Impacts of Hong Kong

Video file

Description
Mr. Agerbak describes the long-term physical and emotional impacts of his service in Hong Kong.

Knud Agerbak

Knud Agerbak was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1918. His family of seven emigrated to Canada in 1927, settling in Manitoba where his father worked as a farm labourer. Mr. Agerbak started working on a farm at the age of 13. He then loaded freight for the railroad, and finally worked in a pulp mill. His sense of patriotism led him to enlist the day that war was declared in 1939. He tried to enlist in the PPCLI, but not having reached the age of 21 didn’t have naturalized Canadian status and was turned down. The Winnipeg Grenadiers did , however, accept him. He performed garrison duty in both Bermuda and Jamaica before his deployment to Hong Kong. Hong Kong quickly surrendered, and Mr. Agerbak spent time on labour gangs at KaiTak airport in Hong Kong, and the Yokohama shipyards and northern iron mines in Japan.

Transcript
I guess I wasn’t the best guy to live with. I’m surprised my wife has put up with me for long. Well I went from, starting, I boozed ‘er up there for a few years, I guess, till I found out that wasn’t paying off, so. I haven’t had a smoke or a drink for years now, so. I still have physical problems. I have an artificial stomach and I have a knee that was all buggered up during the fighting, and they won’t give me nothing for it. Oh, they want me now to go for a reboard, but the hell with them now, I’m 80 some years old, I’m not going back to . . . I spent all, every year, I was at Deer Lodge Hospital, even when I was working after I come back. They called me in every year for a reboard. I started out, I think I was getting 5% pension. I think it went up to about 25%, and then, I forget what year it was that they . . . . Oh, yes it was in ‘66 when I had the big stomach, like I had ulcers when I come back. And then my ulcer ruptured and I had to have an artificial stomach. And after that, I was . . . now I forget what I was going to say, but . . .

Interviewer: You were just talking about the physical problems that you continued.

Oh, yeah, well, like I couldn’t eat much with this stomach for a long time. I still have swelling in my legs, and my nerves are still gone. Yeah. Every once in a while I have some awful nights.

Meta Data
Medium
Video
Owner
Veterans Affairs Canada
War, Conflict or Mission
Second World War
Location/Theatre
Hong Kong
Person Interviewed
Knud Agerbak
Branch
Army
Units/Ship
Winnipeg Grenadiers
Military Rank
Corporal
Occupation
Section Leader
Duration
2:53
Date modified: