Location of Events: China

Time Period: World War II

John Rabe was a German businessman working in China during the late 1930’s for the Siemens AG corporation. Rabe worked across all of China, from Beijing, to Shanghai, and finally in Nanking. While working in Nanking in 1937, the Japanese Army began to approach, causing most foreigners, tourists, and visiting businessmen to flee. Twenty-two foreigners and businessmen stayed, including fifteen missionaries from Europe and the United States.

These remaining people formed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, and subsequently formed the Nanking Safety Zone. As these events began to take shape, the Japanese Army entered the city, and began the horrific historical event known as the Nanking Massacre, or more gruesomely, the Rape of Nanking. While the Japanese devastated the city and it’s inhabitants, Rabe and his acquaintances formally set up the Nanking Safety Zone, an area where Chinese refugees could be safe and be provided with food and water.

Rabe was elected the leader of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone due to his position as a Nazi Party member, and the Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Nazi Germany, effectively allying the two groups, ensured that Rabe’s work would be relatively untouched by the Japanese Army. Sources suggest that Rabe’s work saved somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 Chinese lives.

Supposedly, Rabe was ordered back to Germany by Adolf Hitler himself in order to preserve German-Japanese relations. Rabe brought home numerous sources and evidence of the massacre that occurred in Nanking. When he arrived back in Germany, he was detained and interrogated by the Gestapo. There they seized a letter from Rabe addressed to Hitler that pleaded for him to use his influence with the Japanese to end the brutality in China. In 1948, after Rabe went through a thorough de-Nazification process, his family was left on the streets. The citizens of Nanking were made aware of this, and raised the equivalent of $2,000 USD for Rabe and his family.

Rabe’s grave was moved from Berlin to Nanking, where it currently resides in the Nanking Safety Zone.

Time Period: World War II

Country of Origin: Germany

Juan Pujol Garcia was a Spaniard who grew up during the time of the Spanish Civil War. Due to his childhood, Garcia grew a hatred for fascism and communism, so when World War II appeared on the horizon, Garcia knew he must take part as a spy for Britain, Germany’s only enemy at the time. Originally denied by the British to become a spy, Garcia instead decided to become a German spy, with the hopes that the British would accept him as a double agent. The German’s were interested in Garcia, who claimed he was operating out of Britain, despite being in Lisbon, Portugal. He was given the codename “Arabel” by the German spymasters.

Garcia used a multitude of deceptions to feed the Germans misinformation, while siphoning money from them. Despite not understanding the British currency system, he sent itemized lists to Germany, where he said he would send the monetary total later. Juan Garcia went one step further though, creating an entire web of fabricated spies. This included such outlandish stories, such as, “Moonbeam,” a Venezuelan student in Scotland who was in charge of three other fabricated spies. At the peak, Garcia had a spyweb of up to 26 fabricated spies, all supposedly working to send information to Germany. When he offered his services to Britain again, they saw the importance of his misinformation, hired him, and put him under the command of the famous XX Committee. He was given the codename “Garbo” by the XX Committee.

Garcia, or Arabel, or Garbo, was instrumental in the misinformation he provided to the Germans concerning the mainland invasion of France. After supposedly conferring with his web of spies, Arabel told the Germans that the first invasion was to be a distraction. The Germans responded stating that this information was “exceptionally valuable.” Later, when asked to confirm the damage of future V1 Rockets, Garcia refused, so the XX Committee arranged to have him “arrested.” When he was released, he forwarded a letter to Germany from the Home Secretary for his “unlawful imprisonment.”

By the end of the war, Garcia had received $340,000 USD to fund his web of spies. For his work, he was granted the Order of the British Empire. Soon after the war ended, Garcia ran into one of his German spymasters, who gave the Iron Cross to Garcia for his help during the war. This ironic distinction places Juan Pujol Garcia as one of the only people during World War II to receive such high decorations from both sides of the war.

Year: 1976

Country of Origin: Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea

Operation Paul Bunyan is the response by the United States to the killing of two United States’ Army officers. The incident that provoked Operation Paul Bunyan occurred on August 18th, 1976. Capt. Arthur Bonifas, along with an assembled number of South Korean and U.N. soldiers began to prune the trees between the South and North Korean checkpoints. The North Korean officer in charge of the opposing checkpoint, Lt. Pak Chul, euphemistically referred to as “Lt. Bulldog,” originally watched on innocently. Soon, though, he ordered Bonifas’ men to cease pruning the poplar tree as, “because Kim Il Sung personally planted it and nourished it and it’s growing under his supervision.” Bonifas continued the project.

Soon, Lt. Pak appeared with 20 more North Korean guards armed with blunt weaponry. The North Korean Lieutenant once again ordered Bonifas and his men to stop. When Bonifas ignored his demands once again, Lt. Bulldog shouted “Kill them!” and then delivered karate chop to Capt Arthur Bonifas neck, killing him instantly. Another Army officer, First Lt. Mark Barrett, had fallen into a depression by the side of the road. North Korean officers, out of sight of South Korean and U.N. forces, were going down into the depression where they would take turns bludgeoning 1st Lt. Mark Barrett to death. Eventually, a search party was sent out to to find Lt. Barrett’s body.

Operation Paul Bunyan, named after the lumberjack of myth, was formulated in honor of Bonifas and Barrett. A detachment of almost 200 American soldiers, armed with machine guns, tanks, anti-personnel carriers, mortars, and chainsaws rode out into the land between the two separated countries with one mission. While keeping the North Koreans away with the small arsenal, several Army Corps Engineers chopped down all of the trees Bonifas had been ordered to prune several days earlier. Initially, a fear of further tension arose, however, Kim Il-sung soon sent a message to those in charge at the outpost Bonifas was positioned at. Kim Il-sung expressed regret that the incident occurred, without claiming North Korean responsibility.