Description
Mr. Cote describes the condition of Seoul during the war, contrasted with how it looked during a re-visit years later.
Antoine (Tony) Cote
Mr. Antoine Cote was born on the Cote First Nation Reservation, just outside of Kamsack, Saskatchewan. During his youth, Mr. Cote endured 7 long years of detention at St. Phillips Residential School. In 1952, Mr. Cote, age 17, enlisted in the Armed Forces, and was assigned to the 81st Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. After training, Mr. Cote and the 81st Regiment were shipped to Korea in March 1953. Mr. Cote returned to Canada after serving in Korea for 14 months, and re-enlisted for another 3 years before retiring from the service in 1958.
Transcript
I remember Seoul, I passed through Seoul a couple of times, after we were in the front there. That place is all completely, just about completely demolished by bombing, artillery shelling and everything. ‘Cause, they kept fighting back and forth there from1950 on ‘til 53 ‘til it ended, and all you seen for vehicles are just army vehicles, United States army vehicles, Canadian vehicles, British and all the other NATO forces in there. That's all you see are just trucks jeeps and everything like that going through the city of Seoul. And the hills and the land, all you could see was just, they were just bare, there's nothing growing on account of the bombing, the shelling and everything like that and after awhile, we got, we were there, we would say "what the hell are we fighting for, look at that land there, it's just barren, it looks so barren". That's why I was so amazed 30 years later how everything grew back up, the trees, the grass, it was nice and green. I couldn't believe the site of where we were, we were, the action of where we were at, because it was all bald and burned and everything from, from the bombs, from the air force and then all the artillery guns that kept firing into them hills and everything like that. Everything was just bare, barren.
I went back in 1983 for a re-visit and I couldn't believe how beautiful Korea is, after 30 years. How the war had ended and it just let the vegetation grow all back up, the trees and the city of Seoul itself is a more modern city then Regina, to tell you the truth, all new buildings and the traffic of cars, trucks, buses and skyscrapers. They did, they did a terrific job in rebuilding. It was very nice, I couldn't believe how they rebuilt. God, they're smart people. I really found, I, I was amazed at how they had rebuilt. Today I think they are one of the richest countries in this world now because they really... unbelievable, I couldn't believe that, the, how they had gotten together and rebuilt, because Seoul itself was just demolished.