Brian Hjort, right, poses with Hung, an Amerasian co-worker, in Ho Chi Minh City.

Danish man helping Amerasians in Japan, Vietnam to find fathers

By Dan Bloom

Danish traveler Brian Hjort didn’t plan on going to Vietnam in 1992, but the trip changed his life. In a chance meeting with an Amerasian man he met in Ho Chi Minh City, a dream—and a personal lifelong mission—was born: helping to bring Amerasian people from all over Asia in touch with their American fathers or other relatives.

Using Internet outreach and a dedicated website, coupled with frequent trips to Vietnam, Hjort has become a kind of accidental angel helping to bring peace of mind to the adult children of American fathers who fought or served in the military in Southeast Asia and Japan.

Although he has not yet visited Japan, Hjort is aware of Amerasian adults in Japan, of course, and has been in contact with a few of them by email. He hopes to visit Tokyo in the near future in his role as friendship ambassador to Amerasian people worldwide.

It’s a mission that began without a real plan over 15 years ago, and now Hjort—who is not an American and was only four years old when the Vietnam War ended in 1975—plans to keep his non-profit mission alive for the rest of his life.

Born and raised on an island off the coast of Denmark, Hjort lives in Malmoe, Sweden, with his Peruvian wife of eight years and their daughter, 6. In a recent email, he explained why he has Japan on his itinerary and what he hopes to achieve there.

“Over the years, I have been involved with some cases of Amerasians from Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan, in addition to Vietnam, where this work began for me,” he said. “But I have never received that many inquiries or responses from Amerasians in Japan, other than one person whose father served with the military in Okinawa. But I am aware of that there are some, maybe many, Amerasians living in Japan who might want help finding their fathers or their fathers’ relatives, just to make contact and know more about their heritage.”

Hjort is the most unlikely of independent international aid workers. He studied to be a blacksmith in Denmark as a teenager, but an accident that later damaged his eyes made that line of work impossible to take on. His day job now is in a furniture factory in Sweden, painting chairs and tables, and the salary he takes home allows him to provide for his wife and daughter while also keeping his dream of reaching out to Amerasians alive.

The man likes to travel. “I’ve been all over, to Laos and Cambodia and the Philippines, through north Africa, across the United States by bus, and down to Mexico and Paraguay and Brazil and Peru, which is where I met my wife,” he said. “I spent some time in London, too.”

When asked what drew him to work first with Amerasians in Vietnam, Hjort explained that he knew very little about the Vietnam War or the U.S. role in it since he was born in Denmark just four years before the war ended in 1975. But on a backpacking trip through Thailand in the early 1990s, Hjort heard that Vietnam was beginning to open up to tourists, so he arranged for a visa and flew to Ho Chi Minh City.

“I met a lot of Amerasians right away in Vietnam then, but one guy I met, an Amerasian with an American passport, started me off on my mission, in an indirect way. His name is Doan Thanh Vu, or Arnold Doan, and I first met by chance outside the Amerasian Transit Center in Ho Chi Minh City. He became my friend and helped me navigate the side streets of old Saigon, and he once sort of saved my life when a local gang was set on attacking me and taking my money. Arnold heard about the upcoming attack from his friends and arranged for a bunch of Amerasians took protect me as my bodyguards. To this day, I feel that Arnold’s actions, and the group of bodyguards he assembled, saved my life, and you know, I never forgot what they did for me, and that’s how I began working with Amerasians this way.”

When asked what keeps him going in his outreach work, a religious faith or a personal philosophy, Hjort said it’s in his blood.

“For me, all this is about a love for mankind, a caring for those who have very little and got a rotten start in life, and a feeling that one can change things from bad to good,” he said. “So instead of getting angry at all the sadness and injustice I saw in Vietnam in 1992, all around me, I decided then and there to try to change things for the better, and I found that even as just one person, I could make a difference. I found out what I could do as one person.”

“Amerasians need to know their father, need to try to find their fathers, and that’s where I felt I could try to help, fill in the gaps somewhat. I can’t save the world, but maybe I can help work with a small part of it and do my bit, and that’s what my mission and outreach is all about. I hope I can help make the world at least at little bit better of a place to live in,” he said.

