>> Hello. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Wow. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Tell him ... Ask him, Korea War broke out after World War II, very shortly after. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So, he must ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He must have been tired of war, seeing war, so why did he volunteer to go to Korea? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Thank you very much, yes. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What is that? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The Land of the Morning Calm. >> Of the Morning Calm, okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Samsung, IKEA. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There were Italian ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ask him if he ... Has he ever seen pictures of modern Korea? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Tell him, when he came back ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [ Chatter ] >> ... because there were so few nurses and doctors ... >> Mm-hmm. >> ... remember how many there were, very few? That when he came back ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... did they keep in touch? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No. >> No? >> No. >> No. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What kind of patients did he treat in Korea? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Like women, children, old ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Soldiers? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ethiopia. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Did he ... Does he know about other medical units from Sweden, Norway? >> Okay. >> Denmark? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> NORMASH, NORMASH. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Denmark. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Only Italian doctors in his unit. >> No, I know. I know, but did he know about the other doctors? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Did they ever meet him? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Had he ever met them because ... Tell him because when I went to Sweden and Norway, they said that they went to each other's places like the Norwegian doctor went to the Swedish hospital to visit. >> Mm-hmm. >> So has he ever visited other hospitals? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Just Sweden. >> Sweden. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Can you tell him to tell us maybe a story that he remembers like a touching story, a moving story about a patient ... >> Okay. Okay. >> from the hospital, not necessarily personal, but just from the hospital. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In a gist, what did he say in a gist? >> In a gist? >> In a gist. >> What is an a gist? >> Gist, like the gist of what he said. >> Oh. >> Summarize briefly what he said. >> So he basically described the hospital and the patient. He mentions the sicknesses that existed like it was lepers. >> Leprosy. >> Leprosy, and he also ... Yeah. He mentions leprosy. >> [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Wasn't it in mice or something? Or ... >> No, it's in the Bible something. It's ... Now what did he do when he came back. How was his life after he came back from Korea? >> Should I ask him that. >> Yes. >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Normal, like it was before. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ask him what ... he must ... Is he proud of his contribution, his service? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What did he say? >> So yes, he is proud of fighting for Korea because ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When did he get married? >> Okay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> How did he meet her? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh, they knew each other when they were young. >> Yeah. He said that she was older than he was by 6 years. >> Oh, wow. How did they meet? >> They met in Turin. That's all he said. >> Ooh, la, la. >> Ooh, la, la. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm-hmm, so he basically has a total of seven kids, two girls and two boys in second marriage, and the one boy died in his first marriage, and I believe in the first marriage there was another boy. >> Oh, wow. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So he ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So he basically ... He returned back home poor just like ... >> Just like he was before. >> Just like he was before, and he's very interested in history, so rather than getting whatever, $10 million or whatever, and he also said ... Yeah. That's what he said. >> Ask him finally if there's any pictures that he wants to show us. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Any special one, special, special? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ask him when his birthday is. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh, the 20th of August. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What year? >> Oh, 1924. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And then when was it, his birthday? >> August 20th, 1925. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You? Really. No guitar, piano. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You have harmonica? You have? Can you play for us? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Wow. Wow. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What did he say? >> This is ... he's ... This is yours. >> Ooh. Mine? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I'm checking. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I don't know if he wants you to take it or what or I don't know if he meant that. >> I don't think so. >> I don't think so. I wouldn't do it because saying take it could also be just to look at .. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> So yeah, so ... >> Okay. Let's go. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Okay, concert. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Very good, grazie. >> Grazie mille. >> Grazie, grazie. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

>> Hello. My name is Arthur Campbell. I went to Korea in February 1952. I left for Korea in February. I landed in Korea in March of 1952. It took us a month to get from our camp in Ottawa, Ontario. It took us a month to get over to Korea. They put us on a terrible ship. It must have been made in Japan or China back in the day because it broke down halfway across the ocean.

>> The ship broke down?

>> The ship broke down.

The big propeller stopped propelling, so thank God it had a little propeller on it, which kicked in, but consequently because we used the little propeller, it took us twice as long to get us across the ocean, which was not very nice. It was not very nice, but we made it. We landed in Japan. We stayed at the dry docks in Japan for about 3 days until they finished the ship. Then we went on to Korea. I liked Japan. It was very nice. It was occupied at the time, being so close to the Second World War. They didn’t know it was still occupied, and the occupation troops that were there were Australian, nice guys, big. They were all 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3, but they had the bad habit of thinking that the occupied Japan, that we weren’t allowed to touch anything. Excuse me. I won’t be vulgar, but we were all young guys, and we liked girls. So we would go to the dance hall.

You would buy a ticket, and the ticket would allow you to dance with a girl. We spent a lot of money on tickets. I did. Then, while you’re dancing, a big Australian would come along and say, “I’m cutting in,” and, “No, you’re not.” So we had a lot of arguments with the Australians, but we still had a girl. Then we moved on to Korea, and it was terrible. It was terrible. People were poor. The cities … It was awful. It was the most … I shouldn’t be doing this. I never went back. I had two or three chances to go back, but it just bothered me so much. I’m not over yet. When you were talking when you first come in, you were talking about … because of the troops that were there, United Nations, not just Canadians, United Nations, and because of them, you, your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles are here now. That’s true. That’s very, very true because the amount of children, fatherless children, wonderful ladies that were just doing anything to keep their kids. It was terrible. So I’m proud. I’m happy about that, but I’m not going to get into anything as far as the terrible things that happened.

I can’t do it, and I won’t.

>> Then how about, so back here in Canada, you’re very active in the Association. What are some of the things that you’ve been doing as part of the Association to ensure that Canadians don’t forget?

>> What I have done, because I am the youngest, and thank God I’m still in fairly good physical condition, and I’m one of the few in the club. Now, Dave and I are both very good. Dave is an organizer. He can get things moving. Excuse me. I, on the other hand, am more of a hands-on type of guy. I can set up meetings. I can set up our picnics. I’m like a babysitter to most of the guys that can’t move, like I’m taking care of Ken. Ken and I are dear, dear friends. I pick him up, take him home. I take care of him. I’m sure you know that he has a little problem with dementia, and so yes.

What I do is humanitarian things, really. I love the guys. They love me. We get along together, and if I say to them, “Hey. We’re going to the Wall of Remembrance in July,” and this is January, “When?”, “19th of July,” “Okay.” They’re ready to go. I’ll make sure there’s transportation for them to and from and things like this. I’m not one to … I’m just one of the guys that can still help.

>> You’re the one behind the scenes that may move things.

>> I guess you could say that.

>> Yes, because there’s an organizer.

There’s a planner, but somebody has to do logistics.

You’re logistics.

>> Yep.

Yep.

>> Well, you said that it’s very painful for you to think about and remember it and even visit Korea because of the horrors that you’ve seen and witnessed in the war, but it is true that Korea still has not achieved peace. What do you think about that? What do you hope, maybe?

>> Well, I’ve heard that it does, so I’m terrified that that freaking idiot that they’ve got running North Korea, the little fat guy. All he talks about is bombs. I don’t like that. I don’t like him. We’re too old, but I’m telling you, if they need an instructor, there’s a lot of guys are capable. I’d go back in a blink of your eye. I would go back.

