The Vietnamese call what we in the outside world call the Vietnam War “the American War,” and many of them believe that the ghosts of violent and tragic death from this war abound in their living environment. Those who do so are likely to regularly offer incense, food, and votive money to these “invisible neighbors” and can tell stories about the actions of these hidden historical identities. The following is one of the commonplace stories of apparition from a rural settlement in the central region once known as My Lai.

A man saw his late wife and children in the early morning on his way to the paddy field. This was in the spring of 1993, and by this time, some villagers in this settlement had begun to remove the remains of their relatives from their shallow wartime graves to sumptuously prepared new family graveyards. The apparition was at the site of the man's old house that had been burned down on the day of the village massacre in the beginning of 1968, which had destroyed his family. His wife was seated on a stone and greeted him somewhat scornfully. The three children were hidden behind her back, afraid that their parents might start arguing.