A system of over 200 prisons built by the U.S and South Vietnam administrations to suppress Vietnamese patriots is revealed by 40 photos, 14 panels and maps, and 21 artefacts.
Particularly, this exhibition is a portrait of prisons like Con Dao, Phu Quoc, Chi Hoa, Tan Hiep and Thu Duc, which were typical examples for cruelty and dubbed as “the hells on earth.” Visitors can see various techniques and instruments of brutal torture inflicted on political prisoners and prisoners of war.
A guillotine is also on view. This is a beheading machine which was commonly used by the French and then Ngo Dinh Diem administrations to dampen the Vietnamese patriots’ spirits.
“Tiger cages,” a kind of brutal torture in Con Dao, is recovered to help visitors partly visualize some of the brutal tricks carefully studied and then put into use to destroy prisoners physically and mentally.
Ngo Thi Ton and Kieu Thi Tu were among 410 female prisoners who refused to salute South Vietnam’s flag, and were terribly suppressed by phosphorous grenades at Tan Hiep prison, November 26, 1970.
Le Van Tri, 27, was nothing but skin and bone after 10 years of imprisonment in Con Dao.
Due to food and medicine shortage, physical and mental abuse, several Vietnamese patriots were returned paralyzed.