This is probably as close as I'm going to get to the Vietnam War.
(Kim Phuc standing next to a painting Daniel and I made for her during her visit to our high school)
Just stumbled on this link. Thanks Digg! The first war to be as documented as it was...(Kim Phuc standing next to a painting Daniel and I made for her during her visit to our high school)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/vietnam_35_years_later.html
ironically I haven't seen much as I feel as I should, what with me being Vietnamese and all. My father was in the navy for the anti-communist forces as a missile loader on a war ship. It wasn't a long period yet, I don't really know much about his life during the that time... I suppose it was something my family wanted to leave in the past and start a new life. Now that I'm older, and more mature, I slowly have a growing interest in learning more about the war that definitely caused me to be the Canadian I am today. It reminded me of the time my high school was visited by Kim Phuc, the famous girl immortalized in the war picture (see above).
My dad around the same age as I was when I made that painting.
Would you say he looks like me? WTF happened to his neck??:P
Would you say he looks like me? WTF happened to his neck??:P
I can't say I knew much about her aside from the photo. She was invited as a guest speaker by our school to commemorate her anniversary of the photograph and the war. My buddy Steve and I (since we were viets and all) were in charge of gathering our vietnamese friends (from the catholic community) to attend the event and sing the national anthem (which I didn't know until the day before!... Was it the communist or southern anthem... oh politics!) So she told her story of what had happened before she was napalmed and her rescue. All I remember was that she would repeat that she 'cry, and cry and cry' a lot. In the end, she moved to Canada and became Catholic. *applause* There lies the connection to her invitation to our school.
My father attended that day as well, and had a chance to chat with her along with the faculty afterwards, which I remember felt cool that my dad was getting V.I.P. with the staff. Yeah... cooool. Not too sure she had much to say, aside her happenstance being a symbol of anti-war sentiment and propaganda.(well she didn't say that exactly) But she was affected by the war nonetheless. Even after this experience what do I really know?
The weird thing about all this is, with my personal distancing towards the war and my parent's life in Vietnam, is that I'm crazy fascinated with other historical wars. I recently studied the Japanese -American War during World War II! I loved Letters from Iwo Jima. And I can't wait to see The Pacific! But Vietnam War? Good Gawd!
So much I am fascinated with it in fact, I dedicated a short film (see a few images in the short film section) regarding it. Reading from 'Embracing Defeat' among other sources, I got into things such as the Nanking, The Bomb, American Occupation, Economical recovery, and its influence on manga and art (which probably has to do with the origins of my curiosity of the topic).
And all I did from the Vietnam War was a painting I did for Kim Phuc'n Phuc (with respects).
I'm sure it's a maturation of personal discovery. Steven Spielberg himself (can't even compare!) didn't do anything regarding the holocaust until he was in in 40's. He had his ideas on the Holocaust, but felt he wasn't ready until much later.
I visited my mom on mother's day and asked her about an old war photo of my dad in the navy. Then out from nowhere she whips out a whole new photo album with a bunch of 'new' photos of my dad I never seen before! Apparently they grabbed them on their last visit to Vietnam a few years ago... I ask them how come thye never showed me, in something similar she said.. "we never thought to show you". Wowzers... No wonder I know so little about that time in their lives. I don't know what it is about old photos, but I can't stop looking at them... something about it being bittersweet... being able to peer a glimpse into the past, at the same time existing in the present, and never able to go back. It's unbelievable to see my dad so young and almost 40 years ago.
A few friends of mine took a history course back in uni on the Vietnam War, which of course I had no particular interest in. Especially which shed the Viet Cong in any light other than negative. Blasphemous! From what my parents have told me, South : Good. North : Bad! Star? Yechh.. Stripes: Woo hoo!! I'm going to have to ask my fried to lend me his book from the course. It's crazy how complex it really is, and you can't help but grow up with bias from those who have been affected by the other side... and I hear Vietnam is actually really thriving now, and the War is becoming more of a distant memory. Well never entirely....
I better go see my Grandma in the motherland before it's too late...
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