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This clip shows five Australian soldiers who served in the Korean War reflecting on the feelings they had on their day of liberation. The interviews are intercut with archival footage showing the release of Australian and North Korean prisoners of war (POWs).

Educational value points

• The clip features interviews with five Australian men who served in the Korean War (1950–53). The conflict, between North Korea and South Korea, had its genesis in the agreement made between the USA and the Soviet Union to divide the country at the 38th parallel at the end of the Second World War (1939–45). North Korea was supported by the People’s Volunteer Army of Communist China and advised by the Soviet Union. South Korea was supported by the United Nations (UN), the USA and its allies, including Australia.

• The Korean War ceasefire was declared on 27 July 1953, after 2.5–3.5 million people had been killed (including 339 Australians) and with no likelihood of a resolution. The fighting ended with Korea still divided into two different states along the 38th parallel. After the armistice was signed and the POWs repatriated, negotiations for an end to hostilities continued, but no further agreements were reached and the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) remains as it did in 1953, a militarised divide between North and South Korea.

• Australia’s involvement in the Korean War commenced after a resolution by the UN Security Council for North Korea to withdraw the forces that had invaded the south had been ignored. The UN called on its members to give military support to South Korea. Australia deployed the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and a squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, both of which were stationed in Japan in 1950 as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.

• The clip suggests that Australia and the USA shared similar anticommunist views at the time of the Korean War. The Korean War took place during the Cold War, a period marked by increasing distrust between the USA and its allies and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the Soviet Union), and these views were becoming an important element in the development of foreign policies worldwide. In 1951 Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies promoted an unsuccessful referendum to ban the Communist Party in Australia. Menzies was also keen to secure US involvement in a Pacific pact (later to become the ANZUS Treaty) between Australia, New Zealand and the USA, in which a military attack on one country would be regarded by the participants as an attack on all.

• The archival footage shows Operation Little Switch, which was an exchange of sick and injured prisoners agreed to during the truce talks (prior to the armistice being signed) at Panmunjom on 11 April 1953 and facilitated by the UN and the International Red Cross in Geneva. There was disagreement between North Korea and the UN about the repatriation of POWs, as the UN wanted voluntary repatriation while North Korea favoured forced repatriation. Operation Big Switch involved the exchange of all other POWs.

• The archival footage shows part of the 1,030 Chinese and 5,194 Korean POWs and 446 civilian exchange during Operation Little Switch. Some returning Chinese Communist prisoners tried to embarrass their captors by rejecting rations and clothing issued to them. The contentious policy that no POW held by South Korea and its allies would be forcibly repatriated remained in place.

• The archival images show some of the 684 sick and wounded UN POWs being released by Chinese and North Korean military and being greeted by the press. Some Western press used the repatriation of UN POWs for propaganda purposes, claiming that not everyone had been released.

• The clip is part of a documentary directed by David Caesar, one of Australia’s best-known film directors. Caesar has directed features including Greenkeeping (1992), Idiot Box (1996), Mullet (2001) and Dirty Deeds (2002). He has also directed a significant number of television programs, including Twisted Tales (1996), Bad Cop, Bad Cop (2002), RAN: Remote Area Nurse (2005), Fireflies, Crash Burn, All Saints, Water Rats and Halifax.

This clip starts approximately 45 minutes into the documentary.

This clip shows five Australian soldiers who served in the Korean War reflecting on the feelings they had on their day of liberation. The interviews are intercut with archival footage showing the release of Australian and North Korean prisoners of war.

Man 1 Later on in the day, I was feeling pretty miserable and pretty, uh, pretty lonely. Uh, you had no-one to talk to. And, uh, I was in a lot of – a lot of pain. The- the plaster was sort of contracting and-and really hurting, and uh, this Chinese fella came in, Chinese soldier, and sat down on the bed and he-he got me, cradled me arm in his – my head in his arms and started singing, uh, 'Swing low, sweet chariot, coming fore to carry me home’. I kept thinking about Desma, that’s my wife – still married after all these years. The – you know, I was … I was just so overcome with, with, with emotion, thinking of, you know, what the family were, er, doing and whether I was going to pull through.
Man 2 I used to watch those little swallows every time they flew over and think, 'Another couple of months, you’ll be flying back to home.’ Yeah… never forget your country, not when it’s as good as this one.
Man 3 Well, the first intonation that we really had that there was the ceasefire talks were getting somewhere near the finalisation was when Little Switch occurred. Now, Little Switch was the switch of the prisoners of war who were sick or wounded, uh, of those who came out, there were five Australians.
Man 1 We left the, uh, the little house that uh, we were staying in up on the side of the hill near the railway siding and got loaded aboard the trucks once more, but they had big red crosses painted on ’em, and they drove us back down to a place called Kaesong. We were met by the Western press, and, of course, they were most impressed because it looked almost as if we were coming out of a bloody rest camp for jaded diggers or something or other. From the point of view of the publicity, the Chinese just left the Western world for dead. Their people were released screaming and carrying on and having all sorts of demonstrations, and ours were coming home with little blue uniforms and uh, all the goodies under the sun.
Man 4 Actually, it just in ah, I think it was about 27 July 1953, or the 28th, they just come in and said, 'It’s over.’
Man 3 And we just sat around and as our names were called, we went forward. Mine was called on 1 September, and I joined a group of people who got on board a truck and we went down to the village of Panmunjom.
Man 4 We were unloaded out of the trucks and walked towards a gateway that had been erected which had 'Gateway to freedom’ written across it, and before I ever got to the gateway, there were two big American MPs one on each side of me, took an arm each and escorted me over the gateway because I – the tears were running down my cheeks and I couldn’t walk.