Murray William Sayle
OAM (1 January 1926 – 19 September 2010) was an
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Au ...
journalist, novelist and adventurer.
A native of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Sayle moved to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1952. He was a foreign correspondent for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During his long career he covered wars in Vietnam, Pakistan and the Middle East, accompanied an expedition on its climb of
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
, sailed solo across the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
, was the first reporter to interview double agent
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...
after his defection to Russia, and trekked through the
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
n jungle in search for
Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
. He resigned from ''The Sunday Times'' in 1972 after the newspaper refused to publish an investigative piece he wrote about the
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence agai ...
shootings of 26 unarmed protesters in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.
Sayle moved to Hong Kong in 1972 and to Japan in 1975. Altogether he remained in Japan for nearly 30 years, writing about that country for various publications, principally ''
The Independent Magazine
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format in 2003. The last p ...
'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and the ''
New York Review of Books
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
''.
Early years
Born in
Earlwood
Earlwood is a suburb in Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Earlwood is located 10 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, and is part of the St George area. It is in the local government areas of ...
, a
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
suburb, in 1926, Sayle was the son of a railway executive. He attended the
Canterbury Boys' High School
Canterbury Boys' High School (CBHS) is a public secondary day school for boys located in Canterbury, a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located near the Canterbury Park Racecourse and about 200 metres north of Ca ...
before enrolling at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
. At university, Sayle studied psychology and worked for the student magazine,
Honi Soit
''Honi Soit'' is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney. First published in 1929, the newspaper is produced by an elected editorial team and a select group of reporters sourced from the university's populace. The name is an abbrevia ...
. After leaving without taking a degree, Sayle worked as a newspaper reporter for ''
The Sydney Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', also nicknamed ''The Tele'', is an Australian tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Limited, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Saturday ...
'', the ''
Cairns Post
''The Cairns Post'' is a major News Corporation newspaper in Far North Queensland, Australia, that exclusively serves the Cairns area. It has daily coverage on local, state, national and world news, plus a wide range of sections and liftouts co ...
'', and ''
The Daily Mirror
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
''. He also worked for six years as a radio reporter for the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
.
[
]
The People and ''A Crooked Sixpence''
In 1952, Sayle sailed for London in an attempt to save his relationship with singer Shirley Abicair
Shirley Abicair (born 26 October 1930) is an Australian-born singer, musician, television personality, actress and author. In the 1950s and 60s, she was probably best known as an exponent of the zither.
Early life
Shirley Abicair was born in Mel ...
, who had decided to move to Britain.[ Sayle became a reporter for the tabloid, '']The People
The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881.
At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...
''. Working as an assistant to crime reporter Duncan Webb
Duncan Alexander Webb (born 1967) is a New Zealand lawyer and politician, currently serving as Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives since 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament for Christchurch Central since 2017, represent ...
, Sayle was credited with the phrase, "I made my excuses and left."[ Sayle left journalism in 1956 and supported himself by selling encyclopaedias in Germany while writing a novel about his experiences on ]Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
titled ''A Crooked Sixpence.'' The novel was pulled from publication after threats of litigation by an individual upon whom one of the characters was based. The novel was finally published more than 50 years later.[
]
''The Sunday Times''
Sayle worked in the early 1960s for Agence France Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D ...
and returned to London in 1964 to work for ''The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
''.[ There, he developed a reputation as "the most forceful of ]Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
's finest."[ British reporter ]Godfrey Hodgson
Godfrey Hodgson (1 February 1934 27 January 2021) was an English journalist and historian who covered and studied American politics and civil society. As a journalist he worked across television and print, working for organizations including ''T ...
described Sayle as follows: "Large, shrewd and with many of the characteristics of an armoured vehicle, Murray had plenty of the 'rat-like cunning' advocated by his colleague Nick Tomalin when it came to that basic reportorial talent of getting oneself in the right place at the right time."[
]
Emil Savundra and Francis Chichester
Sayle first made a name for himself working with ''The Sunday Times'' " Insight" team exposing the financial fraud of insurance businessman Emil Savundra
Michael Marion Emil Anacletus Pierre Savundranayagam (6 July 1923 – 21 December 1976), usually known as Emil Savundra, was a Sri Lankan swindler. The collapse of his Fire, Auto and Marine Insurance Company left about 400,000 motorists in t ...
.[ Sayle reported that the "reserves" of Savundra's insurance company included securities that were forgeries. Savundra's company collapsed in 1966, and he fled to his native ]Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
(now known as Sri Lanka). Also in 1966, Sayle gained attention when he chartered a plane to find the noted sailor Sir Francis Chichester
Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE (17 September 1901 – 26 August 1972) was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the wor ...
