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Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953
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 70 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, and 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 20 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 US Marine hero.
This is an intimate, deeper kind of history, whose meticulous research and rich detail, drawing on recently unearthed materials and eyewitness accounts, brings the true face of the Korean War, the vastness of its human tragedy, into a sharper focus than ever before. The "Forgotten War" becomes unforgettable.
In decades as an international journalist, Hanley reported from some 100 countries and covered more than a half-dozen conflicts, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The war that broke out in Korea on a Sunday morning 70 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, and 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 20 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 US Marine hero.
This is an intimate, deeper kind of history, whose meticulous research and rich detail, drawing on recently unearthed materials and eyewitness accounts, brings the true face of the Korean War, the vastness of its human tragedy, into a sharper focus than ever before. The "Forgotten War" becomes unforgettable.
In decades as an international journalist, Hanley reported from some 100 countries and covered more than a half-dozen conflicts, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
December 19, 2019
This is the second time in the last two months I've recommended a book as a potentially excellent gift for the precocious teenaged history nerd (if such creatures still exist) and then felt the need to apologize if it seems like I'm damning a book with faint praise. This book (and the other one) are great books. They capture, in different ways, the drama and sweep of history. This book is grittier and involves more senseless slaughter than sensitive souls may be able to tolerate, but any 12+-year-old who has watched or read Game of Thrones should find nothing new here.
Some interesting information about the author, from Wikipedia: Hanley is the co-author of a book about the Korean-War-era massacre of civilians by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri. The book was published less than a week before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a result, in spite of positive reviews, sales were unspectacular as the book tour was cancelled and people were understandably concerned about other matters.
This book recycles a lot of information from the 2001 book as a long, thoroughly-researched, set piece at the beginning of this book. I asked myself while reading this set piece: Is this level of detail going to be maintained throughout the book? If so, this book is going to be a long slog. The answer is: no, the focus zooms out a bit after that, which is a good thing. If you want a detailed account of the battle for Pork Chop Hill, near the war's end, you should look for other books.
This book reminded me of certain large-ensemble movies (Robert Altman's “Nashville”) and TV shows (“The Wire”) that I've seen and enjoyed. Like these examples, the book introduces to a diverse group of people, not just Korean but also American, British, and Chinese, who then criss-cross the narrative and the Korean peninsula for the duration of the war and beyond. Since this is non-fiction, however, the characters do NOT actually interact with each other.
I don't think I'm giving away any spoilers to say that the book portrays the war as a senseless waste of human life, in which egotistic leaders on both sides trafficked in unwarranted rosy predictions of the outcome of their strategies, while rank-and-file soldiers tried, with limited success, to resist the temptation to become corrupt and immoral animals. In this respect, the Korean War differs little from wars before, or since.
While I'm thinking of the Korean War and young history nerds, let me also hope that reading this book might convince the young to get down the recollections of Korean War veterans in their midst before it is too late. World War II veterans are now becoming thin on the ground, and it won't be long before the scythe comes for the next set of old soldiers.
Thank you to Netgalley and Public Affairs Books for a free advance egalley copy of this book for review.
Some interesting information about the author, from Wikipedia: Hanley is the co-author of a book about the Korean-War-era massacre of civilians by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri. The book was published less than a week before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a result, in spite of positive reviews, sales were unspectacular as the book tour was cancelled and people were understandably concerned about other matters.
This book recycles a lot of information from the 2001 book as a long, thoroughly-researched, set piece at the beginning of this book. I asked myself while reading this set piece: Is this level of detail going to be maintained throughout the book? If so, this book is going to be a long slog. The answer is: no, the focus zooms out a bit after that, which is a good thing. If you want a detailed account of the battle for Pork Chop Hill, near the war's end, you should look for other books.
This book reminded me of certain large-ensemble movies (Robert Altman's “Nashville”) and TV shows (“The Wire”) that I've seen and enjoyed. Like these examples, the book introduces to a diverse group of people, not just Korean but also American, British, and Chinese, who then criss-cross the narrative and the Korean peninsula for the duration of the war and beyond. Since this is non-fiction, however, the characters do NOT actually interact with each other.
I don't think I'm giving away any spoilers to say that the book portrays the war as a senseless waste of human life, in which egotistic leaders on both sides trafficked in unwarranted rosy predictions of the outcome of their strategies, while rank-and-file soldiers tried, with limited success, to resist the temptation to become corrupt and immoral animals. In this respect, the Korean War differs little from wars before, or since.
While I'm thinking of the Korean War and young history nerds, let me also hope that reading this book might convince the young to get down the recollections of Korean War veterans in their midst before it is too late. World War II veterans are now becoming thin on the ground, and it won't be long before the scythe comes for the next set of old soldiers.
Thank you to Netgalley and Public Affairs Books for a free advance egalley copy of this book for review.
June 6, 2020
I have read many books on the Korean War, but Ghost Flames reminded me how much I don't know, and in the best of ways. Authors tend to tell war stories gazing broadly downwards from 50,000 feet high gazing where only generals, presidents, and a few major cities are visible. Hanley takes the opposite approach - quite literally the stories he shares are often from individuals in tiny villages looking upward at bombers flying far above them. Much unlike the traditional war narrative which tells of one pristine, heroic side with a nominal glance towards a nameless, faceless dishonorable enemy, Hanley presents individuals from all sides - American, Korean, Chinese, British and somewhere in-between. Much more than caricatures representing a monolith of their nationality, these are real individual people with different motivations and goals caught up the conflicts, traumas, and complications of war. Too often war is presented as if two lines of soldiers meet in a field somewhere away from civilization, from civilians, in isolation after everyone else fled. After this book, I can't ever imagine that again. There may be a place for the cold, stoic academic telling of what happened during a war, but Ghost Flames reminded me that behind every statistic about millions dead, behind every summary of thousands of gallons of napalm dropped from airplanes, there are individuals on the ground invisible from such a distance who have stories to tell.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
November 10, 2023
This book was amazingly terrible. The author ensured that he told the story of the Korean War through many lenses, ranging from an American nun, British communist war correspondent, Chinese soldiers, South Korean preteen, North Korean propagandist, North Korean draft evader, black and white American soldiers, Chinese commander, and many more. I love learning about multiple sides of any conflict because the truth is never black and white. I was disturbed by the reminder of how little accountability the US takes for war crimes and, frankly, the lack of accountability for war crimes in any nation.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
October 18, 2022
This book follows the story of a dozen or so actual participants in the Korean War, from both sides. Its accounts of their hardships then goes into the military and political decisions that caused those hardships.
