I Remember Korea


Book Description

Personal accounts of more than thirty men and women who served with the American and Canadian forces in Korea during the years 1950-1953. What is it like to go to war? How does a war affect the men and women who are fighting in it? Here are vivid first-person accounts that address these questions and offer powerful insights into what it means to serve in the armed forces in an unfamiliar country far from home. Award-winning author Linda Granfield has collected the stories of thirty-two men and women who were part of the U.S. and Canadian forces in Korea during the years 1950-53, and has set them against a backdrop of historical and geographical information. The veterans in this book represent a variety of service areas, such as medical, supplies, infantry, and naval. Their sometimes grim, sometimes lighthearted recollections are illustrated with their own personal photographs. From a prisoner of war's gripping description of being held captive for nearly three years to a machine gunner's fond memories of the canned hamburgers and bacon his battalion loved to eat, these stories emphasize the human face of war at a time when it's more important than ever to try to understand the many different ways that war changes people's lives. A foreword by renowned author Russell Freedman relates some of his own experiences while serving in Korea with the Counter Intelligence Corps. Also included are a timeline, glossary, bibliography, Internet resources, and index.




Chosin Reservoir


Book Description

Much has been documented about US soldiers' involvement in the Korean War. In this memoir, one officer details the little-known events of the battle of the Koto-ri Pass in North Korea in 1950. Chosin Reservoir narrates the role of the First Platoon, Battery A, Fiftieth AAA Battalion, X Corps, US Army, in facilitating the withdrawal of the First Marine Division from the Chosin Reservoir. Providing firsthand insight into the realities of war, author Merrill Harper, a retired lieutenant colonel of the US Army, tells the story of how one army officer and three enlisted men were able to break up a ten thousand man Chinese ambush on Koto-ri Pass, killing 7,500 Chinese and running the rest over the next mountains within six hours. In addition to chronicling the war-related events in North Korea in 1950, Harper, a soldier who was wounded twenty-four times, discusses his career leading up to the battle and shares other details from his twenty-two years of service in the military.




Mao's Generals Remember Korea


Book Description

What does it mean to live in the West today? Do people tend to identify with states, with regions, or with the larger West? This book examines the development of regional identity in the American West, demonstrating that it is a regionally diverse entity made up of many different wests--Great Plains, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, and more--in which American regionalism finds its fullest expression. These fourteen original essays tell how a sense of place emerged among residents of various regions and how a sense of those places was developed by people outside of them. Wrobel and Steiner first offer a compelling overview of the West's regional nature; then thirteen other rising or renowned scholars-from history, American Studies, geography, and literature-tell how regional consciousness formed among inhabitants of particular regions. All of the essays address the larger issue of the centrality of place in determining social and cultural forms and individual and collective identities. Some focus on race and culture as the primary influences on regional consciousness while others emphasize environmental and economic factors or the influence of literature. Some even examine western regionalism in areas that lie beyond the West as it has traditionally been conceived. Each of the contributors believes that where a people live helps determine what they are, and they write not only about the many wests within the larger West, but also about the constant state of flux in which regionalism exists. Many books speak of the West as a place, but few others deal with the West's different places. Many Wests presents a vision of the West that reflects both the common heritage and unique character of each major subregion, building on the revisionist impulse of the last decade to help redirect New Western History toward an appreciation of regional diversity and integrate scholarship in the regional subfields. It is a book for everyone who lives in, studies, or loves the West, for it confirms that it is home to very different peoples, economies, histories-and regions.




On Desperate Ground


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. "Superb ... A masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting detail...This war story—the fight to break out of a frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir—has been told many times before. But Sides tells it exceedingly well, with fresh research, gritty scenes and cinematic sweep." —The Washington Post On October 15, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of UN troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war. As he was speaking, 300,000 Red Chinese soldiers began secretly crossing the Manchurian border. Led by some 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, the Americans moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea, toward the trap Mao had set for the vainglorious MacArthur along the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic--and harrowing--operations in American military history, and one of the classic battles of all time. Faced with probable annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded, and hugely outnumbered, Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity, and nearly unimaginable courage as they marched their way to the sea. Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances. Hampton Sides has been hailed by critics as one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation. As the Miami Herald wrote, "Sides has a novelist's eye for the propulsive elements that lend momentum and dramatic pace to the best nonfiction narratives."




