Kang, who worked at an American factory in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970, moved to Washington, DC, in 1972. “I came to Korea on behalf of my mother,” said Tran Tri Dung, 49, whose mother is Tran Thi Huong, 67, and whose father is a Korean surnamed Kang. Led by Nhat, the group arrived in Korea in late October to seek help from the Korean government, parliament and civic groups to find birth parents they have lost touch with or never met, or who abandoned them. Koreans and Vietnamese alike were the victims of the war,” said a pastor who is helping a group of Lai Dai Han people. They formed a family, but the war broke up the families. “Many of the Lai Dai Han people were born as a result of consensual relationships. Not all Lai Dai Han people, however, were born as a result of rape. He has also asked for an independent investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Council into allegations of sexual violence by Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. Nhat is now awaiting the results of a DNA test he underwent at a hospital in the UK in June as part of his efforts to confirm that he is the son of a Korean soldier. Nhat eventually located his sisters’ Korean birth father by word of mouth and visited him in Seoul a few years ago, but the former sergeant refused to acknowledge that he had fathered them. “I would like to be confirmed whether I am a son of South Korea.” “I came here to seek justice for my mother and me,” said Nhat, who now leads a movement seeking justice for the Lai Dai Han people. Tran Dai Nhat, the 49-year-old son of Tran Thi Ngai, recalled being called the son of a dog and a cow as a child because he did not know his father and he was of mixed race. Many Vietnamese-Korean children had to hide their identities or live with prejudice and discrimination as children of “enemies,” with little access to education and other social services. Many Korean civilians also went there for businesses opportunities. Under the military-backed authoritarian Park Chung-hee administration, Korea sent over 320,000 soldiers to Vietnam between 19 to support the US in its fight against communism in Vietnam. “I want an apology from the Korean government.” I even thought of committing suicide with my children as I had nowhere to turn to,” she said during a recent interview with The Korea Herald. “I despise the two Korean soldiers who ruined my life. Upon her release, she had to move to another city.
Labeled as a rebel against Vietnam’s communist regime after giving birth to children of Korean soldiers, she had her property confiscated by the government and was sent to a detention facility for a year. She said she and her children were stigmatized and ostracized by their community. She also has a son from being raped by another sergeant, surnamed Park. When she told him about her pregnancies, he showed no interest and abandoned her. Ngai said her attacker, a Korean sergeant surnamed Kim, kept coming back and she eventually had two children by him. Tran Thi Ngai, 79, was a 24-year-old studying nursing when she was raped by a Korean soldier at her home in Vietnam’s Phu Yen province.
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