Its major theme, in my view, is the atrocities committed by the US and South Korean militaries, with the knowledge and direction of high military and political officials. I found particularly horrific the accounts of the killing of refugees and civilians and looked up some of Hanley's sources for corroboration. The massacres at the Bridge of No Gun Ri and many other sites are well documented -- and acknowledged in S. Korea's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" (est. 2005) along with many other atrocities. However, some of Hanley's assertions -- particularly the allegation that American air and ground forces routinely targeted all refugees (out of fear that North Korean infiltrators were among them) are disputed by other sources. And an underlying theme -- that a united Korea in 1950 would have been a positive thing under any circumstances -- seems incredible today.
Still, the book is a difficult, necessary read for an American. The hardships and trauma suffered by the entire Korean people are vividly described. And the book reminds the reader that no great power can involve itself militarily elsewhere without costing other, smaller nations dearly.
Its major theme, in my view, is the atrocities committed by the US and South Korean militaries, with the knowledge and direction of high military and political officials. I found particularly horrific the accounts of the killing of refugees and civilians and looked up some of Hanley's sources for corroboration. The massacres at the Bridge of No Gun Ri and many other sites are well documented -- and acknowledged in S. Korea's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" (est. 2005) along with many other atrocities. However, some of Hanley's assertions -- particularly the allegation that American air and ground forces routinely targeted all refugees (out of fear that North Korean infiltrators were among them) are disputed by other sources. And an underlying theme -- that a united Korea in 1950 would have been a positive thing under any circumstances -- seems incredible today.
Still, the book is a difficult, necessary read for an American. The hardships and trauma suffered by the entire Korean people are vividly described. And the book reminds the reader that no great power can involve itself militarily elsewhere without costing other, smaller nations dearly.
August 31, 2020
It was a good read, it felt a little long, but hey, I bet the Korean war felt pretty long too.
March 8, 2021
One way to tell a story is through multiple perspectives, a chain of voices, which is exactly the title of Andre Brink's famed South African novel. Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is another example of a story told in this way. But history can use this method, too. A decade ago Peter Englund published The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, which narrates 1914-18 in Europe through the experiences and impressions of 20 ordinary people from 12 countries. Now Charles J. Hanley does the same thing with the Korean war. Ghost Flames covers the course of the war through the stories of 20 people who experienced it firsthand.
Most of the "cast of characters" were simply typical citizens of their countries. Half were Korean and were from both sides of the 38th parallel. Fourteen were soldiers or joined this army or that. Three were young Korean women, and one of them a child. Elizabeth Hirschboeck was a doctor and Maryknoll nun with Korean experience who returned to run a missionary hospital in Pusan. Two were journalists, one of them a British reporter for the communist press in Peking. One man was a Chinese diplomat. Three were high-ranking generals, and 4 were Americans who served in the bloody actions up and down the peninsula. Two of the 20 became POWs.
As Hanley weaves the stories into the loose outline of the war he creates a narrative that's not an operational or political history but one of people caught up in events they couldn't avoid or control. From the Pusan Perimeter to Pyongyang to Pork Chop Hill to Panmunjom, it's all backdrop against which the individuals glitter and illuminate, giving the history definition, expression. This history of the war is made from observations and oral anecdote of the 20 people whose stories Hanley chose to tell.
Hanley makes a point of emphasizing the number or atrocities and mass executions that occurred during the war. I was unaware of the incidents he reports and was as surprised by their existence and unnecessary and sometimes casual brutality as I was by the fact that in the years since they've been confirmed by those guilty of committing them. They're not just North Korean and Chinese armies eliminating the intellectual classes of regions they occupy, but the South Koreans eradicating leftist elements within their politics and society and also American units shooting groups of refugees for fear their numbers contain enemy infiltrators. Aside from what I considered Hanley's sometimes gratuitous over-emphasis of such incidents, I think his method and chronicle is even-handed, weighing the attitudes, values, and perspectives of all his subjects, Korean, Chinese, and American, equally, without favor.
Most of the "cast of characters" were simply typical citizens of their countries. Half were Korean and were from both sides of the 38th parallel. Fourteen were soldiers or joined this army or that. Three were young Korean women, and one of them a child. Elizabeth Hirschboeck was a doctor and Maryknoll nun with Korean experience who returned to run a missionary hospital in Pusan. Two were journalists, one of them a British reporter for the communist press in Peking. One man was a Chinese diplomat. Three were high-ranking generals, and 4 were Americans who served in the bloody actions up and down the peninsula. Two of the 20 became POWs.
As Hanley weaves the stories into the loose outline of the war he creates a narrative that's not an operational or political history but one of people caught up in events they couldn't avoid or control. From the Pusan Perimeter to Pyongyang to Pork Chop Hill to Panmunjom, it's all backdrop against which the individuals glitter and illuminate, giving the history definition, expression. This history of the war is made from observations and oral anecdote of the 20 people whose stories Hanley chose to tell.
Hanley makes a point of emphasizing the number or atrocities and mass executions that occurred during the war. I was unaware of the incidents he reports and was as surprised by their existence and unnecessary and sometimes casual brutality as I was by the fact that in the years since they've been confirmed by those guilty of committing them. They're not just North Korean and Chinese armies eliminating the intellectual classes of regions they occupy, but the South Koreans eradicating leftist elements within their politics and society and also American units shooting groups of refugees for fear their numbers contain enemy infiltrators. Aside from what I considered Hanley's sometimes gratuitous over-emphasis of such incidents, I think his method and chronicle is even-handed, weighing the attitudes, values, and perspectives of all his subjects, Korean, Chinese, and American, equally, without favor.
July 5, 2025
If you only read one book about the Korean War, it should be this one.
