use of “Asia” in the title is a bit misleading as the book primarily discusses Northeast Asia and Taiwan. Absent from the analysis are other Asian participants in the conflict, notably India, the Philippines, and Thailand. Even so, the book makes a significant and original contribution to our understanding of the Korean War and is a welcome addition to the literature on the conflict.
Steven Hugh Lee
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Last Revised: February 28, 2020
--------------
This book takes a fresh look at the Korean War by considering the conflict from a Northeast Asian regional perspective. It highlights the connections of the war to earlier conflicts in the region and examines the human impact of the war on neighboring countries, focusing particularly on the ways in which the Korean War shaped regional cross-border movements of people, goods, and ideas (including hopes and fears). It also considers the lasting consequences of these movements for the region’s society and politics.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This remarkable book’s unique approach makes it one of most important works we have on the Korean War. Rather than attempt to answer traditional questions regarding origins or battle tactics, it traces the domino effect of the war on governments and peoples peripherally related to the actual slaughter itself.
In providing a multi-dimensional perspective on the extent to which this war profoundly affected the broader region, the authors advance our knowledge of the ‘forgotten’ war while offering a model for adopting a wider perspective on wars in general. This study will be essential reading to all those interested in Korea and modern war. (Mark Caprio, Rikkyo University)
The collection of essays in this anthology represents an important moment in the study of the Korean War.
The collection of essays in this anthology represents an important moment in the study of the Korean War.
First, the field of Korean War studies is no longer dominated by macroanalyses of Cold War geopolitics. The “view from above” will no doubt continue, as it should, but this volume’s second contribution is how “forgotten” can be redefined.
Typically, “forgotten” means the war’s absence from US historical memory. Few Americans learn much about the war in high school history classes, and even fewer are aware of the war’s role in establishing a permanent military industrial complex in the US.
But these essays detail
- how Japan and Taiwan’s participation in the world is forgotten or ignored,
- the effect of the war on the lives of individuals not from the peninsula, and
- the unexpected connections between the war and countries like Mongolia.
- For example, one essay describes the lone Japanese POW and how his life ties together several wars, countries, and armies into an integrated East Asian and micro-historical view of the war.
A wonderful balance to the top-heavy studies of the Korean War, which students will appreciate.
Summing Up:
Summing Up:
Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. (CHOICE)
A truly essential book at a critical juncture for Northeast Asia. In lucid prose and with far-ranging examples, Tessa Morris-Suzuki and her fellow authors powerfully reveal that the ‘very divergent ways in which the Korean War is remembered and forgotten in the countries that participated in the conflict have the power to fuel present and future regional tensions.’ This should be required reading for everyone involved in thinking about Korea and its place in the world today. (Alexis Dudden, University of Connecticut)
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A truly essential book at a critical juncture for Northeast Asia. In lucid prose and with far-ranging examples, Tessa Morris-Suzuki and her fellow authors powerfully reveal that the ‘very divergent ways in which the Korean War is remembered and forgotten in the countries that participated in the conflict have the power to fuel present and future regional tensions.’ This should be required reading for everyone involved in thinking about Korea and its place in the world today. (Alexis Dudden, University of Connecticut)
Read less
About the Author
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is professor in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University.
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