There is some very interesting literature on the Japanese soldiers returning from the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and their active involvement in the Communist 『日本新聞』 that they produced while there – a very significant number of them returned as hard core revolutionaries, despite the clearly arduous experience many of them had undergone.

What little I have read suggests that North Korean POW “reform” tactics were, while not completely ineffectual, much less successful relatively speaking – perhaps a measure of the much more brutal circumstances.

A lot more interesting – and perhaps comparative work – could be done in this area!

I’m feeling a little ambivalent about it, though. It’s true that the myth of brainwashing is pervasive and troubling, but it’s also true that Chinese Communist tactics of “self-criticism” were torturous — whether they rise to the level of actual psychological torture we can debate some other time — and surprisingly effective with at least a significant subset of the population. That they applied these tactics over time at least as often — if not more — to their own followers as to POWs raises all kinds of other interesting questions.