South Korea
Описание книги
A Bill-Brysonesque romp through this often-overlooked travellers’ gem of East Asia. For seventeen years, journalist, teacher, and coach Mark Dake has called South Korea home. Now, with his longtime Korean friend Heju, he sets out on a four-month, ten-thousand-kilometre road trip, determined to uncover the real country. From the electric street life of Seoul to the tense northern border, where deadly skirmishes still erupt, the pair’s shoestring, wing-and-a-prayer trek takes them well off the beaten trail and across the complicated nation. Along the way are prisons, dinosaurs, anthropology, history, marine life, art, and abundant nature. There are Buddhist temples, fairgrounds, palaces, national parks, bridges, historical sites, forts, churches, and cemeteries. Whether standing amidst ancient stone tombs and religious architecture unrivalled in Asia, or at military briefings under the steely eyes of North Korean sentries, Mark and Heju are tireless explorers in search of the culture, geography, and beauty of this enigmatic peninsula.
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In memory of my father, who passed away in 2013, and who would leave the sports section of the Globe and Mail on the breakfast table in the winter for me when I was a kid so I could read about my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.
To my mother, who loved reading epic novels late into the night, thank you for introducing me to literature.
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The incident was captured on film by a UN guard stationed at one of the posts who had a movie camera with a telephoto lens. Clips from the footage were shown on American television news programs the following night. In DMZ: A Story of the Panmunjom Axe Murder, Kirkbride included sixteen still frames from that assault, twelve depicting KPA soldiers massing around the officers, swinging axes. The two Americans were subsequently taken to hospital, but it was too late. Both had succumbed to their injuries. Bonifas, a West Point graduate, had volunteered to be sent to Korea, and was scheduled to return home to Newburgh, New York, to his wife and three young children, in just two weeks.
In Washington, the National Military Command Centre and Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon were notified within two hours of the deaths. Washington taxed Eighth Army Commanding General Richard G. Stilwell in Seoul with devising a response plan. Stillwell and his officers hatched Operation Paul Bunyan. It called for sixteen ROK engineers to be sent to the tree to cut it down, protected by infantry, attack helicopters and tanks. Sixty-four members of the elite 1st ROK Special Forces Brigade would surround the tree. In the air above would be twenty American UH-1 Huey helicopters carrying U.S. troops to be placed on the ground if KPA forces responded. Eight American Cobra attack helicopters would be circling, another eight idling on the ground, and seven on standby. An American platoon of twenty Sheridan tanks would be moved to the JSA, ready to level it with shells, to allow forces to evacuate if the KPA attacked.
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