hankyoreh

Date of birth: 1926

Date of massacre: Jan. 19, 1968

Description of massacre: Since early morning, we had been hearing the sound of artillery fire in the distance from the village. That day was less than two days after I had given birth to my daughter Nguyễn Thị Xí. I was 41 years old at the time. The gunshots gradually drew closer to the village. At around 8 am, South Korean troops swooped in on our house. The South Korean soldiers gathered our family and our neighbors in the yard of our house.

When the soldiers dragged me out, I huddled up, clutching my newborn daughter to my chest. The soldiers beat at my back and head. Next, the South Korean soldiers began shooting randomly with their weapons. We survived because my family members and neighbors blocked me and my daughter when they fell. My husband Nguyễn Vân (47), my two daughters Nguyễn Thị Nhiều (14) and Nguyễn Thị Một (four), and my son Nguyễn Hai (one) were all killed by the South Korean soldiers. It took seven to eight days to collect the bodies of the people killed. When their faces decomposed too much to recognize, the villagers went looking for their family members based on their clothing and personal effects.

It was a huge shock to me when my husband and three children were killed by the South Korean troops. I didn’t have the strength to raise six children alone without a husband. I had to leave the children at different relatives’ houses because the South Korean troops set fire to our house and possessions. My family ended up scattered in different places.

I suffered for a long time from pain after being beaten so hard on my back and head by the South Korean soldiers. I also spent 18 months in prison after being taken in by the South Vietnamese army and questioned in 1969 over my two sons’ guerrilla unit activities. My health deteriorated rapidly as a result of being tortured. In 1970 and 1971, I received word that my two sons were killed on the battlefield. It felt like my world was collapsing. Only after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 was our remaining family able to live together again.

What I want from Korea: I want South Koreans to help the surviving family members of victims of massacres by South Korean troops.