Tran Dai Nhat still remembers the moment his childhood disappeared forever.
.jpg)
The shy, five-year-old boy survived the bloody curtain call of the Vietnam War and was optimistic about a future free from military might and chemical warfare.
So, it was with bewilderment he was suddenly jolted from his happy daydreams by a sharp kick from a victorious Communist soldier. “Your father was a dog, boy,” bellowed the stockily-built man, “Now run!”
For many Vietnamese, 30 April 1975 marked a joyous day after 20 years of death and destruction at the hands of both indigenous and foreign fighters.
But for a significant number of children fathered as a result of rape by South Korean soldiers, it was the start of a living hell.
Mr Nhat recalled: “Before April 1975, I had been treated well by the South Korean troops who lived on the base near my home in Phu Yen Province, central Vietnam. I was still too young to have any real sense of my identity and hadn’t yet questioned my mother about why I looked different to other Vietnamese children.
“But when the Communists declared victory, everything changed for me. Suddenly, I knew I was dangerously different.”
A period of painful bullying ensued in school. Mr Nhat said: “I was bullied repeatedly. The other children kept asking who my father was and called him a 'dog'. I just kept suffering in silence.
“I was 18 when my mother finally sat me down and told me she had been raped by Korean soldiers - not once but three times. My two sisters are also mixed blood or Lai Dai Han as we are known in Vietnam."