Photo: A Korean friend and I (Rudy) An American GI recalls a North Korean farmer 'friend' in Samsu-Kapsan
In 1950, I was with the US 7th Infantry Division. My unit was involved in the Inchon landing operation in mid September 1950. I was rather young and very naive. It never occurred to me that people of another culture were not inferior to me. Although I personally did not mistreat anyone, I observed some nasty things, but I took it in stride. We even had ROKA personnel in our outfit as the "buddy" system (KATUSA).
Photo: A Korean friend and I (Rudy)
I had one ROKA guy in my S-4 and we became pretty good friends. He took me to his brother's house for a broiled fish dinner. His brother was some kind of an official, similar to a mayor. He referred to his district as a myon or something. After all these years, I cannot remember his name. Later on when I was transferred to an anti-tank and mine platoon, we did not have any ROKA's.
I remember an incident in Inchon. I landed several days after the invasion because I was on a special assignment. Walking around the city, a Korean snitched on another person. Under his civilian clothes, he had part of his NK uniform. We wanted to turn him over to our MP, but they were too busy and advised us to take him to the local Korean police. While there, we observed some pretty crude interrogations. I don't think that North Korean soldier ever left the police station alive.
Photo: Captured NKPA nurses prior to their execution
In one of the back rooms of the South Korean police station, there was a naked woman spread eagle and suspended with wire on her wrists from the ceiling. She was totally bloodied from beatings and the wires were cutting into her wrist bones. We were told that she was a hoarder and a prostitute. I learned later that she was a North Korean army nurse.
A few days later we had to pack up and try to catch up with our outfit. We drove rather rapidly through Yong-Dong-Po and Seoul. The war took a quick turn in our favor and we worked our way south Taegu and on to Pusan in a giant pincer movement to trap the retreating remnants of Kim Il Sung's Army. I finally rejoined our unit near Pusan. It was utter chaos there. Everyone (civilians) was under suspicion and was treated as the "enemy".
US X Corps Op Area Map
After some time, we boarded troop ships for the second invasion at Wonsan on the Sea of Japan side. It took our navy some time to clear the mines and finally we went ashore without firing a shot. The ROKA troops moving on land beat us there and had the area secured for our landing.
Photo: US 7th Infantry passing through Kapsan
We advanced through a desolate area, passing through the remains of several towns and cities, including Pukchang, Pungsan, Kapsan and reached the border town of Hyesanjin. In this general area, our I&R platoons crossed the Yalu for general recon. The War seemed to be over for us.
I was holed up somewhere between Samsu and Hyesanjin. We moved into the animal quarters of a farmer's house. The farmer and his children were allowed to stay in the living quarters. Our commanding officers did not think too highly of this situation, they would rather have us displace these enemies.
My outfit was in the upper right hand area above Samsu on the map above. Our 17th was to our left and our 31st was with the 5th and 7th Marines at Changjin Reservoir.
Photo: Ruins of Kapsan
We had our 'great Thanksgiving celebration' of 1950 at Samsu-Kapsan. They had flown in turkey and other items, including war correspondents from the UPI, UPS and Stars and Stripes.
I sent my men ahead for the big meal and I stayed back until the first man returned. I passed my time cleaning weapons. Unfortunately, I waited much too long, fantasizing this first home cooked meal. When my relief finally came back, I rushed to the mess area. I got a wing tip with some feather still attached and the peas as hard as rocks. As the peas fell into my metal messkit, they made the sounds of b-b's.
I was choked up and almost in tears when a photographer from AP approached me and wanted to take my "happy" picture. I flung my messkit at him and broke the lens of his camera. I returned to the farm building and in my poor slang Korean made the farmer come with me to the local police station run by anti-Communists Koreans.
Photo: A farm village
All of the local food was stored in a small government building, which was not destroyed by the bombings. We walked into this building and I drew my weapon and demanded a sack of rice. My poor farmer was as afraid of the local militia as he was of me.
