The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that …
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")