“I am no longer a victim, but a survivor who calls for peace”
Overcoming psychological trauma, anti-war and relief activities for decades
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Yuhan-joo = The ‘Napalm Girl’, who became a symbol of the horrors of the Vietnam War by throwing off her clothes with flames and running away crying, has completed burn treatment for the first time in 50 years.
The British daily The Guardian reported on the 1st (local time) that Phanti Kim Phuc (59), the protagonist of the photo of the incident, completed the 12th and last laser treatment at a dermatology clinic in Miami, USA this week.
Kim Phuc was hospitalized for 14 months after a napalm attack on a village in southern Vietnam in 1972.
The napalm plate is a bomb that generates heat close to 3,000 degrees Celsius and turns a tens of meters in a radius of the drop into a sea of fire.
The U.S. military has been criticized for using such inhumane weapons with indiscriminate lethality in Vietnam and other places.
After being discharged from the hospital, Kim Phuc had to continue treatment after battling pain from the napalm burn.
Fighting against the deep psychological wounds left by the war, he healed all of his physical wounds over 50 years.
“I am no longer a victim of war, but a survivor,” Kim Phuc said.
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In fact, Kim Phuc was a person who participated in the anti-war movement as a survivor of the war for decades with a sick body.
Suffering from psychological trauma, he came to a turning point in his life after emigrating to Canada in 1992.
He published his autobiography, ‘The Girl in the Picture’, and created an LCIF to help children in war.
Kim Phuc was appointed as the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Culture by UNESCO in 1997, and has been delivering the message of peace around the world.
“I want everyone to live a life full of love, hope and forgiveness,” he said. “If we learn to live that way, war will never be necessary.”
The 21-year-old photographer Nick Ut (71) took the photo of a 9-year-old girl crying in fear.
The two are still in regular contact with each other.
Kim Phuc said he hated the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo in the past and said he was ashamed of being photographed naked.
hanju@yna.co.kr
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