From Hell to Hollywood: 50 years of Napalm Girl in Milan

Today, 50 years after that iconic shot, Kim Phuc, the immortalized girl as he runs shouting “Burn! It burns! ”She lives in Canada and is a wife, mother and grandmother. She is a kind and smiling woman, whom she has always continued to fight, with her body and soul marked by her scars.

In Milan, the 50 years of Napalm Girl

In the fiftieth anniversary of the Napalm GirlKim Puch and Nick Ut inaugurated the photographic exhibition in Milan From Hell to Hollywoodcurated by Ly thi Thanh Thai and Sergio Mandelli, (open until May 32, at the IsolaSet space in Palazzo Lombardia, via Galvani 27, from Monday to Sunday 10.30-19.30, free admission): an anthology that in 61 photos traces the career, continued in Los Angeles, of the Vietnamese photographer of the Associated Press.

“I still don’t believe it’s been 50 years since that shot,” says Nick Ut. “I was there that day on Route 1. I saw the napalm bombs dropped and I thought the villagers were all dead. Three minutes after the explosion, however, people came running out of the black smoke. And I took it. One of the people on the run was Kim Puch’s grandmother, holding a three-year-old child in her arms, who later died »continues Nick Ut.

After the shot, the rescue

But the Vietnamese photographer does not limit himself to documenting the effects of the attack with the deadly bombs, with a mixture of napalm and white phosphorus jelly, dropped by the Vietnamese AF Skyraider aircraft (which were carrying out a raid in search of Vietcong) between the houses and in front of the Cao Dai temple on the outskirts of the village of Trang Bang. He ditches his cameras and promptly rescues injured children. “I had a little van, I picked up Kim and hoisted her aboard. As I took her to the hospital she said “I’m dying, I’m dying!”. I insisted with the doctors to help me transfer her to the hospital in Saigon, it was clear that in that small hospital the child would die ».

The war on Kim Phuc’s skin

Kim Phuc’s smile, while recalling those moments that marked her life, goes out. “If I think of her 50 years ago, I can’t believe I survived. My story began with a bombing and a photo. I was simply one of the many children who suffered from the war. The difference was made by “that” photo of Nick Ut, the man who saved my life »she says calmly.

Kim Phuc remained in hospital for 14 months after that fateful June 8, 1972 and, in the course of his life, he underwent 17 surgeries. Fortunately, his child’s face hadn’t suffered any burns. «It was a difficult recovery, a very long journey. The first time I saw the photo Napalm Girl, returned home after hospitalization, I suffered a real shock. My father showed me the photo, cut out of a newspaper. I thought: “The whole world has seen me naked!”. And I felt a great embarrassment, I was the only one without clothes. I’ve spent my life trying to escape from that little girl in the photo, but it seemed that shot haunted me. But I was and am grateful to Nick Ut, the doctors and nurses who allowed me to survive.

From 1972 to 1975 we continued to suffer the horrors of war. We in South Vietnam have lost everything, when the new communist regime occupied the country, life became difficult to deal with. I too, like the doctors who treated me, would have liked to have treated others. However, 10 years after that photo, the Vietnamese government rediscovered me, and I became a victim again, I couldn’t even go to school. They kept their eyes on me and controlled me, ”Kim explains. “For them I was the Napalm Girl and I was still uncomfortable.”

Napalm Girla symbol in spite of himself

In short, the North Vietnamese government made it an emblem of resistance, making her an abnormal person in spite of herself. And her life became a nightmare until the opportunity came for her to move to Cuba to continue her studies. In 1992 she married compatriot Bui Huy Toan and moved to Canada with her husband, with whom she had two children.

«When they ask me: ‘How did you go on?’, I ask myself the same question. The answer I’ve found now is that we made it thanks to God. I embraced the Christian faith. Emotional and spiritual pain are even more difficult to deal with than physical pain. We must live following three words: love, hope and forgiveness. This can truly change the world ”says Kim Phuc, Unesco ambassador and founder of the Kim Foundation International which helps children who are victims of wars.

In a world inflamed by the war in Ukraine, his thoughts turn to the little Ukrainians. “My heart is in pieces. I think of those children, the women, the elderly. To refugees fleeing their homes and their country. Exactly what happened to me and my family is repeating itself“. And Kim’s smile fades again, her mouth takes on a bitter turn and her big eyes fill with sadness.

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