Best historical asian biographies according to redditors
We found 677 Reddit comments discussing the best historical asian biographies. We ranked the 199 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 677 Reddit comments discussing the best historical asian biographies. We ranked the 199 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
![Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume 1: [English Language Version]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31EPD1C2P5L.jpg)
Genghis Khan left the cities to be ruled by their own people for the most part if they surrendered, which left them completely intact. The city would be required to pay a percentage of all goods to the Khan. In fact, this was substantially the Mongolian economy. For the most part, Mongols could not smelt, make pottery, craft with silk, mine, etc. Despite this, the entire Kingdom grew exponentially wealthy as peoples were conquered. It took a truly huge empire that spread across most of Asia, into the middle east, and into Europe. It would have encompassed more land if the heat didn't mess with their horses, men, and bows so badly. If the leaders did not surrender, or refused to pay tribute, there was no mercy. Cities could be razed. People were killed needlessly to instill fear. He could be brutal if it benefited him.
For the most part, conquered cities didn't need to produce military goods. They may have contributed arrows, but the Mongols mainly fought from horseback. They preferred to fight from distances as they believed getting blood on you would contaminate your soul. They conquered infantry and only used the troops they capture to lead a charge as a sacrifice to ease mongol losses. They had little need for heavy armor, swords, etc. In fact, their armor was very light and modtly covered their fronts to prevent retreat or to lighten the load. What they did enjoy were siege machines. The Mongols played a direct role in creating and furthering the catapult, flame thrower (gun powder with a slow burn), and cannons.
The Mongols also thoroughly pillaged towns. They would evacuate the town and systematically go building to building looking for anything valuable. Before Genghis Khan (pronounced jane-gis not gain-gis by the way), pillagers kept whatever they found. But under Genghis Khan, all of the booty was piled up and distributed by a shares allocation.
This is going beyond the question, but I thought I'd add how stable the land was that was conquered. Genghis Khan is largely shown as a barbarian in modern depictions. However, this is in a large part due to a play of Voltaire depicting him that way. He was using him as an allegory of the French king to avoid being prosecuted, but the image stuck to the great Khan. Genghis khan built and ensured safe roads, thousands of public schools, a writing system, freedom of religion, diplomatic immunity, paper money, and his influence is still reverberating through the modern world. They also assembled one of the largest sailing fleets in history, inspiring the British and Spanish armada. Edit: as I clarify later in this thread, he wasn't a nice guy. He was often brutal, but always cunning. He was constantly learning and was as elite a strategist as has lived.
Edit: to add another fascinating point related to your question, the armies of the Mongols spread out for miles. It could take days to ride from the left side to the right side, even in organized hunts as opposed to war. This was due to the horses needing to graze since everybody was mounted and each soldier had up to four or five horses. When they conquered an area, they often trampled crops so the land would return to grazing ground. They viewed the farmer peasants as little more than animals eating vegies and living in one area where their food was located. This was far different from the meat heavy diet of the Mongols.
All of this and more is available in the highly recommended and thoroughly captivating book "Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world." The audio book is equally captivating, and was recently on audible for $5. Currently $4 on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705
My horde grows wealthy. Glad to see my vassals are showing their proper respect. I will not have to resort to violence for at least another month.
In a rather different vein from a lot of the suggestions I'm seeing here, I want to plug Michael Herr's Dispatches as an incredible piece of Vietnam literature. There's also If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien.
If you're willing to consider graphic novels, check out Maus, Persepolis, and Laika.
If you're interested at all in vampires and folklore, I recommend Food for the Dead. Really interesting read.
A history-teacher friend of mine recently gave me The Lost City of Z by David Grann. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but it came highly recommended.
By the by, last year I required my students (high school seniors) to select and read a non-fiction book and gave them the following list of suggestions. Columbine was one of the really popular ones, and I had a bunch of kids (and a few teachers) recommending it to me, but, again, I haven't gotten to it yet.
"Escape From Camp 14" by Blaine Harden is a great read as well if you are interested in what goes on in these camps.
Can I just point out that North Korea is a nation with active concentration and slave labour camps, where torture, beatings, rape, starvation, disease and the killing of babies are downright common occurrences? And where not only the children of prisoners, but the grandchildren of prisoners, are continually held as punishment for the sins of their parents? There are people in those camps today, because their grandparents fought against North Korea in the Korean War (also, seriously, just go read Escape from Camp 14 for a firsthand account of this horror).
Which means that these idiots are now trying to work out a way to rationalize how this unfathomable evil doesn't actually exist. It's Holocaust denial by any other name.
This is what real rape culture looks like
You should know the difference between their "regular" concentration camps and the ones for special political prisoners. pretty sure you got no foosball or big screen TV's in either.
They can't pretend we don't know all this
Or that it's all an American lie
Or that this shit hasn't been known for decades already and confirmed repeatedly, again, and again
They can even criticize Trump's approach to the DPRK if it makes them feel better but this extravagant kind of heated lie is just offensive to both the world and the individuals who survive the Kim family horror show.
This is interesting on the topic too:
http://www.amazon.com/Hirohito-Making-Modern-Japan-Herbert/dp/0060931302#
> Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority.
Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past.
It's combination of both what you're saying and what yordles_win is saying. Read Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Hirohito had a much bigger role in the events of WWII than most American historians like to admit ... BUT he also was frequently circumvented towards the end of the war and at the very end, it was the army that negotiated with America, and not the emperor.
I recommend reading Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden. .
When Singapore became independent , it had almost the same problems as us , poverty , hostile neighbors , illiteracy , no civic sense.
You should read Lee Kuan Yew 's "From Third world to First" which accounts Singapore's journey under him. Excellent Book.
The book comes out March 29th
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
You think that you've just made a super intelligent point because you've pointed out the obvious fact that the US has issues with human rights and with over-criminalization. It isn't an intelligent point because you don't know jack shit about North Korea. You don't know dick about how people live there, and I know that because if you did, you would pull your head out of your ass and realize that the issues that the United States has are not even in the same order of magnitude as the issues that North Korea has.
I recommend that you read the following books to give you a better sense of life in North Korea, so that in the future you can be more educated on the subject:
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
> No, I haven't listened to them. Why would I have, when I've already made my disdain for him known?
Nobody is saying "please listen to Dan Carlin."
However, I think you should listen to the podcasts if you are going to try to critique them. You know, so you don't type stuff like:
> Why does he list as sources for a podcast on Verdun and the Somme a book about the Admiralty during WWI?
When, as others have pointed out, the podcast "on Verdun and the Somme" spent quite a lot of time talking about Jutland.
Hardcore History is not academic history. It's far from it. However, regardless of my views on the podcast, I'm not going to pretend that I've listened to something and then come up with critiques of it. It's like reviewing a book that one hasn't read. I have a deep suspicion that I would dislike Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, for example, based on various things I've heard about it - but I'm not going to skim the book's bibliography and then spend my time critiquing Jack Weatherford for using various sources when I have no clue as to how he used them since I haven't actually read the thing.
I've had to write critiques of books in history classes (I'm doing one right now, as a coincidence), and just bashing sources isn't enough. You have to look at how the sources are used. If you have no interest in Carlin's stuff, fine, but don't try to come up with source-based critiques of the podcasts if you don't know how Carlin is using those sources.
Read Escape from Camp 14. It will change you. And long story short, rehabilitation and integration into South Korea for a North Korean defector is extremely difficult at best. The whole story is supremely tragic.
For many of the Japanese who were bypassed during the pacific campaign the war's end was either unknown immediately or largely ignored. With the supply chain cut off, communication was rarely readily available. It may have taken a while for the Japanese on these bypassed islands to get the word that the war was lost. For some, this news was hard to swallow and in some cases it was ignored. The Japanese soldier was trained to not give up, dying in battle was the ultimate goal of the Japanese warrior. There were also cases of Japanese soldiers who joined the fight for Vietnamese independence and Indonesian independence to rid the Asian colonies of western control.
There were search parties, both Japanese and American and sometimes joint, to convince the holdouts that the war was over and to bring them home. Still some Japanese resisted. This book ( http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thirty-Year-Bluejacket-Books/dp/1557506639 ) was written by Hiroo Onoda, one of the most famous Japanese holdouts following World war 2. He was finally relieved of duty by his former commanding officer in 1974.
If you want a more in depth western account of this scene, read Tokyo Vice.
I read Onoda's book No Surrender and it's a great look into his mindset at the time.
He and his compatriots didn't believe the first news of surrender, and no one wanted to be the first to give in. They were on a recon/intelligence mission for the Japanese invasion.
They understood that fighting had stopped, but believed Japan would gather its armies and resume the war, and at that point greatly need his intelligence on the island. Once the others died believing this, even a search party with his own brother could not get Onoda out of hiding. It was awful hard on him.
I can't really speak from my own experience, but from military buddies I have it seems like whatever good we're doing may be undermined whenever a drone goes and offs a handful of kids.
If our foreign policy was just carried out with daggers, I think we'd be in a pretty good place overall... but it's not, and so the innocent people who die might be outweighing the good that's done in terms of infrastructure and everything else.
What's depicted in Three Cups of Tea certainly makes a huge difference, but from what I can tell our military and governmental actions along those lines are outweighed by the accidental innocent deaths.
And the shit like the trophy killings that just broke this week.
North Korea, very very likely.
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
I wonder how harshly history will judge my inaction.
I'd also add Escape from Camp 14 in the same vein.