When asked what he would say to the Amerasians in Japan when he visits Tokyo to meet Amerasian adults living there, Hjort said: “I’ll say something like this: Close your eyes, and imagine that your skin is brown or that your hair is blond or your eyes are blue. Imagine that you’re the only one like this among your classmates or in your town in Japan. Imagine that people are always looking at you, staring at you, sometimes calling you names and insults, hitting you, spitting on you. That’s what life has been like for many Amerasians in Asia and overseas.

“Open your eyes my friends in Japan, and then you will understand a little about what it means to be Amerasian, what it means to be different, to have a different ethnic origin that separates you from others. Amerasians in Japan are the children of a Japanese woman and an American father, black or white, and remember that America is a friend of Japan, always has been. Amerasians in Japan might be invisible today, a group of people who were not supposed to exist, forgotten and disowned by their fathers overseas and looked down upon by their fellow Japanese. Is this good? Is this right?”

He adds: “Japan’s Amerasians were left over from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the bases in Tokyo and Okinawa. They are often forgotten in Japan, I suppose, and not only by their American fathers and the U.S. government, past and present, but also by the media. I’d like to address these issues in Tokyo when I visit, and even now my website is open to field questions and supply answers when we can.”

External Link:http://www.fatherfounded.org/

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Latest 15 of 43 Total Comments Show All

Zenny11 at 01:04 PM JST - 11th July

Holland/Nederlands
cleo at 01:38 PM JST - 11th July

Danish = Denmark, Dutch = Holland. Last I checked diffrent countries.

Ooops, you're right. Colour me Sunday-boke.

Danish colonialism/wars in Asia ....

All I can find is Danish India, a handful of towns the last of which were sold to the British in 1869.
Alphaape at 03:30 PM JST - 11th July

The question was about Dutch men leaving kids in Asia.

cleo, If the story is about Dutch(Danish) men leaving kids in Asia, why are they called "Amerasians"?

Dunno that the Danes have run any major wars in Asia in the past few decades, or had huge bases there with thousands of randy young soldiers.

No cleo, the Danes don't haven't started major wars in Asia, they like the rest of Europe have found a more cheaper and efficient way of doing this, it's called sex tourism. Just take a look at Angeles City, where once Clark Air Force Base was. It is long gone but what filled the void was a bunch of bars and resorts that cater to the Euorpean and American crowds (men) to go on tours for sex. Just like in places in Thailand, and I would imagine Vietnam too. But of course they just want to lump the kids that are left there as being part American and not European.
cleo at 04:14 PM JST - 11th July

Alphaape -

The story is about the kids left behind by (mainly) American servicemen. The question (by Blacklabel) I was answering was about Danes leaving kids in Asia and why isn't this Danish man worrying about that instead of half-American kids.

they like the rest of Europe have found a more cheaper and efficient way of doing this, it's called sex tourism

I'm not sure that sex tourism, for all its smuttiness, is in the same league as war and occupation, and I'm sure that sleeping with local women and making illegitimate babies, irresponsible though it is, isn't on a level with dropping bombs, napalm and Agent Orange on a country. Doing both is a bit of an OMG. Are the Danes big on sex tourism, do you know?
Alphaape at 06:33 PM JST - 11th July

cleo, not sure how many Danes are doing it overseas, but a google search will reveal that not only are the men doing it, but the women also. How many times have you heard of the female Japanese tourist going to places and acting wild and free (in sexual terms).

The story is about the kids left behind by (mainly) American servicemen

That is why I say the story has a definitly anti-American bias. Suer some service members have left children behind. And the US pulled out of Vietnam in 1973. So any kids left behind are grown adults.

Amerasians need to know their father, need to try to find their fathers, and that’s where I felt I could try to help, fill in the gaps somewhat. I

I can agree with that, but as I said, Americans are not the only ones making babies and leaving them in Asia.
cleo at 07:01 PM JST - 11th July

the US pulled out of Vietnam in 1973. So any kids left behind are grown adults.

