THE SHORROCK FILES

Blog

The Shorrock Files is now FREE, man! But please, please donate to help me keep it going.

For 20+ years I've maintained timshorrock.com as an archive of my nearly 50 years of journalism and two collections of documents: my "Cherokee Files" on the Gwangju Uprising of 1980 and the new research work I am doing for my upcoming book DMZ Empire on the hidden history of US intervention in Japan and South Korea after World War II. If you want me to continue this site so you can continue to use…

Greetings from US-bombed Tokyo and US-occupied Okinawa!

APRIL 19, 2023 – Hello Patrons, As you know, I’ve been traveling to Japan and Okinawa since April 9th and will be in South Korea for another week starting tomorrow. I’ve had an amazing trip so far, and today I finally have some time to post a story. The early highlight of my visit to Tokyo was seeing Bob Dylan for the first time in the city where I started listening to him back in 1964. I wrote…

28 years on, Cherokee Files still making news in Korea

In the wake of a new film and the publication in Korean of the Cherokee Files, Hankyoreh has reported on Washington’s shifting perception of Chun Doo Hwan’s 1979 mutiny. The internal coup caused a temporary rift in U.S.-South Korean relations but was papered over by the Carter administration. UPDATED.

South Korea’s Democracy in Crisis

On September 11th, I was a panelist with the Korean historian Ingu Hwang for a seminar on South Korea's democracy, past and present, sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action. Professor Hwang wrote a great book, Human Rights and Transactional Democracy in Korea, about the international support for the Korean democracy movement in the 1980s, in which I played a part.

The Lonesome Death of Frank Teruggi

One of the most memorable characters in the film "Missing" is Frank Teruggi, who was murdered by the Chilean military in the Santiago Stadium in the days after General Pinochet's coup on September 11, 1973. I just published a series of letters between Teruggi's father, a member of the Chicago Typographical Union, to AFL-CIO President George Meany seeking information about the death of his son. Who…

The Nagasaki Bomb and the Division of Korea

24 hours after Nagasaki, the U.S. divided Korea in half. Bruce Cumings, the leading historian of the Korean War, has called Truman's directive the “first act of containment." In fact, it was the opening salvo of a Cold War that would soon engulf Korea and the rest of Asia and, five years later, explode into another full-scale conflict.

Memories of the DMZ

I just spent an exhilarating week with Korea Peace Activists in DC to push for an end to the Korean War after 70 years. To mark the occasion, I've posted an article on my experiences at the DMZ in 1960 and 2023 - 63 years apart. Lessons: The war is not over and the USA still controls the inter-Korean border.

70 Years After the Armistice

The United States has been trying to create a trilateral alliance with Japan and South Korea since the late 1940s. Under President Biden and his "Asia Czar" Kurt Campbell, it has nearly succeeded. But there's a huge disconnect between Washington's constructs and the people of South Korea and Japan.

Images of Gwangju

The events of May 18 to May 27, 1980, in photos, from from "Records of the May Uprising," a new book published by the 5.18 Archives in Gwangju. Some are familar, others have never been published before. An incredible monument to the brave people of Gwangju during an unforgettable time in Korean history.