Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Duong Van Khang, 1981

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Transcript

Hardships suffered by villagers under French and Japanese occupation

SR 2019

DUONG VAN KHANG

Interview with a peasant named Duong Van Khang

Interviewer:

How often did you see the French soldiers? And if you did not see the

French soldiers then how did you know that the French ruled over

Vietnam?

Duong Van Khang:

By the time I was eighteen, I already knew of the French rule. I often

went to the provincial town of Son-tay and saw the French there. In

this village, however, we did not meet with the French frequently. Here

we had the village official like the village chief and the head of the

village council who lorded over us and who oppressed us. The French

themselves were not physically present in village often to oppress the

people. They did this through their district officials and village

officials. We did not get to see the French here often. Only once every

couple of months.

Interviewer:

How did the French recruit soldiers for their colonial army from the

village?

SR 2020

DUONG VAN KHANG

Beep tone

Roll 20 of 7860

156, Take 1

Interviewer:

How did the French recruit soldiers in the village, and how was it that

you were not taken away as a soldier?

Duong Van Khang:

In order to recruit soldiers for the colonial army, the French first of

all sent orders down to the district headquarters. There were the

blue-sash soldiers stationed at the district headquarters. The district

headquarters then contacted the village officials who led them in a

round up of the village, arresting everyone whom they wanted to draft

into the army. These people who got captured would then be taken

immediately up to the district headquarters. Now, why did I not get

taken away as a soldier? This was because I went into hiding. There you

see! I either went up into the attic and stayed there or just ran any

from the village when they came.

Interviewer:

During the French colonial period, what was the life of a peasant like

you like?

Duong Van Khang:

In general, life of the people was full of hardship. This was because

taxes were high and corv饠labor was harsh. So the majority or the

population had to suffer starvation frequently. In 1945, in our village

alone 250 persons died of starvation. These people just dropped dead

everywhere. As far as my family was concerned, during that famine we

still had enough rice. But we had to help those less fortunate than us.

We cooked our rice into thin gruel and we and the poor neighbors ate

together. We had to eat gruel mixed with a lot of greens, though. It's

just like the kind people feed pigs with now. To tell you the truth, we

were also hungry.

Interviewer:

When the Japanese troops came, did the situation change? How was it

different? What did the Japanese do that the French did not do?

Duong Van Khang:

The Japanese came here in droves. When they came, they made the village

officials force us to grow hemp for them. And then they collected the

hemp.

158, Take 1

Duong Van Khang:

Under the French, the majority of the population suffered terrible

hardship. Only a very small minority enjoyed a comfortable life. Most

of the people suffered a lot because of the high taxes and the heavy

corv饠labor. Furthermore, they abused us physically. The majority of

the inhabitants here hired themselves out as laborers. And although

they worked from dawn till dusk they did not have enough to eat. Only a

few rich families enjoyed their life.

How come we suffered so terribly in 1945? This was because of the

arrival of the Japanese. The French were already exploiting us. And now

on top of the French the Japanese were exploiting us. Worse still, they

forced us to use our paddy fields to plant hemp for them.

We had to take care of these hemp fields and had to harvest the hemp

for the Japanese, but we were never paid for our work. For that reason,

we suffered a famine. In 1945, so many people died of hunger here in

this village. I myself had to bury four persons. So any people died at

the time so we did not have enough wood to make coffins for them. I had

to wrap the four corpses I buried with hemp cloth.

I buried four persons in that graveyard over there. In this village

more than 250 persons died of hunger. I witnessed families in which

every member died. There were absolutely no survivors. In my immediate

neighborhood here seven families disappeared completely. They were

dying of hunger and so they left the village in search of food. And

then all dropped dead. I saw all this with my own eyes. I saw terrible

suffering.

And so, even though my family did not suffer as much as the other

families, we decided that we had to struggle. This was because the

imperialists had oppressed us so badly and caused us to suffer too

much. Now, the French had exploited us. But when the Japanese came,

they exploited us even more.

They exploited us to such a degree that we simply died in droves

because of starvation. Many people just dried up and died, not having

any blood left in their bodies. Simply dried up and died. Nothing left

to eat. I just could not stand there and watch all this happening to my

fellow Vietnamese. So I joined the struggle beginning in 1944 and 1945

and never minded any kind of suffering and hardship at all. I vowed to

fight until the end. Now, that was my story.

Fighting as a member of the Viet Minh

159, Take 1

Clapstick

Interviewer:

When did you hear about the Viet Minh? When and why did you join the

Viet Minh?

Duong Van Khang:

By the end of 1944, I heard about Uncle Ho who fought for the right of

the peasants and the workers. So as a peasant who had to suffer a lot,

I realized that the only correct thing for me to do was to follow the

same path. We were ready to support any effort in defending the rights

of the majority of the population. We knew then that we had to follow

Uncle Ho and the Party in order to struggle successfully.

We had been told about the Viet Minh. By the beginning of 1945 I was

introduced into the Viet Minh in order to fight, to take back

governmental power and to regain the fundamental rights for the

peasants and the workers. So I was ready to stand up to defend the

people. I joined the self defense force to defend the people and to do

whatever I could to help bring about enough food and enough clothes for

the people. So I joined the self defense force in the beginning of

1945.