>> For to fight for Korea’s peace.

>> As an instructor. I couldn’t climb one mountain, not unless you got me a big billy goat that could carry me.

>> So you, as an instructor, you would leave your family even now to go back.

>> Right now, I have 13 grandchildren …

>> Wow.

>> … eight grandchildren, five great-grandchildren. My wife, God bless her, she passed away in 2008. She was a little girl, 4-foot-11, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, Italian, black, black hair, brown, brown eyes, body … Oh. She was gorgeous, and then she had a stroke through diabetes. God, but thank God, she didn’t suffer. So to answer your question, I’ve got a family. I’ve got my kids, but they’re all grown up. They don’t need me anymore. They don’t need me anymore. They visit. They feed me. They phone, “How are you, Dad? Come on down Sunday,” which I do after church. I always drop in and see. But when the day comes that you’ve got no one that depends on you, really you’re taking up space. After my wife passed away, it was terrible. It was terrible, and yeah. I’d go back. I would go back. I’ve got too much involved in that country, too much of me. There’s too much of me still there. When I come home, yeah, I wasn’t the same Arthur that came home as the Arthur that went. Okay, sweetie?

>> I love you.

>> I love you, too, and you made everything … you and the thousands like you made it worthwhile.

>> Thank you.

>> Okay. Love that.

>> …threat. I’m Norman Lee. You want to know when I was first in Korea, October 1951, flying from an aircraft carrier from the Royal Australian Navy, flying Firefly aircraft. Our task was interdiction, which meant we had to keep all the roads closed, and our weaponry was bombs, so we did a lot of bombing of bridges, et cetera. Interestingly enough, we found that you can bomb a bridge, straddle it, and the bridge is not damaged. Am I going into too much technical detail here?

>> No.

>> No. So we decided to do low-level bombing with delay fuses, a 27 delay between the bomb hitting the ground and exploding, four aircraft. Me, the last aircraft in, I had to get in within 27 seconds. Obviously I did because I’m still here. Interesting things, we operated out of Guri, the carrier, out of Guri and Sasebo. We alternated between the two. We were on patrol for 10 days in the Yellow Sea. We alternated with American aircraft carriers. We were there for 5 months.

We relieved a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, and it came back and relieved us. It went down to Australia to be refitted. Highlights? I remember taking a group to Iwakuni to do a test flight on an aircraft, and on the way back, we were still in uniform because it was still wartime. We stopped at a Russia bar, and it was still dead flat, and we wandered around. We were looking for somebody to get something to eat like today, and we came across what we thought was an eating place, and we walked in, and obviously we weren’t very welcome, and it turned out that it was a private place, and then they realized we’d made a mistake, and then they welcomed us. They took us out the back, sat us down, and we had a cow sukiyaki as they called it, lots of acai beer, and then they put us onto the train back to Guri so good fun. Highlights? We went through a terrific typhoon, Typhoon Ruth. We lost aircraft off the flight deck because of the weather. The flight deck is 44 feet above the water level, and we lost a tractor off the front of the island and a boat from behind the island, so you can see how the waves at 44 feet were [INAUDIBLE]. The ship rolled 35 degrees, which is a lot of rolling in an aircraft carrier. What else can I tell you? Ask me a question.

>> Do you remember seeing some of the civilians?

>> Oh, yes, Korean. Interesting, I took the mail from the ship into Gimpo, and as a result, I went into Seoul. In Seoul, there wasn’t a building standing that didn’t have a hole in it, and the only bridge was in the river, in the Han. And when I went back about 15 years ago, multistory buildings and, what, 17 bridges across the Han now, very prosperous country. Two of my course mates were shot down during the Korean War. They both survived, very interesting. We lost 10 aircrafts, shot down. We lost three pilots killed. We incurred 90 instances of damage to aircraft in the aircraft fire. Anyway, when it came time to come home we did. We arrived in Australia and as if we had never been away. There was no … not like Vietnam where there was lots of anti. It was just the flow. We’d never been away, and we went straight into peacetime routine, and that was that. What more can I tell you?

>> So …

>> I’ll tell you a little interesting story.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> We had destroyers and frigates, surface ships, operating all the time, and you would have seen pictures of the Thames in London. There’s a cruiser sitting in the Thames, HMS Belfast and Tobruk. Tobruk was an Australian destroyer, and Belfast was a Royal Navy cruiser. We were on the east coast doing shore bombardment where the pilot directs the fall of shot from the ships. All right? Are you still with me?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Good. Stay with me. Anyway, exchange of call signs between the ship and myself. Went ahead shooting. I made corrections to their fall of shot, and there was a problem. The ship had to come closer. Something was awfully wrong, and it turned out I was correcting the shot from the destroyer on the cruiser’s fall of shot.

>> Mm.

>> White phosphorus, Willy Peter, does this make sense to you?

>> Yes.

>> Anyway, about a year later on back in Australia, we had the Navy officers out to lunch, and their gunning officer said, “You’re an aviator,” and he said, “I’ve met the biggest idiot aviator in Korea.” That was me. Good story.

>> Did you tell him it was you?

>> Now, during the talks, truce talks, we were on the east coast at Hungnam, which is on down the east side. We normally operated on the west side. And the word went round the truce talks were almost going to happen, and we were given a code word, and the code word was Brandywine. And if we heard the code word … We were flying. Heard the code word Brandywine, stop bombing, rocketing, whatever you were doing because the truce had been declared. And the joke went around the squadron that if you had just dropped a bomb, you’d better duck down and grab it before it hit the ground. Joke. We need to worry because it was, what, 18 months, almost 2 years before we finally had a truce. Yeah. Now my reaction to being there? I could remember one time forming up, flying back from a bombing mission on my leader, and I suddenly had a thought, “What am I doing here 10,000 miles away from home bombing these people?” And that was it. I mean, anytime I ever thought about it … When you’re 21, it doesn’t matter, does it?

>> So have you thought about that question now?

>> No, doesn’t worry me.

>> Well, I’m glad you made it home safe.

>> I did, didn’t I? Obviously.

>> And you stayed in the service for a long time until you retired as a commodore.

>> Yeah, 33 years. I had commanded three ships …

>> Mm.

>> … which is good. So I was both an aviator and a seaman officer.

>> Since you were with the Navy for a very long time, what do you think the significance of Australia’s Navy was in Korea?

>> Then?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Not that great really, the surface ships, I mean. The carrier, yes. We certainly … We did as good as what the Americans and everybody else was doing, including 77 Squadron. But the surface ships, all they could really do is gunfire ashore. It wasn’t a great effort. Well, I better clarify that. They were there from the beginning until the end. We rotated ships through in support as you would do, and some of them were pretty heavily involved, but not like the second World War.

>> Of course. The Second World War was a little different.

>> That’s a little different.

>> And so many more died, and it was …

>> Yeah.

>> It was a little more grander in scale, but it is true that the Korean War was a united effort of more different people from different continents, and I would think that Australians, coming from Oceania, as you said, 10,000 miles away and yet still participating in this war, you may have wondered why. But if you look back, it was really … You defended the freedom of South Korea.

>> Well, I think, looking back on it, we very much recognized the United Nations concept, and if the United Nations said we’ve got to go to war, we went to war, and it really was as simple as that. That’s my opinion. What do you think?

