The Korean War: An International History (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives) - Hardcover

Haruki, Wada

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1442223294 ISBN 13: 9781442223295

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013

Synopsis

This classic history of the Korean War―from its origins through the armistice―is now available in English for the first time. Wada Haruki, one of the world’s leading scholars of the war, has thoroughly revised his definitive study to incorporate new sources and debates. Drawing on archival and other primary sources in Russia, China, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, the author moves beyond national histories to provide the first comprehensive understanding of the Korean War as an international conflict from the perspective of all of the major actors.

Tracing the North Korean invasion of South Korea in riveting detail, Wada provides new insights into the behavior of Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Harry Truman, Kim Il Sung, and Syngman Rhee. He also provides new insights into the behavior of leaders and diplomats in Korea, China, Russia, and Eastern Europe and their rivals in other nations. He traces the course of the war from its origins in the failed attempts of both North and South Korean leaders to unify their country by force, ultimately escalating into a Sino-American war on the Korean Peninsula.

Although sixty years have passed since the armistice, the Korean conflict has never really ended. Tensions remain high on the peninsula as Washington, Beijing, and Pyongyang, as well as Seoul and Pyongyang, face off. With rising international conflicts in East Asia, it is even more timely now to address the origins of the Korean War, the nature of the confrontation, and the ways in which it continues to shape the geopolitical landscape of Northeast Asia and the Western Pacific. With his unmatched ability to draw on sources from every country involved, Wada paints a rich and full portrait of a conflict that continues to generate controversy.

About this title

About the Author

Wada Haruki is professor emeritus and former director of the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. He studies modern Russian history and contemporary Korea. He is the author of Russia as the Problem of World History, Socialism as History, Kim Il Sung and the Anti-Japanese War in Manchuria, North Korea: Guerrilla Unit State Today, The Russo-Japanese War: Its Origins and the Beginning, and The Contemporary History of North Korea.

Reviews

*Starred Review* Western historians often view the Korean War through the prism of the Cold War, which can reduce Koreans, north and south, into players and pawns in a much larger chessboard. This excellent work by a Japanese historian reminds readers that it was Koreans who bore the brunt of the suffering, fighting, and dying. In its origins and in the initial phase of the Korean conflict, it was a civil war, triggered by the ambitions of two contemptible leaders. In the North, Kim Il Sung had already begun imposing a brutal, totalitarian regime. In the south, Syngman Rhee, proclaimed by some Americans as a democratic champion, was a highly authoritarian and inflexible politician. Both men were determined to unite their nation by military force. Following the North Korean invasion and the American intervention, the war was internationalized, and Wada Haruki eloquently recounts the roles played by political and military leaders on both sides. His description of the peace negotiations is particularly riveting as American negotiators were as frustrated by their South Korean allies as they were by their opponents. This fine rendering of the conflict provides an important perspective on an unresolved war. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1442223294
• ISBN 13: 9781442223295
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 410