Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database

The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database – http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/pow/

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

• Where can I find stories of alleged ham radio contact with POWs?
• What were military letters to spouses and parents like?
• What stories were told about Vietnam POWs after the end of the war in 1975?
• Where can I find a map of a POW camp?
• Where can I learn about Korean War MIAs?

Description:

As the title of this resource indicates, this is a database of documents related to POWs and MIAs. What the database doesn’t indicate is that it has some records relating to the Korean War. Most of the the documents appear to evaluations of various reports of POWs and MIA soldiers. The original reports do not appear to be in the database, only the summary and responses. Correspondence to families is included in the database. Maps and low quality photographs are also contained in the database.

The database has a simple search box with no opportunity for fielded searches. Searching by name will often by useful. Terms are searched against brief database catalog records which are usually, but not always linked to PDFs files. The PDF files themselves have no searchable text.

The front page of the database also contains links to a number of documents of general interest relating to the Vietnam War, including:

• Updated Casualty List
• Estimative Products on Vietnam, 1948-1975 (PDF)
• Peers Inquiry (My Lai)
• The “McCain Bill” (PDF)
• U.S. Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
• U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia

Search Tips:

Although this database is a free text search, you can use the headings of records to narrow your results or focus on an area of interest. Some useful terms are:

• [Country Name] – North Vietnam (NVN), South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Soviet Union, Laos
• field investigation report
• Korean War
• Letters to wife and parents
• Group photograph
• Ham radio
• Photograph
• Post-1975 Vietnam
• PW camp

An Annotated Bibliography of the United States Marines in the Korean War

An Annotated Bibliography of the United States Marines in the Korean War. D. Michael O’Quinlivan. 1962. 31 pp. 1970. rev. ed. James S. Santelli. 32 pp.

(Paper: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5384358)
(PDF: https://archive.org/details/AnAnnotatedBibliographyOfTheUSMarineCorpsInTheKoreanWar)

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

• Where can I find accounts of what it was like to be a chaplain in the Korean War?
• Where can I find an account of someone who escaped custody with a concealed grenade?
• How were wounded Marines sent back to the States for treatment?
• Where can I learn more about Communist indoctrination techniques?

Description:

This annotated bibliography is divided into the following sections:

• General
• Ground operations
• Air operations
• Naval operations
• Artillery and ordnance
• Chaplains
• Communications
• Decorations
• Escape and Evasion
• Fiction
• Helicopters
• Korean Marine Corps
• Medical
• Personnel
• Prisoners of war
• Relief and rehabilitation
• Supply and logistics
• Tactics and training
• Tanks
• Miscellaneous
• Unit index

The annotations for entries are very brief, rarely exceeding one sentence. A number of entries are for first-person accounts. The unit index will be very helpful to people researching specific units in the Korean War.

Document Acquisition Tip:

A significant number of the articles listed here appear to be from either Leatherneck Magazine or the Marine Corps Gazette. The Marine Corps Association is the publisher of both titles and maintains a database of full text articles from both periodicals at http://www.mca-marines.org/magazines-archive. If you are a member of the non-governmental Association, you can get free access here. Otherwise you’ll need to pay as the price of instant gratification. If you can wait, most articles can be obtained from your local library through interlibrary loan.

Navy Department Library Reading Room (World War II)

Navy Department Library Reading Room (World War II) – https://web.archive.org/web/20141029213005/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/readingroom.htm#worldtwo

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

• What could an American POW be expected to be asked about by his Japanese captors?
• What was a breasting float and what was its function?
• How did the Germans react to the loss of the Bismarck?
• What was involved in crossing the Rhine in 1945?

Description:

A lengthy list of alphabetically sorted links to reports, manuals, guides, after action reports and more. Just eyeballing the list can be daunting but worth it. I have pulled out about half of the resources and sorted them into topics that I think will be of interest to the writer:

First hand accounts

• Recollections of Ensign Leonard W. Tate Recounting His Service in the US Navy Including the Invasion of Southern France and with SACO [Sino-American Cooperative Association] in China During World War II
• Recollections of Lieutenant Commander William Leide Concerning the Crossing of the Rhine Rver in 1945.
• Recollections of Lieutenant Wilton Wenker and Lieutenant Elby Concerning the Crossing of the Rhine River in 1945.
• Recollections of USS Pampanito’s rescue of prison ship survivors by Lieutenant Commander Landon Davis [1944]
• Recollections of Vice Admiral Alan G. Kirk Concerning the Crossing of the Rhine River in 1945.

Enemy Perspectives

• Conduct of the War At Sea [1946] by Admiral Karl Doenitz
• G.A.F. [German Air Force, Luftaffe] and the Invasion of Normandy 1944 by Oberst Walter Gaul
• German Commanders Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl on the Invasion of Normandy in 1944.
• Interrogation of General Alfred Jodl Concerning the Invasion of Normandy in 1944.
• Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway
• Sinking of the German Battleship Bismarck as described in the B.d.U. [Commander U-boats] War Log, 24-31 May 1941
• U-505, Documents Captured on German Submarine
• World War II Invasion of Normandy (1944) – Lieutenant General Rudolf Schmetzer – Report Regarding the Construction of the Atlantic Wall

Enemy Procedures

• Japanese Interrogation of Prisoners of War

Know Your Enemy

• Japanese Naval Ground Forces “Know Your Enemy!” [CinCPac-CinCPOA Bulletin 11-45, 1945]
• Japanese Radio Communications and Radio Intelligence: “Know Your Enemy!” [CinCPac-CinCPOA Bulletin 5-45, 1945]

