ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Bao Ninh successfully portrayed the suffering of ordinary people in the Vietnam War in "The Sorrow of War." He hopes to do the same in a future novel on the Great East Japan Earthquake.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Bao Ninh successfully portrayed the suffering of ordinary people in the Vietnam War in "The Sorrow of War." He hopes to do the same in a future novel on the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The 59-year-old recently visited Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, a city devastated by the tsunami on March 11.
"An earthquake of this scale comes only once in 1,000 years," said Bao Ninh, who took part in the Vietnam War at age 17. "This is the most shattering experience in my life after the war."
The writer, who was rendered virtually speechless on a tsunami-ruined beach, said he wants to weave into a novel what he saw and what he heard.
Bao Ninh delivered clothing to an evacuation center along with staff from the Association for Aid and Relief, Japan, a nongovernmental organization.
He shared the grief of an old woman who had her son carried away by the tsunami.
"During war, people are between life and death and cannot afford a feeling of sadness over the loss of their loved ones," he said.
"I was overcome by deep sorrow only after the war ended. It was just like I felt an intense pain after pulling out a bullet from my body."
"The Sorrow of War" was published in 1991.
While literature was expected to serve politics in socialist Vietnam, the novel won acclaim internationally for its true-to-life account of the Vietnam War.
The protagonists are a man and a woman one might see anywhere.
"I want to depict the anguish of ordinary people in the quake-hit region," Bao Ninh said.
The one-party rule by communists continues in Vietnam despite its robust economic growth fueled by a market-opening policy.
Bao Ninh said he has "an important work stowed away in my drawer," but he did not elaborate.