Lai Đại Hàn

The term Lai Dai Han (or sometimes Lai Daihan/Lai Tai Han) (lai Đại Hàn in Vietnamese: pronounced [laːi ɗâˀi hâːn]; Korean: 라이따이한) is a Vietnamese term for a mixed ancestry person born to a South Korean father and a Vietnamese mother during the Vietnam War. Political controversies continue due to some children conceived through war-time sexual assault which is currently unacknowledged by the South Korean government, and for unequal and discriminatory treatment of Lai Dai Han by the Vietnamese government.

Etymology

Definition

A 2010 article in the academic journal Pacific Affairs followed the phrase "Lai Daihan" with the following in parenthesis: "children of South Korean fathers and Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War".[1]

The noun or adjective lai (chữ nôm: 𤳆) can mean any hybrid, including an animal or tree, but in this context is pejorative,[2] meaning "mixed-blood". "Đại Hàn" (hán tự: 大韓) was the standard Vietnamese term for South Korea (the Sino-Vietnamese equivalent of Korean: 대한; RR: Daehan), although today "Hàn Quốc" (Korean Hanguk) is more common. Since "lai" is offensive the term "lai Đại Hàn" itself does not appear in official Vietnamese sources, except in relation for example to the name of the South Korean film "Lai Đại Hàn."[3]

Number of Lai Dai Han

The exact number of Lai Dai Han is unknown. According to Busan Ilbo, there are at least 5,000 and as many as 30,000.[2] According to Maeil Business, however, there are 1,000 at least.[4] A 1998 paper which was cited in a 2015 paper said that the South Korean government put the number of Lai Dai Han at 1,500.[5]

There were estimated to be 800 mothers of Lai Dai Han who were still alive in 2015, from a petition calling for an apology from the Korean government.[6]

Reports of Sexual Assault

An August 16, 2013, article in PRI said that South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, Kwon Ki-hyeon, said "Such intentional, organized and systemized civilian massacres by the Korean army is impossible. If such an incident did exist, it would have been exposed and made public a long time ago. The [Republic of Korea] fought in Vietnam to stop the communization of a free South Vietnam. Since our army executed our mission under strict rules, there was no sexual exploitation of Vietnamese women." The article also noted that "Historians agree that Korean troops fathered a large number of mixed Korean-Vietnamese children called Lai Dai Han. But it remains unclear the extent to which this was battlefield rape versus prostitution."[7]

An April 25, 2015, article in The Hankyoreh said that Kim Nak-yeong who was a staff sergeant at Binh Khe in Bình Định Province, South Vietnam from May 1971 to June 1972 said, "Some of the units didn't cause any problems because they were strictly instructed not to do harm to civilians. But I heard a lot of talk about brutal sexual assaults taking place throughout the operation zones, and my understanding is there's a definite possibility it was true." The Hankyoreh article reported quotes from the interviews of ten elderly Vietnamese women who claimed to be victims of sexual assaults perpetrated the South Korean military during the Vietnam War in Bình Định Province. One of their quotes was, "Four people took turns doing it to me one at a time", and another one of their quotes was, "They'd put one person at a time in the trench, keep me there all day and night and just rape me again and again".[8]

An October 30, 2016, article in The Hankyoreh said that Jang Ui-seong, head of the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Korea (VVAK), was representing 831 plaintiffs in a defamation lawsuit against Ku Su-jeong for Ku's 2014 interview in the Japanese newspaper Shūkan Bunshun, Ku's 2016 interview in The Hankyoreh and Ku's statements in a video. The article said that South Korean "veterans' organizations" of the Vietnam War have said that Ku's claims of the alleged actions of the South Korean military during the Vietnam War have "all" been a bunch of "falsehoods and forgeries". The article said that South Korean "veterans" of the Vietnam War have said that "all" of the alleged victims have really just been "Viet Cong disguised as civilians" and that "no sexual violence occurred". The article said that Ku's claims were backed by interviews of Vietnamese people, "documentation from several investigations by the Vietnamese government", 60 Vietnam War victim memorials in Vietnam and three Vietnam War "memorials of hatred to South Korean troops". The article said that Ku had as evidence "33 different official documents" several of which were from the "US military command in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970".[9]

Impacts on Korean Society

Stephen Epstein, Director of the Asian Studies Programme at the Victoria University of Wellington, said that "Korea's legacy in Vietnam encompasses feelings of guilt, especially in a very concrete manifestation: thousands of children of mixed Korean-Vietnamese descent, the Lai Dai Han, a significant proportion of whom were abandoned by their fathers."[10]

