Sweden and the USA's diplomatic freeze and Elvis in the UK

14:11Max Pearson:But there's one area where Sweden and the U.S. definitely diverge, and that was over, well, Sweden's neutrality in the Cold War.

14:19Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Absolutely. So Sweden does have this notion of neutrality. It likes to portray itself as not getting involved in military conflicts and getting involved in war. But I think where the U.S. had problems with that is that Sweden wanted to maintain this supposed neutrality around military actions, but that did not mean that Sweden and Swedes themselves were neutral from thought and opinion. They very clearly voiced their notions of what they thought was happening during the Cold War, and they really leaned into this notion of something called the Middle Way, which was actually a book written by a U.S.

14:56Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:journalist. And the idea was that Sweden kind of had an idealized government and political system. It was the middle way between capitalism and the United States during the Cold War and more communist and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And so this neutrality embodied itself in politics and culture and in the way Sweden presented itself on the diplomatic stage.

15:21Max Pearson:It's almost as if that crisis in relations between Sweden and the U.S. over Vietnam is a lesson for history in how America's military adventures abroad can lead to significant strains between America and its traditional allies, a lesson which may well have relevance today.

15:41Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Oh, very much so. And this is a lesson I think the United States doesn't really pay attention to. And relations between the two countries kind of serve as an example of you can have two allies, two strong allies. They can have periods of tension and have periods of diplomatic freeze. And perhaps they can all learn from this. And we're seeing the United States in the subsequent years since Vietnam continue to take a very powerful role militarily, politically, financially in the rest of the world. And that is still creating tensions.

16:13Max Pearson:Dr. Saniya Lhiganui, assistant professor of history at the University of El Paso in Texas. Next, we've got a key moment in the history of nuclear proliferation. It's particularly apt to focus on the past spread of nuclear weapons at this time, since the principal stated cause of today's conflict in the Middle East revolves around Iran's supposed atomic ambitions. So let's go back to 1974, when India successfully detonated its first atomic device. It had been developed in secret, codenamed Smiling Buddha. That test was seen as a triumph of Indian science and technology, but it led to the suspension of international nuclear cooperation with India and spurred Pakistan to speed up development of its own nuclear bomb.

16:57Max Pearson:Dr S. K. Seeker was one of India's leading nuclear scientists, and he spoke to Alex Last in 2018 about his role in the secret project.

17:06Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Everybody was almost unanimous that we should have a nuclear weapon at our hand.

17:12Max Pearson:On the 138th day of the year, at 8 hours, 08 minutes, 20 seconds in the morning, Indian Standard Time, the graph went haywire.

17:21Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:They didn't expect that we'll have the capability. And then when we did it, everybody had to open their eyes on our science and technology.

17:32Max Pearson:In 1969, Dr. S.K. Sika was a young nuclear scientist employed at India's main nuclear research establishment, the Baba Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai. He was finishing his PhD under the supervision of one of the country's leading nuclear scientists, Dr. Chirambaram. Little did Dr. Sika know, but his supervisor had been recruited to a secret project to build a nuclear device by one of the centre's top directors, Dr. Raja Ramana, a man who would become central to India's nuclear weapons programme.

18:05Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I was assembling my PhD thesis in my room, and I got a call from Dr. Ramanna's office that I should come and see him. And Dr. Chidambaram was there, and Dr. Ramanna told me that, Sikka, you have done enough for yourself, so now you should do something for the country. So then he told me that you will be involved in this project for a peaceful nuclear explosion. and I was the second or third person to be inducted in this project.

18:40Max Pearson:As Dr. Sika said, the aim was to do a peaceful nuclear explosion, a PNE, terminology for a nuclear explosion for non-military purposes. Though that often could simply mean that the device had not been miniaturised to be a deliverable weapon. Either way, everyone knew, in essence, it was still an atomic bomb.

19:00Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:A peaceful nuclear explosion. The nuclear core is a bomb. When the Soviets and the USA were carrying out PNE tests, actually they were testing their weapons. The PNE was only an excuse.

19:15Max Pearson:India had been conducting nuclear research since the 1940s. It had refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but its leaders publicly maintained India was only interested in a peaceful nuclear power program and had got help for this from Western nations.

19:31Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:No country can give greater proof of its devotion to peace than India has already done by deciding not to go in for nuclear weapons.

