On April 30, 1975, the North Vietnamese Army tanks rolled into the Presidential Palace in Saigon, effectively ending the Vietnam War and the fall of South Vietnam to a communist government. In response, about a million South Vietnamese citizens decided to escape this new leadership on small boats. Thousands, in return, died from this voyage. In July 1977, a seventeen-year-old boy named Huỳnh Hùng was on one of these boats. Today, he goes by Jonathan Wong and lives to tell his story.
“My older brother, his wife, and one-month-old daughter had already left on a ship built by some people who got their money,” said Wong, “But when [the same people] promised to build a second boat for my dad in exchange for his gold, they just used it for their escape instead. At home, I found him on the second level hiding, and when I asked what was the problem he told us that the people stole his money and that we needed to leave.”
Wong and his friends risked everything in preparation for the escape. He taught himself how to read a compass, which was punishable then. His friends who helped, Hiêú Nguyễn and Tùng Phạm, were a navy lieutenant and a pilot captain respectively. Since they were officials still loyal to the original South Vietnamese government, they would have been executed for treason if caught by the newly formed communist government. Together, they built a boat out of scraps with the bare minimum amount of room to fit 64 other people hoping to hitch an escape too. These people of all ages had paid his dad, who stayed behind with the rest of the family, for the opportunity. In July 1977, they were ready to skip out of the country. Their planned destination? Malaysia.
“The boat was about 15 feet wide and 25 long. It was made to look like a regular fishing boat. A few people sat at the top together around the cabin, and the rest sat around the engine at the floor underneath,” said Wong, “We chose to go out at midnight, and when there was no moon.” All of these choices were intentional and planned out beforehand.
For the first 24 hours, they could still see the coastline. This meant that the Northern Communist Navy Coast Guard was still patrolling the area. If they were spotted, the guards would not hesitate to sink their ship. The entirety of this day to night was just an uneasy waiting game as to whether or not they’d make it past the first few waves. However, as stated before, he and his friends in charge of the boat had already done everything in their ability to limit the risks.
“We were really scared, and we pretended as if we were actually [fishermen] with the other fishing boats around. Many people hid under the boat so only a couple of people would be seen on top,” explained Wong, “At night, a real fishing boat actually came by to us asking to exchange our oil for fish. We were really scared because we thought it was a coast guard.” They went along with the trade, and without issue continued on.
Nearly 48 hours in, people were starting to struggle. Many threw up from sea sickness and exhaustion. At this point, during the afternoon, the land was no longer in sight either. The people who sat beneath the ship moved up if possible. Nobody had the energy to say anything, and even if they did the loud ocean wind would have tuned out their voices.
“We chose to go out when there was no moon in the sky at midnight because we didn’t want the coast guard to see us and shoot us down,” said Wong, “But we saw a lot of [bioluminescence] in the water during the journey. Also, we saw a lot of shooting stars, just no moon though. During the day, the sun was really hot.”
Reaching 72 hours, their controlled water supply was getting very low and their food supply had long vanished. Some people snuck on rations but were forced with the threat of being thrown overboard to share their food when caught. Nothing particularly happened on day four, and it seemed to be the same on the fifth day until the sun went down.
“Some of us were starting to lose hope because we were out there for so long that we didn’t care anymore if we lived or died,” said Wong, “Only me and the rest of the guys [controlling the boat] knew how close we were, and we didn’t tell the rest of the people to keep them calm… Then, that night was when the storm came.”
On the sixth night, 144 hours in, a large storm hit. Wong recalled the yelling and screaming from people trying to actively haul water out of the boat while the loud creaking and swaying of the boat, along with the waves crashing into the vessel, fought back. He believes that he must’ve passed out at some point because he could only recall the scenario suddenly turning into day again. He credits his partners for holding the wheel and keeping the ship afloat.
“There was this one guy in the back who kept [praying] from the beginning to the end, and I think because of that guy we were still alive,” Wong said half-jokingly, “All the babies and kids were crying because there was nothing they could do, and all of the elderly were sick and kept throwing up. Most on the ship were teenagers though.”
On the sixth day, the boat was starting to crack. Water was slowly getting in, and at this point, nobody cared if they were going to survive anymore. Then, a miracle struck at noon.
“We saw this big, giant, black dot in the distance but we had no idea what it was. Then, we saw a giant navy ship– probably from Singapore. Then, we saw this smaller ship speeding towards us. Like wow,” exclaimed Wong, “These people were Malaysian coast guards who wore these beige shirts and they yelled at us in probably English, which at the time none of us understood.”
He concluded that these people likely analyzed the condition of their boat and the number of people that were on there because soon afterward they quickly called for another ship to transport them to an even bigger ship.
“They had a lot of ships, and I remember when we went onto the bigger ship they gave us blankets and MAMA saimin noodles to eat, and we ate a lot. We ate a lot, we were so hungry,” emphasized Wong.
This ship brought them to a nearby refugee island called Pulatanga. Here, workers for NATO approached Wong, mentioning that he already had family residing in America. This so happened to be his older brother who managed to escape first to Hawaii. They interviewed him, and he became eligible to come to America as a proper citizen. Today, he continues to live in Hawaii with hopes that the younger generation will learn a key message from his story.
“I want kids to understand why I went through all that trouble to come to America. They are in a land of opportunity, where they have freedom and a chance for success,” said Wong, “I want them to learn more about American history and the importance of protecting the Constitution to appreciate it because where I came from, there is none of that. I escaped from a place where the people were oppressed by a corrupt government, and I want the younger generation to understand that they have a voice in what they do in this nation and that they don’t need to follow everyone else. They can do their own research on news, work independently, and so on. Overall, I want to encourage them to appreciate what they have now. That is all I ask.”