This is the first of what I hope will be an exciting series of podcasts and videos that offer a closer look at the various scandals this blog reports on, and an opportunity to hear from experts, as well as those who have lived the history you are reading about.
Today’s interview features Thomas Powell, son of famed journalist John W. “Bill” Powell. Bill and his wife Sylvia published China Monthly Review in the early 1950s, covering, among other things, the progress of the then-new Chinese Revolution; the crimes of Shiro Ishii and Japan’s biological warfare department, Unit 731; and the biological warfare attacks by the U.S. against North Korea and China from 1951-53. Upon returning to the United States after the Korean War, Bill and Sylvia were called before Congressional committees, blacklisted, and, finally, prosecuted for sedition for their reporting by a vengeful U.S. government. (Listen to the podcast to find out the surprising way that trial ended.)
Tom talks about the experience of his family, of the trial and his parents’ defense attorneys, about the false allegations of a biowar “hoax” by the Chinese, Soviet, and North Korean governments; about the depositions of 25 U.S. flyers to involvement in the U.S. biowar bombings over Manchuria and North Korea, and much more.
To purchase “The Big Ugly: The Hidden History of U.S. Germ War in Korea” as either a paperback or as an Amazon Kindle book, go to: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Ugly-Hidden-History-Korea-ebook/dp/B0CRXFT4JW
"A Taboo Subject": Tom Powell Interview on The Hidden History of U.S. Germ War in Korea