>> Yeah, I became very sympathetic to the South Koreans.

>> Yeah.

>> We’ll do his shortly, but yeah. I mean …

>> Since then, Australia has been involved in wars it should not have been involved in, right?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> The Korean War was a legitimate action. There’s no question about that to me.

>> Well, it stopped the threat of communism all over in that region.

>> So they say, and we’re led to believe.

>> You can tell for sure. I mean, there’s a stark difference between North and South Korea. You know what you fought for. It’s one country, I mean, one people, but the Allied helped South Korea and took down North Korea. I hope that you’re very proud.

>> Well, yeah. I’ve accepted that’s what we should have been doing, and that’s what we did, and you’re right. I’ll tell you a final funny. Do you want to hear a final funny?

>> Yes.

>> On the flight deck of the carrier, having started the aircraft, I couldn’t get my gun sight to work. No gun sight, and I fiddle with it, and I change the bulbs in it, and still no gun sight. And off I went, and we came across some Chinese, and all I could do was sort of point and spray, right? Right back on board the carrier, and I was sitting in a little cafe behind the island with my air group commander, the boss. There was a knock on the door, and a petty officer came in and said, “[INAUDIBLE] Lee, we’ve found out what’s wrong with your gun sight,” and I said, “Oh, good, what? Bad maintenance?” “No, no, no, no, sir. The brilliance was turned right down.” Good story? Naughty, naughty it was, too.

[ Chatter ]

>> You have from there, the German, Norwegian soldiers in Germany after war. >> Okay. >> And we have those from Sweden, if you see, to Sweden, the Korean, Norwegian Korean there in the middle. >> Okay. >> [INAUDIBLE]. >> Do you read Korean? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> NORMASH, 1951 to 1954, wow, 623 Norwegian ... More than 90 patients. >> Ninety thousand, 90,000. >> Ninety thousand, I mean, 90,000. Were any Norwegian servicemen or women killed? >> Three of them. >> Not in battle, not in battle. >> Three? >> But not in battle but in service. >> Accidents. >> Accidents? >> Yeah. >> What kind of accidents? >> Driving accidents. >> Driving ... >> In Korea? >> Yeah, yeah, during the service, yeah. >> Oh, no. >> And the third one is a Norwegian sailor. >> Sailor, yes. >> Because when the Korean War started, a lot of Norwegian ships were in the area, so they worked with evacuation of civilians from the war zone and also the transportation of heavy military material from the fan to Korea and back to Japan for repair also. >> So ... >> But it's not so well-known. >> I only thought ... >> We have written about it in our book. >> I only thought doctors and nurses went from Norway. >> Oh, no, personnel too. To run a MASH, you need more than doctors. >> One hundred persons in total. >> One hundred and six. >> Sixty of them working in the hospital. >> Each continent, 106 persons. >> And the very necessary addition ... >> Cooks, cooks, guards. >> Drivers. >> Drivers. >> Technical personnel. >> Technical and camp workers. >> But ... >> And in addition, 60 Korean too. >> Yes. >> Really? So ... >> About 25 Korean guards? >> Yeah, approximately. >> Approximately. >> And four were working in the camp. >> And civilians too. >> So 100 medical personnel? >> Yeah, yeah, and the MASH consists of 100 persons, Norwegian persons. >> And 523 other servicemen from Norway because there were 623 total. >> Yes, in total. >> No. >> All Norwegian were volunteers. >> Each continent ... >> Yeah, continent, yeah. >> ... for 1/2 a year, and we had six continents. >> Seven, seven. >> Seven at all, and they changed every 6 months, and each continent had 106 persons, personnel, and of those, approximately 40 medicals. >> No, 60 medicals. >> So many? >> Yeah [INAUDIBLE]. >> [INAUDIBLE]. >> It doesn't matter, doesn't matter. >> And of course, the medicals, the hospital is the main thing of a MASH, of course. MASH stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, MASH. >> There's a very famous TV series in America. >> We have seen that. >> Comics. >> What do you think of that? >> The scenery is very natural. I don't know where it's taken, but it looks like Korean scenery. >> Yeah. >> And the tents and everything is very, very close to ... >> Real? >> ... real, yeah. >> And you see here, NOR, that stands for Norway, MASH. >> And if you behaved well, you could have a new contract for 6 months. I behaved very well, so I stayed for 1 year. >> One year, but why ... >> He didn't behave so well, and so he stayed for another 6 months. >> You all volunteered. >> Yes, we all were. >> Everybody was volunteer. >> Wasn't it difficult? Why did you want to stay longer? Wasn't it difficult? >> To stay longer? No, no, I had service after the war or armistice. >> Approximately 100 stayed more than ... >> Yeah. >> ... 1 year. >> Yeah. >> Six months, 1 year at all. It was a good pay, you see, after Norwegian conditions, and so it was ... >> To be honest, I had three reasons for going to Korea. First of all, Norwegian Trygve Lie was the first general secretary of United Nations. He was well-known internationally because Norway had a foreign administration in London during the war, and so it was very much first about Korea and the Korean War. Of course, I wanted to help. Secondly, it was very exciting, so exotic. >> Yeah. >> You cannot imagine today how far it was from Norway to Korea and how different the societies were, so it was excitement, and thirdly, I needed money for my study, and we were not so very good paid, but most of the money was in Norway. >> Yeah, yeah, yes. >> And we had a small salary. >> Scrips. >> Yeah, scrips. >> Money valued only during war, Korea. >> Yeah, and the scrips started all in first World War, I read once. >> Yeah, special money. >> Yeah.

>> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He is very lost. You went to Korea in 1950. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He went there by ship. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Around 15 days, travel by ship ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and arrive at Pusan ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... on November [INAUDIBLE] 1950. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I traveled by train. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Went to a city, [INAUDIBLE] ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... to train [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> After train for 7 days ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I received an order to go to [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> To protect [INAUDIBLE] and preserve peace for [INAUDIBLE] few days. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And after that I got an order to move backward, and then pass the [INAUDIBLE] 38th parallel. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He came to [INAUDIBLE] city [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [INAUDIBLE] has fighting on the opposite side. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He try to prevent those opposite site to cross over the 38th parallel. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And during the time I joined this fight, I was so honored and very proud to be able to help Korean people, and also even share food to those [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> All Thai armies practiced the same thing. We shared food to Korean people who we can [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I practice my duty in Korea around 1 year ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and then came back to Thailand. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What I am most proud ... was that I was one of Army. Soldier. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I found that I am Thai person who have a heart to help our neighbor country, our good friend country when they invaded by the [INAUDIBLE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In Asia, we call Korea as our, what you call, like a good friend country. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And also Korean people have a very similar connector with Thai people. >> Have you visited Korea after the war? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I went there only twice since after the war. >> What did you think about it? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> My last visit and when I compare with the time I went there during the war, so totally changed. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I was so much [INAUDIBLE] ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... economy and also socially and also transportation, everything so well developed. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I was so proud that I am part of the one who helped the country and they can see this country rise up and developed and [INAUDIBLE]. >> I hope that you're proud because Koreans all over the world are also very grateful. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You were in Korea for 1 year. Did you see Korean civilians? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When he went for the fight, he spent time around 15 days and then after that he came back to the place he live, around 7 day or something, and then he could be able to [INAUDIBLE] the civilian. >> When they were not fighting what did they do? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No worry, they did not do anything. They just stayed at home because of just try to escape ... >> No, what did they, he do. He, not the civilians, not the Koreans. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The army. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They have an activities to do with the people, and also when they have food they share with the people. >> Did they see other veterans from other countries? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They stay in different area so we not see other nations. >> Not even Americans? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yes, some [INAUDIBLE]. >> When he went to Korea, he met other veterans. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You mean when he went back to visit? >> Yeah, revisit, revisit. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No, I don't see anyone. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He said that he went there because different nations or so were invited to Korea. >> That's why. Yeah, that's why I was saying. It must have been very emotional. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yeah, they have a conversation asking like, "When you went there and when you go back?" >> Can you tell us, last comment, anything you want about, to the world, okay, to history, what you think Thailand's contribution in the Korean War? What's important to know about Thailand's contribution to the Korean War? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Number one in terms of heart, we really pour our heart to Korea. Second, we really want to help Korea to overcome the war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And we want to end this war as soon as possible. >> I hope that the war, because it still didn't end, will end in your lifetime ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and that there will be peace, and one Korea. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

