Toans Family History - Essay Example

Family History Essay Toan stared down at the pen and paper. It would be so easy. All he had to do was sign his With the signature of Toan Vo, he could go home to be with his wife and daughter. Toan pushed the paper away, coughing from his chronic lung infection. “You are a stupid fool,” Captain Lam snarled, beating Toan across the head and shoulders. “Do you think you are better than me? You are too good to be re-educated? Too good to live the life of the state?” Toan knew better than to reply. Like Toan, this vicious guard had once been a captain for the Republic of South Vietnam. Unlike Toan, Captain Lam had denounced his former comrades to save his own skin. As his reward Captain Lam came to the re-education camp as a guard, not a prisoner. Captain Lam hated Toan with a deep passion. He took great pleasure in hitting and torturing Toan. Captain Lam considered the former captain weak for not denouncing his fellow prisoners. The Vietnam of 1980’s did not allow a man the luxury of a conscious. After Captain Lam tired of beating Toan, he waved for several of the inmates to take him away. The battered Toan wheezed uneasily as he was deposited on the hard mud floor of the leaky hut that he shared with over a dozen other prisoners. Toan had served in the re-education camp for over five years. A re-education camp sounded so intellectual. These camps were presented as places where communism was taught by informed Marxists. In reality, the North Vietnamese government had set up concentration camps with political overtones. The Republic of South Vietnamese soldiers knew that it would be rough after the Americans pulled out. The defeated army thought if they laid down their weapons and surrendered, eventually life would go back to a normal. They had not counted on the brutality the North Vietnamese soldiers unleashed on them. Maybe if Toan would not have been intelligent or if he had less compassion for his fellow soldiers, he would not have had to serve in the re-education camp for so many years. His original sentence was five years. After serving for five years the government did not believe Toan had been indoctrinated fully, so they decided he would do another five years. Lying on the hard mud in his hut, Toan did not know if he could survive another five years in this camp. The skinny prisoner only weighed seventy five pounds. His lung infection had worsened until he could barely breathe. These two conditions made it very hard for Toan to continue the hard labor that was mandatory in the camp. The only break the inmates got was the political classes conducted in the evening. Even though they were made to stand at attention for the lectures, Toan and the other prisoners could catch their breaths for a minute. The brainwashing could last hours. The whole point of the camp was to turn every inmate into devoted communists. It did not matter to the guards if a prisoner died in the process. “I will survive,” Toan commanded himself silently. The same thought ran through his head every night before falling into a restless sleep, “I will see my Hoang and Yen again.” The next morning, Toan made himself climb to his feet to attend roll call. Although tempted to lie on the hut floor, his survival instinct kicked in. With an inner strength, Toan stepped out of his hut into the darkness before dawn, getting into line for roll call. The roll call was another useless show of power. None of the prisoners could escape. The guards would shoot anything that moved at night. There were also land mines outside the fence. The only way out of the camp was through the heavily armed front gate. Besides where would the detainees go? Family and friends would be killed if they hid political insurgents. Spies and informants infested the villages and cities. The only way home was a decree from the all powerful government. Toan could only guess at what went on outside his world. When a work detail was sent out, they were kept away from heavily populated areas. The few villagers that could be found looked depressed and defeated. Toan and his colleagues knew that the villager’s lives were only a little better than the camp detainees. The only advantage the villagers had was the opportunity to be with their families. As the sun rose, the shout went out for them to line up for work details. Toan feared they would pass him over for the forced labor. Being passed over for work meant he was not productive. Unproductive citizens of the state were executed. The emaciated men marched toward the gate entrance. Toan hoped that Captain Lam would not be one of his guards today. To his relief, Captain Lam took a group of workers toward the dike the prisoners had been digging for days. Toan was did not feel relieved for long. His group was assigned to the rice patties. The former captain did not mind the hard labor. He had never been lazy. His fear was of a couple of enemies less discriminating than the guards, the leeches and snakes hiding in the murky water of the rice patties. These two creatures could kill the prisoners quicker than Captain Lam’s rage. Most leeches were not deadly to a healthy human, but to the undernourished men a leech bite represented blood infections or death from