Kamloops Second World War veteran John Kuharski holds up a photo of himself at The Shores Retirement Residence in Kamloops on Nov. 4, 2024.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Living inside a warm and friendly retirement home on Kamloops' North Shore is a very remarkable man.

John Kuharski is 104 years old and the vision of health. He is also a veteran of the Second World War, one of very few still alive today.

iNFOnews.ca first interviewed Kuharski on Sept. 20 when he was presented with the King Charles III Coronation Medal by MP Frank Caputo.

This week iNFOnews.ca sat down with Kuharski at his tiny kitchen table in his tidy apartment and learned a bit more about the centenarian’s secrets to longevity, his experience in the war, and his perspectives on youth and war today.

“I always say, if you got your health, you’ve got everything, some people can hardly walk, they’re stiff on one leg,” he said about being 104-years-old. “I’ve been lucky through life, I like to get along with everybody here, everybody knows me, I’m kind of a half nut in a way.”

Kuharski disappeared down a hallway and returned carrying a photo album and some honorary war memorabilia. He walked without a cane, was dressed smartly and had a poppy pinned above his breast pocket.

“There’s not too many of us (veterans) left here, I bet I’m the only one left around here.”

Born in Neepawa, Manitoba in 1920, Kuharski was 20 years old when he went to Winnipeg and joined up to serve in the Second World War.

“All the younger guys were joining up and at that time work was hard to get, nobody was working much so I just left home and went to Winnipeg, just like that,” he said. 

Kuharski went through training in Borden, Ontario for several weeks then went to England at Salisbury Plains for more training, before entering the war as a fuel tank operator. 

“I drove a truck, it had a load of fuel on it and we used to gas the tanks up at night,” he said. “We used to go always at night when things were a bit quieter.”

Second World War veteran and Kamloops resident John Kuharski holds his Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour award.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

He remembers a night where he was very close to death.

“When I come back from fuelling the tanks at night I threw camouflage netting onto the back of the truck, on top of the fuel tanks,” he said. “We heard the airplanes above us, the cracks of bombs breaking here and there, and I don’t know how it happened but one of these anti personnel bombs landed on the net and it didn’t go off.

“If it would’ve gone off, we were sleeping behind the tools, we would have been roasted,” he said.

He remembers when his sergeant was killed, a man who was also from Winnipeg.

“There was a transport sergeant, Sergeant Finch,” Kuharski said. “I drove a fuel truck, another guy drove an ammunition truck and we done so good driving, one day (Finch) says, ‘when this is all over, we’ll go back to Winnipeg, we’ll start up a transport company.’ About a week later, he was gone, got killed poor guy.”

While driving his  fuel truck he would see dead bodies along the roadsides including mothers with young children.

He remembers the Normandy invasion on Juno Beach on D-Day in 1944 when he arrived on a double decker ship.

“These are pictures of the houses on the beach, the houses that were hit,” he said, flipping through the album. “There’s the landing, guys coming out from the landing craft infantry, they come running out.”

The worn photograph shows soldiers waist deep in the water with some running up the beach. 

“The tanks were on the bottom of the boat, they were unloaded in the water and when they were out of the water we were lowered down into them, still full of water up to here,” he said, indicating the water was up to his chest.

While there was shelling and people around him getting hit, Kuharski had to keep his mind on the task at hand.

“It was like, you had a job to do and you had your mind set on that task and that was it, you had to look after yourself and be careful of what you were doing and don’t get goofed up or you’ll make a mistake," he said.

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Kuharski flipped through several photos of a big, old house on Juno Beach covered with Canadian flags. He said a lady owned it before the war and returned after the war to fix it up.

“She took some friends around and showed them memories of what Canadians had done and they took these pictures,” he said. “Some guys tried to get permission to build a big hotel on the beach around there, it’ll never happen, it’ll never be allowed.”

Kuharski returned home to Manitoba in 1945 to his wife, and a four-year-old daughter he hadn’t met yet. He landed in Winnipeg where his dad showed up to take him home.

“My dad and I never got along good but he always kept up with the news on the radio, at that time they didn’t have televisions,” Kuharski said. “He didn’t wish me too well when I left to war, I don’t know how come that when the war was over, he changed his attitude.

“When I got there, I see my wife was there, and our little girl, she was four and a half years old, and it’s the first time I saw her and you know what it's like for a young kid. Well, I had to play with her like a kid, tumbling around outside with her until she sort of got used to me, it was tough.”

READ MORE: Meet the Kamloops man who cares for birds of prey, the creepiest of crawlies

Kuharski did 34 years of service for the Royal Canadian Army that included working at an entrance gate at a national park.

One of the biggest recognitions the Lance Corporal received was in 2017 when he was awarded the rank of Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest national order of France, in recognition for his service.

He plans to take in a Remembrance Day service at his retirement home and hasn’t seen many young people attending services over the years.

“Nowadays, young people take very little interest in anything like this anymore and I don’t know why," he said. "There are a lot of people where it runs in the family and carries it down but some people don’t, they break away from it and that’s it.”

READ MORE: JONESIE: The lessons of free-range children long forgotten

He expressed his concern over the continuation of war happening in the world.

“People years ago seemed to care for one another a bit more, but now it’s not that way," he said. "We’re in this world here to help one another not to kill one another. But what they’re doing now over in Israel... they’re bombing these cities. It’s the same in Ukraine and the ones that suffer more are the women and the kids, the mom is holding them, saving them and she gets hurt herself.

“Watching people die, it bothers me, I just don’t like the way things are going.”

Kamloops is home to another remarkable Second World War veteran who served as a supply technician for the Royal Canadian Air Force defending Britain’s coast.

iNFOnews.ca interviewed Zack Bourque last year when he turned 100 years old. He is now 101.

“Zack is very healthy, doing very wall and witty as ever, we all adore him,” said his friend Sandra Courteen-Nurse. “He hasn’t aged an ounce.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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