John Cantrall

00:00:00          [Beginning of Recorded Material]

 

John Cantrall:  My name is John Cantrall. Last name is C A N T R A L L.

 

Interviewer:     L L?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes.

 

Interviewer:     That’s not usual name, Cantrall.

 

John Cantrall:  It’s Irish.

 

Interviewer:     Irish? I like Irish people. Oh yeah.

 

John Cantrall:  I used to be a red headed Irishman.

 

[Laughter]

 

Interviewer:     So now you’re blonde?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah.

 

Interviewer:     You’ve had everything, red and blonde. What is your birth date?

 

00:00:30

 

John Cantrall:  12/18/1932

 

Interviewer:     Where were you born?

 

John Cantrall:  Kansas City, Missouri

 

Interviewer:     Right here?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes

 

Interviewer:     Tell me about your family when you were growing up.

 

John Cantrall:  Well, I don’t know too much about my dad. He took off from my mom during the depression. And nobody has ever seen or heard from him since.

00:01:00

 

I had to wait until Mom remarried, until that time my grandfather was my grandpa and dad, and he taught me things for those years.

 

Interviewer:     And how about your brothers and sisters, how many did you have?

 

John Cantrall:  I’ve got one sister and one brother.

 

Interviewer:     And tell me about the schools you went through.

 

John Cantrall:  Well I went to Rosedale High School, Kansas City, Kansas.

 

Interviewer:     High school? Rosedale?

 

John Cantrall:  Rosedale

 

Interviewer:     And when did you graduate?

 

00:01:30

 

John Cantrall:  1952

 

Interviewer:     Let me ask this question, did you learn anything about Korea in the school?

 

John Cantrall:  I didn’t even know where Korea was.

 

Interviewer:     You didn’t know where it was?

 

John Cantrall:  No.

 

Interviewer:     Wow. You’ve been to Korea twice now, right?

 

John Cantrall:  Right.

 

Interviewer:     What do you think about this?

 

John Cantrall:  The first time was very depressing. You know, the way people had to live and everything.

 

00:02:00

 

Interviewer:     Tell me about the detail. Why were you depressed?

 

John Cantrall:  Well, people were having to plow with oxen, live in straw huts. During the war, the way people had to migrate back south, they lived in cardboard boxes or anywhere they could find, you know, and that’s very depressing when you think of what the United States had and compare it to that. On another term, going up there and coming back for the second trip back, it was a revisit program.

 

00:02:30

 

I was very astonished at how much it has been built up since then. High-rise buildings and everything, bullet trains, and just everything in general. It just amazed me, you know, these people could come from what they had to what it is this day in such a short period of time. That’s a long time in years wise, the country turned around.

 

00:03:00

 

They’ve done real great. They’ve got an automobile business, their import to United States. It’s impressing, really impressing.

 

Interviewer:     Are you proud of your service?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes sir, I am. I didn’t think much of it at the time I was in because I was still a kid.

 

00:03:30

 

You wasn’t thinking along those programs, but I got hooked up with the KWVA when it first started the program here in Overland Park, Kansas. I was one of the original members, there was only about 10 of us. And we went up to about 125 people. In the meeting we had Monday night we were down to about 50 something. Because of age, you know father time takes its toll.

 

00:04:00

 

Interviewer:     After graduation what did you do?

 

John Cantrall:  I worked for a lumber company.

 

Interviewer:     Lumber company?

 

John Cantrall:  Uh-huh

 

Interviewer:     And when did you join the military?

 

John Cantrall:  I was a military police.

 

Interviewer:     When?

 

John Cantrall:  In Korea.

 

Interviewer:     No, when did you join the army?

 

John Cantrall:  I didn’t join. They joined me.

 

Interviewer:     Right, so –

 

John Cantrall:  I got drafted.

 

Interviewer:     You were drafted.

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah.

 

Interviewer:     When?

 

00:04:30

 

John Cantrall:  1953

 

Interviewer:     What month?

 

John Cantrall:  I think it was March.

 

Interviewer:     And where did you get the basic military training?

 

John Cantrall:  Fort Sill Oklahoma, field artillery.

 

Interviewer:     When did you leave for Korea? When did you leave for Korea?

 

00:05:00

 

John Cantrall:  First part of June.

 

Interviewer:     And where did you land in Korea?

 

John Cantrall:  Seoul.

 

Interviewer:     Seoul?

