Customer Reviews

Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers

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In "Voices from the Korean War" Xiaobing Li brings a unique perspective to a long forgotten conflict.

Professors Li and Richard Peters, a Korean War veteran, have gathered together the personal stories of American, South and North Korean, and Chinese soldiers in the war. A short history of the conflict is provided at the beginning of the book and another chapter on perspectives at the end.

In between, the authors allow the belligerents who fought the war on both sides to speak for themselves. The result is a uniquely compelling and informative work that is easy to read. I found the chapters written by North Korean and Chinese soldiers, as well as by those written by American soldiers held captive by the Communists, particularly interesting.

The final chapter, written by a Chinese colonel who took part in the massive Koje-do Camp POW riots, is especially powerful and provides a new perspective on a conflict within a conflict that resulted in the death of hundreds of North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in the Korean War and especially in the experiences of the everyday soldiers on both sides that fought it.

My enjoyment of this book ended in Chapter 27, "Colonel Zhao's Story", told by a former Chinese Communist Political Commisar. On page 244 he relates how the UN guards armed "Chinese traitors"(Chinese soldiers who were anti-communist)with "knives, steel pickets, spiked clubs, barbed wire flails, and blackjacks to enforce their regulations".
Fearful Western guards bringing lethal weapons into the prison so the "traitors" can do their dirty work for them? Yet this ridiculous assertion seems almost believable when compared to the narrative on the next page, where he tells the story of a "nineteen-year old college freshman", Lin, who is dragged onto a stage when he refuses an anti-communist prison tatoo.
He is beaten and one of his arms cut off with a dagger, but still refuses the tatoo.
The "traitorous anti-communist" then "opened Lin's chest and pulled out his heart. Holding the bleeding but still beating heart" he tells the other five thousand prisoners "whoever dares to refuse the tatoo will be like him!"
The only thing missing is bad-guy Mola Ram and the statue of Kali from the very-similiar scene in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Even with 21st century medical technology heart surgeons have to cut through the rib cage, not the case here in this propaganda fantasy.
It's one thing to try to tell the personal stories of soldiers from both sides of the Korean War, but why would the authors include such delusional ravings alongside what seem like truthful (and probably painfully remembered accounts? It only serves to remind one of a recent book purporting to tell the tale of an American massacre of Korean civilians, which was later shown to have been told by ex-soldiers who were never even anywhere near the alleged site, and whose allegations were false.

I picked up this book ased on the apparently solid background of the authors and the tantalizing title. I was disappointed from page one when the authors suggested the US was nothing but a pawn in the Korean War. I thought perhaps I'd do better listening to actual voices--but those seemed to have been gathered from propaganda fantasies. POWs refusing tattoos, as if they had a say in the matter? A POW having his heart ripped out on stage? Come on. The fact that the authors carefully mention that maybe none of what is inside is true, as it's based on people's memories...and memories can be faulty, doesn't quite assuage the disappointment from a serious reader interested in hearing serious memories.