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College news, March 1, 1968
Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with Haverford News, News (Bryn Mawr College); Published weekly (except holidays) during academic year.
Bryn Mawr College (creator)
1968-03-01
serial
Weekly
12 pages
digitized microfilm
North and Central America--United States--Pennsylvania--Montgomery--Bryn Mawr
Vol. 54, No. 15
College news (Bryn Mawr College : 1914)--
https://tripod.brynmawr.edu/permalink/01TRI_INST/26mktb/alma991001620579...
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation.
BMC-News-vol54-no15
THE enn NEWS
Friday, March 1, 1968
Page Ten : Ou cas
‘Masako Yamanouchi is a
Japanese girl who graduated
from Bryn Mawr in 1966. She
has spent the past year in
Vietnam working with Volun-
tary International Service |
Assignments, a Friends pro-
gram. oo Ed.
P;O, Box 863
Saigon, South Vietnam
', November 12, 1967
Dear friends,
The past year which I have spent
as a volunteer in Vietnam has been
one of great contrast to the four
years before that were spent at
Bryn Mawr College. Life here
is so different from the peaceful
and beautiful life on the Bryn Mawr
campus where ideas unfolded and
took shape in the very air of the
crisp autumn; the sharp winter;
and the warm lazy spring when
one could least afford to be lazy!
After a year here I have adapted
quite well to the customs of Viet- :
nam, and my language has advanced
to the stage where people in motor
repair shops (the old French Moby-
lette I use often breaks down) think
I am an overseas Vietnamese.
Once a woman I was talking to
asked me after five minutes
whether I was from Hue, the an-
cient capitol city of central
Vietnam. I asked her why she
thought so,and she, a Southerner,
replied that the Hue dialect is very
hard to understand. This anecdote
amuses my Hue friends no end
But a more sobering experience
is when I am walking with Carl
and Mark, two of the other vol-
unteers in our small group (Vol-
untary International ‘Service As-
signments of the American Friends
Service Committee) and people cast
hateful glances while small child-
ren throw stones. They invariably
throw the stones at me, the ‘Viet-
namese” girl for forgetting my
national pride in following the
‘trich’’ American. .
This illustrates best the situation
' and atmosphere here in Vietnam.
The presence in Vietnam of
the United States government and
military today is very extensive
and serious and the Vietnamese
are fighting back in every way
imaginable to throw off this yoke.
The stone throwing incident is just
one expression out of hundreds
of real feeling towards the U.S,
that exists in the Saigon govern-
ment controlled areas.
“*Quakers!”’
I live closely with the Vietnamese
people; have travelled much and
find that the Vietnamese are a
peace loving people. One of the
best illustrations I can think of
is when I explain that the pro-
gram I belong to is one of many
organized by the Quakers. ‘‘Quak-
ers!”? a face suddenly lights up.|
‘“‘They are the six who came and
demonstrated for PEACE last
year,” (referring to the group
led by A.J. Muste) ‘‘and aren’t
they the people who sailed on the
Phoenix to take medical aid
supplies to the North Vietnamese?’
And after that Iam accepted whole-
heartedly by individuals and fam-
ilies, This has happened. over
and over again even in the remotest
country-side.
The main desire of the Viet-
namese is PEACE, and they wish
to be left alone to live their own
lives and to decide their own fate.
But we live in» a world where
force and violence seems to be
the only common denominator, and
that is why the National Liberation
Front (NFL, Viet Cong, or VC)
is gaining in power and member-
ship. It’is impossible for young
Vietnamese men to carry out their
non-violent _ convictions because
they are sooner or later subject
_ to the Saigon regimes drastic
measures to draft every able-
bodied man into the ARVN
‘command. _ This being the case,
many young people judge it better
to channel the use of violence to
the side with the ‘‘Just cause,”’
the NLF. For the NLF is the
strongest organized force engaged
in meeting violence with violence
to rid the country of ‘foreign
domination’;
Communism Preferable
The South and Central Viet-
namese feel that ‘‘communism”’
is an alien ideology, and would
prefer not to live -under a
communist regime, but as the war
continues and it becomes increas-
ingly difficult to take a neutral
stand, most Vietnamese (with
exception of the 1954 Catholic ref-
ugees from the North) feel that
even communism as practiced by
the North which has stayed as
independent as possible’is pre-
ferable to the humiliating and ex-
asperating situation existent in the
South in their relationship with the
U.S, and its Allied Forces.