 

John Cantrall:  No, no, not Seoul. Busan.

 

Interviewer:     Busan. And tell me about the Busan when you first saw the Busan city. How was it?

 

John Cantrall:  Well it was kind of like a city in the United States, a lot of big buildings and stuff down around the pier area. But they put us on a train and took us north.

 

00:05:30

 

Interviewer:     And where did you go?

 

John Cantrall:  Back right to Busan. Our company headquarters was in Daegu, and then first fleet back down to Busan.

 

Interviewer:     So you landed in Busan then went up to Daegu then went back to Busan?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes.

 

Interviewer:     So you are military police?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes, on railway security. We’d guard cars coming away from the ships when they unloaded and in the ship yards and ran transportation.

 

00:06:00

 

We could take them up as far as Seoul and then Uijeongbu.

 

Interviewer:     You were in Daegu right? That’s a [K2]

 

John Cantrall:  Right.

 

Interviewer:     I was grown up there.

 

John Cantrall:  Oh is that right?

 

Interviewer:     Yeah.

 

John Cantrall:  772 military police

 

Interviewer:     Yeah, [K2] My father was Air Force General.

 

John Cantrall:  Small world.

 

Interviewer:     Yeah, small world, isn’t it? I remember Daegu very, very well. How was Daegu when you were there?

 

00:06:30

 

John Cantrall:  Well I didn’t stay there that long. Maybe about a week I guess it was. And then they sent down to.. guess they couldn’t figure out where they wanted to send me at.

 

Interviewer:     So you went back to Busan?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah

 

Interviewer:     And you stayed there long there?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, most of the time, yeah

 

Interviewer:     Okay. What did you do there on Busan?

 

John Cantrall:  I would guard ships, rail cars that came off ships unloading. And then in the rail yards, and then we rode the trains up north.

 

00:07:00

 

Interviewer:     And you went to Seoul?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah.

 

Interviewer:     Tell me about the Seoul you saw there. How was it, Seoul?

 

John Cantrall:  Well I didn’t really get to see much of Seoul. Just around the railyards, you know. We had a shack up there. We stay overnight up there, then catch another train and head back south.

 

Interviewer:     So go back and forth?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah. Like a yo-yo.

 

00:07:30

 

Interviewer:     Yo-yo. Were there any dangerous moments? Snipers? Shooting at you or what?

 

John Cantrall:  No we didn’t have that much like that. We had machine guns on the trains, but we never did shoot them. We got them out in the river there every once in a while just to have something to do.

 

Interviewer:     Where there any, what kinds of problems did you have to deal as a military police in Busan?

 

00:08:00

 

John Cantrall:  Well people breaking into our box cars and stuff. We had seals on the doors, we’d have to walk down one side of the cars, then down the other side and see the seals broken we’d have to report it you now, and they would send out someone to investigate to see if anything is missing or not. Most of the time they don’t take time to shut the doors after they break into them. They get what they want and get it. The first week I was there there was a boy, I think he was 18 or 19 years old, something like that, but he got shot for stealing coal. Can you imagine that?

00:08:30

 

Interviewer:     Oh. Who shot it?

 

John Cantrall:  The MP did.

 

Interviewer:     Military police?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah. They had signs all up and down the rail lines saying no trespassing, but there’s houses, they’re just pushed together all along the rail lines. You’d be unloading a ship and there’d be just room enough for box cars to go through.

 

00:09:00

 

Houses on each side were just so tight. And those were all refugees.

 

Interviewer:     That’s horrible isn’t it?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah.

.

Interviewer:     Any other episode that you remember now?

 

John Cantrall:  Yes I do. Okay, we took a train north one time in the winter time. I have no idea how cold it was, but it was cold.

 

00:09:30

 

Those doors were open on the box cars you know we had sandbags on the doors. We got up there and they had a car that had a hotbox on it. They were packing around an actual hotbox. People can cook with it and stuff. Well he had a hot box on it, and it was on fire. We had to take a side and go to Masan.

 

Interviewer:    Masan?

 

00:10:00

 

John Cantrall:  Mhmm. I was the low man on the totem pole in rank so I got to wash that car. Well they were supposed to pick me up on a train coming back, somehow they didn’t tell them about me being out there on that car so I spent a day and a half out there. I don’t know how cold it was. I got my feet frost bit.

 

Interviewer:     You have a frost bite? From there?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah

 

Interviewer:     Oh wow. I’m sorry that. It’s painful isn’t it?

