I Am Not ‘Napalm Girl’ Anymore
At a time when the world is hearing about the brutal war stories from the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, an iconic photo of the Vietnam war has turned 50, reminding what wars do with the human beings. Sadly, many war-hungry nations never learna lesson from the history.Nick Ut, an American-Vietnamese photographer, had clicked one of the most defining images of the Vietnam war on 8 June 1972. The photo had captured a young girl child running naked down the street to escape the impact of the Napalm bombing of a Vietnam village by the US forces.Captioned “The Terror of War”, the photo won the Pulitzer Prize. The picture quickly came to be known as the ‘Napalm Girl’, symbolising the horrors of the Vietnam War.That girl in the picture is today a grown up lady and lives in Ontario, Canada. That’s the story of Kim PhucPhanThi who is now an activist for peace and wants her legacy to be about hope and survival.In an opinion piece titled “It’s Been 50 Years. I Am Not ‘Napalm Girl’ Anymore” in The New York Times on 6 June, Kim Phuc described her complicated feelings about her photo taken five decades ago.
‘Nong qua! Nong qua!’ (Too hot! Too hot!)
On 7 June 1972, photographer Nick Ut—who worked for the Associated Press at that time—heard about fighting going on in Trang Bang, a village about 50 km away from Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City.Ut went there the next day and saw bodies by the side of the road and hundreds of refugees fleeing the area. The photojournalist found many people hiding inside a temple as bombs dropped. He saw a South Vietnamese Skyraider plane dropping four American napalm bombs. These bombs were banned from being used on civilians by a UN treaty of 1981.Ut and other journalists saw people, including nine-year-old Kim Phuc, fleeing the bombing. As Ut took Kim Phuc’s pictures, she was heard shouting “Nong qua! Nong qua!” (Too hot! Too hot!). The girl had pulled off her burning clothes and was running. Kim Phuc had suffered 30% burnson her body. Ut drove her to the hospital. As there was a huge flow of victims, nervous doctors refused to treat her as priority and others also. Ut showed them his Press badge and said, “If one of them dies, I will make sure the whole world knows.”Luckily, Kim Phuc was stabilized and was treated for more than 14 months at the hospital. Ut later visited her and her family in the village.
Kim Phuc Went To Cuba To Study Medicine
The Vietnam government later sent young Kim Phuc to Cuba to study medicine. There, she met her future husband. She later took asylum in Canada. About her photograph that was taken by Ut, Kim Phuc in her recent article said, “Photographer Nick Ut changed my life forever with that remarkable photograph. But he also saved my life.” Adding, she said that seeing herself naked made her feel some hatred towards Ut at times, and she felt “ugly and ashamed”.“Growing up, I sometimes wished to disappear not only because of my injuries – the burns scarred a third of my body and caused intense chronic pain – but also because of the shame and embarrassment of my disfigurement,” Kim Phuc wrote in an essay titled “It’s been 50 years”.
An Ambassador of Peace and Development
Kim Phuc now runs the Kim Foundation International, and, she says, she has found purpose in “providing medical and psychological assistance to children victimized by war”.“I have only flashes of memories of that horrific day. I was playing with my cousins in the temple courtyard,” says in her article, recounting the “explosion and smoke and excruciating pain” she was in 50 years ago. “Napalm sticks to you, no matter how fast you run, causing horrific burns and pain that last a lifetime,” she points out. “I don’t remember running and screaming, ‘Nong qua, nong qua!’ (‘Too hot, too hot!’) But film footage and others’ memories show that I did.”“I also remember hating Ut at the time.” She also remembers her mother used to say that “I laughed a lot as a young girl.” She says, “We led a simple life with an abundance of food, since my family had a farm and my mum ran the best restaurant in town. I remember loving school and playing with my cousins and the other children in our village, jumping rope, running and chasing one another joyfully.“But right now, 50 years later, I am no longer a victimof war. I am a mother, a grandmother and a survivor calling out for peace,” says Kim Phuc firmly.“That picture became a very powerful gift for me to have a chance to have opportunity to do something back to help people,” she says.