Books by Sabastian Barry who was born in Dublin in 1955.

 A  Long Long Way by Sabastian Barry 2005   292pg

18/09/2026  A story of the  Royal Dublin Fussileers. in the war 1914 to 1918

The book starts with the mother dying of childbirth. The father was Superintendent of Police in Dublin Castle he had been in the force for 40 years. Willie is too short so he can't become a policeman. Willie volunteered as Kitchener requested and joined the Royal Dublin Fussileers., some men joined because they had been given white feathers. They were given a cheering send off by the population as they marched to board at the docks. They were upset by the reports of the Germans mistreating the population of Flanders. Some of the RDF had been based in India and never expected to end up in war.

There were Chinese "coolies" brought to work for the war, ( errors by the author by then they did not have pigtails.) There were Jewish soldiers from Cork and Dublin and the Rabbi  gave them burial rites.   On leave in France the book describes a brothel and a woman with a rash on her leg and a soldier who also got the rash.

1916 On leave in Dublin in Sackville Street outside the Imperial Hotel the police have to deal with an uprising with a baton charge that killed 4 people Many wounded. This upset the morale of the volunteer soldiers who saw this. The rebels had hoped for German help. His friend is so upset by the Dublin riots that he refuses to take orders and is tried and executed by firing squad. The family just get a message,  died in action or died  of wounds. At the trial Willi had not been given permission to speak.

A cloud of yellow smoke was coming towards them and they thought the Germans were using it to hide their invasion, when they realized it was poisonous they began to run. Later on they were equipped with masks but had not been trained for it and there were men who pulled them off and died. The postman would arrive at far away farms with a box containing a few personal effects of a soldier , like an inheritance.  Willi had seen soldiers suffering from shell shock and just sitting and shaking, they were useless to anybody or to themselves and had to be sent home for treatment.

Someone sings the Minstrel boy by based on a poem by Thomas More 1807 became a popular Irish song about a soldier that died at war.

Willie comes home on leave and is given a cold shoulder by his father as he indicates support for Irish independence.  Then he went to visit his girlfriend Greta who had a baby and was married. She had received a message from a soldier that Willie had been friendly with a young whore girl. in France. British soldiers were no longer welcome in Dublin and kids threw stones at him. He visited the Palsey family and they  treated him well. He had admired their son Captain George Palsey. He now had to take a train to Belfast as soldiers were no longer shipping from Dublin. Back at the trenches he was welcomed by his group but the Irish had been replaced by others and he knew few of them and the Irish were considered rebels.

The French had mutanied a year before but the Irish never turned their backs to a fight. The Russian soldiers had refused to fight. He wrote a letter to his father telling him that he loved him and that he was the finest man who had brought up the 4 children without their mother. The priest that had been with him all along was killed and Willie became negligent and was killed in Oct 1918. A letter arrived from his father forgiving him but was returned unopened with his uniform and a few effects.

 Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish republican politician, suffragist, socialist and labour activist who was the first woman elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.  supported the Sinn Fein. Was involved in the 1916 Easter uprising.

John Redmond (born Sept. 1, 1856, Dublin, Ire.—died March 6, 1918, London, Eng.) was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party got a promise that after the war there would be Irish Home Rule. 1914 Home Rule Act was passed in Parliament and with that deal done he called on Irish volunteers to fighting WW1.

Of 200,000 Irish who fought 49,000 died., however some names could have been non-Irish who served in Irish regiments.

WW!  Reverend Adler and 30 Jewish chaplains worked on the Western front.

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Previous reading of A long long Way Sebastian Barry 2005 293pp 30/10/20 BC

1896 The book is about William born in Wicklow, Ireland, Named after King William of Orange 1903 Edward VII visited Ireland. 1912 His father was in the Dublin Metropolitan police. After William came Annie then Maud and was 12 his mother died of childbirth of Dolly and they moved into the Dublin Castle. Because William was not 6 foot tall and could not become a policeman he was apprenticed to a builder. James Larkin Irish Labour leader led demonstrations that were suppressed, 4 men killed. He falls in love with Greta when she was 13, her father joined the army to get a job after the riots. A soldier's wife had an allowance to live on. William joined the army because he thought it would please his father if he could not be a policeman he could be a soldier.. A wide range of Irish volunteered evern from the Irish speaking islands of Aran to public school boys. John Redmond encouraged the Irish to volunteer and then after Ireland's good service the British would give them home rule. His brother Willie died in action in the war. while Ulstermen joined to prevent home rule Ava Maria music by Shubbert. Soldiers received rum rationes as well as smoking or chewing tobacco. Tinned maconochie Spam stew) was eaten by soldiers. France had already lost half a million soldiers. Chinese were brought to dig trenches and graves for the dead. Many labourers had left the farms and there were not enough workers. Fields have to be limed because they are so acidic in Ireland. Algerian troops nearby. Germans attacked with gas the birds in front of them went silent.. When a machine gun was used a man had to pour water on to keep it cool. A rabbi also came for 2 Jewish soldiers who died. Irish soldiers were also sent to the Dardanelles. Soldiers going to a whorehouse and suffering afterwards - painful to urinate. When he came home had to be washed by his father to get the lice and nits off him, some had ringworm. 1916 They were about to board a ship in Dublin to return to Flanders and were marched back to the city to deal with the Easter uprising and instructed to build a barricade. "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. Catholics were not given commissions? Gas causing hundreds of dead rats in the trenches. Men joined up to leave bad debts, escape a murder charge, for a wager, lost my way and found it in the barracks, wife in an asylum and wanted to get away. "They don't write books about us only on officers" The next time he got leave they were deloused on the way in England .Some Irish soldiers gave their guns to insurgents. Irish soldiers could not be trusted by the English and they were now unable to conscript Irish so the American arrived in time. On his visit home kids threw stones at him and he returned to England via Belfast. The surviving sergeant major became commander even without a commission as there were no officers to replace him. The US lost 116 thousand troops in WW1 half to flu.320 thousand sick and wounded of 4.7 million who served.