>> Good morning, or good evening, Hannah. My name is Ian Crawford. I am a retired rear admiral in the Royal Australian Navy. I served in Korea in 1950 and '51. At that time when I first arrived there, I was an 18-year-old midshipman serving in the Royal Navy light cruiser HMAS Shoalhaven. We were intended to be the flagship of the East Indies Station based in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, but when the Korean War broke out, the British had to withdraw a cruiser from the Far East, and we were very quickly prepared to go to Korea. On our way there, we were diverted to Hong Kong to pick up the 1st Battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who, together with the Middlesex Regiment, who were carried in the HMS Unicorn and, were the first British troops and the first non-American and Korean troops in the Korean War. They were to form the 27th Brigade, and the Australian Army, 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, joined later in September to form this brigade. After delivering the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to Pusan, and at that time, Pusan Perimeter was at its smallest, we landed the Argylls and the Middlesex Regiment from the HMS Unicorn, and we went about our naval duties. Very soon after that in September, we were part of the cover force for the landing at Inchon. We were escorting the British carrier, HMAS Triumph. Two Australian destroyers were with us, HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Bataan, and they stayed with us for most of our time on the west coast. The British, various fleets, together with the Commonwealth navies, formed the West Coast Task Group. On one occasion, we were transferred to the East Coast, and we went as far north as Chongjin, which is 2 miles from the Russian border. That was as far north as you could get in Korea, and we bombarded there. By October, there was the general feeling ... The forces, after being released from the Perimeter in Pusan, went up to the peninsula and across the 38th parallel, and the feeling was the Korean War was over. So the British withdrew to Hong Kong but not us because we were from the East Indies. We had no families in Hong Kong, so we stayed there, and we were just starting a refit in Kure in Japan when the news came through that the Chinese had entered the war, and they were making fast progress down the peninsula. We were quickly put together and diverted to the Taedong River, which is in North Korea, which is the entrance to the river that leads to Chinnamp'o, which is the port for Pyongyang, so we were diverted there in the belief that we were going to have to evacuate large segments of the Army and a lot of civilians. In the event that we evacuated a lot of civilians, we in a light cruiser could not get up the river, the Taedong River. It was very narrow, badly chartered and the sandbanks were not evident. So there were three Canadian destroyers, two Australian destroyers and one American destroyer. One Australian destroyer went aground, one Canadian destroyer got a wire around its propeller, so eventually only two Canadian destroyers, one Australian destroyer and one American destroyer got up to Chinnamp'o. Supervised the evacuation, and the evacuees came down in the ships and in separate pairs, and then they destroyed the Port of Chinnamp'o. Our main operating base when we were on the west coast was an island called Daecheongdo, which our captain used as a base, and everybody followed his example. It became a place where we convened to meet with South Korean guerrillas and exchange information, where our smaller ships took shelter in bad weather while we made our forays up the Gulf of Korea very close to the border with China. The Chinese and North Korean advance continued. We were in Inchon, and it became evident that Inchon was going to be uncovered, and so all the American stores had to be destroyed, and our ship was the last ship out of Inchon. We continued to go into Inchon, moving from position to position so that people would not fix us for counter-bombardment from batteries ashore, and we at times came under fire from these batteries, and eventually, we were 20 miles behind the front line, so we had to leave the port. The great problem was the extreme cold. It was the coldest winter of the century. It was so cold that our close-range weapons, pom-poms, Oerlikons that we had to move the mounting every 15 minutes. Otherwise, the lubricating oil would freeze. And at sea, when the spray came over the bow and hit the superstructure of the ship, it turned into ice, so it was cold. We stayed on patrol for a long time. I think we spent more time on patrol than any other ship. At one stage, we had patrolled 43 days. So the important thing was to keep the sailors entertained, to make sure they got their mail, and we provided our own entertainment. I know for sure, Roseanne, Bob Hope and a lot of Hollywood people came out and did sing to the soldiers. That wasn't available to us. We had to provide our own entertainment, which we did, and it was a great success. The other thing was the feeling we had because everyone thought the war was over, and everybody had gone south to Hong Kong, and we were quickly pushed into the breach. We felt very lonely. We could feel the malevolent omnipotence of China bearing down on us, and morale was very, very low. There came a message from families, from Littleton from families in England because I was the only Australian in the ship. All the others were British. We'd be mentioned in the news, and we were going to get a medal. Now, that amounted to recognition, and one of the most important features for any serviceman, for his morale, is recognition, and this medal was awarded, and I always maintained that recognition is important for morale while serving and for the peace of mind of veterans in their older age, and this has been a principle that has guided for a lot of my time since the Korean War and the various studies that I've done. I've been involved in many studies. The Australian government has been very proactive in trying to determine the problems of the Korean War veterans, and they carried out three studies, health studies, cancer incidence studies, to find out why there was such a large number of Korean War veterans dying early. We had the very comprehensive studies, which at one stage was made available to all other members of a committee that I was working on in Korea for their information. I have been asked by the government to do other studies. We had quite a lot of Australians serving in Korea for the 5 years after 1953, and it was called the post-Armistice period. I was cochairman of that committee, which once again, was motivated by the need to recognize the service of these people after the Korean War because we had people who died there. We had 18 people die during this post-Armistice period. Once again, the recognition of these people and the service of these people was so important. And I'm still involved. We have 43 missing in action. Some will be in the demilitarized zone. Some will be in North Korea still. Many will have been recovered, and we are trying to develop a process where ... And those who were recovered who were Caucasoid will probably be in Hawaii where the Americans take all their casualties, all their dead from all wars who have not been identified, and there is a process using DNA and dental records, and we are trying to progress more actively on the part of our government to identify these people. Also, I started the program for an Australian National Korean War Memorial. It became a big hobby of mine. At that time when I was thinking about it, we had one memorial on top of Anzac Parade, which is called the Australian War Memorial, and as far as I was concerned, that was the memorial for all wars, but because the Vietnam war was so politically sensitive, the government decided to give the Vietnam people their own war memorial. As soon as that happened, I said, "Okay, they've got their memorial. We have to have our memorial." So I gathered together some colleagues, and they suggested others, and we went through the process of raising the funds, getting the government's agreement to give us a site on Anzac Parade for the memorial, to do a design brief of what we wanted to be put out to a design competition for a sculptor and an architect to design our memorial, and then eventually, to supervise the construction and then the dedication of the memorial in 2003. The design was interesting. I knew that the sailors, soldiers and airmen wanted figures that they could identify with, but the winning design didn't incorporate any figures at all, and all my colleagues said, "That's the winning design," and I was the chairman, and I said, "I don't want it unless we have figures." And the architect and sculptor was flexible enough, and he said, "Well, I think we can remove some of the poles," which he had put into the design, "and make space for the figures." And we had three figures: a sailor, a soldier and an airman in their winter garb. He had some misgivings initially, but on the day before the dedication of the memorial, and it was all there, and it was a grand style, he came up to me and said, "It works." We were very happy about that. We had another problem. The National Capital Authority didn't like the obelisk that we had there. They said there was too much verticality, and they wanted to remove it, and with some of the fasting thinking I've ever done, I said, "Oh, but that's for the missing in action," and they found that very difficult to counter that argument, so we kept the obelisk. And a few weeks before the dedication and the final erection of the memorial, the sculptor and architect came to me and said, "What plaque are we going to put on this obelisk?" And my wife had taken photographs in Pusan of the missing in action for those with no known grave, and so we transposed the design of that plaque onto an obelisk. We were constrained by ... We wanted to have Korean flora in the surroundings of the memorial, but our heritage people only wanted Australian material, so we were prevented, but some, oh, I suppose 12 years later, they relented, and we were able to incorporate into the design flora from Korea, Korean box, which is placed at every grave, and the Korean Cedar trees, which surround Pusan, so that we were recreating in miniature some of the ambiance of what is in the Pusan Memorial, where 282 of our dead are buried, so that the families can share some of that environment. >> Let's go back to some of the basic numbers for those that don't know how many Australians fought and how many died and how many are missing and how many POWs there were. And I know that post-Armistice there were some that also served after the war. >> Right. We do not know definitely how many were there during the active service time and during the post-Armistice, but there is a rough figure that says around 17,000 served for the totality of the time during the combat time and the post-Armistice time. Some people say that the people there during the combat time would be as few as 13,000, which by that measurement, meant that our casualty rate, taking term into consideration the time we were and the number that were