There was a group of men called The Holdouts who refused to believe that Japan surrendered during WWII and subsequently hid in the jungles of the Philippines until 1974 defending Japan's honor. Hiroo Onada was one of the last holdouts, surrendering in March of 1974. He is still alive, living in Brazil. He's also written a book about it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Really interesting and horrific story about the only known person to be born in and escape from one of the labor camps. One of the stories that has stuck with me years after reading it is of the 6 year old girl who was beaten to death by her teacher, in front of her classmates, after he found 5 stolen corn kernals in her pocket.
This happened in camp 14, the same that is described in Escape from Camp 14, about a North Korean born and raised there and who lived to escape and tell his story. It's not a long read and I recommend it to everyone who want to learn about the horrors that are going on in North Korea. Not for the faint hearted.
Yes, thank you, I've read that. I also just read Escape from Camp 14.
Dear Reader!
Amazon has it.
I recommend everyone to read "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" to see how people suffer in these gulags from first person experince.
Michael Malice went to write his book dear reader the unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong Il https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1495283259/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494258651&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=dear+reader&dpPl=1&dpID=51ZCoQv2S1L&ref=plSrch
Based on testimonies from escapees of these prison camps - not to mention the report of numbers in the prison camps is probably biased.
The most notable of these testimonies is from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Death seems to be extremely common in the prison camps of North Korea at least much more so than the typical prison in the United States or any developed country.
We can assume if it is true that people die much more quickly in prison than in civilian life in North Korea that their prison numbers will stay lower due to fatalities. If you arrest 100 people per year and 5 of them die per year your prisons grow at 95 people per year, if 50 of them die they grow much more slowly. It is simple math and extrapolation from things we can assume to be true.
Lol proof? It's common knowledge dude, like globally. Just google north korean concentration camps or watch any video from the numerous defectors who've made it to South Korea and are campaigning against the human rights violations in NK.
For a book assuming you're not just being a little troll, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea, about Shin Dong-hyuk is an incredible and horrifying read. He's the only man alive to have escaped their concentration camps.
For a video that highlights the difference between life in North and South Korea, watch this pair of videos Part One and Part Two to hear direct from the mouths of North Koreans what it's like there. How they stage brutal public executions of anyone trying to escape the country, and send their next 3 generations to gulags.
For another interesting video with many of the same people from the other two videos, this shows North Koreans trying American food, and discussing how shocking the differences are between American and North culture.
We're on the internet man, it's really easy not to be ignorant, just up to you to put in a basic modicum of effort to not look like an idiot when commenting on things.
Escape From Camp 14 by Shin Dong-hyuk and Blaine Harden
> Yet, how is it any different from those of you who suggest that life is better than death?
What the hell is wrong with you? North Koreans aren't some alien race, they're human beings who also don't want to die. Read memoirs from NK escapees like The Aquariums of Pyongyang or Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I attended a talk by the man written about in Escape from Camp 14, a man born in a NK prison camp who managed to escape.
These are not people longing for death; they're people longing for life.
>Why do you feel that it is fair to use your own experiences in this life to determine the value of life for other people?
We're not. You are:
"We shouldn't let people starve to death."
"But how do we know they don't want to starve to death!?"
You have absolutely no idea at all what you're talking about, your opinion is idiotic, and you're an awful person for having it.
Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with you? I hate this false "all positions are equal, teach the controversy!" charade.
There's a great book on FACs and OV-10s: A Lonely Kind of War: Forward Air Controller, Vietnam.
he did.
No Surrender: My Thirty Year War
People that offend the government, and people that are born there. In NK they have something called the 5 generation imprisonment, and basically you go to the camp, and you and your next 5 generations have to live there all of your life. They are essentially little communities or ghettos, but with strict enforcers. There are farms, jobs, and things of that nature but no one is payed and people are harshly punished.
There is actually a book written by a young man who escaped one of these camps -
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I would recommend reading it, but it is not for the faint of heart. One of the tortures he describes includes him being hung by a meat hook through his stomach...
WW2 too! I recommend reading Churchill's Secret War by Madhusree Mukerjee to get a full sense of how deeply it cost India to keep the British Empire alive
Sort of off the top of my head:
Not Supernatural:
Supernatural:
Often times books about survival don't need to be fiction to be amazingly interesting, so I'll add these:
Read this book!
A lonley kind of war - a FAC in Vietnam
https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Kind-War-Forward-Controller/dp/0891416382
Amazing read.
It's awesome. He was an officer, is very intelligent, and gives lots of jungle survival tips . Lots of lessons in doublethink too - how he managed to reconcile his view that the war was still on with the information he received as time passed.
Amazon link to the soldier's book
Yes. No Surrender : My Thirty Year War
Enjoy.
Very good story. I'm like you, I had the privilege of having a grandmother who was born in the late 1800s (actually, a great-grandmother). Anybody who grew up around those types of people are likely to have been positively influenced by them. This woman never had a car in her life, walked everywhere she went, did lots of hard work well in to her late 90s, like gardening all summer, lifting heavy stuff up stairs, etc.. Those types of people who grew up without electricity, air conditioning, soft beds, etc, are on a whole different level. Regardless of race.
I agree that you tend to develop sense of superiority compared to normal people, when you grew up hard, or succumbed to hard conditions at some point in life. To the point where you begin to see "hard work" as something that you actually need, like air or water. Also, what really inspires me about the older generations is how they didn't gorge themselves on food, in fact, they ate very little, and were surprisingly strong for their size, even in old age.
One guy who really inspires me is Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who lived in a jungle for almost 3 decades. I highly recommend reading his book about his experience. He was one of those "old guard" people who lived hard and long, and "did the impossible" as an everyday thing. Patience, persistence, stoicism... All attributes that have been totally lost in many countries, since WW2.
https://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-My-Thirty-Year-War/dp/1557506639
if you need sources two books I can recommend are The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of "those who are Sent to the Mountains" by David R. Hawk - this is the best overview of the North Korean Penal system without actually going to North Korea
Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden which is a account of Shin Dong-hyuk life and escape from a labor camp.- bias warning he has recanted parts of the book
the Three generations rule came in to effect under Kim Il Sung in 1972
I would not doubt there are different levels of punishment for different crimes however I would be very careful to dismiss claims of the Three generation rule being a myth because a different defector who may have been accused of a crime deserving of a different level of punishment had a different experience.
this person in particular however to get assigned to the DMZ his family had to be in good standing and perceived to be loyal to the party. when he defected he did so very publicly at the Joint Security Area (JSA) and made a break for it by running towards Freedom House. and the story is plastered all over international media
the NK may show mercy but I wouldn't put it past NK to make a example of his family to show their soldiers "this is what happens to your family if you defect"
Camp 22 (the one linked) isn't all that bad in the overall hierarchy of North Korean camps. At least in the 90's, some prisoners in camp 22 had defined sentences, and the death rate wasn't what it is in some other camps.
For a really bad one, check out the article on camp 14. That camp contains a "total control zone", in which all sentences are for life. Only one person is known to have escaped the total control zone. Even crazier, the person who escaped was born in the camp, so he had very little knowledge of the outside world before he escaped. Here's a book written about him. His experience is much more extreme than Kang Chol-hwan's in The Aquariums of Pyongyang.
Escape from Camp 14
If anyone is interested, I highly recommend reading the book "Escape from Camp 14"
It's an easy and highly intriguing book and gives an unfathomable account of life in the camps and shows how mentally warped the people of the country are.
The guy is in the U.S. now and discusses how before coming here he didn't even truly understand the emotional connection of family or loyalty to them as much as he did fear and loyalty to the country.
Edit: Autocorrect
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QO3NDbYP2JSFH
Anyone who hasn't already should absolutely read Escape From Camp 14. It's a first hand account of being born into and living in a North Korean prison camp.
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
http://www.amazon.com/The-Life-Muhammad-I-Ishaq/dp/0196360331
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Three-Years-Prophetic-Mohammad/dp/1568590296
or This http://www.reddit.com/r/exmuslim/comments/1un7co/wazzyms_faq_debunking_islam/
Read this - it was systematic death by exploitation for common people while a few at the top benefitted.
https://www.amazon.in/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story.
Lee Kuan-yew recounts how he took a malarial swamp with no natural resources, inhabited by illiterate fisherman and dockworkers, divided along ethnic and religious lines, & poor as most African nations, and turned it into a prosperous city-state with a GDP per capita higher than most Western nations in just one generation.
Try reading this book - I'm not sure how reliable it is, but even if 50% of what he claims is true, this is much worse than gulag.
escape from camp 14..
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0143122916
I encourage, as always, everyone pick up The Aquariums of Pyongyang , Escape from Camp 14 , as well as Nothing To Envy as u/winginit21 mentioned.
Also David Hawk's The Hidden Gulag:Second Edition is a great resource. (PDF File)
It's a bio-trilogy called The Last Lion.
I'm still only on the first book but it is fantastically written, incredibly informative, and a joy to read.
They are not a quick read however; the one I'm reading now is over 800 pages, but I can't put it down. Right now I'm reading about Churchill as a 21 year-old youth serving in the Victorian army as a second lieutenant.
Really highly recommended.
If you're interested in this, Aquariums of Pyongyang is another good account, I think he might have even been in the same camp. The author lived a privileged life in Japan and then North Korea until his family was accused of crimes agains the state and sent to the camp. He was 10 years old when he entered and spent 10 years there before being release. After release, he managed to escape to China and then South Korea.
It's a pretty fascinating account as it covers life in North Korea for higher ups, in the camps, and the difficulties of getting the hell out.