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The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry2008 301pg 1/3/21

Also the Movie made by Jim Sheridan 2016 Starring Vanessa Redgrave,Rooney Mara, Eric Bana. This story is written and ends in 2007. Rosannes was still institutionalized at age 100. Dr. William Grene, senior psychiatrist at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, is like a co-author, he is dealing with serious issues after the death of his wife. He has been working there 30 years and the hospital is to be closed, she was there when he arrived. Personal fates and national fates are incestuausly bound. She had a child out of wedlock whose whereabouts are unknown. Barry’s homage to the holiness of life. No one has a monopoly on truth. The image of Ireland as a forlorn old woman. Out of malice toward Protestants as well as out of a misplaced moral absolutism, Fr. Gaunt has her marriage annulled William B Yates as a child spent his summer holidays in Sligo. Dr Grene asks her the particulars of her admission as the basement archive had been attacked by mice. "I want freedom but it frightens me" What she wouldn't tell Dr. Grene she wrote in notes about herself. Roseanne's father left her Religio Medici, the Hounds of Hell and Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Hundreds from Sligo had fought in the great war. She discovers her father had been in the Royal Irish Constabulary under the British. Her father when rebels came to bury a member he called the priest. Soldiers arrived, got the rebels and shot them. The church was to take no part in the issue so her father lost his job as graveyard keeper and became rat catcher with a Jack Russel dog. This is work you do after dark also because he had hunted down his countrymen like rats. " a living man exiled from the dead" Surplus babies in the orphanage were allowed to die. Before he could kill a rat drenched in paraffin, it escaped, jumped down a chimney and set the orphanage alight, killing 123 girls. A Jewish Mr fine had a shop in the town. She had to leave school on her fathers death to look after her mom. Br. Gaunt says none of the Irish upheaval favour the Protestants. She married Tom and was seen chatting to John Lavelle, a rebel and her marriage was annulled. She met Tom's brother Eaun on a night walk, brought him home and cleaned him up. Belfast was the worst bombed British city after London in WW2. They spend the night together, when she is ready to give birth she goes to Mrs. McNaghty, who rejects her, she gives birth on the beach and wakes up. The baby is gone and an ambulance comes to take her. Having been pregnant "a nymphomaniac "is enough reason to put her into an asylum. She heard the baby was in Nazareth. The inmates were measured for a smock when they came in as a shroud when they left. Dr. Grene came from Southampton, his mother was Irish. His wife died and he looked for solace in Roseanne. Old Irish farm cottages the kitchen sloped to the door as they brought the animal in. There were more women than men in Ireland and wiser women went off to America to be maids instead of becoming old maids in Ireland. There was a period under de Valera 1932 where farmers slaughtered the lambs in the field as there was no market for them, because England put a duty on Irish exports. Queen Maeve is part of Irish myth. Priests felt they owned the country then. the constitution gave the Church power but never made it the established church. Albert Pierpont, an English hangman brought regularly to Ireland to hang dissidents. Tom had gone to Spain to fight for Franco till he understood what that stood for and returned in 2 weeks. Nazareth House is the orphanage in Sligo. Mc Nalty's daughter was a nun in England. John Kane is John Lavelle's son and he is the cleaner at the asylum and is the one who saved the baby. Old Mrs McNulty had been illegitimate herself. Dr. Grene in England finds the baby's birth certificate son of Roseanne Clear and Eneas Mc Nulty adopted by Mrs Grene of Padstow , in Cornwall he goes to see the grave of the nun who was his aunt. Roseane has alway lived on the edge of the known world referring to the beach where she gave birth.

Hanns and Rudolf by Thomas Harding 2013 288pgs

  18/10/19

 The narrator as a child says, you never asked survivor their story but when Hanns died, his nephew spoke at the funeral, and mentioned that Hanns had been a Nazi hunter. This is one of the best Holocaust history books I have read. Rudolf Hoss was 15 when WW1 started and enrolled was sent to fight the British in Mesopotamia, then Palestine. He returned home and joined the Freikorps a militia that went to Latvia and fought the Reds then Latvians till they were beaten and the Freikorps were banned in Germany. At a Berlin night club they set up a base and kept the militia together. So when Hitler set up a private militia it already existed and was looking for a leader. He was sent to Sachsenhausen camp when the war began 5000 communists 900 Jewish merchants and professionals and 1200 Prague student who protested against the Nazi's arrived there.

 He was now sent to Poland to a German speaking area to set up Auschwitz and right from the beginning it slowly expanded under his charge. His wife and 5 children lived in a luxury villa just outside the prison. SS Judge Konrad Morgen was sent to the camps because lots of assets taken from the Jews especially gold was being stolen by the guards and not coming into the coffers to pay for the war effort, he was shocked to discover what the extermination camps were about.  By 1945 Jan. The Red Army was moving into Poland with 2 million troops 100 000 vehicles and 6000 tanks. The inmates of Auschwitz were then marched westwards and died of cold and starvation. The Russians then found Auschwitz. Rudolf Hoss and family started moving northwards to try get to Denmark. They moved to near Rostock. When Hann's came investigating he threatened Hedwig that he would send her son off to the Russians and Siberia and she told him that he was hiding on a farm with the name Franz Lang. Her children always believed her brother gave him away. After the war people did not associate with families of war criminals and one grand daughter in law only discovered later who her husband grandfather was. Notorious Nazi Dr Hans Lolling committed suicide when he was caught. Heirich Himmler shaved his head and wore an eye patch, at a checkpoint along the road a British officers was suspicious and arrested him and he immediately bit a cyanide capsule. 

There was the ODESSA network getting Nazi's out and into South America. Rudolf was to be tried in Poland but was subpoenaed to give evidence at Nuremburg. The judge gave him paper and pencils and asked him while in jail to write his auto biography in which he admitted that he had supervised the gassing of 2 and a half million and another half a million died of starvation and illness. Nuremburg also set a precedent that "just taking orders is no value as an excuse" 1946 July Rudolf was tried in Krakow with 7 other SS officers and was hung at Auschwitz away from the press just witnesses. Hanns Alexander had a twin brother Paul there father was a leading doctor with high class clients in Berlin. Though secular Jews they had inherited the family Alexander Torah. Hanns met every important artist who came to their house while he was a kid Marlene Dietrich, Max Reinhart , Max Pallenburg, Richard Strauss, Albert Einstein, James Franck. 

