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Yŏng-ho Ch'oe: Korean Prisoners-of-War in Hawaii During World War II and the Case of US Navy Abduction of Three Korean Fishermen

[Yŏng-ho Ch'oe is professor emeritus of history at University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has written extensively on pre-modern and modern Korea history and co-edited"Sources of Korean Tradition" and"Sourcebook of Korean Civilization.]

Recommended citation: Yŏng-ho Ch’oe,"Korean Prisoners-of-War in Hawaii During World War II and the Case of US Navy Abduction of Three Korean Fishermen," The Asia-Pacific Journal, 39-2-09, December 14, 2009.

Notes

1 I wish to acknowledge gratefully the kind assistance and cooperation given by Jeffery F. Burton of Trans-Sierran Archaeological Research, Tucson, Arizona, and Brian Niiya and Betsy Young of Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.
2 Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell, “World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai’i” (December 2007), 63.
3 Territory of Hawaii, Office of the Military Governor, Iolani Palace, Honolulu, T.H., “Control of Civilian Internees and Prisoners of War in the Central Pacific Area.” (Undated.)
4 A copy of this report is in the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii Research Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.
5 Territory of Hawaii, Office of the Military Governor, Iolani Palace, Honolulu, T.H., “Control of Civilian Internees and Prisoners of War in the Central Pacific Area.” (Undated)
6Link
7 See also this link.
8 It is possible that the Japanese defenders may also have included Korean soldiers conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army, separate from the Korean laborers, but we have no information on this during the Gilbert Islands operation.
9Link. The Tarawa battle exacted a heavy toll on the US Navy and Marines with 1,677 dead. Writing after the war, General Holland M. Smith, who commanded the Marines stated: “Was Tarawa worth it?” “My answer is,” he said “unqualified: No. From the very beginning the decision of the Joint Chiefs to seize Tarawa was a mistake and from their initial mistake grew the terrible drama of errors and errors of omission rather than commission, resulting in these needless casualties.” Ibid.
10Link. These figures for “Japanese” may well have included a significant, but indeterminate, number of Koreans, both in the ranks of the military and laborers.
11 “Fraternization Problem Here With Enemy War Prisoners,” Honolulu Advertiser, September 26, 1945.
12 “Statistical Data Report For Prisoner of War Base Camp HPU 950, 28 July 1945.”
13 Testimony of Kim Han’ok, a former member of the Honouliuli camp, given to Dr. Do-Hyung Kim, “T’aep’yŏng chŏnjaeng ki Hawaii p’oro suyongso ŭi Han’in chŏnjaeng p’oro yŏn’gu (A study of Korean POWs in a Hawaii POWs detention center during the Pacific War) (Unpublished report).
14 My interview with Dr. Nam-Young Chung was conducted on April 10, 2009.
15 Pak Sundong, “Momyŏl ŭi sidae (An era of humiliation),” Sin Tonga (September 1965), 372-73.
16 Ibid., 373-81.
17 Ibid., 382-83.
18 Ibid., 383.
19Chayu Han’in-bo, No. 7 (December 12, 1945).
20 Ibid., No. 3 (November 15, 1945).
21 Ibid., No. 7.
22 Pak Sundong, 383.
23 Ibid., 384.
24 Ibid., 382.
25 Ibid.. 384.
26 Pak Sundong, 384.
27 My interview with Mr. To Chinho took place on July 5, 1978.
28 Kwŏn Yŏngmin, T’aebak samnaek tasi ilki (Re-reading Taebaek sanmaek) (Seoul: Haenam, 1997), 50.
29 Edward L. Beach, Submarine! (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1952), 270. Peabody was later Governor of Massachusetts.
30 An interrogation report in the National Archive, Maryland, as shown in “MBC Special Documentary” (whose telecast was monitored in Honolulu on March 7, 2009).
31 Ch’oe Kŭmbong is listed in an interrogation report in the National Archive, Maryland, as Ch’ae Kŭmpong. (See “MBC Special Documentary.”) I believe these two names refer to the same person.
32 Ibid.
33 H. G. Underwood, Korea in War, Revolution and Peace: The Recollections of Horace G. Underwood (Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 2001), 91
34 Since a large number of Koreans were conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army and were dispatched to the Pacific islands, it is possible that some of these Korean soldiers may have been captured as POWs and brought to the Honouliuli camp. But we have no information so far on this aspect.

Read entire article at Asia Pacific Journal