Edit: They are nothing if not efficient
For number 3, here are some good books that will go a long way to answering this question:
Nothing to Envy (stories of ordinary citizens who eventually fled)
http://www.amazon.ca/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383083638&sr=8-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy
Escape from Camp 14 (this one is about a prisoner camp inmate who escaped)
http://www.amazon.ca/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329/ref=pd_sim_b_2
The short answer is that many people are starting to (illegally) cross between the border of North Korea and China to trade, as well as escaping permanently. There are smuggling businesses that you can hire to get you or a loved one out. If you have the money, this will involve a fake passport and even a plane flight all the way to South Korea. If you are poor, the trip is much more harrowing and dangerous.
The amount of people defecting seems to be growing by quite a bit each year.
A couple of these were refitted for special ops work in the Middle East.
Hunt up a copy of "A Lonely Kind of War" as well - it's a great read.
I'll throw out a recommendation for Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
Yes, it's called No Surrender
No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War https://www.amazon.com/dp/1557506639/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_UMd4Db0R4DM66
Everything about this guy's story is incredible
https://www.amazon.com/Xi-Jinping-Governance-English-Language/dp/1602204098
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I've seen satellite imagery and have read descriptions of escapees.
I'd rather not run the risk of needing to go;"Wir haben es nicht gewusst" in a couple of years.
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Escape From Camp 14. It's written by a guy who was born into the camps as a result of an arranged marriage between his father and mother, both of whom had never been accused of anything, but were caught up in the three generations policy.
To get an idea of the conditions; imagine a mix of Schindler's List and Twelve Years A Slave, but with a lot more starvation and rape. It's been operating for longer than anyone in this thread has been alive.
Read his book. Its incredible http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406833573&sr=8-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14
This will.
Excellent, however, sometimes somewhat depressing bit to read.
There ARE a lot of sources from defectors and those who have escaped from North Korea-- here's a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
It's about a man who was born in a NK labor camp because he had ancestors who tried to escape (3 generations of "traitors" get punished). As a young boy, he sold out his brother and mother who had plans to escape the labor camp-- they were hanged in front of him, and he felt no remorse. The books talk about what happens to families of those who try to be escape.
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
Do some research on that guy.
That's just one example, there are also a great number of documentaries of people that visit the DPRK on tours (which are allowed btw). Some of these people take videos in risks of getting caught and making the tour guides angry. One such documentary is the "Vice guide to North Korea", by just watching it you can clearly see that stepping foot in North Korea is like going back in time to a 1950 ish Soviet Russia and that North Korea is clearly a country that focuses on propaganda and focusing their money towards government/military first.
Also they have an ideology that they grasp known as "Juche" (주체) that has an effect on their economy as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche#Effects_on_the_economy
No way, he was amazing. Read about him & find out.
Have you read [Into Thin Air] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-personal-disaster-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590869&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air) by Jon Krakauer? I enjoyed reading this one.
I also read [Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage] (http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B006L74DMC/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590938&sr=1-1&keywords=endurance+shackleton%27s+incredible+voyage), could not put it down. Would still recommend giving it a shot, even though in the other comment you said you weren't interested.
You could also probably find a book about the [Donner party] (http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591075&sr=1-1&keywords=donner+party+books). Have not read this one yet.
I actually really want to read more of these true doom/adventure stories as well. Let me know which ones you'd recommend or find interesting. We can swap notes :) (I'm looking up the Franklin expedition right now!)
Edit: another recommendation is possibly books on North Korea? [Escape from Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591287&sr=1-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14) coming to mind. It's still got that morbid fascination element to it. Another good one is [Nothing to Envy] (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591283&sr=1-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy).
Edit2: Saw you wanted to read about that rugby team that was stranded in the Andes, was this the book you were thinking of: [Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors] (http://www.amazon.com/Alive-Survivors-Piers-Paul-Read/dp/038000321X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591507&sr=1-1&keywords=alive+the+story+of+the+andes+survivors). The only other book I can think of is [Miracle in the Andes] (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Days-Mountain-Long-ebook/dp/B000GCFW6O/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591638&sr=1-1&keywords=Miracle+in+the+andes).
That last sentence is a whole debate in itself. How responsible was Hirohito for his country's acts and how much of it was just rampant militarism in his name. There's a decent book on the topic called Hirohito and the making of modern Japan that deals with the subject however it is not the only perspective.
Broadly speaking, most in Japan are of the belief that it was the militant minority that took control during the period and that Hirohito was more or less just going a long with it. That's the popular notion but it is by no means necessarily correct. I'm not sure where I read that, but it was in an academic article I read for my thesis.
This is a terrific idea. I might suggest that you sponsor schools instead of hospitals. I think the most deserving charity is Greg Mortenson's "Central Asia Institute" that constructs secular schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The schools provide secular educational alternatives to Saudi-funded radical madrasahs. The institute builds schools for $25,000 and the schools are constructed with free local community labor and on community donated land. The schools often focus primarily on girls educational issues.
The official CAI website
Donation Page
Greg Mortenson on Wikipedia
Central Asia Institute on Wikipedia
Book: "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson
Book: "Stones into Schools" by Greg Mortenson
If you're really interested in that part of the world... you might like to spend some time reading more in depth about what life is like on the ground, there. These are two good books you might want to check out: 1 and 2
And keep following the Al-Jazeera youtube channel.
I don't think that things are as black and white as you make them out to be, BraveSirRobin.
Concerning prison camps, I might suggest Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey by Blaine Harden.
Someone born and raised inside the labor camp escaped. Here's his book.
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
My family is from an Eastern block country, and was there while the area was under USSR control, and that is how things were at the time. You escape, and your family dies.
You're an idiot if you think that North Korea is any different.
Edit: check out this book when you get the time:
"Escape From Camp 14"
It might open your eyes a bit...
I think the first point to consider is that The Orphan Master's Son should be read as a domestic drama, more along the lines of Nothing to Envy than any of the foreign-policy focused news and zomg-weird-pop-performance-footage that dominates this subreddit and /r/northkoreanews.
In that light, the Orphan Master's Son is a lovely, well-told story, and it was well-researched, but it's still clearly a second-hand impression of the country. It doesn't add to the outside world's stock of DPRK information; it just retells the tragedies already told by Shin Dong-hyuk and Kenji Fujimoto in a literary style.
Then too, there are places where the needs of the story subsume the reality on the ground. For example, the book entertains the notion that the state would promote just individual one actress its paragon of female virtue and one individual soldier as the paragon of male virtue. This is important to author's point about public and private identity and whether love also needs truth, but it's wholly out of step with the Kim regime's way of doing business. Kim Il Sung is the one god in North Korea, and the only permissible icons are his successors, and to a lesser extent, senior party politicians. Pop figures are disposable.
But The Orphan Master's Son is a good read. It would go high on my list of recommendations for someone who wants a starting point on the country but is scared of footnotes and foreign names. But if your DPRK obsession hinges more on predicting the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, it won't give you much.
Seriously. I don't understand why so many people here keep dismissing him as the "stupid child dictator" thing. Speculate what you want about the nuke situation, if he has the balls to do it or whatever, but the human right violations in that country are horrendous and blatant. I really urge people to read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1504557988773
This is a book I read awhile back that might make you reconsider that:
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I'd much rather be homeless in a place like Seattle or San Diego than be born into a prison camp and live the kind of life described in this book... To be honest, I'd rather be in a US federal penitentiary.
It's hard to find such a biography of Muhammad, but I hope this one can be of help: Leslie Hazleton's The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad
Edit: If you really wanna dig deeper, I'd suggest the Alfred Guillaume translation of Ibn Ishaq's The Life of Muhammad. This translation puts back some of the "cuts" made by the later editors of the biography (this being the quasi-official Sira). Caveat lector: this is difficult reading.
Lee Kuan Yew, the late former leader of Singapore, talked a lot about geopolitics and the effect of China's rise in particular.
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kuan-Yew-Insights-International/dp/0262019124
I don't know much about this one but it looks interesting:
"Non-Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia (Politics in Asia)"
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Western-International-Relations-Theory-Perspectives/dp/0415474744
/u/tealparadise is correct. I was referring to the book "Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan" by Jake Adelstein.
The other source was the primary source wikipedia links to. "Why Is the Japanese Conviction Rate So High?" by J. Mark Ramseyer and Eric B. Rasmusen.
I know it's not a documentary but I would highly recommend Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. Amazing book about vice crime in Tokyo and Yakuza activity in general.
Not quite as wild as Yakuza video games, but this will give you some context for the craziness that was going on during a certain dark time in Japan's underground: https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298
There's the local stuff that a lot of people will share with you, but there's some macro-stuff as well.
For example, The ministry of economy, trade, and industry has often flat out obstructed foreign business owners/investors from otherwise legally participating in the foreign markets due to "market confusion," which has been the most illogical defense, and has contributed to ridiculous prices in Japan at the consumer's expense for several decades.
There's also the story of インチキ外人レスラー, or "cheating foreign wrestler" in Japan's pro-wrestling. This is the time honored tradition of having huge foreigners playing the part of fighting dirty before they get their ass handed to them by the honorable, hard-working Japanese fighter.
Why, yes, I am reading Robert Whiting's Tokyo Underworld right now. Obviously focused on organized crime, but it often centers around its role in international relations for Japan, as well.
According to the biography, The Last Lion, he did not drink nearly as much as he led other's to believe. He'd typically nurse just a single drink throughout the entire day (a tumbler of whiskey). He had serious health issues early on that prevented his lifestyle from actually matching up with the stories told.
