The bridge at No Gun Ri

Description

This is the untold human story behind the massacre of South Korean refugees by American soldiers in the early days of the Korean War, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists whose reports first brought to light this dark underside of the war, an episode long hidden from history. The book tells the deeper, intimate story of individual Americans and South Koreans whose paths intersected at the No Gun Ri bridge, where up to 400 innocent civilians were killed, mostly women and children. It looks at their ordinary lives and at the high-level decisions that led to the fateful encounter; at the terror of the three-day slaughter; at the memories and ghosts that forever haunted those who were there, soldiers and shattered Korean survivors alike. Drawn in vivid detail from more than 500 interviews with U.S. veterans and Korean survivors, and from extensive archival research, the book shows unmistakably where responsibility lay for widespread civilian killings in 1950 Korea. Extraordinary in its scope, shocking in its revelations, "The Bridge at No Gun Ri'' has been likened to Hersey's "Hiroshima'' as a powerful, classic testament to the ravages of war. (From publisher's material.)

Description

"In the fall of 1999, a team of Associated Press investigative reporters broke the news that U.S. troops had killed a large group of South Korean refugees, mostly women and children, early in the Korean War. On the eve of that pivotal conflict's fiftieth anniversary, their reports brought to light a story that had been suppressed for decades. The story made headlines around the world and sparked an official investigation by the Pentagon that confirmed the allegations the U.S. military had dismissed, and Charles Hanley, Sang-Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting.". "The Bridge at No Gun Ri brings to life these American GIs and Korean villagers, the high-level decision-making that led to their fatal encounter, the terror of the three-day slaughter, the harrowing months of war that followed and the memories and ghosts that forever haunted the survivors. The Bridge at No Gun Ri also presents for the first time the full documented background of a broad landscape of refugee killings in Korea that lasted into 1951. Based on extensive archival research, including newly unearthed documents that show unmistakably where responsibility lay for the widespread civilian killings, and more than five hundred interviews with U.S. veterans and Korean survivors, The Bridge at No Gun Ri is an authoritative account of the terrifying events of July 1950 - a long-buried secret from a misunderstood war."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The bridge at No Gun Ri: a hidden chapter from the Korean WarHenry Holt and Co.2001-01-01
• The Bridge at No Gun RiHardcoverHenry Holt and Co.2001-09-06
• Nogŭn-ni tariInggŏl2003-01-01