While Dr Alexander was on a trip to London his wife got a message that the Gestapo was coming to get him, his wife sent him a message not to return. Hanns got a visa to England 1936 but could not get a transit via France so he had to go to his relatives in Switzerland with only the 10 marks allowed in his pocket and fly from there to Croydon. Slowly the whole family got to England. Henny the mother had to sell the property and practice for very little, pay the Reich escape tax and follow her husband. Their possessions were packed up by the housekeeper and sent to them including the Alexander Torah. 1938 Nov Kristallnacht. Paul Graetz was arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen prison and released 18 days later with a exit document issued by Rudolf. Between 1934 and 1939, 70 000 Jews fled Nazi controlled countries and entered the UK including almost 10 000 Kinder transport children. From1 Sept 1939 till the US entered the war letters came out of Germany to them via family in the States. German synagogue were set up in Belsize Park and St. Johns Wood. The Alexander Torah ended up at Belsize Square synagogue which is the used by the Alexander family till today.

 1939 Sept when war broke out Hanns enlisted and was in the Pioneer Corps (motto Labor omnia vincit). Later German aliens could avoid being interned by joining this. They worked as "jobniks" and the Corp was under Lord Reading command. Hann"s was amongst the last to get back from Dunkirk. He later did an officers course and on Victory Day landed in Europe to be a translator in the post War. In this he was working in the Nazi war crimes dept. in Operation Haystack. The Belson trial of Joseph Kramer and 44 others took place in Sept 1945 in Luneburg, Germany. These were guards both male and female as well as Kapos. 11 of this group were sentenced to death and hanged a short while later. This was a preparation for the Nuremburg Trail. He later caught Gustav Simon the Gauleiter of Luxembourg. He went to his home and asked a neighbour who told him what she knew, at this stage there were many Germans who held a grudge against the Nazi's. The Nuremberg trials took place in the American zone next to the building where Hitler's rallies had been In April 46 he was demobilized and a few days later he got his naturalization papers. 

Island of Sea Women

 The island of Sea Women by Lisa See. 2019 385pg  14/5/20   again 30/8/20 

Young-sook  narrator.   A book read in the Book Club.