, who had gone missing in a storm off Cape Horn
Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...
during an attempt to become the first person to sail non-stop solo around the world.[
]
War correspondent
Sayle became the newspaper's chief foreign correspondent, reporting on the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Jun ...
, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the
Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...
, He received the Journalist of the Year award in the Grenada Press Awards for his reports from Vietnam. In 1968, he opened an eye-witness account of an all-night Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
attack as follows:"I was sound asleep in the guest hut of the province chief's compound when I was awakened by an exchange of automatic small arms fire. I picked out the pop-pop-pop of a Browning automatic rifle
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the . ...
followed by the steady bang of American 30-calibre machine guns and then the unmistakable three-second bursts like silk being loudly torn of Chinese AK 47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms des ...
s. Fumbling out of a mosquito net I dragged my boots on. Then the plop and whistle of outgoing mortars started. A glance at my watch showed it was exactly 1 a m. There was an earsplitting crack and roar and a ram of debris—a 122 rocket going off. ..."
Che Guevara and Kim Philby
In 1967, Sayle accompanied the Bolivian army as it tracked down Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
in the South American jungle. Although they did not meet up with Che, they found what Sayle described as "a strongly fortified base of Castro-type Communist guerrillas." Sayle searched through the rubbish left behind at the base and found documentary evidence, including a photograph and asthma prescriptions, that enabled Sayle to report that Che had left Cuba and was fomenting Communist insurrection in South America.[("Sayle picked his way through an abandoned guerrilla camp in the Andes foothills and came across a photograph of Che Guevara together with a prescription for the revolutionary's asthma – evidence that allowed him to break the news that Che had left Cuba to foment revolution in South America.")] Forty years later Sayle wrote for the first time about his Bolivian journey and the circumstances leading to Che's execution by the Bolivian army.
He made headlines again in late 1967 when he tracked down British double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
, Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...
, in Moscow. After several days of staking out Moscow's foreign post office, he spotted Philby. Sayle recalled, "After a few days, I forget how many exactly, I saw a man looking like an intellectual of the 1930s, all leather patches on the elbows of his tweed jacket. I walked up to him and said, 'Mr Philby?'" He then secured the first and only interview of Philby after his 1963 defection. Sayle reported that he found Philby to be "a charming, entertaining man with a great sense of humor." Sayle also described Philby as a man with an "iron head" for drink who appeared to be enjoying his new life and who denied being a traitor. Philby told Sayle, "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged."[
]
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
In August 1968, Sayle was sent to Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
to cover the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
. Fellow journalist Harold Jackson has written of Sayle's ingenuity in getting their stories out of the country. International telephone calls were blocked, and the Russians had seized the Prague telex
The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...
exchange. Sayle and Jackson discovered that not all of the telex connections were blocked and spent 13 hours dialling "the 10,000 possibilities" to find a working telex code. After discovering several working exchanges, Jackson recalled that the enterprising Sayle sold the numbers to other journalists at "$100 a pop." Another obstacle facing the foreign press in Prague was a shortage of Czech crowns. Sayle took Jackson with him to the office of the Czech firm responsible for distribution of ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' in Czechoslovakia. Sayle claimed to be the publisher's personal representative and demanded that the man turn over funds that had not been remitted due to exchange restrictions. Jackson recalled, "We left the building with huge packs of Czech crowns stashed in a linen bag rustled up from some cupboard. They kept the foreign press corps functioning for weeks, no doubt at a suitable rate of exchange."[
]
Mt. Everest and sailing solo across the Atlantic
In 1971, Sayle participated in the International Mount Everest Expedition and reporting on the expedition for BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
television.[ According to a published account in '']The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', Sayle learned of the Everest assignment while covering the war in Vietnam: "Murray was in a foxhole in Vietnam when a runner comes sprinting up through the incoming fire with a cable from ''The Sunday Times''. 'Report to Kathmandu,' it said. 'You're going to climb Everest.'" Photographer John Cleare, who also participated in the expedition, recalled that Sayle brought "almost a complete porter load of literature" with him and added:"ayle
Ayle is a village in Northumberland, England, situated to the north of Alston. There are six residences in the hamlet.
Governance
Ayle is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham
Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in Engl ...
was no stranger to hardship—some of us 'enjoyed' a ten-day storm at 21,500 feet, cut off and unable to go more than a few feet from our tents, eventually running out of food and fuel, but he didn't grumble. I don't think he ever left that tent for ten days except to crawl a few feet through the drifts into the mess tent twice a day. He did his bodily functions into poly bags which he stacked, frozen solid, in the back of the tent until we were relieved and could move about again. We found this very amusing. He was one of us. He was very determined. He kept our morale up when things got very tough on the mountain, as they eventually did when one of our most popular climbers was killed."
