Geoje POW Camp

Geoje-do POW camp (Korean: 거제도 포로수용소) was a POW camp located in Geoje at the southernmost part of Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.

Geojedo Camp was built to hold prisoners shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War.

In February 1951, the UN High Command ordered the removal of all Communist POWs from the Korean peninsula to Geoje island.

The first collective violence against camp guards occurred on 18/19 June 1951, when some North Korean officers protested having to dig latrines and garbage pits. When a South Korean guard detail entered Compound 76 of the camp, the prisoners stoned the guards and the soldiers opened fire, killing three POWs. More incidents followed including demonstrations within the compounds, work refusals, threats against camp personnel, and some 15 murders among groups of pro and anti-communist Korean prisoners. In July and August 1951, the guards killed eight more POWs. On one occasion, the guards had to rescue 200 POWs from Compound 78, where hard-core Communists had executed three supposed collaborators in a plan to control the compound.

In late September 1951, General James Van Fleet and his staff visited Geoje-do and concluded that while the physical conditions were adequate, there were too few guards and they were poorly disciplined. POWs had too much free time and independence and surrounding refugee camps allowed the easy flow of information and contraband into the camp. Van Fleet sent a new U.S. Army military police battalion to the island, which brought the 8137th Military Police Group up to three battalions and four escort companies.

In December 1951, a battalion of the U.S. 23rd Infantry Regiment augmented the guard force as did additional South Korean MPs. While the guard force now numbered 9,000 officers and men, it was still 40 percent below the force requested by the camp commander.

By 1952 over 170,000 prisoners of war (about 85% North Korean and the rest from China) were held at the camp, however, U.N. forces lacked sufficient manpower and experience in controlling such large numbers of prisoners.

The UNC delegation at the Panmunjom peace talks adopted the principle of only voluntary repatriation of Communist POWs, while the Chinese and North Korean position was for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners. On 2 February 1952, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs U. Alexis Johnson proposed the screening of the POWs allowing a free choice to each POW whether or not to return to China or North Korea, the POWs who chose not to return would be removed from the POW lists and the Communists would be offered an all-for-all exchange of those who did choose repatriation. On 27 February 1952, this approach was adopted as the U.N. position at the Panmunjom talks. It was assumed by the U.N. that each POW would have freedom of choice, but given the loose control at Geoje camp, there were numerous violent incidents among the unsegregated groups of Communist and anti-Communist POWs.

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