So, two years ago, I joined a platform attack, and this is the most recent picture of our team, and if you zoom in a little bit, you're going to see me right there. Don't ask me why I look so satisfied in this picture, because I had no idea. Anyway, this is how you can find me on the Internet, and by looking on the previous slide, you can guess that I post a lot of silly stuff on Twitter. So if you want to follow me there, do it at your own risk. But also, if you want to give feedback on this talk, that would be really appreciated. Anyway, you might have heard of us due to our open source work, but the form attack is known for some ruby gems like device and simple form. And also, the possibility to work on those gems is one of the reasons that made me want to join the company in the first place. But when I got there, most people that maintained those projects had either left or created a new language. The truth is, we get paid by clients to deliver projects. So most people that did open source did it in their spare time, which means that once those people left, the projects became inactive. So issues and poor requests would sit there for weeks without any response. And I wanted to help, but I didn't know where to start. It was only then at RubyConf Brazil 2017, where Rafael França gave a keynote about the future of the Ruby community. And he talked about how Ruby is not a cool new thing anymore. Everyone just want to talk about Go and Elixir or Rust or something. So the question was, what's our future then? Well, he said that the future of the Ruby community is brilliant, but it depends on us. And basically, he was saying that everyone can help. We can do open source. We can write blog posts about cool things we learn. We can organize and attend to local meetups. Or you can just talk to your colleague and share something cool you've done at work. Those are always to keep the language interesting for new developers and to give it back to the community. So after that, I decided to do it. I decided to maintain the device gem. Just so you have an idea, this is how things look like at that time. We had about 150 issues and 51 poor requests. And this is how things look like now, which I believe is way better. Thank you. So the reason I'm here today is to share my journey with you, the things I struggled with and the mistakes that I made and the lessons I learned from them. And to tell you that if you ever wanted to contribute to open source but thought you're not good enough, hopefully my story can convince you otherwise. And hopefully I can convince you to go ahead and try it. And based on that, the first thing that I can tell to you is that you are good enough. I really think that everyone can do open source. But I do know it's hard to start, right? And part of that, I believe, is because we think we have to call to help. We got to understand like the whole code base before we can do anything. But I think the quickest way to start is to do issue triage. What does that mean? So triage is the process of examining problems in order to decide which ones are the most serious and must be dealt with first. And for open source, this means ensure that the issues follow the recommendations from the project's contributing guide. So some projects have a file like this one. This contains guidelines on how to contribute and report issues to that project. So for example, on Rails, they ask you to send feature requests to a mailing list. But we do accept feature requests on device, so those things will be different depending on the project. That's why I recommend you to read that file before you do anything else. And if the project doesn't have one of those, like you can create an issue and ask for it, that would be a great way to start contributing. So here is what the device asks for contributors when reporting issues. Include a title and a clear description as much relevant information as possible and either a test case or a sample Rails app that replace the issue. And you say that because it's hard to fix bugs without information, right? It's kind of like when someone says our site's not working. And like one of the first things we ask is, which browser are you using? In device, we also ask for a failing test case because we want people to try to reproduce the issue in isolation. This means without any other gems, just device and Rails. And we say that because the most common case is expecting to be working since we have tests for it, right? Or at least we hope so. So unless a lot of people are experiencing the same issue, chances are it's been caused by a combination of things that is very particular of their application. Now, not saying it's not a bug in the library, it might be it. But by doing this, people can find out what's wrong. The combination of things that's causing that issue. And this will give us a better direction of where to look at it. So that's the first thing I did. I just looked at four issues that were missing information and would ask the actor to send it. And then I would just add this needs more information label. And I just want to give a side note here. You can probably see that I've replaced this person's handle with the GitHub Ghosts user profile.  But I ask you not to because I don't want to expose anyone in this talk. It's just easy for me to talk about things that really happen and to show you the lessons that I learned. But I do want to talk about situations here and not individuals. Okay, so two weeks after I asked for that information, I will look for issues with the needs more info label that didn't have any response and just close them. I know two weeks is an arbitrary value, but it seems like a good time spent for people to come back at us. And if they haven't yet, maybe the issue is not their priority right now or they couldn't reproduce in isolation. And another thing the device contributing guide says is, avoid opening new issues to ask questions. Please go through the project's week. Documentation answers could first or try to ask your question as tech over flow. And about this one, I want to say that it's really important to ask questions. But the issues tracker may not be the best place for it. And I say that because the only people that receive notifications in there are the maintainers and the watchers. The watchers are usually there just to know about new versions or the issues. So they're probably not going to answer any questions, which leaves us with the maintainers that are usually not much people, you know, few people. So if you ask a question on the device and wait just for me to answer, it's gonna take a while. So that's why we say that's better to ask on public forums like Stack Over Flow. But again, this is going to depend on the project. I know that some projects accepted will help pay requests on GitHub and works well for them. Other projects also use mailing lists or forums just for this. So yeah, it's going to depend on the project. So that's the other thing I did on issue triage. I would just look for issues that were help requests and close them. And I do a lot of this in the beginning. But this is something I've been trying to do differently lately because when I realized the person might be a beginner, I tried to give them a better answer. It's easier after some user experience to forget how it was like when we started, right? But I do remember I was afraid to ask questions at work.  So I think it takes a lot of courage to ask a question, especially in a public forum like GitHub. And I don't want the first experience to be this bad. So when I can, I give them a better answer. Like, one time someone opened an issue saying that they were not seeing the flash messages in the device. And I know that Rails doesn't show those flash messages by default. You have to do it in your application. So I answer explaining this to them. And I wish I could do this more often, but sometimes we just can't, because there's not enough time. And some help requests are we're more complex than this one. So what I'm saying here is that issue triage is a great way to start. I could, like, this made me feel productive very fast. And it doesn't require any previous knowledge of the code base. And after doing it for a while, I gained a lot of context of the project and the current problems it was facing. And if you do that, you'll get to know how the maintainers work and the common questions they ask on issues input requests, which will probably help you in the future when you start sending patches for them. I highly recommend you to read Steve Klebinick's blog post. He explains how he started doing issue triaging Rails. And one interesting thing that he says in this article is that he used it to do it 15 minutes per day. And he was to do it before leaving the office or after lunch. I actually do it a lot while waiting for a CI. So now you know how you can start and also how to do it without spending a lot of time. But now you might be saying, but I'm not a maintainer. And I gotta tell you, the only thing you can do is click on the merge button. So seriously, you don't have push access to the repository, but you can still do issue triage the same way that I do. And as a matter of fact, some people are already doing this in device, like this person who asked it for a sample application. And this other one who asked a couple of questions to try to clarify what the issue was. And this is just an example of how we can start contributing. There are so many other ways to start help, like review pull requests. So you can look for possible issues and pull requests. Ask first test because honestly, if I see a pull request that doesn't have tests, that's basically the first thing I would do anyway. And you can also test the solution. This one is very important because if you're experiencing an issue and like found a pull request for it, just test it, test your application with that code to see if it works and comment back in the pull request what you have find. Like this will help the maintainers a lot, just to have a confirmation that the issue is actually happening by a second person. You can reproduce an issue. Share what you have found in the issue page. Or share your solution. This can be writing blog posts or asking questions and start over flow. Or just on the GitHub issue tracker. If you know the answer, like this person did, just share with the community. And lastly, you can write documentation. Cause when I started, I struggled a lot with the vice test suite. I spent some time discovering how to run tests on specific arrays and Ruby versions.  And I hope this will help others that wish to contribute to that project in the future. So those are all examples of how you can contribute without having to write code. Because for me, open source is about helping people. And there are a lot of ways to do it that don't involve writing any code. That's great, but now you might be wondering, we're just asking for information, reproduction steps and stuff. What happens when they do send us the required information? So it's time to reproduce the issue. And this can be run a failing test case or just follow the reproduction steps. And once we confirm that an issue is happening, it's time to understand why. Because what we're going to do next depends on the issue. Cause if it is a regression, which means it uses to work on a previous version, we can use the git bisect comments to find out which comments introduced that regression. Now, I'm not going into the details of bisect here, but I do recommend you to read Jason Draper's article. He explains very well how to use it. But sometimes we are after unknown issues and things that never worked before. And for me, this is kind of like when you join a company and they give you a ticket to work on without any kind of onboarding. And you just spend a lot of time, diving to the code, messing around to see what's happening. And so for me, one thing that's being very helpful is the pry gen. Probably a lot of you already know it, but I wanted to share a couple of articles with you because before having to dive into the vizes code, that was mostly a push the booger. And so maybe those articles can help you get along with pry too, if you want. The first one is the bugging rails with pry. And the second one is git labs, pry the bugging guide. Another thing that I really recommend you to read is reading your framework search by Orish Akid. He explained some techniques that helped to understand an unknown code base, like looking at unit tests, for example, because they can serve as documentation, telling us how the code behaves in different situations. Okay, great. So now this is all to find out the code that's causing the issue. But what happens when we do find that code? And I think it's always hard to understand the piece of code that we're not used to. My colleague, Hongi, wrote something that I think summarizes this feeling very well. Also read a piece of code for the very first time we are immersed in a long learning curve. And a continuous cycle of questions, doubts, and insights. Basically this means we start thinking. What are they thinking? This makes no sense. They could just have done X instead. But the truth is we have no context of the code, right? The only information we have is the date he was committed and the person who did it. We don't