From the Tundra to the Trenches by Eddy Weetaltuk

Author:Eddy Weetaltuk
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
Published: 2017-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

From the Island of Pleasure

TO THE INFERNO

When we arrived at the port of Seattle, the Salvation Army was waiting to greet us with coffee and doughnuts and wished us good luck, like they used to do every time a boat was leaving for Korea. We embarked on the ship Marine Adder, which was already half full with American troops, marines and GIs. We would soon get acquainted with them. They had heard quite a bit about us, the 2nd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. The PPCLI had already won presidential citation in Korea because it had captured the hill of Kapyong. The journey on the Pacific Ocean was long and rough. My comrades were killing time by playing cards and dice or by telling war stories. One day I sat beside an American marine looking at his girlfriend’s picture. When I asked if she was his sister, he looked at me with surprise and replied:

—No, man, that’s my sweet love.

He was speaking with a southern drawl. I had never heard such an accent before. Later he told me a very tragic story. A marine who was returning from Korea had written to his folks and fiancée announcing he was finally back. But, when he arrived, his sweetheart was not there. She had quit waiting for him. The young man did not say a word and went back into the ship and jumped from the other side of the boat and drowned himself in the sea. I was feeling sorry for that poor marine, and could picture myself in the same situation. But I came later to realize that was a pure fabrication. The veterans enjoyed telling that kind of story to scare the young recruits.

However, I could not wait to arrive at Yokohama. Curiosity was stronger than fear. When we finally docked, everyone took his gear and we all climbed up on the main deck to look at the Japanese who were waving at us from below. I was thinking to myself how these were the same people who fought against us during the Second World War and that we punished with an atomic bomb. They should hate us, like we had despised them. But instead they seemed so friendly. I was recalling the horrors we were told about the Japanese when I was in school and I began to wonder what is true in what we say about other people. I stopped questioning myself when I came to realize how nice looking the Japanese girls were. They were so petite and so elegant, walking with very short steps.

We got off the ship and took a train to Tokyo. Then, we took another train across the country to a city called Kure where we would be stationed while waiting to cross the sea to Korea, heading to the battle-front. On the train I could hear the dispatcher through the loud speakers giving orders in Japanese. It was strange. Japanese sounds very much like Inuktitut, though I could not make out the words.

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