Forgiveness
(James Ray, November 2008)
In June 1972 this photo appeared on the front page of the Washington Post.
A young girl runs towards the camera, her arms outstretched, clothes burnt off, skin blackened by the Napalm, screaming in pain. The photo was taken by the photo-journalist Nick Ut. The girls name was Kim Phuc, which means ‘Golden Happiness’.
After 14 months in hospital, 17 operations, Kim returned home, worried that her wounds were so ugly that no one would ever want to marry her.
Nick Ut’s photo won the Pulitzer Prize and became an emblem for an entire nation questioning its reason for being in Vietnam.
Some years later, having become a Christian, Kim said this: “it was the fire of the bomb that burnt my body, it was the skill of the doctors that mended my skin but it took the love of God to heal my heart”.
She returned to her medical studies in 1986 – 14 years after the bomb. Her burns still requiring daily washing and medication. She did marry and have children.
Ten years after that, in 1996, Kim agreed to speak at the veteran’s day ceremony held in Washington DC. She took her place on the podium, flanked by military dignitaries, before a huge crowd of veterans – she stood before a sea of people in uniform which must have brought back all the memories of the war and she said this:
“I have suffered a lot, from both physical and mental pain, sometimes I thought I could not live, but God saved my life and gave me faith and hope”. Then she offered some healing words: “even if I could talk face to face to the pilot who dropped that bomb, I could tell him that we can’t change history but we can do good things for the present and the future to promote peace”.
When she had finished her brief moving remarks, the veterans leapt to their feet and broke into an explosion of applause – many of them in tears. “it is important for us that she is here” one said, “for many of us this means something very personal”.
One man was overcome with emotion and rushed to the patrolman and scribbled something on a piece of paper and asked for it to be delivered to Kim.
‘I AM THE MAN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR’ the note read.
Intermediaries asked if she would be willing to meet him and she said yes. So they organized for the two to meet away from the press of the crowd. When the officials brought them together, Kim turned and looked straight into the man’s eyes and then held out her arms, the same arms as the photo shows, burning as she runs down the road in agony. ….And she hugged the man and he began to sob:
“I’m so sorry” he said, “I’m just so sorry”
She replied: “it’s okay, I forgive, I forgive”
That day, the famous photo of 30 years ago, of the terrified Vietnamese girl fleeing the Napalm flames, was replaced in the national conscience by an image of a young mother, embracing an ex G.I.
The words of forgiveness that Kim extended that day are said to have helped heal the conscience of 1000’s of veterans and, as the news reports carried the story far and wide, her words and the striking image helped heal the nations wounds as well.
Someone once said:
To return evil for good is devilish
To return good for good, that’s human
To return good for evil, that’s divine
When the time comes, which response will you chose?