The story is about 2 friends from childhood Young-Sook and Mi-ja.Yo-chan is Mi-ja son. Janet is the American granddaughter  Clara is the American great granddaughter of Mi-ja.
Sun-sil is Young-sook's mother and head of the collective. Young-sook married Jun-bu, her oldest daughter is 1)Min-Lee, then 2)Kyung-soo and 3) Joon-lee 4) son Kyung-soo born after his father's death. 
Yu-ri become an invalid almost killed by the Octopus her mother is Do-Saeng, her brother is Jun-bu
Mi-ja was an orphan daughter of a collaborator and married collaborator Sang-mun 
Kang sisters Gu-ja and Gu-sun's daughter is Wan-soon part of their diving co-op
Joon-lee  the narrators daughter marries Yo-chan i.e. Mi-ja's son
Note- I don't intend talking about the History of Korea but the following are mentioned as a background to the story. 
Timeline
Till the 13 century Korea was matrilineal thus the husband came to live with his wife's family. Then it became patrilineal.
1404 till then you had the Tamna Kingdom with Chinese  type culture on Jeju
13th Century the Mongols invaded and set up horse breeding grazing on the island.
1906 Translated into Japanese, The novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri 1881  was very well received.
1910 till 1945 Korea was colonized Japan, This was  tacitly accepted by US President Widrow Wilson
1938 April The book starts  and ends in 2008 Jeju island Korea.
*1948 to 1960 Rhee Syngman appointed first S Korean president, US educated
        Third of April incident -massacre
1949 Bukchon Massacre the city became a Village of widows.
1950 Seoul fell to the North and thousands of refugees fled.
1950 -1953 Korean War
1954 after over 7 years of insurgency the last rebels were killed with 300 villages and 4 thousand homes destroyed on Jeju.  
1961 Western doctors check women divers for shiver threshold, hypothermia, thyroid function.
*1962 President Park Chung-hee came to power by a military coup. Outlawed Shaminism and ruled till 1979 when assassinated.
1963 Escalation of Vietnam war. End of Vietnam war 1975
1976  "Aunt Suni" a book by the writer Hyun Ki- young on the massacres.
*1980 President Chung doo hwan till 1988 also ruthless dictatorship
*1988 to 1993 President Roh Tea-woo. ex army man when Darangshi cave  horror was exposed ordered it sealed again.
1991 fall of Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
1995 list finally published of all who died in the massacres.
1998 50th anniversary of the 4.3 incident in Bukchon a memorial park was built
*1998 - 2003 President  Kim Dae-jung won a Nobel prize for democratizing South Korea.
2000 Speaking about the massacre's is finally decriminalized.
2008 Story ends or starts
Jeju today has a population of half a million and tourism is its main industry.
 Korea has the best example of Confucianism in its culture today. The island measures 73 km by 41km
-----The writer is of Chinese extraction has written about the Chinese of California and American and also about women their role in society.  Korea is a society where to day few women have had big roles in politics and business. This is the story of an island of South Korea that was in a very strategic position. 
We see that it is a society dominated by women and the men look after the children or are working in Japan. Matrifocal society. Women work because historically men fisherman were taxed. They make money and provide for the family and for their brothers to study.
Later on we see Young Sook married to Jan-bu a teacher and she returns to diving as this was part of her life he is enlightened and wants to educate his daughters. She points out that he got an education because his mother, his sister and his wife worked to pay for it. Where will be money to pay for the daughters education. 
1  The role of women
The book starts in April 1938  and ends in 2008 Jeju island Korea. "Every woman  who enters the sea carries a coffin on her back."
haenyeo =diver. There are 7 women diving co-ops on Hado. A quarter of the island population lived in Japan as a ferry ticket cost half the price of a bag of rice. Warm up as best you could before going into the sea. There are rules and the protect the "wet fields" months that you are forbidden to harvest a conch or abalone. They dive as deep as 60 feet. " A greedy diver is a dead diver" Shamanism outlawed by the Japanese.
When a women get married she has the best food for 3 days that must last a lifetime. 
 The story is over 80 years. The sea women supported their families over millenia. A Matrifocal society.  With the arrival of the Americans, Western and Confusion male dominated ways are imposed.
“  The author likes to write on themes of women empowerment. 
A large number of the men were killed and it became a society where women had to do everything. Shaamin Kim was a women spiritual leader. Young-sook alone supports her daughters in education to make her dead husband dream come true. However you need son's to pray for you when you are dead. But she said to her husband - Your mother, your sister, your wife all worked to send you to study. You get 3 levels of relationship that of the women working and men looking after the children, where the man works the wife is a house keeper but the narrator is allowed to hire a nanny and have a career.  Now her academic daughter Joon-lee visits and she manages to get her to come be with the divers to learn about the sociology of the divers co-op the Matrifocal system..
2 Ecology they had to protect the wet fields  The use of pigs
3 Death and survival and spiritualism. The women's religion was Shamism with a women preacher yet they needed sons to pray for them when they were in heaven. the times you couldn't dive. 
Her freind  Mi-ja where Confusionism comes back.and is a male dominated society.
1954  Jeju is a society of mostly women
4 The enemy varied.     The Japanese  The Americans  The North Koreans
The City Dwellers     The Police and the Army
The guilt by association. 
The Japanese killed Sun-sil grandparents and calls them cloven hoofed beasts" Now her father-n law is in Hiroshoma working and killed by American bomb.
5  The friendship between her and the collaborator daughter Mi -ja. These 2 were bosem friends right from The begining when Mija was 7 years old she then was in the diving co-op trained by the narrators mother, she had a shared experience in Vladivostoc togerher. All the way through as illiterates they made the charcoal rubbings that Mija kept, they knew about ice cream and bread as well as the fact that the American ship that searched for weapons only bought proper fish, not sea food. In Vietnam war period American were prepared to eat sea food (they were no longer culturally isolated. When Mi-ja left and sold her pigs. Young Sook goes to her house and like being close to her things and the book of coal rubbings.Later on the narrators daughter comes to collect this for Mi-ja.
6   The issue of Forgiveness is the most important theme. Mi-ja is forgiven for steeling baby yams at the begining of the book Young sook had to forgive herself forYu'ri becoming disabled then  her mothers death. She was married to Yu-ri's brother and saddled with looking after his sister  for the rest of her life.
Mi-ja felt blamed for her mother death in her childbirth
Mi-ja is not able to give her the support she needs
Should we blame the Americans?” as they watch the massacre and did nothing to stop it.  Most of the population suffered from wounds of post traumatic stress.
 The novel part of the book is that the narrator was at the Butchon massacre's and asked her friend to take one of her children and to protect them as her husband was a collaborator.  She refused and Youngs husband one son and sister in law were executed. This broke up the friendship. The book ends the Mi-ja was raped by Sung and forced to marry him she and her son were treated badly and she could not take on another kid under those circumstances. She had hated her husband and never wanted to have a kid by him.
Young-sook is able to make rubbing of the names on the memorial of her husband, son and sister in law.
 She was one of the few families that gave all 3 of her daugters schooling.  Bicycle is for boys not girls.
Killer and children of killers run the island. Reading the novel Heidi  her children asked what bread and milk was.  She had tasted bread and ice cream in Vladivostoc.
Hagui a villiage divided by victum and perpertrators declares forgiveness and unites. Unfair for victums to forgive those who raped turtured and killed or burned villiages. 
Wan-soon was diving with the team and dissapear completely, it appears that she was pregnant by Yo-chan (like father like son) and took her own life.  The scandle is too much for Mi-ja who leaves with her son. Young sook becomes chief diver.
Clara tells Young Sook  Yo-Chan whose wife died soon after his daughter was born. Mi-ja was brought to the US to look after her Janet and later looked after Clara and her brother, Mi-ja had become a Catholic and prayed for forgiveness. Buddist quote "To understand is to forgive" Mi-ja walks with a limp caused by her husband. Would you have sacrificed your life to save Sang -mun and Yo-chan?  
The Dead can forgive me why cant you. Mi ji had to live with her husband so that he would cancel the guilt by association to do with Joon-lee this was also part of her repentace. Why did she not save them she didn't know how to deal with her husband and he beat her up in the end as he would have saved them and she ended up in hospital. They had been good to him when he was recuperation from suffering in the North. Mi ja's husband beat her up so that she limped because she ambarrised him in front of his superiors and the ghosts of the narrators husband his wife and son would torment him.
By not forgiving she was erasing all that was beautiful. She never went to her daughters wedding. She asked if she should visit her daughter, and Shaman Kin advised  her to forgive as everyone lost people.
The relationship of the Gung sister after the death of  Wan-soon. Gung- sun says that she herself was pregnant and her husband agreed to marry her. The mother never knew if  Wan-soon was pregnant or died by accident.  The letter she got from America to say she was dying of cancer was censored later she never read the letters that arrived every month. Letters kept arriving which she put into a box without opening, pages of the coal rubbing were in every letter. Later the letter arrived with stamps and were sealed.
Mi-ja had not said anything as she was planning to die with her friends till her husband arrived with her son and she suddenly felt she could not leave him an orphan, she could not contemplating returning to her husband and he beat her up so badly that she landed in hospital and now had a limp. Sung-mun was scared of how the God's would treat him for not supporting friends. He had raped Mi-ja and that is why she was forced to marry him even though she never fell pregnant at the time.  Mija in a recording possibly after her death wants the narrators forgivenes, that she could't get while she was alive.
The book ends with Clara and Janet are interested in learning what it is like to dive and collect food from the sea bottom mor food than 30 refridgerators.
Industrialazation on the mainland lured men away and a man takes over instructing the co-op while theri daughter are in the tourist industry. The authorities want them to stop keeping pigs as a toilet and install indoor plumbing and telephones as part of tourism. The US Peace Corp comes to keep tabs out the Reds.  South Korea has more people that have cosmetic  surgary than any ohter country.
The 4.3 incident
The North West Young Mens Association  League that escaped North Korea and were violently anti -communist.
Di-saeng mentions that her husband was in Hiroshimo and died without family a victum of he atomic bomb.
The teacher husband brought her to the school at Bukchon from their villiage Hado
The island of Sea Women by Lisa See. 2019 385pg  14/5/20  Far East History
13th Century the Mongols invaded and set up horse breeding grazing on the island  Later the king put exiles here.
The South Korean Isle of Jeju an old women sit sorting sea weed washed onto the shore she are between 80 and 90 years old. (haenjeo sea women)  It is a society focused on women. This island has 3 things in abundance wind, stones and women. Her son wanted to turn her home into a restaurant for tourists and she could retire but she refused.
  She feels uncomfortable on seeing half and half children from America/
1938 April The latrine is above the pigs who eat crap. They lived in a stone house as an extended family and she had to do 3 trips to get enough water for the morning and collect dung for the fire. While the sea women worked the men met and looked after in small infants.
Korea was colonized  Japan from 1910 till 1945
Illiterate people kept rubbings on paper using a piece of coal to remember things specially when they travelled. They had small plots where they grew millet, rapeseed, rice barley soybean. . Millet for the poor, rice and barley for the rich. Sweet potato was divided into those for eating soon, those to be sold to the distillery for alcohol and the rest were sliced, dried and stored for winter. Squid was dried in the sun. Sea urchins, conch, agar and kelp were harvested. These women regarded themselves as guardian of the sea. Sea creatures have perished by change of climate, over fishing and human disregard.
 In spring they renewed the roof thatch. Insect lava of the old thatch was eaten. Ashes and seaweed used as fertilizer. Raw persimmon juice used to preserve cloth. Under the Japanese roads had been built on the island. In Hado a night school was set up for adults mostly women but they were considered insurgent by the Japanese. Japan used the island to bomb China. There were 3 Japanese air bases on the island. Sons and daughters of Japanese collaborators married each other  It was dangerous for menstruating women to be in the water as blood attracted sharks. The women worked as a shared cooperative but some articles they caught were private. Marriage was by parents matching their children.
1944 a quarter of the island population had moved to Japan especially Osaka where men worked in iron and enamel production and women in spinning and sewing. The Japanese forced the collection of seaweed to use in gunpowder and pressed boys into the Japanese Army. These Sea women were offered work off Vladivostok, where they saw modern society Russia kept out of the war with Japan. An American patrol checked they were not smuggling weapons and were interested in buying fish not seafood.  There sea women saved money or could borrow money easily to send their brothers and sons to school. So many from Jeju had studied in Japan that it had the highest education level in Korea. 
At the Moscow and Cairo conference the subject about making Korea independent was discussed. The Japanese made Jeju and armed fortress as the allies got closer to attack mainland Japan. Korea was under joint trusteeship of Russia, China north of the 38th parallel America and the UK south of that. The US replaced the Japanese flag on the island. Japanese ships and weapons were exploded  and dumped in the sea. Thousand of Japanese soldiers businessmen and soldiers returned to Japan and from Osaka and Japan returned Jeju islanders. Those who collaborated with Japan as well as people who escaped from the north and hated communism  now collaborated with the US Army. The former collaborators had been put in charge of rationing and stole provisions and sold them on the black market. Weapons left by the Japanese were discovered on Mount Halla and used in an uprising. Local teachers were replaced by North Koreans escapees.
1948 to 1960 Rhee Syngman appointed first S Korean president, US educated. Jeju now placed under marshal law. Third of April incidence?  Of those involved the ones perceived as  most dangerous were shot
1949 Bukchon Massecre the city became a Village of widows. The island was cut off from supplies. The US turned a blind eye to they way Koreans crushed Koreans as part of the Cold War.
1950 Seoul fell to the North and thousands of refugees fled the  mainland to Jeju
1954 after over 7 years of insurgency the last rebels were killed with 300 villages and 4 thousand homes destroyed on Jeju. The next generation of women went onto  becoming educated and business and  tourism took over 
1961 On Jeju since there were so few men to drink and gamble, the women could gather more wealth.
1962   President Park Chunk came to power by a military coup and ruled till assassinated in 1979
1980 Chung doo hwan till 1988 also dictatorship
.  Shamanism was outlawed, people got help from the Catholic church some turned to Buddism and Confucianism.
Scientific convention came to examine cold water stress and tolerance of hypothermia "thyroid function ? The women's body temp dropped to 32C after a half hour in the water and then returned to normal after half an hour out. Diving did cause loss of hearing. aboriginals are exposed to heat and cold without clothes.
In more recent times they used wet suites to stay in the water longer and against jellyfish stings and watersnake bites as well as weights and fins to go down quicker.
1976 Aunt Suni a book by the writer Hyun Ki- young on the massacre's. .
1998 Memorial built  under President Kim Dae -jung. Thus it took 50 years for the truth to out.
To protect the fishing the authorities limited divers to one person per household but this meant that mothers could not train daughters. During the Vietnamese war US troops had vacations on the island also US Peace Corp program. Plumbing, electricity ,telephones, paved roads and corrugated iron replace straw roofs. Many Koreans migrated to the US.
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Harvest in the Desert by Maurice Samuel 1944 220pg

