War Remnants Museum 战争遗迹博物馆 Day 4.1

War Remnants Museum

这是最后一天在越南参观的旅游景点，也是让我迟迟不肯下笔的一个地方。

不肯下笔的原因是因为，想更认真的去记录这个地方。

荣获 TripAdvisor 的 Travellers' Choice 2014 Winner 也是之后才知道的。

说实话，当时只是因为在胡志明市，不晓得要去哪里走走了，又因为靠近旅店，才打算来这个博物馆消磨时间。

在博物馆户外有许多的观光客，整体的感觉给人就是比较~ 旅游、轻松。

和博物馆户外的大型战斗机拍照，在旁边的我显得好小。

略懂战斗机的 dear 还在旁边和我解释，这部是干嘛用的，那部是干嘛用的，

而我，都只是走马看花，有听没懂。

就是这部机（同模型/同号）把 MH17 射落下来的（不知道自己有没有放对照片?）

一开始只是觉得挺新鲜的~ 就很旅游的 feel 啊！

后来，轻松的感觉变成沉重。这个博物馆的每个角落，都让人读到眼泪。

最让人感动的，是一封致美国总统的信，来自一个畸形的越南女孩 Trần Thị Hoan。该信件写于2009 年。2014年的今天，想必这位女孩已经芳龄28了。

内容大约表示她是谁，来自哪里，橙剂 Agent Orange （生化武器）对她和许多越南人所带来的负面影响。当美国总统奥巴马对自己的爱女说：“These are the things I want for you—to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world.” 的同时，是否知道她多希望，自己能有同样的机会，去学习和梦想。

她学医的梦想被剥夺，因为她天生没有完整的双手和双脚。她被告知，不要憧憬有自己的家庭和抚养自己的小孩，为避免生出下一代畸形的小孩；而她的案例，不过是300 万受害者的其中之一。她请求相同的机会，给这些被人们遗忘的无辜受害者。

Dear President Barack Obama!

My name is Trần Thị Hoan, 23, born in Đức Linh District, Bình Thuận Province, Việt Nam. I am a second generation victim of Agent Orange, one among the plaintiffs, representing millions of Agent Orange victims, in a lawsuit against 37 U.S. chemical manufacturers in the U.S. Federal Court, two richest of which are Dow and Monsanto. They manufactured deadly defoliants sprayed in the Vietnam wars containing dioxin—it has not only killed living people during the war, but gradually kills their children generations, like me, and goes on to kill the next ones. It damages my country and other nations beyond imagination.

I have read your letter to your beloved daughters, especially this excerpt: “These are the things I want for you—to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have. That’s why I’ve taken our family on this great adventure.” I was deeply moved by the love you have for your daughters and the dreams you have for children of other countries, and I dream that certainly you meant also for Vietnam. I dream that when you were on the campaign trail, and when you were writing those lines, you had some ideas about Agent Orange and its devastating effects on human and environment. I dream when you wrote “And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have” you were actually thinking about innocent children slowly killed by dioxin, and their sufferings, their education in a very poor country like Vietnam will be the same as your daughters in the U.S. I dream you had in mind what to do to help every child to have the same chances to learn and to dream and grow and thrive like your daughters’.

May I say something about myself: when I was in junior high school, I studied hard to become a doctor to help people in my home town because they were so poor. But this dream was taken from me. I was suggested in college not to follow medicine because I was born with no legs and no left hand. My parents were consumed with grief when I was born and when I started school. I was suggested not to dream about raising a family for fear that my children would be born deformed like me, and the poison might even take their lives. You may have guessed from my personal story, one among three million victim stories, what happen to other parents victims of Agent Orange.

You are a father of two beautiful daughters, and you know how parents love their children. As you might have known, the U.S. Vietnam veterans, sick from Agent Orange, have gotten remediation for their illnesses, but their children have not. How do their children live a decent life like your daughters? In the case of my poor country, veterans of the U.S. war and their children and grandchildren have not received any justice from the U.S. courts: they refused to hear our case against the U.S. chemical companies without explanations. This denial of justice may have rendered void your dream for every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive. When I toured the U.S. cities last October, I found the American people deeply concerned about the problems of Agent Orange, including lawyers. I was totally disappointed with the U.S. Supreme Court running away from this question of justice.

I understand that you are very busy with the urgent matters that face your country, I hope that you would consider the poison from Agent Orange and the lives of its victims with as much a matter of urgency because what they mean to the future of humanity. I hope that you, a symbol of hope not only for the United States, but also for the world, a father who love his children dearly, and a man of humanity, spare a little time to resolve this forgotten problem.

Thank you!

Trần Thị Hoan

虽然，她的请求或许被人漠视，世界上有需要的人太多，她不过是其中之一，根本无暇注意一个畸形的人所写的一封信。

然而，却是一种提醒。
四肢健全的我，应该好好规划人生，这样，才能对得起那些畸形的人。