there, was a very high casualty rate compared with other wars that Australia has been involved in. So we still have 43 missing in action. Some of them would be in North Korea, some in the demilitarized zone. I think I've said earlier on that some would be in Hawaii. There were, I think, 27, somewhere in the mid-20s, prisoners of war. >> But they all returned. >> Not all, no. Some are now included in the missing in action because they would have died in the prisoner of war camp and been buried in North Korea in a cemetery there, which we've never been able to get to. We had over 1,200 who were wounded. Originally 339, and they're now found another person, so 340 killed during the combat time. >> How do you think Australians remember or know even about the Korean War veterans? >> Not very well. When I was doing the Korean War Memorial, I went to industry for them to make donations, bearing in mind that because of the winter and the feeling that the Korean War could topple over into the third World War. There was a great demand for a lot of the material that we had in Australia, especially our wool and our strategic materials and some of the minerals. I argued, and I argued in my approach to business, that the Korean War heralded in a period of prosperity for Australia because of the demand for our raw materials. Some people don't agree, but some 50 years after the Korean War when I approached these companies, the corporate secretaries had never heard of the Korean War and wanted to know why we were there. So it is still, for many of the people, a forgotten war. We're trying to make it not forgotten. That is why we had the memorial, so it wouldn't be forgotten, and interviews like this will help us not to be forgotten. >> So when the secretary said, "Why were you there?" what did you answer? How did you answer? >> It was a very sound and strategic decision that we went to the Cold War. In fact, the Korean War was the first how war of the Cold War, and if we hadn't checked the communists in rows onto territories that were more democratic, or in the process of becoming democratic, they wouldn't be encouraged to go further, as in Vietnam. So it was the right decision for Australia to be involved and the right decision for Australia to make its own strategic decision to get involved. We did not automatically go to war, as we did in the first World War and the second World War when Britain went into the war. We made our own independent decision and committed our own forces, but our forces were part of the British Commonwealth Organizations, the Army in the British Commonwealth Division, the Navy with the ships on the west coast were led by a British admiral, and the soldiers were very proud of being in the British Commonwealth Division because the last time they went to war with the British force, and that comprised of the British, the Canadians, the Australians and the New Zealanders, and our soldiers were so proud that they insisted that when we did the Korean War Memorial, as well as having badges for the Navy, Army and Air Force on the face of the memorial, we showed the badge of the British Commonwealth Division., so it was very important to them. It was also an interesting time for Australia that up to the Korean War, in the Army, you had to be a volunteer to serve outside Australia. So for the first World War and the second World War, we had the Australian Imperial Force, which is made up of a big group of volunteers. Up until then, if there was a war, you could only serve in Australian territory unless you were a volunteer. So we had to have volunteers to go into the Korean War from the Army. The Navy and Air Force were automatically committed because of their global span, but for the Army, there had to be a volunteer, and somebody wrote a book called "The Last Call of the Bugle," and that was because people think about responding to the call of the bugle as volunteers, so the Korean War was the last call of the bugle to attract volunteers to serve in the Army overseas. Nowadays, we have a regular force that is volunteers when people join the regular force, but we did not have a standing Army in Australia at that time, and we only had a militia. >> In the '50s? >> In the '50s, yes. We did not have a standing Army. We had a militia who could be expanded in the time of war, and if there were volunteers, they would serve overseas. >> For how long? >> As long as needed. >> Oh, really? >> So some people went right through the second World War, 6 years as volunteers. I had volunteered. My father was second in command of a regiment, which is a militia regiment, and he had to cajole and persuade the members of his regiment to become an AIF regiment, Australian Imperial Force, so they could serve overseas. >> That's very interesting. So let's talk a little bit about Australians who went post-Armistice. Why were they sent post-Armistice? >> They had been committed to Korea or committed to Japan for part of the occupation force, and they had been promised certain entitlements, which one normally associates with active service. But when the Armistice came, and it was only an armistice, and it still is only an armistice. So we had to present to the North Koreans and the Chinese our determination to hold the line, and so we had a large force of the former Allies who remained in Korea. They didn't get a ... And they felt very proud of this, and they felt that they had been ignored in the recognition that we were giving to those who served during the combat time, and there was conflict between those who served in the conflict and those who were post-Armistice. We had to do a study to decide how we would recognize these people in the post-Armistice time, so I was asked to cochair a committee, and we did a 6-month study and came up with what we felt was the right answer to make up their recognition. They got a medal, which was called the General Service Medal for Korea. They did not get the Active Service Medal, which was for those who were in combat, so we felt that was the right balance. >> I was surprised to see that there were about a dozen who died post-Armistice. >> Nineteen died. >> Yeah. >> And vehicle accidents, weapon accidents, all sorts of problems, but it was a very intense time over there. >> Until 1955, right? >> '55, yes. Yeah, and we had a communication group who remained up there after the main force went through, and they were part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force or communications group. >> My last question is, well, first of all, have you been back to Korea? >> Yes, I have. When I announced to the government that we should have a Korean War Memorial ... And it wasn't until we got a visit from the Korean president that we got recognition from the government. I like to think that they were saying, "Hey, we've got the Korean president coming down. What can we demonstrate to him that we have an interest in Korea?" And somebody said, "Well, they're talking about a Korean War Memorial," and the government said, "That'll do." And at the state dinner for the Korean president, our government announced that they were going to dedicated $67,000, and the Korean president stood up and said, "I'll match you," so we were off very well right from the start. Now what ... Your question was ... Oh, Korea! Well, it was at the Korean recognition, the Korean Federation of Industry gave us a huge donation. >> No, have you visited Korea? >> Oh, have I visited Korea? Yes. Yes, I had to go to Korea. I said, "I'm going to England to see my family. I am prepared to divert from Hong Kong, which is the route to England, to go to Korea. If you will pay for that diversion." And so we diverted, and that was my first visit. I've been back since on revisit programs and as part of the International Federation of Korean War Veterans Association. So I've been back a few times, and most impressed by the change, from what I saw. In Pusan in 1950 and Taechongdo, which is a very impoverished island in 1950 and '51, so I just never ceased to be amazed. The urban development, modern technology, like the Korean very fast train, or the French call it Train a Grande Vitesse. I don't know what the Koreans call it, but it is the French technology used between Seoul and Pusan. So marvelous technology, and my sympathies are with the Korean people with this threat across the border. And as we're talking now, there's this unease about what might be the outcome of that. >> I know, for almost 70 years. I truly hope that Korea will achieve lasting peace or even reunification during your lifetime. >> That's going to be a challenge because it's more demanding than the unification of East Germany and West Germany because, you realize that as well as I do, that North Korea has never been exposed to modern culture. It was part of the Japanese kingdom, and then after the war, the North remained that hermit kingdom, which was a term applied to the whole of Korea. They have never, ever been exposed to Western culture. Places like Albania and the Eastern Bloc in Europe, yes, they have been, but it'd be an enormous change for the people to adjust to, and a great burden fall on the people of South Korea. >> Well, I don't know if and when and how or whether they should, but all I know is that this war that still hasn't ended should end, and there should be peace, so that at least there's no threat, even if there's no unification. There's no threat of constant threat of war. >> Yes. >> I think that would be the greatest honor that would be given to the Korean War veterans who really sacrificed their lives, their time to defend Korea. >> I agree entirely, Hannah. And the other thing, it made us realize that the Asian culture is different, and we had to adjust and understand that. Those of us who have been back and have been sufficiently interested to study the cultures of East Asia, which is China, Korea, Japan, and realize that each one of those is different. So trying to achieve harmony in East Asia is not an easy thing. >> It isn't, and that is why, all the more, thank you for your service. One last question, you retired as Rear Admiral, right? >> Yes. >> What was your rank when you were in Korea? >> Oh, midshipman. >> Oh! >> At 18. I had my 19th birthday in Inchon. >> Wow. How many years were you in the Navy? >> Forty years. >> Wow! >> I was in a British ship because when we left our Naval College in Australia ... Because we didn't have a big fleet, therefore we didn't have the range of experience of a large fleet. So at the age of 17 leaving the Naval College, we went and served with the Royal Navy, with the British Navy, for 3 1/2 years. And so ... >> And you were born where? >> Here, in Sydney. >> Canberra? Oh, Sydney! Not Canberra. >> No. >> Okay. >> No. No. >> But you lived in Canberra for a while? >> I lived I Canberra for 30 years. When you got old in the Navy, you end up in Canberra, which is where the headquarters is. >> Yes, of course. >> And our children went to school there, but I finished the Korean War Memorial. Kathy didn't like the cold of Canberra. Our children had moved to Sydney and got married and had children, and she said, "We're going to Sydney." And here we are. >> And here you are. Well, thank you so much, again. This is wonderful. >> Yeah.

