Opera Hanoi, 1945 and 2015
Since 1858, France occupied Vietnam. This held until 1940, when Japan took over the occupation after France fell to Germany, although Japan kept the French administration in place. In August of 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces staged a revolt against these occupying forces, sparking their fight for independence, known as the August Revolution. The 1945 image shows a demonstration of Ho Chi Minh’s forces in front of the Opera Hanoi, a Parisian style opera house built in the early 1900s by the French administration occupying Vietnam. On September 2, 1945, Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from France, although France would not acknowledge it. This would spark years of conflict and struggle, drawing in U.S. military forces, and ending with Vietnam united under communist rule. While the Opera Hanoi, pictured in 2015, looks much like it did in 1945, the world around it changed.