Repatriation: Prior to the 63d Infantry Regiment, the Japanese were told to report to a central collection point. 33,845 Koreans were processed through Kunsan on the way to relocation centers in Korea. According to reports there were 2 million Koreans in Japan at the end of the war. 1.4 million were voluntarily repatriated, but 600,000 remained in Japan. In the opposite direction, 22,095 Japanese were returned to Japan. (NOTE: Though many South Koreans claim that the Koreans in Japan today are descendants of those conscripted as forced labor before and during WWII, this in NOT true. The fact is that Japan was forced to use Japanese ships to repatriate the Koreans — at their expense — by direction of Gen. McArthur’s GHQ. Those that remained in Japan voluntarily became the “Zainichi Koreans” who received special residency permits from the Japanese Government. The facts are that the bulk of these Koreans came to Japan for economic reasons AFTER World War II.)

Sanitation at the time must have been very primitive. McLogan commented, “I heard some medics talking once about how they had to meet the incoming ships, mostly LCIs and LSTs, and spray delousing powder on the Koreans before they were allowed to board trains for their home towns.”

Hand-drawn map of Camp Hillenmeyer (1947) by Fred Ottoboni

Camp Hillenmeyer:

The Japanese “Kunsan Aerodrome” was originally named “Camp Iri” by the United States Army. It was redesignated as “Camp Kunsan” in 1947. The site was also known as “Camp Hillenmeyer” starting in 1947.

Camp Hillenmeyer is named for an American Army Captain killed in an explosion at the Kunsan ammo dump. On November 30, 1945 two American officers, 3 enlisted men and 12 civilians were killed in an explosion while attempting to defuse abandoned Japanese munitions. After the explosion, one officer and the three enlisted men were missing. Two villages were destroyed and 3,000 people left homeless. (Ref: G-2 Periodic Report of the XXIV Corps USAFIK, Report # 82 dated 1 DEC 1945.) The current Ammo Dump is in the same general location of this explosion.

In Boy Soldier — Coming of Age During World War II (p.308) Col. Arndt Mueller wrote that Capt. (Henry R.) Hillenmeyer, the S3 Operations Staff Officer along with another officer was killed in this explosion. (McLogan’s book has a copy of the condolence letter to Capt. Hillenmeyer’s widow signed by Gen. McArthur. Later the 3d Battalion’s camp would be unofficially be renamed, Camp Hillenmeyer, though the records indicate that it was officially called first Camp Iri and then Camp Kunsan.)

Col Mueller wrote, “There were numerious Korean casualties. Some were the brave firemen…the rest were in the neighboring village. Most of the houses were flattened. A fierce fire broke out. The figure of 300 Korean caualties is not out of line and may even be a low figure. … This was a tragedy waiting to happen. Every time I went into that dump, my skin would crawl … Ammo, black powder, picric acid explosives, fuses and blasting caps were all mixed up. Black powder had been spilled on the ground. The Japs did not obeserve the strict ammo storage procedures that we did…” went on to describe the explosion in the Japanese ammo dump on the South side of the base on Nov 30, 1945. He stated that “Division sent us an explosives expert who was to supervise the job of reducing the dump … An engineer Lt. in charge of repair of a nearby bridge said that the last he saw of the expert, (just before the explosion), he was standing on top of a pile of explosives directingthe Korean firemen in their attempt to put out a fire in the rice stubble inside the dump.” This site remained the ammo storage area for Kunsan AB (K-8) during the Korean War and is the current location of the 8th FW munitions storage area.

McLogan described how they disposed of the Japanese munitions by dumping them into the sea from flat-bottomed barges. Requests to use the Japanese regiment to do this labor was denied because of the fear that Japanese treachery would create a disaster. After the explosion, Col. Mueller stated, “Division said it was OK to use the Japs to dispose the ammo at sea. They did it without incident … gave me no trouble — followed all the rules I laid down to the letter. I even took my guards off their compound.”

