Hanno Fuchs, Psychological Warrior

As I attempt to do what I'm sure many sons do in the years following their fathers' passing; that is, as I do my best to reconstruct the life of the man I loved and miss, one of the gaping holes I find myself looking into from time to time is my father's service to the United States Army.

I'm not sure whether it was because my father preferred not to talk much about his time in Tokyo during the Korean War, or because I was too preoccupied with my early navel-gazing to ask him, but I don't know much about it. I can remember him walking my brother and me through a photo album with some nice black and white Polaroids of a trip he took to Kyoto. (We got a kick out of the fact that on the spine of the book was printed, in ornate letters, ARBUM, proof, my father said, he'd bought it in Japan.) There were lots of shots of typical buildings in the Imperial Japanese style. Occasionally there would be a picture of Hanno in uniform, looking thin and bright-eyed. Young. Then we'd happen upon a picture of a group of friends, including a lovely young Japanese woman, with whom, I had the distinct impression, my father maintained a relationship of some kind.

What I did know as a boy was that my father did not see any combat. He was behind the scenes, writing anti-Communist propaganda. He described one radio drama he wrote, which was patterned after Elia Kazan's 1952 film, Viva Zapata. That's really all I knew.

After my father's death in 2000, his widow, Judy Karnes-Fuchs, was kind enough to provide me with a copy of a book called Psychological Warfare in Korea: Life and Times in the First Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group, 1951-1952. Thanks to this book (which is where I found this great photo of Sergeant Fuchs at age 23), I've been able to put together a few missing pieces.

Hanno Fuchs was recruited to be part of a group of "Psywarriors." Like him, they were creative young men, just out of college. They had just started their careers in journalism, TV, public relations, and, in my father's case, advertising. Just two years after graduating cum laude from Syracuse University with a BS in Journalism, and just ten years after setting foot on American soil for the first time when he and his family landed in Port Hoboken in New Jersey, my father found himself in Tokyo writing radio scripts to be broadcast all over North and South Korea.

Here's what the author of the book, Thomas Klein, wrote about my father:

Hanno was a radio scriptwriter, with the rank of sergeant. We remember him as very focused, very quick to understand his assignments, very self-assured and very hard-working. When the rest of us drifted into our Empire House office each morning in Tokyo, Hanno would already be at his desk pounding away at his typewriter.

We also thought of Hanno as a very interesting person, a great guy for evening bull sessions; he seemed to know the ins and outs of every complex political and social issue. He was good fun as well and had many friends in the group.

I will be forever indebted to my stepmother for providing me with this treasure. My two sons already ask me questions about their grandfather, and I do my best to provide as full a picture as I can. Having this crucial piece in place -- details of my father's early adulthood -- I can keep his memory more fully alive, not only in my own heart, but in the hearts of my children, as well.