Only five years after the end of the Second World War, Australia became involved in the war in Korea, committed to serve for the next three years in the defence of the South. Beginning his army career in the infantry, transferring later to transport due to his training as a mechanic, Sam Yates was 22 years old when he was sent to Japan.
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“During World War Two I trained as an apprentice, my brothers were both in the services so I had it in my head that I would go. One was in the Air Force and the other was in the Army, and they both survived the war against Germany.”
There were only three battalions in Korea, each carrying a thousand men, turning over reinforcements every 12 month, “After we finished our training in Australia we went straight to Japan where we continued our training in the hills, to get used to the Korean terrain.”
“War is frightening, you get frightened everyday, but it’s not hard, they teach you to live with it and to always expect something to happen. It affects different people in different ways, you’re always on the edge, never sleeping soundly. And like everyone after the war, it affected me to a certain extent.”
The Korean war was typically night patrols, with the soldiers unable to go out in the day given the proximity of the enemy, “You would have most likely have been blasted away if you came out in any light.”
Sam describes his survival as pure luck, “When your time’s up it’s up, you really couldn't afford to think about it. When you come down to pulling that trigger, it’s your life or his. Not that you saw who you actually hit, because it was all done at night, it wasn’t until the morning that you saw the dead soldiers. You wouldn't have known if there were any close calls, you could hear the bullets hit the ground around you, but you saw none of it coming.”
Sam describes Hiroshima as one of the saddest places in Japan, with streets blown to pieces after the Second World War, “Japan was our stomping yard, we were treated well, they had lots of nightclubs that made a lot of money from our boys. But there was definite resentment in Hiroshima.”
“You would see these old blokes with their caps on and fully covered, they had cans, shaking them for money as they were all paupers, the army just didn't pay them. There was resentment in their eyes, staring us down. They didn't like us much at all and I don't blame them.”
Sam’s words ring true, that it could have just as easily have been us, and that’s the worst part of warfare, there are really no winners or losers, “There was no love in their eyes, it was all really sad. It’s definitely something I will never forget.”
