05/03/2016 Witness


05/03/2016

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Hello and welcome to Witness. I am back at the British library in

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London, with more remarkable insights into history from the

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people who were there. This month, we will hear from the Filipino

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novelist who took part in the uprising against the notorious

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Marcos regime. A survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. And the

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first woman chess player to humble the world champion. But first, it is

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20 years this month since Serb forces retreated from the Bosnian

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capital, Syriza. Ending the longest siege in history -- Sarajevo. Heavy

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bombardment in salary a vote as forces defended their positions

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against attacks from the Serb army. I grew up in war, overcame what I am

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today during the wartime. When the siege started in 1992I was 16,

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living with my mother, my brother and my grandmother. We lived in the

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centre of Sarajevo. It was a battle to survive. We would get

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humanitarian aid, mostly macaroni, some rice. Sometimes we got American

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army lunchboxes that would contain a meal, enough for one soldier. But my

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mother would spread it to four people for two days. The airlift was

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what was feeding us. Each day, in order to get to work, I would have

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to cross a bridge, and that bridge was extremely dangerous because it

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is very open to a hill, and a particular spot on that hill where

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the sniper was. Each morning, you would have to cross a bridge,

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knowing that you might be watched by a sniper person on the hill. And at

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some point, there was this guy with the camera who appeared out of

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nowhere. First morning we were crossing the bridge and we didn't

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really see him until the point that we stepped on the bridge, then we

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saw him get out and prepare his camera. Then we realised he was

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waiting for one of us to get shot. We felt like we were watched, and

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everybody is watching these terribly bitches, but just watching them and

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doing nothing about it. -- terrible images. I thought I would live in

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war, my children would live in war, there would be no one left and we

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would all die. But in 1995 real felt it was coming an end. Then it became

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really scared, because not only did I know what shrapnel can do to you,

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but also because I didn't want to be the one who dies at the end of the

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war. That is just irony, you know. If I was going to die should have

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died in 1992, not 1995. I expected to have an official announcement or

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something like that that the war was over. I expected liberators to come

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to the city. I expected there to be a huge joy and celebration and

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everything, and... It was just... It was quiet. I expected that people

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will live finally the lives that we deserve as someone who went through

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the siege and terrible war with so many atrocities, so many massacres.

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Very often I remember people that are not here any more, and very

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often I asked myself why. She is now a successful actress. Next, to the

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Philippines. A country dominated for decades by Ferdinand Marcos and his

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wife in Melbourne. In February 1986, they were brought down by a wave of

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popular protests. One writer was one of hundreds of thousands who took to

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the streets. At the beginning, it sounded like it was a military coup

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or uprising. We began asking ourselves if we should go out there

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and support that uprising. For that instant, people were of one mind.

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Get Marcos out whatever it takes. We had been under martial law for 14

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years, and people in a way had got used to martial law. President

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Marcos and his wife in ruled together, very dark and Krul

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dictatorship. -- cruel. When Marcos cheated his opposition out of the

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presidency, it led to a massive protest revoke of the few military

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officers who could no longer take Marcos and his men. The people came

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out and protected the rebel army. It was like a huge picnic, actually. I

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was there with my wife, I was there with our daughter, taking a gamble

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on freedom. We found our voices, we found the courage that had preceded

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too far in many of us. But we know that on the periphery of this

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movement, where Marcos's mass forces, who wouldn't at one command

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descend on us, it was the people you least expected, the nuns and

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priests, women, who took to the forefront. They met the soldiers and

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attack commanders with food and flowers. We were out on the street

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and there was a sniper up in one of the towers firing down, but not

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really at people but on the street. People would scatter and then

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nervous laughter would be heard, and then we would slowly, giggling,

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crawl back to our previous position. No Filipino really wanted to kill a

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fellow Filipino. It just wasn't worth it. Marcos wasn't worth it.

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Defections took place by the minute by the Tower. -- hour. Then in the

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space of four days Marcos would be gone. 1-off generals has given me

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the first formal confirmation. Has he left the country? I don't know,

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but he is no longer there. The nation just exploded in euphoria.

