War Trash

I finished reading War Trash by Ha Jin today. It’s the story of an educated People’s Volunteer Army POW who speaks English and graduated from a Nationalist military college before the Communist took over and conscripted him into the PLA. As one of the few English-speakers and the best one among the prisoners in a United Nations POW camp during the Korean War, he gains many unexpected responsiblities and the attention of both Party leaders and pro-Nationalist nonrepatriates. The Party leaders want him to remain loyal to mainland China while the Nationalists wanted him to go to Taiwan where he will surely be highly-valued because he graduated from the same military academy where Chiang Kai-shek was the principal. He is often caught between the two sides, both who are equally capable of threats and murder.

It’s a book that speaks of what war is really like. The narrator didn’t kill any enemies, destroy any bridges or steal any secret invasion plans. He did nothing but survive. And when he finally returned to his homeland, his mother had died, his fiancee left him and he was dishonorably discharged by the Party for surrendering instead of killing himself.

It’s a really well-written and researched story of a war that has been long forgotten by most of the world.