Woman known as ‘Napalm Girl’ urges help for refugees
One of the best-known child victims of war says Canada should remain a haven for refugees.
“With people who really need help, we have to help them,” Kim Phuc told an audience at a Talking about Peace event at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on Friday.
Phuc became known as the “Napalm Girl” after an iconic photo was published showing her as a terrified nine-year-old running down a road naked after a June 8, 1972, napalm attack during the Vietnam War.
“For me, it’s not about politics,” it’s about helping people, said Phuc, who has lived in Canada since 1994.
“I can see in Canada so many different countries,” she said.
“From everywhere around the world, people came to Canada to have a good life, they contribute to the country. We should keep doing that whenever people need help.”
Phuc, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), made the comments after she was asked about Canada’s role in the refugee crisis that has gripped parts of the world.
Phuc, 54, defected to Canada while on a one-hour stopover in Gander, N.L., as she returned from her honeymoon in Moscow to Cuba, where she was studying.
“I thank God that the Canadian government was open for refugees at the time,” she said.
When she arrived, she said, she knew three things about Canada: 1) it was cold; 2) people spoke French and English; and 3) it had a pretty flag. “Being in a new country — new people, new culture — we didn’t know how we could survive but Canadians just opened their hearts and adopted us as friends and family.”
The napalm attack nearly killed her. Two of her cousins died in the attack. News footage shows skin peeling from the children’s bodies as relatives tried to save them.
Expecting her to die, the local hospital put Phuc in the morgue, where her parents found her.
They took her to another hospital, where she underwent 16 operations over 14 months. “I’m a living miracle,” said Phuc, whose many scars still cause her pain.
At 19, the Vietnamese government pulled her out of medical school to use her as a propaganda tool. “I lost my dream (of becoming a doctor), I became a prisoner,” Phuc said. That year, she converted to Christianity, describing it as a turning point that helped her forgive those who had inflicted such pain on her.
“I had hatred in me for so many years that was just killing me every single day,” Phuc said.
“I said, ‘How can I bear that hatred and anger for the rest of my life? I need to be free from that hatred.’ ”
Years later, she met the Vietnamese commander who had ordered the napalm airstrike, now living in California. “I forgave him totally, my heart is healed,” she said.”
The famous image, by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, has been a curse and a blessing.
For years, Phuc said, she “wanted to escape that picture, I wished nobody knew I come from that picture.”
That bitterness faded after her first child was born, in 1996.
“I looked at my child and I thought I could never allow my children to suffer like that little girl in the picture, like me,” said Phuc, who has two sons and recently became a grandmother.
“I realized that that picture is a powerful gift for me to work with, to work for peace. From that moment, I just dedicated my life to fight for peace and joy and for children who are suffering.”
Phuc, who lives near Toronto, runs a non-profit organization — The Kim Foundation International — that helps fund schools, hospitals and orphanages in developing countries.
Being in a new country — new people, new culture — we didn’t know how we could survive but Canadians just opened their hearts and adopted us as friends and family.