The Vietnamese woman known as the ‘napalm girl’, who appeared in one of the most iconic war photographs of the 20th century, has finally finished treatment for her appalling skin injuries, 50 years on.
Nine-year-old Kim Phuc Phan Thi was pictured (photo centre), running and screaming in pain after being injured in a bombing by an American warplane in 1972, during the Vietnam war. Photographer Nick Ut won a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph.
Raised in the traditional Cao Dai religion, after the bombing the little girl asked herself: ‘Why do I have to suffer this much?’
One day in Saigon library, where she was studying to become a doctor, she read the New Testament and was struck by John 14:6: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ She said: ‘I couldn’t figure it out, I had so many questions. Then a Christian cousin visited and he tried to explain to me that God is love, but I didn’t agree because of all my suffering. Eventually he invited me to church and, that Christmas, I opened my heart and accepted Jesus.’
Now 59, Phan Thi (see photo), has received what she hopes will be her final skin treatment following decades of pain. ‘Now, 50 years later, I am no longer a victim of war, I am not the napalm girl, now I am a friend, am a helper, I’m a grandmother and now I am a survivor calling out for peace.’