19:41Max Pearson:We, as you know, are using atomic energy only for peaceful purposes. And I think we've made good headway. But following China's successful test of a nuclear bomb in 1964 and amid increasing tensions with Pakistan, India had begun secret plans to develop its own atomic bomb. The project was civilian-led, but secrecy was paramount. Of the 10 ,000 employed at the Atomic Research Centre, less than 100 were involved in the plan. And even those recruited often didn't know who else was involved or what they were working on.

20:16Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We were not supposed to tell anybody. When we had review meetings, no notes were kept. So there was no question of leakage. And then it was need-to-know basis. And we kept it very secret. But my wife, she guessed it that I am doing some secret work.

20:37Max Pearson:The project's leaders decided to make a plutonium device using fuel from a civilian nuclear research reactor which had been built with Canadian help. Though, of course, the Canadians were not told this. The device would be similar to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II.

20:54Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It was an implosion device. The nuclear core was spherical and it was surrounded by chemical explosives and all that. When you apply shockwaves from chemical explosives, simultaneously on all sides, the nuclear core gets compressed. And at the point of supercriticality, you introduce a neutron which initiates a chain reaction and the chain reaction grows and it leads to explosion and energy release. That's how the implosion device functions.

21:29Max Pearson:Building it, though, would not be easy, not least as the other nuclear powers were not going to share their secrets with India.

21:36Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We were the only country without any help from outside. See, at that time, very little was known except for some basic principles. So we had to develop everything from scratch.

21:48Max Pearson:But the list of complex scientific challenges was huge. not least making the nuclear core.

21:55Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Plutonium is a very toxic substance. The physical properties are very exotic at room temperature and room pressure is very brittle and difficult to fabricate into plutonium sphere and components. Other thing was we were denied supercomputers or even basic computers and so we had to do with very rudimentary computational devices.

22:20Max Pearson:But by 1972, Dr. Seeker believed they had a functional device. A test site was chosen at Pokhran in the sweltering desert in northern India. But this test would not be conducted on the surface. A special shaft was dug deep underground. It was there that the large device was placed.

22:39Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It was lowered into the shaft two days before the explosion. And then the hole was filled with rubble, sand and all those things. It is not possible to do last-minute changes. So one is obviously nervous. Just one hour before the test, we evacuated people from surrounding villages. They are smart people, so they must have thought something big is going to happen.

23:06Max Pearson:The test was scheduled for 18 May 1974. Dr Sika and his colleagues gathered to watch from a tower four kilometres away.

23:15Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We were handed a notebook with a pen and you record what will happen. But when the trigger was pressed, everything happened in a jiffy. In a millisecond, the pen didn't move at all. When the device exploded, we saw the ground swell rising up like a mound to about 34 meters and then went down.

23:39Max Pearson:Through this haze of sand and dust and debris, you can see the hillock rising.

23:44Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:And we felt earthquake-like phenomena. So we immediately knew that our effort had succeeded. And there was a lot of excitement, clapping and all that. I was very young at that time. I jumped from top of the tower to lower landing.

24:01Max Pearson:News of the test's success was sent immediately to Delhi.

24:05Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:This 18th May happened to be Birthday of Buddha. So the code name between the Prime Minister's office and our chairman, Dr. Rabanath, was Smiling Buddha. So when the explosion succeeded, there was a hotline to Delhi and they said, Buddha has smiled.

24:24Max Pearson:Then the scientists held a little party.

24:27Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We all assembled in the military mess and we had a grand party. It was summer and there were a lot of mangoes and a lot of beer. So we all drank.

24:39Max Pearson:When news of the test broke, there was international outrage. An international nuclear corporation with India was suspended, which did have a serious impact on the country's civilian nuclear program.

24:51Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Yes, it was a shock. They didn't expect that Indian science and technology was so advanced that they can carry out a nuclear test.

25:00Max Pearson:Over the next two decades, India miniaturized their device and created a viable bomb, and Pakistan raced to build one too. In that time, Dr Sika successfully led work to develop a much more powerful thermonuclear device. He has no qualms about his role in helping make India a nuclear power.

25:19Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:No, we don't have any regret. In fact, we were proud that we have achieved what we wanted and did something for the country.

25:29Max Pearson:Dr S.K. Sika, who died in 2023 at the age of 82, was speaking to Alex last in 2018. Today, India is estimated to have around 180 nuclear warheads. The government in Delhi insists it has a no-first-use policy.

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27:52Max Pearson:Still to come, the man who invented the mobility scooter in 1960s America. And the moment when Elvis Presley made his only visit to the UK in Scotland on his way home from military service.

