Bolinao 52

Last Thursday, we went to see the documentary film Bolinao 52. This is what I remember:

They were a group 110. They were picked up by the captain, and the boat left Ben Tre, south Viet Nam, heading out to the South China Sea. A storm took over. The boat engine died. They drifted away from land.

Boats came and left, never picking up a single passenger. A ship flying a Japanese ship was seen in the distance, but left. People started to jump off the boat in different waves. Some clung to rafts and drifted away. Some were beat back to the sides of hte boat. Strong men swam to the ships and got lost in the blue sea.

The children thirsted for sweet water. Little brothers chewed on big brother's arms.

On Day 19, the USS Duboque approached. The captain refused to pick up any survivors. Several men from the Viet boat swam to the carrier. Sailors brushed them off the monkey line. Life preservers were given, with instructions to go back to the damned boat. Some swimmers too weak to return to the boat drowned. Photos were taken by sailors on the Duboque. Men with gaunt faces and bony arms flailing in the water, clinging to life rings.

Two days' supply of food was given to the little boat. The carrier left. Resolute, unbending human will. Impassiveness in response to human suffering, death. No compassion for human life.

Day 20-something. No more food, no more water. Cannibalism. Human flesh cut from the bones. Unwilling survivors are forced fed to stay alive. The taste of human flesh. Bitter anger over inhumanity in the face of suffering and death.

Day 37. Philippino fishing boats pass by. Carlos the fisherman stops to check out the lonely boat in the water. See the survivors who've chewed their clothes and eaten their fellow passengers, and are awaiting death.

Carlos brings back 6 or 7 fishing boats. 52 survivors are taken to the island of Bolinao of the Philippines. Refugee camps, everyone of them.

Their story is only beginning to unravel.