>> Yes, my name is Colonel Melese Tessema. I'm the Korean War Veterans Association president presently. I've been to Korea during the war, the second battalion, and the journey was very long. From Addis to Djibouti, we took train, and from there we back on the ship, American military ship named [INAUDIBLE]. Then we arrived through Pusan port. Then your previous president, Syngman Rhee, received us, and from there we went to training center. We took some training and studied weapons, and we stayed there for about 1 month under training, and we then adapted the climate, and we had been through [INAUDIBLE] with the people at that time. When I arrived to Pusan, it was my first [INAUDIBLE]. I was very sad to see demolished buildings, and I saw many children crying on the street. They lost their families, and that was very sad to see that, so we stayed in that training center for about a month. Then we went to the front line, and we had been deployed to the battlefield. We hadn't started our mission. Realizing all the war is war, there's no mercy for war. We took part, and we participated, and we joined the United Nations forces there, and we received many operation orders, so we had been fighting as a fighting patrol and ambush patrol. That was very tiresome, so then ... But the most surprising thing that ... which made our participation in the war, which made it special that Ethiopian soldiers never gave up. No war prisoner took, and we have never left behind our injured soldiers or killed in action, so that was very special going for us, so we stayed there for about a year, and then we had been replaced by another battalion, and we returned home. When we went to Korea, we received a banner, a special banner of the old leader. We received that banner from His Imperial Majesty. The troop which has been to Korea is a special bodyguard, the elite force, so that's why maybe we don't give up, and we have never lost even the front line. We never lost the ground, and we have been successfully captured our objectives very proudly, so now the time is so long. Everything is forgotten. To me, today, what surprised me, to see the Koreans to visit us after 65 years, that was very special. I consider that the Koreans has given a special consideration to our battalion and to our war veterans, and that makes me proud, and, also, we have been to Korea as I told you at the beginning. It was barren and demolished buildings. We see the children crying at the street. That Korea was a very poor country. This is the true story. I can tell you now. At that time, Ethiopia was better than Korea, but after 65 years, Korea is now among the very civilized country, and I think it is 10th or 11th developed countries now. Now that makes us proud. Not the Koreans proud of that because it is we, the Ethiopians who proud more than Koreans because we gave our lives not for nothing. Now at this time, when we see Korea developed, it is we who can be happy. Yeah, but you tell us still to all Koreans that we are more happy than the other Koreans. >> Can you explain a little about the battalions? Why were they called the Kagnew Battalion? How many were there? How many were in each battalion? How many in total went to the war? I know even after the armistice, you stayed. Ethiopians, the battalion stayed, like, for example, Colonel [INAUDIBLE]. He went after the armistice. You know? So can you explain a little bit about this? >> Yeah, although the Ethiopian forces had been to the battlefield about 600, more than 600, 600-something, and among this, 122 died. No prisoner at all, no lost in action, and that makes the Ethiopian force special, and as I told you, this is the elite force. We were very much trained here in Ethiopian also if we're going to Korea, so that's why our participation is very special that time. When we arrived there, we were very young officers. We went to Korea soon after our graduation. We graduated April 11th. We left for Korea April 12th or 13th like that. At that time, we were about ... Our age was between 21 and 22. I myself had been to Korea when I was 22. You can see that is my picture in the museum. When you see I'm very tiny, that's your story. >> You were all kids, and did you all volunteer? Or were you drafted? >> I beg your pardon? >> Did you volunteer? Or who went? >> Yes, yes, I can say, "Volunteer," yes. All of them are volunteer because it was very sad. The Ethiopian situation almost is the same like Korea. At the beginning of the Second World War, we had been invaded by Italians, so at that time, when we appealed to, not to the United Nations but [INAUDIBLE] organization, so at that time, His Imperial Majesty appealed to that organization. They did not give attention to his appeal, so we had been invaded by Italians, so when we had been asked or ordered to go to Korea because we are volunteer because our situation was the same like Korea, so we give priority to save lives of the illegally invaded countries and that we save lives of the oppressed people. >> Mm-hmm, so a total of I believe 6,000 Ethiopians served from 1951 to 1964? Can you tell us a little bit about that battalion that stayed after the armistice? >> After? >> The armistice? >> After armistice, yeah. After armistice, we thought we were returning home, and we started our usual work, so we returned to our unit after armistice, so in between, as you read the story, our country was overthrown. The emperor, Haile Selassie, and the communist regime was adopted, but that communist regime, we were hated by that regime because we had been fighting with the communist invaders so this communist regime, so then they hate us. They don't like to see even our face. We existed only that we were Ethiopians, so if we had been foreigners, we would have been ordered out from Ethiopia by force. >> Yeah, so tell us about the story of the fence. >> Oh? >> With Grandpa Melese and the Korean soldier. >> Melese? >> And the Korean soldier. >> Uh-huh. >> Tell us that story. >> Well, really, accidentally, I had been alongside with the Korean outpost. I was from the right side, and from the left side was the Korean outpost. They were brave fighters, really. Even I admired them. They were brave fighters. They were never afraid. They would never retreat, and I saw them, and we were very close to each other, so I saw them. They were very brave fighters because they are defending their country. They are giving their life for their country. Therefore they are giving their life for their independence. Therefore maybe that's why they are best fighters. >> Oh, no, tell us the story about the fence. >> The fence? >> Yes. >> What fence? >> The blood brother, the blood. >> Okay, you know what happened there once upon a time? The Korean service team came at the front line to strengthen the front line, their defense line, so they were fencing with barbed wire to strengthen the front line, so at that time, they were fencing during the night, so at that time, the enemy heard the noise when they hammer. Then they fired the mortar fire, and that was the fire exploded among the Korean service team, and this explosion killed some of the Koreans and injured some of them also. The injured ones were shouting, asking for help, so the Ethiopian soldiers went out from their defensive position, and they tried to save the lives of those injured or before dying to give aid, so that time, it was only the Ethiopian soldiers went out from their defensive position from the bunker and tried to save the lives of the injured Koreans, so the second round came and exploded, but one of the Ethiopian soldiers, who carried the Korean, the wounded Korean, the second explosion killed both grasping each other, and they died together, and probably they were also graved in the same coffin, maybe, yeah. >> Mm-hmm. >> This is now we ... Our relationship between Korea and Ethiopia is not like others. We have a blood relationship. We use this word. Still we use, and even we use forever. >> Mm-hmm, yeah, so that's why you're my grandpa. >> Mm-hmm. >> Yes, thank you so much. >> That's the story of our ... His name is Melese. He's bearing my name. >> We saw. We saw the grave, yes. >> Melese [INAUDIBLE]. >> What was the name of the Korean? >> Really, it is difficult for me, and even now I cannot call the name of the Korean since it's too difficult. >> Yes, and you returned, you said, to Korea, so can we