Short Summary: A viral Facebook collage that purported to show toddlers displaced by Nepal's August 26, 2026 glacial flood is false. One image is Joe O'Donnell's 1945 Nagasaki photograph; the other is a still from a video filmed in Vietnam and uploaded on August 29. AFP verified the video watermark "Thien Duyen" and confirmed with the Instagram account owner that the footage is not from Nepal. The miscaptioned image circulated as Nepal observed national mourning for the flood victims.
Fact Check: Viral Photo Claimed To Show Nepal Flood Victims Is From Vietnam; Collage Also Uses 1945 Nagasaki Image
Screenshot of the false post captured on September 3, 2026, with red Xs added and children's faces blurred by AFP
A widely shared Facebook collage that claimed to show toddlers displaced by the August 26, 2026 Nepal glacial flood is inaccurate. One image in the post is a well-known 1945 photograph from Nagasaki by US photographer Joe O'Donnell; the other is a still from a video filmed in Vietnam, not Nepal.
What Was Shared
The Facebook post, published on September 1, paired two photos showing a child carrying another on his back. The first was labelled "Japan 1945" and correctly identified as Joe O'Donnell's Nagasaki image. The second was labelled "Nepal 2026" and presented as evidence of children displaced by the recent floods.
Screenshot of the YouTube video with watermark highlighted by AFP
How the Claim Was Checked
Reverse-image searches located an uncropped YouTube video containing the same scene, with a visible watermark reading "Thien Duyen." The same clip was found uploaded to a Vietnam-based Instagram account on August 29. The account owner told AFP the footage was filmed in Vietnam and explicitly denied it showed children in Nepal.
Context: The Nepal Disaster
On August 26 a glacial flood ripped through a valley on the Nepal-Tibet border, destroying settlements and causing a major humanitarian crisis. Authorities reported at least 1,400 people killed and 5,845 missing. UNICEF and other agencies warned of urgent needs: thousands of children require safe water, sanitation and hygiene support, and Save the Children cited nearly 19,000 children whose education was disrupted after at least 69 schools were destroyed or damaged.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the original video, with red X added by AFP
Why This Matters
Mislabelling images during a major disaster can distract from verified relief efforts and spread confusion about who needs help and where resources should go. In this case, neither image in the viral collage depicts children displaced by the August 26 Nepal floods.
Takeaway
One photo is a historical 1945 image from Nagasaki; the other is a still from a Vietnamese video uploaded on August 29. AFP and other fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked similar misattributed images circulating after the Nepal-Tibet floods.
Check original sources, watermarks and upload dates when you see dramatic disaster photos online. When in doubt, verify with reputable news agencies or humanitarian organizations on the ground.
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