Seoul Visual Collective

Survivors of the massacre are asked to recollect the memory by Koreans who inflicted such a trauma on their lives over 30 years ago. "I don't remember anything now", says Nguyen Thi Nhi, who is over ninety, fragile with her age and her memory flickers. Yet she ushers in the visitors from Korea with memories of unhealed pain and scarred body.

Nguyen Van Toi (74)
“They tied a 67-year-old man around a mango tree and shot him to death after covering his face with a mosquito net. They killed not only one but as many as 33 people in our village.” He lost his wife and four children including a four-day-old baby in the massacre at Lang Vinh Xuan, located deep in themountains of central Vietnam on February 9, 1967, by the lunar calendar.

Bui Thi Nong (46)
"If a war breaks out, stay out of the war. I don't like wars. The ongoing war in Iraq reminds me of the past and makes me sad."

Le Dinh Muk (46)
"Let's say that civilians inevitably have to be shot by a gun or a bomb during a war. But our village was not in a battle when Korean soldiers came before the incident in 1968."

Le Dinh Mang (35)
"I was too young to remember well, but the neighbors told me that my mother died while breast-feeding me in her arms."

Dang Thi Kha (39)
“During the slaughter, I was at the hospital. After the medical treatment, I wandered about from place to place. I was miserable having no parents and family like other friends."

Pham Dihn Son (66)
"My wife and son couldn't escape from the massacre site and I saw my son's stomach inflated by inhaling too much smoke."He confessed the dreadful, but unforgettable memories of the day to the Koreans for the first time ever.

Nguyen Thi Nhi (91)
Two choppers leave soldiers at an entrance to Thuy Bo hamlet and fly off. Villagers panic and hide into caves but soldiers order them out. The Korean soldiers pull the trigger as people climb out of the cave. And 145 villagers die. Nguyen Thi Nhi lost her grandson while holding him in her arms on the spot and got one side of the chin seriously injured.

Pham Thi Hoa (75)
"In memory of 135 compatriots who died in the massacre on January 26, 1968, by the lunar calendar", begins a memorial stone slab in thon Ha My hamlet. "Please stop. Recollecting the past breaks my heart. What can be said without even knowing who waged the war? "