It’s a masterpiece by Charles Hanley, the Pulitzer winning journalist who helped to expose the US massacre at Nogun-ri. Without bias or favour to one side, he tells the depressing story of this national calamity from first hand or secondhand interviews with the participants themself. Accounts range from Chinese pilots, to American Nuns, to innocent Korean civilians, to communist British journalists, giving the most comprehensive and well rounded encapsulation of the horror of this war.
Often an upsetting read, but if you want to get an understanding of the defining event of today’s Korean peninsula, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
It’s a masterpiece by Charles Hanley, the Pulitzer winning journalist who helped to expose the US massacre at Nogun-ri. Without bias or favour to one side, he tells the depressing story of this national calamity from first hand or secondhand interviews with the participants themself. Accounts range from Chinese pilots, to American Nuns, to innocent Korean civilians, to communist British journalists, giving the most comprehensive and well rounded encapsulation of the horror of this war.
Often an upsetting read, but if you want to get an understanding of the defining event of today’s Korean peninsula, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
October 25, 2023
Despite having lived in South Korea for nearly 5 years of my life, I had never really read much about the Korean war. This book was excellent. Mr. Hanley gives intimate views into all major stakeholders in the war. North and South Koreans, Americans, Chinese, missionaries, and more. I'm really glad I read this book but be forewarned, it is heartbreaking. So much senseless death and destruction. I especially appreciate that Mr. Hanley, did not shirk from sharing details of dastardly acts on both sides. I was especially distressed by the suffering inflicted upon the Korean people - the refugees who were simply trying to escape the wide swath of death and destruction imposed by war.
May 1, 2021
Detailed history of the Korean war from personal perspectives of 20 insiders on both sides. The extent of the pointless killing (especially of civilians) is absolutely devastating. One more book on the insanity of war.
May 30, 2021
A hard book to read as it recounts many of the atrocities of the Korean War - atrocities by the armies of South Korea, North Korea, and the United States. In this book the story of the Korean War is told by 20 participants from both Koreas, the United States, and China.
January 4, 2022
Ghost Flames offers an interesting retelling of the Korean War framed by the interweaving of multiple narratives, from the broad strokes of the Cold War and the commands of generals to the struggles of refugees and conscripts hurled into the meatgrinder.
Hanley, seeking to tell sweeping history through grounded perspectives, attempts to characterise the war through human failures and frailties, lending an intimate air to an already tragic conflict. His pedigree, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Nogun-Ri massacre, emerges confidently and frequently throughout the narrative, as he focuses on the numerous war crimes, massacres, rapes and other horrors committed by both sides. On one hand, he details the political purges, secret police killings and outright massacres of conspirators that tore across both sides of the frontier. This heavy human element to his storytelling empowers it, reminding responders of the moral failings of both sides, and providing a largely unbiased account of their conduct throughout the war.
At the same time, he doesn’t neglect broader historical events, retelling the uneasy state of affairs that existed between North and South Korea, and the lack of readiness that enabled the North’s initial lighting offensive. Hanley details the catastrophic collapse of Korean forces, the chaos of multiple unorganised retreats, and the defeat of Task Force Smith, preceding the disastrous retreat to the Pusan Perimeter. Truman’s uneasy relationship with MacArthur is also relayed, alongside the latter’s juxtapositions display of hubris and brilliance from the Inchon landing up to the Yalu River. Hanley demonstrates his literary prowess by interlacing troop movements and government wrangling with the accounts of Gil Isham, Clarence Adams and Buddy Wenzel, and their opponents in Chung, No and Chen. From the communications between Il-Sung, Stalin and Mao and the immense Chinese counterattack to the infamous air war/bombing campaign and the battles at Chosin and Heartbreak Ridge, Hanley provides an easy to follow narrative that is subsequently embellished by personal recollections that provide the emotional air of a fiction novel. Similarly, the story of Ri In-Mo reveals the struggles of southern guerrillas and other communist sympathisers caught between local villagers and merciless government forces, whilst No-Sok’s story highlights the wavering loyalties of many North Koreans towards their regime.
From the battlefield, Hanley ventures to the numerous prison of war camps that invariably held numerous troops on both sides. In the North, he relays the hundreds of prisoners who died as a result of their guards’ indifference, and by contrast the relatively decent treatment bestowed by the new Chinese guards. In the South, he covers the stockades at Pusan and the bloody suppression of numerous prisoner riots. Hanley also details the ideologies and motivations of northern Koreans and some of their Chinese allies. Yu Song-Chol presents a fairly reasonable face of the Northern regime, a logical counterweight to Il-Sung whose poor reception and eventual purging foreshadows the later despotism of the Kim regime. Similarly, the story of Peng Teh-Huai humanises the often faceless nature of the significant Chinese involvement in Korea, patriotic to his country yet unable to overcome Mao’s rigid leadership and forced to sacrifice immense numbers of his troops towards unobtainable objectives. Elsewhere, he describes the humanitarian efforts of the Sisters of Mercy in Taegu and Pusan, whose efforts in providing medical care and inoculating children against tuberculosis, diphtheria or typhoid helped alleviate some of the immense suffering behind the front lines. With an epilogue that tells the ultimate fate of his characters, Hanley’s book is a solid retelling of a largely forgotten war, but one that remains enduringly relevant.
Hanley, seeking to tell sweeping history through grounded perspectives, attempts to characterise the war through human failures and frailties, lending an intimate air to an already tragic conflict. His pedigree, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Nogun-Ri massacre, emerges confidently and frequently throughout the narrative, as he focuses on the numerous war crimes, massacres, rapes and other horrors committed by both sides. On one hand, he details the political purges, secret police killings and outright massacres of conspirators that tore across both sides of the frontier. This heavy human element to his storytelling empowers it, reminding responders of the moral failings of both sides, and providing a largely unbiased account of their conduct throughout the war.
