ON FEBRUARY 2, 1968, 8-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh woke up to the sound of gunshots. She hurried down to the basement to hide, only to be discovered by a group of foreign soldiers. As she climbed up, a bullet pierced her belly, causing her intestine to pour out from the open wound. Fainting slowly from the excruciating pain, she caught sight of a Blue Dragon on the uniform of the soldier behind the gun.

   Ms. Thanh and her brother are the only members in her family who survived the Phong Nhi-Phong Nhat massacre, where the 2nd Marine Division of the South Korean Marine Corps, also known as the Blue Dragon Division, massacred 74 unarmed Vietnamese civilians. This is one of the most notorious massacres conducted by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War. The Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation estimated that 9,000 or more were killed during these massacres*. However, the South Korean government has not officially claimed responsibility, and its involvement in the Vietnam War remains silenced in Korea’s public memory. Ms. Thanh’s story challenges this silence and seeks to bring to light indiscriminate civilian massacres conducted by the South Korean military.

South Korea’s Vietnam War

   From 1964 to 1973, the Republic of Korea (ROK) sent approximately 312,000 soldiers to combat in the Vietnam War, the greatest number of troops contributed by a U.S. rally**. This deployment was a win-win for both the United States and South Korea: the U.S. could decrease the cost of war by employing the relatively inexpensive ROK troops, and South Korea needed U.S.’ economic and political support to rebuild its economy from the ruins of the Korean War. Throughout the course of the Vietnam War, South Korea earned around $1 billion, foreign capital that played a crucial role in funding South Korea’s ambitious development plans in the 1970s and 1980s***. Inevitably, South Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War strengthened its relationship with the United States and hardened the nation’s anti-communist stance at home.

   After arriving in Vietnam, the South Korean military quickly gained a reputation among the American ally force and the North Vietnam force for its brutal and indiscriminate fighting style***. The recent Korean War and the anti-Communist sentiment fueled South Korean soldiers to view the Vietnam War as a chance to vent personal hatred towards communism. Thus, the soldiers were prone to label innocent civilians as communists and conduct massacres. These alleged massacres were extremely violent and inhumane, as the victims were mostly women, children, and the elderly, all of whom were incapable of self-defense like Ms. Thanh. In their defense, brutality was also necessary for survival, as the South Korean military was dominantly assigned to rural areas in central Vietnam — the fiercest battlegrounds of the Vietnam War****.

Survivor’s trauma

   For survivors, escaping physical death does not completely liberate them from the trauma and the suppression of memory from the South Korean government.

   Because most victims still live at or near the site of the massacres, many cannot overcome their trauma and survivor’s guilt. In an interview with The Yonsei Annals, an anonymous female victim of Tay Vinh massacre in Binh Dinh province recalled her haunting encounter with the South Korean soldiers. One day in 1966, the interviewee, who was pregnant at the time, joined her female friends to the local market to buy supplies for a family ritual. On the way to the market, South Korean stopped the group and raped them. Although the interviewee was paralyzed by fear at the beginning, she became determined to flee from the South Korean soldiers to protect her unborn child. Using all of her strength, she freed herself from the embrace of the soldier and escaped. The angry South Korean soldiers shot at her, leaving bullet marks that she carries to this day on her shoulder. The interviewed victim was the only one who survived that day; all of her friends were killed after being raped. Experiencing sexual assault and attempted murder severely traumatized the victim and left lasting psychological damage. After the incident, the interviewee became afraid of close encounters with men in general and struggled to cope with her survival in the aftermath of her friends’ deaths.

   Likewise, Ms. Thanh from the Phong Nhat—Phuong Nhi massacre is frightened of sturdy men as they remind her of the South Korean soldier that shot her. Ms. Thanh also suffers from PTSD, claiming that even though several decades have passed, she “hasn’t been able to have a good night’s sleep” and that “her life was halved the day her mother and relatives died” under the indiscriminating guns of the South Korean military. While Ms. Thanh has moved away from the house where the massacre happened, she still feels an uncontrollable wave of sorrow every time she happens to cross the area.

   Although more than four decades have passed since the end of the Vietnam War, the South Korean government has not claimed responsibility for the massacres, a violent silence that prolongs the trauma of the victims. Ms. Thanh strongly condemns the South Korean government’s refusal to acknowledge the credibility of the victims’ testimonies. In her live testimony featured in the award-winning documentary “Untold” by director Lee-Kil Bora, Ms. Thanh expressed this frustration with the South Korean officials’ continuous attempts to question the validity of her survivor account, saying, “Why do you keep asking for proof? I am the living proof!”

Campaign for justice

   In recent years, the massacre victims have been cooperating with the Vietnamese government to establish memorial sites******. In villages like Phong Nhat-Phong Nhi and Tay Vinh, the local governments funded the construction of public monuments in remembrance of the massacre victims. One of the most striking mausoleums is the mural art at Tay Vinh massacre, which features graphic illustration of the South Korean military war atrocities such as arson, rape and massacre. These monuments serve as sites of remembrance that not only confirm the Vietnamese government’s support of the victims but also educate the local youth and visitors about the painful local history.

   The victims are also cooperating with international NGOs such as the Korea Vietnam Peace Foundation in association with the Sorry Vietnam movement to raise international awareness and campaign for recognition and apology from the South Korean government. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Phong Nhat Phong Nhi in 2018, some victims traveled to Seoul to participate in “The People’s Tribunal on War Crimes by South Korean Troops during the Vietnam War.” During this event, Ms. Thanh and several other massacre survivors gave testimonies in front of a large South Korean audience to pressure the South Korean government for apology and reparation.

   The victim’s tireless effort to establish agency and campaign for justice shows their strength. Surviving massacre and defying suppression of memory, these victims survived twice against the annihilating force of the South Korean government. Although these victims’ testimonies revive South Korea and Vietnam’s troubling past, they also present these countries with a chance to finally resolve war-time conflicts and work together toward a peaceful future.

*The Korea Herald

**The Hankyoreh

***"America’s Korea, Korea’s Vietnam” Charles K. Armstrong

****CNN

*****The New York Times

******Binh Dinh Online Newspaper