THANH NIEN DAILY, VIETNAM, SEPTEMBER 15, 2006
US planes spray the defoliant Agent Orange over southern Vietnam
A Vietnamese girl with a tumor on her face, believed to be caused by defoliant Agent Orange used by the US military during the Vietnam War, arrived in Japan Friday to undergo surgery next month to remove the tumor.
“I want to return to a normal condition. I dream of going to school,” Do Thuy Duong, 17, said in a press conference at Kansai airport in Osaka Prefecture. “I’m happy I came to Japan to have surgery.”
The right half of Duong’s face is covered with the tumor, and the Vietnamese government has recognized her as a victim of the agent used by the US forces for about 10 years from 1961.
No hospitals in Vietnam can fix her face, and so she came to Japan, a group supporting her said.
The group said it has collected about 4 million yen (US$34,000) in donations.
The teen is scheduled to undergo the first surgery at the Kyoto University Hospital in early October, and will need to come to Japan for an operation once a year for the next 10 years, it said.
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