28:04Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I thought I was dreaming all this. I thought it was a dream. And it wasn't a dream, it was reality. And to think he was impressed with my hometown.

28:13Max Pearson:Before that, we're going to recall the worst train crash in the history of Portugal. It happened in the mid-1980s. 150 people were killed when two services collided head-on. Jacqueline Payne has been speaking to a former voluntary fire commander who was one of the first on the scene.

28:34Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It's the 11th of September 1985, and hundreds of people are travelling on a packed international train to the French capital Paris from Portugal's second city, Porto. The train's running late. It's around 17 minutes behind schedule and at 6.37 in the evening, near the small town of Mangualda in northern Portugal, the express collides with a regional train.

28:59Max Pearson:I know some people who lived in village close by who really heard the noise of the collision. What happened was a terrible tragedy. The Alcafax railway accident was something that marked me and all the firefighters who were there.

29:18Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:That's Americo Borges, a fire station commander, who's in charge of a team of 78 firefighters. They're all volunteers, based at Karnashtu Senorin Fire Station, approximately 10 kilometres from the crash. In his day job, he's a family doctor at the local health centre, and after another sweltering day, he's worried about forest fires and drops by the fire station on his way home.

29:42Max Pearson:I was by the control room when I heard a call from an ambulance asking for many ambulances between Nellers and Manguald. I thought it was a collision, but after they've seen the ambulance and firefighters, I asked what had happened. Idintansa. And after a few seconds, they said, also bring the water tankers because the carriage are on fire. So then I understood that it was not a car but a train accident.

30:14Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Ameriko gets a lift with a water tanker and reaches the crash site 15 minutes later. Derailed carriages from both trains lie broken and on their sides, a mass of twisted metal after ploughing into each other at around 100 kilometres per hour or 62 miles per hour on part of the rail line that's single track. The air is thick with smoke and fumes.

30:38Max Pearson:When I got there, the carriage of the express, the international train, were burning. I went into one of them with a high-pressure hose, trying to extinguish the fire and to assist people who would be in there. Luckily for me, my firefighter pulled on the hose and brought it outside, or I would have been completely burned, incinerated inside. In the original train, only the first carriage was burning that curiously has no passengers.

31:17Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Dozens of injured travellers are already on their way to hospital by the time Ameriko's team arrive. But many of those who survived the initial collision are trapped by blazing fires and unable to escape the toxic fumes. He begins a desperate search for anyone left behind.

31:36Max Pearson:The second, third, fourth carriage of the express were burning, but the first carriage just behind the engine was not burning at all. It had fallen off the track, so I crawled inside. I managed to get to where a lady was alive. With some special equipment, we managed to cut old metal around her, take her out through a window. And this lady, well, she talked to us calmly. She was saying, be cool, do what you have to do, because I'm fine. This lady was in fact the only person alive in the first carriage of the Express. and I learned later on that this lady had no wounds, she wasn't injured at all.

32:25Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Afterwards, Americo realises the woman really did have a miraculous escape after half of her carriage was compressed.

32:33Max Pearson:The following day I saw that each of the carriage of the international train had ten compartments, but the first carriage just had five. So the first five, just behind the engine, were totally compressed.

32:49Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:But there's another problem to tackle, as the fires are raging out of control and spreading to nearby forests.

32:57Max Pearson:Both trains, they used gas oil, so that leaked out. And that caused a fire in the forest around the railway. Fortunately, it was quite small and we were able to bring it under control. And then, about midnight, we had this forest fire in a nearby village. Again, we managed to control that. So we were able to return and assist the accident site.

33:27Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:His team of volunteer firefighters are left reeling by the scale of the tragedy that's unfolding in front of them.

33:35Max Pearson:The extent of their training would never have prepared them for this. We could never imagine that one day they could have such a serious accident in the railway of Bera Alta.

33:49Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:After working through the night, Americos eventually sent home.

33:54Max Pearson:At about 1 or 2 a.m., a fire inspector sent me home to sleep. I went, I lay down. After about one hour in bed, I could not sleep. So I told my wife, I can't stay here. So I went back and I stayed for about two days. I could not stay at home with my wife and children because I had an image in my mind of the tragedy and needed to do something.

34:25Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:By next morning, news of the catastrophic accident is being broadcast around the world. The Oporto Express, with about 350 passengers bound for France, crashed head-on into a local train near Viseu.

34:39Max Pearson:By dawn, the scale of the disaster was revealed. Only the bodies of victims burned beyond recognition remain to be recovered.

