Dear Allan,

This statement is in confirmation of the very detailed discussions between myself, the Chairman of the KVAAM&HS Committee, Mr Des Guilfoyle, and yourself, held on 27 October 1998, and subsequent follow-up discussions. It will only concentrate on what are regarded as the most relevant of those discussions to the current studies being undertaken at the direction of The Hon Bruce Scott, MP, Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

It concerns the conditions in both Japan and Korea during the Korean war, and the illnesses, diseases etc suffered by veterans during the Korean war, and subsequently. It is based upon my detailed recollections and records, and a study of the contents of your 16 KVAAM&HSC research papers and addendums to those research papers, including the statement by Captain Barbara Ann Probyn-Smith,RAANC (Retd), dated 23 September 1998, forwarded under cover of Addendum 1 to KVAAM&HSC research paper 8.

I was born on 30.10.1920. In 1945, following a four year course at the Melbourne Pharmacy College, I graduated PhC, and subsequently qualified as MPS. I later decided to undertake post-graduate studies at the Melbourne Pharmacy College.

Whilst undergoing the first Session, I was approached by two Army recruiting officers in 1950, who described the abysmal shortage and desperate need for graduate pharmacists in the Army for the Australian occupation forces, BCOF, in Japan, with the prospects of another war looming in Korea. After considerable thought, as it was obvious that I would suffer considerable financial loss, and despite my father saying that it was a ridiculous thing to do, to throw away all my professional career, I decided to accept, as there was a proud military history in my family and I felt that I had to live up to it.

Following the submission of my application, I received an urgent telegram appointing me a Lieutenant in the RAAMC, with orders to proceed at once to Ebisu in Japan. There was no time for me to undergo any military training in Australia before departure.

I flew by Qantas Constellation, with a stopover in Darwin and an overnight stop in Manila, before arriving at the RAAF base at Iwakuni in Japan in October 1950.

I served in both Japan and Korea from October 1950 to May 1953, as a Lieutenant Pharmacist, RAAMC, Army number VX7000126, and was discharged at Australia House in London in late 1953.

On return to Australia I subsequently worked as a Pharmacist at the Children's Hospital and other hospitals in Melbourne, for seven years.

I was transported from there to Kure, where for the first few months I was stationed at the large Kure Hospital. In addition to my duties as a Pharmacist, I was also made responsible for the setting up of the operating wards. I had had no training, whatsoever, in those important duties, and taught myself from textbooks, as all the staff were overworked.

Having read the statement by Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith, I agree fully with her comments concerning life in Kure at that time, as I do with all its other contents, to the best of my knowledge. In my first night in that strange country, I was placed in a single room. Having been advised by the old soldiers in my family, I had purchased from Myers in Melbourne, a considerable quantity of quality soap. During that first night, all alone, I was terrified to hear a horde of large, disease-ridden, rats scuttling around my room throughout the night and gnawing at the soap. In the morning, not a vestige remained.

That was my first introduction to such filthy rats, but was not to be my last. They were plentiful in all the camps and buildings that I was to occupy for the next several years in both Japan & Korea. Various means were regularly taken to get rid of them, including poisonous baits, but to little effect. The stinking canals that ran through much of the Australian troops' areas in Japan, including Kure and Hiro, were infested with rats, mosquitoes and other vermin.

After some months at Kure Hospital I was transferred to Ebisu Camp in Tokyo, to the Camp Dressing Station, where I was to spend about 2 years, except for several official trips that I had to make to Korea, principally to Pusan, to Seoul and to medical units Korea including those in 1 Commonwealth Division. In addition to my duties as a Pharmacist, I was also made responsible there for the setting up of the operating wards at Ebisu. I had no training, whatsoever, in those important duties, and taught myself from textbooks, the staff being so overworked..

My main tasks on those trips to Korea were to track down missing or stolen pharmaceutical drugs, or to identify the contents of consignments, including tracing missing NZ consignments. Whenever I approached those forces most likely to have " commandeered" such for their own use - the Americans - they referred me to large wooden cases branded with " a fat arsed chicken, "- the Kiwi.

Whenever I had to visit the medical units in Korea, including Indian, Belgian, British, Canadian and American, I was horrified at what I saw near the front lines. All the tops of the many hills occupied by our and the enemy troops were completely denuded of vegetation, only a few sticks remained, from all the incessant heavy shelling and mortaring. I could never leave quickly enough. I could not even begin to understand how soldiers could live under such constant stress, strain and horrifying conditions.