The main question then is this;
where do those who cannot condone
violence; who believe that non-
violence is also a viable force,
stand in the present situation?
I was disturbed to learn that Viet-
namese° peoplé who want to help
‘their own suffering people are
severely handicapped in their
efforts. Individuals and organ-
izations are too poor to do relief,
.~ work, and even those who have the
money. find that they cannot buy
the necessary materials on the open
market. Many find that they must
go to USAID for material aid even,
though they are loathe to ask for
aid from the people who share a
large part of the responsibility
for having created the suffering.
In the midst of this deplorable
situation I was fortunate tg come
in touch with a group of young
Vietnamese _ Buddhist students.
engaged in voluntary service to help
a School_to train young people for
community development work.
Based on the Buddhist spirit of
love and compassion, the School
of Youth for Social Service was
founded in order to carry out the
teaching of non-violence in an act-
ive and constructive way. The more
I got to know them, the more my
desire deepened to work under their
guidance for the reconstruction
of Vietnamese society.
Without U.S. Aid
The School’s ‘two year curric-
ulum stresses four main areas of
study - education, health and san-
itation, agriculture and animal hus-
bandry, and community™- co-
operation. The School has been
aware from the beginning that they
must learn to do their work with-
out depending on U.S. government
materials. They feel that the Viet-
namese must learn to do without
many things, or to create their!
own substitutes in order to be
really independent. Only by main«|
taining this independence and auto-,
nomy can they be true to their,
philosophy of self-help. In accor-|
dance with this philosophy, the:
School started a fund-raising:
program all over South Vietnam’
for their work, and over the two:
years has_ succeeded in getting.
pledges of monthly support from
over 1500 families (predominantly
though not entirely Buddhist) rang-
ing from the very poor who sell
in the market place to the rich.
Private foreign individuals and .
organizations abroad also give
support to this unique Vietnamese
initiative and effort.
The Schog?’can not pay good sal-
aries to aftract qualified teachers,
but almost from the beginning some
of the best professors and lecturers
from Saigon University and other
schools have come out to the School
to lecture with no pay. The School
is situated five kilometers outside
of Saigon city, yet these pledges
by the gad ‘have been kept-
Though based on the Buddhist
spirit and teaching the School is
.cal motives.
~ the people.”
An Open Letter
not evangelical and stresses acom-
bination of social and ~spirit-
ual action. The door is open to
all who volunteer to sacrifice their
lives to the cause of improving
the Vietnamese society and
furthering human understanding.
This is the first school of its
kind not only in the Buddhist com-
munity but in the whole of Vietnam.
The students come from every-
where. The School provides modest
rooming facilities ‘in a simple
cement building which is being ex-
panded room by room as the budget
allows. The building is still in-
complete after two years, although
there are enough rooms for the
number of students.
Terrorist Attacks
However, from the very
be ing the uniqueness of this
ool has caused many difficul-
ties, Starting with the work train-
ing camp of spring 1966, the School
has been under repeated terrorist
attacks. It is hard to understand
why people would want to destroy
the ‘School when its efforts are
humanitarian and it has no politi-
The problem is that
in Vietnam every action has a
political effect, and there is a con-
test between the fighting powers
to ‘‘win the hearts and minds of
The peasants are
constantly under pressure of. the
Saigon regime, the American mil-
itary, and the NLF, and are weary
of them all. They long for peace
and a chance to improve their war-
torn lives. When the students of
the School go out to work with
no motives other than a simple
desire to help sooth and encourage
their fellow countrymen to help
themselves, they are accepted
warmly by the people. This alarms
all the fighting parties whofeel that
they are losing political leverage.
They realize that the violent means
they ‘use are effective only for
‘immediate results but can never
capture the spirit of the people
as love and _ constructive non-
violence can. But those versed
in violence know only violent means
to answer the ‘threat’? that they
think the School poses.
In May. 1966, a_ grenade
was tossed into afarm house where
several of the students were stay-
ing, and critically injured one of
the boys’ head. Today his left
limbs are paralyzed and there is
the possibility that he will become
epileptic sometime in the future.