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Yet it made me feel myself worth again as Filipino citizen, but I had

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something more to live for. But for myself and my family and my country.

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Jose Dalisay, who went on to become one of the most acclaimed authors in

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the Philippines. Now, in the course of history, wars have broken out

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over many things. Including fish. In the 1970s, Britain and Iceland fell

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out so badly overfished stocks in the North Sea that there were years

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of military stand-offs. Witness went to meet Tom Watson, a veteran of the

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so-called cod wars. Jedinak it was a sort of David versus Goliath

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confrontation. The British fishing fleet was the biggest in the world,

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and if we lost the Icelandic fishing ground, it was a major loss to the

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British fishing effort. You could make something of yourself, you

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could earn a lot of money. It was a tough job, it was very difficult

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because you are away from home a lot. The so-called cod wars were a

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dispute between the British government and the Icelandic

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government on the right to fish around Iceland. And how many fish we

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could catch. The Icelandic government wanted to take control of

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the waters out to 50 miles. The British government said they weren't

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entitled to that. It was a bit of a joke at first, light-hearted, with

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them coming along and telling us we couldn't fish there and we would

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move, and we would say thank you very much and carry on fishing. It

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gradually got worse and worse, with the Icelandic people getting more

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insistent. Then they developed a technique for cutting the fishing

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gear away, which created quite a problem, because once we lost our

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fishing gear, we lost our livelihood. And we finished up with

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a confrontation escalating out of control, and we have several

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instances where there was quite severe confrontations between the

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fishermen and the Icelandic coastguard. When we were kids will

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have members of the family who were fishermen. During the summer

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holidays we would go off to Iceland. I first went on I was ten, so did

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everyone else. In my class at school. We would go off on board a

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fishing boat to Iceland, every year. It seemed it was like the national

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progression to then join the fishing industry, and we left school at 15

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and joined. I first became a skipper when I was 23. He was the mother,

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the father, the doctor, the priest, everything. Everything that happened

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on board he was responsible for. Each time the weather became

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reasonable, and Icelandic boat would be among the fleet. They were

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purposely show that he had his cutter, and he would go across and

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cut it. We developed what we hoped was a deterrent. We would release

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the rope when he went across the gear, and it would get caught up in

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their propeller and they would come to stop. We always hoping that the

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British government would come to some kind of an agreement, because

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there were about half a dozen of us left, and a gunboat ordered us off.

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We felt a bit sad, a bit bitter, unsure of what would happen, and we

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came away with nothing. No right to fish Iceland, no quotas, the British

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government had promised they would look after us and they didn't. We

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were humiliated. If you sat a group of fishermen around the table with

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the Icelandic government, they would have had an agreement within about

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ten minutes. I never used to bother early on, because I was looking for

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new opportunities. But when I sit back and look at it now I feel

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bitter about the way we were cast aside. North Sea fishermen Tom

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Watson. Remember, you can watch Witness every month here on the BBC

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News channel, or you can catch up on over a thousand radio programmes in

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our online archive. Let's move now to the highbrow world

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of international chess. Chess was very much a man's game until the

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emergence of Hungarian prodigy. She's been telling Witness about the

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day she beat the world champion Garry Kasparov. In my life it was

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very important that my parents put the goals at the highest, that I

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should challenge Garry Kasparov and Bebe world champion. My father had a

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very special idea, the way he wanted to raise his kids. He believed it

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would be the best if we were homeschooled but much more focusing

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on a daily basis on playing chess. I have a middle sister, she's seven

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years older than I am, and I have another sister, Sophia. I was about

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five years old when I started to play chess. It was very clear that I

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am talented, I've played good. I started to play against adults from

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a very young age, practically from the very beginning. Judit from

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Budapest was up against Israeli grandmaster, needing just a draw to

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win the whole tournament, she easily took the title. I was the only girl

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player most of the time already in those competitions. It was difficult

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for me to get used to the fact that I am playing alone with all those

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guys. Kasparov was the world champion already in 1988 when I met

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him. He was watching my game, that's what I heard from other people,

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that's what they were telling me, and it gave me a lot of inspiration,

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already he looked at what's going on. When will there be a woman world

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champion? Maybe she's sitting next to me. I was training daily many

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hours and I made a lot of efforts and everything in order that I get

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into the top elite between the male players.