34:46Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:And those images are so harrowing, America can never shut them out.

34:51Max Pearson:What shocked most was having to remove the burned bodies. I never forget that. All of those corpses, all of those bodies, completely incinerated. Many arms and legs were hanging from the trees around the train. It's tragic, and those images are unforgettable. I will never forget what I saw.

35:19Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:An inquiry at the time reveals a mistake allowed both train drivers to use the same single track line when the express should have had priority. A station master realises the error but can't contact them in time. No one is held responsible, but the accident leads to improved signalling, a ban on using flammable materials on trains, and the introduction of radio communication between drivers and control stations. And Americo helps to devise a new module for trainee doctors.

35:50Max Pearson:The School of Medicine, where I graduated, they didn't have specific training for catastrophe medicine. Me and a colleague who was a doctor and commander of another fire brigade worked together with the Porto University to create this catastrophe or disaster medicine training.

36:11Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Early counts put the death toll at 37, but it's eventually estimated around 150 people have died. many Portuguese workers returning to France after holidaying back home. Most of the unidentified remains are buried in a mass grave near the disaster, where memorial services take place every year.

36:33Max Pearson:There was a cross that was made with two tracks, which remained for a few days after the accident. Today there is a small chapel, our lady of the migrants. There are still people alive who were trained passengers and who gathered there to remember with some of the families of the people who died. The former voluntary fire commander, Américo Borges, was speaking to Jacqueline Payne and remembering Portugal's worst rail disaster. Next, a success story born out of necessity and one which has delivered benefits to many thousands of people. In the late 1960s, an American plumber called Al Timi promised his wife, who suffered with multiple sclerosis, that he would find her an alternative to a wheelchair.

37:22Max Pearson:He came up with a battery-powered seat on wheels. He called it an Amigo, and soon other people wanted one too. He recently spoke to Rachel Naylor.

37:35Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It's 1967 and we're in Bridgeport in Michigan. 29-year-old plumber Altini, his wife Marie, who has multiple sclerosis, and their six children have been invited on holiday. A friend of mine said they're going to Mexico

37:50Max Pearson:and the people they usually go with couldn't make it. I said, oh, well, we'll go. I didn't know where those words came from, but they came out. So I went home and told Marie, next week we're going to Mexico. And she said, okay. Well, when we got to Mexico, the excitement, the heat, Marie was getting so fatigued. We had to rent a wheelchair. This is the first experience we had with a wheelchair. Well, I was pushing her around. If I just let her use it on her own, people would say, hey, hey, why aren't you pushing her? So I didn't push her. We didn't care for it. I didn't like pushing her. She didn't like being pushed around.

38:33Max Pearson:I said, when we get home, I'll find something so you'll never have to be pushed around. But Al couldn't find what he was looking for. It was only the standard wheelchair. I'm not an engineer, but I made some rough sketches. Fortunately, I found an engineer in Saginaw, Michigan, Gene Fisher. and he was so excited to work with me to come up with a device that was battery operated. And by gully, within nine months, we had it together. Gene brought it to the house for Marie to try it. She's, oh my goodness, freedom. This is wonderful. There was no anticipation of, oh, should I use it or not? She saw it and said, oh, wow.

39:29Max Pearson:And having this, she was able to do her own shopping. Where previous to that, my sister would go to the grocery store for Marie. It was too difficult for Marie to go to school. We had the six children. Quite often, she would even be able to load it herself into the car. And to go to the school, the kids would say, oh, wow, is that great.

39:52Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It was a small, yellow, front-drive model that went 5 to 6 kilometres per hour.

39:57Max Pearson:It was pretty crude. The very first one was made out of aluminium, and it had a couple of motors in it, one wheel in front, a swivel seat. When people saw Marie using it... They said, wow, this is great. Where'd you get it? Oh, my husband built it for me. So Marie said, you have to build some more for other people. Oh, come on. I love my plumbing business.

40:22Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:But Marie convinced Al. He just didn't know where to start. That is, until a friend told him that workers in a nearby factory were using something he might find interesting.

40:32Max Pearson:Immediately, I ran down there. Whenever I hear something interesting, I don't wait a day or two. I do it now. So I went down to the pickle factory, and there was this yellow device that they were standing on. And interesting, it was made right here in Michigan. So I called up the president of the company, told him what I wanted to do. I brought it home, and then I went to Gene Fisher again, as we have to change this around and put a seat on it. and I want two speeds forward and two speeds in reverse. Well, we put it together. I said, hmm, maybe I should build more of these. And I did. I'll call them amigos.

