Arrival and smell

When war breaks out in Korea, the mood of the Cold War is such that many western nations fear this is the prelude to a world wide communist offensive.China has recently become communist and the Soviet Union has ensured a strong communist party is in place before pulling out of North Korea. The United Nation's decision to intervene in Korea was not only a response to an act of aggression but a fear-driven pre-emptive control measure against the spread of communism. The first Canadians on the scene, the ships HMCS Cayuga, Athabaskan and Sioux, arrive in August 1950. They have already taken part in a number of coastal water patrols and shore cannonades by the time the bulk of our ground forces start landing in Pusan throughout 1951.Korea was a country that we didn't even know existed. They didn’t really tell us anything about Korea itself, but, it began to get exciting. We did 23 days on there. We ended up in Yokohama, Japan, that’s where we, that’s where we got off there and from there then we went to Pusan. I think my first reaction, first sense was the smell, the smell was terrible. The harbor at Pusan was not the most delightful place to... to land that’s for sure. Well, them days Korea was filthy. The rice paddies had human waste in it. They collected human waste to fertilize the soil. We weren't allowed to eat anything grown over there.