A 25 April 2015 article in The Hankyoreh said that Yoon Mi-hyang, president of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said the following while addressing the elderly Vietnamese women she had interviewed who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War, "I can't think of anything I can say to all of you. We were innocent victims too, but hearing now that Vietnamese women were victimized by us Koreans, we feel mortified and sorry as Koreans. That is why we intend to combine our strength and raise the Butterfly Fund to provide some small help to the victims." The Butterfly Fund was started on March 8, 2012, to help people who experience sexual violence during times of war.[8] A 2015 article in The Hankyoreh said, "Now it's time for Seoul to sit down with Vietnamese authorities to find out the truth not only about the civilian massacres that took place during the Vietnam War, but also about the extent of military authorities' involvement in operating and managing "welfare stations" for their troops - and to take appropriate follow-up action."[11]

Discrimination Within Vietnam

The Lai Dai Han community, consisting of approximately 30,000 Lai Dai Han children of more than 800 surviving mothers, has been facing social exclusion due to their "mixed ethnicity".[12][13] It has been reported that many of the children cannot read or write, with most not having access to basic health and education services.[14] In addition to living with "stigma, shame and prejudice", the community also faces acute poverty as of 2020.[15]

A March 27, 2020, article in BBC News details some testimonies of the women of the Lai Dai Han community, who reported that their children "have faced a lifetime of abuse and discrimination, mocked for being Lai Dai Han".[16]

Memorials

An April 27, 2016, article in Tuổi Trẻ said that artists Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung would show their Vietnam Pieta statue on May 4, 2016, to the Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation. This Vietnam Pieta statue would be used as a model for two statues: one statue that would go in Vietnam and one statue that would go in South Korea. The Vietnam Pieta statue depicted a mother holding a child, and the statue was reminiscent of the Pietà statue from the fifteenth century. The two artists said that the Vietnam Pieta statue was intended to convey a "message of apology and repentance of the South Korean people" to the Vietnamese people for the lives of the Vietnamese people that were lost in "massacres" by the South Korean military with particular focus on the children who were massacred by the South Korean military.[17]

A January 16, 2016, article in The Hankyoreh said that the Kim Seo-gyeong and Kim Woon-seong, the two artists who made the Vietnam Pieta statue, did an interview on January 12, 2016. In that interview, the two artists said that "The South Korean government must demand and it must receive an exact apology from the Japanese government about the issue of the comfort women. Likewise, it must make an exact apology for the massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War. The government isn't fulfilling its role on either of these things right now".[18]

An October 12, 2016, news article said that the "Danang Museum" received the "Pieta Vietnam" statue on October 11, 2016, along with 51 other things. The other things included thirty photographs about a South Korean movement called "An apology to Vietnam", books about the Vietnam War, documentary videos about the Vietnam War and six pictures that memorialized people who were massacred by South Korean military during the Vietnam War.[19]

In June 2018 the Mother and Child by British artist, Rebecca Hawkins[20] was unveiled in Church House, Westminster[21] and is sited in St James's Square[22] to stand and speak for the women and their children of the Lai Dai Han, and all victims of sexual violence in conflict around the world. The sculpture was commissioned by the campaign, Justice for Lai Dai Han.[23]

Calls for Apologies
Korean President Apology Timeline
1950 —
–
1960 —
–
1970 —
–
1980 —
–
1990 —
–
2000 —
–
2010 —
–
 
 
 
 
 
 
←
←
letter & petition to Park[25][26]
←
letter to Moon[27]

An August 24, 2001, article in the People's Daily said that on August 23, 2001, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed his condolences for violence that South Korea unintentionally committed against the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War, stating "I am sorry about the fact that we took part in an unfortunate war and unintentionally created pain for the people of Vietnam." and pledged to continue support of Vietnam's national development by giving $19,600,000 of South Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) to the "solid waste treatment business".[28] The International Policy Digest described Kim's statement as an "indirect apology".[29]

On October 14, 2015, a letter signed by ten Vietnamese women who claimed they were raped by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War signed a letter to be delivered to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, asking for a "formal apology".[30][31]

On October 19, 2015, a petition with close to 29,000 signatures asked South Korean president Park Geun-hye for a formal apology from the South Korean government for the systematic rape and sexual assault done by South Korean soldiers to Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War.[6] An October 27, 2015, news article said that United States politician Norm Coleman requested on October 13, 2015, for South Korean president Park Geun-hye to make a public apology for the Vietnamese women who were raped by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War. Coleman said, "What happened to these women, so many of whom lost their innocence at the hands of South Korean soldiers, is one of the great untold tragedies of the Vietnam War".[32]

On June 9, 2017, the Vietnamese government lodged an official protest with the South Korea Embassy regarding President Moon Jae-in honored veterans those who fought in the Vietnam War in a speech on South Korea's Memorial Day, June 8, 2017. "We request the government of South Korea not to take actions or make statements that could hurt the Vietnamese people or negatively affect the two countries' friendly relations," Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.[33]