18/9/18  A story that ends with  British Mandatory Palestine.

Born in Romania became a well known English and American writer. He visited mandate Palestine in 1924 and discovered and primitive desolate, diseased country that looked as if it had been cursed. Only the Jews knew the significant of the land and why they were there, not the other natives. The Zionist ideal was part of Judaism but needed the messiah.  Historically it goes back to the Exodus but could never succeed. Under Roman Emperor Julian he attempted a Zionist return in the 4C for his anti Christian purposes but died without influencing the Jews. Yavneh was allowed away from Jerusalem as a Jewish education centre and outlived the empire. The Persian Empire held the land for 14 years and there was hope of another Jewish return. Then the Ottoman Empire was only interested in taxing with corrupt system and were not interested in the provinces developing because Egypt developed and became independent. In Judaism people were Zionist in religion but were waiting for the messiah while the secular wanted to integrate into their native country. In the age of enlightenment unfortunately the leaders like Gibbons, Voltaire,Catherine Queen of Russia or Thomas Paine did not include Jews in their outlook.

 From about 1840 the discussion of waiting for the messiah was felt unnecessary and democratic ideas threated the Jewish leaders. You had the Damascus blood libel then. Adolphe Crémieux in 1860 started Allience Israelite Universalle which sent Charles Netter to set up Mikve Israel in 1871 that taught agriculture in French. In 1862 Moses Hess wrote "Rome and Jerusalem" on the Zionist concept. The BILU ("House of Jacob, come ye and let us go").arrived in 1882 and set up Gadara. They came from Kharkov, Ukraine area. In 1884 Herzl succeeded in getting the project going but he spent his time meeting world leaders and trying to negotiate a charter from the Sultan only after his death was his achievement realized. 