 

00:10:30

 

John Cantrall:  Oh yeah, yeah it hurt to walk. But other than that, that’s the only bad experience I had being over there.

 

Interviewer:     Where did you sleep? What did you eat? How was life there, living conditions?

 

John Cantrall:  Well we had it pretty good. We had an old school house. I’d have liked to go to Busan to see if we could find it, but I wasn’t about to ride that bullet train down there cause I had to get down there and couldn’t figure out how to get back to you now? So we didn’t go. But there was a school house we took over.

 

00:11:00

 

Idon’t know exactly where it was located, it was close down to pier one down there.

 

Interviewer:     What is the school for Korean people?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, I don’t know how we took it over. The CIA took over part of it. So I don’t know how this all took place. And we had Korean police, MPs I guess they were. And they had to live in the daggum tent outside.

 

00:11:30

 

We had a lot of C-rations, you know powdered milk.

 

Interviewer:     C-rations?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah

 

Interviewer:     What was your favorite menu there? What did you like most?

 

John Cantrall:  Well not too much of any of it.

 

Interviewer:     Sausage? Frank?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, they were pretty good. We had beans.

 

Interviewer:     Beans?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, I don’t eat rice today because I got burnt out on it. Rice was in everything you eat you know.

 

00:12:00

 

Interviewer:     Did you know any Korean people there?

 

John Cantrall:  No.

 

Interviewer:     So there was no Korean bus boy?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah we had house boys.

 

Interviewer:     Tell me about him.

 

John Cantrall:  He polished shoes for us, you know. Took our uniforms. I don’t know where you took them to get them washed and stuff.

 

Interviewer:     And you pay them right?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah.

 

Interviewer:     Yeah. How was it?

 

John Cantrall:  Oh he was a good boy. He was a refugee.

 

00:12:30

 

He was very nice. He learned to speak pretty good English by the time it was over with.

 

Interviewer:     Really?

 

John Cantrall:  Oh yeah. While the guys were teach him how to talk.

 

Interviewer:     Picks so fast?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, pretty quick, yeah.

 

Interviewer:     So when did you leave Korea? 1954 right?

 

00:13:00

John Cantrall:  No 1955. I put 18 months in there instead of the year because they said there was a shortage of MPs. And that’s how I got to be an MP from field artillery. When we got to Japan they called a bunch of names and told us to get off the ship, so I thought I was going to be stationed in Japan.

 

00:13:30

 

Well they sent me to school for a week to learn the fundamental basics of being a military police. And then sent me over there. I think that’s why they couldn’t figure out where to send me to, you know.

 

Interviewer:     Could you sit closer? And you are here with your wife right?

 

John Cantrall:  Correct.

 

Interviewer:     What’s her name?

 

John Cantrall:  Judy

 

Interviewer:     Judy. So please introduce yourself Judy.

 

00:14:00

 

Judy Cantrall:  I’m Judy Cantrall.

 

Interviewer:     And when did you meet him? When did you marry him?

 

Judy Cantrall:  I met him in probably May of 55 and we were married in November of 56.

 

Interviewer:     So it was almost right after he came back from Korea?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Yes.

 

Interviewer:     Did you know him before?

 

Judy Cantrall:  No.

 

Interviewer:     How did you meet?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Blind date.

 

Interviewer:     Where?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Kansas City.

 

00:14:30

 

Interviewer:     Kansas City.

 

Judy Cantrall:  I worked with a girl that was going with a guy he ran around with an he asked John if he wanted to have a date. And he says oh I guess. He didn’t know.

 

Interviewer:     And did he talk something about Korean war when you met?

 

Judy Cantrall:  No

 

Interviewer:     They didn’t tell anything about that?

 

Judy Cantrall:  No, he wouldn’t talk about the Korean War.

 

00:15:00

 

Interviewer:     Why you didn’t want to talk about the Korean War?

 

John Cantrall:  Just refreshing bad memories and stuff like that.

 

Interviewer:     Bad memories?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah. We went to r&r in Japan, but the rest of it I was either on guard duty or sitting in the barracks.

 

00:15:30

 

Interviewer:     Can you sit a little bit more closer? So, Judy, did you know anything about Korea when you were.

 

Judy Cantrall:  No.

 

Interviewer:     Really? No tv, no news, or anything like that?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Not that I can remember.

 

Interviewer:     Why is that?

