Hello readers! My apologies for late blog. We had a full day tour to Handicap Handicraft Factory, Cao Dai Temple, followed by Cu Chi Tunnel, so everyone was pretty beat. I promise to make a double post later today. -Tristan
For your viewing pleasure:
Today was a packed day, an exhausting day, but a memorable one.
We started out at the War Remnants Museum, followed by the Jade
Emperor Pagoda, Notre Dame Cathedral, Central Post Office, The
Reunification Palace, and Chinatown. Each experience could draw much
valuable reflection, but I want to comment specifically on the War
Remnants Museum.
We had the best tour guide to date, a local man named Sol, who spoke
excellent English and was able to make us laugh, but also able to make
us reflect. He dropped us at the War Remnants Museum, a place which
Wikipedia can describe more succinctly than I: "Operated by the
Vietnamese government, the museum was opened in September 1975 as the
"The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the
Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]." Later it was known as the
Museum of American War Crimes, then as the War Crimes Museum until as
recently as 1993. Its current name follows liberalization in Vietnam
and the normalization of relations with the United States."
We did not have enough time to see the entire museum, which is quite
large and requires a lot of reading, but I did make it to the first
and second floors which primarily showed, with very graphic pictures,
the consequences of the American involvement in the war--birth
defects, child deformities, missing limbs, mental retardation, and
many, many more diseases brought on by the atrocities of war.
To say the pictures were disturbing is a gross understatement. They
were absolutely horrifying. I started to get sick and needed to leave
the exhibit to get some fresh air and calm myself down. My heart was
heavy. My mind could not wrap itself around the enormity and the
gravity of what I was seeing.
I cannot pretend to be able to articulate much of anything about the
Vietnam War. I was not part of that generation. My parents were not
actively involved either in fighting (my dad received a medical
exemption) or actively protesting. Living in Seattle, they were able
to be physically far from the turmoil both in Washington DC and
abroad. On top of a lack of personal ties to the war, I did not study
it in school and my primary means of learning about it involved
Hollywood films depicting the American side of the story.
So when I saw the pictures, read the facts, and felt the gravity in
those museum rooms, I felt like I was learning about the war for the
very first time. This of course is one side of the story, but a side I
had never really known about. It greatly disturbed me.
Once we were back on the bus and Sol gave us the opportunity for
questions, I asked a question that had been on my mind since arriving
in Vietnam: "How do the Vietnamese feel about Americans today?"
His answer has really helped me. He likened the relationship between
Vietnam and the United States as a marriage that ended in divorce. But
once the divorce happened, there were three possible scenarios that
could play out. One, the couple runs into each other on the bus. The
tension is so horrible that at the next stop one of them gets off the
bus and they never see each other again. Two, the couple runs into
each other at a restaurant. Each has a new partner. Mutual
introductions are made and the exchange of phone numbers and promises
to get together for dinner. The relationship is amicable. Third, the
pair realize that their relationship just can not end. This conviction
lead to a second marriage (which is legal in Vietnam), and the couple
reunites. The couple, having divorced and remarried, are wiser and
share a stronger bond the second time around. Much work must be done,
but this time around, their experience can guide them down a road to
happiness.
Today, Vietnam and the United States are in their second marriage.
There is much work to be done, but wisdom and experience will be their
guide.
Much of our pain and suffering in life is caused by broken
relationship, both with God, and with others. But we do get second
chances. There can be a remarriage. What happened in the past can be
forgiven and forgotten and the potential for stronger, wiser, and more
loving bonds of relationship are within our reach. -Nic
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