Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

Dzung Chung opens the next section with a retelling of Tri Huu’s childhood. Tri Huu was born in My Tho in 1941 during the Japanese occupation. His father, Huu Nghiep, was a member of the Viet Minh, the resistance group that fought against both the Japanese and subsequent French occupation of Vietnam. When Huu Nghiep joined the Viet Minh forces, Tri Huu’s mother, Le Nhi, fled their home with her children out of fear of retribution against revolutionaries. Le Nhi didn’t hear from her husband for years. After World War II, the French assumed control over Vietnam. Upon her return to My Tho, Le Nhi discovered that a French colonel now occupied her home, and she began a relationship with him. The Colonel was transferred to Saigon, and Le Nhi, pregnant with his child, moved with him. She took Tri Huu and his sister along but left his brother behind with her parents.

Dzung Chung’s own family was less political during this time, and her mother, Thi Mot, didn’t pick sides. Instead, she continued to run her bakery in Lang Son for both French and Vietnamese patrons. The French raided the bakery searching for Viet Minh loyalists, and Dzung Chung’s father was accidentally shot and killed. Thi Mot remarried, and as French and Viet Minh fighting escalated in the North, she moved her family to Vung Tau for safety.

This section returns to the initial days of GB and his parents’ visit to Vietnam to attend his grandparents’ memorials. Although he visited Vietnam before, GB feels out of place and finds himself overwhelmed with the traffic, heat, humidity, and insects. Locals regard his shaved head as bad luck, and a merchant doesn’t understand his pronunciation of pho. His father, Tri Huu, insists on switching to a different hotel because their room’s window is too small.

Tri Huu reunites with his old childhood friend, Do. Back in 1975, Do was unable to leave Vietnam with Tri Huu as planned and remained behind. Tri Huu declines a visit to see his old home in Saigon, stating that he has no intention of being nostalgic. He and Do both comment on the current state of the country and how capitalism has replaced the ideals of communism. Tri Huu tells his son that after the war, the Vietnamese who didn’t fight Americans suffered under the communist regime, particularly the educated class, who were forced into labor camps. Those desperate to flee the country found ways to bribe authorities or steal enough money to secure passage out of Vietnam. Tri Huu’s mother, Le Nhi, left her own parents behind in Vietnam when she fled to the US. Tri Huu informs GB that her parents suffered: His great-grandfather died of a stroke during a protest, and his great-grandmother was murdered during a home robbery. The police confiscated the jewelry she left for her family to inherit.

The family then travels from Saigon to Dzung Chung’s hometown in Lang Son, the place where her mother ran the bakery and her birth father was accidentally shot. Dzung Chung pays her respect at her father’s grave. She has recurring dreams about the tree in the courtyard of her family home, and when she visits the site, she discovers that the area has been cleared. The subsequent page features an illustration of a family tree with her mother, Thi Mot, labeled at the trunk and the roots extending to the numerous family members. Some entries are crossed out, and others bear question marks.

After visiting Lang Son, the family visits Vung Tau, where Thi Mot and her second husband resettled and where her memorial service is held. Illustrations of Dzung Chung cheerfully riding through the seaside town and reminiscing juxtapose images of Tri Huu’s childhood. A young Tri Huu appears smiling and riding a bicycle with his family, though his father, Hu Nghiep, is rendered as a blur. Another panel depicts Huu Nghiep being tortured by Japanese soldiers.