Why Were Names Important?
Death could come at any minute in a POW camp, and the family of a POW might never know what happened to their loved one. The North Korean and Chinese captors did not keep records, especially of prisoners who died in captivity. So gathering the names and hometowns of fellow POWs so they might be shared with family and our military was very important to the prisoners. These were often the first things the POWs shared with one another. But hey couldn’t count on fellow POWs to remember this information, and recording names was forbidden, especially the names of the dead. So how did the Korean War POWs secretly save the names of the living and the dead?
In a previous post I relayed the story of how the son of my father’s POW friend was able to find me and share information. In this post, I will tell you about the lists of names our fathers were able to preserve, and what they did with them
Keeping Lists of POWs was Forbidden and Difficult
Paper was a scarce commodity in the prison camps, so prisoners would use any scraps they could find to write down what was important to them. They would write names in Bibles, on playing cards, on cigarette papers. Anywhere they could. When possible, prisoners would write their information in their own handwriting as further proof they were still alive when the list was written. This was done so they would not be forgotten, and their names could be reported to the proper authorities and families, should a prisoner with such a list escape or be released.
Below, you’ll see an example of a list my father was able to bring home when he was released from the POW camp in 1953.
When a Greeting Card was More than a Memento from Home
My mother wrote cards and letters to my dad, and sent cards from family members, like this birthday card. Prisoners were allowed to keep mail, so my dad scribbled
names on the inner folds of the card.
Note that I’ve redacted the names in order to preserve privacy for their relatives.
Frequent Searches for Information Hampered Their Attempts
Their guards weren’t about to give the prisoners a chance to hide anything. One such search came as my father was being transferred from Camp #1 to another camp. It had been two months since the last inspection. Most of the POWs brought their notes and lists of names up to date during those two months. It was terrible to think of starting all over again.
They were ordered to dump everything from their pockets and place all their gear on top of a blanket. One of the guards walked down the piles of equipment and started sifting through the material. Another guard preceded him, unbuttoning all pockets and untying all bundles.
A Terrifying Mistake that Could Have Been Severely Punished
As they continued down the line, they approached my father’s belongings. He looked down, and a paralyzing shock hit him because there in plain sight was his diary. It took a lot of self-control to keep himself from reaching down and snatching it up. If the guard opened it and found the names it contained, he would be headed for jail. The lists also held the names of those they knew were dead or those they had not seen alive for a period of time. The communists did not want that information to ever make it back to the U.S. It would have contradicted their claims of taking good care of their prisoners. Peace talks were underway, and this damning information would have shown an embarrassing light on North Korea.
Luckily, the guard simply pulled out a pencil and wrote my father’s name on the outside of the diary. Then he tossed it into a box that held all the confiscated items from their search and said, “You will get them back.”
The Searches Also Gave Hope to the Prisoners of War
The main thrust of the hunt was to collect any written information. This sent hopes soaring among the prisoners because of what it might indicate about the peace talks. Each time there had been positive statements about the talks, a frantic hunt for the names of the American dead took place. Their captors knew that full accountability would have to be a part of the negotiations. They also knew that the communists had killed many without taking notice of their names or nationalities. The best source for this information was other prisoners.
My Father Contacting POWs’ Loved Ones
Upon my father’s release in 1953, he turned information on fellow POWs, dead and alive, over to the authorities. He also answered hundreds of letters from loved ones of POWs/MIAs desperately seeking information. That will be the topic of a future post.
In addition to answering the letters from all over the world. My father, George J. Matta, Sr., used a good part of his furlough time to travel to talk to some of the families face-to-face, especially if he knew they were receiving bad news, the death of their loved one.
Research on POWs on My Father’s List
Knowing that more information was available since my father’s release as part of the research I did for a second book I plan to have published. I tried to find the status of the POWs from his lists and those letters. Of those POWs listed in the card displayed earlier in this post, one was repatriated in Operation Little Switch, and sixteen were repatriated in Operation Big Switch after the hostilities ended in an armistice. My research could not uncover the disposition of the other three POWs listed.
Sgt. Wendell Treffery’s Journal Containing the Names of POWs
Sgt. Wendell Treffery’s Journal was small, 5” x 4”. The title of the book translates to “Peace Diary.”
NOTE: Some names and addresses (other than my father’s) have been blacked out to protect their privacy.
Sgt Wendell Treffery’s list of prisoners was written in this journal during his time as a POW. As you can see, this journal was not a diary of life at the camp. Wendell told his family that if the guards had found he had a diary, he would have been killed on the spot. He was not only the camp Medic but was also designated as a Chaplain. As such, the journal is partially a prayer book which he would read as he sat next to a dying soldier. Other parts annotated the dying soldier’s next of kin. He promised the soldier he would contact his next of kin and tell his story.
I don’t know how he smuggled the journal out of the POW camp when he was released.
Considering the title, “Peace Diary,” and the fact that it has the same dove of peace on the cover that the Chinese put on the envelopes they gave POWs to send letters home, it is likely that the diary was provided by his captors so he could fulfill his role as Chaplain. That would explain why it was not confiscated when he was released.
Smithsonian Institute Interest in the Journal
The Smithsonian Institute wanted the journal, but Wendell refused to hand it over. That was his way of fulfilling his promise to keep the soldiers’ information private, other than from their loved ones. To the right of some names and addresses, Wendell sometimes wrote “Yes.” His son, Ed Treffery, feels that this was an indication that his father had made a personal visit to the family of the soldier.
Ed remembers as a child going to strangers’ houses with his father, who would talk to the people while Ed played in the yard. It appears that he wrote other notes in the journal after he got back to the States. As you see at the bottom of the page, to the right, in the image above my father’s name on page 18, is the word “Returned.” The fact that my father’s name is contained in the journal leads Ed and me to believe that they were held in the same camp(s). My father always felt close to Wendell, so I am sure that was true.
