Christopher Shays: “In Fiji, Mr. Solomon, the impact that Americans had during World War II had such an incredible result to the people of…”

“In Fiji, Mr. Solomon, the impact that Americans had during World War II had such an incredible result to the people of Fiji, because this was a British colony and yet the Americans went and just comfortably lived with the Fijians where they lived and went in the same buses they did. In fact, there is a wonderful story of an American soldier being driven by an Indian in Fiji, because there are a lot of Indians around the world as we know, and when he came to this British hotel, the Indian was not allowed in. And the American soldier said the hell with that, and just brought his Indian taxicab driver in to stay with him. But this kind of interaction, this one on one on the street, living as they live, has a tremendous benefit to helping us understand their culture, but also having them appreciate Americans. So it is not just the Peace Corps, but it was our American soldiers who were there before us.”