1903 Kishinev Pogroms sent another wave. It was now realized that setting up colonies of individuals whose purpose was to make a living as a planter. Provided work for Arabs and only setting up socialist type settlement could bring a Jewish state. AD Gordon arrived at the age of 50 and said you have to change the individual in order to create a Jewish State. Manya Shochat set up the co-op in Segera and a kitchen where they ate together and discussed management and solutions, after a year the settlement was showing a profit. 1909 Hashomer (the guards)was set up to guard Jewish farmers as hiring mercenaries (Arabs ) didn't give you freedom. The Hebrew language was by consensus the common tongue even though most spoke Yiddish yet children learned Hebrew and when the mandate started it was accepted with English  Arabic, and Hebrew  as official languages. The arrival of the British brought about he inauguration of the Hebrew University in 1918. Most of the money of the yishuv went to education. In 1919 the 3rd wave of Aliyah arrived. They were the ones who drained the Emek The 4th wave from 1924 and many left because the infrastructure was not ready to absorb that many. 

The 1929 Arab riots took place while the governor Sir John  Chancellor was out the country. The Arab ruling classes felt threated by the Jewish establishment while Arab workers benefited from the economic development and they used the religious lie that Jews were destroying the Moslem holy places. The people worst hit were the Hevron Yeshiva which was anti Zionist the settlement were more able to protect themselves. This failed as it did not lead to a popular uprising. The best years of the Yishuv were after this as the economic investment was starting to pay and waves of immigrants found work as well as waves of Arabs who crossed the border. 

The German Aliyah (immigration) many of whom were not Jewish or had converted or saw themselves becoming Palestinians of the Jewish faith. Doctors, dentist, lawyers were amongst those who started the chicken farms in Ramat Hashavim. There was a Youth Aliyah first from Germany and then from other places and middle class kids adapted to their new circumstances. From 1936 the Arabs went on strike and it lasted 6 months and this made them so poor that the strike ended. This was a period where anti- Semitic atmosphere felt world wide and the willingness of appeasement for the wishful thinking of keeping the peace also resulting in the White Paper, this gave encouragement to the Arabs countries who saw a weak Britain and the Axis taking over. During the war years immigrant ships that sunk or got to Haifa and the people were then sent away. This killed more Jews than all the Arab riots.

Maurice Samuel visited Palestine during the violent 1929 riots and documented the attacks against the Jewish population as a special correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. What Happened in Palestine.1929 analysis of the Riots

Sir Herbert Samuel (1920–1925): The first High Commissioner and only Jewish administrator of the mandate.

Field Marshal Lord Herbert Plumer (1925–1928): A military commander who focused on maintaining regional security.

Sir John Chancellor (1928–1931): Administrator during the 1929 riots and subsequent policy reassessments.

Sir Arthur Wauchope (1931–1938): Oversaw the early stages of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt.

Sir Harold MacMichael (1938–1944): Led the administration during World War II and the implementation of the 1939 White Paper.

John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort (1944–1945): Former governor of Malta who served a brief term before resigning due to illness.

Sir Alan Cunningham (1945–1948): The final High Commissioner who oversaw the end of the British Mandate and departure on May 14, 1948

 

  

% Saving Freedom : Truman and the Cold War, and the fight for Western Civilization 2020 238pg

22/8/26 

Washington had set the precedent for a president having only 2 terms. He also said that the US should keep out European affairs. Thus steer clear of permanent alliances. The Unions failure to put down the confederate Rebellion brought European intervention into the American conflict. The peace of Appomattox and gradual reunification of the States led to a mighty economic expansion. Affluent Americans started travelling to Europe in far lager numbers. The Spanish War resulted in the US getting the Philippines and Guam a first taste of an overseas Empire. The Russian-Japanese war in 1904 was solved by Teddy Roosevelt negotiating peace, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1906. In 1907 this was the first US president to win the Noble Peace Prize.

Truman  had a voracious appetite for reading and his historical knowledge gave him a perspective that other around him lacked. Truman became the greatest foreign policy president of the  postwar era.

With WWI the military that had so quickly expanded contracted immediately and by 1940 it was only the 18th largest army in the world. With Pearl Harbour attack , Hitler  had foolishly declared war on the US  4 days later. It was believed that with Japan and Germany defeated the US would retreat again  behind  it geographical fortification.   9 out of 10 Germans soldiers killed had died on the eastern front. 29 million Russians had perished in the war. The UK had lost 400,000 souls. The Soviets felt a understandable senses of entitlement and embarked on a policy of expansion.  The starving disease wretched conditions bred communist influence with false promises. 

Truman was the first Cold Worrier of the White House and set a continuity of policy. Despite most American being war weary in 1945. Many mocked FDRs VP choice as the "Second  Missouri compromise. " "Or to err is Truman" "I'm just mild about Harry" and he left the White House with the lowest approval ratings or any  President.  He drafted disgraced former President Herbert Hoover to lead the US response to the European refugee crises after WW2. Bare subsistence meant hunger and hunger meant communism. He brought 150 years of isolationism to an end. Pax Britannica would now be Pax Americana. Truman believed history required them to create a new and more just world.  The US at the time had a lot of diplomatic talent. George Kennan was convinced that Stalin had expansionist designs. Ambassador Averell Harriman Kennan warning found a receptive audience. Kennan sent a long telegram that urged  both a military and economic aid program. Half measures should not be attempted. 2 years after the allied  victory they were in a fight with a former ally. 

1941 April Italian troops invaded Albania and king Zog and his family fled to Greece. In northern Greece the Greek National army forced the Italian back into Albania. British Troops arrived in 1941 March.  The Germans attacked Yugoslavia and invaded Greece at the same time. Greece swiftly capitulated, and Greek King George II fled to Cairo. The British here slowed the pace of the German invasion which delayed Hitler Russian Invasion till late June late enough that the Russian winter helped contribute to the German defeat.

