The story of a young girl's hair

(In commemoration of April 4, 1965, the day the US Air Force bombed and destroyed Dong Hoi)

(QBĐT) - "Teeth and hair are the foundation of a person's appearance."

Every time we met, we'd make a date, saying we had to go see her to find some valuable documents about the day the US Air Force destroyed Dong Hoi, how she survived, and... how she managed to keep her youthful hair. There are hidden corners, precious historical details that, if not preserved, will forever remain lost.

So today, a day approaching the Qingming Festival in 2023, musician Duong Viet Chien is the driver, poet and folk culture researcher Dang Thi Kim Lien is the guide, let's go!

It turned out her house wasn't far at all, just across the Long Bridge, turning right, right near the Luỹ River bank. A very beautiful, kind, and elegant elderly woman opened the door. Looking at her today, it's not difficult to imagine what she was like at sixteen and what her hair looked like. The story revolves around that life-or-death moment and the wonderful humanistic value of how a young woman's hair was treated during wartime in the twentieth century.

Following two waves of the "Fiery Spear" attacks on the sixth day of the first lunar month of the Year of the Snake (1965), which essentially destroyed the urban infrastructure of Dong Hoi, less than two months later, on April 4, 1965, within four hours from 12 to 4 PM, the US Air Force officially launched a "total destruction" operation against Dong Hoi town. In the rubble, resembling an earthquake, hundreds of corpses were recovered. Militia forces and the Youth Union urgently dug through the rubble to find the wounded and those buried under rubble...

"I was buried upside down..." The elderly woman named Tu Khanh, sitting in front of me, said calmly. "Next to me was Quang, also buried under a bomb, but his head was up. I was buried, but my feet were up and my head down, my temples squeezed shut by two pieces of shrapnel, and I was starting to suffocate. Quang shouted, 'Help me!' I heard someone yell, 'Is anyone still alive?' I quickly shook my foot, which was still sticking out of the ground. Luckily, the man saw me and said to Quang, 'Just bear with it a little longer, let me dig this person out, otherwise, if we're a little slower, he'll suffocate to death.'"

War relic: the bell tower of Tam Toa Church. Photo: Nguyen Hai

And that young man, in his thirties, poured all his strength into battling death, which held its scythe ready to take the life of the 16-year-old schoolgirl. That young man was Nguyen Xuan Cham, the Secretary of the City Youth Union!

- Is it just him alone?

- That's definitely him. Then everyone has to spread out to rescue other places as well. The whole town was bombed, hundreds of people were buried...

- And then what?

- When I was on my last breath, he managed to dig me up, but he couldn't pull me out.

- ???

- My two pet dogs (likely referring to the dog's tail) were stuck between some pieces of cardboard. The bunker we took shelter in was a brick bunker, and when it was bombed, the cardboard pieces piled on top of each other. My two pet dogs were stuck in there, and I couldn't pull them out...

The situation was extremely urgent; no one knew if the American planes would return to attack again. Nguyen Xuan Cham drew his dagger, intending to chop off the "two girls' heads," but the young woman, now conscious, pleaded: "Uncle, please keep my hair, I beg you!"

Fifty-eight years have passed, and the Youth Union Secretary of that time has passed away, so no one can answer what he was thinking at the time, when he "showed mercy," sheathing his dagger, picking up his digging tools, and doing everything he could to save the girl's hair...

No one could answer it, but those fortunate enough to have had extensive contact with the Secretary of the Town Youth Union, then the Vice Chairman, the Chairman of the Town People's Committee, and the Director of the Fisheries Department, Nguyen Xuan Cham, could explain it. Perhaps this is the most remarkable detail in the protracted thirty-year war in Vietnam, in which Quang Binh was always at the forefront, from the nine-year war against the French in Binh Tri Thien to the front lines during the war against the Americans. And this is also a typical example of the humanist spirit, respecting and protecting beauty, decided in a moment of life and death...

Two years later, Tú Khánh turned 18 and volunteered to join the army. After basic training, and possessing a natural talent for performing arts, she was selected to join the Provincial Military Arts Troupe, serving in fierce battle zones until the country was reunified. Born in the year of the Ox, she was fortunate enough to find love with a talented comrade from Nghi Xuân ( Hà Tĩnh province), also in the Provincial Military Arts Troupe. After returning to civilian life, they started a family, had children, and built a home. Looking at their large family photo, one can only admire them. They had six children. How many grandchildren do they have?

- Let me count slowly, there are nine great-grandchildren on both sides of the family!

Oh, what a blessing! A perfect couple, both healthy, and already nine great-grandparents! If the great-grandchildren grow up and start their own families a little sooner, they might even become great-great-grandparents, creating a five-generation extended family.

Recalling wartime memories, as the ancients advised: "Forget favors, remember kindnesses!" , she, the one indebted for saving her life, always remembers, but the Secretary of the Town Youth Union, Nguyen Xuan Cham, seems to consider it a minor matter, an everyday occurrence in… the town. She recounted:

- From then on, every time we happened to meet, he would only ask, "Is that Tú Khánh?" and then leave, never boasting about his contributions. Only once, when he visited relatives in the evacuation area and stopped by my house, my mother mentioned, "You're the one who gave him a second life!" He smiled warmly and said, "It's nothing!"

- So your hair was long back then...?

- It's longer than my buttocks, thick and very smooth, honestly, not many people have that...

As time passes, life changes, and so do perceptions of beauty. Today, women can casually cut their hair short to curl or style it, considering it beautiful and modern. Thinking back to a time when parents gave their daughters long, silky, lustrous hair, it was considered a priceless asset. In critical moments of life and death, the courage and clear-headedness to preserve that "priceless asset" for a young woman was considered a noble and humane act worthy of respect.

Tuong Huyen

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