Stories from the Korean War

>> 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.

>> My name is Fillmore Kent, and I am 85 years old, and I served in Korea from November '53 until November '54. That was the last two continents in NORMASH history. I volunteered, as everybody who served in Korea. The reason why the Norwegian, Trygve Lie, was the first general secretary of UN starting in 1946, and it was very much publicity around the Korean War in Norway at that time. So, of course, I wanted to help. Also, it was an exciting because you cannot imagine today how far away Korea and Norway was. The second reason, or the third reason, was that I needed money to start my study in Germany, and the salary was partly paid in Korea and partly in Norway so you can save. We all had 6-month contract. I renewed my contract after 6 months, and that's the reason why I spent 1 year in Korea. The reason why I was picked out was that I had some first aid courses in Red Cross, and I was already a laboratory man, so I first picked out to serve at the hospital laboratory. When I came down, the position was occupied, so they put me as assistant to the operation tent. It was quite a new experience for me, but I learned rather quickly, and you get used to it. It was after the armistice, but we still had very many military patients but gradually fewer army people and more Korean civilians. After the 6 months, we had the opportunity to travel down to the hospital in Busan, the Swedish hospital, permanent hospital, so we get to know very much some Swedes. We had also very good relations with the Koreans in the camp. We were close friends. I have a theory in that aspect, Korea is a rather small country dominated by China and Japan. Norway is also a small country, dominated for centuries by the Danes. Norway was just a farmer's country with no education. If you wanted to have education, you had to go to Copenhagen. Later, we were under the strong influence by the Swedes, so my theory is that Korea and Norway have more or less the same history, even though they are opposites of the world. In April '54, NORMASH also engaged six Korean nurses already educated to help out because of the many Korean civilians, and I got to know one of them, and she came to Norway in '57 for further education and to meet me. We married in '61. We are still married. We have three children and eight grandchildren. So for me, the Korean event influenced my whole life afterwards. My wife is really happy because it's very important for Koreans to have a family and some success, so she's quite satisfied in her life also. >> I would love to see her picture. I would love to see her picture. >> I not here. >> Oh, wow. Fascinating. You went back to Korea, you said, for a visit, right? >> Yes. >> How many times? >> Yes. I think after ... These are the 30 years after the armistice. Koreans started the revisit tours, and I have been in Korea twice, in '83, so after 30 years, and in 2010. It was very surprising to get to come there and see that the fort is still ready to shoot after 30 years of armistice. >> Even now? >> Even now. But I mentioned the Busan hospital Swedes. As I told you, we got along, Swedes, very good, and they were both countries who had commission in Tongduchon to secure the armistice, and they still are there, I suppose, so we could visit them very early in 1954. I'm also a board member of the Korean War Veterans Association in Norway, and we have two events yearly here at the memorial statue. In June, the military attache located in Stockholm comes to pay tribute to our dead, and in the second Friday of November, we have our annual meeting. >> Don't touch that. With your hands, don't ... >> Oh. Oh. Okay. Sorry. >> Okay. Say that again about your Association reunions. >> Huh? >> About your reunions. Say it again. You have two ... >> Yeah. Okay. I'll start from the ... Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Now, the Korean Veterans Association have two occasions to remember the dead ones here at Akershus Castle. The first one is in June. The military attache for Sweden and Norway located in Stockholm, he comes to pay tribute. And also the second Friday in November, we have our annual meeting where we also have a ceremony at the statue, and our president [INAUDIBLE], he is a former officer in the king's guard, and he takes care of the ceremony with flags, with armed guards and military band. So it's a rather great experience for us. >> Do a lot of people come? >> Yes, because in our association, we also have members who served at the Scandinavian hospital in Seoul, which was created in '56 or something, so they who served there also are members of our association. >> Do Korean Norwegians come, too? >> Yes, of course, the embassy and the embassy staff and some Koreans, too. >> How about young people? >> Not so many young people, but my experience is that young people in Korea, they know very much about the Korean War. >> More than other countries. >> Yeah. >> Well, what do you think, because the Korean War is called, "The Forgotten War"? The Korean War, they say, is "The Forgotten War." >> Mm-hmm. Not for me. >> Hm. You're right. So I'm hoping to preserve this history for young people, younger generations. I'm very glad that Julie is here because she is young Norwegian, and I want more young Norwegians to be proud of your service. >> I can also mention that from 2010, Korea also invited grandchildren of veterans. So in the first tour, we had 12 participants from Norway [INAUDIBLE] from Norway, and they had 1 week in Seoul and Busan and 1 week marching along the line, so it was a really good experience for them. >> Did your grandchildren go? >> Yes. I had one grandchildren. Actually, I had two grandchildren now, and when I revisited Korea in 2010, I brought also another grandchildren with me, and [INAUDIBLE] grandchildren and also Lucy [INAUDIBLE] on Saturday if she had the grandchildren. >> What did they think? >> They were very happy, and of course, it was a great experience for the grandchildren, too. >> I'm sure they were very proud of you. I think so, right? Because they see Korea now, right? What do you think of Korea now? >> Now, as I already said, the frontline passed four times through Seoul, so it was nothing left when we arrived, so it's amazing how the Koreans can manage. They are very clever and very grateful, work very hard. >> Yeah. We do work hard, and we're very grateful people. >> Yeah. >> We are very, very thankful. >> Yeah. Mm-hmm. >> We don't forget. >> No, and of course, if you look to North Korea, you understand why you are grateful. >> Yes. I say that I am very, very fortunate and blessed that I was not born in North Korea, you know? >> Yeah. >> So I hope that, you know, you went, and you defended South Korea's freedom, right? I hope that the war will end soon and Korea would finally have peace and reunification so that North Koreans can also enjoy freedom. Do you think that's possible? >> Doesn't look that way. And, of course, Germany was divided in the same way, and it ended, but you can still see a difference between West Germany and East Germany, even in Berlin. So it's not easy to combine West Germany and East Germany, still some problems, and I suppose in Korea, it must be even more problems. But of course, I will wish you good luck. >> Yeah. I hope so, too. Anything you would like to say to maybe young people all around the world about war, peace, about your experience in Korea? >> No. I don't think so. >> No? Well, thank you so much for your time. >> Okay. Okay.

>> My name is Adrid Fieren. I am a man of 85 years old. I served in the Korean War with NORMASH in '52, '53. NORMASH was Norwegian contribution among the nations that helped South Korea to defeat the North Korean War from North Koreans. NORMASH is a mobile army surgical hospital. The main purpose for NORMASH is to take care of soldiers directly from the front line, wounded which has to be X-rayed and to be operated by surgeons. NORMASH therefore was placed approximately 10, 12 kilometers from the [INAUDIBLE] front line. We were a part of 8th Army and had, as far as I remember, three divisions to serve soldiers from. Soldiers coming into NORMASH was treated there and had to leave before the 3 days. Then the patients had to [INAUDIBLE] other hospitals. NORMASH was served by, I think, approximately 600 people from Norway. Each continent each period of 6 months, and then 106 persons on each period. I was in the guard, controlling all together with then all the Norwegians, and our duty was to guard camp to serve the borders. What do you call it [INAUDIBLE]? >> Barbed wire. >> Hmm? >> Barbed wire. >> Barbed. >> Wire. >> Wire but [INAUDIBLE] to be in the main gate all 24 hours. Together with [INAUDIBLE] Korean soldiers, a soldier from ROK Army. AMASH, the main thing in AMASH is of course the hospital itself, but it has many service functions around [INAUDIBLE] transport service in the camp, guarding and so on, and we had, I think it was approximately 30, 40 ROK Army Koreans [INAUDIBLE] guarding people. I think there were approximately 15, 20 and [INAUDIBLE] to maintain the camp itself. Then the nights especially in the guard, we were two then, one Korean and one Norwegian. We had difficulties, of course, with language, but we tried to communicate a little. But one thing we learned each other, that was a song. The Korean has a folk song called [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] and the Korean colleague on guard, the Korean learned us [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] and we learned him [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] a Norwegian folk song, and the [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] we learned goes like this. [Lyrics] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. A little like that, we learned, and perhaps in Korea, an old man of 80, perhaps he's singing [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] maybe. Why did I go to Korea? Well, I was already 20 years old. I had finished first military service in regularly in Norway, and we were all volunteers, and on that time, I nearly didn't know where Korea was, but I had to look up on a map and find the little country called Korea, but it was the adventures, one thing, to travel all around and half around the world. I'd never been in plane before. I'd never slept in a hotel before. It was new adventures waiting, maybe a little to take part in a battle against communism, but I wouldn't say that was the main thing for a young man on that. However, it turned to be a very fine trip. Six months after the War, Korea is one of ... We used to say that no other country in the world is so clever to say, "thank you," [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] as ... You know [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? Norwegian ... as the Korean. I am so happy that I have been four times back on revisit trips. >> Show us that picture where you went to Korea and that story of the nurse and the patient. >> Yes, that's a good story. You see here we have a book which we, the veterans in Norway, has made possible, and it is also translated to Korean, and here, I can show you one picture. No, it's not here. It's in the magazine from one of the revisit. This was celebrating the 60 years of peace. >> Armistice. >> Huh? >> Armistice. >> Armistice, yes. It's not peace yet. There we had a nurse who served in the very first continent in '51, and she was taking part in that trip and [INAUDIBLE]. You see this? That's a lady. Her name is Gerd Semb. She is now a lady of 95, I think. When we someplace on that trip, I think it was in Uijeongbu, we had a lunch there, and when finished her lunch, going out, there came a man, this man to Gerd and saying, "Ah, I must thank you. I was young man, and I had destroyed my face, and you treated me." After more than 60 years, it seems this happening. That was a very funny and a very good story. >> You're on the cover of the magazine. >> Yeah, this is the magazine for the Norwegian forces. >> With Gerd. >> Yeah [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] is the name of this. >> Who are the other two ... >> Here is also the lady there, yes. >> And who is the other lady? >> And if it is of interest, this is me, and this is the Minister of Defense in Norway at that time. She also followed this trip. >> So what did you think about Korea? >> Now or on that time? At that time, Korea was more or less a ruin. In the place where we were situated, the battles had gone four times through, so it was no houses, no buildings, all destroyed. The people who were there lived in houses built of soil and equipment they held after the battle. Especially fort making ceilings on their houses, they took boxes of beer and open it so it was more like this. If you took the bottom and the top of a box of beer, you will have a flat metal, and many of those was how they built the ceilings, top of the ... >> Roof. >> ... roof, yes. Nowadays, Korea, the first time I visited was in '84, I think. It was a new modern country. It was unbelievable for me to come back and see this wonder, and the Korean people, I love them. I really love them. >> Number one. >> Number one, they are number one. >> That's number one. >> And we have been so happy. We have this veteran association to have a very, very good connection with the Korean ambassador. He is number one. So I think me and all the other Korean veterans also are very fond of the Korean people. >> Well, we thank you. >> Thank you. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Enough.

>> My name is Cigor Piettri, and I'm nearly 95 years old. I worked in the Swedish Red Cross Hospital in Korea from November 1952 to April 1953 as a chaplain, so ... >> What are some things you remember? >> Yes, I remember I was there. No, it was very interesting period because you had to participate in the war and see it from the inside. I remember when I came to Tokyo. At that time, it took 5 days to go by air from Sweden to Tokyo. I was in the plane all the time, day and night, and when we then should leave in Tokyo, we met a person from the Swedish hospital that should leave from an American airbase. We were in fact a part of the Eighth Army, the hospital, and I remember I sat on the plane, and we should start, and nearby was an American bomb plane. I saw them put in the bombs, and I said, "No." If somebody had told you 10 years ago there's a city and an American airbase and go to country in a war in the service, it just would make me mad, but anyhoo, we came over in some hours, and were transported to the hospital, and there, we were received, and it was a special Sunday. It was a first Sunday in that Lent, and they received me, and I should have the solace in the right. They had me in a special barrack that was used as a Church, this one, and a very beautiful interior, especially the old one. Where is the improvement? This is the altar in Easter, Easter solace, and I came to be received by the offices there. It was 1952 in November, 8th November. >> Did you volunteer? Did you volunteer? Volunteer. >> Yes, yes. I was quite volunteer. >> Why did you volunteer? Why? >> I was asked to do so. I had a friend who was a chaplain before me, and I had another friend who should be after me, but between that was a gap. Usually, you should stay at least 6 months, but they had a gap for 5 months or something, nearly 5 months there, and they asked me if I could go there, and in fact, it was not at all good for me because I had began a new training for to be a librarian, but I felt I had a task because otherwise, I couldn't get anybody, and I was naturally rather curious about how it should be there. The last year before I had spent in Israel in Jerusalem, and then I got the taste how it is to be in a foreign country and to live in the country and to see what is going on and in the world. Israel's founding was naturally a world problem, not so much a problem at that time but to be, and I had the chance to go into it during that time, and I thought I must see what's going on in Korea, so I said, "Okay. I will take it, be there for 5 months." >> You must have seen a lot of injured soldiers, wounded soldiers. >> Yeah. >> Wounded soldiers. >> What? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yes. The Swedish hospital in Korea was a base hospital, not at the front, yeah? So the patients came there from the special front hospitals. For example, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Norwegian Hospital, and when the Norwegian minister died, it change sometimes between, so I was up at the front too for some days, and when I came to the hospital, he happened to be there for some days, so we had not the directly wounded soldiers. They were wounded which had been in field hospitals and so needed further treatment but not too bad. Those who were hopelessly wounded, they just passed us, but then they went on to America or Japan or something, but the church had a service. The UN chaplain, he had to have services in the war church, and he had, in fact, to be the one who should care for the wounded people. I shouldn't, but anyhow, they didn't much to it, so I had to go. It was nearly every day in the hospital to speak with people, especially I think the not American one because there were a lot of other people from Belgium and Holland and France and Turk and Ethiopian, Colombian, and they had nobody to speak with in the hospital. It's very important that people who are alone, wounded in the hospital have somebody to speak with, so I more used to go to them than to the Americans because they should have their service, and they had any of fellows who could understand them and speak with. >> Wow. >> So but then, we had all of the permittance. When it was very calm in the war, we get very few wounded from the fronts, so we had the permission to take civilia, civil Koreans and help them in our hospital, and then I had to care for more and especially the children. You see, Busan was a city for about 300,000 people, but when I came there, there were nearly 1 1/2 million, and they were all refugees living in the slums. All of it was slum, and the children in the slum, you can understand. They had sometimes no father, beggars everywhere. You had to pick them up. They came to the hospital, naturally wanted to come in, but we couldn't take in anybody, but sometimes we have to take one or little one. I remember some of them were fantastic children. A boy, 11 years, and they told me one evening at night, "Okay, we have a boy for you," and then he was taken out. He had only a little short. It was cold out. His feet were frozen, and he came in and gave him a bath and gave him food and everything, and then the cold on me, he sat in a staircase in a too-big military costume, and that boy just looked at me and said, "Thank you, sir." He thought it was I who had ... And we'd keep them for some days. We had a very good children doctor. He went around to the hospitals and to the orphanages around and get through the shield and then picked those who were ill, and they could get carried to the hospital. Then it was my way to bring them back again. That was in the Busan Catholic mission, Maryknoll Sisters which I admire more than most people. They lived in ... had a wonderful place in the middle of a slum, and there could be ... You'll see if I find it. Oh, there it is, I think. No, that is the boy I spoke about when he had been brought to an orphanage. He was especially fond of me, and it was not always so very good. I remember the Rusk commission, you know Dean Rusk foreign ministry had a special commission in Korea to find out the political circumstances that we had at inner for at the hospital, and it was very wounded, very fine people, and I got it in the bottom there somewhere and made the little thing ... This boy came and hopped up in my knee. >> Oh, no! >> And then it was not so [INAUDIBLE] so strong. >> Do you remember his name? Name? Name, his name. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Nay. >> Nay. >> No. I have no idea his name. There was no time to find out who he was. That is the orphanage. The Maryknoll Sisters were very ... Swedish [INAUDIBLE] they were very interested of the Koreans and supported them very much, so we had, for example, once a week, we'd have the bingo evening, but it was a custom in the last weeks I was there that the one who won, he gave it to the children, so I had to be down with a gift for about $100 to Maryknoll Sisters to send it for the two. That's fantastic. >> You said that was a Christmas card. Can you show us the Christmas card? >> This card. >> Ooh. >> Oh, it's my ... You see I'm not used to it because I didn't come serve in the military ... come serve in Sweden, but when I got out into the hospital, I was an officer, so I had to say I say to everybody ... I got my own servant, and, boy, he came in every morning, made it clean for me, and so I am missing him. He was a student, I think, and his name was Andon Ackwy Gordon Anton. He gave Swedish names, and this is a Christmas card from him. >> Can you show it inside? Inside. >> Yes, yes. >> Inside. >> Yeah. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There. >> He drew it. >> I don't know. >> He drew it. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He said it's painted. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Well, you talked a little bit about your personal experience, but tell us ... >> Well, my special task was for Swedish person. I had to care for their spiritual care and in firsthand service and so on and to be there for people who wanted to speak to me. I had maybe little too great expectations that all going out there were idealists to work for a big case, but in fact, there were a lot of people who tried to flee their problems at home, as if it should be easier solved there, so it was rather much of that up to. Then I had to be to the entertainment detail, so I had to make evenings for the personnel where we were speaking, and so I had ... I don't know if I have some of the programs since we have it in ... We have it every week, every week newspaper for the personnel where everybody could write, and we had the program for every week. >> Wow. Every week? Every week? >> Yes. >> Wow. >> Nearly every week. It was sometimes ... And it was, you see, we were not more than 140 people there, 50 people maybe, and they like to see what it is ... >> What is inside? Tell me. What's inside? >> Yes. Today ... Come on here. Serious articles, and there was ... >> Poem? Poems? >> This is everything which ... >> Poem. >> ... about what is happening in the hospital. For example, we had two American social workers there, and they got medals from the chief, and we wrote a little here. He had the medals in his pocket, and we wrote here something about that we have seen give medals to them, and we are glad he didn't get more after his pocket, and then it ... [INAUDIBLE]. It's funny how people can hand you things, and we had made big songs for the evenings we had, which I have one of them there which everybody would sing it at the evenings, and it as always full. Somebody told about something they had done. I spoke, for example, about Israel. >> Do you remember the song? Do you know how to sing it? >> What? >> Can you sing the song? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No. From Sweden to Korea, we [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. Or it was the military chief. We met in Tokyo, and then it's a refrain. Oh, little one, excuse me we're in the same shape, and nothing will be better if you are angry about it. That was the song. It was just [INAUDIBLE] ... I don't know. >> Wow. How do you remember? >> We have no flag. Yeah, so there's no flag, but it's not our fault because somebody took it and run a feast. >> Are you proud of Sweden for fighting in the war? >> If you want to see [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] ... >> Christmas tree. Christmas tree. >> Yeah. If you want to see a tree, such one you have for Christmas, so look at your second lieutenant is rather ugly. >> Second lieutenant. >> Are you proud of Swedish contributions in the war? >> What? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yes, I am. It's only little port. It's like my port. It's a very little in those, but when I see the first photos I had here about Korea, how it looked ... Hold on. [INAUDIBLE] ... how it looked when I came and see the pictures from Busan today. It's rather fantastic. >> Have you been to Korea? >> What? >> Have you been to Korea? >> No, I'm sorry. I haven't. I've been rather much around the world, most places, Paris, but I haven't come back to Korea. Nearest I have been is in China, and that's a big difference. >> If you would go back, you would be shocked, shocked. >> Yes, would like to go, but it's too late now. I can't go to even to my mail. >> That's why I'm here. I came to say thank you. >> Thank you very much! >> Yes! >> It's very nice. >> Because I am a product ... >> I'm sorry it's so ... But I'm not quite ... >> No, no, no. >> ... prepared for it. >> No, no. Last ... >> I'm a little tired of [INAUDIBLE] >> I know. Last question. The war never ended. The Korean War never ended, right? >> No. >> Just armistice. >> No. I hope it will be an end but what end? >> Yes, and I hope that it would end and ... >> Same people, completely different. They don't understand each other at all. >> Yes, but still brothers and sisters, right? >> What? >> But still brothers and sisters, one people. >> Yes. >> So I hope that it will end, and the country and unify. >> Yes. It could be that. Can see it in Vietnam. It has been ... >> And Germany. >> ... and rather much better than most socialistic country, yeah. >> Okay. I know you're tired, so thank you so much. That's good.

