Hwang Sok-Yong - The Shadow of Arms

Interrogator: Was it Misova who dragged her out?

Ericsson: He dragged the girl out and tied her hands behind her back with vines. Clark said to hurry, that somebody might see us once the sun came up. Before we could get out of the village, a crowd of children started following us, crying. That girl was there. As we dragged her off with us to the west, we heard a woman wailing behind us. It was the girl’s mother.

Interrogator: Then what happened?

Ericsson: We just told her to go away, shouting “ Diti miaoulin! ” Misova fired a few warning shots at the woman’s feet.

Interrogator: Raphael, what did Misova do after that?

R. Gomez: The woman followed us, would hide, then follow us again, waving something like a scarf. When Misova went to kill the woman, we all stopped him. She ran up to us, out of breath, and waved. We figured she meant that the scarf was her daughter’s and she wanted her to have it. Tears were streaming down her face and she was begging and we didn’t know what to do. Clark took care of that problem. He took the scarf with a grin and stuffed it into the girl’s mouth.

Ericsson: Clark gagged Miao to keep her from crying. It was still dark and there were no villagers around to stop us. We left the mother behind and kept on walking, threatening the girl, who was having trouble keeping up. Manuel, maybe because of some rivalry with Clark, made the girl carry a pack on her back.

Interrogator: Staff Sergeant Misova, give us your statement on the events from there up to your arrival at the destination that day.

Misova: We had breakfast at around 0800. I ungagged the girl.

Interrogator: Did you give her any food?

Misova: All we had was C-rations. . you can’t give that kind of food to the Vietnamese. .

Interrogator: You starved her.

Misova: Her face was flushed and she kept coughing so I gave her some aspirin. Raphael started firing. He was shooting at buffaloes, so I warned him to be careful. At 1030 we were right below Hill 192 and there we picked a spot to serve as command center. It was an abandoned hut about forty feet square. There was a window on the east side and the door was on the west. Inside, there was a table and a long bench along the wall, bits of old cushions in the corners and some objects like pieces of iron or stones scattered on the floor. The place was a wreck and there were bullet holes in the walls. We piled up our ammo and food alongside the one wall that was still intact. I ordered Raphael and Ericsson to clean up the place, and then I went out with Clark and Manuel to reconnoiter the area.

Ericsson: The girl took off Manuel’s pack and watched Raphael and me cleaning for a while and then, without being told, she got up and helped us.

Interrogator: Maybe the girl thought you guys had taken her to be a servant. Whose idea was it to rape her?

Ericsson: It was the sergeant’s. They came back after an hour and were all smiles. At 1200 we sat outside the door and stuffed ourselves with rations. Misova, was lying on the ground resting and then he pointed to the hut and said it was time to have some fun.

Interrogator: Who agreed with him?

Ericsson: Clark whistled. Manuel and Raphael looked sullen.

Interrogator: Private Ericsson, was it your intention from the beginning to take no part in it?

Ericsson: I got married a month before being drafted. I realized that a very gentle and nice looking Vietnamese woman is no different from my wife or my sister. Misova asked if I’d take my turn. I said no. Misova got angry and pointed his gun at me. Unless I went along with it, he said, he’d have to report that one of his men died in action. Clark backed him up.

Interrogator: Raphael and Manuel, you didn’t refuse as strongly as Ericsson?

Manuel: Misova made fun of Ericsson, calling him a faggot and a eunuch.

Raphael: Clark also made fun of him, called him spineless. We couldn’t take that.

Manuel: If they told the others we were cowards, we’d be isolated in the platoon.

Ericsson: Misova took off his shirt and rushed into the hut. You could hear the girl screaming in pain and despair. The screaming went on and on. It only stopped when the girl gasped for breath. Then it turned into crying in agony. When Misova came out of the hut he was buttoning up his pants. He said the girl was very clean and not bad at all.

Interrogator: Who was next?

Clark: Misova gestured at me to go next so I went in.

Interrogator: You didn’t draw lots?

Ericsson: While we were cleaning, they decided their turns.

Clark: The truth is, we went by order of rank.

Interrogator: How was the girl doing?

Clark: She was naked on the table.

Interrogator: Was that all?

Clark: Her hands were tied behind her and there was a lot of bleeding. She was extremely clean and calm.

Ericsson: Raphael watched what Clark was doing through a hole in the wall.

Interrogator: What did Clark do to the girl?

Raphael: Because she kept screaming from the pain, he did it with a hunting knife pressed to her throat.

Interrogator: What kind of knife?

Clark: The handle was wrapped with tape and the blade about ten inches long. A wounded buddy gave it to me.

Manuel: Raphael and I, against our will, did it in turn with Misova and Clark watching us. The girl was still moaning in pain but by then she was really weak.

Ericsson: They kept going in and out of the hut, kept it up for an hour and a half. So that any enemies nearby wouldn’t spot us, we all went into the hut and that was when I saw her. She was curled up in a corner, tied up and naked. She looked at each of us in turn, crying. Her eyes were so big. Then she was untied and dressed.

Interrogator: Who did that?

Misova: I did.

Interrogator: According to your file, you once took target practice on civilians while out on reconnaissance. Why?

Misova: I felt like it.

Interrogator: You also did that to the girl because you felt like it? What did you do after that?

Misova: I ate.

Interrogator: Did you feed the girl?

Misova: Since her coughing was getting worse, she didn’t get any food.

Ericsson: While they were eating they compared the Vietnamese girl with other women they’d had. They also tried to remember exactly how long it had been since they’d last tasted a woman.

Interrogator: Was there an operation that day?

Misova: I told Ericsson to watch the girl and the ammo and we headed up to the highlands to patrol the opposite valley. There were three Vietnamese walking along the river. They were not in uniform but I figured they were Viet Cong. We all fired at once. We missed the targets, so we radioed platoon headquarters, asking for artillery support. Immediately there was shelling.

Interrogator: Private Ericsson, you were left alone with the girl?

Ericsson: I didn’t know how to deal with her. Her crying broke my heart. By then I’d been with her all day, but there was nothing I could do for her. As I watched trembling in terror — she was so tiny — I even thought of shooting the four who raped her. I was furious. I made up my mind that if I ever got out of there alive, I’d make them pay for what they’d done. When I went inside, the girl must’ve thought I’d come to rape her too because she burst into tears and curled up in a ball in the corner. She looked worn out and she got worse and worse. I thought she must’ve been hurt badly. But she was wearing black so I couldn’t see where she was hurt. I offered her some beef stew and crackers and water. The girl took the food and ate. It was the first thing she’d eaten since we’d taken her. It was the afternoon by then. She ate standing up, but several times stopped eating and moaned. She never took her eyes off me while eating. I guess she was trying to figure out what sort of game I was playing. After she finished, she said something in Vietnamese. She could have been thanking me. I said in English that I didn’t understand her. I wanted to tell her how sorry I was for what happened.