talk about your role as the president of the Veterans Association? What do you do? How often do the veterans meet? When was the memorial built? You know? Can you share? >> It's not clear for me, your question. >> You're the president of association. >> Yes. >> What does the association do? How many members are there? How often do you meet? You know? There's a memorial. Right? And the park, when was it built? I think the Korean government donated. Right? So can you share with us that information? >> You know, the story of our association, our association has been established in 1931, I think. >> '31? After the war. >> After the war, yes. It is after the war, yeah. >> 1961. >> Our association established after the war ... >> Yeah, so '60. >> ... because during the communist regime, we cannot establish, and we are never established because we have been refused to establish our association, so after this government came, they permitted us to establish our association. >> What year? >> Well, about 24, 25 years ago, we have established our association, and now I'm the second president of our association. Since I have been elected, it is now 7 years since since my election, so within 7 years, you know, our association is built just to help each other and to maintain the story of the Korean War and the relation between Korea and Ethiopia, so now we are doing that. Within this period, we received ... After we had established our association, many Koreans came and visited us. During this time, they gave us a lot of help because during the communist regime, we could not do anything. We were very poor, as you know, and even not only us, but also Ethiopia due to drought, we became very poor and were in very catastrophic condition. So even though it is worse for Korean veterans, so all the country was under poverty at that time, so they were better than ever, so now since we established our association, as you know, as you have seen also, it is [INAUDIBLE] has been controlled, Ethiopia. The first mayor, he went to Korea for visit, has been to Chuncheon. You know the story why this monument, the same monument is in Chuncheon? Because Chuncheon, it was our battalion who controlled that place the first time because the place was very strongly defended by the communists. It was Kagnew Battalion who controlled that area. >> Mm-hmm. >> So then the Chuncheon people gave this importance to Kagnew, and they built that monument there. >> Mm-hmm. >> So the same kind of monument is built here. >> Mm-hmm. >> Now as I told you, the first mayor of the [INAUDIBLE] went to Chuncheon and had seen that monument, and he signed a sisterhood agreement and came and gave this place to Korean veterans as a memorial. Then this monument is built by the contribution of Korean, the Chuncheon people and the Korean government. Since then, we have been celebrating our memorial days every year in April because we left Ethiopia for Korea in April, so we are choosing this month as a memorial. >> Mm-hmm. >> Since then, we have been celebrating every year and this year also. I don't know, maybe 21st or 22nd April, we are going to celebrate. >> What do you do to celebrate? What happens? >> Well, we invite guests, and we make a speech. We lay wreaths in the monument, and we give also luncheon. All this are by sponsorship. We can't get it also, and mostly the Korean embassy help us. >> Oh, today we saw Efrim and the descendants of Korean War veterans. Now they volunteer for the association. You know? Sons and daughter, they work for the association, so can you explain about why they started to get involved and what you hope from them? >> Well, from the descendants, you mean? >> Mm-hmm. >> Well, of course, we are all old now. Maybe we are passing now. You know? So the story should not be passed, so this story should be kept by the following regimes, so we pass this story to the present descendants, and they also pass to their children, so the story will remain as a story of relation between Korea and Ethiopia will reign for indefinite time. >> Mm-hmm. >> So that's the amend purpose. >> Mm-hmm, how ... >> We want to not do the ... The story should not be forgotten. >> How many veterans are living right now? And how many maybe widows and descendants are part of the association? >> Presently? >> Mm-hmm. >> Well, it's difficult to know the number of the children and the widows, difficult to know that, but we definitely know. We can precisely tell the number of veterans who are alive, but maybe the widows ... It was just guessing about 1,000, about 1,000 widows maybe present, but the children are ... Soldiers always like to have many children. >> Mm-hmm. >> You know? So therefore it is difficult one to tell you exactly the number of the descendants. >> But they are welcome to participate in the association? >> Mm-hmm, well, I have been trying to find many times before the present ones. I tried about three times. Now the last ones, they are successful, and they are very volunteer. >> Mm-hmm. >> They don't ask for any payment. They work voluntarily. You know, they are young people. They have better ideas than us. They have better physical condition, so they are now trying to improve the association's memorial. >> Yeah, so I met three of them today, and we had lunch together. >> Yes. >> We had a lot of fun. It was very good to see young people respect the memory and honor your contributions and to carry the legacy because, like you said, it's important that they carry it. They pass it onto their children indefinitely because many other associations around the world, that's their number-one concern. What do we do when the veterans are no longer there? What happens? And for Ethiopian Korean War veterans to have already descendants part of the association, it's very good. You know? >> Yeah, thanks to the Korean people and the government of Korea and so many [INAUDIBLE] of Korean such like [INAUDIBLE]. They give scholarship privilege to many descendants, and the Korean government also is giving the patient otherwise [INAUDIBLE] entrance. Now those who are privileged of getting the free scholarship, and these descendants are from among them, so they do understand our problem and are 100 percent volunteer to assist us. Now we also rely on them now. >> Mm-hmm, that's wonderful, and last word, lastly, you visited Korea. When was the last time you went to Korea? >> Myself? >> Mm-hmm. >> I think about a year ago. >> One year ago? >> One year ago, yeah. >> Oh. >> What is that year? >> 2016? >> Yeah. >> Oh. >> I have been many times, several times to Korea, about five, six times ... >> Mm-hmm. >> ... after the war. >> And I'm sure they greet you with so much thanks and love and right? They treat you very well, I hope. Right? >> Yeah. >> And when you go, do you go with other Ethiopian veterans? >> Oh, yes, even, yes, yes, I go always with the other veterans. >> Mm-hmm. >> And even I am invited. They invited me with my children. Two of my children have been there, and my two grandchildren also have been to Korea. >> Oh, wow, and that's ... >> And the one also is still there now. She left us recently for a scholarship. You know Korea? >> Mm-hmm. >> And you know the universities of Korea? Hankuk University, do you know? >> Mm-hmm. >> Yes, my granddaughter is there now. >> Hmm. >> She attended about 8 months ago. She's still there. I received a call this morning from her. >> Hmm, oh, one last story, why is your nickname Kim? >> Pardon me? >> Your nickname? >> Okay, my nickname, you know, during the war, there was a famous fighter. Marshall Kim was a famous fighter, so I also ... When I was in Korea, I had been several times to patrol action, and I made many actions. I engaged many times by communist forces, so then my course of it, they gave me this name. They gave me his name to call me as a nickname, Marshall Kim. >> Marshall Kim. >> Yeah because he was very brave fighter. >> Mm-hmm. >> And they called me also a very brave fighter, so we have to give this name to him. >> Mm-hmm. >> That's why they called me Marshall Kim. >> Mm-hmm, well, like you said, Koreans and Ethiopians are blood brothers, and I'm very glad to be here to meet my grandpa and my Ethiopian brothers, so thank you so much for your time, and thank you so much for your contribution. >> I thank you also. Thank you very much. >> Mm-hmm. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

