>> My name is Suaka Shuster. I was born in the village of Pago Pago and born in the hospital, the naval hospital, that we had in Mauna Loa. That’s where I was born. I … What happened is you wanted to me to say?

>> American Samoa, you said, what everybody need to know about American Samoa.

>> Well, American Samoa is very unique because they don’t have to join the service because of the population that we have, we don’t have to go out and actually volunteer to go, be told that at that time. So I got registered, or when I went to the United States, I registered to vote. Everybody goes over there that’s 18 years old has to register, so I didn’t know what it’s for until I got a letter from them that they drafted me in the army, so I went in to see them and see what all this about. They said why you drafted in the military. I said, “Oh, yeah, [INAUDIBLE],” and then I said, “Well, can I choose where I go?” He said, “Yes, I can choose,” so I choose to go in the Air Force in 1952, so I served the Air Force for 4 years.

>> Why did you choose to go to the Air Force because Air Force was new at the time?

>> It’s new, and as a I kid, I was always excited and wanted to be a pilot, but unfortunately, we didn’t have that. You see here in Samoa at the time, you learn how to become a pilot, so that was [INAUDIBLE]. I want to serve the Air Force because I was interested in flying, so they send me to school to Texas in Amarillo for [INAUDIBLE] almost 4 years to become a member of a flight crew of an airplane, and it happened to be a B-47 bomber that carries an atomic bomb. They told me [INAUDIBLE] know if I like this because I don’t want [INAUDIBLE], but I found out it was just a safety precaution because of the enemy, and we do have to do it. We have to do it. A lot of talking [INAUDIBLE], so I joined for 4 years in regular military service as a flight engineer for a B-47 bomber. The crew members, there were three of … four of us: the pilot, the copilot, the navigator and the flight engineer. That’s all the people you can fit in the airplane, and the seat I was on, I was sitting in the air with an atomic bomb, right in the back of me, and I hope every day that the alert to fly that we don’t have to use this thing because I know that’s wrong, killing people, and fortunate enough, we never had to drop the atomic bomb. The time before when it happened, the same outfit that I was in [INAUDIBLE] a bombing when we took it to Japan, two places where they dropped the bomb, and they killed a lot of people, and I don’t want to be … have that experience all my life. That’s all I want to share with you.

>> What do you remember about … How many flights did you take, and what do you remember about Korea?

>> For … I never landed in Korea, never landed. I was always in the air. I’d fly from California through Okinawa, and then we were in the air all the time.

>> So you were in Japan, stationed in Japan?

>> Yeah, in Okinawa.

>> On Okinawa?

>> And then we were stationed in … We flew to different places all the time, so England or a station, permanent stations, Riverside, California, and they’d evacuate us and send us to different places, and when there’s nothing else to do, then we’d round the United States, body of the United States. Those were our jobs that we …

>> Have you have been back to Korea?

>> No.

>> What do you know about it, and what does it make you feel as a Korean War veteran?

>> I feel that I’ve done the job, that it’s for the safety of the people, not to go and kill the people within there, but just to put them in safety. That’s my feeling.

>> So you started out by saying that American Samoans didn’t need to …

>> Didn’t need to.

>> … volunteer, but you went, and many people went. What does it make you feel as a Samoan.

>> I feel proud to have done someone is going out to sacrifice his life for other people.

>> Yeah. You should be very proud.

>> It’s a small place, and there’s a few of us, and we’re eager to join the Army and the Air Force and the Navy and sacrifice, to help others [INAUDIBLE].

>> I think you may be one of the few remaining Korean War veterans on this island.

>> Yes, I am one of the [INAUDIBLE].

>> Yes, yes.

>> I’m still here.

>> Yes, we’re here to honor you today.

>> Yes.

