In July 1953, with the signing of the "Korean Armistice Agreement", the three-year-long "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" was declared over, and with the end of the war, a series of post-war issues were debatable.
During this period, the United States made its own small calculations and introduced a policy that "as prisoners of war, they can freely choose to stay after their release, choose to return to their homeland, or choose to stay in a third country that is willing to accept themselves."
The purpose of the United States in promulgating this policy was not to show the tolerance and freedom of the United States; at that time, the Taiwan issue had not yet been properly resolved; this policy was nothing more than a gentle co-optation operation carried out by the United States against prisoners on both sides and in conjunction with the Taiwan authorities, but it was not expected that the result would indeed be counterproductive.
James George Winneres
In the end, "the 21 American prisoners refused to return home, and they chose to continue to live in China." "The most well-known of these is Old Wen, Wenneris, and by understanding his life experience, it is almost clear why the prisoners of war chose to stay in China.
Born in 1922 in a small-town working-class family, as the eldest of four siblings in the family, when the economic crisis affected the United States, when the family was in difficulty, he chose to work part-time in middle school to subsidize the family, after graduating from high school, he traveled to several states without finding a job, and when he was desperate, he signed up for the army.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Winaris, as an infantryman of the US army, confronted the fascists in many American countries on the battlefield, and later as an artilleryman, he was not afraid of the repeated air raids and bombing of the Japanese army, and made great contributions to the US army during World War II.
After the end of World War II, Winneres was demobilized and returned to China, but the fate was wrong, the United States broke out again an economic crisis, Wenneres had no choice but to join the army for the second time, and two months later he went to the Korean battlefield.
In the second campaign conducted by the Chinese Volunteer Army, the strategy of luring the enemy to go deeper was used to destroy the United Nations army, and in this way, Wenneris, who had just arrived in Korea for more than a month, became a prisoner of the Chinese soldiers.
"Prisoner of War Camp"
When it comes to prisoner-of-war camps, many people's impressions of them are dark and unbearable, which can be said to be infamous and bad, and in the subconscious of many foreigners, once they enter the prisoner-of-war camps, it is tantamount to losing their basic rights as human beings. The so-called "winner is king, loser is Kou". As captives, that is, losers, they may face endless insults and abuses.
However, after entering the prisoner-of-war camp of the Chinese Volunteer Army, Wenneris was a foreign scene, and China strictly implemented the prisoner protection policy of the Geneva Convention and gave the prisoners in the war due treatment.
According to Winneris, the two years and eight months he spent in the prisoner-of-war camp did not have the unbearable insults, scolding, corporal punishment and other phenomena they imagined. However, it is inevitable that there will be a phenomenon of non-cooperation, even in the face of those prisoners who do not cooperate well, the Chinese side is mainly based on education, and at most it will be locked up and confined, and the time will not exceed a week.
The valuables they carried were not deprived, but were recorded one by one for temporary safekeeping, and all of them were returned when they left.
Judging from the war situation at that time, the conditions in which the Chinese Volunteer Army were located were also extremely difficult, they did not have enough to eat, they did not have warm clothes, they had to fight the enemy under extreme conditions, and the prisoners often ran east and west under the rain of bullets and bullets and even the indiscriminate bombardment, but despite such difficult conditions, the Chinese side still gave them a guarantee within their capabilities.
The reason why the volunteer army still insisted on ensuring the basic life of the prisoners under such extreme conditions was not only because of the fine tradition of the Chinese side in giving preferential treatment to the prisoners, but also because the prisoners understood the most authentic attitude of the Chinese side toward the prisoners, and to fight back against the current situation of the United States' wanton smear on our country in the international community through the real feelings of their own citizens.
In addition to the best possible living conditions, the Chinese Volunteers also conducted ideological and political education for Winneris and other captives, making them fully aware of the aggressive nature of the United States in waging war. Faced with Winaris, whose thinking was gradually moving closer to the volunteer army, the captured American officers continued to intimidate and induce.
Asking him to stop returning to China immediately can be rewarded, otherwise he will face the condemnation of the military court after returning to China, and in the face of threats, "Old Wen" did not choose to compromise, and insisted on becoming an active member of it, and eventually chose to live in China after the war with 20 other people.
"Old Wen" and other places "after the life of prisoners of war"
Through The experience of Winneris, we can basically understand the reasons why 21 American prisoners of war came to live in our country, saying that they are prisoners of war, but in fact, it is better to understand that they are the international friends who our Chinese volunteer army has won with their lives.
In 1954, 21 "American friends" stayed in a small guest house next to the Taiyuan provincial government under the arrangement of the Chinese side, and even arranged for them to cook Western food, and arranged other subjects such as Chinese language and literature under the responsibility of the Red Cross.
On the occasion of graduation, one of them was called "Michael. Douglas's prisoners of war unfortunately contracted the disease and died, and they were buried according to Chinese rituals, and the rest chose to "enter the factory to work" in China, such as "Lao Wen" can be said to have returned to the old business and was assigned to the Jinan Paper Mill to continue to work as workers.
Some people who choose to continue their studies are centrally arranged to Chinese be sent to undergraduate after training, and the central government has clearly stated that they cannot discriminate against them and should focus on the future and treat them with courtesy.
After serving them to live their own lives in an orderly manner, and then began to return to the United States with various conflicts, our country always adhered to the principle of voluntariness, and when they hoped to return home, they still did not do anything to send them back.
The United States fabricated false facts, saying that our country brainwashed these prisoners of war, and then the prisoner of war "Wells" also attacked and denied such practices by the United States in his memoirs.
After returning home
The first captives, who worked on collective farms after completing their studies and lived in Beijing for a year and a half, chose to return to the United States, and shortly after returning to the United States, they were arrested by the military and released after three months of detention, and they were subjected to prolonged surveillance.
For Americans, they are equivalent to traitors, and the "prisoners of war" who return to the United States with homesickness will face the hostility of their hometown personnel and even face multiple arrests by the government. In the face of all this, most people choose to "disappear" themselves, and there are also people who are adams who stride into the public eye and speak boldly to people.
"Old Wen" celebrates his family's reunion with his family every year on the day of his "captivity", which he believes is the day of his liberation, and he established his own family in Jinan, China, and spent the rest of his life.