Anna Wallis Suh (1900–1969), the woman generally associatedFranklin, 1996 with the nickname "Seoul City Sue," was an American Methodist missionary, educator, and North Korean propaganda radio announcer to the United States Armed Forces during the Korean War.
Suh was born in Arkansas, the youngest of six children. After her mother and father respectively died in 1910 and 1914, she relocated to Oklahoma to join a sister's family while she completed high school. She spent her early adult years as an office clerk and Sunday school teacher. Subsequently, she studied at the Southeastern State Teachers College, in Durant, and the Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1930 with a Bachelor of Arts in ministry. She spent the next eight years working as a member of the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission in Korea, then under Japanese rule. As Japanese authorities continued to restrict the activities of foreign missions, Suh joined the staff of Shanghai American School (SAS) in 1938. There she met and married fellow staff member Sŏ Kyu Ch’ŏl, thus losing her United States citizenship.NARA, Prolog Magazine, Summer 1998 Late in World War II she was interned by the Japanese for two years with Americans and Europeans at a camp in suburban Shanghai. After release, she resumed work at SAS for a year, before returning to Korea with her husband in 1946.
The Suhs settled in Seoul, where Suh taught at the U.S. Legation school until being fired in 1949 due to suspicion of her husband for left wing political activities. They remained or were trapped in Seoul during the North Korean army's invasion of South Korea in June 1950. Suh began announcing a short English-language program for North Korean "Radio Seoul" starting on or about July 18, continuing until shortly after the Inchon landing on September 15, when the Suhs were evacuated north as a part of the general withdrawal of North Korean forces. Subsequently, she continued broadcasts on Radio Pyongyang. The Suhs participated in the political indoctrination of US prisoners of war at a camp near Pyongyang in February 1951.
Charles Robert Jenkins, an American who defected to and then left North Korea, reported that Suh had been put in charge of English-language publications for the Korean Central News Agency after the war. Jenkins also stated that he was told in 1972 that Suh had been caught as a South Korean double agent in 1969 and executed.
Early life
Suh was born Anna Wallis to Albert B. and M. Jane Wallis in 1900 in Lawrence County, Arkansas. She was the youngest of six children.US Census, 1900
Suh's parents died when she was young; her mother died some time between the 1900 and 1910 Census,Ibid.US Census, 1910 and her father in October 1914.Arkansas Certification of Death, #00765 Subsequently, she relocated to Oklahoma with a sister.Mt. Pleasant News, Oct 3, 1950 Suh attended the Southeastern State Teachers College, in Durant, Oklahoma, where she was a member of the Student Volunteer Movement. During her junior year, she was selected to attend the organization's 1928 quadrennial convention in Detroit.Southeastern State Teachers College Yearbook, 1928 In 1929, she transferred to the Scarritt College for Christian Workers, an institution dedicated to the training of Methodist missionaries, in Nashville, Tennessee. Ann graduated with a B.A. in 1930.Scarritt College Commencement, 1930
Korean mission and China That same year, she was selected for a mission to Korea by the Southern Methodist Conference.Denton Record Chronicle, March 7, 1930 There, she initially taught at a Methodist school.Psywarrior.com By the early 1930s, the Japanese colonial administration had largely banned foreigners from Christian proselytizing, and most Christian missions focused on education, medicine, and care for the indigent.Christianity In Korea She may have returned to the US in 1935 to visit a sister.New York Passenger Lists, Sep 9, 1935 In late 1936, she was appointed to serve at the Seoul Social Evangelistic Center, and in February 1937, visited Scarritt College during a missionary furlough.Scarritt College Voice, Feb 1937
In a move that may have reflected increasingly harsh Japanese measures against foreign missionaries in the late 30s,United Methodist Church, General Board of Global Ministries Suh relocated to China to join the staff of the Shanghai American School (SAS) in 1938. There she met Sŏ Kyu Ch’ŏl (서규철 徐奎哲, also spelled Suh Kyoon Chul), who was hired to teach Korean and assist in school administration. They married at the United States Court for China on December 9, 1939.Certificate of Marriage, American Consular Service She was dropped from the rolls of the missionary service and lost her United States citizenship after they married. She developed an interest in Korean politics, eventually taking up her husband's leftist views.Portland Free Herald, Oct 4, 1950EdwardsLech, Raymond B., page 118 The cosmopolitan Shanghai International Settlement and French Concession were likely a more accepting environment for the Suhs than homogeneous 1940s Korea would later prove to be, as suggested by the number of other Caucasian women on staff married to Asian men.MillsChoi In 1939, she visited San Francisco in an unsuccessful attempt to secure a US passport for her husband.Coshocton Tribute, August 30, 1950
Sino-Japanese War
Americans in Shanghai began to depart that same year, slowly as tensions rose in the environs of the city, then en masse shortly before the US and Japan officially went to war. SAS remained open until February 1943,See Shanghai International Settlement when the remaining foreign staff were forced into the Chapei Civilian Relocation Center, a short distance away in the northern suburbs. This internment camp, one of several in and around Shanghai, occupied a three-story dormitory on the grounds of Great China University (now East China Normal University), most of which was damaged or destroyed during the 1937 Battle of Shanghai.Captives of Empire
In March 1943, Suh also entered the Chapei center along with the remaining non-Asian school staff,Captives of Empire while her husband may have remained free as a colonial subject of Japan. During the internment, the SAS staff and parents took advantage of the school's books that had followed them to organize classes for the children. Supplies with which to maintain the internees grew short towards the end of the war, and a number of women married to citizens of Axis powers or neutral countries were released in late 1944. It is possible that Suh was among these.Ibid In March 1943, a missionary family, R.W. and M.F. Howes, along with their two girls, were interned in Chapei—the Japanese official name was Chapei Civil Assembly Center. Most of the people were Canadian or American, with some central European citizens. And later some British citizens were added from a camp further west up the Yangtze which the Japanese closed.