know the intentions behind it or the moment the company is won. Like there's one situation I'd like to share with you based on that. Someone reported an issue saying that it was possible to create records on the database during sign up, even though the validations have failed. You probably know the feature where the device keeps some stats about the user like the number of times they have signed in or something. It turns out that when we do that, we ignore the validations. And so someone sent us a pull request which was literally one line change. So this looked like an obvious change. We considered a bug fix and merged it and released it in a minor version. What we didn't predict was that since this has been in the code base forever, a lot of applications were reliant on this behavior. So once we changed it, things started to break. We got one, two, three, four issues. You got the idea. The point is that since we started validating the user upon signing in valid users, we're not being able to log in anymore. And this made me realize how we have a limited vision of the word. We make assumptions based on our past experiences, right? Because in all the Rails applications that I worked at before, and trust me, there were a lot of them, we would strive to have valid modules, right? So I thought that having valid users in the database was a very uncommon thing. But by the number of issues we got, it seemed like it's not that uncommon after all. So this made, I was already considering holding back the change when we got the following issue. So basically this person was calling an external service inside a validation callback. And this server charged them pre-request. So since we started validating the model in a place we were not before, they got a big bill out of it. So this made me feel awful, right? And actually reconsider what I was doing. Because clearly I didn't have like enough experience to handle this. And because of that, someone just spent a lot of money. And I wanna tell you, in those situations, it's easy to feel overwhelming. So the best thing we can do is to talk to someone else and ask for advice. So I talked with some colleagues and other open source maintainers. And they all agreed that it was better to roll back that change. Because although we couldn't predict that a lot of applications were reliant on this behavior, this kind of change should be done in a major version, right? So I solved the original issue with another solution and removed the validations. But I also advised that person to keep those kind of external requests in a place you can control out of validation callbacks. Because they can be called in places we don't know of. Like inside the Rails console when we are debugging a production issue or in a rake task when we are updating and importing data in batches. Or just when someone new joins the team and they might introduce code that runs those validations without noting about the side effects. And code review and test may not always prevent those things. So this brings us to my next lesson which it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay because we can learn a lot from them. And when we do make mistakes, I believe we should focus on the future instead of the past. So this means changing the question, what should I have done to what can I do from now? Because after this, I was way more careful with change that could break backwards compatibility. Now I think in ways that the code could break existing applications that I wouldn't before. So this mistake made me grow both as a developer and as an open source maintainer. Another thing that I wanna tell is that after that incident, I decided to look for the commit message that first introduced that validate false code to understand why I was there in the first place. So this was not much helpful. But it made me realize how old this code was. This code was nine years when we accepted the pull request. And this brings us to the next lesson I learned which is document your decisions because we cannot trust our memories. It would be great to ask the others every time we have a question about their code. But if we can do, we can ask them. They may not remember. I mean, would you remember the reasoning behind the code you wrote 10 years ago? I certainly wouldn't. So that's why it's important to document the decisions like why we did something and the other options we tried because the code itself is not enough to show us the big picture. And I think one of the best ways to document the decisions is inside git commit messages. So if you haven't yet, I recommend you to read Caleb Thompson's article. He gives some great tips on how to write good commit messages like which questions the measures should answer. For example, why was this changed necessary and how does it solve the issue? Another article that I like a lot is how to write a git commit message by Chris Beans. This one folks more understood of the message and proposed some guidelines to write commit messages which is also very interesting. So for me, what a good commit message looks like is this. We have a brief summary that explains what was changed and the details give us context of why this was necessary. And it also gives a hint that this can be removed once we drop support for reuse four. Now, another thing that I learned from that validation issues and also others that we had is that code is expensive. So that one line pull request seem innocent but causes a lot of trouble. And for open source libraries, once we add the public API, we can only remove it in a major version. And even in a major version, we don't wanna make a nightmare for people to upgrade so we have to be careful with which code we introduced to the library. So basically now I only merge for requests when this happens. And if you have fail say it's okay, it's okay. But really when I review feature requests now I started to ask some questions like is it reusable for other applications? Is it an edge case? Because if it is, maybe it's not worth it added to the library. Is it flexible or is it too complex? All those questions help me to understand whether the cost of that code is worth it or not. And the next thing I wanna tell you is that if you're going to do open source, be nice. Because a lot of people had bad experiences in open source, I know that some people are rude, disrespectful and mean. So it's important to have a code of conduct in the repository to ensure that everyone has a harassment free experience. And as a maintainer, make sure to act in cases where this code of conduct is disrespected. I also highly recommend you to read this book. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. His strategies for communicating with others and transform potential conflicts into peaceful dialogues are just amazing. But in summary, what I try to do is respect other opinions. Don't make fun of people just because I disagree with them. And to ask questions, try to get as much information as I can before jumping into any conclusions. And to have empathy because I don't know that person what they're going through. For example, some things that can be causing someone to communicate aggressively are deadlines and production outages. Those situations cause a lot of pressure and the pressure can be easily passed along. So for example, one time someone commented the following in an issue. It is a bug but seems like that unless the bug affects many people, no one cares. And all I could see in this comment was the no one cares part was like really?  Like my spare time? So that may be very upset and a little bit angry. So when this happens, what I try to do is follow Jason Fried's tip, which is give it a five minutes. Now he's actually talking about waiting five minutes before we disagree with someone on an idea. But I found this works very well for situations when I'm angry too. Because it's easy to be rude when we just heard something that made us feel bad. But if we wait for a while before we speak, those emotions might be gone. And actually for me, what's been working better is just to give it a day because then I have time to fill my mind with other stuff. Things that I like to do like practicing sports or dancing or just spending time with my family and friends. And the good thing about this is that it also gives me time to understand the situation better. So in the case I mentioned earlier, that person felt like no one cares because they posted a comment in an issue and no one responded, which is terrible, right? But the problem is that issue was closed and I usually can't keep track of those. So I just answered then explaining why this happens. It's hard for me to keep track of all the notifications. So it just works better if you open a new one. You are definitely going to have my attention. Okay, so another thing that I wanna say to you is if you're going to do this, take care of yourself. And what I mean by this is there is always going to be another issue to work on or another pull request to review. So don't feel guilty if you can't solve everything and rely on automated tools to help you to do the job. Like issue templates can give people a better direction of what the project aspects of them regarding information and everything. So we probably don't have to do much issue triage with this. And another thing that I use a lot is GitHub Save the Replies. Because we're applying to a bunch of issues can get boring and this helps us to do issue triage faster. Another thing that's very useful is a stay-about. It will automatically close issues after they went stay here for a while. And the cool thing about this one is that if someone comments on a closed issue it will actually open up for you. So that's nice. And finally ask for help because it's easy to feel like we should know everything. Since you are the maintainer of the gen you gotta know everything but we shouldn't and most importantly we can't. So ask other open source maintainers for help. Ask your colleagues for help and finally ask the community for help. This is something that it took me a while for do to do it but you know I have an example for you. Like when a user found a security issue in device and I created a patch for it with we merge it and move it on but then someone asked whether a CVE was created for this. Now I have seen CVs around before but I didn't know exactly what they are and I obviously had no idea of how to create one but I was insecure about saying this and the issue. So I searched a lot on the internet and only answered a month later when I was able to request one. But it turns out the person who asked it is Reed Lawden which works at Hacker One and was able to help us to get the CVE. So if I had been honest in the first place we would have got that way earlier. So don't be afraid to ask for help. It's okay. Also thank you Reed for helping us with this. Another important thing that I wanna tell you is that show your company why this is important because it's hard to do it in our spare time and we don't wanna do it this forever. So some things you can tell them is that while doing open source we learn a lot of stuff, right? This gives us the opportunity to write blog posts and give talks and those things help with the company branding. It can get them more clients and also more developers to their team. Open source also helps with motivation. So we know that working on the same thing over and over again can get boring. So if they let people do open source part-time this can help with their motivation and can also decrease their turnover ratio. While you're doing this we also learn a lot of stuff like Rails internals, how to write commit messages all those kind of things and this will help with our professional development. Because of all those benefits some companies are already doing things like OSS Fridays which is a way to let people work on open source without having to do it in their spare time. And at our company we are able to get paid hours. So we still gotta do it after work but at least we'll get paid for it which is better. So this is basically my story. If that's not much interesting to you what I want you to take out of this talk is you don't need to call to help like there are other planning, other ways to do it. If when you do it document your decisions because other contributors and also you fit yourself will be grateful for it. Be nice, be respectful and finally ask for help. Don't try to solve everything alone. The community is there to help you too. And also if you wanna start doing this and need to help feel free to ask me too because I know I had a lot of it, right? I had help from Jose who helped me to start by showing how to do issue triage. And I helped from Rafael who revealed a bunch of pull requests and was there to answer difficult questions like things about semantic versioning and never get the one right. And lastly, Les Banolis from my former colleague, Felipe who has been my partner in this journey helped maintaining the simple form gem. He's actually the one that convinced me to start maintaining the device and also to give the stock. So probably have not have done any of this without him. So I just wanna say thank you to all these people and to everyone to contribute to the device and also to you who came here to watch the stock. So thanks, that's it. Thank you.


