Wartime letters
(Baonghean) - In the Military Zone 4 Museum (Vinh City) in peacetime. The letters were written many years ago, they can be written in neat or hasty handwriting, on white or yellowed pages, intact or torn, can be wrapped in simple envelopes or with many decorative drawings..., but all of them make us moved to tears!
(Baonghean) - In the Military Zone 4 Museum (Vinh City) in peacetime. The letters were written many years ago, they can be written in neat or hasty handwriting, on white or yellowed pages, intact or torn, can be wrapped in simple envelopes or with many decorative drawings..., but all of them make us moved to tears!
Ms. Bui Thi Ngoc, an officer of the Military Region 4 Museum, led us to the Martyrs' Relics Exhibition Room. As someone who regularly introduces artifacts to visitors to the Museum, she remembers every detail of the origin or related information of each artifact and each letter. Ms. Ngoc said that most of the martyrs' relics in the Museum were collected many years ago, after the regrouping of martyrs' graves or were donated by relatives and family members of the martyrs. They were soldiers who fought on many fronts, but mainly from the Lao battlefield. Many of the relics in the Museum were obtained by the Lao people who loved and were grateful to the martyrs and buried them with them or kept them for worship. Among those relics, the letters are the confidants, the diaries, the witnesses..., and now they are the most authentic storytellers for us, so that we can understand the things that come back from the past, things that despite the cruelty of war or the cruelty of time, are not forgotten.
What impressed us were 136 letters from martyr Nguyen Anh Mau, a soldier of Group 559 of a Truong Son transport unit. These letters were sent to his wife, Hoang Thi Siu in Hung Yen, a young newlywed, and were written between 1963 and 1968. In addition to the letters, the Museum also keeps Mau's diary. What is special is the notebook given by the Youth Union on his wedding day with Siu, in which he still keeps his handwriting with words of "promise" of love with her. 136 letters, each sent from a different address along the battlefield, sometimes in Bac Ninh, sometimes in Hanoi, sometimes in Quang Binh, sometimes in Hue... Different stamps, even envelopes with stamps drawn by the soldiers themselves, but the letters still reached her, the woman who was anxiously waiting in the rear. A certain postman silently did that good deed, so that in the stormy battlefield and the distant rear, the couple could still send each other words of love. In a letter, Mr. Mau wrote: “Siu! Because of the war, we suffered losses in every aspect, especially in terms of feelings, right? That is natural, my dear. In this great historical period, the liberation of the South
Military Region 4 Museum staff introduces 136 letters from martyrs
Nguyen Anh Mau
The letters with the soft, neat handwriting of Mr. Mau were kept by his wife with all her love and longing. However, he died after sending her hundreds of letters full of longing and desire to meet. She kept all of her husband's letters, specifically counted the number of letters received in a period of 6 months or 1 year, and kept them in a corner to remember him. Then she wrote her farewell to him with all her pain. Later, Ms. Siu remarried, had 3 children and lived a simple life like everyone else, but she always reserved the most sacred corner of her soul for her deceased husband. Ms. Siu kept the 136 letters carefully until she gave them to the Museum 4 years ago. That was when she was in the hospital and coincidentally met Ms. Nguyen Thi Tien, a museum staff member. Through their conversation, Ms. Tien asked Ms. Siu to give the letters back to the Museum. And then her 136 letters and love story became one of the touching stories in the Martyrs' Relics Gallery of the Museum.
The room also displays a letter from martyr Dau Sy Hung, born in 1941, enlisted in April 1959, rank of Second Lieutenant, Deputy Platoon Leader of unit C2D45764, native of Dong Hien, Cong Thanh, Yen Thanh, Nghe An, sacrificed on June 7, 1967 at the Southern front, remains found in May village, Ta Ria commune, Sepon, Xavanakhet, Laos. That was the letter Hung wrote to his wife, Nguyen Thi Lam: “If I go and sacrifice my life for the Fatherland, you must be brave and not suffer, do not cry and be depressed. You teach our children on my behalf, so that someone will follow in my footsteps. The first drop of blood between us could also be the last drop of blood. That is natural in the lives of soldiers. If I die, remember to tell our children about the father they have never seen. Try to keep this letter until the day of reunification if I still come back to you and your children. If not, I will keep this letter until my children grow up, then I will give it to them.