 

Judy Cantrall:  I don’t know

 

Interviewer:     Your future husband was in Korea fighting and having bad memories, suffered, and you didn’t know?

 

00:16:00

 

 

Judy Cantrall:  I know my mom and dad watched TV, the news, but I don’t know whether I didn’t pay attention to it or what are you saying?

 

Interviewer:     Can you say that other girls in your age in that 1950s didn’t pay attention to Korean war?

 

Judy Cantrall:  I don’t think so.

 

John Cantrall:  They never taught it in school or nothing.

 

Judy Cantrall:  If you might have taken a class in history and 54 or 55 they might have.

 

00:16:30

 

Interviewer:     Isn’t that strange that US was in the war right? War with North Korea and China and the American citizens were not aware of those things or didn’t pay any attention to it?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Teenagers didn’t.

 

John Cantrall:  Adults probably did, but teenagers did.

 

Interviewer:     How do you contrast the case of World War II and all the people working for World War II right?

 

00:17:00

 

The soldiers, they’re fighting, but the American citizens all  mobilized to support right? But why not Korea?

 

John Cantrall:  I don’t know. I have no idea.

 

Interviewer:     No idea right?

 

Judy Cantrall:  I know my mom had to go to work during World War II.

 

Interviewer:     Yeah, right. But what about during the Korean War? She didn’t work?

 

00:17:30

 

Judy Cantrall:  She worked, but she was at Pratt and Whitney where they made engines. Airplane engines, during World War II, but the Korean War, she was in the cafeteria at the grade school.

 

Interviewer:     Wow, that’s very interesting isn’t it?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah

 

Interviewer:     So when did you go back to Korea?

 

Judy Cantrall:  2005

 

00:18:00

 

Interviewer:     And before you went to Korea, did you learn anything about Korea? Did you know anything about Korea?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Not really.

 

Interviewer:     You just go?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Yes.

 

Interviewer:     And what do you think about that trip?

 

Judy Cantrall:  It was very enlightening. The roundabouts that they had in the modern homes. We were there and they had a fire in one of the big buildings, while we were there.

 

00:18:30

 

 

We were on a tour bus when fire trucks started coming around us and it was right in front of where we were parked. I never did hear whether it did much damage, did you?

 

John Cantrall:  No

 

Judy Cantrall:  But, cemeteries were beautiful.

.

Interviewer:     And what else?

 

00:19:00

 

John Cantrall:  Well we bought some dolls we brought back, about little dolls like this, and we was looking, we didn’t know what we were going to get the kids, you know. The grandkids. And we ran across these, so we asked the lady how much they were and she said five dollars. Isn’t that what she said?

 

00:19:30

 

And she thought we were going to pay two and a half for them each, we wanted 25 of them. She said there’s only 25, so she thought she was trying to coo her down to two dollars and fifty cents. The interpreter had to go back and explain to her that we wanted 25. We whacked her out of dolls, we ended up buying another suitcase to bring them back.

 

Interviewer:     Why did you buy so many?

 

Judy Cantrall:  For our grandkids and our kids.

 

00:20:00

 

Interviewer:     So what do you think about the Korean War and the modern Korea your husband gave a part of it?

 

Judy Cantrall:  I know he risked his life, like all of them do. And it’s quite different from when he was over there.

 

John Cantrall:  One thing, the museum they got there in Seoul, we went through that. And she could see you down there in the basement how they lived back there in the war you know.

 

00:20:30

 

They had little cooker’s funeral and stuff it had been interesting you know. Well I’ve seen it myself, but she just couldn’t hardly believe it. The way the country was back then. It was a very interesting museum they’ve got there.

 

Judy Cantrall:  It was a very interesting trip.

 

00:21:00

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, and we met two buses. American war veterans, Korean War veterans on the side of it. People would honk horns and wave you know all kinds of things. They would waive, bow to the bus as it goes by. Very appreciative people everybody appreciated it very much. While we were there the Marine Corps had their 50th anniversary, something like that, so they invited us over there. I forget now where was, but that was interesting.

 

00:21:30

 

Interviewer:     This is one of the most successful American interventions since World War II. Since World War II Americans fought in Korean War, Vietnam War, IraqAfghanistan, and other small wars, right? And can you name any other wore that came up with a very successful story like South Korea?

 

John Cantrall:  No

 

00:22:00

 

Interviewer:     But do you know that we don’t teach much about it in the history class? In the history textbook only one paragraph.

