Can you state for us your full name, date of birth, and where you were born?
My name is An. My first name is An, last name is Lam, and my middle name is Hoang. My full name is An Hoang Lam. I was born in 1985 February 12 and I was born in Da Nang City, one of the cities right in the middle of Vietnam.
Okay, so our first question is can you please tell us about any memories you have of growing up in Da Nang and do you see any lasting impressions of the war in the city?
For the memory, when I was born – actually like 10 years when the war was actually passed and I don’t think the war is not much in the time I was growing up; is not actually you can feel oh that the war was going on, nothing. We people are trying to normally ignore it.
My memory growing up – the people around is kind of not like, nothing related to war. Like I don’t have any problems with the war. Even my family is on the other side.
Can you tell us about what it was like being a child, what was school like in Vietnam, what did you do in your free time outside of school?
Actually, in Vietnam after school, after free time we went together, go play around. We had a lot of games, nothing forbidden or nothing, but we get together and gather up plenty of people and play some Ping- like sports like taking side and that kind of fun.
What was the education system like in Vietnam and how was the American War talked about in school?
In school, the system is very different from America. When you went to school, you didn’t have to go around from class to class, you had to stay in one room. The teachers just come and teach different class, different teacher coming. When the teachers come in, all the students had to stand up and bow to the teacher and then wait for the teacher to allow them to sit down; otherwise they have to stand the whole day.
And how did they talk about the American War?
They talked on the other way. The way they teach, when you look at the book, they make all of the Vietnamese, they make them like a hero. They look to them as heroes; when they grow up they want to be one of them. How to like, they cut their arm to like injury and they are unable to fight so they had to cut off their arm to keep fighting. That kind of thing. We think that they are heroes; we want to be one of them when we grow up.
And how was that like knowing that your family fought for the American side and the education system was talking about how the other side was the heroes; did you ever feel conflicted?
My whole family is from American side so I kind of know ahead of them. And in school sometimes, they talk about Uncle Ho. Everything he like. I know that every human had a – no one is perfect, but when we look at the history, look at like what he is doing, and it’s like he is the perfect person. So sometimes we had to question, “Wow really?” But we cannot ask.
What side of the war did your family and friends fight on? Most, like 100% of my family, they worked for the American. Yeah, for the American’s side.
And did they ever talk about the – ?
Yes, some of them talked about it. Some of them, yeah.
And what are some of the things they’ve told you about fighting on the American side?
Like when the Americans withdrew – some of them got scared, some of them tried to take their family from Da Nang to Saigon. There were a lot of problems; they were scared people were missing.
Are there any other memories that your family told you about when the war was actually going on, any memories from the actual fighting, whether the soldiers fight?
[Shakes head] They, I don’t think they want to tell about it. If I ask, they’re like ,”Oh, that the war is over…” They kind of keep in the memories they don’t want to tell.
And why do you think that they don’t want to share it?
Maybe because the memory is something they don’t want to see it again or sometimes it is something they don’t want to remember. Something like that.