John W. Powell
Encyclopedia
- For the geologistGeologistA geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
and explorer, see John Wesley PowellJohn Wesley PowellJohn Wesley Powell was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions...
.
John William
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and small business proprietor who was most well known for being tried for sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
after publishing an article in 1952 that reported on allegations made by Mainland Chinese officials that the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
were carrying out germ warfare in the Korean War. This news was reported in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
in an English language journal, the "China Monthly Review", published by Powell.
In 1956, the Eisenhower Administration's Department of Justice pressed sedition charges against John W. Powell, his wife Sylvia, and Julian Schuman, after grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
s, which had been sought by Federal prosecutors, were handed down against the three North Americans who had published the allegations about bacteriological warfare. However, the prosecutors failed to get any convictions. The defendants, refused to reveal any self-incriminating evidence, as was their Constitutional right, and U.S. Department of Defense officials also refused to provide any incriminating archives or witnesses to the Federal court. [Information on this did turn up deades later as a result of Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
requests.]
All three of the defendants were acquitted of all charges over the next six years, after a Federal judge dismissed the core aspects of the case against them in 1959, due to the obviously insufficient evidence against them.
Early life
Powell was born in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China, in 1919. One year later, Powell's parents decided that Shanghai was unsafe for their infant, so they sent him to live with his mother's family in Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...
. In 1917, Powell's father, John B. Powell, had been a co-founder of the tiny publication, the "China Weekly Review", modeled after the influential American political journal The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, and which featured original reporting, reports on Chinese subjects, and editorials.
Interrupting his journalism studies at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Powell rejoined his father at the "China Weekly Review". After the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, Powell joined the American Office of War Information, the military's journalism program, as a news editor. In 1943, Powell was sent to Chungking, China, a city in far southwestern China, where he remained for the rest of the war. For eight years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, from 1945 until June, 1953, Powell published his journal, first as the "China Weekly Review" and later on, when its revenues declined greatly, as the "China Monthly Review".
Powell met his wife Sylvia Powell in 1947, while he was in Shanghai opening up a news bureau for the Office of War Information, and they were married soon afterwards.
Life in San Francisco
After returning to the United States from China, the Powells bought an old house on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, did a lot of repairs and renovations, and then sold it for a profit. They next settled into a pattern of buying, rehabilitating, and reselling fourteen houses and several apartment buildings. "It was kind of rough," John Powell said, "Obviously, I couldn't get a job on a newspaper. I tried various things, working as a salesman, selling teaching aids to schools."Eventually, the Powells bought a house on Church Street, in San Francisco's Mission District, and the lived there for thirty years. This house had a storefront where they also ran an antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
shop for about fifteen years.
Powell died on December 15, 2008, in San Francisco at the age of 89.
The Sedition Trial
During the Red-baitingRed-baiting
Red-baiting is the act of accusing, denouncing, attacking or persecuting an individual or group as communist, socialist, or anarchist, or sympathetic toward communism, socialism, or anarchism. The word "red" in "red-baiting" is derived from the red flag signifying radical left-wing politics. In the...
1950s, the Federal government initially accused Powell and his wife of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. On April 26, 1956, the Powells, along with an associate at the "China Monthly Review", learned that a Federal Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
had indcited each of them with sedition. Each count in the indictment was punishable by up to twenty years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. The most damaging charge was that the defendants had falsely reported that the United States had engaged in bacteriological warfare during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and that North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
ns had forced American Prisoners of War to read published reports of these charges as part of their indoctrination
Indoctrination
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
processes and brainwashing.
In their coverage of the breaking news, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
newspaper, among other news publications, used two-inch-high bold type on its front page, exclaiming "S.F. JURY INDICTS WRITER – SEDITION". The grand jury had charged Powell with a dozen counts of sedition and a count of conspiring to commit sedition. His wife, Sylviam and Julian Schuman, who had been Powell's associate editor, were also charged with a single count of conspiracy, each. The Powells responded to the charges by asserting they had properly reported on what was said by Chinese officials and troops coming from the front lines of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
.
Powell's trial, which ended in a mistrial, took place in 1959 at the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco, the same location where Marie Equi
Marie Equi
Marie Diana Equi was an American medical doctor and anarchist. Her father was Italian and her mother of Irish parentage.-Biography:...
had been tried and convicted of sedition in 1918. The treason charges against Powell were formally dismissed in July, 1959, and two years later, in 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy finally dropped the rest of the sedition charges.
Later developments
Proof that bacteriological warfare was employed during the Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
by either side does not exist. In an effort to advocate his opinions about American involvement in bacteriological warfare in Asia, Powell published an article titled "Japan's Germ Warfare: The U.S. Cover-up of a War Crime" in the October/December, 1980, issue of the "Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars". An editor from the United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
had told Powell his story was "old news," and it was not published by mainstream publications.
However, with the documents that he had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Powell was able to provide additional evidence supporting his earlier reports in the "China Monthly Review". The second article, "Japan's Biological Weapons, 1930-1945," was published in the October 1981 edition of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It wasn't until 1989 that a detailed account of the Japanese bacteriological warfare experiments in China appeared. The British journalists Peter Williams and David Wallace published their book, "Unit 731: Japan's Secret of Secrets" (London: Hodder and Stoughton). [Also published in New York City that same year as "Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II"]. Even in the 21st Century, 60 years after the Japanese bacteriological warfare camps, American intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense still withhold certain information about the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Japanese program in China.
Powell's articles in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists eventually led to the broadcast of segments on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-TV investigative news program 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-TV's 20/20 program. Powell's reporting had brought widespread public attention to the use of bacteriological warfare, which helped prompt the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
into hearing testimony from former American Prisoners of War
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
in 1982 and 1986.
Further reading
- A Plague Upon Humanity: The Secret GenocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of Axis Japan's Germ Warfare Operation, Daniel Barenblatt, New York: HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN 0-06-018625-9 - The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Coold War and Korea, Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998
- Unit 731: The Japanese Army's Secret of Secrets, Peter Williams and David Wallace, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1989. Also published in the United States in 1989 as: Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II.
- "The American Inquisition: Justice and Injustice In The Cold War" Stanley I. Kutler, Hill & Wang, New York, 1982
- French, Paul. Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai. Hong Kong University Press, 2007.
- French, Paul. Through the Looking Glass: Foreign Journalists in China, from the Opium Wars to Mao. Hong Kong University Press, 2009.
External links
- NewsReview.com - 'Dirty secrets: The government tried to put journalist John W. Powell in prison half a century ago for reporting that the U.S. Army had used germ warfare in Korea. He's still convinced it's true.' Robert Speer, Chico News & Review (July, 2006)
- SFGate.com - 'Sylvia Powell—writer accused, then cleared, of treason in 1950s' (obituary for Powell's wife), Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle (July 13, 2004)