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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2017)
OPINION Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER April 17, 2017 Volume 27 Number 8 April 17, 2017 ISSN: 1094-9453 The Asian Reporter is published on the first and third Monday each month. Please send all correspondence to: The Asian Reporter 922 N Killingsworth Street, Suite 2D, Portland, OR 97217 Phone: (503) 283-4440, Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com Advertising Department e-mail: ads@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com Website: www.asianreporter.com Please send reader feedback, Asian-related press releases, and community interest ideas/stories to the addresses listed above. Please include a contact phone number. Advertising information available upon request. Publisher Jaime Lim Contributing Editors Ronault L.S. Catalani (Polo), Jeff Wenger Correspondents Ian Blazina, Josephine Bridges, Pamela Ellgen, Maileen Hamto, Edward J. Han, A.P. Kryza, Marie Lo, Simeon Mamaril, Julie Stegeman, Toni Tabora-Roberts, Allison Voigts Illustrator Jonathan Hill News Service Associated Press/Newsfinder Copyright 2017. Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication. Member Associated Press/Newsfinder Asian American Journalists Association Better Business Bureau Pacific Northwest Minority Publishers (PNMP) Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon MY TURN n Dmae Roberts Refuge from war Correspondence: The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. 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Back issues of The Asian Reporter may be ordered by mail at the following rates: First copy: $1.50 Additional copies ordered at the same time: $1.00 each Send orders to: Asian Reporter Back Issues, 922 N. Killingsworth St., Portland, OR 97217-2220 The Asian Reporter welcomes reader response and participation. If you have a comment on a story we have printed, or have an Asian-related personal or community focus idea, please contact us. Please include a contact name, address, and phone number on all correspondence. Thank you. A pril is a momentous time for Southeast countrysides of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Asians, with New Year celebrations taking Those who know it firsthand are refugees who place for the Lao and Cambodian communi- learned to live in a new country, building a vibrant ties, among others. For Cambodians especially, it is community from coast to coast. The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance also a time to remember April 17, 1975 — the day the Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, captured Act, which passed on May 23, 1975, permitted Phnom Penh and the government surrendered. refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam to enter the That’s when Cambodian citizens were rounded up U.S. It was amended in 1976 to include refugees from Laos. Because U.S. and forced to work in the Killing involvement in Southeast Asia left Fields, which led to an estimated vast numbers of people homeless, 1.7 million deaths between 1975 America responded with the and 1979. Refugee Act of 1980, which For the Lao, Mien, and Hmong formally defined a refugee as a peoples, April of 1975 also meant person with a “well-founded fear of fleeing their country while much of persecution.” The Refugee Act Southeast Asia fell to communist created a formal resettlement plan forces. By December of that year, for refugees and raised the ceiling the monarchy of Laos was on the number who could be overthrown by the Pathet Lao admitted into the United States. movement, and the country became Church and community groups ruled by the Lao People’s across the country rallied to help Revolutionary party. Many feared Pictured is Mien-American refugee refugees. In Portland, Lutheran persecution and death because they Farm Yoon Lee, one of the elders re- Community Services Northwest had fought alongside the Central corded in Refugee Dreams Revisited and Catholic Charities worked to Intelligence Agency and the U.S. for Crossing East. (Photo courtesy of MediaRites) sponsor and place families. military against the communists. Portland Public Schools was one of the first to For South Vietnamese people, April 30, 1975 became known as the Fall of Saigon. The day is also figure out how to work with Southeast Asian youth now remembered as Reunification Day by some. For attending their schools. The 1.5 generation — those others who had to flee, it’s called “Black April.” who came to the U.S. at a young age — learned When the American war ended in Vietnam that quickly, mastering language and writing skills year, thousands upon thousands of Vietnamese fled before their first-generation parents. For the radio series, we spoke with many former to the United States. Many who stayed in Vietnam refugees in the Southeast Asian community who ended up imprisoned in “re-education” camps. Helping to recount this history for the Crossing came to America as children or young adults during East radio series a decade ago was Dr. Linda Trinh the 1980s and ’90s. Now elders in their communi- Vo, a professor of Asian-American studies at the ties, many successfully seized the American Dream and have made it their mission to give back to their University of California, Irvine. “Communist forces overtook the southern part of communities. A number had families who owned Vietnam and wanted to replace the political power businesses or became language interpreters, like … they imprisoned anyone who was a leader, Khantaly Thammovang. Others, including Kim whether they were a military leader or a political Nguyen and Quy Nguyen, entered professions such leader ... and replaced the form of government so as education. Still others became community that the socialist form of government was being leaders, such as Kilong Ung, the founder of the instituted in [the] country,” Vo said. “In the Golden Leaf Education Foundation, Sokhom Tauch, aftermath, in both Laos and Cambodia, communist the former executive director of the Immigrant and forces also were taking, fighting for power, and this Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), and Lee internal struggle [led] to a lot of death, a lot of Po Cha, IRCO’s current executive director. Now more than ever, we need to realize the instability, and a lot of imprisonment and torture of individuals. And also ethnic persecution of minority contributions refugees have made and continue to make in our communities. groups.” For the 10th anniversary of Crossing East, MediaRites Most Americans are aware of the impact of the has worked with area youth to create a production to tell Vietnam War on America but know little about the Continued on page 7 horrors of war that took place in the cities and Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.
