I think it is fair to say that today was certainly one of the more emotionally engaging days of the program, especially given the content that we viewed in the second half of the day.
I started the morning by grabbing breakfast with my friends Olivia, Reva, and Rachel at Merci Bakery, which I know some of our classmates had visited earlier in the trip. I got a strawberry croissant, a comically large pain au chocolate, and yet another iced milk coffee. All of it was absolutely delicious, and I downed it within 15 minutes. Then, when we got to UEF, we had a brief Theory of Buddhism class taught by our guide, Tuan. Although I had learned a little bit about Buddhism in high school, I did not remember much, so I’m glad that we had this chance to learn about its history and common beliefs. I liked learning about the 8-fold path in Buddhism that directs one towards peace, the one that I most resonate with being the right speech/words; I just think that when you begin saying negative things, it becomes really easy to continue diving deep into the negative mindset, and when you begin saying positive, “right” things, it is also easy to continue progressing into that positive mindset, so you might as well think positive and be more at peace with yourself/others. Tuan also had us think about whether Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion and provide reasoning for our opinions. I believe that Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion, because there is no deity that Buddhists worship or text that they follow; it is more-so a way of thinking and living. Also, I feel like religions almost always have an explanation for the creation of Earth and reasons for why things happen, which Buddhism does not have. I appreciated the interactive and informative aspects of this class, as it helped us retain the information that Tuan would later apply when showing us around the NgocHoang pagoda. The NgocHoang pagoda is a temple, not just for Buddhism, but rather for a mixture of Daoism and Buddhism(because of the former Chinese imperialism over Vietnam). The temple had gorgeous architecture, exterior and interior, with all the different statues and worship rooms. We learned that there are different things you worship/pray for in each room, like this one room that had statues of women and children, which is where a couple would go to pray for either good fertility or for a healthy baby once they have gotten pregnant.
Our lunch today was not my favorite, and I understand that it was not other people’s favorite either. We ate at a vegan place, so most of our entrees were composed of tofu, mushroom, and vegetables. I really liked their fried rice and one specific kind of tofu that was served(I unfortunately do not know what it is called). I was relatively impartial to everything else.
The second leg of the day started with a tour of the Reunification Palace, where we got to see an old bunker, conference rooms, cinema room, projector room, strategizing room, and much more. The palace also had various great views to take pictures from. The rooms were all so well-preserved – not that they’re ancient at all, but they are very well-maintained nonetheless. I remember Tuan explaining the differences in designs for the international conference room and the national/local conference room; for the international one, they had lots of designs of animals that symbolized power and leadership, while the national one was more simplistic and had less symbols of power, so that the leaders could make anyone who entered feel more equal and comfortable. There was a game room that reminded me of the 70’s interior design, with a couch that resembled a conversation pit. I also thought that seeing the old-time projector room was super cool, with the old rusted film projectors still standing by the glass windows. And, last but not least, the bunker was also cool (but scary) to walk around. The hallways and walls were so bare, with the only items filling the rooms being desks, communication devices like radios and telephones, maps, and cabinets. At some points of exploring the bunker, it felt like a maze.
A popular phrase that I often think about is, “a picture speaks a thousand words.” I think that this phrase applies immensely to history museums, like the War Remnants Museum that we visited as our last stop for the day. We don’t often get the Vietnamese point of view of the Vietnam/American War, and there are always so many inherent nuances when it comes to war in general, so visiting this museum felt crucial to this trip but also to our expansion of knowledge/worldly views. Seeing the pictures in the museum and reading the quotes and information that paired with them was horrifying, to say the least. The first part of the museum that I walked around was about the torture methods and prison conditions used against political prisoners and such. It was beyond atrocious, seeing the pictures of the prisoners who had met their fate through such twisted measures of torture which were listed and described beneath. Reading about the extreme use of barbed wire was gut-wrenching, as it was used directly on prisoner bodies(wound tightly around their limbs) and it was also used for Tiger Cages, which were cages that forced prisoners to stay in uncomfortable positions close to the ground, otherwise their flesh would be ripped. There were also numerous photos of political prisoners who had most of their teeth chipped out of their mouths because of their resolve/refusal to reveal information. There were examples of what the cells looked like – just a cement room with a cement “bed” and shackles to keep the prisoner contained to a single part of the cell. The food that was served to them was just as egregious, as it was usually rotten rice. Moving onto another exhibit in the museum, I looked closely at the pictures of the many innocent Vietnamese civilians who were held at knifepoint and gunpoint by American soldiers, begging for their lives because they had nothing to do with the war that their government started but were assumed to be involved because of where they lived. There were also photographs of the corpses, from the elderly to parents to children to babies, laid to rest after suffering from the effects of American forces. These pictures and their descriptions are what, admittedly, pushed me to tears. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, there are many nuances to be considered and discussed, such as the VietCong soldiers disguising themselves as civilians so to sneak past US soldiers and the US killing Vietnamese out of suspicion that they were guerrilla fighters, but it still feels extremely unjust that this elicited the death of over 2 million innocent civilians. In the Requiem section of the museum, it is made evident that war is typically, ultimately fruitless and detrimental to both sides, as there are multiple excerpts from actual US soldiers who show immense regret for following cruel orders that executed so many lives. The time, the effort, the resources, and the people, all put into a war that hurt both sides is insanity; there were so many that could’ve been saved. Additionally, there was a floor dedicated to showing the results of Agent Orange – once again, shown through both American and Vietnamese lenses. The deformed and disabled children that were born (and are still being born today) and how they yearn so badly to have some form of normalcy in their lives, but cannot because of events they could not control, strikes a chord deep within an enraged audience. These photographs cause such powerful emotion in everyone, and what’s hard to imagine is that without these images, this proof of these experiences and results, there would not be so much infuriation. Despite this monstrous war, the Vietnamese people are still unbelievably kind to foreigners, especially Americans. Sure, the current generation are not the ones who participated in the war that killed their previous generations, but even then, I’m not sure if America would extend the same forgiveness and generosity that Vietnam has extended to us. The humanity that they show, the benevolence they exhibit, even after all of this relatively recent history, is beyond any gesture of kindness I’ve ever seen before.
