timshorrock.comTHE SHORROCK FILES – New, Rare and Unreleased, 1961-2022

Tokyo, My Tokyo! How I Became a Humanitarian Journalist Money doesn’t talk, it swears COVER PHOTO The 4.19 Revolution in Korea The Archives The Cherokee Files DMZ Empire Files Anthology The Last of the Coindinistas Saving New Orleans (2005) Red Flags and Christian Soldiers/Tokyo 1947 START HERE: A GUIDE WHAT IS THE DMZ EMPIRE? Korea Peace Process Who was Shinzo Abe? Fukushima and Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown GWANGJU 5.18 5.18: Turning Point in the Cold War in Asia Chun Doo Hwan and The Legacy of Gwangju Kim Dae Jung Kim Dae Jung’s calligraphy Oligarchy of Spies The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Intelligence The NSA Four Greatest Hits – Compiled in 2009 Music Bob Dylan Solidarity Honorary Citizen of Gwangju How I Became a Humanitarian Journalist Women Cross DMZ Books START HERE: A GUIDE WHAT IS THE DMZ EMPIRE? Korea Peace Process Who was Shinzo Abe? Fukushima and Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown GWANGJU 5.18 5.18: Turning Point in the Cold War in Asia Chun Doo Hwan and The Legacy of Gwangju Kim Dae Jung Kim Dae Jung’s calligraphy Oligarchy of Spies The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Intelligence The NSA Four Greatest Hits – Compiled in 2009 Music Bob Dylan Solidarity Honorary Citizen of Gwangju How I Became a Humanitarian Journalist Women Cross DMZ Books The S horrock Files New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire About Tokyo, My Tokyo! How I Became a Humanitarian Journalist Money doesn’t talk, it swears COVER PHOTO The 4.19 Revolution in Korea The Archives The Cherokee Files DMZ Empire Files Anthology The Last of the Coindinistas Saving New Orleans (2005) Red Flags and Christian Soldiers/Tokyo 1947 Patreon / Subscribe The S horrock Files New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire Menu Home Personal In Memoriam: Roxanne Shorrock In Memoriam to my beloved daughter, Roxanne Shorrock, who passed away on March 17th. Angels have laid her away and I and my famiy and friends are in deep sorrow. Tim Shorrock April 1, 2024 12 Comments The Cherokee Files , US-ROK 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. Tim Shorrock January 8, 2024 Korea 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. Tim Shorrock September 14, 2023 HIDDEN HISTORY 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 did Meany ask? Henry Kissinger, the man who helped plan the coup. Tim Shorrock September 11, 2023 HIDDEN HISTORY , Korea 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. Tim Shorrock August 9, 2023 1 Comment Korea , KOREAN WAR CROSSINGS – From the other side Many of you have seen Crossings, the film from Deann Borshay Liem about Women Cross DMZ and their historic walk from North to South Korea in the spring of 2015. I was there as a reporter, and publish here for the first time my full photo journal of that moving and highly symbolic event. Tim Shorrock August 2, 2023 Korea 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. Tim Shorrock July 31, 2023 DPRK , US-ROK 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. Tim Shorrock July 26, 2023 2 Comments Asia , Gwangju 5.18 , Korea 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. Tim Shorrock May 18, 2023 Asia , Gwangju 5.18 , US-ROK Gwangju and the Fort Benning Connection NEW: A South Korean truth commission created by law in 2019 is seeking classified U.S. military and intelligence records for its wide-ranging investigation into the Gwangju Uprising of 1980. It also wants answers about South Korean generals who were trained by U.S. Special Forces and fought with the United States during its counterinsurgency war in South Vietnam. Washington has not responded - yet. Tim Shorrock May 15, 2023 The Cherokee Files , US-ROK New Gwangju FOIA Documents Now Available My collection of documents is now being used as key evidence in the work of the 5.18 Truth Commission in Seoul, which was created by law in 2019 and will deliver its initial report to the public in June, 2023, I will be reporting on this commission shortly. PATRON-ONLY CONTENT. Tim Shorrock May 5, 2023 Music Truckin’ With Bob Dylan in Tokyo On the night of April 12th, I finally got my chance to hear Bob Dylan in Tokyo. It was like coming full circle: I’d first heard of Bob in 1964, when I was in 8th grade at the American School in Japan. Tim Shorrock April 14, 2023 Asia , Labor , ROK South Korea’s Yoon launches vicious attack on unions, peace groups In scenes reminiscent of South Korea’s authoritarian past, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service - the successor to the once-dreaded KCIA - raided the headquarters of the country’s second-largest and most militant labor federation on Wednesday morning. Security forces also raided a "peace shelter" on Jeju Island that is dedicated to remembering the Sewol, a passenger ferry that capsized off the coast of southern Korea in April 2014. Tim Shorrock January 18, 2023 Asia , DMZ Empire Files , LDP Japan , ROK The Rise of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces Due to its defeat in World War II, Japan’s "great imperial army" was dissolved. Immediately after the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950, however, General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-chief of the occupation army, ordered the Japanese government to establish a national police reserve force. Here is the story of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and their special relationship to South Korea. From the AMPO Magazine archives, 1979, with an update on how the SDF was funded. Tim Shorrock January 9, 2023 1 Comment Asia , LDP Japan , Military Industrial Complex Japan Crosses the Rubicon With barely any notice from the US media, Japan’s conservative LDP government has embraced a counter-strike strategy - giving it the ability to strike enemy bases overseas - for the first time since 1945. The announcement has sparked protests in South Korea and Japan and generated outrage in North Korea and China. Tim Shorrock December...