Srikumar Mangalam Birlaji, chairman of Aditya Birla group, respected dignitaries of the Kingdom of Thailand, members of Birla family and management, business leaders from Thailand India, friends, Namaskar, Sawadee Phab. We have gathered here to celebrate the Savarna Jainty, our golden jubilee of the global presence of the Aditya Birla group in Suvarnabhumi, Thailand. And this is truly a special occasion. I congratulate the team of the Aditya Birla group. We just heard Kumar Mangalam Birlaji talk about the commendable work the group is doing in Thailand and beyond. It is creating opportunities and prosperity for many. Friends, we are here in Thailand with whom India has strong cultural linkage. And we are marking 50 years of a leading Indian industrial business in this nation. This reaffirms my belief that commerce and culture have inherent powers to unite for centuries, monks and merchants ventured out to place far and wide. They have traveled far from home and mixed with many cultures. May the bonds of culture and commerce keep bringing the world closer in the times to come. Friends, I am eager to give you a picture of some positive changes happening in India today. I say this with full confidence. This is the best time to be in India. In today's India, many things are rising and many are falling. Ease of doing business is rising and so is ease of living. FDI is rising, our forest cover is rising, the number of patents and trademarks are rising, productivity and efficiency are rising, pace of infrastructure creation is rising, number of people getting top quality health care is rising.  Friends, India has seen many success stories in the last five years in various sectors. The reason for this is not the only government. India has stopped working in a routine bureaucratic manner. Transformative changes are arising due to ambitious missions undertaken. When these ambitions, missions are energized by the partnership of people, they become vibrant mass movements and these mass movements achieve miracles. Things that were supposed to be previously impossible have now become possible. Covered for basic necessities of life have reached almost 100%. Good examples for these are Jhanda Niyojna that has ensured near total financial inclusion and Swachh Bharat mission where sanitation coverage has reached nearly all households. Friends, in India we face a big problem. When it came to service delivery, that is a problem of leakages. The poor suffer most due to this. You will be shocked to know that for years money was spent on the poor which did not really reach the poor. Our government ended this culture thanks to DBT. DBT stands for direct benefit transfer. DBT has ended the culture of middleman and inefficiency. It has left little scope for error. DBT has saved over 20 billion dollars so far. You would have seen LED lights in homes. You know that they are more efficient and energy consuming. But do you know its impact in India? We have distributed more than 360 million LED bulbs in last few years. We have changed 10 million street lights to LED lights. Through these we have saved about 3.5 billion dollars. Carbon emissions have reduced as well. I firmly believe money saved is money earned. Energy saved is energy generated. This money is now being used to empower millions through our equally effective programs. Friends, in today's India the contribution of the hard working taxpayer is cherished. One area where we have done significant work is taxation. I am happy that India is one of the most people friendly tax regime. We are committed to further improving it even more. In the last five years we have lowered the tax burden on the middle class considerably. We are now starting faceless tax assessment so that there is no scope for discretion or harassment. You would already have heard of India decision to cut the corporate tax rates. Our GST has fulfilled the dream of economic integration of India. We want to work towards making it even more people friendly. All of what I have said just now makes India one of the world's most attractive economies for investment. Friends, India received 286 billion US dollar FDI in the last five years. This is almost half of the total FDI in India in the last 20 years. Ninety percent of this came through automatic approvals and 40 percent of this is green-filling investment. This shows that investors are taking long term call on India. India's gross trajectory is reflected in several ratings. We are among the top 10 FDI destinations at Angtara. Moved of 24 places on the Global Innovation Index of Waipo in five years. But there are two of them. I want to talk about this especially. India had jumped 79 places in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking in five years. From 142 in 2014, we are 63 in 2019. This is a massive achievement. For the third year in a row, we are among the top 10 reformers. The variables for doing business in India are many. We are large and diverse nation. There are the central, state and local governments. In such a contact, a directional shift shows our commitment to reforms. The people and government came together to make the business environment better. Friends, the other is India's improved ranking in the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. From 65 in 2013, we are ranked 34 in 2019. This jump is among the biggest. The number of foreign tourist arrivals have also gone up by 50%. All of you know very well that a tourist will not go to a place until he or she finds comfort, convenience and safety. Thus, if we are getting more tourists, it means that our efforts on the ground are bearing fruits. The fact that India has better routes, better connectivity, better cleanliness and better law and order is bringing the world to India. Friends, these rankings come after looking at the impact of transformation. These rankings are not of forecast. They are a manifestation of what has already happened on the ground. Friends, India is now pursuing another dream to become a $5 trillion economy. When by government took over in 2014, India's GDP was about $2 trillion. In 65 years, $2 trillion. But in just five years, we increased it to nearly $3 trillion. This convinces me that the dream of a $5 trillion economy will soon become a reality. We are going to invest $1.5 trillion for next generation infrastructure. Friends, if there is one thing I am especially proud of, it is India's talented and skilled human capital. No wonder India is among the world's largest startup ecosystems. India is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for digital consumers. There are a billion smartphone users and more than half a billion internet subscribers. We are keeping pace with industry 4.0 and working actively to adapt technology for fulfilling development and governance needs. With all these advantages, we aspire to emerge as a global manufacturing hub. Friends, Thailand 4.0 focuses on transforming Thailand into a value-based economy built on science, technology, innovation and creativity. It is also compatible with and complementary to India's priorities. India's initiatives such as Digital India, Skill India, Ganga Regeneration Project, Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart Cities and Gel Given Mission offer good opportunities for partnerships. Friends, when India's prosperous, the world prosperous, our vision for India's development is such that it also leads to a better planet. When we are looking at giving top quality and affordable health care to 500 million Indians through Aishwan Bharat, it will naturally lead to a healthier planet. When we decide to eliminate TB in 2025, five long years before the global target of 2030, it will surely strengthen the global fight against TB. At the same time, we are sharing our success and best practices with the world too. Our South Asia satellite is helping so many people in our region, especially students and fishermen. Friends, in the spirit of our act is policy. We are paying special attention to enhance connectivity with this region. Direct connectivity between ports on Thailand's West Coast and ports on India's East Coast such as Chennai, Vizagapatam and Kolkata will enhance our economic partnership. We must take advantage of all these favorable factors. We must take advantage of our geopolitical proximity like our forefathers did. Friends, given that our economies are capable and complement each other, given the commonality in our cultures, given the natural goodwill for each other, I have no doubt that we can enhance our business partnership for a win-win situation. I would like to end by saying for investment and easy business, come to India to innovate and starting up, come to India to experience some of the best tourist sites and warm hospitality of people, come to India. India awaits you with open arms. Thank you very much.


