Sworn to Secrecy: American Prisoners of War(2000)
Sworn to Secrecy: American Prisoners of War (2000)This History Channel documentary was produced in three parts:
- Part One: The Barbed Wire Front This excellent documentary sets the tone for the three-part series dedicated to tracing the American POW experience within the context of twentieth century wars. It begins with an explanation of the Hague Convention of 1899 and commentary from POW historians Dwight Messimer, Lewis Carlson, and Robert C. Doyle. Focusing on Allied prisoners in German hands, it shows how the Germans, in World War I, developed excellent techniques for gathering passive intelligence from POW officers by treating them very well, nearly as guests at times. The Germans developed sophisticated listening methods successfully for two years, notably at a “listening hotel” in Karlsruhe, where the rooms were bugged and POWs’ conversations transcribed.
Further on, this documentary covers the captivity and escape of Lt. Edward Isaacs, USN, from the Villingen POW camp, then the difficult swim that Isaacs and Harold Willis made across the Rhine River to Switzerland in October 1918. In dealing with World War II, the film makers divide their treatment between the European and Pacific theaters evenly. The focus in Europe lies with the British MI-9 London that developed sophisticated escape lines, intelligence gathering techniques, and communications skills that permitted Allied military authorities to get messages into and intelligence out of the German POW camps.
In the Pacific, this documentary focuses on militant Japanese Bushido, the revised and hardened ancient Code of the Samurai which denied Japanese soldiers the ability to surrender honorably. As a result, the Japanese believed that all surrender was dishonorable and felt no restraints against treating all Allied POWs horribly. The conclusion of Part One is that World War I ended any sense of chivalry in warfare and began to use POWs as intelligence gathering tools. World War II sharpened the intelligence gathering capability, and POWs evolved into becoming political bargaining chips.
- Part Two: Battle for the Mind POWs are worth more alive than dead, especially officers. This was shown dramatically in the deception and trickery used by the Germans on British, French, and American POWs at the Listening Hotel in Karlsruhe. World War II became a bonanza in POW numbers; over two million prisoners were held by the belligerents throughout the war. In Germany, relatively few non-Russian POWs lost their lives in captivity.
This documentary describes the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III in detail. It shows that the British officers treated escape as a kind of school prank, until 50 escapers were executed by the Gestapo in 1944. After that event, MI- 9 and the equivalent American agency, MIS-X, ordered the POWs to stay in place until liberation or rescue. The Battle of the Bulge is discussed in terms of over 22,000 American POWs taken and the pure horror of the Malmédy Massacre in Belgium The SS gunned down a large group of surrendered Americans in cold blood.
Turning to the Pacific theater, the documentary explores the issue of Unit 731 in Manchuria. This secret Japanese medical unit conducted live experiments on Allied POWs that included vivisections and biological warfare experiments. Incredibly, 731 in return for all the data it gathered, the American War Crimes Commission never prosecuted the Japanese personnel involved in Unit 731. The documentary also covers Japanese unmarked “Hell Ships” that carried Allied POWs to Japan, and the fact that in1944 and 1945 many of these ships were unknowingly torpedoed en route by American submarines.
- Part Three: Code of Conduct The third part in this series focuses on Korea and the Vietnam POW experience in considerable depth. It begins by showing how the communist Chinese in North Korea decided to conduct political re-education -- what the American press called “brainwashing” -- in order to bring the issue of doubt into the minds of American POWs. One result of this effort was the refusal by twenty-one Americans and one British Marine to repatriate after the armistice in 1953. Horrified, the Eisenhower administration examined the POW situation in Korea and issued the Code of Conduct in 1954 which functions as a set of guidelines for POW behavior in captivity.
The film then shows that, without doubt, the American captivity experience in both North and South Vietnam became a new kind of horror. Along with torture, the captors attempted to make the prisoners an extension of the anti- war movement. POW interviewees say consistently that a profound sense of community grew in Hanoi. It was this reality of community support that they attribute their individual survival. The documentary concludes by showing how the U. S. armed services trains those personnel with a considerable risk of capture so that they can continue to bring the battle into the prison. Robert C. Doyle Franciscan University of Steubenville rcdoyle@sbsglobal.net