At the same time, he doesn’t neglect broader historical events, retelling the uneasy state of affairs that existed between North and South Korea, and the lack of readiness that enabled the North’s initial lighting offensive. Hanley details the catastrophic collapse of Korean forces, the chaos of multiple unorganised retreats, and the defeat of Task Force Smith, preceding the disastrous retreat to the Pusan Perimeter. Truman’s uneasy relationship with MacArthur is also relayed, alongside the latter’s juxtapositions display of hubris and brilliance from the Inchon landing up to the Yalu River. Hanley demonstrates his literary prowess by interlacing troop movements and government wrangling with the accounts of Gil Isham, Clarence Adams and Buddy Wenzel, and their opponents in Chung, No and Chen. From the communications between Il-Sung, Stalin and Mao and the immense Chinese counterattack to the infamous air war/bombing campaign and the battles at Chosin and Heartbreak Ridge, Hanley provides an easy to follow narrative that is subsequently embellished by personal recollections that provide the emotional air of a fiction novel. Similarly, the story of Ri In-Mo reveals the struggles of southern guerrillas and other communist sympathisers caught between local villagers and merciless government forces, whilst No-Sok’s story highlights the wavering loyalties of many North Koreans towards their regime.
From the battlefield, Hanley ventures to the numerous prison of war camps that invariably held numerous troops on both sides. In the North, he relays the hundreds of prisoners who died as a result of their guards’ indifference, and by contrast the relatively decent treatment bestowed by the new Chinese guards. In the South, he covers the stockades at Pusan and the bloody suppression of numerous prisoner riots. Hanley also details the ideologies and motivations of northern Koreans and some of their Chinese allies. Yu Song-Chol presents a fairly reasonable face of the Northern regime, a logical counterweight to Il-Sung whose poor reception and eventual purging foreshadows the later despotism of the Kim regime. Similarly, the story of Peng Teh-Huai humanises the often faceless nature of the significant Chinese involvement in Korea, patriotic to his country yet unable to overcome Mao’s rigid leadership and forced to sacrifice immense numbers of his troops towards unobtainable objectives. Elsewhere, he describes the humanitarian efforts of the Sisters of Mercy in Taegu and Pusan, whose efforts in providing medical care and inoculating children against tuberculosis, diphtheria or typhoid helped alleviate some of the immense suffering behind the front lines. With an epilogue that tells the ultimate fate of his characters, Hanley’s book is a solid retelling of a largely forgotten war, but one that remains enduringly relevant.
February 4, 2021
Like most baby boomers, I grew up loving a good war story . . . the American GI’s charging the hill to save the world or the cavalry arriving in the nick of time to save the settlers. War stories always have lots of bravery, honor and patriotism . . . and good always conquered evil.
Ghost Flames have all of that a lot more. It has plenty of the bravery, honor and patriotism, plus the shame, cowardice, terror, pain and horror. Hanley strips away the political correctness and government censorship to give us the whole enchilada. In Ghost Flames, he gives us the whole truth about the Korean War through the stories of twenty people . . . each one, from soldiers on both sides to rich and poor Americans, Chinese and Korean, seeing the war through their unique eyes, feeling their own fears and dreams.
True to his roots as a world-class journalist, Hanley shows the good and evil of both sides, with hundreds of legitimate sources to back up the truth. In the war stories of my youth, there were atrocities, but the enemy, not Americans, always performed them. In Ghost Flame, the shadow of evil emerges from Koreans, Chinese and Americans.
There was plenty of good, bravery and honor, and evil, cowardice and shame to go around for all. Its time that all people look at war through clear, not rose colored, glasses to see war for what it is. Charles Hanley give us the full picture of this hell on earth through the eyes, minds and hearts of twenty of God’s children, and in the end many of their triumphs over the war’s worst influence.
Throughout Ghost Flames, the stories brought to tears, sometimes tears of joy, but mostly sadness. Unlike the war stories of my youth where I cheered for the Americans, in the end the end of Ghost Flames I cheered for humanity and peace.
Ghost Flames have all of that a lot more. It has plenty of the bravery, honor and patriotism, plus the shame, cowardice, terror, pain and horror. Hanley strips away the political correctness and government censorship to give us the whole enchilada. In Ghost Flames, he gives us the whole truth about the Korean War through the stories of twenty people . . . each one, from soldiers on both sides to rich and poor Americans, Chinese and Korean, seeing the war through their unique eyes, feeling their own fears and dreams.
True to his roots as a world-class journalist, Hanley shows the good and evil of both sides, with hundreds of legitimate sources to back up the truth. In the war stories of my youth, there were atrocities, but the enemy, not Americans, always performed them. In Ghost Flame, the shadow of evil emerges from Koreans, Chinese and Americans.
There was plenty of good, bravery and honor, and evil, cowardice and shame to go around for all. Its time that all people look at war through clear, not rose colored, glasses to see war for what it is. Charles Hanley give us the full picture of this hell on earth through the eyes, minds and hearts of twenty of God’s children, and in the end many of their triumphs over the war’s worst influence.
Throughout Ghost Flames, the stories brought to tears, sometimes tears of joy, but mostly sadness. Unlike the war stories of my youth where I cheered for the Americans, in the end the end of Ghost Flames I cheered for humanity and peace.
May 18, 2024
Disclaimer: I think anyone with a mild interest in world history, and particularly the US involvement in said history, should pickup this brilliant collection of accounts of the Korean War.
That being said, it was quite possibly one of the most depressing, violent, and overall demoralizing pieces of history I have learned about. Why this facet of world history is not as thoroughly covered in the US educational system is beyond me. Maybe it’s my own naivety, but I was simply not aware of the extent of involvement the United States had in shaping this conflict and the following armistice.
The culmination of all of this violence largely left Korea in its same pre-war state, however, now possessing a demoralized and significantly reduced population with an almost entirely destroyed infrastructure.
The constant pivoting of viewpoints ensured a largely unbiased unfolding of events over the violent few years. I feel that too often in narratives of differing perspectives, it becomes commonplace to disregard particular viewpoints due to social stances, in my case the viewpoints of North Korean soldiers and citizens.
I’d be lying if I didn’t approach this piece with my own internal bias, in today’s society it would be hard not to. But being able to understand the daily activities of North Korean citizens coupled with the many atrocities committed by, and later confirmed by, the United States, my perspective began to shift to more of an objective understanding.
As difficult as it was to read the horrible recounting of events, this collection as a whole paints an extremely personal picture of this conflict from nearly every side involved. Ghost Flames is a great piece of writing and a must-read for anyone interested in the direct perspectives from this otherwise not so covered war.
That being said, it was quite possibly one of the most depressing, violent, and overall demoralizing pieces of history I have learned about. Why this facet of world history is not as thoroughly covered in the US educational system is beyond me. Maybe it’s my own naivety, but I was simply not aware of the extent of involvement the United States had in shaping this conflict and the following armistice.
