I was reading this blog in Chinese dated February 22, 2018. It brought out my tears and I feel I must share this real story told by the person who was there when it all happened. I will simplify the beginning about how the blog author found and met the storyteller, and add some background facts so we can get a big picture view. Other than that, the key details for the original story will be kept.
The blog author was a Chinese volunteer in a nursing home for the veterans in Washington D.C. area. Most people there are senior veterans, and volunteers are encouraged to engage in conversations to help the senior residents get rid of the loneliness, soothe their minds and keep their brains active.
This particular senior veteran was almost 90 year old when the blog was published, originally from South Korea but could speak Chinese fluently. He told the blog author he was the military translator at the headquarters of the 24th Division of the US army during the Korean War.
Below I will use “I” to refer to the military translator, who claimed this story had never been told before, given the sensitivity involving the enemy at the war in South Korea.
It was during the Chinese Fifth Phase Offensive of the Korean War, referred to as the Chinese Spring Offensive by the US, in May of 1951 to be accurate. The People’s Volunteer Army or PVA of China launched the largest operation with three field armies totaling 700,000 men, with a goal of “permanently driving the United Nations Command (UN) forces off the Korean peninsula” according to this Wikipedia. They initially had reached the suburban regions outside the capital city of Seoul in South Korea, but due to the weak logistic power that was no match to the American counterparts, all Chinese soldiers had to carry their own foods with them — or else they had to fight battles with empty stomachs. This determined each PVA offensive operation could not last longer than seven days, by then they must retreat to their original base for resupply.
Our story happened during the days when the majority of PVA retreated to the north of the 38th parallel, leaving some small combat units behind and surrounded by the US 24th Division. At first the US army tried to use soldiers to reclaim all the battled spots from the PVA, but quickly found out that the casualties from the resistance by the remaining Chinese soldiers were too high. They then decided to just bomb the spots and then wait for the Chinese to die of hunger.
One morning in late May of 1951, the division headquarters received a request from the lower rank officers to climb up the hill, as all the remaining PVA seemed to be dead on top of the hill. General John H. Church, the division commander recently assigned to replace the missing in action General William F. Dean who was defeated by the PVA and was captured alive six months ago (But Washington thought General Dean was killed in the battle and promoted him to a higher rank and held a national funeral for him), was hesitating because based on past experiences the PVA could jump out anywhere even when we thought they were all dead.
Nobody moved until that noon, when people from the battlefront reported someone was waving a white towel from the hilltop. General Church was excited and ordered a team of 20 soldiers led by Lieutenant McCain to check it out. I went along with the team.
We climbed up the hill with vigilance, until half way to the hilltop, we saw a wounded female PVA soldier, a military nurse who was quietly sitting by a rock. I could still remember clearly how calm her pale face was. Lieutenant McCain asked me to find out from her how many Chinese soldiers were still on the hilltop. She simply shook her head and started moving uphill with the assistance of a stick made from a tree nearby. She moved very slowly with her right leg still bleeding, leaving a blood trail behind. We followed her but still worried someone may come out and shoot us. Fortunately nothing like that happened.
We finally got to the hilltop, and saw in a hideout dozens of dead bodies of PVA soldiers. Many of them had missed a leg or an arm but were lined up neatly. Their military uniforms were all torn or ragged but their faces were all cleaned up.
We found a severely wounded Chinese military doctor, who laid on the ground next to the dead bodies and pieces of surgery tools. What was most shocking was his intestines flowed out of his body to the nearby ground!
The military nurse led us to where the doctor was laying. The latter looked at me with a smile on his bloodless face, and said to me in weak and broken voice: “Please bury these soldiers and remember the name of this location.”
I translated his words to Lieutenant McCain, who did not say or promise anything. Then, the doctor lifted his shaking hand to the upper pocket of his uniform and took out a small notebook soaked in blood. Pointing to the direction of a nearby cliff: “There, a total of 8, all under the rock, all alive. I washed their wounds this morning but did not have the medicine to treat them. I recorded their wounds individually in this notebook so your doctor can use the information …”
I translated his words to McCain, who was only half convinced by what the doctor said. Two American soldiers rushed to the place following the doctor’s direction, and soon they yelled back happily: “Come here quickly, they are all here, all alive! They need help!”
When we all walked toward the cliff, one American soldier saw the Chinese doctor trying to break his own intestines with his hands. He was so shocked that he started vomiting. Lieutenant McCain yelled to the doctor: “Stop! Stop!” and then ordered two soldiers to separate his hands and each soldier put a foot on one of his hands.
The doctor used his remaining strength to try to get his hands back out of the soldier’s feet but of course to no avail. The nurse then walked to the doctor and asked me to tell the soldiers to step away, as she would take care of the doctor.
As soon as the soldiers and I were leaving them, I heard the doctor telling the nurse: “It’s all done, time to go home now!” I looked back and saw the nurse nodding to him and turning her head to me with a smile on her face. With me and the soldiers walked away to a safe distance, she suddenly jumped to the doctor and at the same time triggered the two grenades hiding in her chest that we did not know she had! The two died instantly.
Under the big rock we found and rescued 8 American soldiers. Turned out they were sent uphill to see if any PVA alive. All were wounded before they ever reached the hilltop. They then yelled for help and the Chinese doctor disinfected them and wrapped their wounds with gauze — the only thing he could do at that time.
I also noticed that next to each American solder was a Chinese military kettle and a bag of stir-fried flour. I had seen them before and understood the fried flour was the only foods for the Chinese. Of course, the American soldiers had no idea the fried flour was edible, so none of them even opened the bag. Meanwhile on the Chinese side, I noticed all the food bags were completely empty. Apparently the PVA soldiers offered their own surviving foods to the enemies.
I will never forget that day: June 2nd, 1951. We gathered all the PVA bodies and buried them together. The American soldiers, including Lieutenant McCain, were so moved that they dug the burial site very deep and saluted the bodies and followed by 21 gunshots at the ceremony — the highest military honor! I have never seen Americans paying so much respect to any foreigners like that! Later at the proposal of the US army, these unidentified Chinese soldiers were moved to a burial site for all the Chinese PVA outside Seoul.