He felt it was important to give the impression that he was the sort of man he ended up gaining a reputation for, as he used this as a political tool.
The man was a genius in many ways. Writing, orating, and strategy were among his top attributes.
I don't know if you've read it, or if anyone will read this comment in general, but get your hands on a copy of Aquarium's of PyongYang An incredible, and incredibly sad, first hand account of North Korean gulag from the eyes of someone who lived it.
I used to work with two men who flew OV-10s in Vietnam. They loved the plane. If you have not read it yet, go read "A Lonely Kind of War." Great book.
https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Kind-War-Forward-Controller/dp/0891416382
But it wasn't his intention to murder people just because he wanted to kill people. It was actually the contrary. Mongols didn't even like having blood being spilt on them due to their culture. This was how war campaigns were done by all civilization in the past. The Mongols only had a high death toll because they were more successful than any other conquerors.
If anything, Genghis Khan was a lot more merciful than any other conquerors back then. He gave cities a chance to surrender and to be considered his "kin" if they were to surrender without fighting. But I'm not saying he was a saint. He did plunder villages and impressed civilians of those that didn't surrender to the frontlines of battles. But I want to reiterate that this was how the world back then was. War was quite common. Unlike other nations, he never tortured anyone. European, Persian, and Chinese leaders would resort to terrorizing torture but Genghis Khan never allowed torture.
And fine, even during their standard the Mongols did commit horrendous things, but they did open up the East/Asia to Europe which led to the rebirth of the civilization (which we call the Renaissance). They were one of the first civilization to promote religion tolerance and the first to have it's own continental postal system. They also vastly promoted trade.Without the Mongols, Columbus would probably have never gained support from Spain to sail West to gain access to the Mongol riches of the East.
The Mongols were not evil. They were just a product of their time's constant turmoil.
Source: "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thirty-Year-Bluejacket-Books/dp/1557506639
was such a good book about it.
Onoda also wrote a book about his experience called No Surrender:
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thirty-Year-Bluejacket-Books/dp/1557506639
Personally, I think leftists are far too harsh on the PRC, but that does not mean they are above criticism. I can't speak for Lao or Vietnam, but personally, I would not be comfortable classifying the PRC as 100% capitalist. In the PRC, the Party rules the country, versus capital. Does capital have power in China? Absolutely, but it is nowhere near the level that capital has in the west. However, do they have a complete command economy? No, but there are some indications that Xi may be taking the country towards that direction.
I think this is a good place to start if you are interested in learning more about China and how their economy and the party operates:
https://medium.com/@wolf.aldrich/three-questions-about-china-and-the-communist-party-of-china-7056e40b40f3
As well as:
https://www.amazon.com/Xi-Jinping-Governance-English-Language/dp/1602204098
and:
https://www.learningfromchina.net/blog/chinas-socialist-economic-reform-and-opening-up-improved-the-lives-of-a-vastly-greater-proportion-of-humanity-than-any-other-country-in-human-history
Interesting Article on Vietnam:
https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/is-vietnam-going-the-way-of-china/
http://www.amazon.com/Xi-Jinping-Governance-English-Language/dp/1602204098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453368098&sr=8-1
"I've also bought copies of this book for my colleagues. I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics."
—Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook
If they don't return, the mens' families, children and parents all, would be transferred into prison camps for the remainders of their lives. That's one of several punishments that prevents fishermen and other people on border jobs from routinely defecting: they punish family members.
The returning fishermen would still be intensively interrogated and punished, but the act of willfully returning would spare their families, and they might be allowed to return to their jobs.
For a better idea of life inside a North Korean prison camp, you might look at Escape from Camp 14.
Just a few off the top of my head:
LKY lovers, is this book worth it?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060197765/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1L7KPUARWJOY8&colid=1ZCERWAQVKJFG
Take your first world problems elsewhere, peon
MM Lee says we are first world what
Having just finished Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (http://www.amazon.com/Hirohito-Making-Modern-Japan-Herbert/dp/0060931302) I can tell you that Hirohito is directly responsible for pushing Japan into war with America.
Barbara Tuchman was brilliant writer of history.
Albert Camus was a brilliant absurdist philosopher and novelist.
Jared Diamond has written some brilliant books at the intersection of anthropology and ecology. Another good book in this genre is Clive Ponting's A New Green History of the World.
Gwynne Dyer is an acclaimed military historian turned journalist on international affairs who has written a number of very engaging books on warfare and politics. His most recent book Climate Wars is the ONE book I would recommend to someone, if so limited, on the subject as it embodies both a wonderful synopsis of the science juxtaposed against the harsh realpolitiks and potential fates of humankind that may unfold unless we can manage to tackle the matter seriously, soon. Another great book on climate change is Bill McKibben's Deep Economy.
For social activists interested in ending world hunger and abject poverty, I can recommend: Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom; Nobel Prize winning micro-financier Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism; UN MDG famed economist Jeffrey Sach's End Of Poverty; and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea
For anyone of Scottish heritage, I heartily recommend Arthur Hermann's How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
For naval history buffs: Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought.
Last, but not least: Robert Pirsig's classic Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Enjoy!
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rein
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Tea-Mission-Promote/dp/0143038257
I received this book as a birthday gift, and haven't stopped loaning it to friends since I finished reading it myself. It's intriguing, insightful, and inspiring. The life he's lived strikes me as a non-fiction version of the classic Hero's Journey.
I think you may like this book:
.com Link
.co.uk link (where I am)
Both are prime and are well under $20, so please use the extra money to gift other peoples :)
John Green talks about the book here.
"Nothing to Envy" https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912
Good read if your into that stuff.
Also "Escape from Camp 14" https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
That one is less about ordinary citizen's lives and more about the modern day concentration camps the North Korean government is controlling.
Escape from Camp 14
It's a brilliant, true-life story.
Not so sure on that starving part anymore. I like to listen and read stories from the people who defected to understand their world. Many of them are saying that while it's not super abundant meals, for the most part many of the agricultural reforms that the western world helped out with in the 90's/2000's are paying off. Food still isn't great -- meat and products of the like are still expensive and difficult for the average Korean to get, but it can be bought. Freedom now is really the worst problem they have. Escape from Camp 14 is from one of the people who escaped the prison camps and it sounds like that it is the worst conditions you may encounter in NK now.
Of course a war tends to make every destabilised. A war might actually bring on a new famine.
Different country, but Escape from Camp 14 if you want a depressing read about North Korea's current system.
Look, I totally believe that "people are people" and for the most part the regular folks living under any society are going to be good people. (Possible exception for places like North Korean gulags where they're not treated like humans and so don't grow up understanding basic principles like kindness and compassion - they can't really be faulted for that, though.) I believe that there are people trying to do their best and corrupt individuals in ALL types of gov'ts (some being more ripe for fraud and deception than others).
So when this conversation of "this clean up could only happen in the Soviet Union" began I was like "pssht! there are people everywhere who would sacrifice themselves for the good of their neighbors and the rest of the world." But as the sheer volume of people involved in this clean up effort is revealed - over 600,000 liquidators and over 3,000 on the Маша rooftop alone...I start to question if that could have happened in a Westernized country. I think there's too much "individuality" in America, too much focus on "my rights" for people to blindly follow instructions like this. And they certainly wouldn't have done so without absolute guarantees of wages and future medical care.
And I don't know which one is "right" or "better."
Try a book by Vernon O Egger: A history of the Muslim world to 1405
It was used in one of my courses on the history of the Islamic Middle East.
Or if you want, you can read the first biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq.
It one of the sources used on understanding his life by every scholar. However since you are asking about biases you should note that the only surviving copy of this work is a self proclaimed redaction and editing of it by Ibn Hisham.
You asked for everything really, but here is a selection I personally like that is more focused on the biography of Muhammad.
For Muslim books on the biography of the Prophet, I highly recommend:
A Biography of the Prophet of Islam: In the Light of the Original Sources, an Analytical Study
In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
On the more academic side of his life and following centuries, I recommend:
Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction
Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World
In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam
For the four best primary sources of his biography translated into English:
The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi
The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya
The Life of Muhammad
The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad
Currently, the translation of Ibn Ishaq's Seera RasulAllah:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0196360331?keywords=life%20of%20muhammad&qid=1453252097&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2
Got this from interloan at the library, but haven't quite gotten into it yet:
http://www.amazon.com/Banquet-Reading-Fifth-Rhetorica-Semitica/dp/193499605X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453252143&sr=8-1&keywords=the+banquet+quran
Thanks
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Muhammad-I-Ishaq/dp/0196360331/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0196360331&pd_rd_r=XFBHWWVBPG0EZ9HQ5KK8&pd_rd_w=yuUu7&pd_rd_wg=fjqRB&psc=1&refRID=XFBHWWVBPG0EZ9HQ5KK8
I'm currently reading and rereading:
http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Vintage/dp/0307475298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288744028&sr=1-1
Tokyo Vice - Jake Adelstein
Jake Adelstein wrote a book about his experiences with yakuza called Tokyo Vice. It was a fascinating read.
The US has gotten very interested in Yakuza activity in the US in recent years. See also Tokyo Vice which goes into how the FBI fast tracked a liver transplant for a Japanese mob boss in exchange for help on a bust in the US.
I do not but this might interest you http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Underworld-Times-American-Gangster/dp/0375724893
It's not a particularly easy read but interesting enough.
Luvassa elokuvia, elokuvia ja ehkä joku satunnainen Netflix-sarja. Kokemusta aion ryydittää oluella.