41:20Max Pearson:We didn't want to call it a wheelchair, even though for a while we did call it the friendly wheelchair. Marie and I thought for a long time, what should it be? And it was named Amigo. Murray named it because we thought of it in Mexico, and amigo means friend. And what else is kind of neat, it's at the top of the alphabet with the A.

41:47Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:In 1968, he founded Amigo Mobility International.

41:51Max Pearson:Oh, the first three years was very difficult because there was nothing like it. Oh my gosh, I tried to sell it through medical dealers. Well, that didn't work. That's normally where any wheelchairs or walkers were sold through. Did not work. They'd laugh at it. I'd go to some shows, and they'd just laugh and say, oh, wow, nobody can use that. So because I saw every day what it did for Marie, I focused on selling to ladies that had children that had multiple sclerosis. And after I had sold maybe 50 or 100 like that, I said, OK, now I have to take the next step, selling to doctors with MS. The National MS Society was in New York, so I made numerous trips with Marie and our amigo, and that really kicked it off.

42:48Max Pearson:On the front page of their magazine that went to other countries, they had a picture of Marie and the story of what the amigo was doing. So that really helped to get the word out. Pretty soon there were other manufacturers that copied it. Now you might think, oh, that's bad. No, it was not bad at that time. It was good. I didn't have any money that we could really promote it like we should. So the competition was good because it got more people to know about this type of mobility. Within about five years, there were 20 different manufacturers throughout the United States. 20. And then, about seven years later, Taiwan and China and Europe.

43:41Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:They're now known worldwide as mobility scooters.

43:44Max Pearson:I don't like the word scooter. Scooter, to me, is a toy. It's that two-wheel thing that you pedal around with your foot. I tell our marketing people, don't call our Amigo a scooter. We are specially designed for people with walking limitations. The Amigo is a cart to give them independence. They want a scooter, they go out and buy some other toy thing.

44:11Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:After being introduced in the UK in the 1970s, mobility scooters, Sorial, became very popular, as reported by the BBC in 2015. The UK has more mobility scooters than any other country in Europe. Oh, she's a nice and good. People who struggle to walk have been freed from the front room and given licence to criss-cross the highways and byways at their leisure. Morning, morning, go. It is my lifeline. I literally go everywhere on it.

44:42Max Pearson:Meow.

44:44Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:The scooter bandwagon has quadrupled in just five years. Al's company still makes mobility scooters as well as motorised shopping trolleys.

44:54Max Pearson:Just yesterday I read one of the letters from a lady in New Mexico. She said, you've changed my whole life. I can do things I've never done before. I go out. I can go out with my family. It's so rewarding. There's so many letters that we've received. We have had so many well-known people using the Amigo. Ray Kroc has started McDonald's. Colonel Sanders. Joe Lewis. Itzhak Perlman, who's a world-known violinist. I think it was just two days ago, he said, It used to be when I'd go out with crutches after the show and get accolades. I'd go out once, you know, and they're still clapping. I'd go out the second time, he says, they didn't clap too much because the audience felt bad for me trying to get out there in crutches.

45:49Max Pearson:He's now with the Amigo, he says, I go out there, I zoom out there, and it just keeps going and going. I just keep zooming out there. So it is so rewarding. Al Thieme, inventor of the Amigo-powered wheelchair. And I have to tell you that Al died this week, shortly after recording his story with Rachel Naylor. This week's Sporting Witness next, and this takes us to the 1970s, when a young man from England became the first foreigner to take part in a revered and ancient test of sporting prowess in Japan. It involves military horsemanship and classical martial arts, with roots in the traditions of the samurai.

46:30Max Pearson:Here's Jen Dale.

46:31Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:It's the 23rd of July 1977, and it's a hot, humid summer's day in Soma in the northeast of Japan. Michael J from London is taking part in the annual three-day event that dates back to the 10th century. Michael has been interested in Japanese culture and martial arts ever since he was a child. In fact, it's a judo teacher who introduces Michael to his Japanese wife, setting him on his path to the wild horse chase. Well, that and a translation mishap.

47:03Max Pearson:When we went to meet her parents, she said you might like to meet my uncle and he was one of the commanders of the horse association there. He's very senior. My Japanese wasn't very good then because I thought he just said would you like to come and see it but he'd actually said would you like to come and take part.

