The Jade Locket and the Red Star: An Untold History of the Invasion of Okinawa and Why Korea Is Now Two Countries Instead of One

The Jade Locket and the Red Star: An Untold History of the Invasion of Okinawa and Why Korea Is Now Two Countries Instead of One by Joan Uda Few people know that North Korea and South Korea were a single nation until July 1945 as WWII was ending in the Pacific. That was when an American committee, to prevent Joseph Stalin’s Red Army from taking all of Korea, drew a line at the 38th Parallel separating the north from the south. In early 1946 the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Commission was formed, to work with the U.S.S.R. to find a way to reunite North and South Korea under a single government. My father, Major Warren W. McAllister, U.S. Army, was Secretary to the American delegation. This memoir, tracks Dad’s war years through his service in military intelligence and military government during the Okinawa campaign and into Korea where he served with the Joint Commission and went on to rebuild the casualty insurance part of South Korea’s economy. The jade locket, for which the memoir is named, was given to Dad in thanks by four South Korean insurance companies after he was ordered home. The memoir begins with my father’s birth on a small Iowa farm in 1911, and ends after his death in 1991. It is also my own story as Dad's adopted daughter, and documents my powerful attachment to him from infancy--shown in my recently-obtained adoption papers. It includes my late-in-life curiosity about my birth parents, and the way I at last obtained my adoption file. This memoir is based on Dad’s military file of orders and other military documents, plus letters, photos, and other documents.