On June 10, 2019, some members of Justice for Lai Dai Han delivered a letter by hand to be delivered to Prime Minister Theresa May regarding the Lai Dai Han,[34][35]

A June 19, 2020, article in The Independent claimed that "the government of South Korea has never recognized or investigated the allegations of sexual violence made by the Lai Dai Han".[36]

Education

A 2016 article in Daily Kos said that several Asian-American groups have asked California's Instructional Quality Commission to include what South Korea's military did during the Vietnam War into school textbooks, but it said that handling the issue of "sexual violence" would be a "delicate task".[37]

In the late 1990s after the story of Lai Dai Han emerged in Korea, a charity fraud involving a fundraising campaign intended to teach Lai Dai Han the Korean language and culture had defrauded Korean donors.[38]

Comparisons to Comfort Women
See also: Comfort women

Japanese sources claim that the main cause of the Lai Dai Han was the mass rape of Vietnamese women by South Korean troops[39] and the desertion of the children during the Vietnam War, as well as some South Korean troops who married Vietnamese women and had children, but were forced to leave after the Fall of Saigon.[40][41] Rape allegations are supported by a broadcast released by the Viet Cong, which reports the assaults on women in Vietnam and massacres by the South Korean military.[40] Testimonies by survivors of such assaults and massacres by South Korean troops include the rape of Vietnamese women.[42]

In a Japanese magazine article by a Tokyo Broadcasting System writer Noriyuki Yamaguchi alleged that comfort women facilities were set up and operated by Korean forces during the war. The article said that in July 2014, Yamaguchi found a letter to Korean General Chae Myung-shin from the US military command in Saigon that appeared to have been written sometime from January 1969 to April 1969 . The article by Noriyuki Yamaguchi alleges that comfort stations were operated by South Koreans much in the same way that comfort women facilities were used by Japanese forces, and accused Park Geun-hye of hypocrisy for highlighting the human rights issues around comfort women while not paying attention to this fact.[11]

A September 4, 2016, opinion piece in The Korea Times discussed the issue of whether or not there were Vietnamese "comfort women" during the Vietnam War, focusing on the term "comfort women" in its analysis. The article said that despite reports of sexual assaults done to South Vietnamese women by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War, the situation is not analogous as there had been no reports of "recruitment, transportation, housing and supplies, management, payment and the post-war dealings with victims" of a comfort women operation as part of a "formal military policy". Because what South Korea did during the Vietnam War did not meet this criteria, the article classified South Korea as not having done a "comfort women" operation during the Vietnam War.[43]

The August 16, 2013, PRI news article said that far-right Japanese nationalists were accusing South Korea of hypocrisy, because Japan had paid and apologized for their comfort women system it perpetrated during World War II, which is likened by some as sexual exploitation, yet South Korea had not done the same in regard to the rape perpetrated by Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. The article said that Japanese nationalists claimed South Korea had a systematic rape operation during the Vietnam War which was similar to Japan's systematic comfort women operation during World War II.[7]

A June 16, 2016, article in the Daily Kos said that South Korea has been "very vocal" about the agony Koreans endured from Japan during World War II, pressing for apology and compensation from Japanese prime ministers at different points in time for what Japan did to South Korea during World War II, and the article described this as being done "ironically" in light of what the South Korean military did to other countries' civilians. The article said that "brutal killings, rapes and heinous acts" done by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War have now been unearthed. Referring to South Korea's actions during the Vietnam War, the article said that South Korean president Park Geun-hye should admit to the "historical truths of her country's detestable behavior", and the article said that president Park should be "like Japan" and give an apology and compensation to the victims of what the South Korean military did during the Vietnam War.[44]

A September 1, 2017, article on Justice for Lai Dai Han's website said, "In an audacious display of dishonesty and hypocrisy, Seoul is always quick to highlight the suffering of its own people during past conflicts, but develops a severe case of national amnesia when facing its own crimes in Vietnam."[45] Another article posted on September 11, 2017, on the website mentions that although the Lai Dai Han "were the product of war crimes of the South Korean troops, they do not have compensation and they never received a formal official apology".[46]