I spent over two years at Ebisu before being transferred back the Kure Hospital. There, as was usual, I was ordered into line, when each of us were given additional injections from the same needle. In front of me was an Australian army Captain Robin ... ?, and behind me an Australian soldier. We three, and no doubt many more, contracted Hepatitis B as a result. I developed Glandular fever, followed by Hepatitis B, a very virulent, dangerous condition, affecting the liver. While hospitalised for 3 months with it, I was desperately ill and almost died. There were so many of us so ill that a specialist Harley Street doctor was flown from London to treat us and the many Americans suffering from it in 3 or 4 special wards in the US Tokyo Hospital. I believe that it was only his skilled treatment that saved my life and, no doubt, that of many others. After 3 months in Kure Hospital I was transferred to the Convalescent Depot on the island of Miya Jima, for another month, before returning to duty.

To the best of my knowledge we never took Paludrine, and I cannot remember ever being told to do so.

I agree with Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith that within the wards, there were many toxic chemicals used to counter infection, cross infection and keep the wards as sterile as possible. These included a variety of bleaches, Creosol and Lysol, to name just a few. Although we should have always used gloves and protective clothing etc., and washed our hands, as, indeed, should have the doctors, between patients, this was not always possible, when we were dog tired and overworked.

I also agree with Sister Probyn-Smith that the canals were filthy, slimy, full of run-off of excreta filled paddy fields, rats and mice, and, often, the rotting bodies of humans and animals. Eradication campaigns were constantly waged against the rats and mice with toxic, poisonous baits and traps and that we were forbidden to swim anywhere and that the Japanese, and more so, the Korean, people had many endemic diseases in their bodies, to which we had no immunity.

In 1958 I married a WWII veteran, who had many illnesses and disabilities from that war, but had only ever claimed for some and was only assessed as 60 or 70%. When he last went into RGH Heidelberg Hospital, an RSL advocate saw him, advised him to submit for an increase, which he did 4 or 5 days before he died, aged 53.

I had a terrible time following his death. I was financially destitute - my husband had no superannuation, he had no insurance because they refused cover because of his war caused disabilities and I refused to apply for social security as I thought it would jeopardise my chances of a war widow's pension. On the night before he died he said do you want some money and showed me what was in his wallet. I said I will get it tomorrow. He died at 5 am. When I went to collect his belongings I was given his pyjamas and the wallet which was empty.

When I asked where is the money I was told it had been taken for death duties. Luckily, my uncle, an army major, President of the Balwyn RSL, said come with me and we will see an RSL solicitor. As a result the money was returned. For six cold months I could not afford the cost of heating for me or my two children.

For over 2 and a half years, while DVA dithered, with 3 appearances before a Tribunal, before being made a War widow, I was traumatised. There was one nasty member who kept asking - " Why, knowing of your husband's disabilities did you marry him ?" Inferring, presumably, that I married him solely because I might become a war widow. Apart from such callousness, I could not see what that had to do with it. The RSL insisted that that member be removed from office, and were successful.

At the time that I married him I was unaware that he received any such pension at all, nor any connection with war widow status. For all that time I had two small children and was in desperate financial straights. Why do deserving widows have to go to so much trouble, particularly when they are so distraught, confused and distressed, at such a time, and know nothing of the departmental processes, nor the content of the Repatriation Act ? I am well aware that my treatment was by no means unusual.

One day, while we were in Ebisu we received an official invitation to attend a ball at the RAAF base at Iwakuni, almost the other end of Japan, " plane to be provided," which to our surprise it was. At that ball I became aware of the many RAAF personnel who were in a special radiation ward at the Iwakuni Hospital, having developed radiation sickness from visiting Hiroshima in the 1950's, more that 5 years after the bomb was dropped. I was further surprised to hear that the Americans had some such radiation wards in their large Tokyo Hospital for servicemen who had been exposed visiting Nagasaki or Hiroshima in the 1950's. I understand that this has been documented elsewhere.

While in Kure, we often visited Hiroshima, particular the site of the epicentre of the atomic bomb. We all scratched around in the debris and rocks, while eating our lunches, collecting rocks as souvenirs and not realising they were still radioactive after so many years. My special friend a British WVS girl, gathered several rocks and put them in her pocket, as did I. I later threw mine away, but she kept hers and returned to London with them, wrapped them in paper and stored them in her house. Seven years later she took one such sample to the local Atomic plant near where she lived for testing. It was proven highly radioactive after all those years. She sadly died of cancer a few years ago. I think I still have her name, Margaret ...............?, at home.

