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KOREA VETERANS ASSOCIATION INC
CANTERBURY
January 2015
Papanui RSA, 55 Bellvue Ave, Christchurch.
Newsletter posted on internet – http//www.papanuirsa.co.nz
LAST POST
204316 Terrace John (Terry) NOONAN, Corporal, 1st Commonwealth Divisional Signals
Regiment, RNZSigs, Korea. Died 15th December 2014, aged 85, Christchurch.
926157 James (Jimmy) DODDS, Bombardier, RNZA, Korea. Died 25th December 2014,
aged 78, Christchurch, buried Tuapeka,
Below from RSA Review
L/SFX817018 K A FELLOWS, Fleet Air Arm, RN, Died 15th September 2014, Nelson.
818461 Lyall James NICOL, Korea & Malaya, Died 27th October 2014, Christchurch.
206196 Arthur PATCH, Driver, NZ Transport Platoon, RNZASC, Korea. Died 3rd July, 2010, Otaki.
206559 Alan Keith SELWOOD, Lance Corporal, 10 Company, RNZASC, Korea. Died 4th September
2014.
CANTERBURY KVA CONTACTS
Patron: Jack Brunton, 1 Lady Issac Way, Christchurch 8052, Ph 03 385 5266, [email protected]
President: Forbes Taylor, 2/91B Tilford St, Christchurch 8062, Ph 03 3810 135, [email protected]
Secretary: Maurice Robinson, 184 Huntsbury Ave, Christchurch 8022. Ph 03 337 4000,
Email: [email protected] enjoyedet.nz
Treasurer: Alana Pidgeon, Contact Papanui RSA.
RSA Manger: Wendy Clark, C/- Papanui RSA, 55 Bellvue Ave, Christchurch 8542, Box 5444,
Ph 03 352 1185, Email: [email protected]
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NEXT KVA MEETING <<<<<<<<<<<<
Wednesday 21st January 2015 – 11am – Papanui RSA
Please Note Date!!!!!
Our meeting is being held on this day as Tony Baird of the University of Canterbury is
organising short, professional development courses for international teachers,
administrators and students and works mainly with groups from China, Japan and Korea.
They host groups of English Language teachers from Korea and they have another group
starting a course UC on January 5th. He was in Korea recently and his Korean guide
thought it would be a great idea for the visiting teachers to meet NZ vets of the Korean
War to pay their respects (they are all under 40) and perhaps hear of the experiences of
NZ servicemen in Korea in the 1950’s. Veterans this is your chance to tell the Korean
teachers your memories of the Korean War. Please bring photographs and any old
uniforms, etc.
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Songpa-gu City Mayor, Park Choon-Hee, with Christchurch City Mayor, Hon. Lianne
Dalziel, following the unveiling of the Songpa streetlamp on Park Terrace on Saturday 29th
November 2014.
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Korean Percussion performing in Cathedral Square during the Korean Cultural Festival
2014, held on Saturday 29th November2014
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UNVEILING OF THE BRITISH KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL IN LONDON
The British Korean War Memorial was dedicated and consecrated in London on 3 December with 320
Korean War Veterans participating. The location is the Victoria Embankment Gardens opposite the rear
off the Ministry of Defence Main Building about 600 yards south off the Embankment tube station. It is
the only commemoration of the Korean War in the capital beside a plaque in the crypt at St. Paul’s
Cathedral, which was installed in 1987. This memorial, a gift from the Republic of Korea (ROK) to honour
the British troops that served in Korea between 1950 and 1953, has involved the British Korean Veterans
Association (BKVA), the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in London and the Korean Ministry of Patriots’
and Veterans’ Affairs (MPVA) as well as The Lady Rothermere Foundation and the British Government.
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Over 500 guests watched the Duke of Gloucester, HRH Prince Richard, lead a ceremony of
commemoration and delivered a message from Queen Elizabeth, saying that “the memorial in London
pays tribute to the sacrifices of the war veterans and makes a promise that we will never forget them.”
She also said that “it is a symbol of the close relationship between the two countries.” The Republic of
Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Yun Byung-se, delivered the congratulatory remarks on behalf of
President Park Geun-hye. "This memorial is a symbol of the close friendship between Korea and Britain.
Future generations will remember the dedication and sacrifices that the more than 56,000 British
soldiers." Following speakers were the ROK Ambassador to the U.K. Lim Seong-nam, UK Defence
Secretary, the Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, and the UK Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Rt Hon Hugo Swire.
