Today was a lot of learning in a meaningful way. We started the day with class at UEF where we spent time learning about Buddhism. From there we then took what we learned and went over to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda. The first thing I felt walking in was peace. It was special to watch everyone around us connect with their culture, going through their prayers and rituals. It was interesting to be able to stand in the temple and see how they pray to their higher power.
This afternoon we went over to the War Museum. I’m glad that I went but it wad truly hard to be there. I thought that I knew what to expect, however frankly I did not. Nothing can prepare you for the photographs and stories that go along with each and every one of them lining the walls. For me, the hardest part was seeing to what extent this war was effecting people who were not even soldiers. All of the children who were affected by Agent Orange was the hardest part to see. Each of them had been born with deformities, none of which were their fault which I feel hurt the most.
There were a few specific photos and stories from the museum that have become engraved in my brain. The first being a large cement cylinder that was standing in the museum. I learned that in that cylinder, 3 children hid under the ages of 10. Each of them was then found and killed. I read that blurb under the picture and my heart sank. Saving you the details but they described just how each child was killed and there was a word that I had to look up, and I just wish that I did not have to.
Another that I will remember is about a girl whose father fought in the war, and she was later born with a deformity due to agent orange. Agent orange stood out to me the most throughout all of the museum. I think this because for me it was the most emotionally taxing. however this story was a bit different from the rest I read. A large majority of the photos on the wall were showing how families and children in Vietnam were affected by the US spraying the Agent Orange, but this story was the opposite. A girl who’s father fought for the US military and then came home exposed to agent orange and later his daughter was born with a disorder.
The last story that sat with me was also about a child affected. One was about a girl who was affected by agent orange and her grandfather was one of the soldiers in charge of releasing it. This hit me hard because even thought I do not know either of these two people at all I just know that when she was born and her grandfather learned that he was to blame for pain his granddaughter has to go through, I just don’t think he could forgive himself. These two cases with how they affected Americans show how it just wasn’t punishment to the Vietnamese people, and that Americans have harmed their own doing this.
Ultimately, this museum was unlike any that I have ever attended. I have been to many museums in the states and many outside of the country as well but this one hit different. Americans call it the Vietnam war, and Vietnamese people call it the American war. It’s safe to say that when there is a museum in America we are seeing it from the side of the opponent as the enemy. Similar structure was placed in this museum, however with the main difference being that America was the opponent making America the bad side. I felt like this was super eye opening as I feel like I did not learn as much about the Vietnam war in school growing up, and honestly to see it from the side of the people it truly effected the most as we fought on their land was a unique way to learn about it fully for the first time.