50 Years on, Twin's Peace Mission Remembers Scars of Vietnam War; Nguyen Duc Advocates for Recognizing Lasting Impacts
Shunpei Takeuchi/The Yomiuri Shimbun
Nguyen Duc walks with the aid of crutches using the leg that was once conjoined with his brother in Ho Chi Minh City on April 28.
HO CHI MINH CITY — The scars of the Vietnam War, which claimed about 3 million lives, still run deep for those who experienced it. Amid this legacy, Nguyen Duc of the conjoined twins 'Viet and Duc' carries on a powerful mission of advocating for peace. This cause is strongly motivated by the memory of his brother who passed away.
April 30 marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh City, which was once known as the South Vietnam capital Saigon, has transformed into Vietnam's largest economic hub, with towering skyscrapers and the country's first subway line, which opened last year.
Formerly celebrated as the 'Paris of the Orient,' Saigon fell to North Vietnam on April 30, 1975, bringing the Vietnam War to its close.
Shunpei Takeuchi/The Yomiuri Shimbun
Duc speaks about his brother at a commemorative screening of the documentary film 'Dearest Viet' in Hanoi on Feb. 28.
'I didn't experience the war myself, but I'm a victim,' Duc, 44, said at his home in Ho Chi Minh City on April 28.
He is the younger of the conjoined twins, who were believed to have been affected by the Agent Orange defoliant sprayed by the U.S. military during the war. Duc shared a leg and a kidney with his brother Nguyen Viet, and the two underwent separation surgery at the age of 7.
Now walking with his right leg and crutches, Duc even manages to transport his 15-year-old twins to and from school on a three-wheeled motorbike. Despite this resilience, repeated surgeries for tumors and other ailments have left him feeling his time is limited.
Despite his health challenges, he remains dedicated to sharing the experiences of war victims, giving lectures in various places. A documentary film about his life titled 'Dearest Viet' was released in Vietnam in February this year.
Duc said that he feels it is his mission 'as a victim of war to continue to convey the unjust suffering caused by the continuing effects of war and to work for peace' in memory of his brother, who died in 2007 at the age of 26.
Courtesy of Group Hoping for Viet and Duc's Development
Duc, left, and his brother Viet in a custom-made wheelchair provided from donations in Japan
The conjoined twins were born in February 1981, about six years after the Vietnam War ended, in a rural village in central Vietnam, an area sprayed with Agent Orange by the U.S. military. They became a symbol of the war's lasting scars.
Duc has been in the public eye ever since he could remember. His visit to Japan in 1986 for his brother's treatment for acute encephalitis resulted in daily media coverage and served as a stark reminder that some lives continued to be affected by the pain of a war that ended more than 10 years earlier.
Following the twin's separation surgery in 1988, Duc attended school alone, with his brother bedridden. Reflecting on that time, he said, 'I felt guilty toward my brother every day, which was very painful.'
However, Duc was not particularly concerned with his own situation at that time. It was not until his high school years that he started to see himself as someone affected by the war.
In 2004, he began working in the administrative department of the Ho Chi Minh City hospital where his separation surgery had taken place. He married in 2006, having met his wife at a friend's wedding. In 2009, he and his wife became parents to twins: a son they named Phu Si — the Vietnamese reading of the Chinese characters for Mt. Fuji — and a daughter named Anh Dao, meaning cherry blossom.
Despite his children's healthy development, he confesses, 'The thought sometimes crosses my mind that they might suddenly fall sick, as my brother did.'
Duc used to be uncomfortable talking about himself, but his perspective changed after his brother's death in 2007. He began to feel a desire to convey the preciousness of peace and the importance of family, and he continues to share his thoughts through lectures and social media.
During the war, the U.S. military sprayed large quantities of Agent Orange to clear the dense forests where the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, also known as the Vietcong, was believed to be hiding.
According to the victims association, 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange, and about 3 million more, including their children and grandchildren, have suffered from deformities, cancer and other diseases.
The Vietnamese government classifies individuals who were in the sprayed zones and those with particular disabilities and diseases as 'first generation' victims. The subsequent generation exhibiting similar symptoms, including Duc, are designated as 'second generation' victims. The government provides benefits to more than 300,000 people under these categories.
However, third and fourth generations are ineligible for this support. The United States maintains that there is no scientific causal link to the human damage. 'There are people who cannot become economically independent and are in dire situations,' Duc said, appealing for understanding of the realities faced by war victims.
He is also deeply pained by ongoing global conflicts, such as in Ukraine and the Middle East. 'War only brings loss and suffering, both mentally and physically, to people and especially children,' he said.
As Vietnam experiences rapid economic growth with the aim of becoming a developed country by 2045, Duc said that the deep division between North and South Vietnamese people, which has persisted strongly since the war, is now showing signs of moving toward unity.
However, he added, 'War victims like me, suffering from its lasting effects, still lead incredibly difficult lives, and the memory of the war will never fade.'
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