Historiapuolelta voi suositella Robert Whitingin Tokyo Underworldia. Ensimmäinen luku on hieman hidas, kun kertomus pohjustetaan katsauksella 2. maailmansodan jälkeisen Japanin tilanteeseen.
Tämän jälkeen alkaakin sitten aivan uskomaton tositarina, kun länsimainen gangsteri päättää avata pizzerian Roppongiin ja vallata oman nurkkansa yakuzojen vedonlyöntibisneksistä. Kulttuurishokista seuraa surrealistista menoa, puolin ja toisin.
The Manchester books are terrific: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Winston-Churchill-1874-1932/dp/0385313489
A few peeves, though:
There's a pretty good book on this sort of thing.You need to go digging through historical biographies and text to get a more typical view of what life was like back then (I'd start with those I recommended above.. A lot of people, myself included aren't a fan of Churchill's politics, but if you look at him through the lense of his era and keep in mind his differences to you or I... As in we weren't born in a palace as the son of a lord, on a first name basis with all of the richest & most powerful gentry. Getting to hang out in his teens & taken places by the Prince of Wales/the future King, Edward VII (who his mother was probably sleeping with)) its a great read and will give you a decent insight into what life was like for both the gentry & the people who worked for them:
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Winston-Churchill-1874-1932/dp/0385313489
The book on how great today is:
https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/1451614217
...which goes directly to the regime though, right?
I highly recommend this book:
Winston Churchill
Edit: A great read on Churchil. Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II
Madhsree Mukherjee's book, Churchill's Secret War on how Churchill's decisions ravaged India.
www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Secret-War-Madhusree-Mukerjee/dp/0465024815
This is the source
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0465024815/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/192-7943566-6126142
While the statistics might have been inaccurate, it goes without saying that it was a result of policy failure.
http://m.ibtimes.com/bengal-famine-1943-man-made-holocaust-1100525
Ak fazlul haq even predicted the famine, still he was ignored.
Also Churchill's response when he was informed of the famine wasn't quite pleasant either.
It is kind of amazing to remember that many North Koreans aren't even in a position to care about abstract concepts like freedom: they're too hungry to care about anything but staying alive. One escapee from a prison camp, in his autobiography, said that he didn't escape because of political persecution, he escaped because in his mind the outside world was a place where you could eat as much meat as you wanted.
This is a tell all...pretty messed up stuff. Great read.
[Escape From Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329)
if you're okay with pretty modern history, I recommend North Korea. the secretiveness about the country is fascinating.
For documentaries, i recommend National Geographic: Inside North Korea. there's also the Vice Guide to North Korea and I also personally like their documentary on North Korean work camps inside Russia. If you have netflix, there's also Kimjongilia and Crossing the Line.
As for books, I really liked Nothing to Envy:Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It talks about the lives of several defectors mainly during the famine in the 90s and also talks about how their lives are now in South Korea. Right now i'm reading Escape from Camp 14
which is about a guy who escaped from one of North Korea's many prison camps.
With a lot of recent events, I think it's important to understand the history of the country. also, Korea under Japanese rule might be interesting to.
Good Luck :)
EDIT: spelling
Would probably read this one first to get some general background. It’s a lighter read: https://www.amazon.com/China-21st-Century-Everyone-Needs/dp/0199974969
Perhaps the most authoritative reading on Deng specifically: https://www.amazon.com/Deng-Xiaoping-Transformation-China-Vogel/dp/0674725867
Another good one (more about international relations): https://www.amazon.com/China-Henry-Kissinger/dp/0143121316
This is a good one if you want to learn about the economic reforms under Deng: https://www.amazon.com/Markets-over-Mao-Private-Business/dp/0881326933
That line wasn't written for the movie, it's something a serviceman actually said to Michael Herr, and apparently the psychopath meant it.
https://www.amazon.com/Dispatches-Michael-Herr/dp/0679735259
Dispatches by Michael Herr. It's exactly like Fear and Loathing except you replace the Vegas Strip with a South Korean jungle and add sadness.
Dispatches by Michael Herr is a great read from a reporter's perspective in Vietnam.
Well I mean this guy wrote it, they are his stories https://www.amazon.com/Dispatches-Michael-Herr/dp/0679735259
While not exactly geopolitical, I read a history of Genghis Khan which isn't necessarily fictionalized, but delivered with a readable narrative, in 9th grade, that left a lasting impression on me.
https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705
There were a lot of islands separated by a lot of ocean. Lack of communication was probably the primary factor in them thinking they had to fight on. No Surrender is a good book about a soldier that hid for thirty years thinking the war was still on. People knew he was out there, but he refused to believe the Japanese Empire would ever surrender. Even when they dropped newspapers describing current events in Japan, he thought "those crafty Americans and their propaganda." A hand written note from his brother that was dropped was also dismissed with him thinking "now they have even imitated his handwriting!"
I read his book:
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-My-Thirty-Year-War/dp/1557506639
It's actually fascinating.
not sure if it was posted in here but good read!
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-My-Thirty-Year-War/dp/1557506639
Does Xi's book cover economics in any detail? It's on my reading list, but the list is long and I'm not great at reading...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1602204098/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9MzDDb3EYCY4B
Anyone read this? Any lessons for Pakistan?
How can he compare North Korea and Germany?
Maybe because it's a very very very similar situation but North Korea actually succeeded in separating themselves from the outside world so they can do whatever the hell they want to their people.
Read this and that'll change your point of view: http://www.amazon.ca/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A
Escape from Camp 14 is the book you're thinking of, I think.
The book by Allison is a rather terrible representation of PM Lee Kuan Yew. Most of the quotations from Lee are from speeches he made or from recorded interviews, while very few are from Lee's writing,
Some of the quotes are also edited out of context. For example, LKY have talked about the problem of religious fundamentalism, in Singapore context, which were (external) Muslim radicalization and christian evangelism. The latter was an headache for our multicultural and multiracial society when fundamental Christians tries to convert our Muslim Malay. That got turned into a discussion on just Muslim radicalization, with the latter dropped.
The book is edited to be more palatable to a western audience. It can be a good primer, but really it contains little about the thought of the man itself. I would suggest reading the writing by the man himself.
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story - 1965-2000
The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew
The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew
>Are you trying to say that the US is more centralized and top-down oriented than fascist dictatorships/Imperial Japan was?
This is what happens when you edit out the end of the sentence. It was a dictatorship with a MENTAL DEFECTIVE at the helm. Thus there was a total break down in chain of command. Read Bix's book Hirohito for more.
Learn to read for comprehension, not snip out bits that catch your eye.
An interesting aside to this is how close Emperoro Hirohito of WWII fame/infamy was chronologically to the Meji Restoration that we all associate with samurai and bushido and the like; Emperor Meiji was Emperor Hirohito's grandfather. Japan's transformation from a feudal society utilizing horses and swords to an industrialized nation, then a world power, was incredibly swift.
A very interesting Hirohito biography, lots of good info about him and Japan from the start of the twentieth century to the American occupation of postwar Japan: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060931302
You can do something about it by donating to charities that support girls' education in Afghanistan. Last week I gave $25 to The Asia Foundation's Afghan Girls' Education Fund. National Geographic is matching donations at this time :)
Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world and one of the largest disparities in literacy between men and women (source)
Girl's education reduces child mortality rates, increases womens' independence, increases equality, leads to increased women's rights, and increases the probability that her children are educated (Reference - PDF)
I recommend these related books:
Half the Sky
Three Cups of Tea
Stones Into Schools
my GPS
or...
an alternative suggestion:
I just read "Three Cups of Tea".
(TCT on Wikipedia)
Please take a picture of a teacher teaching girls, everywhere you go.
Escape From Camp 14
It bummed me out but it was a great read.
Escape from Camp 14 (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916) tells a survivor's tale of escape from one of North Korea's brutal prison camps. It's terrifying and very real. Will piss you off and give you nightmares.
That was surprisingly accurate and reasonable.
I really hope whoever is helping him write these script is helping him make foreign decisions too.
North Korea is the worst. The concentration camps there are far worse than hitler. Hitler's camps are paradise comparatively.
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Morals are learned. There are normal people who would kill pregnant women and poison family to test types of chemical weapons and not feel any guilt. Apparently they felt like those who were killed deserved it. All because the regime fcked with their heads.
https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/
I read Escape from Camp 14 in which the author was imprisoned because of the crimes of his parents.
I can't remember, but I think he never found out what they had done.
Awful, brutal story.
And if one gets the feeling it's all fun and games, here's a book on the subject.
Take a look at Sartre's Nausea. Although it takes place in the middle of a city, in terms of isolation, the author still manages to make it feel like it's taking place on the moon.
Escape from Camp-14 might be another thing you could look into.
What world do you live in? Seriously, I would really like to know what deluded fantasy that you live in where this kind of money goes back to the people. It doesn't. You think this tourism helps people, think its help them open their eyes? Well what happens then if their eyes are somehow magically opened by the tourists who they have little to no contact with. Its not like you can walk up to someone and start talking to them, or does somehow the sight of a foreigner open their eyes to over 60 years of continuous brainwashing? But say they are somehow magically opened, what then? They are stuck in a country where their neighbors would rat them out for a hint of dissent, and they and their entire family would be shipped off to concentration camps that would make the Nazis proud.