Mr. Do Nham became the commander of the all village self defense force.

And I was a squad leader. In 1946 the self defense force was turned

into a guerrilla force. And I was made the commander of a platoon of

the guerrilla force by recommendation of the village and appointment

from the central government. We were trained by various army units,

which came to the village for that purpose.

In 1946, the French attacked us. But by that time we had already

organized a whole company of guerrilla soldiers. When the French

reached Le Phung, we sent a platoon of guerrillas to Phung and engaged

the French there. We fought with them at the bridge for three days. All

we had in terms of weapon were machetes, several hand grenades and

three muskets.

But the French chased us away with their gunfire. We ran back to the

village and the villagers supported us. They gave us bamboo and food.

We organized a company of guerrilla soldiers, installed bamboo stakes

around the village and turned it into a combat village, and waited for

the enemy to come to us. After we finished building our village into a

combat village, the French came and attacked us in 1948.

They attacked us forty-nine times in 1948. We fought them whenever and

wherever they arrived. In one of the biggest battles we managed to kill

about a platoon of their Negro soldiers. These Negro soldiers had scars

on their faces. During those 49 battles, they burnt our village three

or four times. This neighborhood here was completely burnt down. All

the houses you see here have been newly built. The French burnt down

our village four times, and the village inhabitants had to evacuate.

Only the guerrillas remained behind to fight the French.

Early in 1949 the French succeeded in occupying our village and built a

post not far from hare where they stationed a company of black

soldiers. After the French occupied our village, we split our company

into three sections. One platoon went and stayed with the population

and operated clandestinely. The other two companies evacuated to Vinh

Phu.

Now this was what happened under the French. The most painful thing

that happened was that the French lobbed artillery shells into this

village. One shell hit us right smack in the middle of the house and

killed 5 members of my own family. I was not home at the time. While

the French occupied this village, I operated clandestinely. I came back

here quite often and stayed in a tunnel.

SR 2021

DUONG VAN KHANG

Beep tone

Roll 21, 7860, Vietnam Project

160 take 1

Duong Van Khang:

Our village only had two rifles. In 1948 the French came and attacked

us forty-nine times, but we were never occupied then. We built a very

high watchtower. When the French arrived, our watchman up there would

fire three times and our village inhabitants would then evacuate,

leaving only us guerrilla fighters behind to fight with the French.

We had built moats and planted bamboo stakes around the village. We

also dug a trench line around the village, and would run along this

trench to engage the French whenever and wherever they happened to

arrive. We lobbed grenades at then from our trench. On the 27th of June

1948 the French attacked us from three directions, having come up from

Phung as I told you, and surrounded our village. We tricked the French

and booby-trapped them.

We opened the gates and let them come in, and fought with them as they

came in. But we had already dug holes in the ground and camouflaged

these holes very carefully. In the holes we placed mines and stakes. In

that battle about a platoon of French and Vietnamese soldiers,

twenty-five to be exact, were killed on the western side of this

village. That was the biggest battle of that year. Another thing was

our effort in blowing up the Phung Bridge. We coordinated our attack

with army company 254 and with only two mines we managed to destroy the

bridge. There were 6 of us guerrilla fighters and three army men when

we destroyed the Phung Bridge.

161 Take 1

Clapstick

Duong Van Khang:

The six of us and the three army men went to the bridge at about 8 p.m.

When we got there, the guerrilla fighters guarded both sides of the

bridge. The three army men and two of us climbed the bridge and

attached the mines to it and then blew it up from about 400 meters

away. By 10 pm we got home. The next day the French came and

retaliated.

162 Take 1

Clapstick

Interviewer:

After the battle of Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Agreement, how did you

feel?

Duong Van Khang:

After the Agreement was signed, we still could not believe that there

was really a cease-fire. I was not explained fully to about the

Agreement, and so I still had my doubts. But I was persuaded that we

must have won because the French had run away and the Japanese had been

defeated. So I was persuaded that we must have won. This was because we

had suffered so much. Our soldiers had undergone so much hardship. And

so when the Agreement was signed, we were certain that we must have won

and that we would never again be colonized.

Transcript

Transcript

Series: Vietnam: A Television History

Raw Footage: Interview with Duong Van Khang, 1981

Contributing Organization: WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)

AAPB ID: cpb-aacip/15-cc0tq5rg92

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Description

Credits: Interviewee2: Duong, Van Khang
Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation

AAPB Contributor Holdings: WGBH
Identifier: cdb9e5499deca50c246f2e32b55b75c6ba6adbe2 (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Color: Color
Duration: 00:22:41:27

Citations: Chicago: “Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Duong Van Khang, 1981,” 1981-02-10, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 5, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-cc0tq5rg92.; MLA: “Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Duong Van Khang, 1981.” 1981-02-10. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 5, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-cc0tq5rg92>.; APA: Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Duong Van Khang, 1981. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-cc0tq5rg92