The culmination of all of this violence largely left Korea in its same pre-war state, however, now possessing a demoralized and significantly reduced population with an almost entirely destroyed infrastructure.
The constant pivoting of viewpoints ensured a largely unbiased unfolding of events over the violent few years. I feel that too often in narratives of differing perspectives, it becomes commonplace to disregard particular viewpoints due to social stances, in my case the viewpoints of North Korean soldiers and citizens.
I’d be lying if I didn’t approach this piece with my own internal bias, in today’s society it would be hard not to. But being able to understand the daily activities of North Korean citizens coupled with the many atrocities committed by, and later confirmed by, the United States, my perspective began to shift to more of an objective understanding.
As difficult as it was to read the horrible recounting of events, this collection as a whole paints an extremely personal picture of this conflict from nearly every side involved. Ghost Flames is a great piece of writing and a must-read for anyone interested in the direct perspectives from this otherwise not so covered war.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 17, 2021
(Audiobook) This work offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the Korean War, taking the personal recollections from multiple individuals, from those who lived simple lives before the war in what is South Korea, to the North Korean peasant, the Chinese soldier, an American general, an African-American who was almost out of the Army before the course of his life changed dramatically. This work follows the history of the war, but it provides personal accounts and stories that don’t always make the usual history books. It was a brutal war, with atrocities committed on all sides. I came to learn about many of the actions of the Americas, especially in the early stages of the war, when they were in full retreat and fearful of infiltrators. While North Korea and their future allies China were brutal to others, the South Koreans and US committed their own atrocities. Overall, this was a brutal war.
Hanley did a brilliant job capturing all of these accounts to put together one of the best narratives I have ever read about the war. That he used many “communist” and North Korean sources to balance out the American accounts can be a little jarring to read at first, but it adds to the complete picture. He doesn’t completely buy into the myths that both sides proclaim. You get good facts and narratives about a confusing and still not-completely understood war.
The audiobook is good, neither adding to or detracting from the material. A must read for those who have a working knowledge of the war, or for those who don’t know the first thing beyond the fact that it was the setting for MASH.
Hanley did a brilliant job capturing all of these accounts to put together one of the best narratives I have ever read about the war. That he used many “communist” and North Korean sources to balance out the American accounts can be a little jarring to read at first, but it adds to the complete picture. He doesn’t completely buy into the myths that both sides proclaim. You get good facts and narratives about a confusing and still not-completely understood war.
The audiobook is good, neither adding to or detracting from the material. A must read for those who have a working knowledge of the war, or for those who don’t know the first thing beyond the fact that it was the setting for MASH.
January 29, 2025
My wife and I are big fans of televised K-drama. If you watch for long, you'll notice there are two kinds of shows: historical dramas, set in the Joseon dynasty or earlier (i.e., before 1910), and contemporary dramas. But there are hardly any shows about the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) or the Korean War (1950-1953). Which made me curious: what is the nature of this kryptonite that Korean storytellers are trying so hard to avoid? I was especially curious about the Korean War, which has also remained "hidden" to American readers as well. I've read a lot about the Vietnam War, and grew up in that era. But the Korean War was a giant mystery to me.
After you've read Hanley's painful and painstaking account, there will be no mystery any more about one of the most horrible wars in history. He makes it crystal clear that there were no good guys in this conflict. The North Koreans butchered South Koreans, South Koreans butchered North Koreans, U.S. forces butchered both, often without bothering to find out whom they were shooting at. (The American military leadership was paranoid about enemy fighters concealing themselves as refugees, and issued orders to fire on all of them, women and children included.) And as in all wars, collateral damage killed more people than bullets did: starvation, tuberculosis, etc. claimed more than a million lives. It's obvious why no one wants to talk about this. No matter which side you think you are on, they did things that can't be excused or forgiven. And for what? After three years, nobody "won." The boundary between North Korea and South Korea barely even moved. And the war didn't even end: to this day, we only have a truce, not a peace between the two sides.
I like the approach that Hanley took to this painful subject. He gives us interweaving accounts of 20 people who lived through the war: some of them North Korean, some South Korean, some American, some Chinese. Some were soldiers, some were civilians, some were leaders, some were just ordinary people swept up in the chaos. Many of the accounts are based on personal interviews. This is not just a military history. Hanley understands that some of the most enduring memories and scars of war do not occur on any battlefield.
One difficulty I had with the book is that for me (like many American readers, I suspect) it was hard to keep straight all the unfamiliar names. Who was Chen Hsing-chiu, who was Chi Chao-chu, and who was Chung Dong-kyu? With sometimes 50 to 100 pages passing between mentions of the characters, it's difficult to keep them straight. Hanley tries his best to help by giving capsule summaries that help remind us about some of the details--such as whether the person in question was Chinese, North Korean, or South Korean. However, even these helpful summaries take us out of the flow of the story.
A bigger problem comes from the nature of the war itself. The first year of the war, for all its horrors, was nevertheless a military historian's dream because of the incredible swings of fortune that occurred. North Korea invaded and rapidly drove both South Korean and American troops to a little corner of the country around Pusan (or Busan). It seemed as if they were on the cusp of annihilating South Korea... but their supply lines were overextended. General MacArthur, in a reprise of WW II, conducted an amphibious landing behind the lines at Inchon, which totally turned the war on its head. The North Korean soldiers, to avoid encirclement, had to flee for their lives. Within weeks, the situation had reversed: the South Korean and U.S. (or "U.N.") forces were rampaging through North Korea. MacArthur thought the war would be over by Christmas. Hubris again. Don't look now, because... Here comes China!
Dramatic stuff. But after the first year, the war completely changed. It turned into a trench war, where both sides had to pay an enormous price in casualties for even the most trivial gains: taking this hill or that ridge, often only to give it up a few days later. Meanwhile, away from the battlefield, people kept on dying and dying. Everybody involved in the war grew sick of it. The Chinese wanted peace. The North Koreans wanted peace. The South Koreans wanted peace. The Americans wanted peace. But to get there, they would have to agree to agree... and that was the one thing they couldn't do.
