This man, Yang Kyoungjong, fought for three armies in WWII. At 18, this Korean was conscripted by the Japanese from Manchuria (northern China) and sent off to fight the Soviets. He was captured after the Battle of Khalkhin-Gol and sent to a labor camp. But when the Soviets started running low on manpower, he was conscripted again in 1942 along with thousands of his fellow prisoners and shipped off to the eastern front. In 1943, he was captured by the Germans at the Battle of Kharkov in Ukraine. They handed him a German uniform, and sent him off to fight in France in a special battalion of Soviet prisoners. American paratroopers captured him again and he spent some time in prison camp in Britain before immigrating to the US. He died in Illinois in 1992.
US Army Nurse (Second Lieutenant) wearing long regulation officer’s overcoat over her uniform (circa 1941)
Historical Nonfiction: The Forgotten Internment
Everyone knows (or should know) that thousands of Japanese-Americans were held in ‘internment’ aka concentration camps during WWII, by order of the president. People don’t know that over 11,000 German-Americans and Latin American citizens were also imprisoned in camps throughout the country. Some…
Historical Nonfiction: Sometimes, knowing history is depressing. But it must be passed on, or...
Sometimes, knowing history is depressing. But it must be passed on, or it will be repeated. These are some known examples of wartime military conflicts, mutinies, and riots over racial tensions.
- 1917 Camp Logan, Houston, Texas: mutiny by 156 soldiers of the all-black 24th US Infantry’s 3rd…