>> My name is Paul Olson. I'll tell about how it was when I went to Korea in 1953, I think, in February, something like that. I went there together with my wife Astrid, and she was a nurse. I was intern medicine, but later on there, I was head of the X-ray department. Can I show you ... >> Sure. >> ... what meant to show for you or ... This is entrance of the hospital. It's called Swedish Red Cross Hospital. Actually, it was Swedish Red Cross organizing this, and I'll show you. Right around there is some of the buildings. This is [INAUDIBLE] building, and we have another building there [INAUDIBLE] building. They are both royal persons, the [INAUDIBLE]. They were both children, the names, because they were the heads in the Swedish Red Cross Hospital. >> How Department of Defense you learn about the Korean War? You volunteered, right? >> Yeah, well, actually, I knew very little about there. I didn't know anything about the Korea before the war I started, and I read in the paper and so on. I think in our Swedish paper it was asking people to help, and I don't know exactly why I thought this may be something for us for my wife and me, but I had been working before right after the war in Belgium [INAUDIBLE]. I've been working in Germany, helping in their X-ray department. I've been working in Finland, the Second War in Finland, so I had some interest in going out and seeing the world on work. >> And your wife? >> Yeah. >> She said yes too? >> Well, she hadn't ever been abroad nearly, and when we went there, we took farewell from relatives and so on. That was the very first time she entered an airplane, and at that time, we went strolling down Europe and stayed for quite a long time in Cairo, and that's the very first time that we [INAUDIBLE] far east. It was something very, very new. >> What did you both think about Korea when you first landed, you and your wife both? >> We knew very little about Korea. >> Hmm. >> We knew there had been hard war, the front line going forth and back, but very little we knew. When we came first to Japan, I remember, oh, this is a poor country, and later on, coming to Korea, still more poor, so we thought, how harsh it should be to live here, but we were very well taken care of there at the hospital. >> What do you remember from the hospital? Do you remember ... >> The first day, I remember we were invited for dinner the first day we came there, and the head of the hospital, he said, "Now we are waiting for the hostile soldiers and airplane trying to make something." There was talk about getting peace negotiations because everybody wants the best position for that. For the first time, I think nearly in our lives, we were given somehow a drink so forgot dinner, so we were a little up and down right after a long trip too, so we were a little ... I don't know. But we were very well taken care of. >> At the hospital, did you meet a lot of soldiers from different countries? >> Yeah. They came from very many countries, and the kind of patients that came to this hospital should be those who could go back to the front line within a few weeks or those who should stay for days, a few weeks, before going to Japan where they made your long-term care. >> What kind of hospital MASH units were in Japan? Americans? >> In ... >> Japan, uh-huh. >> ... Japan, well, sure that was American hospital. The other Nordic countries, they had more like MASH Norwegian MASH-like hospitals in tents. I was actually there for a few days visiting them, and Denmark, they had a hospital ... >> Jutlandia. >> Yeah, Jutlandia, and they would always take patients direct from the front on the plane and could land right on the ship, so they were very effective, and I think they become specialized in head injuries needing rapid care. >> Urgent care, wow, so Swedish treated kind of minor injuries, not critical, deadly, fatal injuries, no operation. >> In ... >> Swedish hospital. >> ... Swedish hospital, oh, sure, they had lots of operations but no very big operation, but I never served in the surgical department. I know my wife was for part of the time worker there, and she told me they had patients coming from very many countries, and they had sometimes [INAUDIBLE] nighttime and telling terrible histories about how they were injured and how Chinese people coming in hundreds during the night and so on. >> What do you remember about Koreans? Did you see Koreans there? >> About the Korean ... >> Mm-hmm, Korean children, Korean people, did you see ... >> Well, we were there before the armistice, and then there were a strong many injured before, but after the armistice, July 27, '53, we taken more and more Korean patients, civilian Koreans, and I know I was working the X-ray department. I saw many places with terrible [INAUDIBLE] in the lungs with the holes in the lungs, and we were just discussing, how should we [INAUDIBLE]. Few drugs possible. Sometimes they got the treatment, but if they were to be out, well, we send them further on. We couldn't treat them there, and lots of civil Koreans, they were coming there to the hospital, lying in the street. See? >> Can you ... Mm-hmm. >> Lots of people waiting to come inside the gate, and here they are giving them DDT spray. >> A lot of children. >> Yeah. >> Well, did you ever go back to Korea? >> Yes, I've been back there twice. >> Wow, twice. >> Yes, one time I was invited to Korea together with a few other friends there privately, and we stayed only in Seoul, but that's 15 years ago [INAUDIBLE]. Now a few months in November, we were invited by the Veteran Administration in Korea to visit there for 1 week, and we were very well taken care of. We were many people coming from many countries. We were three bus loaded with people, and one thing I think was a little curious that we always had an ambulance following us and several nurses to ... Well, of course, many of us were very old, so it was maybe necessary. I don't know if anybody had to use the ambulance, but it was always a few meters there from where we were. >> That must have been very interesting for you because you're the ones that treated Koreans during the war and after, and now they're looking after you. >> Now ... >> They were looking after you. >> Yes, that's the riddle. >> Yeah, yes, that must have been very emotional, yes, and were you surprised to see Korea, the modern Korea? >> Yes. Of course, I was surprised. It was quite new, Korea. As I understand, Seoul was twice the size, maybe more, than when we were there before, and it was most modern city we think about, and maybe the change was still more in Pusan. That was a small city when we went. Now there were most modern, lots of sky buildings. I couldn't remember. It was nothing what I saw there before. It was quite new, but the mountains, I could see far away. I'm happy to say they were the same. >> Yes. Korea has many mountains. I heard that during the Korean War, it was very cold. Everybody talks about how cold it was during the Korean War. >> Mostly, we were there springtime, summer and autumn, so we had very good weather when we were there. >> You were very unfortunate. >> In our free time, we were longing for the Korean [INAUDIBLE] where you could taking baths and swim and so on, very nice places. >> So looking back, what do you think about the Swedish contribution in the war? So you have your personal, you and your wife's personal experience in Korea, but in a larger context, what do you think about the Swedish contribution? >> I think it has been a very good importance for the long time, I mean, because it was important that we could help them with taking care of the patients. We had about 150, 200 beds in each two buildings, so I don't know. Maybe several thousands of patients had been taken care of, but I think it's more important what has happened in the long run, that the context with South Korea and Sweden been very good importance for the development of Korea and development here in Sweden. You helped us, as I understand, with the context for Korea and maybe also for Japan. >> I saw where the Swedish hospital was turned into a national hospital for Korea. Have you visited there? >> No, I haven't visited that, but I know about that. >> And there's a monument for Swedish, huh? >> Yes, yes, I didn't see it, but I heard about it, but the Sweden, Norway and Denmark, they decided that they wanted to start a university hospital in Seoul, and the latter time in the Swedish hospital there in Pusan, they worked, I think, for a short time together with the Dens and Norwegian. One of my best friends worked in that hospital that moved then to Seoul, but my friend was ... We know talking about together [INAUDIBLE]. >> Oh, yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> He worked there several years. >> Your best friend from the Korean War >> My friend from medical studies, he was working several years in ... >> Korea. >> ... this hospital in Seoul. >> To help build it. >> Yes. >> To help train. >> Train. >> Mm-hmm, to train. I saw in the documentary that the nurses and even after the war, they were trained by the Swedish doctors and nurses. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Yeah. That's remarkable. >> I think that was important for the future education of nurses and doctors there in Seoul. >> So one thing that breaks my heart a little bit is that the Korean War never ended. >> Yeah. >> As you know, Swedish still are at the [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] the DMZ along the border to protect the border. >> Yeah. I was up there. >> Oh, you were? >> Yeah, and I was visiting the Norwegian hospital NORMASH up near the front, and there was like MASH. All the hospitals were just in tents. >> Did you watch the American TV show "M*A*S*H"? >> Yes, sure, sure. >> Oh, you did? >> Yeah, and this Norwegian hospital was quite like "M*A*S*H." >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Really? Oh, okay, so it was ... >> Well, seeing it, all the tents and what happened there, but I think have more fun in the American version in the movies. >> Well, I think the greatest honor for the veterans is when the war ends and there is peace. You know? Then I truly hope that in your lifetime, you will see a unified Korea because in this picture here, we have a very malnourished baby, and I look at a toddler, and I look at him, and he reminds me of babies or toddlers in North Korea, but as you know, South Koreans are now prosperous, and we are very grateful to the sacrifices of you and your comrades and the veterans all over the world whom I call my grandpas and grandmas. So I hope that, number one, we will never forget but two that there's really peace so that you know that you not only defended freedom for South Korea but all of the Korean peninsula. >> I will really hope. >> Right, to see that, and maybe next time, you could even go to North Korea, right? >> Maybe. >> Yeah. I hope there is peace. Well, thank you so much.

>> This reunification between families is, at least to person outside the Korean nations, I think it's a little bit peculiar. This is not really a reunification. They meet for 2 days, and then they split again, so it's ... But anyhow, I think it must be very important to both the Korean nations, the people of the two because it's really heartbreaking to know that families were split because of the Korean War. And so I think this of course is very, very important to a lot of people both in South and in North Korea, so I hope it will continue. Definitely I hope so, but as you know, it's very much a result of the political game between the two governments, I think. I think that perhaps today there is hardly any need of a Swedish-Korean friendship association because there are some very good relation between our two nations. I think Korea is quite well known in Sweden today and especially to the younger generation with an interest in Korean popular culture. Korean films are quite popular in Sweden, Korean music. And this is the purpose of my association, is to spread information about Korea and to promote exchange, and this is what we do, of course. We have a magazine, and we have also a scholarship that we annually give to a young Swedish student that wants to study in Korea, and there are a lot of Swedes, young Swedes going to Korea to study today, and we have ... Every year we have something like 30, 40 applicants for this very small scholarship, and we know that there are many more going there, so there is a very good relation and quite well-spread knowledge about Korea today in Sweden. It's quite rewarding also in Sweden to do this, and still there are many connection. Many Swede in Korea, like in Korea, Sweden, we have something like 70 or 80 companies established in Korea with offices, representatives, so there are many Swedish companies on the Korean Peninsula, but Sweden, I can find perhaps six or seven Korean companies, although they are very big, Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia. I think they are the four. Hankook Tires, so that's the five. I don't know any more. I think there is more need of spreading the word about Sweden in Korea than the opposite way, I think, but anyhow, when you go to Korea and you say, "I'm from Sweden," many people are more than friendly. They are very enthusiastic, and they think very highly of Sweden. Sometimes I may get a little bit embarrassed about that, and I think that many Koreans think that Sweden is the perfect country, but of course it's not, but anyhow. There are still ... There are many, many connections with Korea and Sweden. We have quite a few adoptees. Almost 9,000 Korean children was adopted to Sweden, 3 years, of course. It started after the Korean War but still today, it happens. More rare, but it happens that Swedes adopt Korean children, and yeah, so still we send some military personnel there every year. Five persons goes to Panmunjom. >> Well, I'm sure as Koreans tell you when you're there and the veterans when they're there, we are very grateful. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Because we learned, especially Koreans learned medical, a lot of medical ... >> Yeah, yeah, I think so. >> ... techniques from the Swedes, got that from the hospitals, so thank you, and thank you for your service. >> Okay. It was ... That's a perfect assignment for a military man as long as nothing happens. >> Well, knock on wood that can continue. >> Definitely. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you.

>> My father was a doctor, and he served in Korea in Busan from autumn '53 until spring '54, half-year. And he was a pediatrician, and here is a picture of him with a malnourished child. And my memory from this: I was born the year the war started, 1950, so I was only 3 years old when he went away to Korea. And I had three sisters, one younger and two older, so we were four young children at home with our mum, mother. My strongest memory from this is the pictures. He took a lot of pictures, and he showed them for us and for friends. And he had a long story to tell about all the pictures, and then nearly 2 years ago, I saw a little notice in the newspaper. They were looking for pictures from the Korean War, especially about the hospital in Busan, and I contacted them. And I wanted to use our pictures, and then it's for making a documentary for Swedish television. And by this, I also got to know about the Korean Society at several meetings with them and the Korean Embassy here in Stockholm, and they have been very interested in our story and the story of other veterans and relatives to veterans. When I heard about this reunion ... It's for veterans and relatives, so I said I was interested. And so was Paul, and we went together there in November 2016, and it was a fantastic trip to see the country where my father had served. It was quite a different view. As Paul said, I could recognize the landscape, the water, the mountains, but nothing else. It was a modern society, a modern country. When my father was there in the 1950s, it was one of the poorest countries of the world, and now it's one of the richest. And it's only a little bit more than 60 years, and so it's a fantastic story, and it was very interesting to meet the Koreans and their hospitality. They were very kind and thankful to us, and they showed us a lot of places of interest. So it was a fantastic trip, and when I came back to Sweden, I showed my pictures from our trip and compared them to my father's pictures, and I showed them to friends and relatives and colleagues and so on. >> What do you remember, maybe something vivid about your father's experience maybe that he might have told you about? >> Yes, it was ... What he told me about the country and especially when he showed the pictures, it was like being in a movie. Though it was pictures, it was like a movie for us, and I've seen them many times, but I remember the story behind the pictures. >> Mm-hmm? Such as what? Like, something maybe you remember? >> Yes, he gave a hopeful picture of the country, though it was very poor, that you can help people in many ways. And the Swedes did healthcare aid, other countries did other countries for the Koreans. >> But does he have a story, like, about a boy, about a patient, about ... >> No, not as I can remember. He died when I was a teenaged, so I ... >> Oh, okay. >> And he hasn't written anything about it, so I don't have a written story or ... only the telling about around the pictures. >> So do you have some pictures maybe you can show? >> Yes, I have. I have. >> You can lift it up. >> Yes, I will. I'll just choose some of them. People lived, some of them lived in very simple houses, almost shanty town, and he told ... And you see also these simple buildings, and there was a great fire when they were there. And here people are in the ruins after the fire, and he told me that no people died in the fire because the houses were so low. So they just walked out, and it was a big fire. Here was the cemetery, war cemetery in Busan with the flags of the nations that participated. Here's a funny picture: children playing. They are jumping on a board over a crest. They could jump very high, and I think this is a national sport in Korea, and I like the pictures. Though the pictures are old, the colors are very clear still. It's funny to see these simple buildings, but they're very fine clothes on the children. Here's a funny picture. These are boys looking for garbage, and they are pickpocketers. And they put the things in the boxes here, and they could steal a watch with this little stick. >> There were a lot of poor and orphans. There were a lot of orphans. >> Yes, yes. There were. >> They had to find a way to live. >> I think I have a picture. Here is also the gate of the hospital. It was ... See the flag from the United Nations, Sweden: a red cross. >> Mm. >> I think I have a picture of the orphans too. >> It must have been very emotional for you to visit Korea to see because you say your father passed away when you were young. And for you to go to a place where he was, you know, around your age, of course a lot younger, but that must have been very emotional for you. >> It was really, and it gives ... >> And you must have been very proud. >> I'm very proud, yes. >> Because he volunteered. He wasn't ... >> Yes. >> He wasn't forced to do it, you know? >> No, no, no. >> He volunteered. I think that's remarkable. >> And he ... I ... >> You know, can you explain that? Because I heard about it from Nora yesterday, and I was ... I never knew about leprosy. Oh, my god. >> Leprosy. This man has leprosy. It's a very old disease, which has been in several societies. It's an infectious disease which is very little contagious, you know? But people are afraid of it because you get wounds all over the body. You lose your senses in the skin, and therefore you get wounds which will not heal. So the faces will be malformed, and they live in separate villages because people are afraid of them. >> But it's not contagious? >> It's contagious, but very little. >> Right, but the ... >> You have to have very near contact. >> But the Swedish ... Nora said that they volunteered in their spare time to go to the village and treat lepers. >> Maybe, yes. I don't know if my father did, but he had these pictures, and nowadays you can treat this disease with antibiotics. I have more pictures in the other place, in these cases. >> I would guess that he went because he took pictures. >> Yes. He was, but I don't know if he was working as a doctor with these patients, but he took pictures. Yes. >> Remarkable. War is horrific. >> Mm-hmm. >> Which, like I told Grandpa Paul, thank you ... >> Thank you. >> ... for your father's service, and I hope that the war will end soon so that Swedes won't have to be there protecting the border and there's lasting peace. I truly hope that, and I ... Honestly, I didn't ... I knew about Swedish contribution in providing medical support, but many people, when they learn about the Korean War, they talk about the 16 nations. You know, that front, and then they say, "Well, plus five," and they don't know about individual contributions from the medical supporting countries. But already it's only my second day interviewing veterans and learning about it, and I'm just overwhelmed by how much, how significant that contribution is. People don't think about the doctors and the nurses because where the death toll could be twice as much without the doctors and the nurses, and for ... Because I don't know about Denmark and Norway but for Swedes who, I'm sure as doctors and nurses, didn't need the money. >> No. >> They didn't do it for the money. >> No. >> You were already well taken care of here and respected, but to volunteer to go to a foreign country during your youth. Whew. I'm like, "Wow." That's ... Thank you. Thank you. >> I heard a number that I think about more than 1,000 Swedish personnel worked in these hospitals during the years. Could that be true? >> Yes. >> Yeah, during the war? >> And after the war. >> During the war, around 1,000. >> Yes? >> And after the war it was another 1,000 ... >> Okay. So ... >> ... Swedes. >> ... two thousand. >> Two thousand. >> Is that the war started in June 1950, and the hospital in Busan was in place 3 months later. >> I know. September 23rd, 1950. >> Yes, yes. That's very impressive. >> I think today it would be possible to have that kind of decision process. >> Yes, yes. >> Mm. >> That would take half a year. >> Mm. >> Yes. >> I think. >> Yes. >> But during these 3 months, they made a decision. They organized it. They made all the ... >> And they recruited. >> And they recruited. >> Yes. >> And they did all the negotiation with the FN and with the U.S. >> Mm-hmm. >> Amazing. >> So ... >> Mm-hmm.