The article says he started doing this over 15 years ago, so pre-1995.....kids in their 20s. Old enough to want to know about their parentage, not so old that any parents are likely to be dead, dying or in their dotage.

I don't understand why people read a story about someone trying to help people, interpret it as a personal attack and come up with 'but others make babies too'. This guy happened to go to Vietnam, and the people he met there were the offspring mainly of US servicemen. Maybe in 10 or 20 years time there'll be more offspring of European sex tourists looking for their dads, but that isn't what he found.

How many times have you heard of the female Japanese tourist going to places and acting wild and free (in sexual terms).

And they go home leaving the baby behind for the local father to raise? I very much doubt it, if only because of the unlikelihood of hordes of Japanese females being able to take long enough off work to see it through. More likely they have their fling abroad, come home to discover they're pregnant, and have a quiet abortion.
Alphaape at 07:35 PM JST - 11th July

And they go home leaving the baby behind for the local father to raise? I very much doubt it, if only because of the unlikelihood of hordes of Japanese females being able to take long enough off work to see it through. More likely they have their fling abroad, come home to discover they're pregnant, and have a quiet abortion.

Or, as we ahve seen in stories from this board, keep the kids and don't let the father's know that they have them or deny them the visitation rights. So it is a never ending tale.
LoveUSA at 08:06 PM JST - 11th July

Sarge, is it so hard for you to accept that USA was actually defeated in Vietnam?
cleo at 11:36 PM JST - 11th July

keep the kids and don't let the father's know that they have them or deny them the visitation rights.

After a one-night stand?

First we have posters complaining that these fathers aren't going to want to be re-united with the kids of one night stands, we have to think about the fathers in this and last thing they want, is to be remembered of these one nighters, and now we have the complaint that casual fathers are being denied visitation rights.
hadorison at 04:46 AM JST - 12th July

Good to see people from "civilized nations" are taking responsibility for the burdens they've placed on poor defenseless people and their communities.
fishy at 12:23 PM JST - 12th July

many of those "fathers" probably don't even know that they have kids in a foreign land. i dont know how many of those amerasian children will be hurt to find out that their fathers don't even know their presence?
wanting to know your heritage is one thing and it is natural for people to want to know where they came from, but sometimes truth hurts.. i don't know if this makes either the amerasian kids or those fathers (and their families) happy...
zip316 at 09:21 PM JST - 12th July

I have a website devoted to helping reunite "Amerasians with their fathers/families in the US. http://AmerasiansLookingTheirRoots.bravehost.com

A lot of these woman were not prostitutes but had commited relationships with the fathers. Because of the nature of the military with reassignments and transfers etc. ,people lost touch.

I get a lot of requests from fathers searching for their children as well as children searching for fathers.

For the heartless people that made comments ,what is wrong about someone wanting to know their roots and possibly even meeting their father? Children didnt have anything to do with their parentage or country of birth.
Nessie at 09:28 PM JST - 12th July

Good for you Zip. Nice to see people who care.
Fadamor at 11:52 PM JST - 13th July

One night stands are probably not what this Danish guy deals with. In order to have any hope of finding the father the offspring is going to have to know the father's first and last names. One night stands usually don't get past exchanging first names. So the people he's helping are probably the result of a more involved relationship.

And I agree with fishy. Kids that are the result of one night stands are doubly out of luck because the father in all likelihood has no idea the child even exists.
mrskit at 10:13 PM JST - 15th July

ok,,,,,just gonna put this out there, my Dad served with the British and went to Korea during the Korean war,,, he said they used to come to Japan to have baths and women, because the women were cleaner here than the Korean ones,,,so I am just thinking about this now,,,but I might have some brother or sister walking around in Tokyo or somewhere and never ever knew it,,,I guess of course they would be like 50 something years old,,,, a whole 20 years before I was born,,,,,but it would still be awesome to meet them,,,if they existed but maybe for them it might be weird to meet me,,,,and then they might not even exist at all i digress ,,,,,,anyways,,,just thinking of the Aussies, Kiwis, and British guys who came to Japan in the 50's for some 'clean' entertainment,,,,