The expedition came within 1,800 feet of the summit, and Sayle wrote: "The very small number of people who actually know something about Himalayan mountaineering do not consider that our expedition was a failure at all."
In 1972, Murray sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
as a participant in the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race
The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic. When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in th ...
.[
]
Bloody Sunday
Sayle became embroiled in controversy over his investigative reporting into Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence agai ...
, a January 1972 incident in Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, in which 26 unarmed civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
protesters and bystanders were shot, and 13 killed, by a regiment of paratroopers from the British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. Sayle and his reporting partner, Derek Humphry
Derek Humphry (born 29 April 1930) is a British-born American journalist and author notable as a proponent of legal assisted suicide and the right to die. In 1980, he co-founded the Hemlock Society and, in 2004, after that organization dissolv ...
, were sent to Derry to investigate the shooting and concluded that the paratroopers had not been fired upon, as they claimed, and that the shooting was the result of a planned special operation to eliminate the IRA
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
*Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
*Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...
leadership in Derry.[ Four days after the shooting, Sayle and Humphry turned in a 10-page story, but ''The Sunday Times'' refused to publish it.][ Sayle resigned in protest, and the unpublished story "vanished for a quarter-century." In 1998, '']The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' obtained a copy of the report and published an article titled "Sunday Bloody Times," accusing the newspaper's editor of helping to "bury compelling evidence that the British military planned in advance the infamous 1972 Londonderry attack."[ At that time, Sayle reiterated his belief that British soldiers planned the attack on civilians.]
Asia
After quitting his position with ''The Sunday Times'', Murray moved to Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
as a correspondent for ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' magazine. In 1975, he moved to Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. He remained in Japan for 33 years, living with his second wife and their children (Matthew, Alexander, and Maindi) in a traditional wooden house in the village of Aikawa in Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...
. He reported on Asia for ''The Independent Magazine
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format in 2003. The last p ...
'', ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and the ''New York Review of Books
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
''. His most noted work during this time includes his reporting on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
and the 1983 disappearance of Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)The flight number KAL 007 was used by air traffic control, while the public flight booking system used KE 007 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alask ...
.
In August 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
,''The New Yorker'' published a lengthy investigative piece by Sayle entitled "Did the Bomb End the War?" Sayle contended that the bombing was not motivated by a desire to persuade the Japanese to surrender, and was instead motivated by the Soviet invasion of Manchuria
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...
and concerns that Soviet forces would then invade Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
and force a division of Japan.
In ''The New Yorker'', Hendrik Hertzberg
Hendrik Hertzberg (born July 23, 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of ''The New Republic'', and ...
remembered Sayle as follows:"Murray Sayle ... was a wonder—a journalist of Promethean gifts and Brobdingnag
Brobdingnag is a fictional land, which is occupied by giants, in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels.'' The story's main character, Lemuel Gulliver, visits the land after the ship on which he is travelling is blown off cou ...
ian accomplishment, a lightning-fast writer whose witty, energetic prose was flavored with a tasty mixture of brash informality and autodidactic erudition, a fearless adventurer in war zones and on the high seas, an instinctive (but sweet-natured!) adversary of every kind of authority, not excepting the authority of the newspaper and magazine editors lucky enough to secure his services. He was a nonstop talker whose verbal stream of consciousness was festooned with unexpected detours, impromptu theories, hilarious asides, and astounding anecdotes, some of them true."
Later years
In the 1990s Sayle did a documentary, Last Train Across Canada, for PBS station WNET in the New York area. In 2004 Sayle returned to Australia, where he was later diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
. In May 2007, the University of Sydney awarded him an honorary doctorate of letters for his work as a foreign correspondent. In the same year, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
in the Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
, for service to media and communications, particularly as a foreign and war correspondent.[Sayle, Murray William](_blank)
''It's an Honour'', 11 June 2007. Sayle died in September 2010 at the age of 84.
References
External links
* ttps://archive.today/20130125000554/http://www.griffithreview.com/edition9/102/340.html Even further north - an Essay by Murray Saylebr>God wills it! The bitter fruits of fundamentalism - an Essay by Murray Sayle
* AUDI
Muray Sayle and Robyn Williams talk at the Sydney Writers Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayle, Murray
1926 births
2010 deaths
Australian journalists
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
Neurological disease deaths in New South Wales
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
The New Yorker people
University of Sydney alumni
Aikawa, Kanagawa