>> My name is Katarina Ericsson, and I'm at present the President of the Korean War Veterans Association, which is actually part of the Korean Association here in Sweden since a few years back. My father was in Korea, so I'm a child to a Swedish Korean War veteran. When my father, who was very active in the association, when he passed away 2012, unfortunately the association then had no capacity to continue, and that's when I stepped in, and we joined the Swedish Korean Association. So my father was there. He was young when he was there. He was 22 years old. He came to Korea in July 1953 just before the armistice and was there for 6 months, so I grew up with all these stories about Korea, about Asia and stories from the war, which at that time was more like fairy tales but very thrilling stories about transporting things close to the front line of the war and hiding and hearing gunfire and operating wounded soldiers, and then of course my father loved to see "M*A*S*H" and told us that this is exactly what it looked like, and so I grew up with all of this, and I ended up in Asia myself for some years. I was working in Beijing, and just before my father passed away, he joined one of the revisit programs to Korea, and I had the possibility to accompany him and learned a lot more about the Korean veterans from all over the world, about how Korea still so many years after the world still appreciates and still thanks the veterans, and I realized the importance of keeping this group together to ... that there has to be a contact point in each country that still has veterans and also to bring together all the networks of children and grandchildren of the veterans, so this is why I'm engaged in this because I think it's really important to keep the memory alive and to take this on to new generations, and again, Korea still so many years later still invites veterans, those who are ... who still manage to travel and their children and grandchildren to come to Korea. But we also have ways of acknowledging the Swedish contribution here in Sweden. We have started since a few years back to celebrate the 23rd of September, which is the day when the first group of Swedes arrived in Pusan and started to work, so 23rd of September, 1950, which was very early. Sweden reacted very early to decision to support Korea with a field hospital. In the end, it became a stationary hospital in Puson, and again, this is where my father worked and the Swedish veterans worked. When I took over this responsibility of representing this group, we had a list, which was not that long, and I wanted to see if there were other veterans or families of veterans in the country that were still interested. So I managed to ... I wrote a little article and managed to get it published on the 27th of July, which is the armistice day, and as a response to that article actually, we got to know many more veterans that were interested and also family members, so our list became a little bit longer, and we do what we can to keep this group together to try to meet once a year on the 23rd, but also, we organize other events for the veterans, and the Korean embassy here is very generous and in helping us to organize these events and also to help us to fund these events, so the 23rd of September is very much appreciated. We've ... The last 2 years, we've been invited to the [INAUDIBLE] castle for a very, very nice dinner but also organized some presentations and seminar part where we listen to either one of the veterans telling their story, or, like, last year, we had a researcher who is now doing some research about Swedish medical assistants in wars, not only the Korean War. He came to talk about his research. We've also, of course, had presentations about the documentary project now ongoing. There's a short promo film that we have shown, and we hope that maybe this year or if not this year maybe next year to be able to show the whole documentary when it's finished in one of these meetings because of course the idea of a documentary is to spread knowledge about the war, but I think it's also fantastic for the veterans themselves to see it, and I can tell you, not one eye was dry. It was many tears when ... And just thinking about that little promo, I almost cry because it's very emotional to see the veterans talk about this and to think about what they did, the fact that they were all volunteers and went there just because they wanted to help. They wanted to use their medical skills to help a country in war. And I've been to Korea a couple of times, also business trips, and when you tell people that you're from Sweden, they ... and that you have a parent who's a Korean veteran, people are very, very ... I mean, it's to the point you almost feel embarrassed that they think me. I wasn't there. But they very much appreciate the Swedish veterans. We weren't many there, maybe just over 1,000 people, 1,100. No Swedes died in the war, but they were all volunteers, and I think that matters a lot.

>> My name is Nora Drumstedt, and I had liked to go to Korea and help all the soldiers, 1952. I fly by ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? It's a small airplane. It took 2 days to go over from Stockholm to Korea, a long, long time, so we was very tired when we come to Korea, but the Swedish people was there. They took care of us, so we'd have some rest. And after a couple of days, some [INAUDIBLE] work in Korea, but it was very interesting. We had soldiers from all type of military people, and we had a very big hospital. I can't remember how many people was there, but we couldn't stay for a long time. But I stay for 1 year because I feel okay, but just under no time, I was simply, and after that I got ward. That'd be good, and I had so many soldiers to give injections, so I was sick in my eyes of the ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? >> Smell? The smell. >> Smell, yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Smells and aroma. Aroma? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm-hmm? The fumes? >> So I had to change and go back, and after that, I had taken rest, and I got a paper on my doctor, once I had come home, something happened with my eyes, but it was real messy job. Ah, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. I had so many doctors from [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] had taken my exam, and he was doctor for a bunch and special. Many of the Swedish doctors were special, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. I remember their first night when I come over to Korea. They took me in a big ward for medicine, patients. It was many, many in that ward, but after a couple of days, I got smaller ward. But very, very ... They were very bad, but I was very interested in patients also, very, very nice to me, very nice, and when they can leave better, I took them out. And we went out and through the promenade, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? >> Get exercise. >> Exercise. How you say, exercise. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I haven't got the memory. >> What kind of patients were they, Korean patients, American patients? >> I can't hear. >> What kind of patients were they, American patients, Korean patients? >> Oh, they are from France, all of them, every of them. >> All [INAUDIBLE]. >> Every of them, yes. >> Do you have somebody that you remember? You remember somebody? Do you remember an interesting patient? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh, oh, yeah. One patient I had, he was had many [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] on his body, and when he was better, he one day was sitting with Korean boy, and they play ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? >> Cards. >> Oh, card, yeah. And then [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] and he won the boy's watch. >> Watch? >> Watch, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm-hmm? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] watch? Watch, yeah. >> Mm-hmm. >> And I told him he cannot do that. I told him, "You have to bring it back to the boy because he has to see how he can come and work with you tomorrow. He has to have a bus to go with, so he has to have time, right time." And he put back the watch, so the boy got the watch back. And after that, the boy wrote to me when he left, and when I come to America, I met his mother and wrote to me and liked me to come over to New York, to the family. >> Wow. >> Oh, a nice family. Husband has been a doctor, but he was die, and all the boys, he would get married. And after that, I don't know what has happened. I have left. Maybe he was married, and he was in, has been in a fruit tree and fall down, and I don't know if he died, so I can't find him. I have asked. >> Hmm. >> Because Nora used to live in the United States. You worked in the United States for some time. Did you ... >> Yes. I have worked in the ... After I was in Johns Hopkins hospital. >> Mm, Baltimore. >> Yes, 1 year, in medicine, and I like it very much. But it wasn't terrible because I got home outside of hospital, and you see, I didn't like ... If I go home about 11:00 o'clock in the evening, it's dark outside, and so I had to leave it because I was scared. >> Mm. Baltimore was a little dangerous at the time. It was dangerous. Johns Hopkins, that area, was dangerous. >> Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. This was not good. >> Mm-hmm. >> So I was so scared. >> Mm, even now, even now. >> But ... >> In this book, there are many colleagues. >> Yeah. >> Sweden colleagues and American colleagues. What do you remember about them, your colleagues? Do you have any stories with colleagues? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Oh. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Mina. She was 10 years younger than me. She was a lieutenant, and I was a captain. >> Oh. >> And after that, she left. When she left Korea, she come to United States in Detroit and was married with an engineer in Ford. And they get children, and Kathrine was their child, and we were [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> You were very close. >> Mm. >> Very close. And when I left America, I could come back when I got married when I come home, and they lived in Los Angeles though, Maryann working in Los Angeles hospital. >> She was American, or she was Swedish? >> In America, yeah. She was living in America. >> But she was Swedish? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh, yes. >> And you both served in Korea? >> Yeah. >> She was in Korea? >> Yeah. We ... Same flight we had when we were together, every day. >> Mm. Mm. >> And the daughter came to your 100th birthday party. >> Yes, yes, yes. >> Oh! >> Yes, yes. >> Wow! That must have been very special. >> I am so sorry. I have forgotten my English and everything. >> No. You're good. You're good. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Very good, very good. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What do you remember when you first went to Korea? Korea, did you go back to Korea? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No? >> No. >> Mm. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] The first you remember from Korea. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. I come in my work, take care of the patients. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Because I have been in the north in Sweden since I have taken exam in Uppsala and I come up to [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> She was used to the war situation because she served in a military hospital in the north, and this was after the war in Finland, and a lot of children came to Sweden. >> So I was working in [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Mm. >> Mm-hmm. >> What do you know about Korea now? Because, you know, a long time ago, Korea was very poor, very, very poor after the war. Now ... >> No, they are ... have very good. >> Yeah: Samsung, LG, Kia, Hyundai, big companies, right? >> Yes, yes. >> Yes. >> Samsung. >> Mm. >> Samsung. >> Oh, yeah. >> They got this in my birthday. >> Oh, a Samsung TV. >> On my [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Oh, from whom? From whom, your children? >> This was from the family. >> Family, my brother's children. >> Oh, wow. >> Because all my brothers is dead. >> Mm. Did you ever want to go back to Korea? >> Yes, but no. I have not go to there again. I cannot. >> Well, I call all the veterans of Korea War my grandpa and grandma. >> Ah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Because I say I would not be here if you were not there, right? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yeah, yeah. >> And Koreans all over the world, like South Korea, we enjoy freedom. >> Ah. >> We enjoy freedom. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Oh. >> In America, I was able to have American dream. >> My twin brother has a son. >> Brother? >> And he has been in Korea last year. He was in Seoul. I like him to see how Seoul's Swedish hospitals, but now I think they have taken not Sweden ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Scandinavian. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You would apply to work in the Scandinavian hospital after the war, when she came home, but it ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I took a lot of initiatives. >> Yeah. You seem very adventurous, adventurous. >> Yeah, I am. >> Independent, very independent. >> I think you can tell Hannah about the nice gift, how appreciated you were among the patients. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] When I left my patients and go home, they give me, they had written a paper, all the patients on my ward, and gave me a pearl [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] and earrings, so I had this paper, and I had put it in that bag there. >> Do you still have the ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You do? >> Yeah. >> The necklace and the earring? >> I cry. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They came from all over the world. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Beautiful. Wow, wow! From ... >> That's a gift from my patients. >> From 1953. >> Mm-hmm. >> Right, 1953? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? Two months before the ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> May, May, May 1953. >> Yeah, 2 months before the armistice. >> Beautiful. Is that your picture? >> Yeah. >> That's you, picture? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's you. You, right? You, right? >> Yes. >> What do you think? You know, Korean War never ended, like you said. Korean War never ended. >> No. >> It didn't end. Even right now, there's Swedish United Nations peace commission. They are still at Panmunjom. >> Panmunjom? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What do you think about Korea? Do you think the war could end? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I cannot understand how they can work. >> How they can put up with still being in war. >> No. >> Do you think reunification is possible? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It's really too bad. >> I don't think so. >> Mm. I hope so because North Koreans don't have freedom like South Koreans. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No, they are not, definitely not free. It's terrible. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> This is ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He's a grandchild of Nora's twin brother, and he's traveling the world. And he went back. He went to Korea, and she's very happy that he has seen the new Korea. >> Oh, ah. >> Mm. >> And he keeps sending post cards from his different places he goes to. >> Wow! >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Yes. This is a desert in Namibia. >> Wow! How does he send post cards with ... >> The Victoria Falls, and this is also Africa. >> Wow! >> Can you explain to me about this? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ambassador, Ambassador for Peace medal. Explain to me: What is that? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> "My eyesight is not very good," she says. >> But what is it? Tell me. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Can't see. >> But what is it? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And your medal, Nora, your medal: Who gave it to you, medal? >> Ambassador for Peace [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. I got [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] diplom for my work in Korea. I got 23rd of September 1917, or was it December? >> September 2016? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> 2016. >> Twenty. >> Last year. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Twenty-third. >> Twenty-third September, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What's the meaning? >> Very important. >> Nora, what is the significance of September 23rd? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Is it a special days for Swedens? Can you ask her? Nora, is September 23rd special? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I don't think Nora was aware of why we celebrate the 23rd of September. >> Mm. Tell her. >> Yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] to the Swedish hospital in Korea [INAUDIBLE] September came more Swedish person for to help Korea in the midst of the war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> 1950. >> 1960. >> Fifty, 1950. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] 1950. >> 1950? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ah. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] The first Swedes arrived, 23rd of September, 1950. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I can ... >> The first Swedes arrived 1950. >> The first? >> The first Swedes arrived 23rd September. >> The first of September? >> The first group of Swedes. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The first group of Swedes. >> The first? Oh, huh. The first group of Swedes came to Korea the 23rd of September, two thousand ... >> 1950. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> 1950. >> 1950, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm. >> 1950. >> Long time ago. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What do you think ... Give me this. It's distracting her. >> Yeah. >> What do you think is the significance of Sweden in ... No, no, no. That's okay. I'll speak loud. What is the significance of Sweden's contribution in the Korean War? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Ah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] For to help. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] You can say is that we were all volunteers. >> Uh-huh. We were working in the hospital where [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Volunteers. >> Volunteer, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Volunteer. >> And you saved many lives? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You saved lives? >> We saved lives, yeah. Yes, we did. >> How many? Hundreds and thousands of lives? >> And we took also care of the children, Korean children. They're my good friend working. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Children? Korean children? >> We had ... Sometimes, we had worked in a special island for the [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We did. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Lepra colony. >> Mm. >> Leper? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Lepra colony. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Leprosy? >> Yeah. >> So when we were free, we did like that. >> There was leprosy in Korea? >> There was a leprosy colony. My father talked about that as well. >> Mm-hmm. >> The staff from the Swedish hospital went to help the people that suffered from lepra. >> And we took care of the children and just ... >> They had leprosy in Korea? >> Yes. >> Lepers? Leprosy? >> Yes, leprosy. >> Tell me more about that. I never, ever heard about it. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> On their spare time, they went to the leper colonies with medicine. >> And we had taken care of the children also, especially [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] So we took care about them if we had time. >> They also treated a lot of civilians, including a lot of children, in the hospital. They had a special area tent specially for receiving children. >> We tried. >> All volunteer? >> Mm-hmm. >> For leprosy? I mean, it was their spare time. Did they volunteer to do that? >> Yes. >> Can you tell her so that she can respond? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] spare time. "We helped the people with lepra in our free time." Can you say [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]? >> Well, ask her why would she want to do that? Isn't ... Why would she want to do that? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> You wanted to do as much as you could. Why? >> I was not there. This was special people and doctor. >> So they went [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Okay. Nora wasn't there personally, but the staff in the hospital did this in their spare time. >> Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. >> The Swedes? >> The Swedes. >> Mm. >> We did what we could do. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Go to the beach. >> Mm. So that was near the beach? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Which is like Stockholm. >> Yes. >> Mm. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Mm. And it was warmer? Because it was very cold, but Busan was warmer? Korea was very cold, right? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It was very cold during winter, right? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The rooms just had a bed and a small table. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] That we had. >> Did your ... >> I ... It's so long time since that happened with me, so it's very difficult to explain everything. >> Yeah, but you're doing very well, and you're telling history. You're preserving history. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Because not a lot of people know. >> It's too late. >> No, no, never too late, never too late. >> There is lots I cannot speak. >> Tell her not a lot of people in the world know about Swedish, especially nurses. >> It's very difficult. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The Korean War is called the Forgotten War. >> Korea [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And that is why I want to ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> "I'm surprised." >> That is why I want to make it known to more people. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And that's why your story is very, very, very important and precious. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Especially when people think war, they only think soldiers, but they don't think about the doctors and the nurses. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> She agrees. It was an important mission they had. >> You saved many lives, so thank you. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> All the stitches she has removed and all the burns she has treated. >> Did you see anybody die? >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Not in her ward. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's good. >> I've heard other veterans tell that the Swedish hospital was very well-respected among the soldiers. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Very good doctors. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So the Swedish hospital had very, very qualified doctors, and another veteran told me that she even saw in the soldier's helmet that they had put little notices, a little piece of paper saying, "If I'm injured and cannot speak, take me to the Swedish hospital." >> Ah. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> She hasn't heard that, but I've heard it from other ... >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's good. Well, I hope you have great pride in what you did. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Danish and Norwegian people also. >> Mm. But to you personally, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Thank you. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] You should come earlier.

