New Zealand soldier tells of HISTORIC LAND OF KOREA

Te Ao Hou, Autumn 1953, Page 28

New Zealand soldier tells of HISTORIC LAND OF KOREA Korean monk inspects chimney of a central heating system. The call for volunteers to serve in Korea met with a remarkably wide response from the Maori people. Of those accepted as volunteers since the war began 15 per cent. have been Maoris. How did they find Korea? From history books one remembers Korea as the country of learning where the polite form of address is not “mister” but “scholar”—not Mr Han but Scholar Han, even though Han may not know the alphabet; the country which invented the printing press, and taught the Japanese their wonderful arts and crafts, many centuries ago. With this view Mr Arthur Kahui, who returned to Wellington last year after seventeen months with K-force, does not agree at all. Telling Te Ao Hou some of his experiences, he said Korea to him was first and foremost a land of dust, cold and dirt. —Did you make friends among the Koreans? —We got to know quite a number of them. We found the younger ones much easier to talk to. —How did you manage to talk to them at all? —Mostly in Japanese. Many of the Koreans know Japanese through the Japanese occupation. One feels the ancestors of these young Maori warriors would never have guessed any of their blood would cross the ocean to talk Japanese

to the Koreans. It was, of course, not quite so odd as it sounded. Many of the K-force volunteers had been in the occupation force in Japan just after the war. This had not only given them a taste of Asian lands, but also a knowledge of the Japanese language. In Japan, Mr Kahui said, shops were more modern than in New Zealand; one department store even kept a zoo to attract children. While mum did the shopping, the little ones would watch the elephant.