47:19Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Michael's up for the challenge but it's not straightforward. He needs special permission.

47:23Max Pearson:Once you get out into the countryside. It's very traditional and these kind of events are pretty well a closed world. It did take quite a long time because the area has five castle towns, feudal towns, so they had to get permission from every single member of each horse association in the area for a foreigner to take part because it was completely unheard of.

47:50Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:The race is on and Michael's got training to do in martial arts, something later captured in the 1982 BBC documentary The World About Us, the samurai from Twickenham.

48:00Max Pearson:Mr Yoshida is about to give Mike J a lesson in the most difficult and high-ranking of all martial arts, the art of classical swordsmanship, known as EI. It's a discipline that demands fierce concentration. It's not something that can be learnt instantly. It's hard physical training, and it's very deep mental training.

48:26Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:And he can't take part without traditional dress, which he gets given from one of his in-laws.

48:31Max Pearson:Generally the armour and the Japanese clothes are exactly what you'd see up until the end of the 19th century. Japanese armour and clothing does not have buckles like Western clothing does. Everything is done with cords and tapes and there are always family and friends to help you put the actual armour on. It's very comfortable, but I suppose it weighs about, altogether, anything between 20 to 30, 35 kilos.

49:00Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Added to that, the contestants have to carry a five-foot by three-foot flag with a family feudal crest. Michael has to have one specially made. He's prepared as much as he can. And finally, the day he's been waiting for arrives.

49:15Max Pearson:I remember waking up very early in the morning It was still dark and I could see the moon through the window and I thought, this is going to be a wonderful day. There was a massive procession through the town of all the horsemen and anything between 400 and 800 horse-mounted samurai. Thousands of people line the route. Young children look up and say, oh, it's a foreigner, in Japanese. Gaijinda, gaijinda. Of course, because it's a country town, they hardly ever see non-Japanese people there. So to them it was a shock to see an English face wearing Japanese armour. But the funny thing is that always their mothers would say, shh, don't say that, it's rude.

49:57Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Less funny is that Michael isn't allowed to take part in the Kachukeba, where racers gallop around a 1 ,000 metre track. It's considered far too dangerous. But he does take part in the Shinkiso Datsusen, where hundreds of mounted samurai fight to capture sacred flags shot into the air.

50:16Max Pearson:One of my friends there, he was talking about his horse and he said, I used to have a fantastic horse. He said it would actually stand up on its back legs and kick people and try and knock them off their horses because this is a serious matter. It was originally cavalry training and it's very difficult, of course. You have to catch the flag on your riding stick, which is about three feet long. It's just a completely mad scramble.

50:40Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Michael doesn't manage to get a flag, but there's no time to dwell on that. The final day sees him take part in the Noma Kakei, where mounted horsemen chase wild horses, which are then rounded up in front of Soma's Odoka Shrine and taken for a blessing. Finally, after an intense three days, it's all over. How did you feel?

51:00Max Pearson:Totally exhausted. It's such hard work and you're up at four o 'clock in the morning every day to get ready. I went back home and collapsed in a heap. Of course, when you get home, everybody's pleased that you're still alive, really, and haven't broken anything.

51:15Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:But Michael is determined to take part in the Ketchukeba on the main day of the festival, no matter how long it takes.

51:21Max Pearson:They were very loath to let me take part in the race for several years because it is so dangerous and people get seriously injured. It's not like a Western horse race. This is really rough. But eventually I sort of tried to persuade them and they let me go in the race.

51:39Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:And in 1980, he's in the battle chase.

51:46Max Pearson:When you look at a crowd of 120 ,000 people around the arena, it's quite daunting really. But on the other hand, you're so busy looking after the horse and staying on the horse that you can't really take notice of what's going on. You just have to concentrate on what you're doing.

52:05Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:But despite knowing how to ride a horse, there's a few things he can't control.

52:09Max Pearson:They're all riding their own horses, so they know the horses and the horses know them, but I'm riding a friend's horse and, of course, he doesn't know me, so it's very difficult. Japanese horses don't speak English, so if I would say to it, we'll slow down a bit, you know, the horse didn't understand, so I've had to learn to give Japanese horse commands as well. So it was a completely new experience. As soon as the flag goes down, it's just a complete blur. The thundering of the hooves, the dust, the power of the horse is fantastic it's just hell for leather flat out, straight away you've just got to do your best and hang on when you're racing, the drag from the wind when the horse is at full speed is quite strong, the flag is actually trying to pull you backwards as you're riding so you've got to have a good grip and a good control of the horse so it was quite a nerve-wracking experience I was just lucky to be alive really

53:11Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Michael comes last thankfully he's not suffered any major injury though the race and the armour leaves its mark

53:18Max Pearson:of course you get lots of bruises and scratches and things you do have some padding but of course having it on all day long in that heat and it's moving around and it's very tight everywhere finishes up with no skin on at all it's just red raw really but of course that's one of the souvenirs of taking part

53:37Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:And it really is the taking part that counts.