Are you so fucking naive to believe this actually helps the citizens? Every time we try to give aid to the North, we can't even get the simplest guarantee from them that they would go to the people. They can't even finish their own infrastructures without foreign help, and even if they finish the outside they don't even bother to work on the inside. The vast majority of their spending goes to the military, we know this for a fact, that's why they invest so heavily into nuclear weapons and they actually have been able to accomplish some things (albeit poorly).
Economic liberalization would be helpful to the North for a variety of reasons but this is all tightly controlled, regulated and run by the state. This is not some private enterprise of North Koreans, they are carefully, screened, chosen and watched by a state, whose only purpose is to keep itself afloat and to keep its top people rich off the backs of its own citizens. But this tourism is stupid, especially when people come back with these misguided ideas of "Oh it doesn't look so bad". To think that this benefits anyone other than the state is a complete delusion. If you actually want to learn something about North Korea I would reccomend those books.
song of ice and fire
130577878| > None Anonymous (ID: mXFgZAVg)
Here's an super-graphic book on the 200,000 people who were born into North Korean prison camps
>kids fighting over the undigested corn kernels they find in pig manure
>being strung up for questioning and put over a fire burning your whole back
>snitching on your to-be-executed parents for food
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
yes, i am pretty sure it was this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
> But to address your point you make on Immigration tariffs, what's wrong with making people pay to immigrate?
what if it were a bunch of whahabist Saudi's? they have the money..... to buy citizenship... whats wrong with rich whahabists (the extreme version of Islam ISIS Al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia ascribe to) and no religious safeguards? this is a self answering question
>Why should someone be able to come from a different country, to this country and instantly get access to all the social services and security nets that this country offers it's citizens, when they haven't paid a red cent into the system?
read this book if you can, i highly recommend it, or this one, or this one, or this one , or this one.... etc
see above, also because if they are are unable to pay, and they are fleeing say, our bombs? or warfare aided by us? or our lovely Wahhabi Saudi allies or economic hardship caused by capitalist greed... the list goes on, but we have no problem causing that as a nation, the time for this line of dialogue was back before we went to war for 17 years as Americas loyal lapdogs, over a lie of WMD's that little johnny KNEW was a lie (or was too much of a weak person to demand the truth about) after spending BILLIONS at war, crying poor mouth when it comes time to fix what we did, just doesn't sit right, why is nobody ever asking "how are we going to pay for XYZ" when it comes to buying obsolete hand me down jets, defective jets or retrofitting nuclear subs to diesel? or drones (which there is a good case to be made, actually causes more terrorism than conventional planes) to the tune of BILLIONS AND BILLIONS
>If the profession they work in, is not in an 'in demand' area, then while we have thousands of unemployed Australians, why should we be taking these people in? Further disadvantaging the native Australians.
>This idea has been championed by Nobel Prize laureate Professor Gary Becker, who argues that a tariff is always preferable to a quota approach on efficiency grounds as it applies price theory rather than bureaucratic procedures.
>native Australians.
drone king Obama also won a peace prize, after he droned his own citizens (albeit terrorists) depriving them of their constitutional rights, lets not put too much weight into a peace prize, after all of you know who DR nobel was......there was an invention of his.....
>None of that seems bad.
on the face of it no no it doesn't, the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" comes to mind
>The Liberal Democrats are, however, opposed to those who seek to impose their religious views on the entire population
so as a religious view, one couldn't say stop gay marriage on a national level, and that i agree with, but one certainly could do a chick fill-a
Are you familiar with the novel, Escape from Camp 14? It was a very moving read. The subject of it, Shin Dog-hyuk, also worked for a similar human rights organization after he escaped the prison camp.
To answer your question, I am not interested in killing thousands of innocent North Koreans, many of whom are good people, but rather the people who are enslaving, killing and torturing them, often for decades while wiping out whole family lines. I hope you aren't too sympathetic towards kim and the cabal surrounding the kims who perpetuate this mass and inane human slaughter but if you are in favor of it, not much else needs to be said. The problem is there are too many pieces of old artillary pointed towards Seoul and they can't all be neutralized at once. I would like for the suffering to stop for the NK people though if it ever becomes possible from an international standpoint. If you would like to learn more about what the North Korean people go through I highly recommend you read;
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
https://www.amazon.com/Every-Falling-Star-Survived-Escaped/dp/1419721321/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492036877&sr=1-1&keywords=star+north+korea
Also you might like watching this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyqUw0WYwoc
and to lighten up the mood after;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0TYCEXmi90
edit: fixed derpy stuff, also added kim himself into it because he is responsible as are his inner circle and the military. also added some links to books i've read that give perspective.
from what i read they have nearly no fun at all.
you should check out this book as it goes very deep into what its like.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0143122916
> bourgeois propaganda
Really?
So, a country that would create Kijŏng-dong, wouldn't even consider telling their citizens that they are required to stay indoors for the filming of something?
As to sources, sources for what? That NK is completely fucked? I needn't look that hard.
Why are enough people attempting to escape that this begins to happen?
"I had to be careful of my thoughts because I believed Kim Jong-il could read my mind."
["He controls his administration exclusively. It operates absolutely by his word. It's an autocracy."](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/them/defector.html
)
I'm all for defending the Soc\Com view and promoting it, but if you think that NK is working out great and simply being held down by the capitalist majority, you're being ignorant. Take the picture of a pitch black NK surrounded by the lights of Japan, China, and SK. You would have me believe that that's a propaganda job? That they've colored over the actual amount of lights? Who exactly benefits from that? It's not like NK has some vast supply of resources that are highly sought after. They provide nearly nothing to the international community. The Korean was is long over, and the only benefit that NK serves currently is a Buffer between The US and China, which is why China props them up-something that they are growing quite tired of doing if the rumblings are indeed correct.
Propaganda benefits someone or something. If it doesn't, it serves no purpose.
Furthermore, are you trying to say that The Famine which was documented by numerous aid groups, wasn't true? In that case, what leads the NK military to lower its physical requirements in a fitting time span for stunted growth patterns due to undernourishment? Just plain chance?
I mean, read some books about the reality of NK. Here's some good choices-
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea
Nothing to Envy
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
Escape from Camp 14
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
If you honestly believe that his many people are part of some propaganda campaign to make a country that already looks terrible look worse, that's pure /r/conspiracy thinking.
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_clf7Ab99NDEFR
Also the person in the neighborhood that reports on you part I mentioned is from this book
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385523912/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_fmf7AbD5VBWRV
a movie based on this would be great: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143122916?pc_redir=1406967681&robot_redir=1
I recently read Escape from Camp 14. I really opened my eyes to this issue. Anyone that has any interest in the North Korea situation should read it.
you also need to read Sira and then some Hadith.As Quran and Sira equally play huge role.here is authentic copy http://www.amazon.com/Life-Muhammad-I-Ishaq/dp/0196360331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420744241&sr=8-1&keywords=sira+ibn+ishaq
You may want to read this book the life of Muhammad . It says a lot when the person who is given credit for the beginning of Islam has an 800 page historical book on his military campaigns. From a military standpoint it makes sense to take such views because you don't want subordinates betraying your ideology.
Yang is Taiwanese. He was born in New York, went to Exeter (the No.1 private high school in the US) and Brown. He got his law degree from Columbia University. He does not even speak Mandarin. (or just a little bit) His career was all about tech startups and created thousands of jobs for America. I am curious how you would become worry that he has any connection with the PRC. Taiwan and US are alliances!
I am from mainland China but I spent 6 years in the US, legally. Full scholarship and full-time job. I was quite surprised to find out about the misunderstandings between America and Chinese people. I wish you could one day visit China and see how different it is from the narratives you read about in your media.
For the meantime, I would recommend you to read the former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan-Yew’s opinion about China and US. Probably this book by a Harvard professor:
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kuan-Yew-Insights-international/dp/0262019124/
Lee as the third-party and one of the best country leaders provide a lot of insights in this book.
Wow you really are full of yourself. Honestly, you're not coming off as very knowledgeable of anything, quite frankly.
Read:
https://www.amazon.com/Destined-War-America-Escape-Thucydidess/dp/0544935276
https://www.amazon.com/Can-Asians-Think-Kishore-Mahbubani/dp/9814276014
https://www.amazon.com/When-China-Rules-World-Western/dp/0143118005
https://www.amazon.com/World-Disarray-American-Foreign-Policy/dp/0399562362
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kuan-Yew-Insights-International/dp/0262019124
Ｔｈｉｓ ｉｓ ｂｏｏｋ ｏｆ ｅｘｐｅｒｔ ｏｆ ｊａｐａｎ ｃｒｉｍｅ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ”ｙａｋｕｚａ”
https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc
If you want to more more about that, i highly recommend the book Tokyo Vice
Tokyo Vice
ake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, where for twelve years he covered the dark side of Japan: extortion, murder, human trafficking, fiscal corruption, and of course, the yakuza. But when his final scoop exposed a scandal that reverberated all the way from the neon soaked streets of Tokyo to the polished Halls of the FBI and resulted in a death threat for him and his family, Adelstein decided to step down. Then, he fought back. In Tokyo Vice he delivers an unprecedented look at Japanese culture and searing memoir about his rise from cub reporter to seasoned journalist with a price on his head.
https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jake_Adelstein&oldid=627123879
OMG, he is coming out with a movie 'Tokyo Vice'. Starring Daniel Radcliffe. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2887954/
He is described as an American reporter, not Jewish.
http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Vintage/dp/0307475298
How Jewish networking works. Here he is promoted by Jon Stewart Leibowitz. He got Howard Rosenberg at ABC to get the Washington Post to publish his story.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/1stsxc/jake-adelstein
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0742222/
I am father fond of Foreign Babes in Beijing by Rachel DeWoskin and I just finished Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. Both are about foreigners and their observations living and working in China/Japan. It's interesting stuff.
