When we reached the tent Buddhist monks dressed in red and yellow robes were praying and burning incense for the souls of the dead. Some were beating large drums while others blew small horns or sat playing plunky sounding stringed instruments. Hundreds of people crowded forward taking pictures and listening. Behind the tent was a massive statue of a woman holding a dead infant, her fist raised in defiance and three injured people lying at her feet. The statue depicted the indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese who had repelled invaders—Chinese, French, Japanese and American—for over two thousand years.

A Survivor Returns
I looked around and snapped some pictures. Some of the houses were partially restored with burned out walls and casts of dead animals scattered about. People were milling around one of the fully restored houses so I walked over for a look. Outside a woman interpreter from our group explained that a survivor and her husband had come back to visit the hamlet for the first time since the massacre. She said that during the massacre the woman, then 15, was trapped beneath a pile of bodies trying not to move. The GI’s shot into the pile and hit her in the spine. Today she remains partially paralyzed. “You can go inside,” said the interpreter. “It’s OK.” (Click the small photos to read more.)