audiobook Israel: An Echo of Eternity by Abraham Joshua Heschel in History

Description

A bizarre; little-known tale about the most secretive culture on earthFor decades; North Korea denied any part in the disappearance of dozens of Japanese citizens from Japan’s coastal towns and cities in the late 1970s. But in 2002; with his country on the brink of collapse; Kim Jong-il admitted to the kidnapping of thirteen people and returned five of them in hopes of receiving Japanese aid. As part of a global espionage project; the regime had attempted to reeducate these abductees and make them spy on its behalf. When the scheme faltered; the captives were forced to teach Japanese to North Korean spies and make lives for themselves; marrying; having children; and posing as North Korean civilians in guarded communities known as “Invitation-Only Zones”―the fiction being that they were exclusive enclaves; not prisons.From the moment Robert S. Boynton saw a photograph of these men and women; he became obsessed with their story. Torn from their homes as young adults; living for a quarter century in a strange and hostile country; they were returned with little more than an apology from the secretive regime.In The Invitation-Only Zone; Boynton untangles the bizarre logic behind the abductions. Drawing on extensive interviews with the abductees; Boynton reconstructs the story of their lives inside North Korea and ponders the existential toll the episode has had on them; and on Japan itself. He speaks with nationalists; spies; defectors; diplomats; abductees; and even crab fishermen; exploring the cultural and racial tensions between Korea and Japan that have festered for more than a century.A deeply reported; thoroughly researched book; The Invitation-Only Zone is a riveting story of East Asian politics and of the tragic human consequences of North Korea’s zealous attempt to remain relevant in the modern world.