hankyoreh

Year of birth: 1954

Date of the massacre: Oct. 17, 1966 (solar calendar)

Description of the massacre: I, the petitioner Do Thi My Le, was present at the massacre but managed to survive. The Korean soldiers went through the houses and brought all the villagers to Bờ Trãy rice paddy, where they fired on us and threw grenades at us. The screaming people were gunned down. Amid the hail of bullets, my younger sister and I crouched on the ground and lay still for two hours, feigning death. My two younger brothers were killed. After learning what had happened, my father and mother came quickly and rescued my sister and me. My family buried the bodies of my two younger brothers and then took refuge in a place called Kim Sa. I heard that my mother was seized by Korean soldiers while she was going to our house in search of some cassava (Khoai Mi) and rice and that they shot and killed her.

Another survivor, named Đỗ Văn Chức, told me the story he’d heard from his father. “The day before, Korean soldiers were apparently marching from their base at Trà Vinh Đông when a landmine blew up and killed several of them. So on the morning of the massacre, they gathered all the villagers together. While they were interrogating the villagers about the landmine, they beat some of the villagers and someone pulled out a bayonet and stabbed one of the women. In shock, the other villagers shouted and tried to run away, at which point the soldiers opened fire on them. I managed to survive, and I’m told I was on the belly of my dead mother, suckling at her breast.” ( “Stories that Koh Kyung-tae wasn’t able to tell about 1968,” in the Hankyoreh 21, Vol. 1250, Feb. 25, 2019) Đỗ Văn Chức managed to survive the massacre because his mother was holding him. His older brother also died in the massacre.

Since 20 people were killed in the massacre at Bờ Trãy rice paddy and 16 were killed elsewhere, the death toll at Tịnh Thọ Commune that day was 36. The next day, 21 people lost their lives at the village of Bình Hòa. At that time, 9th company with the Korean 2nd Marine Division were stationed in the area. Among the 20 names written on the Bờ Trãy rice paddy memorial that was erected in 2015, 14 were women, and 8 were no more than 10 years old.

What I want from Korea: I would like support from Korea so that I can clean up and decorate the humble graves of my mother and siblings. Since the road to the memorial isn’t paved, it gets flooded whenever it rains, making it very inconvenient for the villagers to visit. I want Korea to pave that road.