Ladies and gentlemen, we take you now behind the scenes of a police headquarters in a great American city For under the cold glaring lights will pass before us the innocent the vagrant the thief the murderer This is the line up Boys are popular that deserve a good audience We still gonna play Tuesday as far as I know your house. Yeah. I look This time let's settle on a limit and stick to it, huh?   No, let's stay away from some of those wild things. He gets a low ball with Jack's wild Oh, what is that one now come on? Oh, well, it's almost that bad. He had something wild and all we didn't play it He was just kidding with my money. He was kidding You people out there on the other side of the wire in the audience Thank you, my name is Greg sergeant Matt Grave. I'll explain the lineup to you Each of the suspects you will see will be numbered. I'll call off a number their name and charge At the end of each line when I ask for questions or identifications Call out the number If you're sure or not too sure of the suspect have him held The officers who took your name will assist you there seated among you When the prisoners leave here, they are sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here The questions I asked the suspects are merely to get a natural tone of voice So do not pay too much attention to their answers as they often lie Okay, bring on the line All right boys, come on keep it moving right over here to the end of the stage I'll turn and face front hands to your sides look straight ahead When I call your name a number step out and talk up It's a big room. So let the people in the back here. You Number one Jules Simpson robbery You always wear glasses Jules Well, no, not always. I go to bed at night. I don't wear them Well, that's real bride of yours.  Well, I can't see you could see pretty good the night of the 23rd Well, I had the glasses on then all night.  Well, I can't look at nothing. I can't see pretend you can face front Okay Where do you live the 446 North River Street? Well, is that a house a hotel or what? Or what? What well, it's supposed to be a hotel, but I just wouldn't sway to man. It's been called a lot of things Where do you work? Well, I ain't them For our law. Yeah, maybe How do you pay your rent? Who says they did?  Well, not really Well, he says that too, but he says you paid it. Well, I've been getting compensation From what well, I worked a year. Oh, I had lots of jobs I made enough to get a social security number What kind of a car when you're driving when you were picked up there's a bureaucracy man what color I just don't remember where'd you get it?  Oh, no The arresting officer found a 32 automatic in the growth compartment. Well, it's not my other guy who owned the car He must have put it there. I'm clean on that Okay, step back. Oh, yeah, can I put my glasses on? Put them on. Oh, that's a guy could break a leg He sure could now step back Okay, number two John Stillman Where do you live John? Eastside talk up Eastside and your people here am I bear? I told you when you walked out here to talk up now. Come on do it. You scare me Eastside I Don't want to scare you John. Just tell the people what you do. I'm not working. Did you ever? Well, sure sometimes when I was a kid not much future in it You arrested with anybody. Oh, just Bob and trap Bob and Travis stillman number three and four Any weapons 38 call automatic 38 Smith and less than revolver two rifles one single shot in a 30 30 Don't happen That's a funny remark.  Okay. Okay now Now where do you live? I told you we're on the side 78 108 Street Step back. Yeah, your father what? That's Number three Travis stillman come on trap. Come on. Come on move it Yeah, you're looking where do you live same place is John 78 108 Street. That's it Bob. Don't live with us though. He married our last Bob. Okay Tell the people when you were arrested Now we're interested in the alley in an alley where? I wasn't a quake What were you doing in there? Mr. Fisher manager of the Parkway Hotel in Lexington, how much I yeah on the body of one of his tenants stuffed in the trunk in the basement Minor examination. I'd say she'd been dead about a week in the trunk Yeah, it looks like strangulation It's a little hard to tell right now, but I'll do an autopsy as soon as we get her downtown. Okay. I'll see you down there All right. Okay boys clear it up. Where's your manager in his room. The name is Fisher. Let's go talk to him We haven't had one on the trunk in a long time any identification one of the tenants Fisher said her name was green Where's the husband? Yeah, locate the husband 311 but the husband hasn't shown up Fisher says he hasn't seen him for about a week This is it woman's been dead about a week. You got somebody looking over three three eleven. Yeah, our car goes up there We talked with Fisher saw the body in cargo. What happened? Oh? Come in. Oh, Mr. Fisher. This is John Guthrie. How do you do? I am Fisher Sit down, please. Thank you I Understand the woman was one of your tenants. Yes, can I get you something some coffee or something? No, no Turning cold out. I put some coffee on the boil. Yes, sir. The woman is Mrs. Green. She lives Maybe I should say lived in three eleven with her husband and Mr. Green. Yes, he hasn't been around for about a week I'll bet he did it With both of them gone for a week didn't you miss him well green left He said he and his wife were planning a short trip. I didn't think anything until I Opened that trunk boy That was the most awful thing I've ever seen I'll think about that the rest of my life. Did the Greens argue much not too much. They had a couple of good with it But who don't Wait oh my wife gets home. She never did like green told me I should get rid of them Why'd she want that she didn't like them green told her the mind of business one day, and she didn't like him after that Not much reason though She knew and me. I wish more people would tell my wife to mind her business What do you know about the Greens? Where'd they come from? They told me Kansas City, Missouri Missouri Yeah, there's a Kansas City Kansas, isn't it? No, they didn't tell me which just Kansas City What was his first name Joe hers was Louise what day do you leave? Six days about Tuesday, I think I'll make sure I'm pretty sure it was Tuesday How long have they left him about three months? What did your green do? Well, I don't know he paid his rent. I never asked him what he did They weren't very friendly didn't go out much. They want a good description.  It's boiling over. Excuse me. Sure What do you think man? I don't know Sure looks like it It isn't he better. I have a good story You'll the woman and stuff her in the trunk. Yeah, I heard Everybody's making coffee. I was getting tired You want some yeah? Any suspects my husband he disappeared about the same time the woman was killed Manager gave us a pretty good description. The lab boys got some clear prints from the room running a check on Little strong in probably is I didn't measure got any identification on the stillman boys six Great had a little trouble too. You missed a good show Bob stillman got sore this kid brother.  I think maybe he's going to tell us all about it. You need me he likes you Okay, we'll be down Yeah Maybe you should bring some of that coffee You could give it to stillman one swallow of that stuff and you can fast anything You're sure get them grouchy in your old age and you'd think after being married 11 years You're the least you've learned how to make a good cup of coffee Molly's neglected my education.  Ah, you're prejudiced because you teach Say, what about the woman in the trunk? How long Dave says about a week. He's doing an autopsy now I hope the lab comes up with something on those prints Let me get some sleep. Hello, Bob. Oh, you're tired a bomb. Who's that Guthrie? Oh I'm real tired lieutenant. Can I rest for a while? Yeah, my case bomb. I have to ask client I've been asking him for the last hour. They won't tell me who else was in on the premise job You know who else was in on it work on traveling John. They just blame it on Bob here Hey, and that's you just trying to work us look Bob Six witnesses identified the three of you for Pete's sake lay off. I don't care if six dozen people identified us I'm just tired Yeah, yeah, what is it? If you're smart and you're acting that way, but You know report on those prints from green's room, you know green is Benny Kirk Got an FBI kickback on him. They're really interesting. Well, I shouldn't be they're a Kirk number one. I'm not gonna have it Oh, wouldn't what about the woman his wife? All right. They were married in Covington, Kentucky in 1938 She's got a minor record got an APB two minutes ago. I'll wait for me. I'll be right out We know what you were doing and why keep I I've got to work on this for 11 quine I won't be able to stick around okay, but I look bomb take my advice You're gonna save yourself a lot of trouble if you can yeah, yeah You know Benny Kirk bomb I heard of them who hasn't yeah, he's the number one boy in your world He just did a sloppy job of killing his wife Kirk yeah kickback He stuffed her in the trunk and skip. So what's that got to do with me?  That's right When Kirk was 28 he was probably a lot like you not the same record He's only around 33 now. Hey look, what's this all about? Think about it, Bob Now he's killed somebody and I'll a 8-5. He's dead inside of a year If you catch him we will Think about it. Come on, man Can't see over a matter look around the corner Okay, this is high Nickel Here I might give me five points Five four That's the way wins Wins you ready for him? Well, come on. Come on throw one in okay You're pair. Yeah, madam Little free time. Hey two bits lining You in client No, come on. Come on. You've seen this is before yeah all night Well, you're not in what are you beefing about? I'm beefing too. Yeah Two bits getting to be a matter of pride Well, if they're so proud, why don't you raise me?  Come on. Everybody in yeah Yeah Yeah, nice still possible yeah for a king okay That was fugitive mark the authorities in West Virginia holding bunny Kirk. They got him. They're sending him up beyond tomorrow's train Yeah, that's a further in our cap. We get the prosecutor. I'm betting a half Any confession and they didn't say come on. Come on.  