Receiving his mother's portrait from an Australian war veteran,84-year-old Le Sang from Da Nang City had tears welling up in hiseyes as if he had just seen his mother, Phan Thi Dien, in the flesh.
The portrait is one among other such war memorabilia theAustralian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society handedover to Vietnamese people recently under the Operation Wandering Soulsproject.
"The portrait was painted by my brother,painter Le Dinh Sung," Sang said. "It would have been burnt to ashes ifDennis hadn't retained it."
"In my opinion, only aperson with a clear conscience and sense of humanity keeps a portrait ofan unknown person for a long time. The war separated my family, nowseeing the portrait I feel like I meet my mother and brother again."
One day in 1968, an Australian consultant G W Dennis came to anisolated village in the central province of Quang Ngai after ithad been attacked. He found a woman's portrait in a burning house.Although he couldn't read the handwriting on the back side of theportrait, he still thought that it must be important for this family. Hebrought it back to Australia and kept it until he found out aboutthe project.
In cooperation with the Marin HanoiCentre, the project, launched by Australian and New Zealandveterans, aims to return to Vietnamese families items such as letters,personal diaries, drawings, notebooks and photographs that were found onthe battlefield or removed from bodies.
Apart fromthe portrait, the Australian veterans also brought many letters,sketches and paintings collected from battlefields in Binh Dinh, BaRia-Vung Tau and Dong Nai provinces. All the relatives of the soldierswere deeply moved when they received the war memorabilia.
After 45 years, Huynh Thi Sau, 64, from Binh Dinh province, receivedher mother's letter written to her when Sau served in the army as anurse. The war hindered the postman's job, preventing the letter frombeing sent to Sau. Now, thanks to the project, it has arrived to itsintended recipient.
Bob Hall, team leader of the project, said it was time to heal and appease the pain caused by war.
"We want to help the Vietnamese people in the way they helped us find, identify and repatriate our MIAs," Hall said.
"It's the right thing to do, returning them. If the situation wasreversed we'd like them to have done this for our families."
Hall said he knew that in Vietnamese culture, those who die inunmarked graves are believed to be "wandering souls" who are unable torest in peace. The families of the fallen long to find their MIAs, justas Australian families longed to find theirs.
"That's a lot of grief. We can't help with all of this problem, but wecan make a difference in cases where Australians and New Zealanders wereinvolved."
Le Huu Loc, chairman of the Binh DinhPeople's Committee, said the invaluable war memorabilia would helpeducate young people about the patriotism and the nation's glorioushistory.
"We don't call the fallen soldiers‘wandering souls'," he said, "we call them ‘immortal souls', becausethey live forever in our mind, their souvenirs remind us of theirsacrifice forever."-VNA
The portrait is one among other such war memorabilia theAustralian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society handedover to Vietnamese people recently under the Operation Wandering Soulsproject.
"The portrait was painted by my brother,painter Le Dinh Sung," Sang said. "It would have been burnt to ashes ifDennis hadn't retained it."
"In my opinion, only aperson with a clear conscience and sense of humanity keeps a portrait ofan unknown person for a long time. The war separated my family, nowseeing the portrait I feel like I meet my mother and brother again."
One day in 1968, an Australian consultant G W Dennis came to anisolated village in the central province of Quang Ngai after ithad been attacked. He found a woman's portrait in a burning house.Although he couldn't read the handwriting on the back side of theportrait, he still thought that it must be important for this family. Hebrought it back to Australia and kept it until he found out aboutthe project.
In cooperation with the Marin HanoiCentre, the project, launched by Australian and New Zealandveterans, aims to return to Vietnamese families items such as letters,personal diaries, drawings, notebooks and photographs that were found onthe battlefield or removed from bodies.
Apart fromthe portrait, the Australian veterans also brought many letters,sketches and paintings collected from battlefields in Binh Dinh, BaRia-Vung Tau and Dong Nai provinces. All the relatives of the soldierswere deeply moved when they received the war memorabilia.
After 45 years, Huynh Thi Sau, 64, from Binh Dinh province, receivedher mother's letter written to her when Sau served in the army as anurse. The war hindered the postman's job, preventing the letter frombeing sent to Sau. Now, thanks to the project, it has arrived to itsintended recipient.
Bob Hall, team leader of the project, said it was time to heal and appease the pain caused by war.
"We want to help the Vietnamese people in the way they helped us find, identify and repatriate our MIAs," Hall said.
"It's the right thing to do, returning them. If the situation wasreversed we'd like them to have done this for our families."
Hall said he knew that in Vietnamese culture, those who die inunmarked graves are believed to be "wandering souls" who are unable torest in peace. The families of the fallen long to find their MIAs, justas Australian families longed to find theirs.
"That's a lot of grief. We can't help with all of this problem, but wecan make a difference in cases where Australians and New Zealanders wereinvolved."
Le Huu Loc, chairman of the Binh DinhPeople's Committee, said the invaluable war memorabilia would helpeducate young people about the patriotism and the nation's glorioushistory.
"We don't call the fallen soldiers‘wandering souls'," he said, "we call them ‘immortal souls', becausethey live forever in our mind, their souvenirs remind us of theirsacrifice forever."-VNA