Pocket Guides

• Pocket Guide to Hawaii [1945]
• Pocket Guide to Japan [1945]
• Pocket Guide to Netherlands East Indies [1943]
• Pocket Guide to New Guinea and the Solomons [1944]
• Short Guide to Iraq

Other

• Anti-Suicide Action Summary [COMINCH P-0011]
• Battle of Guadalcanal 11-15 November 1942 Combat Narrative – Office of Naval Intelligence
• CIC [Combat Information Center] Operations on a Night Carrier
• General Instructions for Commanding Officers of Naval Armed Guards on Merchant Ships 1944
• Handbook of First Aid Treatment for Survivors of Disasters at Sea [1943]
• Shiploading: A Picture-Dictionary of Shiploading Terms

Again, this is only about half the resources on the page, if that. If you are writing a war story, either set in World War II or a fictional war, time with this page is well spent.

Navy Photos From the Initial Occupation of Japan

Navy photos from the initial occupation of Japan – https://web.archive.org/web/20130703130844/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/japansur/js-6.htm

UPDATE 1/19/2015 – The Naval History and Heritage Command recently reorganized their website and I could not find the Japan surrender photos there. So I’m linking to the Internet Archive version. I used the methods described in Appendix D, What to Do When URLs/Websites Break to recover this resource. If you do find a live link to these pictures, please let me know.

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

• What do scenes of surrender look like?
• How do liberated prisoners look?

Description:

This page from the Naval Historical Center provides access to a few dozen photographs taken by Navy personnel during the first month of the occupation of Japan. They include photos of the surrender of Japan, the takeover of various Japanese bases by American forces and a number of pictures of liberated Allied prisoners. Each photograph is captioned and each page of this site has additional commentary. The photographs on this site are divided into the following areas:

• Amphibious Landings around Tokyo Bay, 28 August – 2 September 1945;
• Liberation of Allied Prisoners of War in the Tokyo Bay Area, Part I;
• Liberation of Allied Prisoners of War in the Tokyo Bay Area, Part II;
• General MacArthur Arrives at Atsugi, 30 August 1945;
• Takeover of Yokosuka Naval Base, 30 August 1945;
• Miscellaneous Occupation Activities in the Tokyo Bay Area, 28 August – 2 September 1945.

Prisoner Locator Tools for Describing Characters

Prisoner Locator Tools

If you’re writing about a prisoner or an ex-con and want to add some details about his criminal history and appearance, you might consider using a state prisoner locator tool. A number of states have prisoner lookups. Some are very terse, only offering a name and a prison. Some states are richer in their information displays. Here are a few worth exploring:

Arkansas – Inmate Population Information Finder    http://adc.arkansas.gov/inmate_info/index.php

Description:

Prisoner database that can be searched not only by name, gender, age and race, but also by type of crime including: Assault, Drug Crime, Forgery/Counterfeiting, Fraud/Embezzlement, Kidnapping, Manslaughter, Murder, Other Crime, Other Violent Crime, Property Crime, Racketeering, Robbery, Sex Crime, Theft, Weapon Offense. Records include weight, height, sentencing history and prisoner photos when available.

Georgia – Inmate Query
http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/GDC/OffenderQuery/jsp/OffQryForm.jsp

Description:

Prisoners may be searched by name, aliases, gender, age, primary offense (incl abuse of gov’t office), sentence status, conviction county and more. Prisoner records include photos, offense details, project release dates, and aliases and identifying marks when available.

Kansas – Offender Population Search
http://www.dc.state.ks.us/kasper

Description:

Many fields available to search for offenders. Includes inmate information, including photos and offense history.

Search Tips:

If unsure how to start searching, use “smith” as a last name. Sometimes that will bring up too many results. In that case, add “john” as a first name and that ought provide a reasonable number of hits to walk through. For brooding characters with relatively common names, searching by a character name may produce additional food for thought.
If you’re trying to describe a criminal, try searching by type of offense. This can be good for “I expected a rapist to look like ________, not like this guy.”

To find more online inmate locator tools, visit the Prisoner Locator Tools list maintained by the ALA Government Documents Roundtable at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Prisoner_Locater_Tools.

Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party [NWP] (1875-1938)

Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party [NWP] (1875-1938) – http://www.loc.gov/collection/women-of-protest/about-this-collection/

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

• What did 19th and early 20th Century prison uniforms look like?
• What were suffragettes arrested for?
• What did early protest rallies look like?

Description:

Aside from documenting a significant part of the struggle of American women to get the right to vote, this collection may also be of some value in documenting women’s prison uniforms. The collection has a large gallery called Suffrage Prisoners, of women put in jail for their role in the suffrage movement. Some of the pictures feature women in prison garb, although many seem to be portraits taken far from prison walls.

Most of the photos represented here are either portraits of NWP members or photos that highlight the Nation Woman’s Party’s tactics which included parades, picketing and street demonstrations. There are over 2600 photographs in the whole collection of which 448 photos are available in this digital collection. If you live within driving distance of Washington DC, you may be able to examine the photos in person. Check with the Library of Congress before hopping in the car.

There are three essays associated with this collection and all three might be helpful to people writing about protest movements or strong female characters:

• Historical Overview of the NWP
• Profiles: Selected Leaders of the NWP
• Tactics and Techniques of the NWP Suffrage Campaign