They're worth a half. I'm out Well, how about you Dave?  Yeah Anybody else yeah, I'll have one You're 50 and 50 more. Oh, no, I think you're gonna make us believe I'm not trying to make you numb heads believe anything He's bluffing well, well what okay if I take my time He's bluffing. I wanted to call him. Are you you gotta call him? No, what are you out of your mind? Thank you boys. Thank you. You have them didn't go. Come on. Let's see your whole time No, no, no, you mustn't speak. No, no, he was bluffing. Okay, deal me in Look at that stack All right now This is gonna be little ball Anything wild? One eye jack. I know it. What's the matter with jacks? You can go down this way for this late in the year picking up anybody special running current Benny Kirk special who got him a rookie in Elkins, West Virginia Doesn't his figure guy like Kirk beats the best of them for years and he gets careless in the rookie Kirk got away jumped off the train about a hundred yards back with the officers come where's the officer In this coach right there in B. He needs to download. I'll give About a hundred yards back. He was hurt too. They mustn't have mad without a call surround the arch right then can I do something? Yeah, go stay with the officer. You're going after Kirk. Yeah, it's all guy had to go now. I'm looking for him I'm a police officer. You better sit down. Yeah, which way did they go into the roundhouse over there? He was hurt I just ran into him and he slugged me when I asked him what he was doing. Okay, you you better take it easy I gotta get to a doctor Getting dizzy. There'll be some men along in a minute. I gotta get to a doctor right away I haven't found a good whenever this good. Maybe I got a fracture. Well, you take it easy I've got to get in that roundhouse. Watch yourself. He's hurt. He's mean And just lucky didn't shoot me. Okay, you take it easy. Yeah, you better take it easy too.   I Do it my way if I can get Stinking You're not even warm.  Yeah, what is it if you come over do it on your face? Couldn't somebody get down that side. He says he's behind three feet of concrete Sure, yes, bring a gas gun right bring a couple. It's over there someplace. It's a big area We got six shells and then start dropping over there four bits. I find it. You've got a bet I'll take that side from some truck. Okay. I'll give you one more chance Listen again next week when we again bring you grab I'll explain the lineup to you Each of the suspects you will see will be numbered. I'll call off a number the naming charge Identification and Wally mayor as sergeant Matt Grebb is written by Blake Edwards with music composed and conducted by Eddie Dunsteader Featured in tonight's cast were hi ever back Howard McNear Peter Leeds Clayton post Dave Young Sydney Miller and her Butterfield the lineup is produced and directed by Jaime Del Valle


I'm George Yamasaki and my heavy connection with the Western Edition came during the period of time when I was one of the attorneys for National Braymar Inc., which was the designated developer of what was then called the Japanese Cultural and Trade Center and has subsequently been renamed by us actually, the Japan Center, because we felt it was misleading to the public for what was basically a shopping center and hotel and theater complex to have this cachet of culture to it. Although I must say we did have, we were able to introduce some culture, meaningful culture, during the time that we were involved. We brought a branch of the Asian Art Museum to the Japan Center, which sadly no longer is operating there. But my involvement, as I say, was very heavy during the latter part of the 60s and the first half of the 70s. I've been involved with the Cherry Boston Festival since 1970 as a volunteer. So I've had this continuing connection with probably the major event of the Western Edition for 50 years. But I've never lived here. I had my office here briefly when I was representing the developer. I'm originally from Hawaii. I'm what's called an older Sansei. My maternal grandfather arrived in Hawaii, we believe, in 1886, which is a few years earlier than many of the families that came to the mainland in the United States. Can you describe in more detail your time, you know, serving your involvement in the whole Japan town and the redevelopment of it? Sure. In the 60s, the City and County of San Francisco, like many, many metropolitan areas of the United States, embarked on a redevelopment program. It was a federal program and it was the accepted practice of the time. It was designed to rehabilitate areas that had fallen into disrepair. It turned out to be fraught with problems, which may or may not have been anticipated at the beginning. But it turned into a very controversial program throughout the country and certainly here in San Francisco. This part of the Western Edition was called officially Western Edition A1. There's a little bit of maybe underground humor there because A1 is a term for first class, first rate, that sort of thing. And I'm sure that the opponents of redevelopment would conclude that the Western Edition redevelopment was anything but A1. However, that was the designation and when people speak of it or spoke of it then and even now recalling it, refer to it, they call it A1. And that is the south side of Post Street, which includes the Japan Center. The north side, which was developed by the Japanese-American community itself and other property owners and people involved prior to redevelopment in that area in effect had a significant say in what happened there through a nonprofit sponsored by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency called the Nihonmachi Community Development Corporation. I was a member of the board of directors of that, but that was really a community project headed by Masashi Zhao, who is a major property owner and business owner. I'm sure many people are familiar with and even customers of so-called hardware on the corner of Buchanan Mall and Post Street. And Mas was the president of the NCDC, as it was known, Nihonmachi Community Development Corporation, and the vice president was Yori Wada, who subsequently became a regent of the University of California and was then the executive director of the Buchanan YMCA, which is south of Geary and is still in the same building. And he was looked upon as kind of the honest broker because he was not a business person, not a property owner. And the attorney for the NCDC was Victor Abe, who had pre-existing law offices in the A2 area. Can you tell us more about your involvement with the Cherry Blossom Festival? Sure. When I came out here as one of the attorneys for the developer National Braymar, I was also tasked with attending to their interests as a developer and one of the successor owners of the Japan Center. Now that's a whole other story about the Byzantine structure of the Japan Center and one of its really serious shortcomings. So if I may, I'd like to digress on that for a moment. National Braymar was chosen as the developer actually solicited by the head of the Redevelopment Agency, Justin Herman, who has in 2019 become a very controversial person. His name was stripped from the plaza down by the ferry building. And Mark Bewell, who is the president of the rep park agency, voted against that change of name. And I must say that there's great merit in Mark's position because Justin Herman has unjustly been characterized as a racist and uncaring and ruthless. My experience with him was quite to the contrary. Justin was a man of great taste, great vision and concern for people, not just of one group, but people as a whole. And what he sought was what he and the powers that be at the time believed sincerely would be best for the city and county of San Francisco. I have never, ever heard of Justin doing anything that might be considered negatively, racially motivated or as a detriment to the economically disadvantage. I think that's extremely unfair. But anyway, as I say, the concept behind the Japan Center when it came into being was that it would feature Japanese businesses. And of course, Justin was hoping for culture and unfortunately didn't get much of it. But it was a very difficult time because in the 60s, Japan was still in a recovery phase and there were strict economic and currency restrictions on the transfer of funds outside of Japan. So the trick of getting Japanese businesses, Japanese corporations to invest in a project here in San Francisco was daunting to say the least. What came about was that National Braymar developed the entire center. I believe the figure was, in those days, about ten million dollars. But bear in mind, that's the 60s.  