#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $inp = 'AAA * BBB CCC * * "2000 01 00 00 00" "2004 01 00 00 00"';
my @r = $inp =~ /("[^"]*"|\S+)/g;
s/\A"(.*?)"\z/$1/ for @r;
$, = "\n";
print @r, "\n";