I was very surprised to learn that the RMA SOP's will only accept radiation illness etc for a veteran for "having been within 4 kilometres from the epicentre of the atomic bomb explosions on Hiroshima or Nagasaki within 7 days immediately following the explosion on those cities." I would agree with Sister Probyn-Smith and many others, that many of the servicemen and women who served in Japan & Korea from 1945 - 1956 may well have developed illnesses and diseases from radiation or irradiation from regular visits to Hiroshima.

Throughout Japan, and to a lesser extent in Korea, I often ate the local food. In Japan raw fish dishes were very common. I vividly remember eating octopus, it being unusual to me, and all the green vegetables and fruit, that were, no doubt, grown in human and animal manured paddy fields, sprayed with toxic chemicals. As I was used to eating oysters, crustaceans, clams and mussels, I can't particularly remember eating them, but no doubt I did. I now know that all such food could have been contaminated with toxic chemicals and endemic water-borne diseases. As you know most fish etc eaten in Japan is eaten raw.

From my own experiences in both I support what Sister Probyn-Smith stated about those medical units and the conditions there.

From my own experiences I support what Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith stated about that unit and the conditions experienced there.

Having studied the Environmental Health Center, Dallas Texas list of 80 symptoms of chemical poisoning listed as Attachment 3 to KVAAM&HSC 7, I believe that, since the Korean war, I have suffered from at least 2/3rds of those symptoms, from each one of the twelve different categories. In addition, I believe that I have suffered since the Korean war with many of the debilitating symptoms, illnesses and diseases listed in KVAAM&HSC 15.

From my own experiences in both I support what Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith stated about them.

Since returning to Australia, I have developed many illnesses and diseases over the years. Such illnesses included gastroenteritis, severe Hayfevers - one so severe I was hospitalised, thyroid problems - I have had 7/8ths of my thyroid cut away, rhinitis, chronic fatigue, gallbladder operation, operation on right hip, to name just some. I have been classified as T&PI since 1971 as a direct result of my war service.

When some years ago I told my local GP, Dr Dunn, at Blackburn Clinic, that I had had Hepatitis B, he did not believe me. When Professor Carson was advising and responsible for my first pregnancy confinement, on hearing of my exposure to radiation at Hiroshima, refused to be responsible for delivery, as my children may have been born disabled. Instead he got me admitted to the Women's Hospital, so that they were responsible. Luckily, there have been no problems with them to date.

I have not kept contact with many who served with me in Japan and Korea, but it would not surprise me that Sister Probyn-Smith stated there does seem to be a high attrition rate amongst them. I can recall one sister dying in her early 30's, plus my WVS friend who died of cancer. Likewise, now that I have only recently become aware of our exposure to so many toxic chemicals and the many traumatic situations to which we had to deal with, I am not surprised.

In Kure and Tokyo there was very frequent fogging and spraying of DDT and other insecticides and pesticides of our quarters, kitchens, dining rooms, and living areas, and all the married quarters occupied in the early days. They were dispensed by small hand held flit guns, dusting apparatus, aerosol bombs, knapsack backpacks, engine driven vehicle mounted power sprays which dispensed both sprays and, more often, thick, choking " fogging,." In Korea there was regular toxic aerial spraying of both combat and rear areas carried out by large and small planes and helicopters. I am not sure whether aerial spraying was done in Japan, but, no doubt it was.

There was also regular spraying of paddy fields and fruit and vegetable crops. Although we were tragically unaware of the toxicity of all the ingredients used in those days, nor for the essential protective measures to be taken by both operatives and recipients, such great dangers are now well documented. Within the hospitals and operating theatres there was massive use of what are now known to be very toxic cleaning agents, solvents, chemicals and the like.

While I understand now that prescribed pharmaceuticals often contain toxic ingredients and toxic inert ingredients, and can react synergistically ( to greater effect ) when mixed, particularly if a patient is being treated by more than one doctor, with little consultation between them, we knew little of such effects at that time. Thus although I cannot speak with any great authority on the toxicity or debilitating side effects of most of the many such drugs that we used then, it is possible that a British S/Sgt and Sgt, who worked with me, could. I will try and get their names and addresses from my records, if you wish to follow up that lead.

I have belonged to a TPI Social Club for many years, and attend many functions and remembrance parades of Korean veterans, and have made a return trip to Korea with those veterans, so I know personally many of them who are very ill and disabled, and many who have died, with a multitude of symptoms, illnesses and diseases.

I support the detail included on the many endemic diseases in Japan & Korea to which our bodies had no natural immunity.

Likewise, for the same reasons, I am prepared to support the contents of research paper KVAAM&HSC 4.