53:40Max Pearson:All the riders can ride up to the top of the hill where all the samurai commanders are sitting and you receive a token gift. But the really important thing is that you also receive a prayer from the shrine and that is a wooden box wrapped in white paper. Everybody has those tied on the back of their armour so everybody at home can see what you've taken part in. So that is the real prize.

54:09Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:From the first time he takes part in 1977, the experience leaves a deep impression.

54:15Max Pearson:The real special feeling for me was not seeing it, but actually being in it, actually taking part as one of the Bushi, the samurai riders, because it's such a closed world. I got on my horse and I rode out with all those traditional men whose families went back hundreds of years. and I just felt one of them. Michael Jay, the first foreigner to take part back in the 1970s in the Japanese Soma horse event. He was speaking to Jendale. Finally this week, a moment from the past when the sparkle of international glamour fell briefly on Western Scotland. In 1960, as he headed home from military service, Elvis Presley made an unexpected stop at Prestwick Airport.

55:03Max Pearson:It's believed to be the only time he set foot on British soil. It was only a brief visit, but for 16-year-old Anne Murphy, watching him walk down the aircraft steps is a memory that has never faded. More than six decades later, she's been telling Megan Jones what it was like to see Elvis up close.

55:22Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I thought I was dreaming all this. I thought it was a dream, and it wasn't a dream, it was reality. And to think it was impressive at my hometown. It's the 2nd of March 1960. We're in Prestwick, a small town on the west coast of Scotland. Its airport, which also stretches into the village of Moncton, is used by the United States Air Force as a military base. When the Americans were here, they brought a lot of money into Prestwick. Prestwick's a very friendly wee town, it really is. This is where 16-year-old Anne Murphy lives. By day, she works just down the road as an office girl at a solicitor's firm.

56:00Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We didn't have a phone. My mum had to run down to the telephone box and phone me just at 10 to 5. I finished at 5. And she said, that's Sergeant Phelps who I used to be with it for. It's just been at the door, Anne. Elvis is arriving between 6 and 7 tonight. So don't linger after you finish your work to go to the shops. Anne doesn't question it. She trusts Sergeant Phelps. And anyway, for her, Elvis isn't just a rock and roll star. He was my first boyfriend.

56:39Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:The earliest memory of Elvis was when he was on the radio and he was singing I'm All Shook Up. I thought, good grief, what is this, you know? Well, I said, I'll have to get a photograph of him. How am I going to get a photograph of him? Because we hadn't seen a photograph of him. I'm all shook up

57:03Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:By 1958, Elvis Presley was an international sensation. I just loved his looks. He was really handsome. I loved the music. I just loved all of them, really, you know.

57:24Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:At the height of his fame at age 23, he was inducted into the US Army at the Memphis Draft Board.

57:31Max Pearson:The rock and roll king was about to embark for foreign service, 18 months in Germany. How the army would stand the impact of Mr Presley was a big question months ago.

57:40Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Almost two years later, Elvis is promoted to sergeant. Everybody thought I wouldn't have to work and I would be given special treatment and this and that. But when they looked around and saw when I was pulling guard and everything just like they were, well, they figured, well, it's just like us. On March 2nd 1960 at 5.25pm Elvis leaves Frankfurt in Germany heading to New Jersey in the United States The military plane can't make the journey in one go though It needs to refuel So heads for Scotland Where word is already spreading Elvis is on his way I ran up the road, had my two and I got my mother's bike out I asked her if it was all right She says yes I was cycling away and Anna spotted my friend and my friend said, where are you going?

58:29Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I said, I'm going to see Elvis and she laughed. She says, can I come? So I gave her a back seater and we fell off the bike. Anna and her friend Muriel abandoned the bike, deciding to run to the American base instead, telling everyone they pass where they're going. Going to see Elvis. They just laughed. They just laughed. They said, oh, that's a rumour. And doesn't stop until she reaches the runway, which is also a road. So when a flight was coming into Prestwick over the sea, there was traffic lights so that the traffic couldn't get over the road until the aeroplane landed because the road was part of the runway.