Last Summer I read Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice, right after Ronson's Psychopath Test, actually. The two are quite different, not just in subject matter; I found Ronson's neuroses endearing, while Adelstein's subtle narcissism sometimes nagged at me. I would say both are in the same ballpark though, page turner journeys on fascinating subjects, by authors with relatable voices.
Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein
Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan by Robert Whiting.
Book description:
>"A fascinating look at some fascinating people who show how democracy advances hand in hand with crime in Japan."--Mario Puzo
>In this unorthodox chronicle of the rise of Japan, Inc., Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, gives us a fresh perspective on the economic miracle and near disaster that is modern Japan.
>Through the eyes of Nick Zappetti, a former GI, former black marketer, failed professional wrestler, bungling diamond thief who turned himself into "the Mafia boss of Tokyo and the king of Rappongi," we meet the players and the losers in the high-stakes game of postwar finance, politics, and criminal corruption in which he thrived. Here's the story of the Imperial Hotel diamond robbers, who attempted (and may have accomplished) the biggest heist in Tokyo's history. Here is Rikidozan, the professional wrestler who almost single-handedly revived Japanese pride, but whose own ethnicity had to be kept secret. And here is the story of the intimate relationships shared by Japan's ruling party, its financial combines, its ruthless criminal gangs, the CIA, American Big Business, and perhaps at least one presidential relative. Here is the underside of postwar Japan, which is only now coming to light.
More here:
Robert Whiting’s Adventures in the Tokyo Underworld
> It actually isn't
Well crap, I thought this was based on a book. So it doesn't even have that.
Tokyo Underworld, nuff said.
http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Underworld-Times-American-Gangster/dp/0375724893
Adding on to this if you wanted to read a book on the historical aspect of how integrated it all is, check out Tokyo Underworld. I had to read it for one of my seminar courses and boy was it a bit telling. The Yakuza are involved in so much.
From fiction what about Sherlock Holmes? In the original books he is portrayed as the King of the FAs.
What about examples from real life? Leonardo DaVinci, Nikola Tesla, and George Eastman qualify. Charles XII of Sweden is probably the greatest general most people have never heard of, and despite being handsome, athletic, and a king, he was probably FA.
Winston Churchill was about the geekiest FA on the planet and goes on live a rich fulfilling life. Yes, he eventually marries, but he basically marries his first and only serious girlfriend at almost 34 years old.
To me that qualifies and because you mentioned books I suggest you read Manchester's biography. It is stone cold brilliant: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Winston-Churchill-1874-1932/dp/0385313489
The Last Lion. It's a three part biography series, and they're some of the best biographies I've ever read.
If you want to know about Winston Churchill, this is the definitive series to read.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lion-Churchill-1874-1932/dp/0385313489
This guy epitomizes 'evil'. He has created 'Hell on Earth' and is probably the most bizarre person in the history of humanity. Read this; no it's not fiction
Food stocks from India (and from Australia Wheat stocks) were diverted to the Mediterranean theatre.
British Raj officials themselves pleaded with London (Churchill) to release stocks off food, British Army said Med theatre had adequate food stocks, yet the food was diverted to the Med.
The famine was in itself caused by scorched earth policy which messed up rice production in Burma. There was no way the British did not know that cutting away the rice supply from Burma would cause a famine like situation in India. Interestingly enough, according to Amartya Sen the British position is made weaker. He says food production actually increased and if they hadn't been diverted purposely to the Med, the famine wouldn't have even occurred.
The level of food supply is strangely very murky (some observers talk about a storm in 42 that wiped out an entire season's crop, Amartya Sen talks about excess food supply) but what is clear is India lost a fair portion of the rice imports from Burma (scorched earth) and massive food stocks were diverted to the Med.
However let me quote Madhushree Mukherjee,
>>The Japanese occupation of Burma in March 1942 cut off rice imports, of between one and two million tons per year, to India. Instead of protecting the Indian public from the resultant food shortage, the War Cabinet insisted that India absorb this loss and, further, export rice to countries that could no longer get it from South East Asia. As a result, after war arrived at India’s borders, the colony exported 260,000 tons of rice in the fiscal year 1942-43.
>>Meanwhile India’s war expenditures increased ten fold, and the government printed paper money to pay for them. In August 1942 a representative of India’s viceroy told the War Cabinet that runaway inflation could lead to “famines and riots.”
>>In December 1942, Viceroy Linlithgow warned that India’s grain supply was seriously short and he urgently needed 600,000 tons of wheat to feed soldiers and the most essential industrial workers. The War Cabinet stated that ships were not available. In January 1943, Churchill moved most of the merchant ships operating in the Indian Ocean over to the Atlantic, in order to build up the United Kingdom’s stockpile of food and raw materials. The Ministry of War Transport cautioned him that the shift would result in “violent changes and perhaps cataclysms” in trade around the Indian Ocean. (In addition to India, the colonies of Kenya, Tanganyika, and British Somaliland all suffered famine in 1943.) Although refusing to meet India’s need for wheat, Churchill insisted that India continue to export rice.
>>With famine raging, in July 1943 Viceroy Linlithgow halted rice exports and again asked the War Cabinet for wheat imports, this time of 500,000 tons. That was the minimum required to feed the army and otherwise maintain the war effort. The news of impending shipments would indirectly ease the famine, he noted: any hoarders would anticipate a fall in prices and release grain, causing prices to fall in reality. But at a meeting on August 4, the War Cabinet failed to schedule even a single shipment of wheat for India. Instead, it ordered the buildup of a stockpile of wheat for feeding European civilians after they had been liberated. So 170,000 tons of Australian wheat bypassed starving India—destined not for consumption but for storage.
>>Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s stockpile of food and raw materials, intended for shoring up the postwar British economy, reached 18.5 million tons, the highest ever. Sugar and oilseeds overflowed warehouses and had to be stored outdoors, under tarpaulins.
>>Of course Churchill knew that his priorities would result in mass death. In one of his tirades against Indians, he said they were “breeding like rabbits” anyway. On behalf of Indians, the War Cabinet ignored an offer of 100,000 tons of Burmese rice from freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose (who was allied with the Japanese), discouraged a gift of wheat from Canada, and turned down rice and wheat volunteered by the United States.
>>The War Cabinet eventually ordered for India 80,000 tons of wheat and 130,000 tons of barley. (Barley was useless for famine relief because it had no impact on prices.) The first of these meager shipments reached India in November. All the while, the Indian Army consumed local rice and wheat that might otherwise have fed the starving. The famine came to an end in December 1943, when Bengal harvested its own rice crop—at which point Churchill and his friend Cherwell renewed their demand for rice exports. Source
I strongly recommend her book as well, it is from this (and Sen's to a certain extent) that I came to the conclusion that the Bengal famine was not a famine, but a man made genocide.
Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II
The Bengal famine was no different from the Holdomor in the sense that it was death by starvation caused wilfully by a government that knew it's actions would result in the deaths of millions.
I'd really appreciate if you can provide a [reputable] source that supports your argument?
Here are some that disapprove your argument:
https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815
Some articles:
https://yourstory.com/2014/08/bengal-famine-genocide/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/10/how_churchill_starved_india.html
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-British-blamed-for-the-Bengal-Famine-of-1943-instead-of-the-Japanese
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815 This book, and this podcast has a good summary: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/15-the-prime-minister-and-the-prof
http://www.amazon.ca/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
That book is now on my wishlist.
Even when escapees reach China, they're not safe. China treats them as illegal immigrants. If they are caught, China will deport them back to North Korea, where they will be tortured and killed. So, escapees must still evade the Chinese authorities as they make their way to Laos, and then Thailand, before making it to South Korea. Another option would be to go right to Mongolia, as Mongolia is sympathetic to them, and will send them to South Korea. That is more direct, and a much, much shorter route, but almost never taken, as it requires traversing the Gobi Desert.
Naturally, Venezuela and Cuba both support North Korea, claiming that allegations of human rights abuses by North Korea are false, and China says North Kora has made much progress to protect human rights. (sources) Shameful.
Read this
i just read escape from camp 14, pretty amazing read
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West :(
I want to live in dancing Korea, not nightmare Korea :( :( :(
>150,000 in labor camps? Or death camps? Because they're not the same thing at all.
In North Korea they are. Life expectancy in North Korean labor camps is only a few years, due to the kind of abuses described in the link I provided earlier.
>You've linked some napkin drawings from a single defector
Are you suggesting that conditions in North Korean camps aren't as grim as what that defector portrayed? Because there are plenty of other sources on this. e.g.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670023329?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0670023329
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9826125/Google-Earth-exposes-North-Koreas-secret-prison-camps.html
>Someone must have been released instead of getting killed.
Or someone escaped, or someone from the North Korean government defected, or we have satellite images and other forms of espinonage.
Also, your statement that
>Pol Pots didn't even let people work and had true "death camps".
is utterly false. The VAST majority of Pol Pot's victims died in labor camps. If you go to Cambodia today you can still see irrigation canals dug by forced labor under Pol Pot. Most of the Cambodian genocide victims died from starvation and disease in those camps. You literally have no idea what you're talking about.
because post communist russia is complete shit. many chinese people like mao because, dispite some mistakes, they see him as a savior that took china out of a period of extreme corruption. also, a good book about post-mao china that i recommend is this one:
https://www.amazon.ca/Deng-Xiaoping-Transformation-China-Vogel/dp/0674725867
https://www.amazon.com/Deng-Xiaoping-Transformation-China-Vogel/dp/0674725867
You're telling me you can't even google?
