Monday, October 17, 2016

Phan Thi Kim Phuc aka "Napalm Girl"

Phan Thi Kim Phuc also known as the "Napalm Girl," was a Vietnamese-Canadian who had also went by the nine-year-old depicted in the Pulitzer Prize wining photograph taken during the Vietnamese War in June 8, 1972. A photo was taken of her running naked on a road by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. Napalm happens to be flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, consisting of gasoline thickened with special soaps. So to summon it all up it was a bomb. Kim and her family were residents of a village named, Trang Bang, which is located in South Vietnam. On June 8th the South Vietnamese planes dropped napalm boomb on the village of Trang Bang, which had been attacked attack by North Vietnamese forces. Kim joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from Caodai Temple to safety. After photographing Kim with other children who were injured, were taken to Barsky Hospital in Sagan. About 14 months she was in the hospital going through 17 surgical procedures involving skin transplantations, Kim was able to return home. In Kim's adult life she established the first Kim Phuc foundation in the United States, providing medicine as well as psychological assistance to children of the Vietnam war. Kim has become the face of the Vietnamese War ad still alive to this day at age 53. Her photo became an iconic image in the Vietnam War. She us very lucky to be alive today.

  
                                                     This is what she looks like today, she carries the scares from the napalm bombs.

6 comments:

  1. From the interview I remember about her (even though I mentioned this bit in class) the Napalm just sticks to you and the only reason she ultimately survived is because the Napalm stuck to her clothing and by removing everything she had on she escaped the burning. If she hadn't she would of burned to death.

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  2. I have seen these picture countless times, and it always hit me right in the emotions, but now, having read the story behind it, I feel even more strongly and emotional about the photo and the girl (now woman) pictured. Humans are such warriors! It baffles my mind to know that this girl has now flourished and become a successful and ambassador woman.

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  3. It's crazy how this women went through all of this. I have seen this image so many times and never knew that she lived through this.

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  4. I find it very nice that she made her own organization after the events so she could help others. It was good that she used a traumatic event she endured to start a project that could help others as well.

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  5. Her story and life are so inspiring of how she took the pain of her past and used it to create a foundation to help others facing similar tragedy. This being one of the most recognized images and this painful experience the greatest source of her strength to make this her life mission.

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  6. I can't imaging being that young and being attacked and scarred for life.

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