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Tohon

The Casualties of War     

Recently I watched Casualties of War on TV. The 1989 war drama film is based on the events of the 1966 during the Vietnam War, in which a Vietnamese woman was kidnapped from her village by a squad of American soldiers, who raped and murdered her despite protests from the fourth companion.

The story revolves around the agony the fourth soldier suffers. The drama is so real that I not only hated the three soldiers, it made my blood boil. I wished the fourth soldier had killed his fellow soldiers before they could rape and kill the innocent girl. Since that did not happen, I wanted the three soldiers to be punished, just as much as the fourth soldier did. But the system would not allow it. The major with whom the fourth soldier lodges a complaint says that in a war that is the name of the game.

To me the story is a metaphor and features an offender, a victim, a human conscience and an onlooker. The offender is one of us—a human being, one of our kind. Bringing him to justice is not true justice. We should all be brought to justice— including the prosecutor, the jury, the judge and the onlooker. Guilt will not go away as long as we (including the highest authorities) are not ashamed of crimes and do not do penitence and put ourselves in pain. Acts like condemnation, announcing a verdict, preaching nonviolence, or even raising the fear of hell mean nothing. They simply hide our complicity.

How would one ever know that he is an accomplice to the action he condemns? How would one ever be able to remove his veil, when he is ignorant of its existence in the first place?

About the Author
Tohon is the author of 'My Awakened Soul', New Generation Publishing, London, 2023.