>> My name is Constansion, Jerinof Constansion. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Okay. So it's a great honor for me to see our guest, Ms. Hannah, and I'm very glad that she came here to Moscow because she's doing the same work that I'm doing here in Russia. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So I started my project in 2009. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That was the 60-years anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In the USA, the Korean War is called the forgotten war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And in Russia just as well. Nobody knows anything about it. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So even children and grandchildren of the people who participated in the Korean War do not know that their dad or their granddad participated in this war, or maybe they know something, but they do not know any details. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And the reason was that every veteran of the Korean War signed a document where he promised not to disclose state secret. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Not many people participated in that war if we compare the number of participants with the number of those who participated in future wars of the Soviet Union, and that's why the public didn't get really interested in that war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And another reason is that our ally that is North Korea also didn't like to speak about the role of the Soviet Union in that war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's why in 2009, I decided to make a project that would make this information more public. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So it happens so that at that time, the veterans of the Korean War decided to establish their own museum, and I offered them my help as a designer. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So that is the way I started the public project, and also I established a special Internet site where I was thinking about different events of the Korean War. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That became known, and in February 2010, I was offered to prepare special edition of this magazine that was almost completely devoted to the Korean War. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So in this magazine, you can find my program statements, so my ideas, my actions, and also have I've put in different specialist, paleontologists and historians. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And after that, I started doing other things, things devoted to different memorials for this war and also in the territory of North Korea. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And now I want a monument to be made in the territory of North Korea, and if the authorities allow me to do it, then I'm going to collect funds for this monument. This monument will be established at the place of death of our soldiers. [ Chatter ] >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. This photograph, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> It's not me. It's Kim Ursan with the veterans. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And I think that in this photo, there are only two veterans of the Korean War: this one and this one. This is General Komerenka. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And this is Yevgeny Pepelyaev, one of the best pilots of the Korean War. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And this magazine was prepared to the anniversary of the finish of the Korean War. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Here, there is an interview of the veteran who is going to come tomorrow. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So I invited him to come to South Korea, and after that, he was called a traitor, and no one wanted to talk to him. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So he's a pioneer for the united Korea. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He doesn't share many of radical views to the Korean War, and that's why he's such an interesting person. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He also think that a united Korea is inevitable.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> My name is Vladimir Polage Arsenio. I was born in 1938, and I was born in a big, huge family. There were 11 children in our family. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> My high gradation of high education, I came to Moscow to complete ... to continue my education. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When I entered college, I studied for 3 years. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And I had ... After graduation of college, I had to go to army to serve for the army. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I had a duty to go to army without any exceptions, and I was a 4th-year student at that time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In '50s, 25th of July, there was a broke up in war at that time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And the Soviet Union, the government of Soviet Union ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... didn't support, didn't want to support so much, so as we didn't have enough resources to support that situation. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> After the army, I was ... I went to veterans service, special college for special technique, space kind of aircrafts, special. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We started equipment, military equipment, which would were not used yet because that was brand-new technologies. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> After mutual agreement between North Korea and Soviet Union, there was no agreement for support, mutual support, but Kim Il-sung, he insisted Soviet Union to support in that war, in Korean War. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Stalin was the request of Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... by request made a decision to support North Korea ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... through a nation and special rated technical equipment with a lot of special military equipment. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In the beginning, Stalin thought that we will just give an equipment and not people, just give equipment, but people were not supposed to be involved in the war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But when Koreans got that equipment, weapons, they couldn't work because that equipment was special on the radioactive airplanes, special. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The speed was really high speed. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And the [INAUDIBLE] radioactive technical equipment, it was not ... they were ... They couldn't have a ... They couldn't be involved in the war due to lack of knowledge, how to use that equipment. They couldn't fight with ... in the war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So the Soviet Union made a decision ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... to give people and the technology and the equipment ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... the airplanes, pilots and [INAUDIBLE] all specialists who were involved who were high specialist to use who knew how to use those equipment and those high technology weapons. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There was a special ... They were created a special conference, which involved a lot of high ... a lot of group of ... Different group of, so to say, military, military as a group and a lot of high generals and, so to say, highly specialists, highly qualified specialists. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I can say begin ... to begin to shoot first, but ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... Americans helped South Korea a lot. They supported. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The purpose was to take over North Korea. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Then in the beginning, the North Korean army crossed ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... the border, and there were no any agreements. There were no any mutual discussions at that time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [INAUDIBLE] in South Korea, and they were planning to use military methods to solve this issue. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Due to military political situation, happened that way. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We didn't want that North Korean could be under South Korea, could be taken over by South Korea, we didn't want, so this kind of actions already they were taken by the commander of chiefs ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... of all unified army by Douglas MacArthur. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He wanted to use the [INAUDIBLE] to ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... until they used the atomic weapon. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The government [INAUDIBLE] stopped him ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and thought it will be a third World War, World War III, so Truman liberated the US MacArthur to ask him not to be a Commander of Chief over the American Army. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And the 38th parallel ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... the border between South and North Korea ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... in the end of war in 1951 ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... due to people came to realization that North and South, neither North nor South Korea won't be able to be winners in this. Nobody will be a winner. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So they decided to go into negotiation, and this negotiations were in effect until ... And prolonged until 27th of July of '51, 1951. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Everyone understood that from the ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... Soviet Union was behind the North Korea, and South Korea was supported by the United States of America, and understood that two super countries were involved in this war, and everyone understood that. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [INAUDIBLE] result, so ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... my involvement into the war, I was the main specialist on the radioactive weapons ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... stations. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's radioactive stations were used for the first time in history in Korean War. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I was a specialist to provide on those radioactive stations, and they were included special batteries inside those stations. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There were three batteries, and in the division there are three groups of soldiers so in every [INAUDIBLE] ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... there were three stations. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So there were eight guns, special guns, but they have are very powerful. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> My task was to provide security for the area which we're protecting, so the North Korea. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There were special [INAUDIBLE] for far vision to recognize the enemy from the far aside. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And those stations, when they recognize the enemies coming from the south [INAUDIBLE] and American weapons and ammunitions were very strong. B-29 probably you might know, and the special airplanes, using the airplanes the [INAUDIBLE] F-86 if you have known. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So that kind of military special aviation is ... And that special station recognizes from far away distance, and you saw the information through the radiation station, weapon station. When they get these information details, call the ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They provide special indicators, special, so to say, indicators, and their location. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When they arrived to get the purpose to go there to realize their purpose. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The station ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... radiation station that recognizes them, it has already their coordinates, their, so to say, [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So we had a special also another equipment that could really calculate special, so to say, calculate their speed and whatever that they can make the ... meet in the air to, so to say, fight. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But this kind of lesson is not the only one. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The special task of that military group is prevent and protect, not let this enemy's aviation to bomb, to be able to bomb ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... prevent from the bombing. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So there was a second method to ... of the protection. That is fire. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> All weapons were constructed in a space ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and all the weapons shoot that special space, and the pilots see that hurting, and he make decision to break, and then the enemy's airplane would be destroyed absolutely ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... no way to survive. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So when they saw that special kind of equipment, they just turned around and went back. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They bombed different area, not the area that they wanted ... that they had in their original purpose to do. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So this kind of war we had of that special group of high technology weapon ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... my task was to provide that all these mechanisms, all these weapons could really work absolutely, 100 percent perfectly. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Next, as for aviation ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... when the enemy's aviation came out, then our pilots also flew on the sky. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They just go to meet them. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And there is a air war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> This is the masses of pilots shooting really highly and Russian airplanes were in Korea, MiG-15. Yeah, the ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> On American side ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... F-86, the system Sabre. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Air war, you can imagine that what it is like. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> As a matter of fact, the one who is leading or who is follower, leader and the follower, they are like one pair. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It used to be ... That kind of tactic is used to be not just in Soviet military system, but also Americans used that method too. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The task is ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... of the follower, the task of the follower is to be involved with the fight, but the leader shoot, protect ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... his tail, so to say, that Americans wouldn't be able to shoot and to hit, to shoot the air. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So what do the special [INAUDIBLE] ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... weapons [INAUDIBLE] was Americans decided that they lost the war, and half of them leave. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Our pilots come back to their airports. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When they were landed, American airplanes came suddenly, unexpectedly came out from somewhere. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And when the pilot already lost his everything, lost his control because it's unexpected situations, so, of course, in this case, usually American pilots, they hit, and they shoot, and the Soviets, Russians, they drive off course. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And for this, there were special guns. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When they see our airplane come to land, and those [INAUDIBLE] special weapon shoot that American airplane, and it just ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They shoot, so in this ... From this perspective, that landing weapon specialist, they were very successful and very helpful from that perspective. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So this manner of war happened every day, so I've been involved with this work for 6 months, 6 months, no rest, only war, 6 months. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> What was the danger time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When that landing special equipment working to prevent from the enemy's airplanes ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... it was a danger. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We shoot our own soldiers due to the small pieces of weapons they coming back, so there is a danger like that. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So this way ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... there was ... had happened the war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> First time in the history, air war ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... was used. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Air war was used in Korean War ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... for the first time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The main military weapons highly technology ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... were used. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> From night to night, they began to use them, which there were pilots fighting whenever support special landing military highly equipment supported a lot that pilot to protect them. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So after all the fighting, the battles, in 1953, on July 27th, the Armistice Agreement was signed. Can you explain a little bit about what he remembers about the armistice? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> When made a decision to stop, they fired ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... part of a mission. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We were on the Chinese territory and the other part of the Korean territory. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We were on the Korean territory. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And our main task was to protect and object of the state of military manner. That was the breach from the [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That was [INAUDIBLE] from ... when from China came weapons and products. All this came from China to the Soviet Union. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So Americans knew about the value of this breach, and they tried to do everything to destroy it. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The second object that was protected by the North that the stations, that the [INAUDIBLE] was on the Yauza River, provided a northeast part of China, part of Manchuria that was stationed very valuable ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... important, and American military offices, generals, they really understood the importance of that object as well. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The third task for the aviation to provide ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... transportation inside the territory, so the soldiers couldn't wear, couldn't carry the weapons in their pockets, so there should be ... They're supposed to fly it and protect ... fly the weapons, special weapon soldiers ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... through the river and through the land. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It was also another task for their aviation and sent special land soldiers group. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And when they came to agreement on 27th of July in Panmunjom ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... you've heard about it. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> From the North Korea and South Korea and from the American ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... nobody ... Not everyone signed this agreement, not everyone. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But still, the kind of stopping ... to stop war to make some peace. Actually, it began to act. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It was considered, this period of time political powers as well as the leaders of other states would ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... would begin more deep work on agreement for a long, long time to make peace. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But it didn't happen. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So as a matter of fact, we have 64 years now, 64 years we live no war, no peace. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And there is [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> There is no [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But the next leaders who came after these leaders, they still did not came to agreement. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So my personal opinion is in my opinion from the political point of view the coalition in South Korea or in the North Korea, but according to the territory, the [INAUDIBLE] is the same so this is nonreason ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... another one that life in South Korea ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... is more high in terms of welfare and the prosperity. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And everyone wants to unite, but everyone has [INAUDIBLE] ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The South ... No one wants to unite based upon the socialism, but South wants to unite based upon ... democracy, exactly, right. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And [INAUDIBLE] that we don't have this agreement still now, and the result of this war are [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Over 9 million people died in this war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And two third part of them is local people. >> The Koreans. >> Inhabitants, the civil people. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I can say that Americans and South Korea, they lost over 500,000 people. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Chinese, China were 1 million people. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> UN, 500,000 people. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Soviet Union also lost approximately 300,000, 220 pilots and others, the special soldiers who were controlling that equipment from the land. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> A lot of airplanes were shot for all kind of different kind of airplane, the 86, the 89 [INAUDIBLE], 86, all different type of airplane. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> One thousand two hundred airplanes were shot in that war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And that special land support soldiers, they shot 200 airplanes. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So we had 305 people, yeah? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And from the landing, approximately 70 people, those who were providing with the special equipment from the land soldiers, the specialists, greater technical specialists. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So this is the result of the war, and nothing about the economical loss from the economical perspective. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We can say that in the beginning that this is a civil war between South and North, but actually it became the political powers also were involved. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Now I can answer all your questions. >> What ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> If I didn't say something, so you're welcome to ask them. >> So the war hasn't ended. Do you think ... Do you have hope that it could end in the future and there will be peace be two Koreas? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It's hard to say at the moment. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I have a hope that it can be, but so I thought in many international conferences and congresses. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But I can make [INAUDIBLE] for the nearest future to come to agreement for the South and for the North Koreans it's quite difficult unfortunately. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Have you visited either North or South Korea? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I've been to Seoul in South Korea at the International Conference. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> It was dedicated to world peace, and one issue was about the unification of North and South Korea, and I spoke in my report on this special conference. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And I tried ... I insisted to state, the leaders of the states of the South and North Korea listen to their people and make a decision to unite. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> After my speech in that conference ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I got ... I received an international diploma as an ambassador for peace, very big, very beautiful one. >> Thank you because I ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... because the more people like him advocate for peace, maybe the leaders will listen. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I don't give up on the theme about Korea still. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I have a lot of articles that are devoted to problem of Korea, Korean War, so I give you as a gift the copy of my articles. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Maybe I couldn't [INAUDIBLE] ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So you can find in my articles full answers. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> One more important moment I want to say, once ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> From one Korean professor from Korean university, I was ... came to my home. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So we were talking just like [INAUDIBLE]. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He took pictures. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He took all materials, everything I had at home about Korea, and he said, he promised that they will write article with ... use my opinion and so on and so forth, so where are they? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They didn't give any contact to me, and I don't know who did I talk to. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> They give me some business cards. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I have their contact, but nothing happened after that. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> No ... There is no contact with them, no connections unfortunately. >> I will keep in touch with him. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Why does he care ... Ask him, why do you care so much about Korea? Does his friends and comrades care about Korea too? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Because Korean War was the worst bloodless, bloody war, a lot of blood. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I saw a lot of blood, a lot of tears, a lot of fire. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And all these disasters, I experienced all these things, and I'm against any war, and I don't ... I can't agree with kind of disagreement that's going on, the kind of fake agreements that exist between these two countries. I can't agree with that. I want to finish that, want to make it peace. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And now I am as an ambassador of peace, I really provide that peace policy among youngsters at the moment. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I am very mad about this Korea that's going on now and a lot of people dying, and we can't do nothing. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> All the time that no man would have conflicts, so war is going on. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Usually, all wars, they end with a certain agreement, certain document. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And all issues were discussed at the table during the negotiation between two or few countries. Usually this is the way supposed to be after the end of the war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Here is pictures where the conference were dedicated the unification for the Korea, unification between Korea, South and North Korea. That's conferences were dedicated to Korea issue, especially unification, so ... >> Can he explain a little bit about his medals. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> This is professor [INAUDIBLE]. He's a professor. He gave me this business card. He is a professor in Seoul. He took a lot of materials from me. >> When? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> This is Dr. Bohim Pak. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> This is Dr. Bohim Pak. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Two years ago. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Two years ago. >> Explain to me a little bit about your medals. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> These two medals the Chinese, that's from China. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We had an agreement with China, an agreement about mutual support, but Korea, though we had an agreement, they didn't give us any medals. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I don't have any medals from Korea. That's why. >> From the North. >> From North Korea, yeah. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> But I really fought really earnestly with all of my heart for the freedom of Korea and Korean people. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> As for the other medals, are from the World War II, and after the war, I finished. I graduated the Moscow Engineering Institute. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I work in the naval, military naval. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I was a main specialist to provide assistance ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... for ... to protect humans' in enclosed space. >> I have another question. Do other veterans of the Korean War in Russia share his views and his hope for unified Korea? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Have a section of veterans of Korean War. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> The head of this section is the general Karovich. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He's a Hero of the Soviet Union. Did you hear his name? >> The Heroes Club. >> The Hero, the club, yes. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I was a member of that club. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I tried to get any memories from other scholars, with other veterans [INAUDIBLE] successful as people lost their memories, and now over 90 years old, and most of them can't walk. They are lying in bed. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And when I was working in the interest of Navy interest, military, naval ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> [INAUDIBLE] I got PhD on technical sciences on that issue. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And I successfully worked on that kind of system, on using that system, developing that system? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So atomic submarine is able to be 24 hours underground safe instead of 1 or 2 hours. >> One more question. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Today, we went to the memorial. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I saw World War ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I saw World War I memorial, two World War II memorial ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So here he said that after he has finished his work, some of his comrades, but they are from naval comrades, they gave him that kind of a letter of gratitude, and he would like to give it to you too because they have written here some information about him and about his work and about everything. >> Yes, going back to the memorial, I visited World War I memorial, World War II memorial, the UN memorial and the International Soldier Memorial. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And I was ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I go very often there to that memorial all the time. >> Me too, in Washington, DC, I go to the memorial all the time. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He wants to continue about medals. >> Oh, oh. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> He has five medals from military naval. >> Oh. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> And very universals medals, which were dedicated to generals, Admiral Gorshkov and specialty top leaders, top commanders in chief from the military. They're from World War II, so ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> In general, he has 22 medals from the government and from the different state medals ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... and more than over 10. He has special appreciations signs like medals, some kind of medals and as a type of medal. They're high enough level of appreciation medal, special medals, and there are ordinary medals. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I'm an honored inhabitant of Moscow City. >> I'm honored to meet you. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So going back to the memorial ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... in the United Nations memorial, I saw four statutes, one Soviet soldier, Russian soldier, American soldier, British soldier and French soldier against Hitler. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> So I was very sad ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... because 5 years later in the Korean War, the people that fought together in World War II had to fight against one another. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That is war. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I hope that ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... this war will end, Korean War will end, and there will be peace, and there will be reconciliation and that ... I call all the veterans my grandpas. I call all the veterans of the Korean War my grandpas. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I hope ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> ... that my American grandpas and he be friends. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We are good friends. Please, look. >> Because he was a general, right? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> General. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yes. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Please, look at his hands. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Look at his hands. >> So I would like to call him my grandpa too ... [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Yes, you are welcome, please. >> ... because we are fighting for peace together in Korea. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> That's right, very good. Yes. >> I'm going to go and hug him. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> I want to say a few words. >> Oh, okay. >> May I say a few more words, please? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We old generation, we made a lot of things. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> We fought against a system. We won, and I hope that giving our, sharing our traditions, Russian and American friendship, people, youngsters, please, take charge in your hands and do everything to stop war, to finish all wars all over the world. This is what I teach, youngsters. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Thank you. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] >> Thank you.

