died on June 29, on the fifth day of the war while covering the withdrawal of ROK forces from Seoul; Corporal Ernie Peeler (Pacific Stars and Stripes) and Ray Richards (International News Service) died on July 10, when their jeep encountered a Communist tank north of Taejon; and Wilson Fielder (Time-Life) was killed by machine-gun fire on July 22, covering the evacuation from Taejon.
Two plane crashes took the lives of seven newsmen on their way from Tokyo to the war front: Maximillen Philokonenko (Agence France Presse), Albert Hinton (Journal and Guide), Stephen Simmons (London Picture Post), and James Supple (Chicago Sun Times) died when their C-47 crashed into the sea on July 27; Frank Emery, writer, and Charles Rosecrans, cameraman, both of International News Service, and Ken Inouye, newsreel cameraman for Telenews, died when their C-54 plunged into a fog-shrouded mountain on September 7. Ken, twenty-three, had married just three days before his departure.
Add to this list William R. Moore of the Associated Press, a former U.S. Army major, killed on July 30 near Chinju while with a U.S. tank unit, and Christopher Buckley (London Daily Telegraph) and Ian Morrison (the Times) who died on August 12 when their jeep hit a land mine near Taegu. The veteran Buckley had been awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1946 for his achievements as a combat correspondent. Morrison, Peiping-born former professor at a Japanese university, had been following in the footsteps of his father, "Chinese" Morrison, who won fame as a Times correspondent in China. Morrison was also reputed to be the correspondent in Han Suyin's A Many-Splendoured Thing.
The news stories and photos of these and other correspondents, and the daring of motion picture cameramen, brought the story of the war to the parents, friends, and neighbors of the fighting men in Korea. Among the outstanding still photographers were David Douglas Duncan and Carl Mydans of Life as well as Max Desfor and Jackson Ishizaki of AP and Ed Hoffman of UP.
Newsreel production fell into a different category from the print and broadcast media. When Ian Mutsu left UP in 1950 to go into newsreels, he formed ZM Productions with the Zenier brothers, Gene and Julie. The Zeniers had their own work for Warner Brothers, while Ian was under contract to Fox Movietone. Together, they did pooler work for a group of newsreel companies which showed their productions in motion picture theaters around the world. These were the days of the heavy 35 mm Eyemo cameras, and cameramen had to be strong and tough to lug this heavy equipment around on their travels. In later years, after commercial television was inaugurated in Japan in 1953 (February 1, 1953, for black-and-white television, October 10, 1955, for color television), cameramen could move around much more easily toting 16 mm cameras.
In the counteroffensive which drove the North Korean forces from Pyongyang back into the north, SCAP's policy of building up Japan paid off, according to William Manchester's biography of MacArthur, American Caesar. Japanese vessels carried U.N. troops across the straits to Korea; Japanese minesweepers helped clear the waters on both sides of the South Korean peninsula; Japanese stevedores volunteered to help unload the cargo in Korea. Japan provided a safe base for the U.N. operations.
Even as the U.N. forces moved into action in Korea, SCAP, with an eye on the Russian troops based in the northern islands of Sakhalin and the Kuriles, and submarines and other naval units concentrated in Nakhodka, built up Japan's economic and defensive structure. On July 18, MacArthur ordered a permanent ban on the publication of Akahata, the organ of the Communist Party. The U.N. Command also turned increasingly to Japanese industry for many of the supplies and equipment urgently needed in Korea. Japanese newspapers reported that as of October 29, Korean War procurement orders totaled $130 million.
On October 15, President Truman met MacArthur on Wake Island. An innocuous communiqué issued after the meeting said that the two leaders found themselves in agreement. It was only later that a dispute arose over what actually had been said and by whom. The question was how far Truman had authorized MacArthur to move north of the 38th parallel. Had MacArthur overstepped the bounds of his orders? On the answer hung the bigger question of who was responsible for Communist China entering the war.
The ROK forces crossed the 38th parallel on October 1 and pushed into North Korea. On October 7, the U.N. General Assembly rushed through a resolution declaring the U.N.'s objective to be the establishment of a unified, independent democratic government in all Korea. A front-wide crossing into North Korea followed. Combined U.N.-ROK forces entered and secured Pyongyang on October 20.
As they rolled northward, the U.N. troops fully expected to be "Home by Christmas," as MacArthur had predicted. Encouraging this euphoria was the welcome awaiting the U.S. Marines when they landed at Wonsan, on Korea's northeast coast, on October 25 to good-natured joshing from comedian Bob Hope and singer Marilyn Maxwell, who were there with assorted air units, ROK forces, and correspondents.
Injecting a disquieting note, some Chinese were among the North Korean prisoners taken by the U.N. forces on both the east and west coasts. They lent credence to intelligence reports that as many as two hundred thousand Chinese Communist "volunteers" already were inside North Korea and three hundred thousand more were massed at the border.
On November 27, the Chicoms attacked with blaring bugles on a 300-mile front south of the Yalu River. Joining the North Koreans, they drove the U.N.-ROK forces before them. On Christmas Eve, the Red army recrossed the 38th parallel and threatened Seoul once again.
On the day before, Lieutenant General Walton Walker had been killed in a jeep accident near Seoul. Lieutenant General Mathew B. Ridgway succeeded him as commander of the 8th Army. As a U.N. contingent, the 8th Army was a far different animal from the army that arrived in Korea four months before. It now consisted of 365,000 men from sixteen U.N. countries. In addition to the U.S. and the British Commonwealth Forces from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Great Britain, serving under the U.N. flag were contingents from Belgium, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. In addition, five nations sent hospital units. That was the situation at the end of 1950, when Ridgway drew back in a "strategic withdrawal" intended to trap the Chinese Reds into overextending their supply lines.
Describing the Club in those days, Hajime "jimmy" Horikawa recalls that the Club officers and staff had their hands full, straightening out billet assignments, procuring adequate stocks of food and liquor, and keeping the members happy.
Administering the Club was in the hands of capable and conscientious officers under successive presidents Joe Fromm and Bill Jorden. On the other hand, those were hectic times, and Club members had a war to cover. When Korea called, Tokyo and the Club became secondary.
Mary Ushijima was thrown into this maelstrom at its peak in October 1950. Mary, born and reared in Fremont, California, was thirty-three and married when she was hired by Fromm and Costello to manage the switchboard, the heart of the Club's operation. Being on the army signal system, the Press Club had fast and clear communications with Korea and the States.
News agencies and favored specials had offices in the Radio Tokyo Building, where they took calls from Korea. Communications were generally bell-like. But fadeouts and static could make talking to Korea a regression