From Paul Hillenmeyer of Dry Ridge, KY, we have learned a little more of Captain Hillenmeyer. Paul wrote, “Captain Hillenmeyer certainly must be Henry Reiling Hillenmeyer, also know as “Henny”, who was born in Lexington, KY, 12/24/20, and died November 30, 1945. He was the third of four sons of Walter W. Hillenmeyer, Sr., and Marie Reiling Hillenmeyer. He married Lucy Carolyn Taylor, and a son, Henry, Jr. was born in November 1943, two years before his death. He was a graduate of Campion High School, a jesuit school in Prarie Du Chien, WI, as well as the University of Kentucky.”

The following is an excerpt from Fred’s email:

“Camp Hillenmeyer was established on the site of the old Japanese Kunsan Airdrome. When the 6th Infantry Division first arrived they called it Camp Iri and later Camp Kunsan. Then, in honor of an Infantry Captain who was killed while in a Japanese Ammo dump at the site while being cleaned up in 1945/46, the camp was named Hillenmeyer and was called that while I was there, 1947/48. Today, the site is the Kunsan United States Air Force Base. At the time I was there, Camp Hillenmeyer was about ten miles by bumpy dirt road down along the Yellow Sea coast from the (Wolmyong Park) tunnel in Kunsan. We lived in Quonset Huts which were not far from the beach of the Yellow Sea.”

KP in early 1947
(Left to Right) Walker, Prinzo, and Fred Ottoboni.
Note Pinzo holding chinaware for exclusive use of officers.

“I included in the book as much of the early history of American troops in the Kunsan area as I could find. Not much is available even in military archives. Lots of records seem to have been lost. But there is evidence that the first Americans arrived in September/October of 1945 and established themselves at the Japanese airbase where Japanese airplanes were still sitting out on the field. Troops from the 6th also located units in buildings in Kunsan, Iri and Chonju. These troops were from the 63rd Infantry Regiment that had just finished a very long period of active combat in the Philippine Islands. They came by LST from the Philippines, landed at Inchon, and I think, got to Iri, Chonju, and Kunsan by truck convoys. They were not equipped for the cold weather and used surplus Japanese army clothing and blankets according to one guy (McLogan) that I have talked to who was there at that time.”

In Russell E. McLogan’s book Boy Soldier — Coming of Age During World War II (p.303) it mentions long buildings 250-300 ft long with rooms on either side holding 6-8 persons were there upon their arrival in October 1945. From these buildings, one could estimate that there were between 120-180 persons to 240 persons in this area of the base. On p. 300, he states, “It took all day to make the trip from Seoul to Kunsan, some 130 miles. It was dark when we arrived at the Japanese Air Base near Kunsan where the third battalion was billeted in wooden barracks.” He described the barracks (p. 303) as “very long and constructed of wood. The interior walls were made of paper-tin plywood. A long, narrow, central hallway ran the length of the barracks some 250 or 300 feet. There were small rooms on both sides of the hallway housing offices and sleeping quarters of the men, six or eight to a room. They were unheated and veritable fire traps.” He went on, “Apparently the Japanese military were hardy souls who could live in that climate without heating the barracks. We Americans, who had just arrived from a tropical island, were always cold. We had available for our use small portable kerosene stoves. They were about six inches in diameter and eighteen inches high, about the size of a kerosene lantern, with a single burner on top. We used these little stoves mostly to keep warm, but also to make tea or coffee or to boil fresh eggs which we obtained from the local Koreans. Later one of these stoves was accidentally tipped over and the whole barracks was destroyed.

On pp. 305-306, he went on, “One building, which must have been officers’ quarters, had a mini-swimming pool in it which turned out to be a communal bath tub. The story was that the Japanese all bathed together and sat around on the ledge. The cranked the heat way up and the last one to get out was considered to be the toughest. We used it as a reservoir of hot water and dipped buckets out of the pool to bathe.” This was the traditional Japanese “furo” used for baths. From Fred Ottoboni’s descriptions, there was a building was on the EAST side of what is now Gunsmoke Hill — near the present POL above ground tank. It was away from the enlisted barracks area on the WEST side of the hill. My assumption is that this was the flight crew or officer billets because of its segregated location.

