A Moment in the Pacific

A few days after I posted on Vietnam, I received an email from Vu Van Thai, the interport lecturer who I quoted in the previous post. He kindly agreed to let me post his email here.

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Hi Isaiah,

Is it a surprise to you that the man who uttered: “We cannot change our history, but we can change our attitude” is speaking to you now. Yes, I’m Vu Van Thai, the Vietnamese interport lecturer. I was wondering whether I have talked to you when aboard or not. I can’t remember since there were so many.

I have just read your writing in the blog, concerning your feelings when you were in Vietnam. You are the right kind of sensitive and emotional person, exemplified in your attitude displayed. I understand how you felt when facing the remnants of the Vietnam war.

Perhaps you don’t know that from the early years at primary school, Vietnamese children are taught how horrible the Vietnam war is. This is to educate Vietnamese children to treasure peace. Another thing is that some Vietnamese generations have no experience of the war but they can perceive the consequences of that war, which are still pervasive in every corner of Vietnamese people’s life. However, we are taught that to be happy, we should free our heart from hatred.

I do agree with Joan’s saying in response to your writing that your guilty feeling makes no good. We should hand in hand “do all that we can to prevent these things from happening again.”

Best wishes to you,





Vu Van Thai

Lecturer of American Literature

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC

Email: vuvanthai@gmail.com

Tel. 0913.703281

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I still think a lot about Vietnam and the issues surrounding our history. Vu Van Thai and the other commenters have helped me realize that we need to move forward with more open minds and optimism, and that it is possible to have respect and concern for the past without preserving feelings of guilt or shame.

We're now making our way across the Pacific toward Honolulu. Classes are in full swing again, which has made it hard to keep up with this blog. I haven't forgotten about it, though, and I will post about China and Japan as soon as I have some time free.

I do want to share a few moments from yesterday before they fade from my memory. It was close to sunset, and I was eating dinner on one of the outside aft decks with friends when a group gathered along the port side railing. We got out of our seats to see what was up. A small slice of rainbow had formed, touching the water and rising up from the horizon line about 20 degrees. As we watched, the slice of color got brighter against the darkening sky and an echoing double rainbow appeared. They both got more vivid for a couple of minutes, and were bright enough to be reflected off the water. Suddenly, the rainbow exploded upward and I watched as the full arc rose high above and over the ship. The reflections in the water continued the arc, forming a circle around the ship. We sailed toward the center of the circle for a short while, and then the rainbow faded and dark clouds overhead opened up into warm rain. The rain lasted for several minutes, until the clouds fell back behind us. We watched the sun set behind us, lighting up the water and silhouetting the small group of albatrosses that have been following our ship. They weaved back and forth behind the ship in slow zigzags, gliding smoothly and enjoying our slipstream. The sun disappeared below the horizon, though it was still bright enough to light the watercolor rain clouds that surrounded us, and the distant rain came down in smeared grey lines, darkening patches of the skyline. Night fell, and as the first stars emerged I thought to myself that I had just witnessed something majestically orchestrated, that the sky had articulated a feeling or story that would have been impossible to phrase in words.