Children of U.S. soldiers visit Hoa Lo Prison Relic
PSNews – A team of 7 members of the "Two Sides Project", with a majority of the daughters of U.S. soldiers killed in the War in Vietnam, visited the Hoa Lo Prison Relic in Hanoi on November 27.
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The American guests were joined by Vietnamese friends, who are also sons and daughters of Vietnamese martyrs. |
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“We come here to take a look back to the history and to send a message against war”, Nguyen Van Thiep, a Vietnamese veteran spoke to the Public Security Newspaper (PSNews). |
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The delegation also offered flowers and incense at the Memorial of the Prison, and spent a minute of silence in memory of heroes and martyrs who sacrificed in the cause of national liberation and protection of the Fatherland of Vietnam. |
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The members of the delegation, especially the American guests, were impressed by all the exhibits, images and stories featuring lives of Vietnamese revolutionaries at this prison right in the center of Hanoi during the French colonial rule. |
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They were also told about stories about the unbreakable spirit of the Vietnamese revolutionaries jailed at this prison. |
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They also visited special cells in the prison. Hoa Lo Prison is known to be a horrifying and brutal prison, which captured Vietnamese patriots against the French colonial government from 1896 to 1954. |
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“I cannot believe how brutally people could treat each other”, Bonnie Dean, a member of the US team, a daughter of an American pilot killed during the war in Vietnam. |
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In the period of 1964-1973, this place was used to detain captured American pilots. However, the former US pilot at the prison was treated kindly by Vietnamese people. |
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Susan Mattera, a member of the US delegation, said that she was so moved, and that, thanks to this visit, she could learn more about the pains and sufferings caused by the war as well as the kindness and altruism of the Vietnamese people. |
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Jull Hubbs, another member of the US team, could not hold her tears, sharing that she has a friend in the U.S., whose father was imprisoned in Hoa Lo Prison during the war. Jull was asked by her friend to place a bouquet of sunflowers to the place where her father had once been detained. |
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| Hanoi is one of the stops of the trip of the joint delegation of the "Two Sides Project" to many locations in Vietnam from November 25th to December 10th, with a view to discovering the history and people of Vietnam, the consequences of the war. |
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| As scheduled, they also visit the old battlegrounds where their fathers were killed, and make friends with children of Vietnamese martyrs and veterans. |
