Quote:
Originally Posted by FILO
Dad went over at the onset in 1950 with the 25th. He loved occupation duty in Japan and in fact after his 12 month tour in Korea, he asked to be reassigned to Japan, but, he had been overseas since 1947 so they shipped him back to the States. My Dad was from upstate New York and was used to cold weather, but, he told me that he never was more cold than his time in Korea.
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Sounds like your Dad and I have some things in common. I arrived in Japan for Occupation duty in June of 1947. I had enlisted for the 1st Cavalry Division and was assigned to A Troop, 5th Cavalry Regiment at Camp Drake. I was injured at the training area at Mt Fugi and spent some time in the 49th General Hosp. in Tokyo. I was reassigned to the Signal Company at the 25th ID in Osaka, Japan I stayed there until Oct 1949. Yes, I also loved Japan and almost married a Japanese girl who was really an American. She finally got her citizenship back. Due to family problems on both sides we never married.
She was a great gal though!
My wife now is retired from NWA and we have made many trips to Japan both before and after her retirement. I still love Japan. (Although it took the war in Korea to really convince me.)
Korea; however, was another story. I had many bad memories from there and of course I must agree it is the coldest place in the world to me. I shudder when I see pictures of the winter war there. I have been back just once to the Pusan area for one day on a cruise and did visit the UN cemetery there. It was really different from the Pusan I remembered.