>> My name is Ken Tashiro. My wife and I like to sing, and when we were living on the big island, I was inspired to write this song, and she helped me with the lyrics.

>> What is the song?

>> It’s “This Land is Your Land,” and it was written by Woody Guthrie, and it was sung by Pete Seeger. And so we took those words, and we made new words for it that applied to Korea. I was in Korea from July 4th, 1950. I was there 1 week after the war started. I was in Japan with the occupation, so this song details all the things that I’ve seen. I started out in Busan, went up to the [INAUDIBLE] and had the first battle and went up to …

[ Chatter ]

>> Okay. All right. And then we went up to North Korea, went to Pyongyang, and then we were 5 or 10 miles south of the Yellow River when the Chinese communists came in, and so we had to retreat, so …

>> Were you part of the Task Force Smith?

>> No. If I had been, I’m afraid I would’ve been dead, but we were … I was fortunate and got back, and got back south of Seoul, and then in June of 1951, I had enough points to rotate to go back to the mainland or to Japan, and since I had almost 10 months left, they had me sent to Japan. Then I got out May of 1952, so I almost spent 5 years in the army. But this song reflected my feelings and the third verse about the people that were killed and about the people who were wounded, and maybe they weren’t wounded in body, but they were wounded in mind or in the soul, so that’s what that came from.

>> Can you take it out, the lyrics, so I could show the lyrics?

>> Yes.

>> How long did it take you to write it?

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> Okay.

>> [INAUDIBLE].

>> You know, here I was so surprised that you wrote against the armies of North Korea and the Chinese commies too. Many of your friends, your comrades in the chapters, they’re Chinese Americans, and, first of all, you as a Japanese American, what did it feel like to you? Because there’s a very complicated relationship between US and Japan at the time because it was right after World War II and Pearl Harbor, and you were here in Hawaii. And then, of course, the Japanese had colonialized Korea before, and so there was that very complicated relationship. So what, as a Japanese American … It’s not like you chose to make all of that happen. It was more political. What, as a young boy, how did it make you feel? It must’ve been so difficult.

>> Well, as a young boy during World War II, the Japanese Americans were evacuated from the West Coast. I was born and raised in California, and we were forced to leave there and go inland. And then we went to a camp in Gila River, Arizona, and we were in camp for 2 years. Then I was sent out because my dad, who was in the 442, he was an [INAUDIBLE], he was in the 442, but it didn’t make any difference. So we had to go to Minneapolis, and I went to high school there. And finally we got back to California, and then in 1947, I volunteered for the army.

>> Why did you want to volunteer? I would’ve been so angry, honestly.

>> Well, I’m a Christian, first of all.

>> Yes.

>> And so first, I felt very angry about the war, but then I decided that the war, it’s one of those things. There’s a saying in Japanese. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. It means, “Can’t be helped,” but anyway. So I went in the army. I went to army language school. I studied Japanese, and …

>> Did you face any discrimination in Korea?

>> Beg your pardon?

>> Did you face any discrimination or racism in Korea?

>> Well, yeah. In any situation, because of my face, I was often taken for the enemy, and so one thing that saved me was I knew a lot of swearing in American language. And I’d swear like that, and then they’d say, “Oh, he’s GI.” So, anyway.

>> I'm on a ferry on the Yalu River between Dandong, China, over there and North Korea, right here, very narrow river that separates two countries, and yet, those are North Korean fishermen over there. North Korea right there. This is the one bridge that connect the two. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And that's the bridge that was destructed during the Korean War. Again, that's Dandong. That's North Korea. I can't believe I got this far and close to the border off of North Korea, and it's just so sad that I've been to every single country that fought in the Korean War, but I won't be able to cross this one, and none of the Koreans living on that side ... >> I'm waving at them, and they're waving back at me. >> Mom. >> That's a North Korean ship. I'm on a ferry on the Yalu River, and that's Dandong, China, and that's North Korea. Dandong, and that's a North Korean sailor. That's a North Korean ferry. Hello, hi, hey, some of them are waving back. Oh, yay, and that's North Korea right there. And I'm on the Yalu River between Korea [INAUDIBLE] ...