'Must live up to the sacrifice of comrades'

On the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day, Nghe An Newspaper had a conversation with Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can to understand more about the example of a former communist prisoner in peacetime.

PV: Sir, I understand that you experienced life and death on the battlefields of the South, and were a former prisoner in Phu Quoc, the hell on earth. Can you tell us about that difficult yet glorious and heroic period?

Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can:At the age of 17, I joined the army with the confidence and enthusiasm of youth. Leaving with the spirit of "Going to the battlefield without sparing blood and bones", I fought in the fiery Tri-Thien front. The life of a soldier is filled with fierce battles between the lines of life and death, but always burning with the fire of attack, hoping for victory one day. Then I was admitted to the Party right in the middle of the mountains and forests. The spirit of a soldier, a young party member, just kept advancing, destroying many brutal enemies to reclaim every inch of land.

Many hardships and fierceness, death was sometimes near, seeing comrades sacrificed right beside me but my spirit was not shaken, my heart was not discouraged. In 1969, in a battle to attack an enemy stronghold in the mountainous region of Western Quang Tri, I was seriously injured and fainted. When I woke up, I found myself in the enemy hospital, I realized that I was captured. The enemy tried to get information, but at that moment I pretended to be in pain, lost consciousness, could not get any information, they transferred me to solitary confinement in Bien Hoa prison.

PV: When you arrived at Bien Hoa prison while your wounds were still not healed, you and your teammates must have endured more beatings and torture from the enemy?

Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can:Back at Bien Hoa prison, they continued to torture us with brutal torture and physical abuse. When torture was not enough, they starved us, and they did not spare sick prisoners. Every time I think about it, I still feel chills down my spine. However, we remained brave and did not say a word, even though they tortured us to death. The enemy, seeing this, went from fear to admiration for the communist prisoners.

View of the prison, also known as Bien Hoa Correctional Center, during the anti-American war. Photo courtesy

One time, I spoke out against the beating of sick prisoners, and the prison guards rushed in and punched me, hitting me in the face with their rifle butts, breaking my teeth and crushing my nose. In the following days, I continued to suffer savage beatings, and I almost died and came back to life several times… During those difficult days, I always thought of my parents coming back to my homeland, always longing to live to see peace, to return to see my parents.

Embroidered pillow at Bien Hoa prison of veteran Nguyen Chuyen Can. Photo: Cong Kien

During those days, I happened to have a piece of white cloth and some colored thread from a comrade. Just after being tortured, the enemy had not yet noticed, I took out the cloth and embroidered according to my imagination about my homeland, about the desire for peace. Luckily, I still kept that piece of cloth to make a pillowcase. The words:“I have not yet repaid my motherly love/The fire of filial love lights my heart”,is so many dreams so much longing one day to return.

PV: After not being able to get anything out of you and the other prisoners, the enemy certainly wouldn't leave you alone. So how did you escape that "hell on earth"?

Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can:The Paris Agreement was signed, and the prisoners and I were returned. However, when we were about to be returned, the organization assigned me and four other brothers to prepare for combat, ready to seize guns and ships from the enemy if they made any moves to destroy the prisoners. But in the end, everything went smoothly.

Peace, those two sweet words, are not easy to obtain. They are exchanged for a series of harsh and fierce historical days, exchanged for tens of thousands of blood and bones of my comrades and other Uncle Ho soldiers.

PV: Yes, stories about those heroic days will never end! Now we are living in peaceful, free and happy days. Can you tell us more about your life after the war, returning home to a peaceful and free sky?

Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can:First of all, about my wife - Mrs. Hoang Thi Do (born in 1950), a friend of the same age, in the same class, in the same village and together on the battlefield to fight the Americans. Love had just begun to blossom when I entered the battlefield, a few months later she also joined the Youth Volunteers and did duty on the fierce Truong Son route. The day of departure, there was no promise, 3 long years without receiving news of each other, but somehow I always believed that she was always waiting for me, could not sacrifice and would live happily together for the rest of my life. Perhaps I was lucky, I could not have imagined that we both would return, together we would build a happy home with 5 healthy children...

However, during her years of duty in Truong Son, my wife Hoang Thi Do suffered many health complications. In recent years, she has been paralyzed on one side due to a stroke and has to stay in one place. Her children and grandchildren live far away, so I alone take care of her, worry about her meals, sleep, and medicine. Although it is hard, I always keep in mind that my wife has given me love during her youth, given birth to good children, and now I must take good care of her so that she can live with me for a long time, fulfilling the wishes of those difficult years.

PV: It is known that since returning to build your hometown until now, you have maintained the fish sauce making profession, and your fish sauce products are still chosen by many customers?

Mr. Can is still working hard at his family's traditional fish sauce business. Photo: Cong Kien

Mr. Nguyen Chuyen Can:When I was in the battlefield, when I was exiled in prison, the rich flavor of my hometown fish sauce always lingered in my mind. I often told my friends and comrades that if I could live and return, I would return to the family tradition of making fish sauce.

Since returning, I have devoted my time to the traditional fish sauce making profession. Firstly, to improve my family's life, to raise my children, and secondly, to maintain the traditional profession left by my ancestors. My family's fish sauce products were famous throughout the region. Since I was a child, I have helped my parents with some steps of making fish sauce, so preserving the fish sauce making profession is not only a livelihood but also a responsibility to preserve the family tradition.

Now that my children are grown up, I have disability benefits and don’t need much money anymore, but I still don’t want to give up my traditional profession. Every day I go to Lach Van to buy the most satisfactory batches of fish to make fish sauce. Making a living is no longer a top priority, so the fish sauce I make is reserved for giving to relatives, friends and former comrades.

Thinking about the historic days of the nation, I cherish these peaceful days even more. I often tell my children to try to live a life worthy of what their father's comrades sacrificed to regain peace and independence today.

PV: Thank you very much!