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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class as a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that examines notable events that happened years ago.

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Speaker 1: Today I'm Gabe Lousier, and in this episode, we're looking

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Speaker 1: at an ambitious prisoner exchange between South Korea and it's

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Speaker 1: UN allies and the communist forces of North Korea and China.

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Speaker 1: We'll look at how both sides navigated the thorny issue

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Speaker 1: in order to put an end to the fighting and

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Speaker 1: to bring their respective troops home again. The day was

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Speaker 1: August five, three. With the Korean War winding down, both

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Speaker 1: sides of the conflict began to exchange their remaining prisoners.

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Speaker 1: The undertaking, known as Operation Big Switch, took place at

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Speaker 1: the village of pen Moon JOm, not far from the

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Speaker 1: de facto border between North and South Korea. It was

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Speaker 1: the second exchange of POWs who had been captured during

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Speaker 1: the Korean War. The first exchange, known as Operation Little Switch,

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Speaker 1: had been held in late April of that year and

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Speaker 1: lasted just under two weeks. As the diminutive name suggests,

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Speaker 1: it was a smaller exchange, with only sick and injured

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Speaker 1: prisoners changing hands, that left the need for a second,

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Speaker 1: much larger exchange aimed at repatriating the remaining healthy prisoners.

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Speaker 1: That operation began on August five and continued all the

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Speaker 1: way into December. The communist forces arguably got the better deal,

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Speaker 1: as nearly seventies six thousand North Korean and Chinese prisoners

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Speaker 1: were exchanged for just under thirteen thousand U N prisoners.

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Speaker 1: To give you a little background, the Korean War had

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Speaker 1: begun on June nineteen fifty, when North Korean forces crossed

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Speaker 1: over the thirty eighth Parallel and invaded South Korea. It

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Speaker 1: was clear early on that the South Korean army didn't

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Speaker 1: stand a chance on its own, so the United Nations

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Speaker 1: came to the country's aid to make sure it didn't

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Speaker 1: fall into the hands of its communist enemies. Backed by

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Speaker 1: U N forces led by the United States, South Korea

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Speaker 1: was able to beat back the invaders and push the

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Speaker 1: fight all the way to the border of North Korea

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Speaker 1: and China. However, North Korea had friends of its own.

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Speaker 1: The U S s R. Had supplied the North Korean

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Speaker 1: army with weapons and training, and China strengthened its numbers

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Speaker 1: by committing more than two million soldiers to the fight.

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Speaker 1: With this help, North Korea was able to undo the

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Speaker 1: U N's progress, effectively pushing its forces all the way

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Speaker 1: back to where the war had first begun. By the

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Speaker 1: summer of nineteen fifty one, the fighting around the thirty

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Speaker 1: eight Parallel had reached a stale meat, and it remained

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Speaker 1: that way for the next two years, as neither side

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Speaker 1: could agree on how to bring an end to the war.

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Speaker 1: One of the biggest points of contention was how to

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Speaker 1: return prisoners of war. The communist forces insisted that all

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Speaker 1: prisoners should be returned to their country of origin, while

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Speaker 1: the u N maintained that prisoners who wanted to stay

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Speaker 1: where they were should be allowed to do so. This

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Speaker 1: remained a sticking point all through the negotiation process, but

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Speaker 1: in the end, North Korea and China finally relented, agreeing

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Speaker 1: that POWs would be able to choose whether to return

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Speaker 1: home or not. The prisoner exchange began with Operation Little

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Speaker 1: Switch in April of nineteen fifty three, three months before

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Speaker 1: the Korean Armist Disagreement was signed. The process was overseen

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Speaker 1: by the neutral Nation's Repatriation Commission, which was led by India.

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Speaker 1: Under its direction, Operation Little Switch led to the turn

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Speaker 1: of just under seven hundred u N troops and exchange

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Speaker 1: for over five thousand North Koreans, one thousand Chinese soldiers,

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Speaker 1: and roughly five hundred civilians. You might be thinking those

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Speaker 1: numbers sound a little uneven, and US officials felt the

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Speaker 1: same way. The agreement had been to exchange all sick

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Speaker 1: and wounded prisoners, but the Communists had delivered just six

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty four men. The US believed there were

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Speaker 1: likely many more of their soldiers who fit the criteria,

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Speaker 1: and the North Korea and China were just being overly

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Speaker 1: strict about who should be deemed sick or wounded. Those

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Speaker 1: suspicions were later confirmed when the second wave of exchanges

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Speaker 1: began on August five. Each day of the week, a

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Speaker 1: few hundred u N prisoners were released at Panmun Jam,

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Speaker 1: and while some of the survivors were healthy enough to

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Speaker 1: wave and dance as they made their way to the

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Speaker 1: receiving tents, others were too emaciated to even move, and

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Speaker 1: some were even missing limbs. There were also reports of

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Speaker 1: UN troops suffering from tuberculosis and dysentery, illnesses that should

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Speaker 1: have qualified them for earlier release. In spite of the

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Speaker 1: bickering and disagreements, the prisoner swap continued almost every day

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Speaker 1: for the next four months. It turned out the U

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Speaker 1: N had captured many more prisoners than the communists, which

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Speaker 1: led to them releasing close to three thousand prisoners per

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Speaker 1: day compared to the four hundred or so they received.

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Speaker 1: In total, more than seventy five thousand prisoners were returned

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Speaker 1: to North Korea and China, while an additional twenty two

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Speaker 1: thousand communist soldiers chose to seek asylum elsewhere instead of

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Speaker 1: returning home. By February first of nineteen fifty four, all

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Speaker 1: former UN prisoners who chose not to return to communist

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Speaker 1: rule had been released as free civilians. In exchange for

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Speaker 1: its seventy five thousand prisoners, the United Nations Command received

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Speaker 1: a little over twelve thousand, seven hundred, much to the

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Speaker 1: shock of UN officials. A handful of American and British

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Speaker 1: soldiers declined repatriation, as did roughly three hundred South Koreans. Allegedly,

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Speaker 1: they all willingly chose to stay in North Korea, though

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Speaker 1: it's likely that at least some level of coercion was

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Speaker 1: at play, And all of this is to say nothing

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Speaker 1: of the many POWs who were never even given the

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Speaker 1: option of returning. About eighty thousand South Koreans were stationed

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Speaker 1: in North Korea when the ceasefire was called. Most of

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Speaker 1: those troops are believed to have been enslaved as laborers,

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Speaker 1: with some of them later being brainwashed and integrated into

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Speaker 1: North Korean society. The misfortunes of those left behind were

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Speaker 1: eventually revealed by a small group of defectors who shared

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Speaker 1: their stories decades later. Operation Big Switch was not a

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Speaker 1: total success then, but for those lucky enough to return home,

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Speaker 1: it was their salvation, and the fact it was allowed

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Speaker 1: to happen at all is a minor miracle given how

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Speaker 1: tense and volatile the situation was on the Korean peninsula.

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Speaker 1: Seven decades later, the uneasy truce between North and South

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Speaker 1: Korea still stands, and let's hope it stays that way

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Speaker 1: so that another prisoner exchange won't be necessary. I'm Gabe

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Speaker 1: Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. You can learn even

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Speaker 1: more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at T D I HC Show, and if you

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Speaker 1: have any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop me

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Speaker 1: a line at this day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon

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Speaker 1: for another day in history class