Yellow Sea and Perimeter Defense: In Russell E. McLogan’s book Boy Soldier — Coming of Age During World War II (p.308) he mentions that “The Yellow Sea was within walking distance and we often walked down to the shore. The tides in this part of the world are enormous, sometimes running as high as 30 heet. When it was at low tide we could stand on the beach and look out over miles and miles of mud flats with the ocean barely discernible on the horizon.” There were rice fields between the base and “beach,” but the shore line was open.

The Japanese defended their bases with pillboxes overlooking the shoreline. One was near the present Civil Engineering compound on Avenue C and appeared to be a command post. It was used by the 3rd Comm Squadron in the Korean War, but was a nightmare to demolish in the mid-1960s. This resulted in the decision to leave the other pillboxes intact. These pillboxes are along the edge of the golf course. One is across from the gas station and is still used in exercises. One is near the BOQ area and is locked and unused. These pillboxes on the Golf Course were on what was then the perimeter of the base as the north-south runway was not built at the time. They overlooked the rice paddies that were between the pillboxes and the stonewall that was constructed to reclaim the land on which Kunsan AB is situated.

Originally, the land on which Kunsan AB is situated were islands that were connected by stone walls and then the land was filled in. Starting from the Japanese area of downtown Kunsan, the reclaimed area stretched in a line from the inner port (near the ferry station) around Wolmyong mountain down to the outer port area and around the Kunsan AB area. The reclaimed areas nearest Kunsan were considered the best rice fields and given to Japanese farmers. The other areas were given to the Koreans.

Fred relates that the area was filled in with sand carried on the backs of coolie laborers and then covered with sod.

Fred guarding ammo dump
January 1947

Later on Fred described his work on base as part of the 508th Utility Engineering Company. Most people believe that Kunsan AB was laid out in the Korean War, but actually the roads of the base today were laid out by the 508th UE Co. in 1946. (See Fred’s Handdrawn Map.)

He remembered that the water was supplied from a pond with polluted water from the rice paddies. This pond may be the pond (near the 1947 dependent area) that still exists behind the K-9 kennels today. In the 1952 photo below, the pond can be seen between the shoreline hill on the left and the 1952 BOQ area (1947 Dependent housing) in the foreground. Another possibility is small pond next to the rice paddies (near the Company areas) in 1947 that became an emergency fire-fighting water pond in 1954 … and is now a water hazard on the Kunsan AB golf course.

Aerial view of Camp Hillenmeyer Main Base (Courtesy Robert Grenig)

Aerial view of Camp Hillenmeyer Main Base (Courtesy Robert Grenig)

Aerial view of Dependent Area (Courtesy Robert Grenig)

Aerial view (20 Sep 52) (Courtesy Wes Jacobson) — (Click on photo to enlarge)

The pond can be seen between the hill on the shoreline to the left
and the BOQ housing area closest to foreground (1947 Dependent area).

He also noted the primitive latrines that were constructed for the troops. “The latrines we built did not have flush toilets or sewer connections. The toilets used at the time were open-topped, 50 gallon steel drums with a flat piece of plywood laid on top of each drum. These pieces of plywood had a hole in it of about the right size.”

“The drums were emptied every week by Korean contractors. They came with a horse-drawn honey wagon. To empty the drums, the contractor lifted off the plywood top, set it to one side, brought the barrel outside and dumped it into the honey wagon. All of the latrines in the camp worked this way. I do not think the new latrines were intended to house these steel drum toilets. They, I think, remained in their own separate tin shacks. The new latrines were really washrooms, if I remember correctly. I do remember them being called latrines insofar as their identity for construction purposes.”

Fred also tells a tale of how things got really bleak for the troops in those days. Food was short and sanitary conditions primitive. Things got so bad that Fred relates that they were about to mutiny because there wasn’t enough food. In the winter, the snow would blow through the cracks in the quonset huts making life utterly unbearable. They slept bundled up in as many layers of clothing as they could wear.

Fred in early 1947
with borrowed parka returning from guard duty.