>> ... the two mounds, which the shrine is in the middle of ... >> Okay. >> ... are in the shape of the ying and yang. >> Oh. Who designed it? >> An architect in [INAUDIBLE]. The original one was done by a student here at Heriot-Watt University. >> Mm-hmm. >> But the new memorial was done by an architect [INAUDIBLE]. >> Hmm, yep, and we brought the ... >> The fir. >> We brought the tiler from ... >> Korea. >> ... Korea and 10 tons of tiles. >> All these tiles came from Korea. >> They're all genuine old tiles from Korea. >> And the fir, the tree, the tree ... >> The trees came over [INAUDIBLE]. >> And were grown ... They were grown for us at the Botanical Gardens ... >> Botanic Gardens. >> ... in Edinburgh. And then ... >> Wow. >> Then the second place [INAUDIBLE]. >> Shotts Prison. >> Wow. >> Yeah. Once they got too big for the ... >> Botanic Gardens. >> ... Botanic Gardens to hold them ... >> We look for some place to grow them on because they were still in pots, and they went to one of the biggest prisons in Scotland. >> Prison? >> Prison, prison, and they grew them on for us. >> Yes. Yeah. The architect originally wanted the green oak that the shrine is built of to be kept yellow with oil, but I actually wanted it to go gray like this so it would actually match with the tiles on the roof, and so that's why it's all now gray although ... >> [INAUDIBLE] in the navy. >> All thousand ... How many? Sixty-eight thousand seventy? >> One thousand [INAUDIBLE]. >> These trees have been planned in memory of veterans of a branch who have since passed away, and we have a lot of plaques and each one a remembrance. That's our latest one we've [INAUDIBLE].

>> I am Alvin Cameron, and I served in Korea with the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1951 and '52, and we arrived in Korea from Hong Kong where we'd been stationed before, and it was a bit of a shock because we had expected to have a leisurely disembarkation, but it was the start of the big Chinese drive down through Kapyong, and so we were suddenly told we had to be up at Kapyong the next morning. We arrived as I say and were driven to a rendezvous point and just bellied down on the ground that night. We all had a blanket with us and a greatcoat, and we just put that over us, and we woke up next morning with frost all over the greatcoat, which was a bit of a shock having just come from Hong Kong. And then the Argylls who we were taking over from came through and left, and we went up to Kapyong front and spent the next 3 days digging in and withdrawing, digging, withdraw, marching back about 7 or 8 miles each day. So it was a bit of a abrupt entry into the war, but we didn't actually have any contact at that time with the Chinese or the North Koreans. From there, we went into our reserve position and then moved to another position just north of Seoul where we did have contact to the battalion, but I ... At that time, we were a bit of a spare file in the battalion because I'd been second in command of A Company when we arrived, but when the Argylls left, they left someone who took over that position, and I had nothing special to do. So when our intelligence officer was injured in a traffic accident, I took over as intelligence officer for about 6 or 8 weeks. The battalion then moved from that position over to the Kansas Line just south of the Han River, and I then took over a platoon. We were in a defensive position there, and there were minefields all around, and I remember, on one occasion, a Korean man was coming down the road towards our position and walking along the embankment on the side, which I knew was mined, and all the jocks were shouting at him and waving, saying, "Get off onto the road," and he didn't, so he just kept on walking until he hit a mine, so I then had to go into the minefield to get him out, and our regimental aid post came up took him away in a stretcher jeep. Shortly after that, I was given a different job where I was training potential NCOs at the battle school about 15 miles behind the front line, and I did that, again, for about 8 weeks, during which the battalion had a very stiff battle when they crossed the Han and advanced up [INAUDIBLE] commando. I was then ... went back to battalion as second in command again of A Company, and in November, we had a big battle where a Chinese division attacked the battalion position, and it overran two of our companies, but my company was in reserve, and we were expected to do a counterattack, but that was canceled, so nothing really happened. And after that, I became a platoon commander again in A Company, and we pulled back to a shoulder on Hill 355, which was the big hill in center of the division's line, front line [INAUDIBLE]. And one night we were on there, I was going around my sentries at about 10 o'clock at night, and 14th Field Regiment Royal Artillery had been firing over us all day in support of the [INAUDIBLE] who were just on our right front. I suddenly realized, this latest salvo was sounding very close, and in fact, it came in and hit our position while I was walking along, and I received a wound in my chest and in my left arm, and the platoon sergeant and medical orderly who we had trained in the platoon gave me first aid, and then some volunteers carried me down the hill up the back about 1,000 yards, and I was taken off by a stretcher jeep and ended up in an American MASH, Mobile Advanced Surgical Hospital, 8055 MASH. I woke up just before I was operated on, and it was ... And I was amused later when the television series "M*A*S*H" was brought in to remember my experience, and it was exactly like it had been on the film. And I was evacuated from there. I went to [INAUDIBLE] where I spent ... That was on the 21st of November I was wounded and evacuated, and the snow and winter arrived on the 23rd because I remember a chap coming into the tent in the MASH, and he was covered in snow and stamping his feet, and I said, "Yeah, I timed that rather well," and I didn't manage to get back until early March when I rejoined the battalion, and again, I was a little bit surplus to the establishment. I was given a job digging a defensive position along the Kansas Line again as a reserve position for the division if it was needed, and again, two Korean peasant women were cutting the brush for firewood, and of course they did it in the minefield, so both of them got blown up, and again, myself and the sergeant who was with me, we had to crawl into this minefield very carefully and eventually drag these two women out and get them evacuated. After that, I became second in command of D Company, and I just used to go up ... I used to enjoy very much driving up. We'd go up late at night, at about 4 o'clock in the morning, to do our resupply of the front line, and we'd go to a [INAUDIBLE], and then a man packed with [INAUDIBLE] always took front line, about 1,000 yards. And on the way back, the dawn would be breaking, and I remember it was such a lovely sort of feeling driving back to the camp in the dawn in Korea, and I really did enjoy that immensely. And eventually in July of '52, I moved upward on to the advanced party of the battalion which was now due to return to Hong Kong, and I left Korea in July 1952. As you can see, I had ... Although I did spend a reasonable bit of time actually in the front line with platoons, I never had any contact with the enemy when I was doing it, so I enjoyed my time in Korea basically, had a couple of frights, but that was about it. >> Have you been back to Korea? >> Yes, I've been back twice since then. >> What do you think? >> The first time I went back was privately. I went with my wife when I retired from work, and I was really surprised to see how big Seoul had got and how well developed and everything else because my memory of Korea was that everybody was wearing white. All peasants were wearing white, and there were no trees virtually on any of the hills. They;d all been either burnt off or shelled off with napalm and stuff, and all the peasants collected the brush wood underneath it for firewood. So I was really surprised when we drove up to my old platoon position in Kansas Line to see trees all over the hills and everybody dressed in what I would now call normal Western dress. It was the thing that really impressed me. The next time I went back was on an official visit when I took one of my grandsons with me. That was in November 2013. I was really quite humbled by the reception we were given and the way we were treated as such honored guests and how everywhere we went, talking to the ordinary people, as soon as they knew we were veterans returning, they all shook our hands and said, "Thank you. Thank you," and it was a very humbling experience, but I could understand why because, as stated, Seoul is only 30 miles from the border, and Koreans know what life is like on the other side of that border. I think that's about all I have to say really. Any interest to you? >> That's wonderful. I too am very grateful, and that's why I'm here. Thank you so much for your service. You're very correct. On the other side, north of the 30th parallel, they can't enjoy the freedom and prosperity that we enjoy. >> No, I mean, they live a terrible life in the north, on the whole, don't they? Ordinary people at least do, yeah. >> So hopefully in your lifetime there will be one Korea. >> One does hope so, yeah. There were two little incidents which I'd like to mention. First of all, shortly after we arrived, we were given a company of Korean porters whose job it was to carry all the resupplies and ammunition and stuff up the hills so that the soldiers just did the fighting, shall we say. And at the presentation when they were brought to us, one of our majors, Alan Smythe, was in charge, but he turned to this little sergeant who was actually going to be the person physically in charge of the porters' platoons and said to him, "Okay. They're yours now," and this little sergeant walked forward about five paces and started screaming at the porters in a foreign language which we didn't understand, and all the Koreans shot to attention. And then he shouted something else, and all the section leaders came out and formed a line in front of him, and he then went down the line slapping each one on the face left and right. Of course, Major Smythe went absolutely berserk, saying, "What on earth are you doing?" He said, "I have just told them, sir, in Japanese that, during the Second World War, I was a prisoner of the Koreans up here, having been captured in Hong Kong, and that they were beastly to me then, and now I would be beastly to them if they didn't behave and do what I said." And we all thought, "What a chap." He had been 2 years in Korea with just a jersey and trousers even through the winter, so he was, shall we say, a bit bitter about Koreans. But the [INAUDIBLE] I was saying, when we were at the Kansas Line where I rescued the two women from the minefield, one of the porters there, although they were civilians, they were subject to military law, and this chap had been absent or something like that and had been sentenced to two strokes of the cane every 2 hours, and every 2 hours, an officer or NCO would come along with a whipping cane. He would bend over, take his trousers down and get two strokes with a cane on his backside, and we all thought, "God, how uncivilized can they be?" It was really weird. That's it. >> Do you know why he was whipped? >> No, he ... I think he'd been absent without leave, and literally every 2 hours, they'd come up, give him ... with a cane on his backside. >> A Korean person? >> Yep. >> Interesting. >> Yep.

>> Good afternoon. My name is Arnold Corson Winery Shanthon. I'm a British Korean war veteran. I'm a member of a Reading branch of the British Korean War Veterans Association, the only association for Korean veterans in the country. I served in the Third Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery, and I volunteered for Korea, and then I came to Korea, but I knew quite a bit about Korea to begin with, a bit of its history and its history involved with Russia, France, Britain and America, and that's gone back many years. In fact there was nearly wars over Korea in those days, and landed in Busan as we all normally did, and we got off the ship, greeted by an American band with beautiful shiny helmets and loaded onto a freight. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Anyway, I took a long time from Busan up to, well, the ... this bussing area where everybody as sorted to where they would go or send to [INAUDIBLE], and I unloaded with all the rest, and I was a civilian mechanic through trade, so they sent me to Bentil Bridge [INAUDIBLE] of the [INAUDIBLE] of the 61st Light Regiment Royal Artillery. The trip comprised of four antiaircraft Bofors, and their detail was to guard in the event of another invasion of Bentil Bridge, and we controlled the road down to it. It was under our fire, and [INAUDIBLE] cable across the river. [INAUDIBLE], but the fighting was still pretty fierce, both at 355 and at the Hook. I was up. I drove a 3-ton lorry and very often a ration truck for the four areas, and up in those places quite often, and I was involved in a large part of the Hook and 355, primarily because of the truck carrying ammunition. I carried ammunition at the battle, at both battles, and that was it, and I remember in the Hook one in particular, there was two deaths from our units. There were lorries, and we had came back perhaps a couple of journeys, and we're loaded up with the ammo again, and we thought, "Well, we'll go in the van, drop the [INAUDIBLE]," and it started to get light, and we were having our tea when the WO came in and looking for volunteers to take ammo up to the front. Nobody said a word. I went out, and they came back in with a broad smile on his face and said, "Drivers of the two lorries, [INAUDIBLE]. I want them," so I had to step forward. He took us to his boarding, and he poured a lavish amount of rum into cups for us and bid us farewell, so we drove up, and when we approached the Hook, the road rose slightly and then dipped down slightly, and when we got to the top and went down. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I never want to see anything like it ever again, the kind of eyes that were coming up full of dead and wounded. No. One funny thing about it is that one of our men from our unit, he drove a quad. A quad was a vehicle which made of basically thin of metal [INAUDIBLE] and the crew sat and saved this vehicle, and he had been given a trailer and had got it loaded with ammunition, and if I remember correctly, his name was Gunner Banyon. He must [INAUDIBLE] and carried straight on, and it landed in no-man's-land [INAUDIBLE] and he sat there all night. Everything quieted down, and when everything was quiet and daylight and the light started it up, back he came [INAUDIBLE] with this ammunition, and we did it [INAUDIBLE] so we took it back to the ammunition point, and [INAUDIBLE] because ammunition, so didn't want to do a thing, so eventually dumped it into the river. Perhaps, it's still lying there. Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] ammunition. Yes. I have had a little incident like most of us had. One of the funnier ones was the ... We were not supplied with any materials for building anything, no metal, no wood, nothing. We had to scrounge for it, and I sent out one day for a scrounging detail, and I went down. I went east, I should say. I didn't north, west or south. I went to the east. I'd never been that road before, and there was [INAUDIBLE] and I carried on along that road and on and on and on, and eventually, we came to an iron bridge, and we cut over the side of the bridge, and we were going to [INAUDIBLE] longest road when there was a convoy approached of American trucks loaded with men, and there was a one-star general's flag flying in the Jeep in the front. It was a major route, and the dust settled from the road was absolutely horrible, and you couldn't see through it, so you're only fumbling along and because there were about 6-foot ditches in both sides. Anyway, when we get through and the last truck had passed, and I'm driving in, and the Jeep came rolling up behind us with military policemen in it, and they stopped me, and military policeman says, "Where did you come from?" I said, "Well, I came from Bentil." "What?" "I came from Bentil. Why?" I said, "Well, the general wants to know, and he also wants to know have you seen anything untoward on your journey this way." I said, "No, no, nothing at all. I'm sorry. Why?" He said, "Well [INAUDIBLE] was captured last night again by the Chinese, and we want to take it back." I said, "Well, I've never seen a thing." I often wondered if they watched me get by and thought, "Nah, it's not worth shooting at," but yeah, lots of funny things, but when they ceased fire, we were sent up to 355 with the truck, and I had no idea what was going on. We knew there was a time when they ceased fire, but I had no idea about it, and I drove up to this particular [INAUDIBLE] still incoming and so forth going on, quite a bit of racket actually, and I drove in, and I get stopped by this officer, and he said, "Just sit there driver and wait until I'll tell you, and you'll switch on your lights." I said, "Are you nuts?" And he said, "Just do as you're told," so I sat there sitting, and some banging and crashing and all that was going on, and then it ceased, and he said, "Switch on your lights," and I switched on my lights, and they was finishing the flag pole, and they were lowering the flag, and that was [INAUDIBLE], and from then on, we started withdrawing all men and material from the front, and I was up one day, and there was an American, and I got pushed, and they're speaking to the chap, and I said, "Well, you're quite happy all once it's finished now," and I said, "[INAUDIBLE]." He says, "It's not you." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "We lost a man last night." Yeah. "What do you mean you lost a man?" "Well, all we found was his rifle. We didn't find him." "Oh." "And he says but we never heard anything," so they were losing men well after the cease fire, and then that was not a long thing. Anyway, from then on, it was spit and polish I'm afraid, back to the old grind, and when I left, I was sent Gimpo on the back of an open truck in December. It was about four or five of us [INAUDIBLE] with a bottle of brandy, and we sat and enjoyed that bottle of brandy. I don't think it won't stop us freezing, but we got there. Korea, I enjoy quite a bit Korea. Actually, I knew about it when I was boy. I was an avid reader, and I read quite a bit about it, and that's why I said to you about the [INAUDIBLE] wars between Russia, France, Britain and America. At various times, each of these countries had the men and the leading jobs like Postmaster and things like that. There was always this fight to control the country, and I remember when reading [INAUDIBLE] American warship. It was a sailing ship, not steel vessels like now. It was old sailing ships with cannons. They're were cruising along, and they needed water, so they sent aboard the shore with drums and bottles to get fresh water, and the natives slaughtered them, and the captain of the ship is rather annoyed about that, so he opened up the gullies with his guns and slaughtered back. Not a nice story, is it? But the [INAUDIBLE], but the train from Busan. Yeah. It stopped and started. It stopped and started. I was up in the luggage rack sleeping. Well, I tried to sleep anyway, and somebody lost their weapon, dropped their rifle [INAUDIBLE]. I wouldn't have to go and pay for it. When I ... I've been out to Korea about five times. Etta Green and I were roommates twice, and the change is remarkable, remarkable, and the people speak to you, and they're so grateful. It becomes an embarrassment. One gets embarrassed, but they're so grateful, and they say it and show it, and it's came on in leaps and bounds, but I've always said to you, the population growth is unbelievable. When we were there, there was ... Eventually, there three, I think, bridges there, but now there's about 30 bridges, and yeah. Very industrial people. Some lovely places in Korea too, and if I could afford that, I would go and live there. Yeah. I think I would go and live there in the summer, not too keen on winter, but the [INAUDIBLE] I was there. We were fitted out with gear for it and all that, and yeah. You could live reasonably comfortable, reasonably. Yes. Anyway, if you have any questions to ask. I'm Scottish. It's always been mostly English-staffed unit, very few Scottish people. I could tell stories on the ship out where there were Scottish troops on it, but I'm not going to. No, sorry. No, and it didn't put us in a very good light actually. Continued fighting between them and English regiments, and when we got to Singapore, no, Hong Kong, we took a field regiment, an artillery field regiment unit, and then formed the warming parties if there was any more. They would have to swim to Korea. We used to make them, so things were very comfortable after that. I didn't have as much as a Scottish accent in those days, and when I came back from the army, I was decidedly more English spoken than Scottish. In fact, walking along the street in my hometown when a chap staggered out the public house, bumped into me, and he said to me, "What's the time?" I said, "Oh, the time is such and such, and he called me an unpleasant English person, suggested I return to whence I came and staggered off, and I stood on the pavement, and I laughed and laughed and laughed, and I thought it funny, so funny. What the ... My own life, I was brought up on a farm, and my stepfather is a farmer. He'd been a seaman in his younger days, and all his sons had been seamen as well, and then I went to sea, and I became an officer, and my wife didn't like it, didn't like going away from home too much, and my son is a commander, and he operated out of [INAUDIBLE]. He was a warfare officer [INAUDIBLE] at the time, but now he's staying with in the National ... What's his name? Oh, dear, now I forget it, but it is sort of the getting money here, there and everywhere sort of things to be done in different countries, different organizations. Millions are getting away. He quite likes it. Adam doesn't know him though. Eric is dead now. He died a couple of years ago actually, and we took four out, but we couldn't take the fifth one out. An excellent man, Eric. He was a nice chap. He was a member of this place, and by the way, there is no KVA. There is no KVA. There was at one time, and I was a member of it, but when the colonel took it upon himself to shut it down and did even though 75 percent of the living membership voted against it. He still shut it down, and we knew what was coming, so we readied an organization standing by to take over, and that became the British Korean War Veterans Association, and that was a legitimate, registered organization, and we continually pleaded with the Korean government to recognize us, but they still recognize the BKVA, which doesn't exist. It only exists in the memory of the units who refused to join the BKWVA. It's tea and biscuits, social gatherings. [INAUDIBLE] Adam says.