>> Yes, later the Lieutenant Governor and …

>> With his bottle of whiskey, and he cut the circulation back, and the two doctors come back and examine me and say, "Well, Yuri has done has trick again," and he saved my foot. Anyway, a couple days later, before I got discharged, I said, "I'd like to thank Yuri for saving my leg," and he said, "Well, you won't be able to see Yuri for a couple of days." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, you don't think he threw the whiskey away, do you?" [INAUDIBLE]. That's really speaking of my recollections of Korea really because it was such a long time ago. But I'd done 18 months in Korea, and then I'd done 18 months then in Malaya, so I went from one very, very cold country to a very, very hot country. All in all, I'd done 5 years in the Army and came out and got back [INAUDIBLE] and got money to raise a family. I'm a great-grandfather now. I've got six great-grandchildren. >> One more, one more. >> One more, yeah, seven, and really speaking, I feel like I didn't do anything heroic. I wasn't a hero. I was just an ordinary soldier doing what I was trained to do. >> Why did you join? >> I had to. National service, you had to go in. I was 18. >> It must have been ... But you went after the war started. >> No, yes, yes, yes. >> So that must have been terrifying because it's one thing to be conscripted before the war because you don't think it's going to ... They didn't think it was going to be a full-on war, but for you to hear of boys being killed and for you to have to go, that must have been terrifying. >> Actually, it wasn't really because at 18, it was an adventure. We never thought about getting killed, never thought. The biggest shock I had, we went to Japan first, and then from Japan, we went to Pusan, and we went by train and up to Seoul, and when we got off the train at Seoul at Seoul Railway Station, it went flat. Everything was bombed, and Cardiff was very heavily bombed during the Second World War. When I was growing up, I was 10 or 12 during the Second World War. And all my friends were with me. They were the same age as me, and they'd all seen plenty of bomb damage, but none of us have ever seen much damage around Seoul Railway Station as we've seen in this country. We even went to Hiroshima when we were in Japan, and even that didn't look as bad as Seoul Railway Station because Hiroshima is flat. There's no buildings in it at all, but to see all these bombed buildings and a railway station in pieces, and all of a sudden, we realized that it wasn't about a schoolboy adventure. This was serious, and it really ... I wouldn't say it frightened us, but it really shocked us. We thought, "This is not a schoolboy adventure. This is something serious," and I was only just 18 1/2, and my other friends were all about the same ago. None of us were 19, and it really shook us. It kind of sobered us up. I think from that moment we went from being boys to being men because it was such a shock to our system. >> Can you say your name one more time? >> My name is Kohn, Nicholas Kohn. >> And your birthday? >> Fifth of August, 1934. >> You're a Leo. >> So I've just gone 84 a couple of weeks ago. >> And you were born in ... >> In Cardiff. >> In Cardiff. I like Cardiff a lot. >> Cardiff is not a city. Cardiff is a big village because everybody seems to know everybody. It's a very friendly town, very, very friendly. >> Did you know any of the 32 that died? >> No, no, no, no. >> Did they ... >> They were there a year before me. They were there in '52, and I didn't get there until January '53, so I only had the last 7 months of the Korean War. >> The big ones where they suffered most casualties were in ... >> '51 and '52. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, God spared you twice. >> It was very static when I got there. It was something like the First World War. We were one side of the fence, and the Chinese were the other side of the fence, and that was it. There wasn't too much to-ing-and-fro-ing, not like in the early part of the war.

>> 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.

>> Grandpa Ken, when did you first go to Korea? When did you first go to Korea?

>> Why?

>> I have so much stuff.

>> Because I joined the Army to go there.

>> I have so much stuff [INAUDIBLE].

>> And when?

>> Right at the beginning of the war?

>> In 1950?

>> Yeah, in that time, in, around that time, yeah.

>> But you also fought in the World War II.

>> World War II, yeah.

>> So how old were you?

>> Sixteen and a half.

>> When you went to World War II?

>> When I to World War II, yeah. I was 16 years, 16 years old.

>> How old were you when you went to Korea? They recruited soldiers that young, when you were sixteen?

>> I guess I aged about 3 years or 4 years. I don’t know, but no. I went to Korea when I was … not Korea. I went … When I first joined the Army [INAUDIBLE] going right there. I lied like heck about my age.

>> You lied about your age?

>> Yeah. Well, see I told them I was 19.

>> Why did you want to join the Army when you were 16?

>> Sixteen, yeah.

>> You were a baby.

>> I told them I was 19, and I got in that way, and I was only 16, 16 1/2 when I got into action.

>> So when you went to Korea when you were I guess 19, 20?

>> I was about 16, yeah.

>> No, in Korea.

>> Wasn’t 16 when I went to Korea. Then I joined the Korean fun … The Korean war, I had already been in one war, and then that was my second war.

>> So how old were you?

>> Well, I started out, I was 16.

>> No, in Korea. How old were you when you were …

>> I would be about … Oh, I don’t know, 18, 19 if I was that old.

>> Okay.

>> I’m not sure of the age now. I forget everything. I do, and it’s a son of a gun. I can’t remember anything. Surely …

>> Well, you …

>> … [INAUDIBLE] stuff.