This ghastly period, with all the armies locked in a conflict nobody wants any more, takes its toll on the writer and the reader, too. I had to slog my way to the end of the book. The chapters get shorter and shorter, as Hanley just runs out of words to describe the universal misery. He devotes 200 pages to 1950 (the first half-year of the war), 130 pages to 1951, 60 pages to 1952, and only 46 pages to the concluding phase. I can't say that I wanted these chapters to be longer, because I didn't... The whole thing is just exhausting. But that is the truth about this awful "hidden war."
In the end, I think this is a book that no one is going to enjoy reading all the way to the end, but it's a book that should be read. Maybe if we had been more honest about the Korean War, we could have avoided the (even more catastrophic?) Vietnam War.
Four little historical facts I didn't know before:
1. There is some evidence that the Korean War prevented a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Mao Zedong was planning such an invasion, thinking that the Americans would not put up a lot of resistance -- but then the North Korean invasion of South Korea brought American troops back into East Asia and made it impossible for Mao to catch the U.S. napping.
2. Mao's son died in the Korean War. I didn't even know he had a son.
3. One of the main reasons that the active fighting ended in 1953 was that Joseph Stalin died that year. He had been a big proponent of letting the war drag on as long as possible. (Russia did not have troops on the ground, but benefited from having the Americans preoccupied by Korea rather than Europe.)
4. Anybody who thinks of the American army as "good guys" needs to read the chapter on the massacre at Nogun-ri, which Hanley previously wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about. I remember how the My Lai massacre changed people's perception of the Vietnam War. Nogun-ri was just as bad, but the story didn't come out until years later.
After you've read Hanley's painful and painstaking account, there will be no mystery any more about one of the most horrible wars in history. He makes it crystal clear that there were no good guys in this conflict. The North Koreans butchered South Koreans, South Koreans butchered North Koreans, U.S. forces butchered both, often without bothering to find out whom they were shooting at. (The American military leadership was paranoid about enemy fighters concealing themselves as refugees, and issued orders to fire on all of them, women and children included.) And as in all wars, collateral damage killed more people than bullets did: starvation, tuberculosis, etc. claimed more than a million lives. It's obvious why no one wants to talk about this. No matter which side you think you are on, they did things that can't be excused or forgiven. And for what? After three years, nobody "won." The boundary between North Korea and South Korea barely even moved. And the war didn't even end: to this day, we only have a truce, not a peace between the two sides.
I like the approach that Hanley took to this painful subject. He gives us interweaving accounts of 20 people who lived through the war: some of them North Korean, some South Korean, some American, some Chinese. Some were soldiers, some were civilians, some were leaders, some were just ordinary people swept up in the chaos. Many of the accounts are based on personal interviews. This is not just a military history. Hanley understands that some of the most enduring memories and scars of war do not occur on any battlefield.
One difficulty I had with the book is that for me (like many American readers, I suspect) it was hard to keep straight all the unfamiliar names. Who was Chen Hsing-chiu, who was Chi Chao-chu, and who was Chung Dong-kyu? With sometimes 50 to 100 pages passing between mentions of the characters, it's difficult to keep them straight. Hanley tries his best to help by giving capsule summaries that help remind us about some of the details--such as whether the person in question was Chinese, North Korean, or South Korean. However, even these helpful summaries take us out of the flow of the story.
A bigger problem comes from the nature of the war itself. The first year of the war, for all its horrors, was nevertheless a military historian's dream because of the incredible swings of fortune that occurred. North Korea invaded and rapidly drove both South Korean and American troops to a little corner of the country around Pusan (or Busan). It seemed as if they were on the cusp of annihilating South Korea... but their supply lines were overextended. General MacArthur, in a reprise of WW II, conducted an amphibious landing behind the lines at Inchon, which totally turned the war on its head. The North Korean soldiers, to avoid encirclement, had to flee for their lives. Within weeks, the situation had reversed: the South Korean and U.S. (or "U.N.") forces were rampaging through North Korea. MacArthur thought the war would be over by Christmas. Hubris again. Don't look now, because... Here comes China!
Dramatic stuff. But after the first year, the war completely changed. It turned into a trench war, where both sides had to pay an enormous price in casualties for even the most trivial gains: taking this hill or that ridge, often only to give it up a few days later. Meanwhile, away from the battlefield, people kept on dying and dying. Everybody involved in the war grew sick of it. The Chinese wanted peace. The North Koreans wanted peace. The South Koreans wanted peace. The Americans wanted peace. But to get there, they would have to agree to agree... and that was the one thing they couldn't do.
This ghastly period, with all the armies locked in a conflict nobody wants any more, takes its toll on the writer and the reader, too. I had to slog my way to the end of the book. The chapters get shorter and shorter, as Hanley just runs out of words to describe the universal misery. He devotes 200 pages to 1950 (the first half-year of the war), 130 pages to 1951, 60 pages to 1952, and only 46 pages to the concluding phase. I can't say that I wanted these chapters to be longer, because I didn't... The whole thing is just exhausting. But that is the truth about this awful "hidden war."
In the end, I think this is a book that no one is going to enjoy reading all the way to the end, but it's a book that should be read. Maybe if we had been more honest about the Korean War, we could have avoided the (even more catastrophic?) Vietnam War.
Four little historical facts I didn't know before:
1. There is some evidence that the Korean War prevented a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Mao Zedong was planning such an invasion, thinking that the Americans would not put up a lot of resistance -- but then the North Korean invasion of South Korea brought American troops back into East Asia and made it impossible for Mao to catch the U.S. napping.
2. Mao's son died in the Korean War. I didn't even know he had a son.
3. One of the main reasons that the active fighting ended in 1953 was that Joseph Stalin died that year. He had been a big proponent of letting the war drag on as long as possible. (Russia did not have troops on the ground, but benefited from having the Americans preoccupied by Korea rather than Europe.)
4. Anybody who thinks of the American army as "good guys" needs to read the chapter on the massacre at Nogun-ri, which Hanley previously wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about. I remember how the My Lai massacre changed people's perception of the Vietnam War. Nogun-ri was just as bad, but the story didn't come out until years later.
research
July 18, 2025⤑ research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I'm going to be labelling the books I'm using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these.
