The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War

The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War
Author: Monica Kim
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 069121042X

Traditional histories of the Korean War have long focused on violations of the thirty-eighth parallel, the line drawn by American and Soviet officials in 1945 dividing the Korean peninsula. But The interrogation rooms of the Korean War presents an entirely new narrative, shifting the perspective from the boundaries of the battlefield to inside the interrogation room. Upending conventional notions of what we think of as geographies of military conflict, Monica Kim demonstrates how the Korean War evolved from a fight over territory to one over human interiority and the individual human subject, forging the template for the U.S. wars of intervention that would predominate during the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond. Kim looks at how, during the armistice negotiations, the United States and their allies proposed a new kind of interrogation room: one in which POWs could exercise their "free will" and choose which country they would go to after the ceasefire. The global controversy that erupted exposed how interrogation rooms had become a flashpoint for the struggles between the ambitions of empire and the demands for decolonization, as the aim of interrogation was to produce subjects who attested to a nation's right to govern. The complex web of interrogators and prisoners -- Japanese-American interrogators, Indian military personnel, Korean POWs and interrogators, and American POWs -- that Kim uncovers contradicts the simple story in U.S. popular memory of "brainwashing" during the Korean War

Interrogation

Interrogation
Author: James A. Stone
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2010-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1437934935

Contents: (1) Interrogation of Japanese POWs in WW2: U.S. Response to a Formidable Challenge. Military leaders, often working with civilian counterparts, created and implemented successful strategies, building on cultural and linguistic skills that substantially aided the war effort for the U.S. and its Allies. (2) Unveiling Charlie: U.S. Interrogators¿ Creative Successes Against Insurgents. Highlights the importance of a deep understanding of the language, psychol., and culture of adversaries and potential allies in other countries. (3) The Accidental Interrogator: A Case Study and Review of U.S. Army Special Forces Interrogations in Iraq. Offers recommendations that are likely to increase the effectiveness of U.S. interrogation practices in the field. Illus.

Cataclysm

Cataclysm
Author: Herman S. Wolk
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574412817

The B-29 long-range bombing campaign against the Japanese home islands dictated unprecedented organization and command; hence, Arnold established the Twentieth Air Force, commanded by himself from Washington and reporting directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This new type of bombing offensive-distinct in command, organization, range, and weapons from the European experience-also called for exemplary operational combat leadership in the field. Here Arnold excelled in his command of the AAF, relieving a long-time colleague (Hansell) in favor of a hard-nosed operator (LeMay). This crucial move was a turning point in the Pacific war. Although the Soviet declaration of war on Japan was a factor in the Japanese surrender, it was the atomic bomb that politically shocked the Japanese to capitulation. Arnold, the architect of the bombing offensive, emphasized that Japan was already defeated in the summer of 1945 by the bombing and blockade and that it was not militarily necessary to drop the atomic bomb.