The thesis presents living from prisoners of war camp who were the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and served in the Korean War, and examines their repatriation process and the path of life after repatriation. This study explains the political issue...
The thesis presents living from prisoners of war camp who were the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and served in the Korean War, and examines their repatriation process and the path of life after repatriation. This study explains the political issues which lied behind what to do with prisoners by using research all over the world and the latest published data or official document, and prisoners' suffering from that.
China participated in the Korean War under the name of "reinforcements" after a political judgment, since then this word "reinforcements" became the cause of diverse problems during prisoner's repatriation.
Meanwhile, when the number of a prisoner of reinforcements has risen significantly, a group which acted as a important political variable was the Kuomintang of Taiwan. The Kuomintang got involved in conciliation about communist prisoners in a camp and physical repression as a way of promoting an amicable relationship with the United states. When prisoner's rule of "volunteer repatriation" was established the Kuomintang which was a lack of infrastructure within Taiwan pressured prisoners to choose Taiwan for reinforcing a military strength and supplementing construction manpower by all means available. As a result, about 16,000 prisoners of China was taken to Taiwan as "volunteer repatriation" while prisoners who chose China were just about 6,000. This may be regarded it had already been decided from that moment the whole repatriation rule was broken.
Unlike the West, the East had a strong recognition that a prisoner is regarded as a disgraceful position. A prisoner was never welcomed after being a prisoner. They could not have been properly treated properly anywhere in Taiwan and China. Most of prisoners of reinforcements who were repatriated in China were eliminated from the party register and investigated. prisoners who were repatriated in Taiwan faced the harsh reality even more. They had to live a life as others thoroughly with the unsubstantial name “the anti-communist heroes(反共義士)” in an unfamiliar environment. Some people were incorporated in the army Others had to live as a construction worker for a lifetime. Most of prisoners who were repatriated were deprived of the right to cultivate their fortune. These life of prisoners was an inevitable consequence of the situation during the period of tension, they can practically be regarded as a scapegoat under a policy of the nation.
It is not easy to derive a clear discussion about the matter of a prisoner because materials which each country provided are insufficient. However, this paper aggregated research results, utilized materials from Taiwan and China and complemented insufficient part of existing research by using new released materials and official documents. I expect that the gap of research can be filled and furthermore the life of a prisoner can be reappraised through this study.