 The Greek Civil War became a flash point between the world powers. In a place that guerillas could move across borders. The Greek Communist Party had fought the German occupation.  Churchill had pressed Stalin not to interfere in post war Greek settlement giving the Soviets a free  hand in Romania.  Attlee knew he had to back away from this long standing commitment as to attend to domestic affairs and America was required to take over.

1832 Greece won independence with British help. Britain sent a message to the US that Greece and Turkey should not be allowed to fall under Soviet influence. British could not provide financial help and they were on the verge of starvation. Turkey was vital for the Dardanelles and this would be placed on Truman's shoulders as the baton of world leadership passed to America. Just as Churchill had stood alone against Hitler now Truman stood alone against Stalin desires. If Greece went communist Turkey was in trouble. The Soviets had always been looking for a way to the Mediterranean.

1946 The midterms had been a crushing defeat for the Democrats, Republican controlled both chambers. 1947 Truman made General Marshall, Secretary of State. At Princeton , Marshall laid out some of the groundwork for policy changes, many would not realize the seismic change about to come in foreign policy. If the US did not fill the void created by the British the recent victory over the Nazi's would be squandered. A Soviet breakthrough could open 3 continents to Soviet Penetration. Vandenberg who had been an isolationist understood  the unexpected change of but they had to turn  150 of foreign policy by 180degrees.

Harry Truman when he joined the army in WW1 was 33 much older than the average recruit. No President since Lincoln had arrive in the White house with so little formal education. As a kid he steeped himself in history. He said " the only new thing about history is the history you don't know". By the time he finished high school his father had gone broke so he could not go to collage. he hoped to get into West Point but his poor vision made him ineligible. Woodrow Wilson in WWI said the world must be made safe for democracy. Truman fought in the Vosges Mountains and the Argonne Forest. After being elected to be  a Judge or commissioner he saw the widespread corruption but had a reputation for honesty. At 50 he became a senator and devoted himself to the New Deal. In 1939 Pendergast was convicted he had been at totally corrupt, he ran the political machine that had helped Truman in politics. When he died Truman went to his funeral despite being told it was politically unwise. In 1937 Truman  had pointed out that they should be contemplating another war as conditions in Europe could explode at any time. He set up a Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program and became its chairman, he started finding extensive waste and fraud.  By March 1943 this once obscure would man appear on the cover of TIME magazine. Truman had been reluctant to take the role of Vice President. He had saved the Government $15 billion. Elected he was  dubbed the "Missouri Compromise." Vice President John Tyler became the first vice president to take over the presidency after President William Henry Harrison died in April 1841.

1945 June the landing on Kyushu to invade Japan would need 6 milling troops and cost half a million Americans. The incendiaries dropped on Tokyo killed 100,000 more than  had died at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Thus the enemy would fight to the bitter end. The war was projected to last till the end of 1946. Truman had never had any doubt that the atomic bomb should be used.

1944 October. The Dumber Oak Conference led to the creation of the United Nations General Marshall was at the Conference of Foreign Minister in Moscow and then had several meetings from Paris, London and West Berlin. He spoke to reporter of  what was at stake here. "While Greece was deteriorating to a point of collapse"  The British Empire could be cruel and exploitatively but had spread improved health care, sanitation, transportation and the rule of law. With England decline and her financial reserves exhausted the Soviets were on the march. The Man of steel was ready to move into British former colonies and clients, he had reneged on his promise of free election in Poland. This aggression was most evident in Iran where both Russia and Britain had occupied the oil rich state since 1941. The Soviets finally left left Iran?

An aircraft carrier was sent to Turkey and the Soviets backed off. The Greek PM Constantine Tsaldaris visited Truman as Britain had encouraged him to ask Washington for help, but left empty handed. A Greek peasant said 4 times in my lifetime my home has been destroyed , by the Turks , the Bulgars the Nazis and the guerrillas, Why should I build again. Potsdam Conference   July 1945 to decide on the post war fate of the world. Sacrifices had  been given to destroy Nazism, now was not the time to appease another tyrant. Churchill dismissed Clement Attlee as "a sheep in sheep's clothing."

Churchill now out of power received a letter from Fulton Collage , Missouri to accept an honorary degree and give a speech. The  P.S. hand written  and signed by Truman, asked him to come. This was a chance for Churchill to be with the  US President and gain Truman's support for his post war vision in March 1946. The world leadership had passed from Churchill to Truman and the speech was what conceived the Truman Doctrine. Truman had long been a skeptic of isolationism.

 America was now on the verge of  a long term costly commitment, and Dean Acheson had the task on writing the speech. It did not mention that the Soviets were the enemy.  The United States was not going into European politics and thus Truman had  a great selling. Stalin was funding communist parties to undermine countries from within. The US should support Democratic countries that were endangered by the USSR. For Greece to survive to be a free nation it needed assistance yet the government was authoritarian. The Germans had destroyed more than 1000 villages and virtually all the railways. The UN at this stage was not a position to extend help required. President Truman sought to alter America's role in the world by leaving the cocoon of isolationism that had led to the rise of Hitler's Germany.

Millions of soldiers had returned home looking for jobs and American could finally enjoy the windfall of peace dividend, However Stalin's aggressive moves in Europe would eventually move American opinion Senator Arthur Vandenberg chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican supported Truman. He said it was the attack on Pearl Harbour that had ended isolationism. They would launch the US on a new positive foreign policy of worldwide responsibility offering a working alternative to totalitarian order The Truman Doctrine was the corollary to the Munroe Doctrine of 1823 at the time the US never had the military might to enforce the Munroe Doctrine and it was part of isolationism  

A congressional hearing was held and Senator  Vandenberg began by announcing that the American Legion 's  commander supported the bill. Army veterans  with a million member wielded immense influence. Members were assured  that no troops would be sent to Turkey or Greece. But Communist Guerillas had to be put down. The promotion of stability and democracy would not lead to war.

The UN was set up to save further generations from the scourge of was as twice during their life time it had brought sorrow to mankind. Must promote economic and social advancement. However they knew that the UN could not substitute for the US leadership. Walter Lipman would introduce the term Cold War had already diminished the role of the UN. The Senate had rejected the League of Nations in 1919 but approved the UN in 1945. Henry Wallace was still in Truman's cabinet  and was outspoken against the Truman Doctrine,  1938 Senator Taft had established himself as a conservative opposition to the New Deal. In 1940 was a Republic Candidate for president but lost to Wendell Willkie. Taft was worried that if the US takes the burden of Greece and Turkey they would neglect Poland , Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. Turkey was more pivotal as it controlled the straits to the Mediterranean, and if the Middle East falls within the Communist expansion repercussions with echo from the Dardanelles to the China Sea.