See also

References
  1. Shipper, Apichai W. (2010). Politics of Citizenship and Transnational Gendered Migration in East and Southeast Asia. In Pacific Affairs. 83(1). Page 12. Retrieved May 23, 2017, from link.
  2. "조흥국교수의 동남아 들여다보기 <17> 라이따이한 문제". Busan Ilbo. 2004-09-18. Archived from the original on 2005-03-01. Retrieved 2008-09-25. (in Korean)
  3. Trọng Dật Dương 300 câu hỏi, 300 năm Sài Gòn TP. Hò̂ Chí Minh 1998 "Nhũng bộ Phim như "Người tình" (Pháp), "Lai Đại Hàn" (Hàn Quốc), "Miền Nam Xa Xưa" (Pháp), "Ba mùa" (Mỹ)... từng được thực hiện ở đây. 211. llạll chiêu hong llill nllãt Trước 1975, cả thành phố có 51 rạp chiếu bóng. Trong số này, có rạp ..."
  4. "베트남에 대한 5가지 오해 ". Maeil Business. 2004-10-05. Retrieved 2008-11-09. (in Korean)
  5. Moon, Katharine H.S. (2015). South Korea's Demographic Changes and their Political Impact. Center for East Asia Policy Studies at Brookings. link
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  7. Cain, Geoffrey. (2013). Battle of the dueling war crimes. PRI. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from link
  8. Koh, Kyoung-tae (25 April 2015). "Vietnamese war victims speak of sexual violence by S. Korean troops for the first time". The Hankyoreh.
  9. Ahn, Young-choon. (2016). [News analysis] South Korea coming to confront Vietnam War civilian massacres. The Hankyoreh. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from link
  10. The Bride(s) From Hanoi: South Korean Popular Culture, Vietnam and "Asia" in the New Millennium. The University of Sydney. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from link
  11. Gil, Yun-hyung (25 April 2015). "Did S. Korea operate "comfort stations" in the Vietnam War?". The Hankyoreh.
  12. ey3media (2018-08-21). "Vietnam's Skewed Sense of Social Justice". Justice for Lai Dai Han. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  13. "The Vietnamese women whose mothers were raped in wartime seek justice for a lifetime of pain and prejudice". The Independent. 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  14. ey3media (2018-08-21). "The invisible struggle of the refugees [Translated]". Justice for Lai Dai Han. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
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  16. "1968 - the year that haunts hundreds of women". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
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  18. Nam, Jong-young. (2016). "Vietnam Pieta" statues to memorialize civilian victims killed by ROK in Vietnam War. The Hankyoreh. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from link
  19. Historical items received from Korea. (2016). Vietnam Colors.net. Retrieved November 19, 2016, from link
  20. Straw, Jack (2019-08-05). "We must strengthen justice and increase accountability to end sexual violence in conflict for good". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  21. "Church House Westminster unveils Justice for Lai Dai Han statue". Westminster Venue Collection. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
  22. AndyScott (2020-02-03), English: St. James's Square, Mother & Child by Rebecca Hawkins. Commemorating the victims of sexual violence in conflict around the world and their children. Commissioned by Justice for Lai Dai Han. Installed July 30, 2019., retrieved 2021-01-25
  23. Han, Justice for Lai Dai. "Justice for Lai Dai Han: Vietnamese Victims of Sexual Violence Must Be Recognised". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
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  31. Letter Final. Voices of Vietnam. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from link
  32. Tuason, Czarelli. (2015). Republican Norm Coleman Calls For South Korean President Park Geun Hye To 'Publicly Apologize' To Raped Women During The War In Vietnam. Korea Portal. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from link
  33. "Vietnam criticizes S.Korea President's remarks to honor war veterans". VnExpress International.
  34. Justice for Lai Dai Han Unveils Historic Statue to Honour Victims of Sexual Violence. (2019). Justice for Lai Dai Han. Wayback Machine link.
  35. "Letter for Prime Minister Theresa May". Justice for Lai Dai Han. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  36. "Sir David Lidington: In 2020, sexual violence is still being used as a weapon of war". The Independent. 2020-06-19. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  37. Jonischmidt. (2016). Healing Old Wounds in Vietnam. Daily KOS. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from link
  38. コ・ギョンテ "라이따이한을 팔지 말라" - ライダイハンを売るな (in Korean)、『ハンギョレ21』第258号（電子版）、1999年5月20日。
  39. A. Kameyama, Betonamu Sensou, Saigon Souru, Toukyou [Vietnam War, Saigon, Seoul, Tokyo], Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1972, p. 122
  40. jp:名越二荒之助 『日韓2000年の真実』〜ベトナムの方がのべる韓国の残虐行為〜、2002年
  41. 野村進によれば、これら混血児たちの父親の90パーセントは韓国の ビジネスマン であり、ベトナム人女性との間に子供をもうけた後に「母子を置き去りにして帰国してしまった」例が多いという。『コリアン世界の旅』 講談社、1996年、173頁。
  42. 『ハンギョレ21』256号、1999年5月6日。
  43. Devine, Maija. (2016). Definition of 'comfort women'. The Korea Times. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from link
  44. South Korea Is Yet To Recognise Their Own War Crimes. (2016). Daily KOS. Retrieved November 17, 2016, from link
  45. Duong, W. (2017). South Korea’s War Crimes Still Haunt Vietnam. JLDH Justice for Lai Dai Han. Wayback Machine link.
  46. ey3media (2018-08-21). "The invisible struggle of the refugees [Translated]". Justice for Lai Dai Han. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
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