We took a train(s) down to Pusan. And an LST to Fukuoka, Japan which was just 100 miles across the strait from korea. The boat trip was over night and we slept on deck. We went by truck to camp Hakata. It was morning and we had breakfast. I drank the milk for my cereal separately. It was the first time I had real milk in 6 months. We were measured and given uniforms. We picked out the needed patches and strips and someone sewed them on while we waited. Showered, changed clothes and put our grubby uniforms, sleeping bags, etc. in lockers for the coming week. When we left the camp we had a full seven days before we had to be back.
There were 4 of us from my unit. On the way into town we asked the taxi driver where to stay. Of course he took us to a relative's inn. When we arrived, we were to meet the owner of the inn. He was in his bath but that's were we met him. He got up, bowed, we were introduced and he went back to his bath. As we were signing in at the desk another group of GI's came in. There were about 10 of them. There was only about 10 rooms so they were going to look elsewhere. What happened then was that we were told this inn wasn't so good after all and we should let the other GI's have and we would go to a better inn. The next place had 5 rooms. We took 4. It had a 4 stool bar and a 6 seat restaurant. We spent our 7 days there.
The first day I bought a sport shirt and jeans so I could be in civilian clothes. I had bought presents to send home. Dishes, toys, etc. so one of my friends and I went out to the camp to mail them. Leaving the camp, to go back to the city we were stopped at the gate by an MP. He said we were out of uniform because we had civilian clothes and army boots. It had to be either all one way or the other. My friend's boots had a zipper up the side so he claimed they were civilian boots. He could get back on the bus but I had to go back into camp to change. Well, I nothing to change into. My uniform was back in town. I went to a movie and waited until that guard went off duty. Got back on the bus, curled up with my boots under me, pretended to be half asleep and got past the new guard. When I got back to the inn my friend said that in the morning he was going to bring my uniform out to the camp. The next day I had zippers put in my boots. Of course when I got back to korea I got in trouble about the boots but that's another story.
The above photos show a korean home in Pusan,
a boat in Fukuoka harbor and
I standing outside the entrance of our little inn.
The woman is the owner's wife and the guy is bartender,
houseboy, etc. The owner worked in town during the day.
He and his wife lived next door.
Back to Photo Index Page