I did not start working at the School
until early this year, 1967, so did
not, know the details of the first
grenade incident, but have shared _
intimately in the subsequent trag-
edies,
Thirteen Grenades
On the evening of April 24th,
after supper at the School I left.
for Saigon with a friend at about
7:30, An hour later, thirteen
grenades were tossed into the girls
dormitory and open study hall kill-
ing two girls and wounding ten,
others. Later that night when
I learned of the attack and rushed
to the hospital, the emergency ward
was crowded with the girls I had
been talking and laughing with only
a few hours before, their faces
ashen and the tattered sheet-band-
‘ages covering their bodies soaked
in blood. The understaffed hospital
seemed incredibly slow and we
spent a sleepless night waiting out-
side the operating rooms praying
that no more would die. Everyone
survived and has since recovered,
‘but one of the girls had to have
her lower leg amputated, Another
girl was in mental shock for along
time afterwards.
- The days following were busy
with funeral arrangements and
visitations to the hospital to care
for the wounded. Since the govern-
ment police refused to investigate
the matter or to come and protect
the School against further attacks,
the boys began taking turns at
night doing guard duty. Of course
they have no desire for weapons
and feel that if there is any threat
of repeated violence, they can call
to the neighbouring farmers
for help. More and more evidence
came to light that this was not
‘Viet Cong terrorism,’’ as the
government was wont to spread.
Sometimes I would stay up with
the others to do guard duty, and
looking out into the night would
feel terribly sad that there should
be so much impersonal violence
in ‘this society. Surely those men
who tossed the grenades would not
have done so if they had known
these innocent and lovely girls;
if they came face to face with the
suffering parents; if they knew
the tenseness and yet thecalmness
of spirit amoung them all in the
face of danger; and above all
their forgiving spirit.
Rapport with Peasants
The curriculum of the School
was delayed but resumed when all
of the students felt that more than
ever they could not let their spirit
or work be defeated, and that they
wanted to show whoever wished
‘them ill that their sorrow would:
not turn to bitterness and hatred.
was conan to an end and the School
was planning its final work training
camp before graduating the first
class. When the training camps
began in June, however, almost
immediately eight boys were kid-
napped from the village ancestral
pagoda where they were staying.
Alarmed, the School was helpless
to do anything because once again
the government made little gesture
to investigate the matter. To this ©
day we do not know where those
eight students are, and whether
they are living or dead.
The kidnapping was meant to
“intimidate the School, but the Stu-
dents asked to stay on in their
villages and continued to work
shoulder to shoulder with the peas-
ants, gaining’ wonderful rapport
with them. They learned much
from the villagers and in turn
provided first-aid services, taught
the children, built sanitary lat-
rines, and experimented. with new
vegetable plafits with the peasants.-
The best indication of their success
was that within three weeks the
farmers had opened up their homes
so that the students could eat and
sleep with the farmers’ families
entirely free of charge.
Seemingly because of their
success, tragedy struck again. In
the early hours of the morning
on July 5th, armed strangers came
around to the villages where the
students were scattered and de-
manded of the farmers that they
open their ‘doors to let the stu-
dents out. The farmers refused to
comply, saying through the door
that any business they had could
be done when: daylight came. It
so happened that five boys were not
staying with farmers but were
sleeping in the village dispensary
which served as one of the teams’
meeting place. When the armed
men came to them they forced
the boys to open up with threats
to burn or grenade the building.
The boys were then tied up and led
to the Saigon River, where, an
hour later, they were shotto death.
When the boys were discovered
at dawn, one of them, a young
monk was found to be miraculously
alive, rushed to the hospital, and
has since then recovered to tell
the nightmare happenings of that
night.
A Grateful Father
The graves of the two girls were
not yet green, but once again we
were cast into preparations for the
funeral, and the rains poured down
to grieve for them all. It'was
painful to meet the families of the:
four boys because there was so
The yds year course of the School -
ITPCG staff member on campus Monday, March 4 at 10:00 a.m.
See Placement Office for appointment.
Intern Teaching Program for College Graduates
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY
_ Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education
Philadelphia, Pa. 19122
nee
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