In December 1943, she was staying at Shanghai General Hospital, originally a Catholic hospital, but during the war under Japanese control though still staffed by Catholic sisters.
Suh was released from the Chapei center and returned to Shanghai in June 1944.Captives of Empire
With Suh's formal release from detention at the end of World War II,National Archives, World II Prisoners of War Data File she joined the staff of the reconstituted SAS for the 1945-46 school year.
Korean War Unable to continue earning a sufficient living in post-war Shanghai, she and her husband returned to liberated Korea, where she tutored children at the US Diplomatic Mission School in Seoul. Her employment was terminated after her husband was investigated for left wing activities.New York Times, Aug 28, 1950 Shortly thereafter, North Korea invaded the South in June 1950.
The Korean People's Army occupied Seoul three days after the start of hostilities. The speed of the advance caught the majority of residents by surprise and unprepared to evacuate, in part due to ROK radio propaganda rather at odds with the actual situation.National Security Archive at George Washington UniversityEyewitness: Korean War Starts Suh and her husband remained as well, perhaps because he was unwilling to abandon a school for indigent boys that he administered. During a July 10 meeting in Seoul that included 48 to 60 members of the ROK National Assembly, the couple pledged their loyalty to the North Korean regime.Edwards, page 79Eyewitness: 1950: War of Unification
Under Dr. Lee Soo, an English instructor from Seoul University, Suh began announcing for North Korean "Radio Seoul" from the Korean Broadcasting System's HLKA studios, with daily programs from 09:30 to 22:15 local time,Corpus Christi Times, September 12, 1950 first heard as early as July 18. The Suhs had been relocated to a temporary home near the station. Suh's defenders gave the dull tone of her broadcasts as proof that she was being forced to make them.Time Magazine, September 18, 1950
Her initial scripts suggested that American soldiers return to their corner ice cream stands, criticized the USAF bombing campaign, and reported names recovered from the dog tags of dead American soldiers to a background of soft music.Yuma Daily Sun, August 10, 1950Martin, page 76-77 The GIs gave her various nicknames, including "Rice Ball-" or "Rice Bowl Maggie", "Rice Ball Kate", and "Seoul City Sue".Senate Permanent Subcommittee: Executive SessionsSenate Permanent Subcommittee: Korean War Atrocities The latter name stuck, likely derived from "Sioux City Sue",Song: Sioux City Sue the title of a song initially made popular by Zeke MannersObituary, Zeke MannersSample: Sioux City SueNew York Times, August 9, 1950 from 1946. Through the rest of the summer of 1950, her reports would announce the names of recently captured US airmen, marines, and soldiers,Wosser, Joseph Lloyd, Lt. (USMC)From Korea to Kosovo1st MAW History threaten new units arriving in the country,Stocks, Floyd P. welcome warships by name as they arrived on station,Schratz, Paul R. or taunt African-American soldiers regarding their limited civil rights at home.Lipsitz, George Her monotone on-air delivery and the lack of popular music programming evidently left Suh's broadcasts less enjoyable for her intended audience than German and Japanese English-language radio shows during World War II.Corpus Christi Times
Radio Seoul went off the air at the start of a "Sue" program during an August 13 air strike on communications and transportation facilities in the city, as a B-26 bomber dropped 200 lbs fragmentation bombs adjacent to the transmitter. The station came back on the air a week or two later.New York Times, Aug 14, 1950 North Korean forces evacuated the Suhs to North Korea by truck after the Inchon landings, a few days before US forces entered the city.New York Times, Oct 4, 1950The Stars & Stripes, October 5, 1950Chillicothe Constitution Tribute, March 8, 1952 The Suhs joined the staff of Radio Pyongyang, where she continued English-language broadcasts to UN forces. They were temporarily reassigned to indoctrinate UN POWs at Camp 12 near Pyongyang in February 1951, after which the POWs were directed to continue indoctrinating each other, with Korean supervision.Lech, page 118-121
Later life