Robert and Betty Grenig of Scottsdale, Arizona were at the base in 1946-47 and remembered the “honey pots” that lined the road from Camp Hillenmeyer leading into Kunsan. They also remembered the horrific smells of fields fertilized with the “night soil.” That’s the most likely final repository of that “night soil” collected from Camp Hillenmeyer.

Dependent housing built in 1946 for families at then Camp Hillenmeyer.
Compare the entryway roof and chimney area of this photo and the photo
of the BOQ in the brochure. (Click on the image to enlarge.)
Courtesy Robert and Betty Grenig of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Fred’s unit also worked on the construction of dependent housing at Kunsan. The buildings at the north end of the base were for officers’ families constructed with Japanese War Reparations materials by Japanese-trained Korean carpenters. In his book, Fred relates some funny anecdotes about differences in American and Japanese-style construction techniques such as putting up wallboard — which the Koreans had no idea at all how to install.

The dependents arrived by troop ship at Inchon and disembarked using rope ladders over the sides. One family group was then-Capt. Grengig’s wife, Betty and his two children. After they landed in Inchon, they were transported by train from Seoul to Iri (Iksan) and then by truck to Kunsan. Once at Kunsan, they settled into the quarters on base.

Jay Grenig of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then just a boy, remembers, “The houses were built by Korean labor using Japanese materials. The plan for the officers’ housing (of which I understand some is still in use) was a standardized plan for housing in Japan and Korea. We lived in a similar (albeit two-story) house with the same floor plan in Japan four years later. Conditions were terrible. The plumbing didn’t work well. (Took a bath in a washtub in the kitchen.) Cold. ”

Betty Grenig of Scottsdale, Arizona remembers that the electricity supplied by North Korea was very intermittent at night and her kids took a bath in the kitchen in a washtub. Their American food supplies were brought up by train from Pusan, but there was a lot of theft before it arrived and the quantities meat were very small and they survived mostly on canned rations. Betty related that the food was rationed out amongst the families. She was assisted in her chores by housegirls who did the cleaning and laundry.

These dependent quarters were later recycled as BOQ billets in the Korean War with the three+ men in the common area (living room) and others in the bedrooms. There was a kitchen, but cooking there was discouraged in the Korean War.

BOQ billeting 1952
This was the 1947 Dependent housing
Click on photo to enlarge
(Courtesy Hans Petermann)

It is a shame that the hard work of the Occupation forces was soon forgotten. Bruce Verhaaren of the Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago, writes, “There are no formal real estate documents predating 4 April 1955, and the first building inventory was completed in 1957. At that time all structures that were recorded as found on base in 1951 were assigned the date of 1950, which they still have in the official database. The report states “it would be safe to assume that these buildings are of Japanese construction” Japanese style and construction materials were also cited as evidence of Japanese construction. Not a bad guess really, but we now know that the housing was built with Japanese reparation materials, and was indeed Japanese. According to your site a standard style was used in Japan and Korea for housing construction by US troops. A Japanese style is likely to have been chosen, since Korea seems to have been pretty much an afterthought at the time. From the photos in Moench’s book, Taking Command, they seem similar to the Japanese kirizuma-yane style, a gabled roof with a tile coping along the ridge. It seems Camp Hillenmeyer was pretty much forgotten by 1957.”

Off-base Roads: The old roads to Kunsan City followed the route as the irrigation canals (marked in Fig 76 of Lautensach’s book). The road proceeded out of the main gate (at the top left corner of the southern polder). The first road proceeds to the reservoir and makes the bend through the hill in the reservoir (21); heads straight through what is now Mimiyon/American town to the base of Wolmyong mountain. Currently there is a new intersection here with an east-west road (Industrial-Complex Road) to connect to the new Industrial road of Waehang. The old road then continued straight to follow the waterfront, much as it does today down to the Wolmyong mountain tunnel. Col. Grenig remembers that there were two roads to the base. The second road connected at the reservoir. The narrow one-truck lane runs along the top of the reservoir dike — that still exists today — and connected to the old farm road that headed to Iri (Iksan) — passing by the old Japanese horse race track.

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