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"Although it was then perceived as a far-off and inconclusive engagement, the Korean War was a decisive and deeply destructive conflict. American forces dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea -- more than the entire Pacific campaign of World War II -- and millions of Koreans perished. Today, mass graves still litter the countryside and two nuclear-armed forces stand at odds. In Ghost Flames, Charles Hanley adds new color and urgency by telling the history of the war through the eyes of twenty one individuals -- soldiers and civilians, male and female, young and old, witnesses both to atrocity and to heroism. The narrative unfolds in interwoven episodes, month by month, from the hilltop trench lines, the refugee camps and the prisoner-of-war camps. In time for the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the war, Hanley offers a people's history of the devastating events on the Korean Peninsula"--
About the author
Charles J. Hanley has reported from some 100 countries in his four-decade career at the Associated Press. His reporting on the No Gun Ri massacre of South Korean refugees in the hands of the U.S. military won him a Pulitzer Prize and Polk Award among other honors, and yielded his 2001 book, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. An expert on the Korean War, he regularly lectures and contributes scholarship on the conflict in academic journals. He lives in New York City.
Summary
A powerful, character-driven narrative of the Korean War from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who helped uncover some of its longest-held and darkest secrets.
The war that broke out in Korea on a Sunday morning seventy years ago has come to be recognized as a critical turning point in modern history -- as the first great clash of arms of the Cold War, the last conflict between superpowers, the root of a nuclear crisis that grips the world to this day.
In this vivid, emotionally compelling, and highly original account, Charles J. Hanley tells the story of the Korean War through the eyes of twenty individuals who lived through it--from a North Korean refugee girl to an American nun, a Chinese general to a black American prisoner of war, a British journalist to a U.S. Marine hero.
This is an intimate, deeper kind of history, whose meticulous research and rich detail, drawing on recently unearthed materials and eyewitness accounts, bring the true face of the Korean War, and the vastness of its human tragedy, into a sharper focus than ever before. The "forgotten war" becomes unforgettable.
Foreword
A narrative, character-driven account of the Korean War that sheds light on the atrocities and hardships suffered by all sides in the 'forgotten' conflict.
