.jpg)
I have started reading this book. I bought it from Amazon. I've learned a lot from this book already and I'm not even a third of the way through it yet.
One interesting thing is that the person who took this famous photo saved Kim's life. Kim's dad asked him to take her to the hospital so Uncle Ut, as she would later call him, put her in his van and took her to the hospital. He deserved the recognition for this photo because of what happens afterwards.
Another thing about her being naked is that she did not take her clothes off. Kim was wearing a light fabric tunic that the napalm melted away, and she thinks that wearing the tunic as opposed to a heavy fabric that may have survived the napalm saved her life too.
The Viet Cong really were a nasty group of people with more support in northern Vietnam. They supported communism and were trying to take over the governments in southern Vietnam militarily to control the entire country of Vietnam as a communist nation under the Viet Cong's rule. [Possibly similar to how Russia wants to control Ukraine under communist rule against their will and desire for self-governance and greater freedoms.] Prior to the day of this photo, Kim's mom had a soup stand with a seating area and a wedding party rented out the space at her restaurant for a wedding dinner. The Viet Cong bombed Kim's mom's restaurant and killed all the people from the wedding party. Kim's mom survived but was put into jail for suspicion of helping the Viet Cong. Eventually Kim's family was able to get her mom out of jail. The events leading up to the photo were as such. The Viet Cong took over Kim's family house and were trying to take over the village. Kim's dad was afraid that the Viet Cong would see him as a threat and kill him, so he fled to a different village. Kim's mom protected her children by taking them to the local CaoDai temple and was left by herself at the family home with the Viet Cong soldiers to attend their needs by force. Three days later south Vietnamese troops rushed the kids out of the CaoDai temple because they knew the village was going to be bombed and they thought the church would be hit. After the kids were out on the street in front of the temple, the events of the photo took place. The napalm bombing was in response to the Viet Cong taking over the village and done by the military group supported by America's military to the best of my knowledge.
After her injury in the bombing just mentioned and captured in the photo, Kim was taken to the hospital by Uncle Ut. Her parents eventually found Kim after searching for her, in a hospital morgue first and then urged doctors to care for her. Kim's father spent every day with her in the hospital and slept on the bench outside in front of the hospital at night. Her mom sold soup again to help support the family. Kim was in the hospital for about a year during which time the Viet Cong tried to take over her village four more times. When Kim got out of the hospital, she became depressed because of her disability. By that time America had pulled out of the war in Vietnam, but the civil war continued in Vietnam. One night thieves tied Kim's family up in their house, but her brother escaped and got help. Later, after having this injury, a year stay in the hospital, when Kim was back home again recovering with her injuries, her family had to flee to the capital of their region of Vietnam to escape from another bombing attack of her village from the Viet Cong. I have not gotten any further in the book yet.
There were two people crucified beside JESUS when He died who responded in different ways to JESUS. We know JESUS rose from the grave! There were probably hundreds of other people crucified by the Romans around the time of their world domination. None crucified were perfect and completely innocent like JESUS! I do think that Kim's story is a modern-day crucifixion story caused by the horrors of war that some powers of both the east and west are responsible for and can learn from. (She's a Christian martyr and had the innocence of only being a child who can only be a victim of this war and not a cause.) She is a Christian now and believes in the King of kings who reigns in Heaven above.
1 John 4:20 (New International Version) 20 "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."
