Hai Duong village on liberation day

When the news of victory came to the village

Lai Khe Station (Kim Thanh) was marked with many war scars and was the first place where villagers received the news that the South was completely liberated. At noon on April 30, 1975, the sky was clear and windy, the children of Lai Khe village were playing marbles at the station when they heard people shouting loudly mixed with the train whistle, "Liberation. The South has won, my people!"

Mr. Nguyen Quang Toan (62 years old) in Lai Khe village, Cong Hoa commune (Kim Thanh) told us about his hometown when he received the news of the liberation and reunification of the country 49 years ago.

“A week before April 30, during recess, we often gathered to look at the yellowed map of the South that the homeroom teacher hung on the board. For each city that was liberated, the teacher drew a red flag with a yellow star next to it. That day, after hearing the news, the teacher drew a red flag over the place name Saigon. I ran home on all fours, shouting from the gate: Mom, the South is liberated. The war is over, Mom, then rushed into the kitchen to hug my mother,” Mr. Toan recounted.

Mr. Phan Dinh Hung in Lai Vu commune (Kim Thanh) also excitedly recounted: "When we heard the news of the victory, people in my village rushed out to the main road, joined the crowd gathering at the commune People's Committee, shouting Vietnam-Ho Chi Minh. Many families in my village that day made a big feast to celebrate the victory."

During the war, there was no village in Hai Duong that did not bear the scars. When the news of reunification arrived, all the pain seemed to be filled by the joy of the country being reunited after so many days of waiting. On April 30th of that year, in the villages of Hai Duong, it was truly like a big festival.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tuyen (84 years old) in Dong Quang commune (Gia Loc) was once the Deputy Head of the District Information and Broadcasting Department, in charge of Gia Loc District Radio Station in 1975. Mr. Tuyen still remembers clearly that at around 12:30 on April 30, 1975, while on duty to relay the Voice of Vietnam radio on Gia Loc District Radio Station, he heard on his own station's loudspeaker system: "On the morning of April 30, in a clear defeat, the enemy asked for a ceasefire, but our troops were still determined to attack. The army corps quickly captured the targets. At 11:30, after the fall of the Independence Palace, puppet President Duong Van Minh announced unconditional surrender...".

Previously, the Gia Loc District Radio Station's program was only broadcast on Tuesdays and Fridays every week. Since hearing the news of the liberation of the South, he directly produced a dense propaganda program, broadcast daily, revolving around this important historical event. At that time, in addition to Mr. Tuyen, Gia Loc District Radio Station had another reporter, a technician who operated an amplifier and broadcast. "I went directly to the communes, interviewing from the Party Secretary to the farmers in the common joy of the nation," Mr. Tuyen said. Mr. Tuyen also produced the programs: "Soldier's Wife", "Heroic Mother" to praise the examples and encourage the spirit of families whose husbands and children went to war, contributing to the glorious victory of the country.

For many people in Hai Duong, the day they received the news of victory on April 30, 1975, that year became a special and unforgettable memory.

Remember the soldiers

There are many things to think about on the day of national reunification. However, most of the people we met said that besides joy and thinking about the future, they also remembered those who went to war. “On April 30, 1975, I was happy all day because I thought that the war would end and my husband would return home and our family would reunite. That day’s meal was simple, just water spinach soup and pickled eggplant, but everyone found it delicious. My husband’s parents spent the whole meal discussing their future plans when their son returned and said that my husband and I would definitely give them a grandchild.”

The story about the day of national reunification told by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huyen in Hung Dao commune (Tu Ky) above is also the common feeling of many families in the villages of Hai Duong at that time.

That day, the art troupe of Hung Dao commune was urgently mobilized, practicing day and night the play "Day Hoi Non Song" to perform to welcome the soldiers back, to celebrate the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country. Many families in the village painted new walls and re-tiled the roofs. As for the families whose sons had heroically sacrificed in battle, they also cleaned the altars and prepared offerings, because they believed that the souls of the soldiers who had sacrificed themselves could now truly return to their families and villages.

In the joy of national reunification, there are still wives and mothers who sadly miss their soldiers.

Heroic Vietnamese mother Le Thi Luy in Nhue Son village, An Son commune (Nam Sach), is 101 years old this year but is still lucid. She said that at noon on April 30, 1975, when she heard people in the village announce the surrender of puppet President Duong Van Minh, she could not believe it was true. At that time in An Son, every house was flying the national flag, and laughter echoed throughout the village streets.

Yet that day, when she faced the portrait of her son, a martyr, on the altar, her heart ached. The country was unified, but her eldest son would never return. His body was unknown where it lay. “It hurts so much, but my son sacrificed for the Fatherland, so that the country could have victory and be what it is today,” said Luy’s mother. In addition to her eldest son who died in 1969 on the southern battlefield, Luy’s mother also had a second son who died on the Cambodian battlefield in 1979.

There are still so many stories in the villages of Hai Duong during the days of the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country 49 years ago that we have recorded that we cannot tell. There is much joy, and also much nostalgia because the war has been over for a long time, but there are still many heroic sons of Hai Duong who have fallen and have not been able to return to their motherland...