Korea Volunteer: An Oral History From Those Who Were There

Graeme S. Mount is a history professor at Laurentian University and the
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom.

Korea Volunteer presents the personal testimonies of dozens of sailors,
soldiers, and airmen who participated in the Korean War. The men (and
one woman) describe their recruitment, brushes with boredom, adventures,
battlefield experiences, forms of entertainment, and relations with
British and American soldiers. One volunteer recounts his experience as
a prisoner of war; another recalls the medical skills of the great
impostor Ferdinand Waldo Demara. The book also includes pictures and
postwar biographies of the people who testified, a foreword by Desmond
Morton, and an index.

In short supply are accounts of relations between the Canadian military
personnel and the South Koreans, particularly the civilians; commentary
on the role of the Swedes and Swiss as guardians of Western interests in
the immediate aftermath of the armistice; and mention of the
controversial events of Kojo Island, where Canadian forces had to deal
with often uncooperative North Korean POWs. Furthermore, some maps would
have been useful (while most readers can probably locate Seoul, Pusan,
and Panmunjon without much difficulty, Kapyong and Wosan are less
familiar). Overall, however, this book is a worthy supplement to recent
accounts of Canada’s role in the conflict.