People in the countryside soon told of seeing hon bul, “ghost flames,” or “spirit fires,” flickering in the night over the killing fields. This may have been phosphorous from bones, kicked up by wind and rain, shimmering in the moonlight. But Korean lore also holds the deeply rooted notion that a ball of light, hon bul, leaves the body upon death.
Hanley's work is amazing. See also The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War.
☆ Book Reviews | Bluesky | Twitter | Threads ☆
People in the countryside soon told of seeing hon bul, “ghost flames,” or “spirit fires,” flickering in the night over the killing fields. This may have been phosphorous from bones, kicked up by wind and rain, shimmering in the moonlight. But Korean lore also holds the deeply rooted notion that a ball of light, hon bul, leaves the body upon death.
Hanley's work is amazing. See also The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War.
☆ Book Reviews | Bluesky | Twitter | Threads ☆
September 13, 2022
'Ghost Flames' by Charles J. Hanley is probably the best book about a war I've ever read. It follows the events of the Korean war with the story of a diverse group of 20 people affected by the war. From a simple soldier, a highly decorated general, a young mother and so on. So many aspects of the war are covered and show the brutality of this conflict. It makes also everything somehow approachable.
The book is sad and doesn't hold back on the gruesome atrocities on both sides. The author also published a book on the biggest massacre on the civilians at the beginning of the war by Americans.
It is a fascinating but also a sad book and a lot of the poeple had my sympathy. Especially the black soldier who decides in the end not to go back to the States because he won't face segregation in China. So he resettles to China and become an English teacher. The chapters about him are especially touching.
The book is sad and doesn't hold back on the gruesome atrocities on both sides. The author also published a book on the biggest massacre on the civilians at the beginning of the war by Americans.
It is a fascinating but also a sad book and a lot of the poeple had my sympathy. Especially the black soldier who decides in the end not to go back to the States because he won't face segregation in China. So he resettles to China and become an English teacher. The chapters about him are especially touching.
December 8, 2019
The book provides details of the Korean War that took place in June 1950.
The author ingeniously combines stories shared by survivors in the war that weaves into one incongruous plot.
The information shared is very dense and emotional. It is not easy material to read. There were many causalities on both sides, including innocent civilians. The nation of korea was devastated by the bombings and diseases!
I am definitely buying the book for myself. For any history buff, I highly recommend this book.
The author ingeniously combines stories shared by survivors in the war that weaves into one incongruous plot.
The information shared is very dense and emotional. It is not easy material to read. There were many causalities on both sides, including innocent civilians. The nation of korea was devastated by the bombings and diseases!
I am definitely buying the book for myself. For any history buff, I highly recommend this book.
February 17, 2021
As an American, I feel like we learn next to nothing about the Korean War. Even big pieces, like the extent of the involvement of the Soviets and China, I knew next to nothing about. After reading this, I can see why we might want to ignore the war, given our terrible treatment of the peninsula. I also see foreshadowing of the Vietnam War. Ghost Flames tracks the war from the perspective of ~20 people - North Koreans, South Koreans, Chinese, Americans, and a Brit. It was a brutal war, like any, but especially for the civilian populations. I'm so glad I read it.
March 8, 2021
I read a few military histories of the "war" during the 50th anniversary of it, but this book is very different.
It summarizes the military history very clearly but concentrates on the story of about 20 North and South Korean civilians and soldiers, Chinese soldiers, American civilians, and soldiers from many first-person accounts.
A very different story emerges than was told in the military histories I read in about 2001.
It summarizes the military history very clearly but concentrates on the story of about 20 North and South Korean civilians and soldiers, Chinese soldiers, American civilians, and soldiers from many first-person accounts.
A very different story emerges than was told in the military histories I read in about 2001.
February 28, 2022
This is an incredible book. Exactly what I was looking for in a book about the Korean War, it a balanced, chronological telling of what happened during the Korean War. I found it endlessly interesting. The author weaves the stories of several people in and out of the overall narrative, adding the human element to the story which makes it that much better. If you are looking for a great one volume narrative on the Korean War, you need look no further.
March 26, 2023
A great work of non-fiction about the war on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953 (or until the present, as what happened in 1953 was only an armistice).
Among the enraging highlights of this book is the extent of the US war crimes against Korean civilians during the war. Thanks to the Chinese intervention brought about by US hubris, the US failed in its attempt to take the war to China itself.
What happened in the Korean War should serve as a warning to the dying US empire.
Among the enraging highlights of this book is the extent of the US war crimes against Korean civilians during the war. Thanks to the Chinese intervention brought about by US hubris, the US failed in its attempt to take the war to China itself.
What happened in the Korean War should serve as a warning to the dying US empire.
November 19, 2020
The Korean War told from the perspectives of North and South Korean, Chinese, and American soldiers, reporters, nuns, civilians, guerrillas, and others. An in-depth view of a often glossed over conflict that claimed and damaged so many lives; most of them civilians. Hanley captures the war in its full humanity, brutality, and futility.
March 29, 2021
Hanley‘s Ghost Flames is one of the most eye-opening and poignant books on the Korean War. Weaving 20 individual stories into the overall fabric of the history of the entire war, the reader immersed in the human side of this great tragedy. A multi-sided human perspective illustrates just how important these events are still. This is an exceptional piece of history.
September 17, 2020
Excellent storytelling.
September 10, 2021
seems like the author has his own ax to grind about the war. Hopefully the facts were reported correctly.
April 25, 2023
Good concept but started to slow down too much. Bowed out at 75%
October 21, 2021
An excellent, wrenching, heart-rendering, and ultimately humane narration of the Korean war, from 20 people who experienced, endured, and physically survived it. The author has deftly integrated personal narratives and interview into this seamless narrative of events as that affected individual. In addition, he adds enough context to link the individual narratives into an integrated picture of the war, seen from the eyes of those who experienced it.
We hear from Korean civilians, who lost children and families; from both North and South Koreans, who got swept into the war of some North Koreans who were rescued from the north, escaping the Chinese, only to be forced into working for the South Koreans, and some South Koreans that were forced to work for the North, were captured by the South, and put in prison camps for more than a year. We meet higher-level people: journalists, a Korean and a British who reported on massacres by South Korean police of civilians, monitored by US military; top Chinese, US, and North Korean commanders. And we hear of dedicated nurses and medics, from a Catholic organization and medical school.