Now it covered the three blocks from Laguna de Fillmore and Geary to Post. Starting at the east end was then the Miyako Hotel and the Japanese Consulate General. And then the driveway for the hotel and what we call the east building which was, oh let me back up, the Consulate General building and the Miyako Hotel were ultimately purchased and this was all prearranged by Kintetsu of Japan, a subsidiary of Kinky Railways, a conglomerate, a very large conglomerate. And then the east building which National Braymar retained. The peace plaza which National Braymar retained with the exception of the keyhole pool and the peace pagoda which was a gift of the people of Japan and designed by the eminent architect Professor Yoshiro Taniguchi. That was given to the city and county of San Francisco. That's a separate parcel and it, as I say, was in the shape of a keyhole because there was a pool that housed the plaza. Then the next building what is what is now called the West Mall but was then called the Kintetsu Mall because it was purchased by Kintetsu. And then the Webster Street Bridge which was retained by National Braymar, the what we call the West building which is now called the Kinokuniya building which was retained by National Braymar. And the theater complex which included the hot springs which was originally a theater restaurant, really a spectacular operation ultimately purchased by dream entertainments headed by a man named Kunizo Matsuo who although he would he did not make animated films he was known as the Walt Disney of Japan because he was the number one entertainment figure in Japan at the time. Now underneath and this is all condominium really a mind-boggling kind of arrangement. The areas are split up, the city-owned garage is subsurface. Oh backing up just for a second in the East Building the then Bank of Tokyo owned its office and some community space in that building in the East Building and I believe they still do. Anyway there were these multiple owners of a shopping center and a hotel and theater complex and believe me that's no way to structure a shopping center. It was very difficult to get the financial support for one but the discipline that a coordinated shopping center requires and that's something that has prevailed to this day actually gotten worse I believe because although I haven't kept up there have been subsequent sales and there are even more owners and there's just no coordination I shouldn't say no coordination but certainly not the kind of coordination that's necessary to successfully promote a shopping center and this was even before shopping centers experienced their downturn in which they're currently suffering. One point to make is that the Peace Plaza is now owned by the city and county of San Francisco. The city and county always had the keyhole pool which houses the Peace Pagoda. Initially National Braemar tried and offered to give the Peace Plaza to the city and county of San Francisco but this is an interesting story. In those days in the 60s Stonestone Mall which is now an enclosed mall was an open mall as was the practice in those days and Bob Keneally who was the city attorney assigned to the project the Japan Center project reacted to the offer of the gift of the Peace Plaza by saying well that's absurd that would be like the city owning the Stonestone Mall. Subsequently however you know after the ethnic identity and the student demonstrations and all the civil rights protests the city purchased the Peace Plaza from an entity to which National Braemar had sold the Plaza. So anyway there are all kinds of very odd curious quirks in the history of the Japan Center and with regard to the Cherry Blossom Festival the Cherry Blossom Festival came into being in March 1968 with the opening of the Japan Center and there was an enormous city celebration all kinds of distinguished visitors attended the opening ceremony but by contrast the first Cherry Blossom parade was something like four blocks just around Japan Town. Now of course it runs from City Hall to Japan Town it's it's a huge extravaganza it started out fairly large but but not anywhere the scale that it is today and it was really intended to bring attention to the opening of the Japan Center but throughout the years thanks to the incredible volunteer work of literally hundreds maybe thousands of people but a few very key people. The Japan Center is a major event in San Francisco the two-week weekends festival now in April after that first year it was decided that March was a little risky as far as the weather is concerned although that's pretty much when the Cherry Blossoms actually bloom. This last year another bit of strange weather and we actually had the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom during the two weekends of our festival. The festival has become something that you cannot even experience in Japan. My understanding is that in Japan there are festivals of all kinds but they are generally limited to one discipline or one element of the culture. Here our Cherry Blossom Festival showcases as much as we can of the magnificent heritage of Japan and so in one place a visitor can see everything from bonsai to ikebana to origami to martial arts to you name it and we have our Japanese-American elements like the queen program and now we have the well I shouldn't say now it's been here for a number of years we have the website stage and the contemporary entertainment and of course we've always had the food which combines everything from Japanese food to what is now probably the most popular food item in the festival the Kimochi Terry Burger which combines the best of both worlds you might say so we're very proud of that festival we we hope it will continue but there is some concern about its future as well as the future of Japan Town as a whole because demographics have changed lifestyles have changed there is sadly not the core group of first generation Japanese who have who had firsthand knowledge and and real sincere affection for elements of the culture of Japan but let's hope for the best we've had a good run of over 50 years and uh and do you think you'll be continuing to emcee the festival well I don't know how much longer I can do this but I'll try thank you you're the voice thank you so you kind of touched up on this already but what do you envision for the future of the cherry blossom and also the future of you know the western Japan Town and the western edition community as a whole well I have to say my crystal ball is very crowded I see many problems and they're not intentional by any means they're just evolutionary um way back when Japanese and Japanese Americans were in many instances forced to become entrepreneurs they were forced to become small business people they had degrees from the University of California but they couldn't find any jobs in their field so they would open businesses or restaurants there's no alternative no significant alternative but that's very very hard work very demanding very stressful and now the Japanese Americans who are now in their third fourth fifth generation are in a way so assimilated and so successfully a part of the greater community that and so well educated well prepared they are able to find conventional jobs with 401ks and health benefits and reasonable hours without the headaches of owning and operating their own businesses also there's been a lot of marriage outside the Japanese race and so inevitably there isn't the direct connection to Japanese culture custom tradition uh and there's so many tools on on people for their time and energy that uh there are it it's going to be a I hope it works out but it's going to be a delicate balancing act to keep uh Japantown really Japantown uh and to keep the festival alive and as significant especially in the cultural ways as it has been I think that the uh cherry blossom festival has in its own way contributed to the acceptance if you will of the Japanese American following world war two by the greater community uh you know people will kind of uh I won't say forget but minimize the fact that they were the Japanese were parodied and and maligned as as the yellow peril the vicious enemy and now they're they're generally accepted as a part of the greater community thank you so much George thank you for all that you shared thank you


The United States Army presents the Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. To most Americans, the very symbol of government is the capitol building in Washington, where the machinery of democracy works its wonders. Almost in its shadow is another building which symbolizes just as strongly one of the indispensable freedoms in our democracy, the National Press Building. It is no accident of history that the American people are the best informed in the world. From the very beginning of the American experiment, it has been recognized that only with a free and unshackled press can democracy survive. This recognition of the press' importance has given it a position of undeniable privilege and prestige in our society. But it has also placed upon it the grave obligation to keep the people truly informed. Nowhere is this obligation more certainly recognized. Nowhere is the responsibility more keenly felt than in the National Press Building. Its distinguished tenants have behind them a breadth of knowledge of our national life exceeded by no other group. A knowledge of the intricacies of the American scene in all its locations. For these men comprise the Washington bureaus of leading newspapers and news services throughout the country. And for their readers in all parts of the nation, they record day-by-day history, as it is made at the seat of government. The tradition of irresponsible and professional press is heavy in this building, where the proudest trophies are the press plates of memorable front pages. The men of the Washington Press Corps are among the finest their profession can produce. Most of them in their careers have chronicled the political contest, the social upheavals, and the wars which have formed the story of our time. One of the most respected members of the Washington Press Club is its president, Mr. William Lawrence of the New York Times Washington Bureau. He is here shown introducing General Maxwell Detailer to the National Press Club on the occasion of General Taylor's retirement as Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Later with Mr. Lawrence we will screen the actual combat films of the middle phase of the Korean War. Bill Lawrence's daily job of reporting brings him into constant contact with the men and events who make headlines. He is exceptionally qualified in the field of newspaper reporting. In his 18 years with the New York Times, Bill Lawrence has covered some very significant stories. During World War II, he was for a while Chief of the Times Bureau in Moscow, and then he reported on the war from Okinawa. He flew with B-29s over Tokyo and other Japanese cities, and after World War II he covered the Civil War in Greece. And then with many other illustrious reporters, he saw and reported the war in Korea. Today we're fortunate to have Bill Lawrence with us to look into a particular phase of that war. Good to see you, Bill. Nice to see you, Stu. You know, I was very fortunate recently on a big picture to have one of your colleagues, Jim Lucas of Script Howard. Yeah, I got a chance to see that one, Stu. And as I remember it, Jim picked up the war about the beginning in June and carried it up to the defense of the Pusan Prometer. That's right. And today I'd like to pick it up from that same point, carry it on. From that period when we broke out of the perimeter in September 1950. Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Well, in some ways it does. I've covered a couple of wars since then and found a lot of stories from a lot of different places. And yet, no one who was there, soldier or reporter, is likely to forget it. Especially that period you were just mentioning, September, October 1950. That was a period of pretty high morale, wasn't it? Oh, very high. You see, first there'd been the retreat, then that holding operation along the Nakdong. And then finally, we were able to go on an offensive that... That was smashing the North Korean Army. That's right. Bill, you're the kind of a reporter that calls the shots as he sees them. Your record speaks for itself. A very accurate one. I have a book of clippings of stories that you filed during the Korean War. And I'd like to read a sentence from one of them. Shoot. You read it in late August 1950. There is a sense of optimism in American circles that certainly could not have been detected two weeks ago. What prompted you to write that? Well, let's recap a little bit. Swiftly, treacherously, without warning, the North Korean Army had smashed across the 38th Parallel in late June. They fully expected they'd be able to drive all the way down the peninsula before anybody could or would come to the aid of the South Koreans. But fortunately, the United Nations were able to act swiftly. They brined to this an act of aggression and this authorized other nations to come to the aid of the South Korean Army. Now, the first available troops were those U.S. occupation forces stationed in Japan, just three divisions. Badly equipped and under strength. And the North Koreans were strong and well-equipped. They prepared for this invasion for a long time. And consequently, our forces had a pretty rough time of it in those summer months of 1950. About the only thing we could do was withdraw to a defensive line south of the Naktan River. Well, withdraw is a polite way of saying we got chased there and we did hope we could hold there while we built up supplies and equipment and men. We did manage to do that, although it seemed like a pretty thin hope very, very much the time. But it did break up the enemy's plan for a quick push all the way down the peninsula. Well, it just couldn't get through, as I said. Every time he tried, the enemy weakened himself a bit more. And at the same time, from American, from other nations, troops were pouring into Pusan more and more equipment. And we were rebuilding the South Korean Army, which had taken such a terrible beating in those early days of the war. And so with the knowledge that we were going to make this play at Incheon, it was possible late in August to report truthfully that a new sense of confidence was taking hold. Looked as if things were really going to happen. It did indeed and things did happen. More swiftly and on a grander scale than anybody could have dreamed the day I wrote that story. On September 15, 1950, the U.N. forces take the offensive. An assault fleet appears off Walmy Island at Incheon Harbor, 150 miles behind enemy lines. It's a daring end-run maneuver, which takes the sleeping enemy completely by surprise. At 0630 hours, the Marines begin the assault. The naval barrage has cleared the way for them, but this is still a risky operation. Headquarters must gamble on the first try being good. Incheon's violent 30-foot tides lead no time for a second attempt. We had orders to neutralize resistance and do it fast.  It took us 58 minutes to secure the island. With the next tide, more Marines move into the streets of Incheon itself. They meet little resistance, and within hours the city is secure. The big gamble has paid off. With the surrender of Incheon's modern harbor, the back door to Seoul is open wide. Simultaneously in the south, the reinforced 8th Army breaks out of its Busan stronghold, splitting the encircling Red Forces as it thrusts across the Naktong River to begin its drive northward. At Incheon, the 7th Infantry Division swarms the shore to strengthen the U.N. foothold in the north. Thousands of enemy troops are being trapped in the southwest as the Busan spearhead races north to join up with Incheon forces. On the way to Seoul, we took a good many prisoners too, but they didn't come easily. United Nations strength is growing in the north. Men and machines, first hundreds, then thousands, blow inland from the sea to join the attack towards Seoul. With each step, however, they meet stiffening resistance as the retreating enemy consolidates his forces. At Busan, still another nation joins the growing U.N. command as 1,200 men of a crack Philippine regimental combat team come ashore. And at Kimpo Air Base south of Seoul, men of the 187th Airborne Regiment arrive from Japan to become the first paratroop unit to enter the conflict. This newly recaptured airfield has also become an advanced base for increased air attacks on the enemy's supply and escape routes. As the spearhead from Busan gathers momentum, columns of transport barrel northward against a disheartened enemy. In many towns, the entire populace turns out to shout its welcome. France all over again. Couldn't understand what these people were saying either. Some places, nobody was around to say anything. It's only about 20 miles from Incheon to Seoul, paved highway all the way, but it took us a week of hard fighting to make the trip. Finally though, our amphibious gear crammed full of rock and American marines started massing up at the Han River across from Seoul. It was time to retake the city. The softening up process got underway. The Han River crossing means a full-scale amphibious operation, since the Han here near its mouth is well over a mile across. The Reds who had thrown back an early or night attack were gone, pulled out to dig in among the streets of Seoul itself. The battle for Seoul was rough. Ten thousand communist troops garrisoned every building in street junction with orders to fight to the death. A great many did. The shattered city is retaken September 26th. During the battle for Seoul, the trap is closing swiftly about Red forces in the southwest. The day after Seoul falls, troops from the 7th and 1st Cavalry Divisions join up just south of Suwon. Two days later, in the battered capital building, special ceremonies are held as General MacArthur officially returns the city to Seng-Min-Ri, President of the Republic of Korea. Now begins a tragic homecoming for the thousands who had fled the city only three months before. If you look at these people scratching through the ashes of what used to be their homes, wonder where they got the guts to go on. Still, I guess we'd do the same back home for General MacArthur. As life begins to take root again in Seoul, the U.N. advance in the eastern sector goes on. On September 30th, rock forces reach the 38th parallel. They cross it the following day. One old guy couldn't keep it straight, who is who? Turn out to meet the rock army with North Korean flags. The end of September finds the war back where it started, but the cost has been great. On October 6th, at a U.N. cemetery between Seoul and Incheon, Major General O.P. Smith, 1st Marine Division Commander, honors Marine dead. Representing the army is Major General David Barr, 7th Division Commander. Korean troops are honored by Colonel Park In-Yip, commanding the rock 17th Regiment. The silent thanks and admiration of each commander for what his men have given is echoed by the people who hold their freedom to that willing sacrifice. Elsewhere, the conflict goes on without letter. B-29 squadron based in Japan and on Okinawa continue their daily blasting of red industrial and transport centers in the north. For us, it was a funny situation. The commuters were, somebody called it.  Funny situation. In the south, refugees are becoming a major problem. With thousands of red soldiers and guerrillas in civilian clothes trying to escape to the north, each refugee must be individually, time-consumingly, free. To the north, events are moving so rapidly that reinforcing units are hard-pressed to keep pace with the U.N. advance. On October 9th, Kesang is taken. This surrender frees the last South Korean city held by the Reds. Then on the east coast, Wonsan. Just two days after the fall of Kesang, Rock 3rd Division troops seized the port of Wonsan, having marched 287 miles in 20 days to get there. They met little resistance. Next, the Red Capital itself. On October 17th, men of the 1st Cavalry Division worked their way into the outskirts of Pyongyang. In less than 24 hours, the North Korean capital is in United Nations hands. These were important victories in Cheon Seoul, Pyongyang. Very important indeed. You know, complete victory seemed just around the corner. Yeong is a matter of fact. If you don't mind, I'd like to quote a phrase you wrote right after the fall of Pyongyang. Now that the Korean War is evidently drawing to an end. Well, that does read a little silly now. It doesn't, considering what happened for the next three years. You've got to remember that that was before the Chinese Communist hit us. And everybody, the highest military brass, the G.I. on the line, the reporters, all thought that the North Korean army had been smashed so thoroughly that the mopping up process would take only a few weeks. Psychological warfare plays an important role at this stage of the fighting. Using high-powered speakers, Si War planes fly ahead of advancing U.N. troops, booming their message in Korean to the retreating enemy. Safe conduct passes prove highly effective. More than once, whole enemy companies lay down their weapons and wait for our troops to arrive. Two days after Pyongyang falls, our first combat airdrop in Korea gets underway in an attempt to cut off retreating red forces north of Pyongyang. As it inch on, the Supreme Commander personally supervises the operation, nearly 2,000 troops making the jump. In a second wave, the heavy equipment arrives, air expressed. Local transportation is pressed into service. Next day, 1,800 reinforcements jump, but the enemy has already fled northward. In the east, rock forces continue their headlong charge north from Wonsan to take Hongnam. Meantime, a Navy task force is waiting off Wonsan. 