War Trash Response

War Trash Response

            War Trash is unlike most of the books I have read because the ending is anything but settled.  Yuan returns to mainland China to find that his mother has died and his fiancée cannot marry him.  All of his reasons for returning to mainland China are no longer there.  Also, he and the other POWs are treated badly by the Communist Party for allowing themselves to be taken prisoner.  No one can return to his former life since they are now viewed as “disgraced captives”.   Although Yuan has a better future than men who actually joined the Communist Party such as Commissar Pei, Ming, and Chaolin, he might have had better prospects had he gone to Taiwan or a third country rather than returned to China.  However, one cannot be absolutely sure whether Yuan’s future would have been better had he not repatriated.

One of the main struggles throughout War Trash is between the Communists, Pro-nationalists, and Americans as each group tries to prove that their beliefs are right.  In the process, they become suspicious of each other and anyone who does not identify with one specific group.  For instance, Yuan is told by Chaolin in chapter 14 to steal a pistol from an intoxicated American officer.  Yuan knows that other tests the Communists used for suspected POWs resulted in death, but cannot refuse because it would make him appear to be against the Communists.  The tension is also seen in the way the Pro-nationalists try to scare the POWs into joining them and going to Taiwan.  This results in the violence in chapter 9 when Liu Tai-an cuts the tattoos from prisoners and brutally kills a Communist who wants to repatriate.  The Americans are also guilty of unethical behavior as they send a woman to Commissar Pei to coax him to the “Free World”, trick Wanren into signing a paper clearing the Americans of the deaths of men in Compound 6, and needlessly shooting Wenfu.  Although each if the group has some merits, their conduct shows that no one group is completely without flaws.  Their loyalties blind them to the inhumanity of their actions. 

Yuan is trapped in the middle of the three groups because of his education and ability to speak English.  Both the Communist Party and the Pro-nationalists suspect him.  Since the Communists and others can only see the POWs in terms of their affiliations, they cannot understand his need to return home for personal reasons. This is why Yuan’s narrative is his story not “an ‘our story’” as he says at the close of the book.    

The messages in War Trash are relevant for today’s controversies because nations, political parties, and government leaders continue to label individuals based on affiliation, nationality, background or social class.  They can make assumptions which lead to hurtful generalizations, distrust and injustice.  Crimes are often committed in the name of self-protection.  War Trash speaks to the need for careful thought, open eyes, and deliberate action when faced with such weighty circumstances.