Operation Big Switch begins at Panmunjom, Korea - August 5th, 1953

On this day in 1953, with the Korean War winding down, both sides of the conflict began to exchange their remaining prisoners.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class as a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that examines notable events that happened years ago.
Today I'm Gabe Lousier, and in this episode, we're looking
at an ambitious prisoner exchange between South Korea and it's

(00:20):
UN allies and the communist forces of North Korea and China.
We'll look at how both sides navigated the thorny issue
in order to put an end to the fighting and
to bring their respective troops home again. The day was

(00:43):
August five, three. With the Korean War winding down, both
sides of the conflict began to exchange their remaining prisoners.
The undertaking, known as Operation Big Switch, took place at
the village of pen Moon JOm, not far from the
de facto border between North and South Korea. It was

(01:05):
the second exchange of POWs who had been captured during
the Korean War. The first exchange, known as Operation Little Switch,
had been held in late April of that year and
lasted just under two weeks. As the diminutive name suggests,
it was a smaller exchange, with only sick and injured

(01:26):
prisoners changing hands, that left the need for a second,
much larger exchange aimed at repatriating the remaining healthy prisoners.
That operation began on August five and continued all the
way into December. The communist forces arguably got the better deal,
as nearly seventies six thousand North Korean and Chinese prisoners

(01:50):
were exchanged for just under thirteen thousand U N prisoners.
To give you a little background, the Korean War had
begun on June nineteen fifty, when North Korean forces crossed
over the thirty eighth Parallel and invaded South Korea. It
was clear early on that the South Korean army didn't

(02:11):
stand a chance on its own, so the United Nations
came to the country's aid to make sure it didn't
fall into the hands of its communist enemies. Backed by
U N forces led by the United States, South Korea
was able to beat back the invaders and push the
fight all the way to the border of North Korea
and China. However, North Korea had friends of its own.

(02:35):
The U S s R. Had supplied the North Korean
army with weapons and training, and China strengthened its numbers
by committing more than two million soldiers to the fight.
With this help, North Korea was able to undo the
U N's progress, effectively pushing its forces all the way
back to where the war had first begun. By the

(02:56):
summer of nineteen fifty one, the fighting around the thirty
eight Parallel had reached a stale meat, and it remained
that way for the next two years, as neither side
could agree on how to bring an end to the war.
One of the biggest points of contention was how to
return prisoners of war. The communist forces insisted that all

(03:17):
prisoners should be returned to their country of origin, while
the u N maintained that prisoners who wanted to stay
where they were should be allowed to do so. This
remained a sticking point all through the negotiation process, but
in the end, North Korea and China finally relented, agreeing
that POWs would be able to choose whether to return

(03:38):
home or not. The prisoner exchange began with Operation Little
Switch in April of nineteen fifty three, three months before
the Korean Armist Disagreement was signed. The process was overseen
by the neutral Nation's Repatriation Commission, which was led by India.
Under its direction, Operation Little Switch led to the turn

(04:00):
of just under seven hundred u N troops and exchange
for over five thousand North Koreans, one thousand Chinese soldiers,
and roughly five hundred civilians. You might be thinking those
numbers sound a little uneven, and US officials felt the
same way. The agreement had been to exchange all sick
and wounded prisoners, but the Communists had delivered just six

(04:23):
hundred and eighty four men. The US believed there were
likely many more of their soldiers who fit the criteria,
and the North Korea and China were just being overly
strict about who should be deemed sick or wounded. Those
suspicions were later confirmed when the second wave of exchanges
began on August five. Each day of the week, a

(04:45):
few hundred u N prisoners were released at Panmun Jam,
and while some of the survivors were healthy enough to
wave and dance as they made their way to the
receiving tents, others were too emaciated to even move, and
some were even missing limbs. There were also reports of
UN troops suffering from tuberculosis and dysentery, illnesses that should

(05:07):
have qualified them for earlier release. In spite of the
bickering and disagreements, the prisoner swap continued almost every day
for the next four months. It turned out the U
N had captured many more prisoners than the communists, which
led to them releasing close to three thousand prisoners per
day compared to the four hundred or so they received.

(05:28):
In total, more than seventy five thousand prisoners were returned
to North Korea and China, while an additional twenty two
thousand communist soldiers chose to seek asylum elsewhere instead of
returning home. By February first of nineteen fifty four, all
former UN prisoners who chose not to return to communist

(05:48):
rule had been released as free civilians. In exchange for
its seventy five thousand prisoners, the United Nations Command received
a little over twelve thousand, seven hundred, much to the
shock of UN officials. A handful of American and British
soldiers declined repatriation, as did roughly three hundred South Koreans. Allegedly,

(06:12):
they all willingly chose to stay in North Korea, though
it's likely that at least some level of coercion was
at play, And all of this is to say nothing
of the many POWs who were never even given the
option of returning. About eighty thousand South Koreans were stationed
in North Korea when the ceasefire was called. Most of

(06:33):
those troops are believed to have been enslaved as laborers,
with some of them later being brainwashed and integrated into
North Korean society. The misfortunes of those left behind were
eventually revealed by a small group of defectors who shared
their stories decades later. Operation Big Switch was not a
total success then, but for those lucky enough to return home,

(06:56):
it was their salvation, and the fact it was allowed
to happen at all is a minor miracle given how
tense and volatile the situation was on the Korean peninsula.
Seven decades later, the uneasy truce between North and South
Korea still stands, and let's hope it stays that way
so that another prisoner exchange won't be necessary. I'm Gabe

(07:21):
Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. You can learn even
more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram at T D I HC Show, and if you
have any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop me
a line at this day at I heart media dot com.

(07:43):
Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon
for another day in history class