House members serve 2 years Senators 6 years. A house member represents 600,000 constituents, with 435 members crowded in.

1941 to 1943 Under German brutal occupation  of Greece, the Germans had exported vast quantities of food to Germany and wrecked the havoc during  their withdrawal. Port facilities and bridges were destroyed. and the Corinth canal was dynamited so only reopened in July 1948. Just 5 days after the Greek and Turkish assistance  Bill was in Congress the Greek communist leader Nikos Zachariadis  met Stalin who declined to offer direct aid. The US Bill would become known as the Truman Doctrine. The American press gave this a lot of support.

  Truman's administration regarded Greece as vital to American Security. While Greece was dissolving further into Civil War. The Isolationist felt that the US servicemen could end up involved in a foreign civil war.  The US never understood Stalin's intention. Already a Greek journalist said that this was a war between the US and Soviets fought on Greek soil.  200 military personal under the authority of US aid were sent.  There was a kidnapping of thousands of children to a camps across the border in Yugoslavia, and this image of them being trained as guerillas inflamed world opinion. This caused UN to dispatch inspection teams to the region. The US made efforts to provide leadership and training for the Greek army. Then US general van Fleet  led a team of 45 military advisers. Greek commanding officer were intensely political and but pushed them into a proper fighting force. The war dragged on with a lot of killing on both sides, but killing more communists, and Athens executed many guerillas. Through the cold war  the US supported many regimes that failed to live up to American expectations.

The Truman Doctrine , Marshall Pan and formation of NATO helped Truman launch a revolution in Foreign Policy, Also the recognition of Israel.   " If Jesus Christ could not satisfy the Jews on earth how the hell am I supposed to." On this Marshall , Loy Henderson and George Kenan were against. Clark Clifford a keen advocate of the Zionist cause supported Truman. The US support for Israel came 11 minutes after Ben Gurion's declaration of the State.   

Attlee's strapped British Government wish to withdraw even small military commitments dangerously destabilizing. American entry with economic and military aid could provoke a Soviet response. Stalin soon began viewing guerrilla insurgency as hopeless and by 1948 Stalin was ready to cut support for the DAG ( Democratic Army of Greece or communist) The Soviets wanted to find vulnerable countries where they could expand without direct conflict with the US. The Acrimonious split between Stalin and Tito who was holding out the possibility for US aid and so distance himself from Stalin. The KKE or Greek communist party took Stalin side in the split and  so Yugoslavia was unwilling to fund the guerillas, who became expendable.

1949 Operation Torch. The Greek Airforce with British Spitfires and rained napalm  on the guerillas. Plus a armed  assault drove the communist into the Grammos mountains and they were imprisoner when they crossed the border  by Tito's new policy. They were defeated by the Greek army and the remnant melted away into Albania.  Almost 80,000 died in this conflict and nearly a million lost their homes. Thus the Truman Doctrine in Greece was a triumph.  Thus the American General James Van Fleet and Papagos formed an effective team that rallied the spirit of the Greek army. The Greek Civil War lasted from 1946 to 1949. The Irony is that the Greek leadership supporters had been collaborators with the Nazis or fled into exile while the communist had been the main Nazi resistance.

Aftermath The Truman Doctrine shaped US foreign policy for 7 decades. The principle of non interventionism  had been changed and and led to worldwide crusades for freedom. Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's attempt after WW1 had led to personal and political disaster.  Countries led by politicians hostile to democratic norms , a free press find themselves overwhelmed by events. Secretary of State Marshal on his mission to Moscow gave him an understanding that Stalin wanted to sow chaos in Europe and across the globe. He returned convinced that only a massive program of aid could shield Europeans from Stalin malignant designs.

The next 3 to 4 years food mainly from America and other essential products and other help or face an economic or political determination of grave character. So the Truman Doctrine was followed by the Marshall Plan signed 1948 April 3rd.   $17billion in aid to the devastated war torn Europe. Western Democracies would now unite to resist the Soviet threat. Then the Berlin crises and so America and 11 European nations  signed a mutual defense pact against Russia. Summer 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty was signed  NATO started 1n 1949 with the US, Canada and 10 European countries      1950 North Korean troops supported by Moscow poured into South Korea. The war was now fought there under the UN banner. and ended   in  an armistice in 1953 after nearly 36,000 US troops had lost their lives.

The Truman Doctrine did produce the darker consequence of the Vietnam war and 2 decades of tragic foreign policy causing the deaths of 60 thousand Americans and about 2 million Vietnamese. Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the limit of American power. Many people in foreign countries yearned more for safety and security rather than freedom. The Truman Doctrine recognized that the Cold War had already begun. It was necessary to protect the wartime investment in WW2. This brief burst of cooperation in 1947 had made the Truman Doctrine but was soon forgotten. Henry Wallace , Truman's predecessor  as vice president said that this foreign policy was dangerous. In 1948 the Dixiecrats withdrew from the Democratic convention. However Truman won the election with democrats retaking both houses.  1951Senator Arthur Vandenburg died, he with Truman had build the foundation of US national security policy that lasted 70 years. 40 years after Truman first became president the Berlin Wall fell. American had become Reagans city on the hill or FDR arsenal for democracy.

Trumps "America First" first struck a nerve with voters but his ignorance of history and lack of diplomatic skills, his hostility towards democratically elected leaders and admiration of autocrats. The German Unification and  prediction of a "peace dividend" or the Soviet collapse was described as the "end of history".  Harry Truman , George Marshall , Dean Acheson and Arthur Vandenburg set up a durable security structure.  Harry Truman led American to a position of supremacy in the world, Clark Clifford called it "one of the proudest moment in US history.  Churchill declared that the 33 rd. US President had saved civilization.

When a President died the Vice President took his place but the role of VP was left vacant till in 1937 with the 25th Amendment the President could choose his VP .       The End of History and the Last Man1992 by Francis Fukuyama