Remembering (Korea: 1950-1953)


Book Description

Remembering (Korea: 1950-1953) By Dennis J. Ottley Remembering (Korea: 1950-1953) is the author’s memoir. This book describes his involvement in Korea during the Korean War and points out the reasoning behind the conflict. Over the years, the Korean War has been considered “The Forgotten War” by many. At one time, President Harry S. Truman referred to it as a “Police Action,” but 5,720,000 Americans who served in Korean have never forgotten what it was about and that it was much more than just a “Police Action.” They understand that it was an all-out war, and one of the bloodiest in American history. It involved over 20 countries of the United Nations that joined with the United States to save the South Koreans from annihilation and the tyranny of the communist countries, such as Russia and North Korea. On July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed and today South Korea remains as a free nation and one of the strongest and wealthiest countries in Asia. This book is to help Americans understand what the war was all about and describe one soldier’s experience and opinion of the conflict.




Remembering Korea 1950


Book Description

Hyung K. Shin was sixteen years old when the North Korean army invaded South Korea in June 1950. Fleeing his home, Shin soon found himself alone in Pusan, a refugee without resources or any means of support. To save himself from destitution, he lied about his age and volunteered for service in the South Korean army. Shin’s account of the months that followed is a moving record of the Korean War from the perspective of an ordinary ROK soldier. He recounts his hasty training and subsequent experiences as a battlefield soldier in North Korea, as a guard in a prisoner-of-war camp, and as a refugee again in the massive flight of civilians and ROK military personnel retreating before the onslaught of the Chinese invasion. Through it all, Shin struggles to retain his humanity and pursue his education. In the process, the naïve schoolboy becomes a man. Today, Hyung K. Shin is an internationally respected chemist, but in the pages of this memoir he carries us back to Korea during a pivotal moment in that country’s history. This is the first account in English that describes the war from the perspective of a Korean who lived through and fought in it. Shin’s detailed and lively narrative is a stirring monument to the survival of human decency and kindness in the midst of terror, cruelty, despair, and the destruction of a proud nation.




War Memories


Book Description

War Memories explores the patchwork formed by collective memory, public remembrance, private recollection, and the ways in which they form a complex composition of observations, initiatives, and experiences. Offering an international perspective on war commemoration, contributors consider the process of assembling historical facts and subjective experiences to show how these points of view diverge according to various social, cultural, political, and historical perspectives. Encompassing the representations of wars in the English-speaking world over the last hundred years, this collection presents an extensive, yet integrated, reflection on various types of commemoration and interpretations of events. Essays respond to common questions regarding war memory: how and why do we remember war? What does commemoration tell us about the actors in wars? How does commemoration reflect contemporary society’s culture of war? War Memories disseminates current knowledge on the performance, interpretation, and rewriting of facts and events during and after wars, while focusing on how patriotic fervour, resistance, conscientious objection, injury, trauma, and propaganda contribute to the shaping of individual and collective memory. Contributors include Joan Beaumont (Australian National University, Canberra), Gilles Chamerois (University of Brest, France), Subarno Chattarji (University of Delhi, India), Nicole Cloarec (Rennes 1 University, France), Corinne David-Ives (European University of Brittany – Rennes 2, France), Jeffrey Demsky (San Bernardino Valley College, California), Sam Edwards (Manchester Metropolitan University), Georges Fournier (Jean Moulin University, France), Annie Gagiano (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa), David Haigron (Rennes 2 University, France), Judith Keene (University of Sydney, Australia), Melissa King (San Bernardino Valley College, California), Christine Knauer (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany), Liliane Louvel (University of Poitiers), Michelle P. Moore (Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre, Kingston, Ontario), John Mullen (University of Rouen, France), Lorie-Anne Duech-Rainville (Caen University, France), Elizabeth Rechniewski (Australian Research Council Discovery Project), Raphaël Ricaud (University ‘Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense’, France), Laura Robinson (Royal Military College of Canada), and Isabelle Roblin (Université du Littoral-Côte d’Opale, France).




Indelible Memories


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Koreans to Remember


Book Description




Remembering Korea


Book Description

Describes the planning and creation of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., profiles important figures, and provides an overview of the war that claimed 35,000 American lives.