From my own newly gained knowledge, I am prepared to support what Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith stated about the disease of MCS.

From my own newly gained knowledge, I am also prepared to agree that despite MCS apparently not yet having an ICD code number, there seems from over about 40 or more years acceptance of it as a disease, that such regular exposures to so many toxic chemicals, including insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, carcinogens, solvents, toxic pharmaceuticals and petro-chemicals and Radon gas can result in the DISEASE of MCS.

From my own newly gained knowledge, I am also prepared to state that :

   To ignore chemical sensitivities and MCS in these studies, merely because MCS has no ICD number, would, in my opinion, be a tragic medical and historical mistake, not only for the Korean veterans and their offspring, but for all Australians and the future of mankind generally, particular as it was NOT considered in the various Vietnam studies.

At Attachments (not included here) 1 is :
      a. A photo of the underground, unventilated, dispensary bunker, adjacent to the RAP bunker in the frontline position held by 3RAR in 1952, near Hill 187, probably at the time that Dr John Bradley was RMO there. It will give you some idea of the large amount of such toxic pharmaceutical drugs and toxic chemicals used in a forward combat position.
      b. A photo of a jeep ambulance outside the RAP, which often came under heavy enemy artillery and mortar fire.

At Attachment 2 is :
      a. A photo of the radiated epicentre where the atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima.
      b. A photo of me sitting on radiated rocks at Hiroshima, from where my friend took samples which, more than 7 years later, were tested in an Atomic plant in UK and proven to be highly radioactive.

At Attachment 3 are 4 photos illustrating my life in Japan.

At Attachment 4 are two photos illustrating my life in Japan, one taken on my return visit to Korea when a Korean General presented me with a medal, and one in recent years of a typical ambulance used in Korea.

At Attachment 5 are two photos illustrating the bitter winters and thick snow in Japan and Korea. The first is of me in Japan and the second of me in Korea.

Knowing so well, from my years of experience there and later, of the unique nature and unusual conditions and severity of the combat conditions in Korea, the savage environmental conditions, the many endemic and water-borne diseases in the local populations of both Japan & Korea, and the massive amounts of what we now know to be toxic insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, carcinogens, solvents, Radon gas, toxic pharmaceuticals and petro-chemicals to which the veterans of the Korean war were exposed without essential protective measures, all in far greater degree than that apparently experienced by Vietnam veterans, I continue to be amazed at the preferential treatment, the tremendous public sympathy, the great media coverage, the financial help, the many counselling services and the acceptance of the causation of some illnesses and diseases only for them, that they get, while the greater plight of Korean veterans never seems to get a mention, nor the provision of funding, nor little if any media coverage - the uncomplaining, bewildered, forgotten veterans of the forgotten war, who, even today do not realise what permanent damage has been done to them from such regular exposure to so many toxic chemicals, or from the effects from such traumatic, stressful combat, in such an inhospitable, unhealthy, endemic-ridden, diseased country.

From my own newly gained knowledge, I am also prepared to agree with what Sister Barbara Probyn-Smith said under her sub-heading of Conclusion in her statement, although unlike her I have only known you for about 16 years, when you joined the same TPI Social Club. From that knowledge, and my study of all your research papers and addendums, may I also take the opportunity to congratulate you on the truly tremendous research job that you have done on behalf of Korean veterans and their families. I do so hope that it will all bear well deserved results and not be hidden under the carpet.

Yours sincerely,

Attachments (Not included here) :
1. Attachment 1 is :
      a. A photo of the underground, unventilated, dispensary bunker, adjacent to the RAP bunker in the frontline position held by 3RAR in 1952, near Hill 187, probably at the time that Dr John Bradley was RMO there. It will give you some idea of the large amount of such toxic pharmaceutical drugs and toxic chemicals used in a forward combat position.
      b. A photo of a jeep ambulance outside the RAP, which often came under heavy enemy artillery and mortar fire.
2. Attachment 2 is :
      a. A photo of the radiated epicentre where the atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima.
      b. A photo of me sitting on radiated rocks at Hiroshima, from where my friend took samples which, more than 7 years later, were tested in an Atomic plant in UK and proven to be highly radioactive.
3. Attachment 3 are 4 photos illustrating my life in Japan.
4. Attachment 4 are two photos illustrating my life in Japan, one taken on my return visit to Korea when a Korean General presented me with a medal, and one in recent years of a typical ambulance used in Korea.
5. Attachment 5 are two photos illustrating the bitter winters and thick snow in Japan and Korea. The latter is of me in Korea.

Dated 18/3/2006.

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