Ms. Que Banh<p>For 22,000 <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Vietnamese" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Vietnamese</span></a> & some <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Cambodians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cambodians</span></a>, <a href="https://beige.party/tags/C%C3%B4nS%C6%A1n" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CônSơn</span></a> Island was literally the last stop on a journey that began with their arrest & incarceration on the mainland. Their crime? Resisting <a href="https://beige.party/tags/ForeignInvaders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ForeignInvaders</span></a> du jour & fighting for their country’s independence & unification. In addition to execution, causes of death included disease & torture.</p><p>The French built the Côn Đảo prison complex in 1861 to hold <a href="https://beige.party/tags/PoliticalPrisoners" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PoliticalPrisoners</span></a> and handed it over to the South Vietnamese government in 1954. It was a political Alcatraz on steroids, with <a href="https://beige.party/tags/inhumane" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>inhumane</span></a> living conditions, barbaric torture methods, no escape and, for many, no survival. The US & its client state collaborators honed this hell on Earth to <a href="https://beige.party/tags/dystopian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>dystopian</span></a> perfection.</p><p>Sáu was sent to 3 jails before being shipped to Côn Sơn Prison, because the French didn’t have the courage to carry out her death sentence on the mainland at a time when it was against <a href="https://beige.party/tags/ColonialLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ColonialLaw</span></a> to execute woman. She was the only female prisoner held by the French on Côn Sơn. </p><p>Like other Vietnamese who died for the cause of independence, Sáu, a national heroine who is celebrated in theater & song, was elevated to the status of ancestral spirit. Every Vietnamese city & town has a street named after her, as are many schools. She embodies the spirit of millions of Vietnamese throughout history, including soldiers of the First & Second Indochina War, who sacrificed everything, their youth, their health, their love, their personal happiness, & their lives, so that Vietnam could become a unified, sovereign nation.</p><p>“The lekima flower in full bloom, we are reminded of a heroine who died for future generations. The young lady so full of vitality fought against our enemies with firm spirit & even death could not force her to yield”. The song echoes in the mind of everybody who visits Hàng Dương cemetary in Côn Đảo district, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province. Vo Thi Sau, the <a href="https://beige.party/tags/heroine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>heroine</span></a> mentioned in the song, was <a href="https://beige.party/tags/executed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>executed</span></a> by the <a href="https://beige.party/tags/French" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>French</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/colonialists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>colonialists</span></a> at the foot of Chua mountain in the early morning of January 23, 1952. 60 years later, her immortal patriotism & sacrifice still shine in the heart of every Vietnamese person, particularly those who live on <a href="https://beige.party/tags/ConDao" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ConDao</span></a> island, once called “hell on the earth”. (Ref: VOVWorld)</p><p>The 20-hectare Hàng Dương cemetery holds the graves of more than 20,000 martyrs, including <a href="https://beige.party/tags/revolutionary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>revolutionary</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/martyr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>martyr</span></a> Lê Hồng Phong, patriot Nguyễn An Ninh & <a href="https://beige.party/tags/hero" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hero</span></a> Cao Văn Ngọc. Visitors are moved to see grave after grave, some named, some unnamed, stretching over the hill. Vo Thi Sau’s grave, set in gravel & soil shoveled by her fellow prisoners, lies in section B.</p><p>Sister Sau was already a legend when the ship carrying her docked at Con Dao island in 1952. At the execution, she refused to be blindfolded, wanting to admire the motherland’s landscape & sing until her last breath. Many families on Con Dao island have set up altars to worship sister Sau, whose legend has become eternal in Vietnamese hearts.</p><p><a href="https://beige.party/tags/AsianMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AsianMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Vietnam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Vietnam</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/VietnameseRevolutionaries" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VietnameseRevolutionaries</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/ColonialResistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ColonialResistance</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Communist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Communist</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/VietnameseHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VietnameseHistory</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/AsianHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AsianHistory</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/SouthEastAsia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SouthEastAsia</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Viet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Viet</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Geopolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Geopolitics</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/USWarOnVietnam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>USWarOnVietnam</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/LongLiveVietnam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LongLiveVietnam</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/VietnameseSovereignty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VietnameseSovereignty</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/LearnHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LearnHistory</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/TootSEA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TootSEA</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/USfundedTorture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>USfundedTorture</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/WomenOfTheResistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WomenOfTheResistance</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/USTerrorism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>USTerrorism</span></a></p>