Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers [Paperback]

Richard Peters (Author), Xiaobing Li (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2005

" Read a chapter from the book a selection of The History Book Club and The Military History Book Club "In three days the number of so-called 'volunteers' reached over three hundred men. Very quickly they organized us into military units. Just like that I became a North Korean soldier and was on the way to some unknown place." -- from the book South Korean Lee Young Ho was seventeen years old when he was forced to serve in the North Korean People's Army during the first year of the Korean War. After a few months, he deserted the NKPA and returned to Seoul where he joined the South Korean Marine Corps. Ho's experience is only one of the many compelling accounts found in Voices from the Korean War. Unique in gathering war stories from veterans from all sides of the Korean War -- American, South Korean, North Korean, and Chinese -- this volume creates a vivid and multidimensional portrait of the three-year-long conflict told by those who experienced the ground war firsthand. Richard Peters and Xiaobing Li include a significant introduction that provides a concise history of the Korean conflict, as well as a geographical and a political backdrop for the soldiers' personal stories.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Edited by two Korean War veterans, this oral history volume rather breaks a trail in the historiography of that conflict, offering, after an excellent, balanced narrative introduction, accounts of various phases of the war by survivors from both sides. Here are the first clashes, the retreat--or, from the North Korean viewpoint, advance--south, and Chinese infiltration into North Korea, which led to U.S. disaster and the Chosin Reservoir campaign, during which the weather was bad for the Americans, worse for the underclad and undersupplied Chinese. The stalemate beginning in 1951 is covered by several voices, including those of a Korean housewife and a classic green second lieutenant, a South Korean. Thereafter come the Koje-Do prison riots, reported by both a guard and an organizer. If the book will change no one's politics, it definitely adds to everyone's store of knowledge, particularly about the Koreans, on whose territory the blood was shed. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

""The personal accounts... are sharp and interesting. They offer a keen insight into the camaraderie, suffering, hardship and even humor from both sides of the war. They stories hit as hard as a massed infantry attack and vividly portray the brutality of war."--On Point" --

""Renders a balanced snapshot of the Korean War and its associated horrors.... Highly recommended."--Choice" --

""What sets apart this history book is the personal touch of interviewing participants on both sides of the conflict."--WTBF" --

""Before the memoirs begin, there are six chapters that summarize the course of the war better than most thick volumes devoted only to that subject."Military" -- Military

"The personal accounts... are sharp and interesting. They offer a keen insight into the camaraderie, suffering, hardship and even humor from both sides of the war. They stories hit as hard as a massed infantry attack and vividly portray the brutality of war."--On Point" --

""There have been anthologies of oral histories of the Korean War before, but until now the reminiscences of Chinese and Korean combatants have not been available in an English-language publication."--Military Trader" --

""[This book] is a must-read for those who participated in the Vietnam War, or for just planin military history buffs."--The Union Leader" --

""Before the memoirs begin, there are six chapters that summarize the course of the war better than most thick volumes devoted only to that subject."--Military" --

""A fine book of tragedy, heroism, and survival that will hopefully spark a deeper interest in this pivotal conflict."--Army History" --

""A work that gives texture and depth to the more sanitized and generalized narratives that begin and end at the 38th Parallel."--Army History" --

""Voices from the Korean War is a fine book of tragedy, heroism, and survival that will hopefully spark a deeper interest in this pivotal conflict."--Bryan Gibby, Army History" --

""Li's book is a powerful reminder that it was individuals with thier own schemes of life and with their own dreams and hopes who did the fighting for a complex mixture of reasons."--Andreas Hilger, H-net Reviews" --

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813191203
• ISBN-13: 978-0813191201
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Perspective on A Long Forgotten Conflict!, November 23, 2007

By 

Gilberto Villahermosa - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers (Paperback)

In "Voices from the Korean War" Xiaobing Li brings a unique perspective to a long forgotten conflict.

Professors Li and Richard Peters, a Korean War veteran, have gathered together the personal stories of American, South and North Korean, and Chinese soldiers in the war. A short history of the conflict is provided at the beginning of the book and another chapter on perspectives at the end.

In between, the authors allow the belligerents who fought the war on both sides to speak for themselves. The result is a uniquely compelling and informative work that is easy to read. I found the chapters written by North Korean and Chinese soldiers, as well as by those written by American soldiers held captive by the Communists, particularly interesting.

The final chapter, written by a Chinese colonel who took part in the massive Koje-do Camp POW riots, is especially powerful and provides a new perspective on a conflict within a conflict that resulted in the death of hundreds of North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in the Korean War and especially in the experiences of the everyday soldiers on both sides that fought it.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Voices from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"?, June 16, 2008

By 

Dissapointed Fan (Illinois ,United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers (Paperback)

My enjoyment of this book ended in Chapter 27, "Colonel Zhao's Story", told by a former Chinese Communist Political Commisar. On page 244 he relates how the UN guards armed "Chinese traitors"(Chinese soldiers who were anti-communist)with "knives, steel pickets, spiked clubs, barbed wire flails, and blackjacks to enforce their regulations".
Fearful Western guards bringing lethal weapons into the prison so the "traitors" can do their dirty work for them? Yet this ridiculous assertion seems almost believable when compared to the narrative on the next page, where he tells the story of a "nineteen-year old college freshman", Lin, who is dragged onto a stage when he refuses an anti-communist prison tatoo.
He is beaten and one of his arms cut off with a dagger, but still refuses the tatoo.
The "traitorous anti-communist" then "opened Lin's chest and pulled out his heart. Holding the bleeding but still beating heart" he tells the other five thousand prisoners "whoever dares to refuse the tatoo will be like him!"
The only thing missing is bad-guy Mola Ram and the statue of Kali from the very-similiar scene in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Even with 21st century medical technology heart surgeons have to cut through the rib cage, not the case here in this propaganda fantasy.
It's one thing to try to tell the personal stories of soldiers from both sides of the Korean War, but why would the authors include such delusional ravings alongside what seem like truthful (and probably painfully remembered accounts? It only serves to remind one of a recent book purporting to tell the tale of an American massacre of Korean civilians, which was later shown to have been told by ex-soldiers who were never even anywhere near the alleged site, and whose allegations were false.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Only Thing Wonderful is the Title, February 28, 2011

By 

Jana McBurney-Lin "Author, My Half of the Sky" (Los Gatos, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers (Paperback)

I picked up this book ased on the apparently solid background of the authors and the tantalizing title. I was disappointed from page one when the authors suggested the US was nothing but a pawn in the Korean War. I thought perhaps I'd do better listening to actual voices--but those seemed to have been gathered from propaganda fantasies. POWs refusing tattoos, as if they had a say in the matter? A POW having his heart ripped out on stage? Come on. The fact that the authors carefully mention that maybe none of what is inside is true, as it's based on people's memories...and memories can be faulty, doesn't quite assuage the disappointment from a serious reader interested in hearing serious memories.