For the few people, especially Americans, who even remember the Korean war, this narrative will not match what has been told them. No one had a monopoly on committing atrocities, not Koreans and not Americans. The US policy to kill everyone who moved south, then bombed, with napalm those who were stranded between the line, is close to a war crime. Even the US commander M Ridgway admitted he made orders that German general gave and were condemned for war crimes. And several documents, nearly 70 years later, are still classified as secret by the US government.
To close the book, the author gives a quick update of what happened to these survivors. Some went on to prestigious careers, congressmen, presidents of university, under secretary at the UN. Others were ultimately declared incapable of functioning because of the horrors they saw, or inflicted, on others, sometimes women and children, while under orders.
The value of this approach to history is we can see and feel what those individuals experienced. These stories go beyond the strategic movements and thoughts of those removed from the fight into the hearts and souls of those who experienced it, and had to cope with the horrors of the rest of their lives.
An outstanding contribution to the “life and death in a hidden war, Korea.”
FB: An excellent, wrenching, heart-rendering, and ultimately humane narration of the Korean war (1950-1953), from 20 people (Americans, Koreans from north and south, and Chinese, and one British), who experienced, endured, and physically survived it. An outstanding contribution to the “life and death in a hidden war, Korea.”
We hear from Korean civilians, who lost children and families; from both North and South Koreans, who got swept into the war of some North Koreans who were rescued from the north, escaping the Chinese, only to be forced into working for the South Koreans, and some South Koreans that were forced to work for the North, were captured by the South, and put in prison camps for more than a year. We meet higher-level people: journalists, a Korean and a British who reported on massacres by South Korean police of civilians, monitored by US military; top Chinese, US, and North Korean commanders. And we hear of dedicated nurses and medics, from a Catholic organization and medical school.
For the few people, especially Americans, who even remember the Korean war, this narrative will not match what has been told them. No one had a monopoly on committing atrocities, not Koreans and not Americans. The US policy to kill everyone who moved south, then bombed, with napalm those who were stranded between the line, is close to a war crime. Even the US commander M Ridgway admitted he made orders that German general gave and were condemned for war crimes. And several documents, nearly 70 years later, are still classified as secret by the US government.
To close the book, the author gives a quick update of what happened to these survivors. Some went on to prestigious careers, congressmen, presidents of university, under secretary at the UN. Others were ultimately declared incapable of functioning because of the horrors they saw, or inflicted, on others, sometimes women and children, while under orders.
The value of this approach to history is we can see and feel what those individuals experienced. These stories go beyond the strategic movements and thoughts of those removed from the fight into the hearts and souls of those who experienced it, and had to cope with the horrors of the rest of their lives.
An outstanding contribution to the “life and death in a hidden war, Korea.”
FB: An excellent, wrenching, heart-rendering, and ultimately humane narration of the Korean war (1950-1953), from 20 people (Americans, Koreans from north and south, and Chinese, and one British), who experienced, endured, and physically survived it. An outstanding contribution to the “life and death in a hidden war, Korea.”
October 27, 2020
“Ghost Flames: Life and death in a hidden war: Korea 1950-1953,” by Charles J. Hanley (Public Affairs, 2020). Hanley is part of the team of Associated Press reporters who uncovered the story of the massacre of Korean refugees under the bridge at Nogun-ri, reporting that won the Pulitzer Prize. The resulting outpouring of repressed memories and suppressed information, largely about American killings of Korean civilians, led, eventually, to this book. Briefly, this is a sobering, excruciating account of what that war was really like. It describes, clearly and succinctly, the political and military moves. Some of its transliteration of place names are confusing: The Changjin Reservoir is usually known as the Chosin Reservoir. But the soul of the book is its use of 20 of the participants to tell what it was like in the trenches, under the bombs, in the cities and countryside, from civilians and soldiers alike. The chroniclers include a Maryknoll nun, a North Korean MiG-15 pilot (who eventually defected to the west with his plane), a Black GI who became a POW and wound up settling in China, several children, teenage soldiers from both North and South Korea, a doctor, a guerrilla, and so on. It is often gruesome in describing the lives at the front, painful in accounts of the suffering of the civilians, infuriating in recounting the racism and brutality of the American troops. Fascinating, grim, candid, smooth and easy reading. “Ghost flames” are mysterious fires seen at night around Korean graveyards; maybe they are the souls of the dead; maybe they are gases released by the corpses.
https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/ti...
October 27, 2020
Does anyone wonder if the Vietnam War was a continuation of the Korean War - an attempt to have open warfare with Communist China?
Ghost Flames tells the stories of the Korean War through the eyes of 20 people who were there- mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, fighters, survivors, prisoners of war, writers, and a nun. It is a very intimate look at the three years without too much focus on the "bigger picture," which brings up a big question when reading military/history books- does war have a bigger picture or is it just chaos for daily life and does our memory and records show a difference between the two. The book was well narrated but very difficult to listen to at times, I had no idea the war crimes that occurred nor the difficulty faced by the refugees trying to find a safe(r) place. I had read about the riots and attacks in some of the prisons during the war but this was the first time I had heard about the civilian massacres. I don't know if I am just ignorant of similar cases during WWII or if this is a side effect of placing soldiers in a civil war without a clear understanding of why they are fighting.
The book was very interesting. I found it easy to follow each narrator. It made me cry and laugh and most importantly think.
Ghost Flames tells the stories of the Korean War through the eyes of 20 people who were there- mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, fighters, survivors, prisoners of war, writers, and a nun. It is a very intimate look at the three years without too much focus on the "bigger picture," which brings up a big question when reading military/history books- does war have a bigger picture or is it just chaos for daily life and does our memory and records show a difference between the two. The book was well narrated but very difficult to listen to at times, I had no idea the war crimes that occurred nor the difficulty faced by the refugees trying to find a safe(r) place. I had read about the riots and attacks in some of the prisons during the war but this was the first time I had heard about the civilian massacres. I don't know if I am just ignorant of similar cases during WWII or if this is a side effect of placing soldiers in a civil war without a clear understanding of why they are fighting.
The book was very interesting. I found it easy to follow each narrator. It made me cry and laugh and most importantly think.
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