True Colors by: James Thompson

1,004 Days as A Prisoner of War

This is the story of the author, James Thompson’s ordeal in the infamous camp “Five.” This documentary brings to the reader some very ugly details about the North Korean and the Chinese communist captors. It outlines the brainwashing, beating and torture of our soldiers. The author, a U.S. Army Sergeant Major, was forced to stand barefoot in subzero temperatures, having his skin ripped repeatedly by the butt of a rifle, and kicks to his groin. He spent many cold hours in a cramped, rat infested isolation chamber. The author is a patriotic African-American, with whom the Chinese attempted to plant seeds of racial discord among black and white prisoners to fuel their hatred of Americans.

Thompson stated, “I could quite possibly forget the starvation, and the dysentery and the many near fatal illnesses prompted more by neglect and exposure, than anything. I could also forget the indignity and the demeaning life-style forced on me by my captors, but what I cannot, and will not dismiss as just another war story, is the humiliation some of us suffered at the hands of our own government after we were released. To humiliate us, then dismiss us as nonentities, will not be ignored.” Mr. Thompson’s details of our government’s treatment of our prisoners of war is bone chilling.

This book was written in 1989. I could not get in touch with the publisher, as they no longer exist, so I cannot quote price. I was fortunate enough to obtain my copy through my public library.