James Michener’s The Bridges at Toko-Ri is the perfect fictional exploration of one issue raised by Captain Paul K. Chappell in his book Will War Ever End?. The issue is “why do men go to war”, and the answer offered both by Michener and by Chappell is “to protect the ones they love.” Chappell goes further and questions the use of such mental manipulation to get men to fight when they wouldn’t be motivated to fight, and Michener goes further and questions the responsibility of both those in charge and those at home to honor the men who die in order to protect, regardless of the soundness of the war in the first place.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri is set during the Korean War, and focuses on the efforts of one airplane carrier to take out heavily guarded bridges set in a narrow valley pass: a difficult mission and one the commanders have deemed vital to bring the Koreans (and Russians — “the commies”) to their knees and surrender. Brubaker, one of the jet pilots on board, is a civilian called back into service against his will, having already served in World War II. Others on board are enlisted men, including tough-talking Mike Forney who joined up to stop “those commie monkeys”, or are career navy men, including Admiral Tarrant, who views Brubaker as a kind of replacement for the son he lost at Pearl Harbor.
Brubaker resents being brought to Korea and hates the war he is fighting. He did his duty in World War II, there was public sacrifice and support for that war, but now the war is utterly anonymous in the American mind: “It would be easier to take if people back home were helping. But in Denver nobody even knew there was a war except for my wife. Nobody supports this war.” Nevertheless, he is a good pilot, one of Tarrant’s best: “He still griped, he still damned the army, but he did his job. The admiral respected men like that.”
Tarrant has lost two sons to war and his wife to a spiraling insanity brought on by their deaths. He has paid the costs of war, he knows what those costs are but he is certain of their necessity: “He felt his nation did not realize it was engaged in an unending war of many generations against resolute foes who were determined to pull it down.”
“All wars are stupid,” grumbles one of the older officers on board and Tarrant would not disagree but he is also convinced that war is necessary: “you fight to save your civilization.“ When Brubaker’s wife and kids show up in Japan for a surprise visit, there is opportunity for a face-off between Tarrant and the wife over the necessity of war. She argues against it but Tarrant is sure that “these bright, lovely women, whose husbands did the fighting, wanted to end war on any terms; but these same women … would have to live through servitude or despair should America ever be occupied….“ Tarrant truly believes he is protecting the women and children of the United States and he is as certain that there will always be war: “Whole decades might pass in some kind of peace but more likely the desultory battles would stagger on and from each community some young men would be summoned to do the fighting.“ He foresees the only end of war to be when there is no more threat of “humiliation“.
While Tarrant cannot convince Brubaker or his wife of the necessity of war, they do both come to understand the honor of the men who are fighting it: “tough adversaries when there was no alternative.“ When Brubaker makes his first run at the bridges, he sees that bravery in the men around him: “Sometimes you look honor right in the face. In the face of another man. It’s terrifying.“ Terrifying because Brubaker knows he has that capacity within himself, to fight hard and courageously — and to die doing it.
Tarrant prepares Nancy for the possible death of her husband, warning her that “if we refuse to acknowledge what we’re involved in, terrible consequences sometimes follow.” Strong words from Michener: if we refuse to acknowledge the horrors and costs of war, the consequences will always be more war.
Michener effectively illustrates the tension between those who stay at home and those who fight, and the responsibility owed by the former to the latter. ReadingThe Bridge at Toko-Ri underscored for me the sacrifice made by soldiers. It is utterly repugnant to pursue a war based on lies and to demand fighting by men motivated through lies told to them and bribes offered to them (today’s signing bonuses and death benefits). The least we can do here far away from the killing fields is to remember these people who are dying every day in Afghanistan and Iraq. The best we can do is to work towards the vision laid out by Captain Chappell: “To end war once and for all, [we must] change how people understand human nature, war and peace….We can journey toward a global civilization of peace and prosperity.“ No more humiliation but instead reconciliation, a world where honor is not terrifying, but enlightening: the honor of peace sought, and found.