>> I am Adam McKenzie. I'm a member of the Bathgate branch of the Korean Veterans Association. I served in Korea from 1950 to 1951. I was stationed in Hong Kong when we were first told we were going to Korea. Nobody knew where Korea was. We boarded a Royal Navy ship and 4 days later arrived in Pusan. At that time, the Korean Army and the American Army were the only United Nation troops present in Korea, and they were [Indistinct] in a river called the Nakdong. We were moved up to there, and the Royal ... the Middlesex regiment and the Third Australian regiment, who were joined us just days later, crossed the Nakdong and made the breakout from it. That is why we have the only medal for the defense of the Nakdong. That medal, there was under 3,000 people entitled to wear it. It was the Middlesex regiment, the Third Australians and the Argylls. There is under 100 of us left today. After the breakout in Nakdong, we progressed up through South Korea and though we were probably 30 miles inside North Korea when the powers that be stopped us and ordered us to be dumped in 38th parallel.. During that time, the Chinese Army came in, and because we were on withdrawal, instead of the attack, we got pushed frankly back to where we started again. However, we started to regain country again, until we handed over to the King's Own Scottish Borderers in June 1951. We then returned to Hong Kong. [INAUDIBLE] got into any episodes that happened during then. >> [INAUDIBLE] you went in with no winter clothing. >> We had no winter coats. We had no winter clothing. We left Hong Kong thinking Korea was a tropical country, which it is during the summer, but not during the winter. We had no ordnance supply whatsoever. We were fed by the Americans. For clothing, bedding, etcetera, we begged, borrowed or stole off the Americans and the Third Australians. And we managed to live that way for a year. The Americans fed us. The only thing we had supplied from the British government was ammunition, nothing else. And we managed to survive for a year, and we were one of the only regiments that never lost a man with frostbite, although we had American dikes crossing the river which was frozen solid. Our vehicles sometimes were frozen in the morning when you tried to move them, etcetera, but we survived. Now basically, there's various episodes we could talk about. Like, Sariwon is one. We arrived at a town called Sariwon at approximately 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We asked for American tank support to take the town. The Americans said, "No, it's too late. Our tanks will be coming into town in the darkness, and we'll lose them." So we went into Sariwon without the tanks and took the town. The Third Australian then marched through us and took up a defensive position in front of Sariwon. We returned to the other side there and met the North Koreans and the Chinese coming in on the back wood. Because we were facing the wrong direction and we never wore steels helmets or anything, we wore a scarf tied up on our heads, they mistook us for Russians. And we back marched them, came round the back, contacted the Third Australian Regiment. We turned to face the opposite direction. We came in behind, and we took over 3,000 prisoners without firing a round of ammunition, nice. A very big problem for us was on the 23rd of September, 1950. On the 22nd, we took over a hill called 282 from the Americans who had been sitting on the hill for approximately a week and couldn't move off it. We took it over the 22nd, and on the 23rd, we put an attack in. Because the maps, etcetera, were so out-of-date and inaccurate, we didn't realize the next feature overlooked it. We took Hill 282, realized we're in a position where the enemy could look down on us and fire down on us, so we called for air support. Now air support was supplied by the Americans. We were supposed to put things out as air recognition panels. They were red, yellow and blue, and you put them out each day in a different design on the reverse of the hill. We did this. The Americans because they'd been dropping everything for 7 days on the one feature, came straight in and dropped the same load. The only problem was we were underneath it. We lost nothing, not one. Major Muir, who was our second-in-command, won Victoria Cross. It's a day we will never forget. >> Why is there a Korean War Memorial in Bathgate? >> Why is the memorial in Bathgate? Well I'm going back 20-something-odd years, and we decided we would do something, and at that time, I was the area rep. I covered the three branches that was in Scotland: the Northern Branch of Inverness, the Perth Branch and the Bathgate Branch. And I went to Birmingham for an executive meeting, and you had to put your propositions in 21 days before you attended. To me this was foolhardy because it gave the executive committee time to contact all the members, discuss it and make up their mind what we're going to do. Now there was only 13 area reps, but there was 22 executive members sat on the table, so if they disagree with you, you could be outvoted without any problem. I went down, and the proposition I put in that we were going to build a memorial was read out, and the chairman General Gadd, told me I was mad. I would never get it off the ground. All it done was reinforced us. I came back here, and I told all three branches that I was wasting my time and their money because it was pointless of me to go to Birmingham to the meetings, and that I resigned as area rep. We then we got together and contacted all the local councils, etcetera. We done collections, etcetera, and eventually we built our first memorial. In hindsight, we done it wrong. We didn't have sufficient capital to build what we wanted. However, we decided to go ahead with it, and we built it. And after we built it, we realized it wasn't really what we wanted. So we carried on, and we collected more money and funds, and almost 4 years ago, we knocked down the old memorial and rebuilt a brand-new one. Now since we built this new memorial, and [INAUDIBLE] put us down to one man, we brought a roofer all the way from Korea to put the roof on our memorial. All the tiles, etcetera, on it came from Korea. This man came and spent 1 week. The roof weighs over 4 tons. There is not one nail, one drop of cement in the whole building of that roof. And I think, by what I've heard since, he must obviously have spoke to people back in Korea after he returned there because we are getting feedback from the people in Korea who ... Yeah. That's basically ... >> That's amazing. >> You remember his name? >> Who? >> The Korean workman. >> No. No. No. What we done, we brought him here, and we found a family in Edinburgh who run a Korean ... >> [INAUDIBLE]? >> No, Korean restaurant, and they lived in Edinburgh. And what we done, we picked him up in the morning, brought him out to site, picked him up and night and took him back again. And it just so happens that one of our members was married to a Korean, and she used to come out and do an interpreter to pass on information to him. Because ... You possibly don't know this, but we've got the Korean Presbyterian Church coming here on the 28th of June. Now he was obviously a church member because that was the first thing he asked when we picked him up from the airport, where could he find a Korean church, as it was Sunday and he normally went to church on a Sunday. So we think he has passed the information on after he's done it. >> Explain what you're holding in your hand. >> I am holding this ... >> Show it to us. >> ... It has two names. It has two names. It's known as a Syngman Rhee Medal or the Nakdong Medal. It was issued to the troops who done the defense of the Nakdong in June 1950, when the whole lot was really pushed out and the country was actually in a point of being overrun. We couldn't wear this because we didn't have a British medal to counterbalance it when it was issued to us. The only way we could wear it is on the right-hand side here, which very few ever do. We keep it like this and we still have. Not for the complete time, but for 2,000 or not 3,000, the Middlesex Regiment, the third Australian Regiment and the Argylls were the only troops ever to be issued with it and the only troops entitled to wear it. That was under 2,000 or 3,000. There is less than 100 of us actually left now. >> How many died out of the 3,000? How many died out of the 3,000? What were the casualties of Scottish veterans? >> I have no idea. I have no idea of the total. I know what the total was for the British people for the complete time, but for sure not 3,000, not unless you pay [INAUDIBLE]. A very good friend of mine was in front of me the night we crossed, and what we done to break out the Nakdong, we had an officer who was a very good swimmer, and he swam the Nakdong at nighttime and took ropes across it, and we built a bridge. It was approximately 18 inches to 2 feet wide, and we walked across that one night. Got in everything we required with us. The man in front of me got hit by an SB gun shell or shrapnel from a shell and fell on the bridge in front of me. There I had two options: I could either pass my weapon to the man behind me and pick him up or push him into the river so as I could get off the bridge along with the other people behind us. We picked him up. He's still alive today, but nobody knew about this until many, many years later, in fact at his 70th birthday party, when he admitted he wouldn't be here except for what happened that night. >> What's that? >> What is that? That is my cap. That is the cap of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. It is the largest badge in the British Army, and the only badge with Victoria Cross in it, which was way back long, long before even our time. >> Have you been back to Korea? >> Yes. I've done a revisit to Korea and was very surprised. Disappointed in one or two things, but surprised, basically because when I left Korea, Korea was in ruins. There was hardly a tarmac road in it. There was no bridges across the rivers, etcetera. Now there's so many roads and so many bridges, etcetera, they've even changed the name of the town. Where I landed was Pusan. Now it's called Busan. I've done a revisit. I done the [INAUDIBLE] at the memorial ... at the garden house ... the cemetery at Busan and also visited the car factory, and I actually drive one of their cars now. I can't go back because I can't get travel insurance because age ... I'm almost 90 years of age. Insurance companies just won't insure you any longer. So I'm the same as a lot of them who are getting too old, and insurance companies, etcetera, don't worry with us. >> Well, what do you think about the armistice between the two Koreas? The war never ended. >> The war will never end in Korea. I've seen an article, quite recently in fact. I can't remember who wrote it, etcetera, and they reckon they will see North and South Korea united and becoming one country again. I do not believe this will ever happen. There is too big a gulf between the cultures in North Korea and South Korea, but South Korea has problems. You have 15 million people who live in Seoul. They live in 15, 18-story buildings. There is no wildlife around the country, birds, etcetera. You don't see them. Where are they going to put population if it keeps increasing? They can't keep going up. They can't go out, so where are they going to go? Pusan is the same. Pusan has 10 million. It's multistory buildings. Where is the population going to go? I don't know. I'd agree you have prospered and have developed, but I think they're going to have to look at what they do to carry on your development within the country. >> Any other words for people watching this? >> Any ... >> Other comments for people watching this? >> No, no. I'd like to know, why is there no wildlife in the country? Even when we went right up to the 38th parallel, etcetera, [INAUDIBLE] the only birds you see is little fat ones that's so far fed and slow, they can't get off the ground to fly. Pigeons is the only bird that I saw the whole time I was in Korea. What I did do when I was in Korea, I don't know if you've ... Have you ever met a gentleman called Andrew Salmon? You have? >> I've not met him, but I know of him. >> I worked with him when he done his last book, "Scorched Earth, Black Snow." I worked with Andrew when he was over in this country and researching that book, and dug up various people for him to interview, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I met up with both him and his good lady when I ... on a visit back to Korea. He stopped being an author because I don't know what you're going to do with all this, after 65 years, if you tried this in a book, I think your number of books selling will be quite low. This is why Andrew gave up writing books, and I believe now he does his tour guide, taking people round about to where different battles were, like the Hook and some things. >> He still writes a column for one of the newspapers. >> Okay. >> And then we said, "Well, we're not ready to go. We don't have a driver for the train." So we had to use of our own members to actually just drive the train to take us up to where the Nakdong was, where we could [INAUDIBLE]. They didn't even have a train driver. Quite honestly, the country was in ... We got told that within 24 hours we had left Hong Kong and boarded a Royal Navy ship for 4 days later we're in Korea. So we had a 5-day period in which we got in there. As you also know, the 21 countries took part, but we were the first United Nation troops ever to go into Korea because the Americans weren't classified as United because they had been there beforehand. >> [INAUDIBLE]. >> ... supplied us with a platoon, 4-inch mortars. When they came to us they were under the influence and under the American way of working, and we changed them, and after they came to us for proper treatment, they didn't want to go back. They realized it. Our system was far better than their system, and they didn't want to go back to their own unit after about 3 months with us. I think that's Alan. Could you check? >> I will do. >> Did you go when it was unveiled? >> I was there, yes, I was there. I was very friendly with the PA to the Ambassador. She's gone back. She's now back working in Korea, but Jin and I were very friendly and I went there, and she was here when I arrived that morning, and I go in and ... >> So explain about the memorial there. >> I don't think it ... quite honestly the memorial is not ... there's no names on it. All right. It's a bronze statue, but the equipment is American, and it's something that we never used. >> The one in Bathgate, the Korean War Memorial, has names? The one in Bathgate? Bathgate Korean War Memorial has names? >> Yes, 1,089 names on it, every name of every man. In fact when we built the first memorial, when we built our first memorial we were getting people coming and visiting us and saying, "I tipped in at your memorial. So-and-so is wrong. So-and-so is wrong. So-and-so is wrong." So there was 40 of us got together, and we decided we'd contact every regiment, every Royal Navy ship, every RAF station that had people in Korea and ask them to give us an up-to-date record from their point, rather than use the one which they got from the Ministry of Defense, which we used the first time. We found a Lieutenant Colonel [INAUDIBLE] in Scotland, various other things, etcetera now, and as far as I'm concerned, that is the most up-to-date and accurate record, if people go. Where we even got four news reporters who was filming. There's one thing on it we do know. There was a boy sailor who was killed, but because he was a boy, they cannot record them as a boy without British rules and regulations, so they made him a Naval Seaman. He was on the HMS Jamaica. >> Oh, I didn't know that. >> And he was a boy sailor and he was one of the very first killed. I'll point him out to you, but he's on the roll as a naval boy [INAUDIBLE], but we knew that was wrong.

>> So how many veterans are in Scotland. >> There are only two that are going to be there. >> Two? >> They had the meeting on the 29th, and I was informed that basically the following day that there'd only be two. >> How many are there ... >> How many is there in the branch? >> Yes. >> Oh, a lot more than two. >> How many? >> Probably about 20. >> Twenty. >> [INAUDIBLE] and the other Scottish unit members. >> So many other units are there? >> Up here? >> Mm-hmm. >> Actually, there's none. >> Well, it's not ... It closed down, but they keep it going as a tea and coffee social. >> So there's right now only about 20 Scottish Korean War veterans. >> No, there's more, but a lot never joined anything, never made any effort. You'll meet one hopefully tomorrow morning. He's from Govan, and he phoned me [INAUDIBLE] Canada that contact me, and some of his workmates in the army have moved to Canada, but they kept in touch, so they told them to contact me, and he did. He phoned me and explained the situation, so I explained it to me, so Govan is about 20, 25 miles from here, and the ... We'll be pressed a bit for time tomorrow. We could take you to Govan and other places and get you back to [INAUDIBLE], so ... >> I know that I organized the event July 27th to commemorate it. >> I know. Yes, I know. Korea Day. >> But I do it on Saturday before because no one can come then if it's on the weekday, but you do it on a Sunday? >> The nearest Sunday to the 27th. >> Yes, I do a nearest Saturday. >> Aye, well, the reason for that is on Sunday, well, it's a day of rest. >> Yes. >> So the roads are a lot quieter, and then people my age, we're older, and so a lot of them can't drive themselves. They're disabled, so it's family. We drive them, so the drive up to [INAUDIBLE] on Sunday. >> How many gather? >> What? >> How many gather? >> Oh, it can be 100, 150, something like that. >> Oh, wow. >> Can be that. >> But they're not all veterans, right? >> No, there's the relative and associates, things like that, but it's a nice gathering. We have a nice service. >> The one in Bathgate, the memorial in Bathgate? >> They have that in Bathgate every year, and I think ... >> So July, to commemorate July 27th. >> I've been ... >> What is it called here? >> Pardon? >> What is it called here? Is there a name for the day? >> Is there a name for ... >> The day. >> No, no. >> Because now in America, we call it the National Korean War Armistice. >> No, there's nothing like that here at all. >> So only the Korean War veterans know what it is. >> The government, newspapers, they want to know it at all. >> Okay. >> They ignore it. >> So nobody from the government. >> Oh, the government hopes we're all dying off. They hope we die soon. They're annoyed. One of my friends is in the Lords in London in the houses, the House of the Lords, Earl Slim, John Slim, and John I've never heard of him speaking. He never speaks. He just goes there, collects his money in the bank, and that's it. You've heard offer. >> You've heard of Earl Slim. Have you? >> No. >> Earl Slim of Burma, who commanded the British forces in Burma during the war. >> During the Korean War? >> No, at the 1945 one. >> Oh. >> And they made him an earl, who is a general, and they kicked him up to be an ... >> When did you serve in the Korean War? >> 1953. >> Oh, towards the end. >> Yes. >> The last 6 months. >> Oh, before the war? I mean, before the armistice? >> Yes. Oh, yeah. I'm a veteran. >> So you were there when the armistice ... >> Oh, yes. I was in the [INAUDIBLE] in the last battle of the Hook, the battle of 355. >> Kumsong? >> The last battle of the Hook. >> A lot of people have been talking about the Hook. Can you explain that? >> Yes, it was a piece of ground, shall we say, in the valley shaped like a hook. It stuck out into the valley, but it prevented the Chinese passing and the North Koreans from passing, and they wanted it very badly. They commanded that area, and they wanted it, so they always attacked it in force, and they always get beaten off with an effort. >> What was your assignment? >> I was a driver. I drove trucks. >> Wow. >> I was also signalman. >> Oh, so was Grandpa Hoy. >> And I was also a gunner. >> What? They made you do all of that? >> I didn't do all of that in Korea though, but that's what I was qualified for. I volunteered. I was in the regiment fairly early, regiment, the Royal Horse Artillery, the third regiment, the oldest third regiment [INAUDIBLE] in the British Army. It was raised in India. >> You were raised in India? >> No, the regiment was raised in India. >> Oh, the regiment. >> Yes. Oh, way back in the times of the Indian uprising and all that, and it was taken over by British government originally and incorporated into the Indian Army and then into Britain. My great grandfather was a general in the Indian Army. >> Oh, in the Indian Army? Wow, what year? >> Pardon? >> What year? When? >> Oh, in 1800s. >> Wow. >> Yeah. He was a friend of Queen Victoria. >> Wow. >> Yeah. She liked him very much, and ... >> What his name? >> General Sir William Riley. >> Wow, the Indian Army. >> Yeah. >> I know the Indians ... Because the 68th Parachute Ambulance. >> Yes. >> Right, is that right? >> Yep, yeah, yep. >> Correct, 68th. >> They were there. >> Do you remember them? >> Yes, yep. They stuck needles in me from time to time. >> The medics? >> Yes, yeah. >> So explain the armistice and the battle and just right before the armistice and after because you stayed until when? >> I was there [INAUDIBLE] in November. Well, we set sail Christmas Day in the Indian Ocean. That was December. >> December, 2000 ... I mean 1953. >> You were there for 1 year? >> [INAUDIBLE]. >> But you saw the ... That must have been so interesting. You saw the height of the war and the largest scale battle, right, right before. I don't understand. I heard that the armistice was signed, but they thought that they would negotiate a peace treaty soon after, right? >> The peace treaty never ever took place ... >> I know but ... >> ... just a cease fire, an armistice. >> But they were going to negotiate it, no? >> No, they wanted to replace it soon. >> Maybe the American government wanted to do that, but certainly the Chinese didn't want it, the North Koreans. No. There is actually ... There is so much been written about the Korean War. >> You said so much? >> Which does not get any publicity in Britain. As I've said to you, British government would rather we all die. A lot of our members got or was exposed German warfare. I don't know if you know that, but the government [INAUDIBLE], and probably that is the reason why most of our casualties are all dying off with cancer. Yes. The incidents of cancer in the Korean War veterans is higher than in the general population. >> Really? >> Yep. >> What kind of cancer? >> Every kind. >> Really? Because I know in Vietnam because of Agent Orange ... >> Oh, yes, Agent Orange. >> ... that a lot of Vietnam war veterans have cancer, but I've never heard of Korean War veterans having cancer. >> Oh, yes. >> In Australia, Canada and America and New Zealand, if I remember correctly, they all acknowledge it. The British government will not acknowledge it. There was a British woman whose husband died, and she had heard about the Australian people making compensation, so she started a case up, and she won. Took a while, but she did win compensation, but they never agreed that it was caused by the Korean War. You can imagine if everybody had cancer started claiming. What kind of money would be we be talking? It'd run into millions. >> I wonder what about the Korean War caused cancer. >> You need to ask the American government. When you go to Australia ... You'll be going to Australia, won't you? >> Yes. >> You must contact Haning Spicer. >> Okay. >> Have you got the name? Haning Spicer. He's gone all over Australia which has [INAUDIBLE], and that's because of his service for the veterans [INAUDIBLE] but ask Haning about it. He'll tell you a bit more, so the consequence, I reckon, of it, and when I was in Canada, one of the men who became an officer was talking about it with an American general there, and they were [INAUDIBLE] was cleaning his boot with it, and I wandered over to see what it was about and saw them [INAUDIBLE] screws, and they said, "Yeah, we know, but the sides are all wood, and that's why we're going to construct some metal, and we're thumping it in with a hammer," so that was introduction, and we became friends, actually, and he said to me, he says, "Arnold, [INAUDIBLE]." I said, "Yeah. I've got tons of it. How much do you want?" He says, "How much can you get me?" I said, "What do you want?" He said, "I've got [INAUDIBLE] war, and I've got no ammunition for it?" >> Do you keep in touch with him? >> Oh, yeah. I still keep in touch with him. >> Oh, wow, and still lives in Nebraska? >> Yes, Central City. >> Why is the memorial here in Bathgate? >> Well, it was built or organized and paid for and built by the Bathgate branch. It was a much bigger branch then than it is now, so no government money was ever applied to any memorial, although the defunct organization, the BKVA, when they quit, closed, they gave £1,000 to help refurbish it. >> Oh, when was it built? >> Pardon? >> When was it built? >> Oh, I don't know exactly. It was some time ago, a few years ago anyway. Yep. >> Like in the 2,000s, like in the 1990s, '80s? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would probably say late '90s, early 2, but up on MacKenzie up here will be able to tell you all that. You'll have a difficulty in stopping him telling you actually.

