From: giao@informix.com (Giao Tien Vu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Re: Vietnam National Day
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:55:53 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

In article <1992Apr14.171717.16168@news.media.mit.edu> VU@GODZILLA.SCH.Symbolics.COM writes:
>
>    Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:30 EDT
>    From: giao@informix.com (Giao Tien Vu)
>
>    In article <1992Apr13.064647.3080@news.media.mit.edu> vinsight@netcom.com writes:
>    >
>    >VIETNAM NATIONAL DAY
>    >
>    >[...]
>    >The current communist regime, since deceitfully and forcefully taking
>    >power from a legitimate nationalist government on September 2, 1945,
>		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>    >has imposed the date as Vietnam's National Day.
>
>    Can we call the government of Tra^`n Tro.ng Kim a legitimate government?
>    The catch was that the government was promoted by the Japanese as the
>    nationalist alternative to the French government.  The truth was that
>    the Japanese used this government to further their control of Indochina.
>    This government fell because its association with the Japanese whose cruel
>    wartime policies caused about 2 million deaths in Vietnam in 1945.  There
>    was no way that it could stay in power.
>
>Anh Giao, would you expand on the Japanese cruel wartime policies for my own
>interest.  I once met a old gentleman who possessed a tremendous hatred to 
>the Japanese, to the seemingly silly extent of not allowing his son-in-law
>to park the Japanese-made car in front of his house.  He said he didn't
>hate as much the Chinese or the French Legionaires "Le^ Du+o+ng" (presuming
>during the domination periods) as deeply the Japanese of their inhumane
>wartime cruelty.  He would hold his contempt for the Japanese till the day
>he dies.
>
>I didn't take him seriouly at the time, as I did and still own Japan products.
>However, your statement brought back the memory and I would like to know more
>about the cause of this deep hatred in the old man.
>

Vie^.t Su+? Toa`n Thu+ by Pha.m va(n So+n has the following entry:

"... Ti`nh the^' tro+? ne^n ro^'i ren ho+n bao gio+` he^'t.  Da^n chu'ng
 ddau kho^? vo^ cu`ng vi` ca'i na.n no^.p tho'c cho Nha^.t du`ng, cho
 chi'nh phu? DDo^ng Pha'p du+. tru+~ dde^? cho+` su+. ddo^? bo^. cua? qua^n
 ddo^.i DDo^`ng Minh.  Mo^.t pha^`n lo+'n ruo^.ng dda^'t bi. tru+ng du.ng
 dde^? tro^`ng tha^`u da^`u, dday, gai ha^`u cung u+'ng cho ky~ nghe^.
 chie^'n tranh Nha^.t.  Quan la.i ddu+o+.c di.p bo'p na(.n, da^n chu'ng
 vo^ cu`ng ddie^u ddu+'ng, tu+` tho^n que^ cu`ng ta^.n dde^'n cho^'n thi.
 tha`nh, thu+o+`ng nhu+ to+'i mu+.c kho^ng the^? chi.u ddu+.ng ddu+o+.c
 nu+a~.  The^m va`o ddo', mo^.t na.n ddo'i kho^ng tie^`n khoa'ng ha^.u,
 kho^'c lie^.t qua' su+'c tu+o+?ng tu+o+.ng dda~ die^~n ra: ngo't hai
 trie^.u ngu+o+`i che^'t la lie^.t kha('p ca'c bo+` be^'n, ven ddu+o+`ng
 xo' cho+. suo^'t tu+` mie^`n Trung ra dde^'n mie^`n Ba('c.  Ngoa`i Ba('c
 pha^`n bi. ha.i nhie^`u nha^'t..."

Taking away the rice.  Converting rice fields into more military-oriented
uses.  Those are the cruel policies that I was referring to, especially
when there was a threat of starvation.  My mother's memories of the time
was particularly sad.  At the time, my grandfather's family was living
in Hu+ng Ye^n.  They were not in threat of starvation, but were close.
Everybody in the family got a bowl of rice a day with little else to eat.
The main course was salt and water.  The peasants fared much worse.  In
front of my grandfather's gate, people often came by and begged.  One woman
even offered her small child for adoption to save the kid.  Some others
tried to sell themselves into slavery just to have some food to eat.

Some people often compared the treatment of POWs of the Vietnamese Communists
with the Japanese practice.  Maltreatments, tortures, etc.  Similar to the
Nazi practice, the Japanese military often used the prisoners as slave
laborers as well.  During the time they ruled Vietnam, the Japanese did
crush some rebellions with great efficiency (translated: bloody
suppression.)

Like many other Asian people, some Vietnamese are still leery of the
Japanese to a certain degree.  Personally, I believe that the blame should
be on the shoulders of the WWII generation of Japanese militarists, not on
their descendents.  These people should be judged only on their own deeds.

Giao