When will the Lai Dai Han finally get their long overdue apology?
The fatherless children of Vietnamese women to Korean men seek recognition and rights by South Korea.
It’s been over 45 years since the Vietnam War has stopped and the tragedy is not over. The so-called Lai Dai Han (half-blood) children still live in the shadow of the past and seeking their overdue apology by the Korean government.
The children are mostly born to a Vietnamese mother and a South Korean man in the Vietnamese War and mostly conceived because of rape.
South Korea doesn’t take responsibility for their involvement in the war. Korean troops have massacred civilians and left half-raced children behind. Not just that they never apologized, they don’t
acknowledge or even more, they deny their involvement in the war. The Lai Dai Han are fighting for years for their rights, trying to get recognized by the Korean government, but nothing has been working out,
not even DNA tests.
They’re about 5’000 Lai Dai Han in Vietnam and another estimated 25’000 that don’t admit it publicly. This gap is this big, because these children try to hide their Korean side, so they won’t get discriminated,
Insulted or withhold their education.
Why is this apology so important?
Women were raped by Korean troops in the safety of their own homes. Like this wouldn’t be traumatizing enough, the soldiers would come back over the years to rape them again and again. Some of these Vietnamese
women have children of several different soldiers and none of them would take responsibility for their actions and abandon their own flesh.
Why rape is still so stigmatized is another question, but this stigma makes it hard for these families to live in their own community.
The Vietnamese Communist regime treats them as traders and confiscated their homes. They got sent to detention facilities and are being relocated afterwards.
The hate towards Korea is as big as the pain of these women. Like being raped isn’t enough burden, they lost their homes and got stripped of their future and dignity. Not only one or two would get suicidal thought in their situation.
The Lai Dai Han had either to hide their identities, or they will be prejudged and discriminated as “the children of the enemy” and will have less access to education and social services.
The overdue apology and financial help by the Korean government towards these poor women/families are much wanted and needed!