HEADQUARTERS OF K FORCE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27273, 13 February 1954, Page 2

HEADQUARTERS OF K FORCE

SHIFT FROM PUSAN TO JAPAN (NJZ. Army Information Service) KURE, February 10. The headquarters of New Zealand’s K Force, located at Pusan, on the western tip of the Korean Peninsula, since the arrival of the force more than three years ago, has been shifted to Japan. The shift enables the New Zealand headquarters to be in close touch with the headquarters of the British forces in Korea, which has been established from the start in Japan. In addition the detachment of K Force headquarters formed in June soon after the original force's arrival at Pusan has been amalgamated with the parent unit, enabling the latter to function for the first time in three years as a complete unit. When this detachment was formed in January, 1951, it was the first time that New Zealanders had been represented among the Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan since J Force was withdrawn. The detachment included the pay and records section, postal section, and public relations section. Now the headquarters is housed in a substantial two-storey concrete bungalow in Kure, which was once used as an officers’ hotel, a vast change from the small wooden building occupied in refugee-flooded Pusan. It is situated conveniently near the British headquarters and other military - establishments with which the New Zealand component has constant dealings. At Hiro, only 15 minutes by jeep away from the building, is the base camp and reinforcement training unit. All New Zealanders, on entering or leaving the theatre, have passed through there since early in 1951.