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I played Garry Kasparov starting from 1994 on many different

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occasions. It was a very special psychological match with Kasparov

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for many, many years. I sit down at a table, I had all the respect to

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him, he's the world champion. And somehow you don't have the

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self-confidence, the knowledge. He has this appearance that you should

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know already before the game that who wins the game, right?

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It was Russia against the rest of the world. I was part of the rest of

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the world team. Somehow he chose a very bad opening, I think. It was

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the Beryl in defence and I took my chances, I played a solid game and

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he made a few mistakes and I took advantage of them. He conceded very

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well, his body language, his movements, he's shaking his head,

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holding his head. Of course, I saw it on the board what's going on.

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When he resigned it was very clear that it doesn't make any sense to

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play longer. He was very much annoyed that he didn't give a great

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fight. It was kind of an historical moment that I won finally a game

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against Garry Kasparov. It was very special. Judit Polgar there, talking

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to Witness at her home in Budapest. And finally, to 1941 and the

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devastating Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Our

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last Witness is Adolphe Kuhn, who is advised the raid that brought

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America into World War Two. December the seventh, 1941, a date which will

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live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and

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deliberately attacked. Everywhere you looked bonds were coming down.

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All around you you could hear the explosions on different ships. It

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was a nightmare. Japan had it all figured out. They knew when to hit

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and that's why they picked Sunday because Sunday was church day and

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fun day. The day of Pearl Harbor, I was 19 years old, I was on my way to

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church that morning. Two sailors came along in a model a row for and

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they said get in, we're at war, and they started heading towards the

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Pearl Harbor Navy base -- a road for. All around the little car, not

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a bullet hit us. Oh, God, they were so close. The landing gear was

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touching the top of the palm trees. You could see how low they were.

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everywhere I looked there were ships and explosions going on and all

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kinds of things. Ships were sinking. Some were leaning to the

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starboard side, some were leading to the port side. The guys aboard were

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jumping in the water from the ship. Someone with a megaphone," We need

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help to go aboard these ships". I said I was heading for the Arizona,

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the Arizona was closest to my barracks. It was all up siding, the

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hand railing was burnt out and all that, I had to grab the railing and

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I finally made my way up and by the time I got to the top of my shoe

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soles were smoking because the steel was so hot on top and there were

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five bodies all burnt out. You almost couldn't recognise them.

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Pretty soon I heard a voice, I looked over and it was one guy over

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by the gun turret and I walked over to him, and St Peters pulled him

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home. That's the way it went all day long. -- St Peter. Then I got off

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the Arizona and went towards my hangar, the planes could have

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exploded, the tyres were already on fire burning. The machine-guns in

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the cockpit were going off and the bullets were going everywhere. As I

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was on my way down, that's when the Japanese pilot spotted me and his

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bomb doors opened up and when I saw the bomb coming towards me, I said,

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Adolf, this is it, I really did say that, I know that. The bomb came and

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it went in the concrete, and big chunks like the size of a

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Volkswagen, and propellers and wings and landing gear landing on top of

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everything, or I got was these little pebbles. So the Guardian and

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was looking after me, you know that. With all those explosions

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going on and all that death going on everywhere, and me being in total

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safety. That's unheard of, you know? After 19 close calls I'm still

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alive. So I have to have a guardian angel here. There's no other way.

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It's not just one of those things you know that happens.

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Pearl Harbor survivor Adolphe Kuhn there. And that's all from Witness

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for this month. Next month we will be in her Van Erp to bring you five

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witnesses to the history of Cuba. But for now, from me, and from the

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rest of the Witness team, goodbye. -- in Havana.

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Snow has been causing issues out and about and it still will do

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Ice a big concern however where we've had showers,

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even if they haven't been of snow, things are freezing over there now.

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