>> Well, what is your name?

>> So I spent time in World War II. Then when the Korean War broke out, I joined right up there with them.

>> What is your first … When you went to Korea, what was your first impression? What do you remember about the Korean War?

>> Korean War, well, going there and in a foreign land, foreign people to talk to and that, and it was just like anything else. You go, and you get used to it.

>> What do you remember from …

>> Well, I remember getting there and meeting other people and being ready for action, and I got wounded there, and when I back in the war again, I got wounded a second time, and nothing serious, but a wound was there. The first war I went to, I got everything, got all the paperwork done. I would sit there, and my mother said, “I’m going to have you withdrawn, tell them your age,” and I said, “Don’t bother. I’ll run away, and you won’t know where I am,” and that stopped her, so I went over there. I was in France, Belgium, Holland and all those places during World War II, and then when the Korean War broke out, I was there for that, and that’s it.

>> Have you been back to Korea?

>> I’ve never been back, no.

>> Yeah, you went back once.

>> Once, I guess, yeah.

>> Yeah, you were back once with me.

>> What year? When?

>> It was 2003, I think.

>> I forget what I was doing yesterday. I’m telling you. It’s tough.

>> We’re all getting older.

>> Yeah, damn right.

>> Getting older.

>> Oh, Jesus.

>> It’s okay. I forget too. Sometimes, I forget too.

>> I forget what I ate for dinner. You ask me what I had for lunch yesterday …

>> Exactly.

>> Your full name. >> My name? >> Thomas Perkins. >> Thomas Perkins and your date of birth and where you were born? >> I didn't hear that. >> Your date of birth and where you were born? >> Oh, I was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales in a place called St Davids, the smallest city in Europe. >> Okay. When did you serve in Korea? >> When did I serve in Korea? 1951 to '53. >> Can you share what you brought with us? You brought something. >> I've got something? >> Mm-hmm. >> Yeah, just a photograph of me in Korea. I was 19 years of age. >> What do you remember about your buddies? What do you remember there? >> I was in the Tank Corps. I was a tank driver. >> Oh. >> Yeah, and this is ... That is actually the tank that I drove when I was Korea. >> Oh. >> That one there. >> Can you show it like this? >> Sorry? >> Can you show the picture like this? Yes. Wow. It's the real one? >> Oh, yes. >> Did you know any of the 32 that died in the war? >> Did I? >> Mm-hmm. >> Did I know any? >> Who died, yes. >> Who died? >> Yes. >> I ... We only a couple of men in Korea. >> Thirty-two. >> That one ... >> Were you part of the Welsh Regiment or the King's Regiment. >> No, no, I was Tank Regiment. >> Was the tank part of the King's or Welsh? >> I was a Tank Regiment. >> It's a separate? >> Not in Korea, no. Welsh Regiment Infantry. >> May I take a picture of that one too? >> Yeah, that's ... This is the crew of that tank. >> Oh. >> That is me. I was the tank driver with [INAUDIBLE] gunner, and that's a radio operator. >> What was ... What's your one story? >> That was during the actual war. We were on the battle of the Hook. Also ... >> What's the battle of the Hook. >> It's an area within the Commonwealth division in Korea. >> Mm-hmm. >> And we had a place called the Hook, which is the hook, and then we had other positions, which are relevant to the area, 355, 159, 210, 10, and they all had names, [INAUDIBLE], Little Gibraltar. >> Wow. Do you remember ... Have you been back to Korea? >> No, I have no wish to go back? >> Why not? >> When I went there, it was a lovely ... When I went there it was a nice, quiet country. There was no skyscrapers. It was very, very basic. >> Mm-hmm. >> The people were very basic. >> Mm-hmm. >> And there was this war going on, which wasn't very nice, and it was very cold. >> Very cold. >> Everybody talks about how cold it was. >> You could have a cup of tea and put it down, and 5 minutes it was frozen. >> I'm glad you made it back very safely. >> No, I've not been back. I've not ... I've no wish to go back there. >> Oh, no, I mean back home. >> Sorry? >> Back home. >> Back home? >> Yeah. >> When did I get back home? >> I went to Korea '51. I didn't come back home to this country because I went to other places. >> You were in the military. >> I was in a long time. I went from Korea to Malaya. That's in Malaya. >> Yeah, from very cold to warm. >> That's Malaya, further down, and I served in Malaya. These are letters I had from your ...