blood loss. A leech victim could languish for days before dying. The snakes at least killed quickly. They were poisonous. Since Toan had ill fitting threadbare shirt and pants there was no protection from the predators in the water. Several prisoners succumbed to the perils of the rice patties everyday. The men planted new rice patties that day. Toan mechanically placed the new plants a couple of inches from each other. Around noon, they had a small break. Instead of the half bowl of rice the detainees hoped for, the guards gave the prisoners one small yam. Toan chewed his yam slowly. This was the only trick that kept the ache in his stomach. Most of the prisoners tried not to think of food. It only made them hungrier. Toan normally stuck to this rule, but today he could not help thinking of his mother’s cooking. Wistfully, Toan remembered the days before the Republic of South Vietnam made him a captain. He attended school. Toan had loved the carefree days of learning. After school, Toan knew his mother would have a pot of rice boiling. Some days she sprinkled in chicken or a variety of vegetables. The only thing better than his mother’s cooking, was his wife, Hoang’s, and his mother’s cooking. After he married Hoang in Long Xuyen, she came to live at his ancestral home. His mother and wife started combining their cooking for the whole family. Toan missed them so much it hurt. Some of his fellow prisoners worried that their wives would find other men. Toan never had the nagging feeling about Hoang. He knew his beautiful wife would always wait for him. The last time had seen each other, she had glowed. Her long black hair had fallen out of its’ usual bun. She had been holding their new daughter, Yen. The image of mother and child kept Toan going. A sharp blow shook Toan out of his memories. It was time to go back to work. The short guard kicked Toan in the seat of the pants lightly to make him move. This guard was not compassionate, but he was not cruel either. Captain Hai represented a rarity, a North Vietnamese soldier that believed in being fair. Toan and his fellow workers planted rice sprouts all day. Right after dusk, the guards marched the men back to camp. The communist education for the night lasted a little over an hour. Captain Hai had a trustee pass out a half a bowl of rice to each prisoner. Then the men were herded back to their huts. In the middle of the night, a shout disturbed the men in Toan’s hut. Captain Lam yelled from the door of hut. “Toan Vo!” Toan sat up in confusion, stumbling to the hut’s entrance. “Toan Vo! Now!” the Captain snarled once more, grabbing Toan by the arm. “Come with me.” This is my last night alive. I wish Hoang and Yen are well. Maybe the government will inform them of my death, and then they can go on with their lives. All of these thoughts raced around in Toan’s mind as Captain Lam took him to an interrogation hut. Captain Lam sat down at a desk, leaving Toan and two other guards to stand before him for a few minutes. Finally the brutal man spoke, “You are free. Go home to your family.” “What?” Toan gasped in unbelief. “Take him,” Captain Lam sneered at the two guards. The two guards grabbed Toan, taking him from the hut. The men made their way to a train station. Toan just sat in shock, breathing heavily. All of the people on the train sat quietly, looking around suspiciously. When they arrived in Long Xuyen, the guards dumped Toan at the station. Toan looked around dumbfounded. He still could not believe he was free to go home. After standing there for a minute, Toan began to walk quickly. Once out of the station, he went toward his ancestral home. He knew Hoang and Yen would be there waiting for him. His hopes were dashed when a man he did not recognize opened the door. “Do you know Hoang Doan?” Toan asked fearfully, coughing from the exertion of the walk from the train station. “Leave,” the man hissed, trying to shut the door on Toan. “Please,” Toan begged, sliding his foot in the door. “She is my wife. I need to see her.” “She is in a hut at outskirts of town,” the small man whispered quickly. “Please, go before I get in trouble.” Toan ran towards the shabby huts he had seen coming into town. His lungs felt like they would burst, yet he ran on. Upon reaching the flimsy huts, he noticed a child outside of one. He stopped short. The child looked like a small replica of Hoang. Stunned, Toan realized that this was his baby daughter. “Yen,” Toan shouted. The child looked up at the raggedy man. She turned in fright from the stranger, running for her mother. Hoang stepped out a tiny lean to. When she saw her skeletal husband, she screamed, running towards him. They met in a fierce hug. For Toan and Hoang the world stopped and all that matter was that they were together at last. Toan and Hoang left for America with their four children under a deal between the Vietnam and American governments. This deal allowed men who served for more than two or three years in the re-education camps and their families’ citizenship in America. Toan’s family made it to Rochester, Minnesota. Toan and Hoang worked hard to give their children an education, taking any job they could. This was a small part of his story. Toan Vo is my father. . Read More