11 Apr 2016
Tash and I visited Hoa Lo prison, which was built in Hanoi in the late 1880s, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. The French called the prison Maison Centrale, meaning central house. The Vietnamese prisoners referred to it as Hoa Lo, which means "fiery furnace" or "hell's hole" which more accurately describes the conditions of the prison. The prison was intended to hold Vietnamese political prisoners who were rallying for independence from the French. The prison was built to hold 460 inmates, but has held more than triple that number at one time. Because of the crowded conditions, inmates had to lie on top of one another to fit in the unsanitary cells; they were malnourished and disease was rampant. The sweltering heat made things even worse. Inmates would prop up the sickest amongst them so that they could try to breathe fresh air through slats in the top walls of the cell. On display in the prison were torture instruments, including the guillotine, which was used repeatedly to execute prisoners.
As we walked through the prison, we entered communal, as well as solitary cells with lifesize statues held in chains.
Once Vietnam gained its independence, the Vietnamese people took control of the prison. During the Vietnam War, the prison was used to hold American POWs. John McCain was held here for 5 years.
One thing Tash and I couldn't get over was the stark contrast between the prison's account the of treatment of the vietnamese prisoners during the french occupation (small food portions that were mostly rotting, disease ridden, crowded cells, torture) and the prison's account of the treatment of the American POWs during the Vietnam War. The POWs were shown together in the courtyard playing basketball, they were shown near Christmas trimming a tree and making a feast, complete with roast chicken, for dinner. There were even prisoner testimonials stating how friendly the interactions were between the guards and prisoners.
This just didn't add up to Tash and I. After doing some online research, we found that many of those photos and testimonials were forced propaganda and that the American POWs were subjected to torture and solitary confinement, much like that of the Vietnamese prisoners. How could a prison, repurposed as a historical museum, present misinformation to thousands of visitors each year?
This was the first of three key experiences in Vietnam that made me realize, on a deeper level, how lucky I am to be American born.
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