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The Memorial is a bronze statue of a British soldier by sculptor Philip Jackson, standing in front of an
inscribed and carved obelisk of Portland stone 5.8 meter’s high on a base of Welsh slate. Parts of the
foundations used stones from Pocheon and Gyeonggi-do Province where fierce battles occurred during
the war. The carvings in the obelisk include an image of the Korean Peninsula, surmounted by the flag of
the Republic of Korea and behind the statue of the soldier, an artistic interpretation of Korea’s
mountainous landscape.
On the north face of the obelisk, the emblem of the United Nations is on top of the following inscription:
The Korean War was the first UN action against aggression. The UN forces that fought the North Korean
invasion were drawn from 21 countries. Although exhausted and impoverished after the Second World
War, Britain responded immediately by providing strong naval, army and air forces and became the
second largest contributor after the United States. A distant obligation honourably discharged.
An inscription on the south face is surmounted by the Union Jack flag reads:
In this fierce and brutal conflict those who fought included many Second World War veterans reinforced
by reservists and young national servicemen. The land battle was fought against numerically superior
communist forces, the terrain was mountainous and the weather extreme. 81,084 British servicemen
served in the theatre of operations. 1,106 were killed in action, thousands were wounded and 1,060
suffered as prisoners of war.
Also on the memorial is the flag of the British Korea Veterans Association (BKVA). The British Korean
Veterans Association was formed in 1981 from the
amalgamation of two recently formed associations.
Over the last thirty years, it flourished, developing
strong links with Korea, organising revisits for veterans
and ensuring the British contribution is not forgotten.
Now, however, age means there are fewer volunteers
to take on key functions at the national level. A
decision was taken in October 2013 to wind up the
BKVA’s national role following the Memorial Unveiling
and the laying up of the National Standard at York
Minster on 18 January 2015.
Sixty percent of the cost of the 1 million pounds
sterling (US$ 1.6 million) project came from the
government of the Republic of Korea and sources in
Korea, and the other forty percent came from
Viscountess Rothermere, the Korean-born widow of
the late third Viscount Rothermere. She was quoted in
Korea’s Joongang Ilbo newspaper as saying, “There
was no need to think twice about a token of gratitude
for those who sacrificed for my home country.” The
Korean Embassy in London put the funding program
together, and also coordinated and paid for the
ceremony.
(With thanks to John Weeden, Invicter KVA Branch, BKVA.)
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Film ‘Ode to My Father’ portrays Korea's recent past
The film “Ode to My Father” is warming hearts across Korean society these days, especially with the
approach of the end of the year. The movie takes place in Korea from the 1950s to the 1980s. As of
December 24, eight days after its first screening, it has recorded more than 2.3 million ticket sales,
becoming the most-seen movie in Korea this week. The realistic portrayal of life and society during those
times is considered to be its key to success. Though fiction, it wins sympathy from all viewers, as it is
based on fact. The movie begins with the Hungnam Evacuation in December 1950 during the Korean War
(1950-1953). U.N. forces had to make a large-scale withdrawal from Hamheung, Hamgyeongnam-do
(South Hamgyeong Province), because of a massive attack from North Korea and China. The family
members of the hero, Deoksu, escape from Heungnam Port barely escaping the Communist regime and
head to the South. Thousands of Koreans were separated when they got onboard the U.S. naval ships
there for evacuation. Deoksu was no exception. He lost his youngest sister and father when boarding the
ship.
After arriving in Busan with no money, his family does any chore to survive and lives close to the Gukje
Market. In order to support his mother and siblings in the 1960s, Deoksu leaves for Germany to work as a
miner. During the three-year contract term, he works diligently and comes back home with the large
amount of money he saved. During his stay in Germany, he met a Korean woman who was working
there as a nurse. The two get married. Thanks to the money he saved, he was able to buy a house and
set up the economic foundation for his family as a breadwinner. In fact, Germany was regarded as an
object of envy for Korean youth at that time.
Many Korean men and women in their 20s left for Germany to work as miners, nurses and nurse’s aides.
From December 21, 1963, to the late 1970s, a total of 7,936 Korean miners and 11,057 nurses and nurses’
aides worked in mines and hospitals in Germany, according to the association of Korean workers
dispatched to Germany as miners and nurses.
In the early 1970s, Deoksu again leaves, this time for Vietnam, in order to make money for the wedding
of his sister. He works in logistics with the Korean soldiers fighting there. In Vietnam, he is shot in the leg
and becomes disabled for the rest of his life. After coming home, he maintains his family while running a
shop that sells imported goods in the Gukje Market. Though it’s not based on a single true story, the
experiences of the Korean War, and working in Germany and the Vietnam War draw the sympathy of
many people, especially those in their late 60s and 70s. They all lived through the same historic events.
