07 — The Book
From Paradise to Hell
Tales Of A Group Of Boys Who Became Men And One A Giant Under Fire
William (Bill) Castro
- Genre
- Memoir · Korean War
- ISBN
- 978-0-7334-2609-4
- Copyright
- 2026
What it is
A first-hand account, written by the man who was there.
Roughly thirty young men enlisted together at the Ala Moana recruiting station in Honolulu, trained together at Schofield Barracks, and shipped for South Korea on January 1, 1951. This is what happened to them, told by one of them.
Why he wrote it
So that one name in particular is still spoken.
Leroy Kauhini was seventeen when his mother signed his papers and eighteen when he held a trail on Hill 717 so the rest of his company could come off the mountain. He was never found. Bill Castro wrote this so the argument for him outlives them both.
Who it is for
Anyone who thinks the Forgotten War is a figure of speech.
For families of the men from Hawaii who answered the call. For readers who want the ration cans, the frozen ground and the humour as well as the fighting. And for anyone who has wondered what it is to be nineteen, in command of other people's sons.
Chapter One — Sons of the Islands
“We raised our right hands together. When we lowered them, we weren't boys from our separate towns anymore.”
Chapter Two — The G.I. Party
“He'd shine another man's brass without being asked… never once let on that he'd noticed a man was behind. He just fixed it and moved on to the next one, smiling the whole time.”
Chapter Five — Pusan
“Every man in that column emptied his pockets right there in the street. It didn't feel like enough. It wasn't enough.”
Chapter Twelve — Twin Hills
“He was there. Then the explosion. Then he wasn't. That is how it happens, on a hill, in a war most of the country stopped talking about before I even made it home.”
“…and there is a small group of Hawaiians among you all out there, a group that volunteered from their beautiful Islands to join our Division, thank you for the fierce fighting force you contributed, after you learned how to walk on the snow and ice.”
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ISBN 978-0-7334-2609-4
© 2026 William (Bill) Castro. All rights reserved.