59:13Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:We ran across that. I mean, you shouldn't have done it. They see a plane already parked. Doors open, steps down. Military police or MPs are standing guard. And we got there and the crowds, the crowds of people that were there. And we were small. I mean, I was 15, but I was small. I still am small. And the MPs said, oh, you're right, I breathed you young ones. And I said to the MPs who was at the gates, have we missed him? Have we missed Elvis? He says, no, but he's just ready to come out. He ushered us into the front of the barrier and he says, no touching Elvis, no talking to him. Anne is standing right at the bottom of the steps of the plane.

1:00:03She looks up and there is Elvis Presley, her boyfriend,

1:00:08Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:but also a 25-year-old US Army sergeant wearing his khaki green uniform and service cap. Well, he looked handsome, he always did, look handsome to me. I thought I was dreaming and the cheers he got when he stepped out of the aeroplane onto the steps and he shouted, where am I? And we all shouted, please wait! And I couldn't believe that he actually came down to the barrier where I was standing with other girls. I was so close to him. He had beautiful skin, lovely skin, beautiful teeth. I was in awe with him. I just, I couldn't believe that Elvis was standing next to me. I couldn't believe that.

1:00:54Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I was in shock. I was looking up at him, you know, I mean, I was speechless. I couldn't believe that this Elvis was in front of me. He signs autographs and without his usual entourage around him, he's reportedly relaxed, happy to shake hands, pose for photos and chat to his fans. He said he would be back, but he never came back. Then, just like that, Anne's dream is over. Elvis is hurried away into a waiting car bound for the nearby officer's mess. But not before Anne's friend Muriel seizes one last chance to see him. The commander's car was actually parked at the aeroplane and my friend jumped a barrier and spread-eagled herself onto the bonnet of the car and looked in the windows at Elvis getting driven away.

1:01:48Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Muriel was moved off the car and the fans are then ushered out the airport. We skipped, we sang, we were so happy going down the road, running round the road and getting across the runway again, which we shouldn't have done, but there again we did it. I went into the Central Cafe in Prestwick. They had a jukebox and they had a Coca-Cola machine and you put a shilling in and you got a bottle of Coca-Cola chilled. It was dead American.

1:02:24Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I was all shook up. I was all shook up. The next day, for anyone who still thought it was just a rumour, Elvis' visit makes the local newspapers. Hundreds of screaming teenagers drowned out the noise of jet engines when Sergeant Elvis at the Pelvis Presley flew into Prestwick last night.

1:02:45Max Pearson:Sergeant Presley stepped from the aircraft to the chants of We Want Elvis from the fans lining the barricades.

1:02:51Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:When told he was in Scotland, the 25-year-old rock and roll star said, Now that is one country I've never been in before. After a brief press conference, he was escorted to rub shoulders with fellow sergeants before flying home. The stay at Prestwick lasted for an hour. There's even a photograph of Anne. Her mouth is wide open like she's in shock. I'm looking up at him adoringly. I would say, you know, and smiling. And he's chatting to the other girls, but I'm so close to him. More than 65 years on, despite him never coming back, Elvis has never really left her. I've got Elvis in every room, even in the bathroom.

1:03:32Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I've got him and he's shaking his legs every time, you know, the minutes go forward, he shakes his leg. I've got him in every room.

1:03:43Max Pearson:And if that doesn't fill you with warm, nostalgic feelings, I don't know what will. Anne Murphy was speaking to Megan Jones. And that wraps it up for this week's History Hour. Next week, we'll be bringing you first-hand memories from some of the defining moments in the history of cinema. So I hope you'll join us for that. Until then, though, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye.

1:04:03Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:From the pioneers. We weren't going to ask mission. We were just going to do it. And the celebrations. You feel you win. I feel it.

1:04:12Max Pearson:I was first. I was first. We were so proud of ourselves. And Cameron was proud of us too.

1:04:19Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:I still cannot believe it. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. To the humiliations. I did cry most of the half. Oh man, I'm failing.

1:04:31Max Pearson:I'm failing this sport and I love.

1:04:33Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there.

1:04:39Max Pearson:It's not just about the sport. It's about all the other things that people with disabilities learn from each other.

1:04:45Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable moments from all over the world. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:05:28Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:everyday life,

1:05:29Max Pearson:and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet.

1:05:32Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui:Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.