title: Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea
author:  Sheila Miyoshi Jager 
description: After visiting the heavily fortified DMZ separating North and South Korea, Bill Clinton called it the scariest place on earth. As the current crisis with North Korea illustrates, that description remains apt. Jager writes an ambitious, engrossing, and often disturbing history of the conflict, including its origins and its continuation since, technically, the war has never ended. As Jager indicates, Korea, which had a national identity as far back as the seventh century, was dominated by foreign powers for a century before WWII. The postwar division of the peninsula was inherently unstable, and there was considerable violence in the south even before the North Korean invasion in 1950. In analyzing the war, Jager provides multiple perspectives, including Korean, American, and Chinese. The war turned a civil conflict into a battleground of the Cold War. She now views the war as, however, a struggle for legitimacy between the two Koreas. This is a struggle that the North cannot win, and Jager sees that regime as dying but extremely dangerous. This is a superbly researched work that should be an essential tool in understanding the current crisis on the peninsula. --Jay Freeman
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Mermaid from Jeju
  
  
  _A Novel_
  
  
  Sumi Hahn
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For my beloved Mike
  
  
  Griffin, Raven, Kira
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **HISTORICAL TIMELINE 1910–1945 KOREA OCCUPIED BY JAPAN**
  
  
  **AUGUST 1945**
  
  
  United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan’s
  surrender. 60,000 Jeju residents return home. Korea is divided along the 38th
  Parallel, with the USSR occupying the North and the US occupying the South.
  
  
  **NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 1945**
  
  
  US Army Military Government established on South Korea. Despite Korea’s pleas
  for independence, the Allies divide Korea between two occupying foreign powers
  in a trusteeship between the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and
  Britain.
  
  
  **MARCH 1947**
  
  
  Jeju’s April 3 Incident begins with police firing shots into a reunification
  demonstration. Six people are killed, including a child. Workers and officials
  strike in mass protest. Thousands of people arrested and jailed; some are
  tortured to death
  
  
  