From Helmer Haagenson

Of Spokane, Sept. 13, 1945, from Inchon, Korea,

after it was liberated from the Japanese

I rode on the water for an hour and then hit the beach. I was in the third wave. We landed at Inchon and walked about a mile to the outskirts of town into the woods and put up tents for the night. In the evening we went into the homes of the Koreans and talked with them by pointing at things. … They are very smart and pick up our English language very fast. The kids cut the grass for us to get our guy’s tents up. …

In the morning we broke camp and went into Inchon and got on the train (their train is just like our coal trains). As we went along the way to the capital people by the thousands stood all along the tracks and yelled and waved American flags. They had signs up that said “Welcome U.S. Army, we have long waited for you to set us free. Listen to our cries of Joy.”

… We sit on the walls around the camp and watch the people and they sure crowd around us by the hundred. I never seen so many kids in one place before. They must grow on trees because they come out from every little hole when they see us. The kids like the soldiers good, as they give them candy and cigarettes. Wherever the soldiers go, the first words they (teach) the kids is “hubba-hubba” and now all the kids holler “hubba-hubba” whenever soldiers go by in a truck or jeep.

(Helmer Haagenson still lives in Spokane).