ATIS INTERROGATION REPORT NO. 3970 12 March 1951
The following information was obtained from recovered American military personnel, who were interrogated upon arrival in JAPAN from KOREA by Central Interrogation Center, TIS. The interrogation was conducted at Camp Drake by Capt Shappell.
LEE, Enoch Pvt RA 10104450 Co B 15th Inf Regt, 3rd Div
Source was a 19 year old Korean Nisei born in Hawaii and has served only 9 months in the Army. Although his command of English was meager, he had an air of confidence and was anxious to tell his story in detail. Since he was alone with his captors most of the time, exact dates were forgotten, but his total period of capture was from 21 Nov 1950 to 23 Jan 1951 when he reached the lines of the 17th Inf Regt after successfully escaping from N Korean guerrillas.
On 21 Nov 1950, Co B, 15th Inf Regt was on patrol approximately 20 miles East of Pyongyang when they were warned by a civilian that a large group of guerrillas were waiting in a draw to ambush them. Since the company had plenty of automatic weapons it was decided to continue and in about 10 minutes, contact was made with the enemy. A fire fight lasted about five hours before ordered were given for Co B to withdraw. A Cpl Pitts, who was near source, was wounded in the shoulder and while source who was unwounded applied a compress, three guerrillas appeared and both men were forced to surrendered. They were taken a few hundred yards into the hills and during this march source saw guerrillas bayoneting and shooting wounded prisoners. He was forced to march so fast that he could not identify anyone. All dead Americans were stripped of their clothing. Immediately upon reaching a wooded area, both Americans had their boots, socks, pile jackets, dog tags and personal items taken and were forced to march further into the mountain in their bare feet. The weapons had been taken upon capture.
Both men were taken to a guerrilla judged to be an officer by his bearing. No uniforms were worn by the captors, learned later to number 400, only civilian clothing augmented by stolen GI uniforms. This officer, using a captured S Korean soldier named IM who was also attached to the 15th regt and known by the source, asked what nationality the source was. Since Lee’s features are distinctly, he replied, “Chinese, born in Hawaii.” This so confused the officer that he terminated the interview and had both prisoners taken to a nearby house where Pfc FATSKI Bo Co 15th Regt and an unknown corporal plus 8 S Korean soldiers were met.
About 2200 hours source was taken to another house and questioned by six guerrillas. He was interrogated concerning the number of men, weapons and tanks in his Division. Answers given were written down. The other men were also interrogated individually and when the answers were found to be different, the prisoners were kicked and beaten during the night.
The next morning all prisoners were given straw slippers and marched all day and night until they arrived at a village where source was separated from other GIs and quartered with the captured S Koreans. The other Americans were never seen after this and no information concerning them was ever given Lee. The entire party of 400 stayed here for 4 days simply resting.
On the 5th day spent in this village, the S Korean prisoner IM and source were taken to a different house which was pointed out to them as being Co Hq and here met a civilian who asked them to sit down and assured them that they would not be harmed or killed. He then told them that they would have to write a letter addressed to the soldiers of the 15th Inf Regt which would make their buddies in the Regt homesick and make them want to give up. It would have to include statements concerning the good food and excellent treatment given prisoners by the N Koreans. Because the source’s command of English is limited, he was made to write eight different letters before one was finally accepted by the civilian who could read, write and speak English better than the source himself could. The S Korean prisoner was forced to write a letter along similar lines. It was explained that spies would “post” the letter in the vicinity of the 15th Inf Regt. Source could not write a copy of the original letter during course of this interrogation, stating that it took him a day and a half to find words for his original. When the letter episode was concluded, Source was told that he was now a member of the N Korean Army, would be attached to Hq Co and would serve as an interpreter when American prisoners were captured. His superior and counsellor would be the civilian.
In the days that followed, the civilian made a great effort to be friends with the source and they had many long talks together. He revealed that his name was also IM and stated that he was from TAEGU where he owned a large apple orchard. He was extremely well educated and always spoke using better English than the source was capable of using. He would quote American poetry and spoke at length discussing Enoch Arden, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. He would recite Korean poetry and sing songs which he said he had written and stated many times that his greatest work was translating the Bible into the Korean languages. His exact work in the unit was unknown, but source believed him to be a political officer. There was no attempt made to indoctrinate the source, but labor unions and strikes in the US were discussed. When source tried to defend these, he was simply told to shut up. IM is described as being 5’3” tall, 115 lbs, 28 yr old, very long black hair, no distinguishing features.
The guerrilla group stayed in this location for nine days and here source was given a cotton padded uniform as well as some civilian clothing. During this period source decided to tell the truth, that he really was of Korean ancestry and had a Grandfather living in SEOUL. His constant thought was of escape and he felt that his captors might relax their vigilance if he told them he was of Korean ancestry.
This story pleased the officers and they began regarding him as a mascot, constantly joking with him, asking him how the Koreans in Hawaii lived, and bringing him choice bits of food. Officers from other units visited him and told him that New York and Washington DC had been bombed. They also bragged that China and Russia were going to help N Korea and then all three would go to America and defeat the Americans on their own soil. Whenever a B-29 would fly high enough to leave a vapor trail, it would be pointed out to the source as being a plane belonging to the N Korean forces.
Approximately ten days later, the entire guerrilla group began marching East with their objective, WONSAN. The formation was extremely ragged with the forward elements being as far as 30 miles (SIC) ahead of the following group. Source stated that a group would consist of five to 30 members all connected by runners. Source’s group included nine officers and Mr IM the civilian. On this two-day march, the group was joined by civilians, this fact being reported by runners reporting to the officer group. Two days rest followed the march with WONSAN not reached and no American forces encountered.
Mr IM told the source that perhaps he would be able to see his grandfather in SEOUL since that was the next destination of the group. The march South was begun and on 1 Jan SEOUL was bypassed. The date is remembered because special new year’s cakes were issued to the group.
The group continued marching Southward without encountering American forces until 7 Jan 51 when the guerrilla leader, called “General” by his officers, was shot in the leg by a strafing plane. No medical facilities were available and after resting four days, thirty men, source included, were detailed to carry the leader North.
For approximately four days, the group carried the leader on a stretcher, with the carriers alternating every ten minutes. On the fourth day, one of the guerrillas who was about to take his turn at carrying the stretcher, handed source his PPsh sub-machine gun and two sacks of rice to carry for him. This was the first time that source was given a weapon and he decided that since he had both food and a weapon, he would try to escape. While moving through a village at dusk, he simply lagged behind as though tired and when the last man passed, threw away one bag of rice and began running in the opposite direction. That night was spent in a deserted house and on the second day, source met a woman who told him that there was another N Korean soldier in a house a few hundred yards away. This woman thought source was a N Korean because of his quilted uniform.
Having a weapon, source decided to investigate and found a N Korean soldier who was trying to desert because he was an impressed S Korean forced to fight for the Communists. Since this impressed Korean knew the country and source had a weapon and food, they decided to make their way South together. They walked South through the mountains for seven days when they heard artillery fire. On the tenth day after escape, a patrol of ROK soldiers from the 17th Inf Regt, 7th Div was encountered near MACHARI and after hearing their story, took them back to their lines.
General
Source never was told what N Korean unit captured him but he was certain that it was a guerrilla unit. Their weapons consisted of M1, carbines, two 4.2 mortars, three bazookas, 1 x 30 caliber machine gun, American grenades and some PPsh sub-machine guns. Unit never engaged in battle while source was with them.
For the CO, TIS:
WEELDREYER
