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The Bridges of Toko-Ri by James Michener
New York: Bantam Books, 1953

     On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill's proclaimed in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."   He warned a number of Eastern European cities were "subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow."
     The following year, on March 12, 1947 in front of a joint session of Congress Harry Truman declared, "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." While the immediate danger at the time was the increasing influence of Communists in Greece, Truman's policy faced one of its greatest tests when Truman committed US troops to support a "police action" to suppress the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korean troops.
     In The Bridges of Toko-Ri James Michener tells the story of the US Navy pilots and crew aboard the USS Savo aircraft carrier. Many are draftees, and some express their frustration at being asked to fight in a war that is receiving minimal attention and support on the home front. However, most share the President's commitment to containing Communism, and in spite of the personal sacrifices required, they risk their lives in support of stopping Communist aggression.
     The story centers on a vital mission to destroy the bridges at Toko-Ri that are used to move Communist troops and supplies to the south. It is a difficult and dangerous mission, and not all of the pilots ordered to destroy the them will return.

Comment
     While many of the characters in the book are fictional, Michener accurately portrays the difficult decisions and risks faced by the US aviators who fought in the Korean War. The book successfully personalizes the experience of US combatants in the conflict. In many respects, the Korean War proved a precursor to both to US policy and the difficult choices faced by US troops asked to fight in the Vietnam War a decade later.

Reading Level: Young adult
Interest Level: Young adult
106 pages

Supports the following Instructional Objectives:

Trace the Movement of America from Isolationism to Increased Involvement in the Global Arena resulting from the spread of Communism and fear of the Domino Theory

Excerpt

     He went up on the bridge to check the rolling sea for the last time. "What would they have us abandon to the enemy?" he asked. "Korea? Then Japan and the Philippines? Sooner or later Hawaii?" He walked back and forth pondering this problem of where abandonment would end, and as the sleet howled upon him he could not fix that line: Maybe California. Colorado. Perhaps we'd stabilize at the Mississippi." He could not say. Instead he held to one unwavering conviction: "A messenger will run in and tell the commissars, "They even knocked out the bridges at Toko-Ri.' And that's the day they'll quit." Then reason might come into the world.

Picture of the USS Savo Island courtesy of NavSource On-line at:
www.navsource.org/archives/03/078.htm
Accessed July 30, 2002

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