From: calvin@dinkum.wpd.sgi.com (Calvin H. Vu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Re: Worst Famine in Vietnam History
Date: 2 Sep 92 18:13:48 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <1992Sep2.151356.3632@oakhill.sps.mot.com> dannyn@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Danny Nguyen) writes:

| In article <1992Sep1.194929.3140@cis.ohio-state.edu> v-nguyen@retina.cis.ohio-state.edu (Viet-Anh V Nguyen) writes:
| >In article <30g602Fg20Xk01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> vqt00@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com
| >(Married With Children) wrote:
| >
| >>Now with all the headlines about the famines in Somalia, Ethiopia; I
| >>remember about a story that mom told me a long time ago.
| >>She said that during the worst famine in VN history during 1940s
| >>(not remember which year), restaurants in North VN would make pho+? with
| >                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| >>babies because beef was so scare.  I am not sure whether this is accurate
| > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| >>especially when it comes from my mom.
| >
| >
| >   NNNNNN    NNNN     OOOOOOOOOOO
| >   NNNN NN   NNNN     OOOO   OOOO
| >   NNNN  NN  NNNN     OOOO   OOOO
| >   NNNN   NN NNNN     OOOO   OOOO
| >   NNNN    NNNNNN     OOOO   OOOO
| >   NNNN     NNNNN     OOOOOOOOOOO , it CAN'T be true! 
| >
	There were many stories of canibalism around that time but probably
not in a regular restaturant nor using babies (for the simple reason that 
there's not enough meat from a starved baby :-((().

| >
| >>There are few books that talk about
| >>this and VNmese history book, as I remember, barely mentions about this.
| >>Can anyone confirm this story/provide more information about this famine ?
| >>I would also like to know how it began and ended.
| >
| >
| >I think the mentioned famine happened during the Japanese occupation...
| >
| >Vietanh Nguyen
| 
| I don't remember the year but I think it was the year of the Goat;
| 
| na(m A^'t Da^.u.
| 
| D. Nguyen

	A^'t Da^.u is right and it was the year of the Chicken, 1945.
There was 4 reasons for the famine:

	1) The Japanese converted some rice fields into cotton fields.
	2) The Japanese Army stocked up the rice in the North in preparation 
for an Allied invasion.
	3) The French Army stocked up the rice in the South in preparation 
for an Allied invasion.
	4) The Armerican planes bombed the trains travelling between the 
North and the South and that made it difficult for the South to help the 
starving peasants in the North even if the rice would not have grabbed
by either the Frend or the Japanese Army.

	The famine happened after the rice seeds (ha.t gio^'ng) has been
sown and before they could be harvested.  It was NOT due to the shortage
of rice due to a bad harvest but to the arbitrary confiscation of rice
from the peasants by the Japanese/French Armies.  The starving peasants
left their homes and walked to the cities to find food.  Many died on the 
way and many died in the streets of the big cities.  When it's time for
the harvest (it was a very good season that year) a lot of rice fields 
were left rotten since there were no people left to harvest the ripe yellow
rice grain.

	The reason for the famine had very little to do with a bad rice 
harvest but due almost entirely to the war.   Of course, the Allied invasion 
never happened so the rice was left
rotten in the Japanese/French stockpiles besides left rotten in the
fields because the peasant had died before they could harvest what they
sown.  There was a poem written by Ba`ng Ba' La^n which is almost a
historical account of what happened.  Probably someone with more energy
will look it up and post it on the net.  It's a long poem and I'm
just lazy to type as usual :-)).

- calvin
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calvin H. Vu			   | "We are each of us angels with only one
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems  | wing.  And we can only fly embracing
calvin@sgi.com   (415) 962-3679	   | each other."