The reunion of separated family members in the 1980s marks the end of the film, as Deoksu finds his
youngest sister who was separated during the evacuation of Heungnam Port during a live broadcast on
KBS. The live broadcast of the reunion of separated family members was actually a real event at the
time. The scene perfectly recreates the air of the times.
Director Yoon Je-kyoon explained the purpose of making this film by saying, "This movie is dedicated to
the generation of our fathers who devoted their lives to the fullest during times of hardness, exhaustion
and intensity. Though based on the story of a family, this movie is expected to attract more movie lovers,
as it displays Korea’s modern history such as the war, working overseas and the reunion of separated
families."
By Wi Tack-whan, Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writers, December 26, 2014.
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Mural Suggests 1,300 Years Between Goguryeo, Korea, & Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Samarkand is a city in Uzbekistan, in Central Asia. Geographically located at the midpoint along the Silk
Road, between Asia and Europe, the city enjoyed many years of prosperity during ancient times. The city
was the then capital of the Sogdian Kingdom where people from the East and the West met for trade
and to exchange philosophies, business and the arts.
In 1965, a new mural was discovered in the Afrasiab Hills where an old palace was located. This wall
painting was presumed by historians to have been produced during the reign of King Barhuman in the
year 655 during the Sogdian Kingdom. It has attracted global and academic attention as the painting
shows a group of people that seem to be foreign ambassadors. Historians suggested that two of them on
the right of the west wall seemed to be from the Goguryeo Kingdom, Korea (37 B.C.-A.D. 668), and
sparking heated debate on the history of international relationships across Asia in ancient times.
It has commonly been believed that Goguryeo's ancient international relations were limited to East Asia,
that is, to mostly Japan and China. It has also commonly been thought impossible for Goguryeo to
establish diplomatic relations with a nation in Central Asia that is as far as 5,000 kilometers away.
Discovery of this wall mural, however, offers researchers the chance to re-evaluate the global ties that
connected ancient Goguryeo to the world. The two figures, thought to be from Goguryeo, share two
things in common concerning their garments that were typically worn by ancient Koreans: a hat with a
feather and a sword with a round pommel at the tip. President Kim Hak-jun of the Northeast Asian
History Foundation said, “Most historians believe that Yeon Gaesomun (603-666), a powerful diplomat
and generalissimo from Goguryeo, might have sent envoys to the Sogdian Kingdom in order to keep
Tang Dynasty (618-907), a rival country, in check."
Recently, this wall painting was brought back to life in cooperation with the Northeast Asian History
Foundation and the Afrasiab Museum in Samarkand. The historic artwork is now on display, starting
December 23, & the Director Samaridin Mustafakulov of the Afrasiab Museum said, "This mural is a
historic record that shows the political, economic and social atmosphere of ancient times. It proves that
merchants from Asia, including Japan and Tang Dynasty China, brought their products along the Silk
Road and through to Rome.” He expressed his gratitude to Korea’s support that, "enabled the ancient
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heritage item to be copied and digitally restored." The mural was restored with the use of a couple of
cutting-edge devices, such as a digital stereoscopic microscope, an infra-red analyzer and by using nearinfrared spectroscopy. The original wall painting was first photographed at life size to create highresolution images. The microscope and spectroscopy were used to check some parts that couldn't be seen
with the bare eyes. A total of two replicas were produced, and the two organizations decided to store
one each.
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DO YOU REMEMBER KOREA IN THE 1950’S?
On the streets of Seoul and the dirt roads in the countryside we would came across these ox-carts which
were the traditional method of road transport. One day I came across a drunk farmer who was lying on
the road beside a ford and cursing his oxen as it had carried on to the other side of the stream to eat
some grass. It was obvious he had fallen trying to climb onto the ox-cart to cross the stream, so I picked
him up and carried him across the water in my Jeep and left him sitting beside his ox-cart much to his
drunken delight!
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Our NZKVA Patron, Laurie Stack QSM, has moved to Blenheim to a retirement home to be near his
family and his new address is:Unit 10 Springlands Village, 5 Battys Road, Blenheim 7201 – Ph 03 579 1131
Colleen and I had Christmas & New Years Day together at Essie Summers Retirement Village Hospital,
222 Colombo St, Beckenham, Christchurch 8023. Her phone is 03 331 8357. Colleen wishes to especially
thank Hapi & Barbara October for their kindness to her.
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From your President Colleen and Forbes Taylor
03 3810 135 * [email protected]