>> My name is Alexander Ferguson, known as Sandy. I was in Korea during the Korean War from 1951 for 2 years. I was with Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers doing recovering, recovering tanks and suchlike and were based in various places: Incheon, Seoul, Daegu, a number of places. And there is such a tremendous friendliness about the South Korean people, who were so kind to us. I can't ... Anything else? >> Well, so when you went to Korea, what do you remember? >> I remember the fact that [INAUDIBLE]. I hadn't seen those before, and the oxen who'd carry, were pulling carts about, and the A-frames the gentlemen the gentlemen were carrying about, [INAUDIBLE], and the roads, the condition of the roads. They seemed to be years and years behind the times at that time. I don't mean to seem unkind, but it did seem very, very behind times then. I'm so pleased to see how Korea has come on now. In fact, I drive a Korean car. I remember different instances, rescuing tanks and backloading vehicles in Incheon to go to Japan when we agreed it was beyond local repair. And meeting the various different sections of the army, and different ones did different things, such as RASC. We saw them doing their work, supplying stores and things, the engineers building bridges and ourselves recovering and repairing vehicles. I can't think of much else at the moment. >> Well, what do you think about the Scottish contributions in the war? Not a lot of people know about it. >> Well, there were a lot of Scottish people in the regiments, in the infantry regiments there, which we're very proud of, but I wasn't with any infantry, although we did rescue vehicles from Gloucester Valley. It was known as Gloucester Valley after ... There was quite a large battle there. The army were called the Glorious Glosters. Yeah. Scottish people were ... There were only a few Scotsmen in there, in our unit. I think there was three Scots in it, and there aren't as many people in Scotland as there are in England in any case, but we ... Scotland was well represented in the infantry units. I think that's all I can think about at the moment. >> How did the war impact your life when you came back? >> When we came back, we got about 3 months leave of absence when we came back because we had only 5 days in Tokyo while we were ... All the time we were in Korea, we had only 5 days R and R, and we went to Tokyo and to Ginza Street and Ebisu Hotel, as they called it then, but that was a nice 5 days. And after we came back home, we came back in the [INAUDIBLE], having gone to Korea on the Empress of Australia, came back in the [INAUDIBLE], and I wasn't back very long until I got malaria which is apparently because tablets weren't taken aboard the ship, so they say. Anyway, I think just about everybody on that ship, all the troops in that ship, caught malaria, and it came back once after that and has been away ever since. I had about a year to serve after I came back which I served in Scotland which was the first time I had ever served in Scotland, in Stirling, and I didn't do a lot of distant driving, really, and I rode motorbikes for the units. I represented the unit in the Scottish Six Day Motorbike Trials. Needless to say, I didn't win. I didn't get anywhere, and then when I left the army altogether, I worked initially in a garage, and then eventually I had my own business making and selling carpets, and I then retired. >> Have you been back to Korea? >> No, I haven't. My wife and I would have liked to have gone, and I keep thinking we should go, but some of the cruise ships ... We've been on a number of cruises. Some of the cruise ships call in Korea. It's only for a day, and I am told I should go with a group. I don't know. It's quite a flight out there, but it's quite a long flight, whereas if you're cruising then you're whole [INAUDIBLE]. That's ... Our next cruise is at the end of April to Fort Lauderdale and then somewhere and then Bermuda and back home. We really should ... We should have gone or should go, but I don't know. Maybe I'm getting too old. I'm sorry about this. >> How old are you? >> Eighty-six. >> Eighty-six! >> Eighty-six last week. >> So you were ... >> The day after Robert Burns. >> So you were 22 when you went to Korea? >> I was 20. >> Twenty? >> Twenty, yeah, 19 or 20. >> Nineteen. >> I had my 21st birthday in Korea. >> Oh. What was that like? >> It was good. A American camp just along the road made me a birthday cake which was very nice, and my mother sent one which we didn't get for quite a long time because of the [INAUDIBLE] and so on. >> She sent a cake? >> She sent a cake, yeah. >> And you got it? >> Yeah, yeah. >> By the time you got it, wasn't it rotten? >> No. No. Put the right stuff in there, it'll keep for a long time. >> Wow. That must have been nice. >> And then of course in Korea we had to get used to the wons for currency, the Korean wons, and the British Army [INAUDIBLE], as I recall, if you spent any army money in [INAUDIBLE] or EX, or somewhere like that, but the Korean won currency, it ... Well, 1,000 won wasn't worth anything at all. A thousand won at that time would be worth about 25 pence in UK money today. I can't think of anything else, Hannah. >> Okay. That's okay. Well, what did you ... Did you ever meet civilians in Korea? >> Meet who? >> Civilians, Korean people? >> Oh, yes. Yes. There was a little houseboy that came with us, and we would [INAUDIBLE]. I went down, did what we were going to do and came back, and the American military police wouldn't let the little boy back over. They said, "You've got to stay south." And I said, "His parents are north." He said, "It doesn't make any difference. Everybody has got to stay south," and we felt really bad about this. So we told the wee boy, "Just go down the road and stay there, and we'll come back for you." So we went, and we went back there with two trucks, and we picked him up in the smaller truck and took him further down the road a bit, and then we came to the large truck, and we put him inside the big locker in the truck and shut the lid, and then we came back and crossed, and the American MPs looked inside and all over, and, "That's all right. We'll let us through," and he'd gotten back to his parents which he was very pleased about. >> Well, you know that the war never ended, right? >> Pardon? >> The Korean War never ended. >> Yeah, that's right. >> What do you think about that? The two Koreas are separated ... >> That's right. >> ... still divided. >> It's terrible. It's ... That idiot in North Korea, it's absolutely terrible. >> Well, I hope that in your lifetime the two Koreas will be united. >> I hope so, Hannah. I really hope so. We met a Korean, North Korean, lady once, and we gave her some breakfast or something, and somebody wasn't really pleased. Some of the South Koreans weren't pleased about this. They said, "Don't you realize that she's North Korean?" I said, "Well, she was hungry," and that was it. But ...

>> [INAUDIBLE]. >> Because it didn't go like that. It wasn't on the spring. Each time, we had to wrap it round and ... >> And because it was crystallized, you had to break it up. >> Yeah, trying to start it, but now you've got more springs, haven't you? >> Oh, yeah. >> This time you had to keep wrapping it around, pull it, pull it again. >> Until ... >> Oh, and it wouldn't start, and I could hear the guns firing, and I thought ... and I could hear the radio going because we had batteries, and I couldn't answer it .. >> Because you're trying to answer back. >> But I can't right now. There's no power. >> So you had to keep doing ... >> No power, and you couldn't have the generator inside to keep warm because the fumes would kill you, wouldn't they, of the generator? >> Yeah. >> So you have to have the generator outside, and, oh, my fingers were cold, and it was so cold, and it wouldn't start. I thought, "Oh, I'm in such serious trouble here. I'm in serious trouble." Vroom. All of a sudden, it was all [INAUDIBLE]. >> And then ... >> Then it went. Oh, and I got in the air. Hello, whatever it was, Newcastle One. Hey, you read me? Over. Read you fives and clear, duh, duh, duh. It was fine. But if you look, that was the night of the Battle of the Hook. Think it was October, was it, '53? You got it there? >> No, I'm recording you. >> Oh. And it was Battle of the Hook. If you put it on there, Battle of the Hook, you'll see it. >> Yeah, yeah, I will. >> And that was ... And the journey started. But I remember the night was so crystal ... You know when you get that clear air and all those millions and millions of stars because it was so clear, the air, and I could hear all the mortar bombs landing on the Hook and things like that, and I didn't realize what a pounding they was getting, and that was it. If you look it up on there, Battle of the Hook ... >> We will. >> Oh, by the way, since you were in the National Service, you did get paid, right? >> Oh, yeah. When I first went there, I got a pound a week. >> Oh. >> One pounds, but the average wage was about ... >> Relevant to the day, I suppose. >> The average wage was about 3 pounds. >> Oh. >> And I got paid a pound. Then it went up to 2 pounds, I think. By the time I come out of the army, I was what they called a five-star soldier. >> Oh. >> Five stars. I didn't have to pass any exams, and I was getting 3 pounds, 10 shillings, and for fighting in Korea, I got 82 pounds bounty, 82 pounds bounty, which was ... In '53, it was a lot of money. >> What is that now? >> What? >> What is ... >> Eighty-two pounds bounty in ... The average wage was, say, four quid. >> Yeah. >> So it was what? >> So the average ... >> Four into 80 would be 20 times, wouldn't it? So 20 times ... Say the average range is 300 now. Twenty times 300 would be 6,000 pounds. No, it wasn't 6,000 pounds. It would be worth, I don't know, couple of thousand quid now. >> Yeah, today. >> It was called a bounty. I didn't get it until I went home. >> So it's 1,000 times what ... >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> It's 1,000 times better than ... >> For, yeah, bounty. It was bounty, yeah. >> So you were adding 1 pound ... >> But remember, I never spent any money for a year. >> Yeah, because you would have nowhere to spend it. >> It's like being in that field. You can have 10 million pounds, but you can't buy anything if there's nothing to buy, can you? >> No, so you saved it. >> I got free cigarettes, and I didn't smoke. >> So you saved ... >> You got free cigarettes, 15 cigarettes a week in tins, and then you got a menu called C-rations. [INAUDIBLE] C-rations, you got bone chicken ... >> Yeah. >> ... toilet paper, matches, four cigarettes. >> What did you do with the cigarettes you were given? You were giving them away? >> He traded. He bartered. >> You bartered? >> No, we played cards with it. >> Oh, were betting. >> I'll raise you 1,000 cigarettes. >> Oh. >> But also we had a Korean guy with us when we were down, and he would do our washing, and you'd give him ... >> Some cigarettes for the washing. >> You would give him 300 cigarettes, and he would go to Seoul and sell the cigarettes. He would sell the cigarettes. >> It was bartering for service. >> Yeah, yeah. He was ... And he would smash it against the rocks, get the stuff clean, but of course, that was back down the line. When you was in the line, you'd get ... >> Take it ... >> So ... But I didn't think it ... Looking back now, I go ... I didn't view it as being bad. >> It wasn't. >> I didn't view it ... I viewed it ... That was ... Like Bill said today, I viewed it ... >> Mm-hmm. As part of ... >> That's how it was. >> That was how it was. We ... That was it. I didn't view it, "Oh, look at what they're doing to me," because everyone else ... >> Yeah, everyone else was doing it. >> Everyone else was doing it. >> Yeah. >> And it was lots of fun there as well. We'd ... >> You're in it together, so there's no one ... >> I remember this American. We were swapping, and a STEN gun, British STEN gun, which was terrible, and it cost the equivalent of $1 maybe, and so I fired his carbine, and he fired it. He went, "Man, that's the sweetest dollar's worth I've ever seen." So we swapped guns. I took his carbine, and he had my STEN gun. Carbine was much better. >> Yeah. >> And so I didn't view it as, "Oh, terrible." It wasn't terrible ... >> It wasn't at the time. >> ... because it's .... >> Relevant. >> It was relevant at the time. We all ... We laughed. You joked, and you made jokes, and you read books and read, read an awful lot. >> And it was an adventure. >> Yeah, right, and I said ... We had a radio, of course. We had the radio up. We could tune into the radio, and we used to tune into the radio when it was the March of Dimes. Give a dime today for a Korean orphanage. >> What was your favorite song again? >> Oh, there's lots of [INAUDIBLE]. >> Really? Really there was ... >> Favorite songs at the time? >> ... March of Dimes for Korean orphans, really? >> Yeah. They said, "This is the March of Dimes. Give a dime today for a Korean orphanage." They're the March of Dimes, so you know it's ... >> In the British radio stations? >> No, we picked up the American radio because I was on the radio. >> The American. >> We never had a British radio station. Only the Americans had their own radio station. This is ... Songs was ... [Lyrics] Way back home, we lie. We used to laugh at the Americans being all sentimental. We weren't, but they was ... It was like going camping with them maybe for a year. Imagine going camping with that [INAUDIBLE]. >> Shooting down. >> Yeah, no. Imagine going camping for a year and ... >> Yeah, an expedition, sort of adventure. >> Yeah, but trouble is sometimes you run out of food because no food was coming up. >> So you had to ration. >> You had food, and you had these C-rations most of the time, which is a pack like that like you could buy at the supermarket, bit of chicken or meat wrapped in almost ... It was toilet paper, cigarettes, matches, maybe a piece of cake or something like that. My mom sent me a parcel, a big parcel at Christmas. On Christmas '52, we had the highest ranking general in [INAUDIBLE] come and see us because we was the most forward of the British soldiers in Korea, and he come up to see us, and he come up to see us, and I had this big parcel. So I go, "Cup of tea, sir?" "Yes, I'll join you lads," and his gloves were rolled back, and he had this camel-hair overcoat on. His hat, boots, brown boots glistening. He really looked smart, he did, and, "How are you finding it, lads? Getting tougher?" "All right, sir." "Well, chin up." >> What did you guys think of MacArthur? >> He was gone by the time, I think, I got there, wasn't he, MacArthur? Was he? >> He was fight ... >> He might have just been there. I think ... MacArthur, General MacArthur? >> Mm-hm. >> No, when I got there, he was general ... >> Eisenhower? >> No, no, no, no, general ... No, the general took over from him. There was another general. I have to think about that because MacArthur wanted to drop the atom bomb, didn't he? >> Mm-hm. >> And they took him away. Then they took him. There was another general. I forget his ... There was a man they called Iron Guts somebody. >> That was his nickname, Iron Guts? >> Yeah, another general, Iron Guts someone. I'm trying to think who the other American general was. I forget. There was another general, American who took over. >> Nevertheless, what did you think of MacArthur? >> I didn't give it a thought, quite honestly, although you've got to remember, he pulled a master stroke, didn't he, the Inchon landings. He pulled a master stroke. Here is Korea, and we were down here, and there was the Chinese. What he did, he landed all the troops there In Inchon and cut Korea in half so they was all trapped. >> Oh, yeah. >> It was a master stroke really. He really landed, and it had a 15-foot tide. This place called Inchon had a 15-foot tide, so they had to time it ... >> Perfectly. >> And that was British marines in there at the time, but it was tragic. When they got there, they took it without almost a shot being fired, but nevertheless, [INAUDIBLE] landed so much, and they just cut it in half. So it was a master stroke. What was it, 1951, was it? Late '51, I think it was. >> '50. >> General, general, but there was ... As I'm talking, I'm remembering things that I ... >> September. >> September of 1950, was it? >> Mm-hm. >> I wasn't there then. >> You were '53, weren't you? >> No, I went there '52 because MacArthur sat ... because he really did that to Truman, didn't he? Truman had to go and see him rather than him go and see Truman, and he fired him, but he got a hero's welcome, didn't he? Ticker tape in New York, and do you know he had not been back to America for something like 30 years? >> Mm-hmm. >> He had not lived in America for 30-odd years. He had been in ... And you know that photograph of him walking up the beach? I've read the story. He walked up the beach. There's a famous picture of him with a cob pipe in his mouth walking up the beach. When he left Manila, he said, "I shall return," okay? And they had a picture of him walking up the beach, but that was a mistake. The boat wouldn't land, so he had to get in the water, and he cursed and shouted, and the guy took a photograph. Of course, he ... And it's really ... He cursed and shouted. He had to walk up the sea, but of course it became a famous photograph like he's walking up the beach, isn't it? >> Like a holiday brochure. >> Well, yeah, like he's returning, walking up the beach all ... And yet he was actually fuming. He was actually fuming, but then it took ... But he hadn't been back to America for 30 years, MacArthur when the Japanese took Manila and all that, and he sailed southeast. He never went back to America so ... He was going to run for President, wasn't he? He thought he was going to be President, MacArthur. >> When he went back? >> The reason they sacked him, he wanted to drop the atom bomb on North Korea. Had he done so, it would've been ... >> Catastrophic. >> Would've been catastrophic. Russia would've done it, but it was ... So as you talk, you remember things, don't you? >> Mm-hm. You have to all write it down and finish your essay. I'm urging him to finish his essay. >> I've got another piece I want to fit in. >> [INAUDIBLE] bar cream. >> Let's get this week over, and I think I'll cut everything else out and just do ... >> The key to it is to ... >> ... the story of my life. >> ... write it down when you remember it, right? >> Yeah. >> Well, sometimes when I'm writing, it comes. >> That's true, too. >> Going back. >> The story ...

>> Hello. My name is Roy Painter. I'm a trustee of the British Korean War Veterans Association, and I served some time in Korea from 1952 to 1953 as a national serviceman. Most of the time, boring, some exciting, some of it very scary, but that was the way of the world then in 1952. I didn't think much of it when I came home, but now it means an awful lot to me when I see what the Korean people have done and very pleased and proud that it part of this regeneration of Korea, and I realized this. Now as you get older, you appreciate just how important it was that the part we played in the British Commonwealth Division and my colleagues. Forty-some of us never came back, like my friend Brian. He was only 20, who life dealt a bad deal, an orphan, in any case, was living with his grandmother, I'm afraid didn't come back and is still in the Korean cemetery. I suppose that's all part of war, and the bad things that happen, but the good things is that Korea is on its feet. The people are very generous to us, the Korean people, and it means so much to me that they have done this, and in some tiny cog in a bigger cog in a bigger cog, I played some part in it. Some things happened to me there. I went on a rest and recuperation leave, and I brought back a 1 yen. What that's worth now, I don't know. I visited a Buddhist temple while I was there, which, again, enlightened me. This is a couple of colleagues I had. That was me there, looking about 10 years old, but it was 1952, and we were all young and didn't care very much, some more photographs. The entertainers came out. That was a lady called Carole Carr, who was a very famous singing star in the '50s, and there she was. This here is my first introduction of working in the career, the signal office before I got sent up with the others and where it all happened, and this here is the ship I got sent home in, not much bigger than a Thames barge, actually, but there we are, but I've got some other things I could tell you if you want. Oh, this here, I was very pleased that I got invited back to Korea in November '14, and the generosity of the Korean people and everybody. The Ministry of Patriots awarded me the peace medal, and this parchment here, which I think I'm very proud of, which I hope in generations to come, my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-grandchildren will look and feel as proud as I am when I received this. Well, also, they fished out these Christmas cards from the American people. I don't think she realized it was going to an English person, but, nevertheless, it was a delightful, delightful Christmas card from a grandmother in America wishing us all the best and that someone was thinking of us, which I thought was very, very generous of them. I did reply to the lady, and I hope she treasures my reply as much as I treasure this Christmas card. Oh, and there's lots I could tell you, could go on forever, really. At 60-odd, the UN decided to declare war in Korea. Now most of the people in England didn't even know where Korea was. You got to remember the time. We were still on rationing. We were the poorest country in Europe still. We'd been bombed out. My father had been in the army for 5 years. My house had been bombed. We were sleeping downstairs in two rooms, sleeping on mattresses on the floor. By 1945, that was then. I left school in 1948, and, of course, in 1951, like other young men, I had to do 2 years' National Service, which I was called up. I went to various parts of the United Kingdom until some time in I think it was March when I was in there, when I was called into the colonel's office and told, "You're off to Korea." Korea was some Asian, some ... The other side of the world, which of course it was. Anyway, pack your gear, go home on leave for 2 weeks, which I did. Wound up in Liverpool on a boat, had 6 weeks of very pleasant trip to Busan, saw parts of the world I never would have seen. We slept on-deck, and we got to Busan, where we was introduced to Korea. Spent 1 week there getting acclimatized, and then we boarded a train to go to Seoul, and it took us 37 hours, stopping, starting. We got to Seoul, out of Seoul. We got on Canadian tracks. We then went another 5 hours, and suddenly the reality of it hit me. I could hear guns firing. I could hear bangs. Oh, dear, this is the reality, but we all made silly jokes and said silly things, and I got to where I had to go in the Commonwealth Division, was fed, watered, and we all had to swim in a local stream, got all the dust off us, and then I was sent to the signal office where I was introduced to the workings of what the army life was really about, and strangely enough, within 2 days, the first message I received was of a schoolmate who sat next to me at school had been wounded, shrapnel wounds, head, severity, severe. How small a world is it? Then the next 6 weeks, I got acclimatized to everything and became what I suppose was a working soldier. Sergeant then come down, said, "Okay, Painter, we're going to cook your goose. You're going up to the Aussies now," and then in a jeep over the Imjin River, carried on. The gunfire got louder and louder and louder, and suddenly reality started dawning. Oh, dear, this is what it's all about, and I went until I was attached to the first World Straits Arrangement, and I was introduced to the colonel, and the sergeant, he was a grisly old Aussie who had been in the army for years, said, "This is your new English operator, a pommy," he said because they called English pommies. This is your new pommy operator. Wise operator said, "If you don't mind me saying so, sir," he said, "I think the poms is still sending us kids. They're still shipping young one on their mother's tit. They all look kids." Anyway, it was a start of a 3-or-4-month acclimatization. I learned very quickly to tell the difference between outgoing shells and incoming shells, but it wasn't that bad because everyone else was used to it. We did guard duties, and I was always impressed by the clarity of the sky at night, especially in the winter. It was so clear and clean-cut, and I looked at the stars, and I thought, "Wow," and I should try and work out in my head how far away it was to go home, 6,000 miles. If I walked it, could I walk through Mongolia? But then a routine settled down. I was a wireless operator, and you spent 6 hours on-duty, 6 hours off, but mostly it was fairly easy until sometimes, things got slightly naughty, and mortar bombs started landed on us, but it only lasted a few minutes, but it still used to make you scared, and people said they wasn't scared are telling fibs because everyone gets scared, but then you did guard duties, and you'd look at a bush, and you'd think, "Is that bush moving? Is it someone really there?" And I said ... I think peoples turn to religion. We all make false promises, and the shells we'd land on said, "Please, god, don't let them come any nearer. I will go to church," knowing I wouldn't, but time passed, and then I got attached to the Americans, and that was a lot of fun. They had food I'd never seen before, chocolates and steak and ham and eggs for breakfast. It was unbelievable because you have to remember that England was still on rationing. We were still on starvation rationing in England, but sweets, and time went by, and suddenly I'd been there almost a year, and I went on one leave in Tokyo, the rest and recuperation leave, which was fun, 5 days, lots of boozing and things like that, but that's what young soldiers do. Isn't it? And I came back, and where I could ... It did change my life. I remember looking a the Koreans, and I can remember them opening up a tin of bacon. It was a big tin. It was bacon inside. They took it out, and I remember saying to my mates, "Korea will never go back to being peasants again. They've moved 400 years in 2 years. They've seen now what the rest of the world has got," and I can remember these two young Korean guys taking the bacon out, and I thought, "They're eating the same as us, wearing the same clothes." Of them, those that were lucky enough to be with the Americans got all the goodies. They don't want to go back to eating rice and fish. Korea is going to change. They're going to want what they're ... and quite rightly so. It was a few moments. We never saw many civilians, but I can remember one was a Korean peasant lady who was way down in line, and she had a baby strapped to her back, a little boy, and as most soldiers do, I wasn't mean. I gave him two bars of chocolate, and the gratitude of the Korean mother was so immense that even at 19, I was moved that for two bars of chocolate, life should not be like this. People shouldn't be treated like this, and how could the north come down and raze these villages to the ground and kill people? I suppose it was part of my growing-up process. Wasn't it? This was wrong. This was wrong, and was I pleased I was taking part of that, of helping? And eventually time came, time to come home, and I did, and I must confess. I put it out of my mind, Korea. I put it out of my mind, but occasionally on my own I would think about it. I'd think about it. It never ... People say they have, what, post-traumatic ... I don't think it ... I had a few sleepless nights. I would wake up, and I wanted one experience, this, okay? When I went to an army camp in England some years ago, and they'd recreated the 1914 war with sandbags and shells, and I went through, and the shells started whistling, and my stomach did turn over. My tummy turned to water, and it brought back memories, but I soon got over it, like most people decided. I'm not sure about post-traumatic stress, but if people suffer from it, then I feel very sorry for them, but then I got a phone call in the ... oh, dear, from a man called Rod Larby. He said, "I know if you don't like to see your man's grave, Brian Clackett." And of course, the memories come flooding back. I said, "No," and Brian was only 20, and life dealt him a bum deal, which I think I said earlier. He was only 20, and he was an orphan. By 12 o'clock, he was dead, and so I became involved in the British Korean War Veterans Association, so I'm going to meet my old pals, told lots of lies to each other, didn't we? As we always did, but they were older. You remember some of that. Do you remember him? Do you remember him? Until eventually I went back on a revisit in November 2014, and I'm so pleased I did. The change in Korea is just phenomenal. They're the 10th largest economy in the world now, and if winning this war in South Korea could do this, why can't North Korea? Why can't other nations use this industry and do good things? Anyway, on the revisit, they arranged for me to see Brian's grave, and I must confess. I did get emotional in this time because it shouldn't happen to a 20-year-old, but I saw his grave. The graveyard is kept absolutely immaculate. The Korean people are ever-thankful. I don't mean grateful but thankful, which is nice, and isn't it a pity that the north is still the same as it was? Isn't that a shame? Isn't it? You'd think that ... words fail, especially with this lunatic in charge keeps his people in servitude and slavery, and we can only hope that all the people that died didn't die in vain, and that Korea becomes one nation. It's leapt from 1600 to the year now 2000. I can't believe it can carry on as it carries on now, and all these people died for nothing. You know? Fifty-six thousand Americans, over 1,000 Brits died and 1,000 were taken prisoner, and let's hope that we can all learn that man's inhumanity to man can't go on, so now in my 80s, am I pleased I did it? Oh, absolutely, I'm pleased I contributed in some way. I made friends and comrades I would never have made. I experienced something I would never have experienced before. I was privileged, just privileged to take part in some tiny call freeing South Korea from the yokes of North Korea, and so, really, I can go to my grave saying, "Well, I did contribute something to the world, albeit forced to do it but pleased to do it," and let's just hope that in my lifetime, Korea can unite. One thing I did forget was on Christmas 1952 at midnight, all guns stopped firing, which just very quickly became an eerie quietness. It was like, but on Christmas morning, strange enough on the wire before the minefields, the Chinese or North Koreans had left Christmas cards and little presents like toothpaste, razor blades and other things, and the Christmas cards were specifically worded for English. Hello, lads, merry Christmas. I hope you're enjoying some presents, but do you really want to fight for the American imperialists? While you're here, they're taking your girls and wives back home, and you're fighting a useless war. Do you really want to fight this war? What they didn't realize, it was counterproductive, of course, because we all laughed. It didn't really have any effect on us at all. We just laughed because we could see through this propaganda. It didn't really affect us. I will look for this card again because a picture is worth 1,000 words, so I hope I can find it and some other, but, of course, I wasn't expecting this, so I really don't know where I've put it, but I really must try and put this all in order for future generations.

>> My name is George Reed. I'm a member of the British Korean War Veterans Association. I'm the secretary of the Hertfordshire branch. I went out to Korea with the war engineers, and it's a great shock. It was entirely different than being back in England, and I got posted up by the Imjin River [INAUDIBLE] engineer squadron, and we generally worked to do the reservicing roads and Korean work. The war had just finished when I had got out there, so the fighting had stopped. There was still plenty to do. I eventually became the squadron welder, and I built a 47-foot observation tower practically by myself, and then I got put into the intelligence section, was entirely different type of work altogether. Quite fun, I've done a few explosive jobs and blowing up. I've done some welding on the Teal Bridge, which would run ... crosses over the Imjin River. This was preparing for explosives in case the war started up again. I had plenty of work to do. I was very interested in most of it. I don't regret going out there. It was quite a different type of a culture, and, well, I bet we were. There was hardly any people at all because all the villages had been either destroyed, or they'd been moved back out of the danger area. >> Did you know some of the comrades or people that went, fought in the British Armed Forces that fought but that didn't make it back? Did you know anyone? >> Who fall down there? >> Mm-hmm. >> Yes. I was in the [INAUDIBLE] army before joining the regular army [INAUDIBLE] and there quite a few regular [INAUDIBLE] who fought out in the Korean War. They were very ... Was it posttraumatic stress? Two or three of them suffered very badly from that and what went on, but it wasn't recognized back in those days as such, so they were never treated, and they quite introverted to theirself. It affected them quite badly. >> You were so young. How old were you? >> How old was I when I went out? I was 21 when I went out to Korea. Being an engineer, it's a bit of employment. I was serving an apprenticeship for 5 years. I was deferred for joining the Army or doing national service for 2 years. >> Explain that a little bit about the national service because it's a little different from other countries where everybody volunteered. >> National service was 2 years, member, conscripted and then medical, and if they passed, they were sent out to different regiments, but I planned on being a military mind at that time. I signed on as a regular soldier, so it was all with national service. We don't have training with the national service, and it was all posted out with the national service with the different units around the world. I can't view it from a national service point of view because I wasn't a national serviceman. >> But you served with them. >> Yeah. Most of them were national service in those days. >> How ... What do you think the proportion was? >> In those days, it's over about 60 percent national serviceman in the British Army. I should say, not knowing these figures, but yeah. Looking back now, and what I've heard, I've met a few Korean people. I was in France 2 years ago, and in our hotel was a young Korean lady, and she thanked me for what we'd done out in Korea when we was fighting, so it ... quite lovely people there, very lovely people. Well, I think so. Yes, and I hope to be going out there in April of this year on a first visit for 62 years, all going well, hope to be there to see how the culture has changed, how the building changed because when I was there, Seoul was in a pretty bad state also the Gyeongbok Palace, which I remember visiting it if that's still there, but yes. I understand it's entirely different now, so going to compare the two different eras. >> Well, I hope you enjoy the visit. I think you will. >> Yeah, yeah. >> I thank you.

>> My name is Brian Morney. I served with the First Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, and I was in Korea for 1 year. I was stationed just south of the Imjin River, not far [INAUDIBLE] and the glorious Gloucester Hill. I was there from 1956 to '57, which was postwar, and we were the last British Regiment to leave South Korea, and we were on active service at that particular time, and during that time, we had 200-man marches through Korea, which 25 miles a day for 4 days, and we did that twice. On one occasion, we had a very, very big parade at our army camp, and that was attend by Syngman Rhee, the president at that time of South Korea, and he arrived at our camp by helicopter, which was quite an occasion for all of us. When I went to Korea, because of the state of South Korea at that particular time and the poverty that I saw, I wasn't really interested in ever coming back to Korea again ... Excuse me ... Because I thought that the people were so poor and hard done by. Sometimes, it made you cry, but I've been on a revisit to South Korea, and now I think it to be one of the nicest countries I've ever been to. The people are so hospitable and really caring, and I can't speak highly enough of what Korea has done in that short space of time, and if I ever have a chance, I'd love to go back to South Korea and to visit all you lovely people once again. Thank you very much.

>> Right, my name is Edgar Green, and I was in the Middlesex Regiment, which is one of the first of two regiments to go from Hong Kong to Korea. We served in Hong Kong ... Served in Korea from the perimeter of Busan right up to just below the Yellow River, then down again to Seoul, mainly walking all the time. We're very ... No transport, and the worth thing was the lack of warm clothing in October when the temperature dropped to 40 degrees below. We stopped until the Battle at the Kapyong and 29 Division was in the Imjin River, and then May of '51, we returned to Hong Kong, and that was more or less my time, and then 6 weeks in Hong Kong, and I was back to England to get [INAUDIBLE], and that was my army service there. How we looking then? >> Have you been to Korea? Have you been to Korea? >> I've been back to Korea nine times, and so this year, when I go in April, that will be my 10th time that I've had a birthday in Korea, which I look forward to because I remember all of those friends as they were and comrades that are left down in Busan, and that's why I go every year to see. Thank you.

>> When I got to Korea, they left me in Pusan. They sent me to guard company which is east of Pusan, and we were doing guard duties all around the docks, closing depots, ammunition depots, and I stayed there from September right around until February when they sent me back to the Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, First Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers, that was. That's when we stayed until the ceasefire. >> Explain a little about that because, I mean, you didn't expect the ceasefire, but it happened. I mean, like, how did people react? >> Well, we were just happy, I suppose, but we were due to come out then because our stay was only for a year, so we're due to come out anyway, so we came out normally. >> Why were you only scheduled to stay for a year? >> Well, I think everybody got a year minimum probably. >> Well, explain a little about that because I think British were the only ones maybe, not the only ones, but with the National Service. >> Well, I was a regular. I was in for 5 years, so it didn't fly to me, but there was a lot of National Service in there. That's why they encouraged it to 2 years when the war started. >> Have you been back to Korea? >> Yes, 2000. >> Oh, for the 50th anniversary. >> Pardon? >> For the 50th anniversary. >> Yes, that's right. That's correct, 50th anniversary. Now, I want to go this year again if I can with my grandson, and ... >> What did you think when you first arrived? >> Well, it's a big improvement, big improvement. >> Well, I hope so because it was ... >> Nothing. >> ... nothing but rubbles when you left it. >> That's right. It was only two bridges on the river Seoul. Now, there was 27 I think, 30. Big change, big change. >> And do you feel proud? >> I do. I do feel proud, and since 2000, I've carried your national standard very proudly and honored to do so and still carrying it. I'm going to carry on as long as I can. >> Well I know for sure the Korean people and the people everywhere are extremely grateful for your service. >> I'm sure you are. >> Yes. That's why I'm, here. >> Yeah. >> And thank you so much. >> Very proud to see you. >> Thank you so ... >> Thank you for coming. >> Thank you.