Con Dao’s Museum

I’m not one for museums but decided to visit this one on the edge of Con Son, a ten minute walk away.

The museum was mainly about the incarceration and torture of the Vietnamese at the hands of the French colonial rulers followed by the U.S.A.’s puppet regime. I’d read a novel about a prisoner in the tiger cages but I don’t think the story was set in Vietnam. Still, I was curious to learn just what they looked like.

Prisoners’ drawings of their Uncle Ho

Tom Harkin knew of their existence from an ex-prisoner who drew a map so Harkin could locate them. Even though the official leading the inspection had tried to hide that section of the prison, a guard came through the cages’ entrance door and Harkin barged through. He took photos and refused to hand over the photos, thus exposing the horrors of this section of the prison.

One of the lucky prisoners who survived and was released