 

Judy Cantral:   That’s what you said last night, yeah.

 

Interviewer:     Why? Why do you think it’s the case? Why we don’t teach about those successful lessons that we can get from the Korean war history?

 

Jon Cantrall:    I don’t understand that myself, and why they don’t teach it, I don’t know.

 

00:22:30

 

Every once in a while, like I said, you have some kids come up there and someone is teaching them something somewhere or they wouldn’t know nothing about it.

 

Interviewer:     So that’s why we are doing this. So that rather than just reading one paragraph from the text book, kids in the school will listen from you and from Judy and they will hear that, oh, the country you swaw, it’s a very bad image. But what Judy is talking about Korea is very good, isn’t it?

 

00:23:00

 

Judy Cantrall:  Very good.

 

Interviewer:     Isn’t this wonderful case?

 

John Cantrall:  It is at that. I was really shocked they had bullet trains. I thought they was only over in France.

 

Judy Cantrall:  He wanted to go to Busan so bad, but he was just afraid to. Afraid we would get lost.

 

Interviewer:     Why? Afraid?

 

Judy Cantrall:  No, no. How would we get back, back to Seoul. Riding the bullet train, we were afraid we would miss it.

 

00:23:30

 

John Cantrall:  And I would just have to go out and look around to try and find where the company was at and it’s probably a mile and a half, maybe two male miles from the railroad station down there.

 

Interviewer:     What was your unit?

 

John Cantrall:  Company B, 772 Military Police

 

Interviewer:     Company B?

 

John Cantrall:  And 772

 

00:24:00

 

Interviewer:     772

 

John Cantrall:  Military Police Battalion

 

Interviewer:     So you didn’t go to Busan?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah that’s where I was stationed at

 

Judy Cantrall:  We didn’t go to Busan back in 2005 when we went back

 

Interviewer:     The Korea revisit program, I think they bring back Korean War and veterans to Busan to show the UN peace cemetery. So you didn’t go?

 

00:24:30

 

John Cantrall:  The cemetery was up in Seoul

 

Judy Cantrall:  Seoul was as far as we went south

 

John Cantrall   I know where that cemetery was in Busan. Because it was active when I was there you know.

 

Interviewer:     Oh there was a cemetery there?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah

 

Interviewer:     When you were there?

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah. We weren’t too far from K9, maybe two or three miles. I used to go to the beach down there to watch them planes take off.

 

00:25:00

 

Interviewer:     So how many grandchildren do you have?

 

Judy Cantrall:  17

 

Interviewer:     17? Wow. Have you ever talked to them about your service?

 

Judy Cantrall:  You did once, or a couple.

 

00:25:30

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah, they’re young enough though they don’t seem interested in that kind of stuff.

 

Interviewer:     So when you talk to them about your service what did they say to you?

 

John Cantrall:  Some of them ask questions, some don’t.

 

Interviewer:     And what do you think about this young future generations? They don’t know much about the Korean War don’t care about the history, so on. What do you think about that?

00:26:00

 

John Cantrall:  I think it’s kind of sad. Like you said, if it weren’t for us guys might be a different world. Get that idiot that’s in there now out and that would help out a lot. North Korea. His dad was bad, but he’s worse than his dad I think.

 

Interviewer:     Unbelievable isn’t it?

 

Judy Cantrall:  It is.

 

Interviewer:     What do you think we have to do about North Korea?

 

00:26:30

 

John Cantrall:  Well I think we need to call his bluff all the time, because I don’t think he’s going to do anything, personally myself, because he’s got the rest of the world against you now. So he might blow up some stuff in the United States, but he can’t get it all and as small as North Korea is, it won’t take long to clean that place out. With the forces that everybody else has got.

 

Judy Cantrall:  I feel sorry for the guys that are stationed at the 38th parallel.

 

Interviewer:     You mean DMZ?

 

00:27:00

 

Judy Cantrall:  Yes I feel sorry for them because they always have to be on the lookout.

 

Interviewer:     It’s actually stupid that we have to do that again right?

 

Judy Cantrall:  It is.

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah when we were up there we had a meeting in this little room and the Sergeant was telling us what to do and what not to do. Don’t do nothing to aggravate the North Korean Army stuff like that you know.

 

00:27:30

 

Judy Cantrall:  You think they want to see, well you know how South Korea is, and you would think that they would want the same thing for North Korea.

