Chinese doctors treating an American soldier at the POW camp on the DPRK side of the Chinese-Korean border. [PHOTO BY MENG ZHAORUI/FOR CHINA DAILY]

When spring came in 1951, Adams' frostbitten toes had rotted so badly that he knew something "drastic" must be done if he was not to lose the foot. Pulling out the steel arch support from his combat boot, he sharpened it and with it cut off the gangrenous toes. "I counted to 10 and cut two of them off at a time," he was quoted as saying in the book. "Actually, I counted to ten about 20 times."

Amid the rising death tolls for the POWs, the Chinese took over the camp from the DPRK and installed "the lenient policy". Hao Zhanjun was one of the interpreters brought in to communicate with the POWs.

"During the first few months, two or three POWs died in each unit every day," she said. "That's about a dozen per day. The doctors and nurses worked very hard, and the mortality rate gradually dropped."