Tell the story of the great victory day

Students take photos with historical witnesses in the talk show "Telling stories of the great victory day".

Happy tears flow

50 years ago, on the day of national reunification, the whole nation burst into joy of victory. In that joy, there were not only smiles but also tears. At that moment, there were tears that were captured by the camera lens and became history. That was the famous photo of journalist Lam Hong Long: "Mother and son of death row inmate Con Dao", in which the two main characters were mother Tran Thi Binh (born in 1908) and death row inmate Con Dao Le Van Thuc (born in 1941), from Tam Phuoc commune, Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre province.

Recalling unforgettable memories, Mr. Le Van Thuc said: “At that time, when mother and son met again, we just hugged and cried for a long time. My mother did not think that I would return alive and that mother and son would meet again.”

During the days when the country was still boiling with bombs and bullets, Binh's mother at home was always waiting for news of her son. When she heard that her son had joined the puppet army, she was very sad and angry, but she did not know that Mr. Thuc had been assigned by the revolution to infiltrate the enemy ranks to gather intelligence. After the general offensive and uprising in the spring of Mau Than 1968, Mr. Thuc was exposed and sentenced to death by the enemy, and exiled to Con Dao. Binh's mother's heart at home was even more painful. During the years in Con Dao prison, Mr. Thuc was further tempered in his revolutionary spirit.

Not long after April 30, 1975, when she learned that there was a ship taking prisoners from Con Dao to Vung Tau, Binh's mother came to find her son, unsure if he was still alive. She asked the person in charge of the camp in Vung Tau to let her see him. Unexpectedly, in the group of former prisoners returning from Con Dao at that time, she recognized Mr. Thuc. Mother and son hugged each other in boundless happiness.

Photographer Lam Hong Long was working in the field. He heard Binh’s mother calling her son’s name: “Thuc, son… Thuc, … Mom, son… Thuc”. Witnessing that moment of reunion, he raised his camera in time to capture the moment of “Mother and son of the death row inmate of Con Dao”. This photo was awarded an Honorary Award by the International Federation of Photographic Art and was used by many newspapers at home and abroad. The photo was also given many different names such as: “Reunion Day”, “Mother and son on the day of reunion”, “Mother and son meet on the day of liberation”…

Memories inspire creativity

The program met Mr. Tran Cong Ngu - former Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Association for the Support of Poor Patients and listened to the story of the Liberation Art Troupe. During the war, facing the oppression of the enemy, revolutionary cultural and artistic activities were even more urgent and were an important driving force, contributing to encouraging the fighting spirit of the army and people. The province's Liberation Art Troupe traveled throughout the grassroots, closely associated with the army and people, serving the people.

Mr. Tran Cong Ngu recounted the important battles that he witnessed as well as the story of hero Hoang Lam and the province's water special forces, with their glorious and legendary feats. "Everyone still sings: "Listen to Hoang Lam still singing somewhere..." (lyrics from the song "Spring fragrant with heroic flowers"), which sounds simple but tells the heroic spirit of revolutionary soldiers during the resistance war. That was when Hoang Lam and the water special forces team carried a 200kg explosive to attack the American warship 833 anchored at the mouth of the Ben Tre River. Swimming out to the middle of the river, they waved goodbye to comrade Ba Dao and sang "liberate the South, we are determined to move forward together", Mr. Tran Cong Ngu said.

"Culture and art are also a front, artists and writers are also soldiers on that front" - that saying of President Ho Chi Minh always permeates the thoughts of those working in culture and art. During the resistance war, many poets, writers, painters, musicians... created works that exalted the spirit and will to fight, strongly encouraged the victories, and continued to write the heroic history of the nation. It is the memories of wartime, what they themselves experienced during the most fierce period of their homeland that are unforgettable marks that nurtured the emotions of musicians, creating musical works that touched people's hearts.

Musician Lan Phong has composed over 200 works of various genres, expressing rich content about the land and people of Ben Tre, praising the steadfast and indomitable examples of soldiers and people of Ben Tre in the war to protect the Fatherland, praising love for the Fatherland, arousing solidarity, enthusiasm for production and encouraging the spirit of patriotic emulation... His typical works such as the songs: "Que ta trai gai toi", "Nguoi me xu dua", "Battalion 516", "Legend of a river", "Ruc sang rung dua"... have left many deep impressions in the role of music composition of his home province.

“Our ancestors fell so that we could have peace in the future. Amidst the smoke of war, everyone was willing to sacrifice. We would like to express our gratitude to the soldiers, forgetting their own feelings, forgetting themselves. Flowing in their hearts is a stream of hot blood, the blood of Lac Hong…”. The stories of the witnesses are just a few slices in the heroic history of the nation, stirring up many emotions in the hearts of today’s young people. Proud and grateful, promoting the spirit of our ancestors, the young generation continues to “continue writing the story of peace”, entering a new future.

Article and photos: Thanh Dong

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/ke-chuyen-ngay-dai-thang-21042025-a145507.html