 

John Cantrall:  He said one time some guy went and done it anyway and the North Koreans come charging out of that building across the yard there, but when they got to the line while they stopped. They didn’t go no further. So you’ve got to call their bluff.

 

00:28:00

 

Interviewer:     What do you think about the US and Korea alliance right now?

 

John Cantrall:  It’s great. You always try to help foreign countries. We kind of help to build up Germany, France, all the countries there. Rome. Any place there is a war we always dug down in our pocket and help them out.

 

00:28:30

 

So I think we’ve got a good alliance. They’ve got those cars they’re shipping over here. Where are they manufactured that? Seoul?

 

Interviewer:     What?

 

John Cantrall:  Kia cars.

 

Interviewer:     I don’t know exactly.

 

John Cantrall:  They are nice looking vehicles.

 

Interviewer:     I mean the Republic of Korea is now known for automobile manufacturing country in the world right?

 

00:29:00

 

Do you want to go back to Korea?

 

John Cantrall:  I’d like to, yeah.

 

Interviewer:     Judy?

 

Judy Cantrall:  Yeah.

 

Interviewer:     What do you want to do if you go this time?

 

John Cantrall:  Go back to Busan.

 

Interviewer:     I don’t know why they didn’t take you to Busan. Did you tell them? That you wanted to go?

 

John Cantrall:  No, they had a scheduled route for the buses.

 

00:29:30

 

Judy Cantrall:  Our days were all planned.

 

Interviewer:     Yes, that’s right.

 

Judy Cantrall:  Except for the one that we were afraid to go down by ourselves, afraid we would get lost.

 

Interviewer:     That was a good decision But next time if you go please go visit Busan. You are not going to believe your eyes. Busan is just so many high-rise building there. It’s hard to park there.

 

00:30:00

 

John Cantrall:  Oh yeah?

 

Judy Cantrall:  There’s a Korean lady that comes to a lot of the KWVA affairs and she was from Busan. John and her have had several conversations.

 

John Cantrall:  Trisha Park is her name.

 

Interviewer:     Trisha Park?

 

John Cantrall:  She used to write a column in the Kansas City paper.

 

Judy Cantrall:  She’s written three books.

 

John Cantrall:  Oh what’s the name of it? When the rooster crows and I don’t know what the other two are.

 

00:30:30

 

Tom could tell you if you ever wanted to get a hold of her he has her number and stuff.

 

Interviewer:     Are you a churchgoer?

 

Judy Cantrall:  No.

 

Interviewer:     Any other message that you want to leave to this interview? You didn’t tell me, you didn’t share yet?

 

John Cantrall:  Well I can’t think of nothing right off hand.

 

00:31:00

 

Interviewer:     What do you think is the legacy of the Korean War?

 

John Cantrall:  To build the country up and everything which has already taken place. The way I look at it I can’t do nothing but get better. They need more land, though. And I’d like to see more imports coming from Korea been from China. Because you go into the store and about nine out of the ten things you pick up you look at the label and that’s from China.

 

00:31:30

 

Interviewer:     It’s from China.

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah and I am sure Korea could probably make the same stuff.

 

Interviewer:     Yeah but China is much bigger than Korea. 1.3 billion people living there and they are making everything  cheap, so we cannot compete with that. All right, unless you have another comments I want to thank you on behalf of Korean nation for your service which gave us opportunity to rebuild our nation.

 

00:32:00

 

And now we are the strongest ally to your country. We still live together, trade together, and many Korean people living here and also Americans in Korea too. This is amazing work of your service and Judy knows and Judy is happy and right. Any comments you want to leave?

 

00:32:30

 

Judy Cantrall:  It’s just a pretty country as far as I’m concerned, from what I saw.

 

Interviewer:     Mhmm and that is his legacy.

 

John Cantrall:  I’d like to see some more of the farmlands, we didn’t see much of that. And between the cities.

 

Interviewer:     Yeah, Korea is very small. It’s just a little bit bigger than Indiana state.

 

00:33:00

 

John Cantrall:  Is that right?

 

Interviewer:     Yes, smaller than Kansas. Yeah, but we are the 11th largest economy. We are proud and you should be proud too

 

John Cantrall:  Yeah we are, guarantee it.

 

Interviewer:     Thank you very much, again, sharing your story with us.

 

John Cantrall:  Thank you we enjoyed it.

 

Interviewer:     Thank you.

 

[End of Recorded Material]