Darling, from this month onwards I will send you a letter every month. If I am absent for a few months without sending a letter, it will be as if something bad has happened to me. And every time I receive a letter, I will write back to you immediately!...”.
Soldiers, no matter what battlefield or historical period, always keep in mind that sacrificing for the Fatherland is a normal thing, death is an inevitable part of war and a glory for those who live for noble ideals. In letters to their loved ones, they often have premonitions of bad things happening to them, but there is always a radiant belief in a day of victory.
The museum also displays many other relics such as notebooks, comb fragments, parachute hammocks, cards, etc. Somewhere on those relics are engraved names, loving words, and last wishes. They are like letters, although they were not sent, but they are the things that the soldiers wanted to tell their loved ones. Perhaps anyone who visits the museum will shed tears when reading the last words of martyr Cao Cu Thin. That is the last page of his diary: "I cannot live. Goodbye mother, brother, nephew". Below are blood stains that are still clearly visible on the fingerprints. He wrote that line when his last breath was falling. It was the shortest and most painful letter.
Ms. Ngo Thi Nga - another staff of the Museum continued to take us to visit the warehouses displaying relics. In the hundreds, thousands of letters that the Museum staff had, in addition to those sent to parents and family, there were many letters sent to wives or lovers. Love helped soldiers forget all the hardships and threats of death to fight, hope and believe. On the gray background of the battlefield, on the cruel color of death, they - soldiers who had sworn to devote themselves to a noble ideal - still reserved a corner in their souls to love, to remember, to aspire. Thanks to love, their ideals became brighter, their wills became stronger, and their spiritual lives were filled with incense.
We read a letter dozens of pages long from soldier Pham Xuan Sinh, born in 1937, from Thanh Long, Thanh Chuong, Nghe An, currently residing in block 8, Ha Huy Tap ward, Vinh city. Sinh joined the army in 1961, and on a leave he accidentally met and fell in love with Le Thi Kim Dung. Returning to the battlefield, carrying in his heart the image of a gentle girl, Sinh wrote a letter full of affection to Dung, who was studying at Thai Nguyen Electromechanical School at that time. The letter recalled the few meetings but had a decisive meaning for the private lives of both of them. On May 17, 1964, the words of love were spoken on "a night full of stars, the new moon had just appeared, the hometown was harvesting the winter-spring crop". The second night was a night of waiting, and on the third night, when the two had just laid their heads together to "bathe in the moonlight" of the first quarter, they heard the sound of the alarm drum, and had no choice but to "go to the communal house yard, gather with the militia". Then he went to war. The letter was dated March 26, 1969, when they had been in love for nearly 5 years, but they had not seen each other for 3 years. That is why in the letter he wrote: "It has been nearly 5 years since we have been together for a full moon." He also wrote: "From the defensive position of a unit, I am writing this letter to you. I should have written it another time when I have time, but I think it is better to take the opportunity to write to you right now on this land that is burning with smoke and fire from bombs and bullets." In this letter, the soldier spoke of his comrades with the most beautiful words. He praised the young soldiers in their late teens and early twenties who dared to sacrifice themselves for the Fatherland, he called them the flowers of the land. He also became self-aware of himself and his maturity after experiencing the pain and hardships brought by war. If 18 years ago, when the French invaders destroyed his family and homeland, he was just a 12-year-old boy hugging his grandmother's body and crying silently, now, when he heard that the American invaders were trampling on his homeland, he was a soldier with a steady hand and ready to fight...
Entering that space of the Military Zone 4 Museum, I felt like I was facing a gaze. It could be a gaze from the past, from history, deep, sad and trusting, sacred, or it could be a gaze from myself, forcing me to face myself. I have visited the Museum many times, but every time I leave, I think I will have to come back...
Pham Thuy Vinh