Photo: US 7th Infantry unit stuck in Jangjingang at Kapsan
He squatted down and two bewildered militiamen placed a huge sack of rice on his back (an A-frame?). About two thirds of the way back, we stopped. I handed the farmer my carbine and signaled to him that it was my turn to carry the sack. I squatted down and had the farmer place the rice sack on my back. But, it was so heavy, I could not stand up. After some sweating, we concluded that I was not quite up to it and we placed the sack on the farmer's back again. He must have been in his late 50's and I was a teenager, yet he had more physical strength than I.
Photo: Another village
His wife prepared a huge pot of rice along with a large plate of kimchee. I took some boiled rice and placed it in a bowl. I proceeded to add canned concentrated milk and vast amounts of sugar. I figured that I would eat it like rice pudding. Everyone around the table stared at me, trying to figure out what I had done to the precious rice.
I gave a sampler to the farmer to taste. The moment he put my rice 'pudding' into his mouth, he started to gag and almost vomited. He quickly turned his head and spat it out. He had never tasted such 'sweet' rice before. We all laughed about it and had some warmed wine after the meal.
Photo: US 7th Infantry unit closing on Hyesanjin
The remainder of the rice stayed with him. He must have stashed it into smaller containers because, in the morning, the empty rice sack was on my vehicle. I'm sure he would have been shot for stealing or hoarding after we left which was within a few short days. As I remember, the Chinese hit us about November 27th and shortly thereafter, we were on the big retreat to Hamhung.
Photo: The Jang-baik Mountains
God only knows why the Communists let us go. We would have been at their mercy during our withdrawal. It was slow and freezing cold, lots of equipment broke down. We pushed disabled trucks over the sides of the mountain roads. The roads were narrow and slippery. One small misstep and you would fall several hundred feet to your grave. In 1945, the Soviet Red Army invaded Korea along the same roads and many Soviets died when their American made GMC trucks rolled off the roads.
To keep us from freezing, we soaked spare tires with gasoline and ignited them for brief really hot fires with plenty of black smokes to signal our position for any enemy mortars several miles away. But no enemy unit attacked us. But our 31st regiment moving on a different route was wiped out. (See for example, Combat actions in Korea - Russell A. Gugeler, U.S. Army Center for Military History)
Photo: A village no more
I am a retired architect and I have been in private practice since 1960. Some day the good Lord will see to it that I get back to Korea to see it again.
Rudy Z, Feb 3, 1998
Photo: GIs and Korean Kids (probably not Kapsanese)
The Kapsan area was totally desolate and as you know, the airforce mandate was to totally destroy anything that was standing. As we passed through these towns and villages, it was appalling. Many of these had no military value. It was somewhat like the American Civil War.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1950, I was wandering through the ruins of Kapsan whose buildings were totally reduced into rubbles and ashes. These structures must have been mostly residential. As I walked through, an old grandmother approached me. She was bent over with age and required a walking cane for support. When she got in front of me, she clenched her fist and screamed and pounded on my chest even though I carried a weapon. I'm sure she was blaming me personally for the savagery of the Korean War.
Photo: An old Korean Papa-san (location unknown)
I remember another sad incident in Kapsan. We found a little boy, ragged and dirty. He could not speak except for some guttural noises and utterances. We took him into our quarters to bathe him and care for him. We dressed him in spare GI clothing and gave him GI rations, but the boy was terrified of the 'American imperialists who eat kids'. When his moist clean skin was exposed to the sub-zero winds of Kapsan, it immediately burst open. He ran away so fast that we could not catch him. I pray to God that that poor little boy of Kapsan has somehow survived the War and that he remembers kindly the American 'imperialists" who tried to save him.
GI Joe, Feb 9, 1998
Photo: "House Boys" - Mostly orphans
Photo: Who, what?
Photo: A Korean "princess"
Photo: A school boy