I don't know that much about Mao. Pick up a biography of Deng Xiaoping if you want to know politics after Mao.
On Chinese politics: «Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China» by Ezra Vogel
https://www.amazon.com/Deng-Xiaoping-Transformation-China-Vogel/dp/0674725867
Check out Dispatches by Michael Herr. It's basically an oral history written as a novel in the journalistic style. Many of the characters in this book went on to be adapted for the screen in Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.
Dispatches by Micheal Herr. It's a war correspondent's memoir of covering the Vietnam war (I think for Esquire). It's my favourite book because Herr is just a really damned good writer.
Based on this book, Herr was hired by Stanley Kubrick to work on the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket. Quite of few scenes from this book made it into the film.
Random quote:
>"Going out at night the medics gave you pills, Dexedrine breath like dead snakes kept too long in a jar. [...] I knew one 4th division Lurp who took his pills by the fistful, downs from the left pocket of his tiger suit and ups from the right, one to cut the trail for him and the other to send him down it. He told me that they cooled things out just right for him, that could see that old jungle at night like he was looking at it through a starlight scope. "They sure give you the range," he said."
Amazon link
Google Books link
My suggestion is to read book-length journalism by top-tier journalists. Below are some examples. Also, you should check out the Longform podcast, which has interviews with journalists about their careers and their work.
David Carr - The Night of the Gun
David Remnick - Reporting: Writings from the New Yorker
Jennifer Gonnerman - Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
Jessica Mitford - The American Way of Death Revisited
Wendy Ruderman & Barbara Laker - Busted: A Tale of Corruption in the City of Brotherly Love
Michael Herr - Dispatches
https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Kind-War-Forward-Controller/dp/0891416382
Part of that book is written by one of those pilots. Balls of steel.
This book has absolutely nothing to do with learning to fly... But with regards to aviation, this book is my favorite:
A Lonely Kind of War: Forward Air Controller, Vietnam
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705# || Great book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Read it, if this is interesting to you.
I listened to this and Jack Weatherfords book in audio. I'd say the book is more detailed and would recommend it instead.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705
Go read Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Un you’ll quickly realize that this culture should not be praised.
The biggest take away I got from reading Dear Reader and listening to Michael Malice on the Joe Rogan podcast was that North Korea is literally a whole country that has been taken hostage by it's government. Meaning the people on some level there aren't that naive and stupid, they're just scared shitless and have to live a lie about it.
The book I'm talking about is also pretty candid and fascinating. The author has also been on the JRE podcast to talk about his experience, you can also youtube that if you have time:
https://www.amazon.ca/Dear-Reader-Unauthorized-Autobiography-Jong/dp/1495283259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525134369&sr=8-1&keywords=dear+reader&dpID=51ZCoQv2S1L&preST=_SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
Hiroo Onoda beat em by 2 years I think, I read his book recently, pretty awesome.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thirty-Year-Bluejacket-Books/dp/1557506639/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314298829&sr=8-2
No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War https://www.amazon.com/dp/1557506639/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nmajDb1MPSGBF
Different guy but the book you're looking for.
My personal recommendations:
My 30 year war by Onada Hiro:
This book was written by a Japanese lieutenant who refused to believe the war was over, and continued living in the jungles of the Philippines until the 70s.
https://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-My-Thirty-Year-War/dp/1557506639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493673294&sr=8-1&keywords=Hiroo+Onoda
Battleground Pacific by Sterling Mace. A first person account from a USMC rifleman who fought in the Pacific war. He is also a redditor.
https://www.amazon.com/Battleground-Pacific-Marine-Riflemans-Odyssey/dp/1250005051?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1250005051
And the Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, a French man who fought for the Germans on the Eastern Front.
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493673668&sr=8-1&keywords=the+forgotten+soldier+by+guy+sajer
Happy reading!
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thirty-Year-Bluejacket-Books/dp/1557506639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269570463&sr=8-1
comes from that guy that wouldn't surrender
Imi aminteste cam mult de asta si asta...
I am a grandkid of a woman that fled the Communist Party in North after the State police tortured her father and wrecked her family because her father could read and speak Japanese, post occupation. I don’t care if you hold socialist or whatever ideals and philosophy you deem suitable for your life. It’s your human right to believe in something regardless of what people say. But please don’t spread something that is so irrevocably untrue or at best controversial as a fact. My grandmother still has nightmares about the horror she saw when she was 12.
About the concentration camps, reportedly there are about 12 known concentration camps spread throughout the northern part of North Korea. Of course, NK government denies any of this, but there are countless anecdotal accounts of such camps from North Korean refugees and a few years back, we had the first NK refugee who was imprisoned in one of those camps. Later he went on to publish the book titled Camp 14 in English. I recommend you give it a read.
Those camps, according to him, are used as a way to maintain what is already failing regime. Their occupants range from political dissenters to families left behind defectors who successfully made the escape. Their size has been reported to have exceeded that of concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
*the book is titled Escape from Camp 14
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Let this sink-in:
He's an author of an amazon bestseller - escape from camp 14
Which is now turned out to be a fraud.
I just can't be bothered writing you a wikipedia article, simply because you don't have the required background knowledge to follow my meaning.
Why not read a book instead? This one is interesting enough.
Read Tokyo Vice It's the story of the only America jounalist to be amitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club. You'll find that the Yakuza and the TMP seem to have a very cozy relationship and that a lot of Japan's famed low crime rates should really should not be trusted.
> Hitler wasn't better during WW2
From our point of view.
Different countries have different interests. Israelis put a higher emphasis on tragedies that affected them directly. Americans put a higher emphasis on tragedies that affected them directly. So do the Russians, Amenians, Polish and every other people. We are Indians -- why should we, uniquely in the world, put others major tragedies, ahead of our own?
Remember -- Hitler was not genocidal towards Indians. Millions of Indians did not die because of him.
We should not be ignoring the fact that the death of millions o Indians is more pertinent to us.
> Nope this is simply not true,
It is. See Churchill's Secret War
> Churchill did is in no way comparable to the holocaust or the evil perpetrated by Imperial Japan.
It is ironic you say that, because in the first para I pointed out that India gave Hirohito 3 days of official mourning when he died. Hirohito was the head of Imperial Japan in WW2. He wielded the power in a pretty hands on manner, often overruling his generals/admirals. To ignore him is a pretty large gap for someone implicitly claiming to knowledgeable in "real history".
>There is a tremendous difference in degrees. To say otherwise is to lessen the victims of the holocaust and the victims in most of eastern Asia.
Many magnitudes more of Indians died due to British Rule. Even the period covered by Mike Davis' Late Victorian Holocausts has around 30 million. I have sympathy for the family of Holocaust victims, but it is you who are trivializing the deaths of tens of millions of Indians.
Hmm, I wonder if a website called the "Churchill Project might be a little biased.
Per Mukerjee:
>
The War Cabinet's shipping assignments made in August 1943, shortly after Amery had pleaded for famine relief, show Australian wheat flour traveling to Ceylon, the Middle east, and Southern Africa – everywhere in the Indian Ocean but to India. Those assignments show a will to punish.
In addition, the provincial government of Bengal never declared a state of famine. At best we have utterly incompetent and deadly neglect, at worst we have purposeful murder. Not that that isn't a common thread in imperial history...
Here is the other post that I thought I responded to you, and I did not:
is plenty of evidence that it could have been prevented: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/10/how_churchill_starved_india.html Here is a whole book: "https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481303289&sr=8-1&keywords=churchills+secret+war"
The common white-Western narrative that it was preventable is false. Here is a key piece for you:
"The scarcity, Mukherjee writes, was caused by large-scale exports of food from India for use in the war theatres and consumption in Britain - India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in. This would have kept nearly 400,000 people alive for a full year. Mr Churchill turned down fervent pleas to export food to India citing a shortage of ships - this when shiploads of Australian wheat, for example, would pass by India to be stored for future consumption in Europe. As imports dropped, prices shot up and hoarders made a killing. Mr Churchill also pushed a scorched earth policy - which went by the sinister name of Denial Policy - in coastal Bengal where the colonisers feared the Japanese would land. So authorities removed boats (the lifeline of the region) and the police destroyed and seized rice stocks."
Read on the topic before using insults.
" I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.” -Winston Churchill
you might be interested with this book: http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329
> Kindly link the history book, otherwise skidaddle.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705
https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/1491513705
Here is a book for you to read.
*dear reader.
EDIT: Also the name of the unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong Il by Michael Malice.
http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Reader-Unauthorized-Autobiography-Jong/dp/1495283259
OP isn't looking for neutral, he's looking for insights into how Singapore came to be. My recommendation: Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World. Not a book written by LKY, but a collection of his thoughts.
580k military deaths.
If you add the 1.5 – 3 million Bengalis that starved to death due to exporting food out of India to feed European allies, then it would be in the millions. Source.
I don't believe that all of Islam is that way. Tell him to try reading 3 cups of tea sometime.
Also, the Yakuza kill you if you step out of line w/ any of these unspoken rules. Or at the very least, if you have a dispute with a neighbor where they put their fence then you go to the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) to sort it out if you don't have the patience to wait the 1+ year it could take to settle in court . I'm not exaggerating about this latter example, check out out this book for how dominant the Yakuza is in Japanese culture: https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298