3,000 enemy mines had to be cleared from beach approaches before the Marine Force could come ashore. It was a delay, but we could afford it. The rocks had made us a welcome present, a beach with no enemy guns on it.  The mission now is to press this advantage, continue the attack toward the Alu. Swiftly, the Marine Force moves in on red-held villages and towns, and just as swiftly, out the other side. Spirits are high. Three days later, and more than 100 miles closer to the Alu, the 7th Division makes its landing at Iwan. Ships of every description swarm into shallow water to disgorge 7,000 men and their machines. Their only opposition, the deep loose sand of Iwan's beaches. This far north, winter comes early to Korea. Cold weather uniforms are welcomed as the Division moves out to rejoin the attack. To the west, Marines are advancing over ground frozen harder every day. News of their approach runs ahead of them as village after village is liberated. North Koreans meet freely and the Christians among them pray openly for the first time since 1945. The shattered communist forces are pulling back into the last corner of this peninsula they had set out to conquer. UN troops follow as fast as the tortuous terrain and increasing cold will allow. In the eastern sector, it is difficult even to keep contact with the retreating enemy. In the central sector, however, prisoners taken during a strong red counterattack give warning of potential danger. Many of them wear the quilted uniform of communist China. Meantime in the northern Sea of Japan, winter is giving our offshore forces a taste of things to come. No team supply operations are becoming a nightmare of icy wind and pitching decks. We kept our aircraft warmed and ready to take off the minute the weather lifted. In the meantime, the Reds would have a lot less trouble moving troops and supplies on Korean roads. We didn't like that thought much. As sure, the Chinese forces have pulled back, leaving a clear road to the Yalu. The village of Haishanjin huddles against the banks of the Yalu across from Manchuria. Here, men of the 7th Division set up their outposts. It seems a sorry spot to spend Thanksgiving Eve. But from bases in the south, cargo planes are already taking off, setting courses northward across the frozen mile. They carry crates rigged for airdrop and labeled perishable rush. Turkey and the trimmings, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. All over Korea, mass kits overflow with steaming potatoes, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, the works. Along the Yalu, everything is quiet. Every man, no matter what his duty for the day, shares in the traditional feast of gratitude. Headquarters feel certain that one more UN offensive will end the fighting in Korea. Actually, a whole new war is ready to begin. Across the Yalu, the decision has been made. Full-scale Chinese intervention is about to bring the second phase of the Korean conflict to an end. And that threat of Chinese intervention, no one foresaw back at the time of the fall of Pyongyang. Well, the point is that it had been pretty well discounted by then. I think many of us, most of us, felt that the Chinese would hit us when we came in in Chon, or never. And I remember the briefing going up on the troopship was that this was either the last inning in the ballgame, or the first inning of a double header. Bill, I'd like to read from one other story you filed in Korea. Wars are so big and so violent, and move so quickly, that the individuals on the team often become necessarily anonymous, almost faceless. Well, then you went on, in this story and in others, to give dozens of those faceless men a voice, to describe their jobs and their attitudes, to report what they were thinking and even what they were hoping. Well, that's right. That, I think, is an important job of war, reporting to chronically the attitude of the individual. It may even be more important than writing about the amount of ground that was won or lost on a given day. Wars have become so big that the headlines usually can reflect only what the team as a whole did. But behind every success, every defeat, there are dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of men whose individual attitudes have everything in the world to do with shaping that particular success or that particular defeat. Now, these victories we've been talking about today were terribly important in their day, and they were achieved simply because a lot of individuals did their jobs bravely and conscientiously. It's always been that way. Do you think that could be true today? Of course. No reason why it shouldn't be as true today as it was in Korea or in World War II, or the American Revolution to that matter. I must admit that's one war I didn't cover. Our weapons have changed, but I've yet to hear of a weapon that fires itself. And so the individual soldier, or sailor, or airman remains the single indispensable factor of war. Bill Lawrence, thanks very much for being with us today. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen, your host for The Big Picture. Inviting you to watch for our next episode in The Big Picture, which will deal with the last chapter of the Korean War. And we'll have as our guest the noted military critic and author, Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall. The Big Picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center. Presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this state.


What's your life like in that locker room there after two and a half years? You just got to be in there to sit. You got to be in there to witness, man. It's awesome, man. They came back, they fought hard. You got to get credit to the Saints and the whole organization over there. They're a great team. We just found out of the way to finish and get the win. It was a much, much, much win for us. And we knew that the whole weekend. We just came out, executed and got the job done. It was 64 yards. Can you walk us through how you set that up and lay it up down the side line? It was the play we called earlier in the first drive. And Coach told me we were going to call that play again. And Matt trusted me that I'd get open. I just tried to do a good job just trying to build his trust each and every week. He just gave me an opportunity to go out there and just make a play. He's not going to play again in the first quarter. When you see that point you wanted to see, what's in your mind? When you're like, I see this match up, I got to make the point. Honestly, it's just getting open. Just don't let a thing that had 29 a rookie on me. Just not trying to let him get his hands on me so I can just get open. Just getting Matt's view where he can see me. Like I said, we ran that play earlier. Coach said we were going to come right back to it and that's what we did. You guys were up 18. They come back to take the lead. The building is super loud. A minute one left. What does Matt Ryan say in the house? Matt Ryan said, let's go get it done. That's just Matt Ice. He's not nervous. He's been doing this his whole career. Bringing teams back and just doing what he do. Us guys, those 10 guys just trust and believe in two each and every week. He's going to go out there and make the right call. He's going to execute it. You guys have done this three times now. We're just going to go all on the road. What does that say about this week? We just like to give our fans a heart attack here and there. Just to keep them on their toes and make sure they're paying attention. Honestly, it feels good. Like you said, we was up 18. We wanted to put it on way earlier, but it was the Saints. They got a great team over there. They fought to the end. We did a better job. We got the win. That's all that matters. No matter how much we won, bye. Do you hear from friends and family that tell you that? Oh yeah, it's a sheet. I know I got a lot of text right now saying we always give them heart attacks. It just comes with the game, man. You know, you can't beat everybody by 40 points. It's a national football league, man. Every week is tough, you know. Like I said earlier, man, we got the win. That's all that matters.  We just, like I said, we just got to stop giving people heart attacks, man. We just got to go out there and just finish it. You know, we was up 18. There's no way we shouldn't go out there and just finish it. But you know, like I say, stuff happens. It's in the NFL, man. So I just got to do better next week. A couple of times about how when you're in that two minutes as an offense, you really have to have the brutality of we want the ball in our hands in order to change the game. I mean, can you kind of speak to that mentality and how it kind of, the personification of that mentality? Honestly, it's, you know, we all grown men in that locker room and this whole team. So, you know, of course we want the ball, you know.  Every drive, you know. And it was our chance to go out there and just show the world, you know. We got this, you know. There's a minute, seconds left. You know, there's too much time in the NFL.   How different would that happen? Obviously, you know, games, you know, actually being in, how different is that from the situations you're going through? Honestly, there's this stuff we work every day, you know. And we weren't stressing out with nothing. You know, everybody was ready. We were ready for that moment, you know. And we know we got an opportunity to go out there and make a play. And that's what we did. We just tried to go out and just, we just tried to finish them and get them in. That's what we did. Last question. Anybody? You talked about the sense that you're going to have a competition. What about the defense stopping the run? What was that like, and able to over-conduct to still win this record? Oh, that's frustrating.  And Matt probably had more Russian yards than the running backs. But, you know, stuff happens, man.  You know, sometimes you've got to count on your passing game, you know, and that's what we did today. And like I say, we got the win. That's all that matters to me. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.