Susan H. |
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Memory of the War Us: When you ran away North what did you experience, especially when you were on your own? Susan: I don’t know, I lived on the streets and I remember that and I just kinda hang out on the street with some other people. Us: Some other runaways or? Susan: Yeah. Us: Where there a lot, where there a lot of orphan children in the streets? Susan: Yup. Also some of them half American [unclear] half American too because they have at the end of the war was going on a lot of American GIs were there so they do have some children half American and half Vietnamese. And a lot of Vietnamese people don’t like them so they don’t take care of them so a lot of children are orphans for that. So they live on the streets. Us: Did you have any direct experience with communists? Susan: Sometimes we sit there at the restaurant or something and all of a sudden you saw a lady walk by the next thing the whole place is explode and body parts all over the place. Us: Did that happen often where there.. Susan: This happened often yes. Us: Very often? Susan: It happened in the market, and you could go to market and the next thing you know everything explode. Or movie theater. It always happened like that all the time just like what you see right now in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s just normal what we have over there. Us: How were you feeling at this time? Susan: I guess you just get scared but then you get used to it because it’s just life and it’s just the way it is. I mean you can’t change anything it’s just the way it is. So you get scared but you learn how to accept it. Us: Can you go into the Chinese side of your family? I know there has been a lot of conflict between Vietnam and China. Susan: Well I don’t know a lot about the history between Chinese and Vietnamese but I know that the Chinese were there like many thousand years ago and the Vietnamese people kind of blended with them. And when they, the French come over, it’s one thing about Ho Chi Min he, a lot of people think he’s a bad guy but he’s not in my opinion he’s not a bad guy. He only want to kick the [unclear] out of his country so he can unite it between the North and the South. And only thing that I don’t agree that I see American go over there in war with them and so many young American go there and they die for nothing because I don’t think they that war would have American serve in war. Us: Mmhm. Susan: And so that is the thing that I feel sad when I see so many young Americans come to Vietnam and then they die for nothing and when you come back to the United States people call them a baby killer and women killer but they have no choice because you can’t trust them you cant, when you’re in Vietnam and you’re at war you can’t trust nobody. And when a kid come up to you and you give them a candy and they, they hang out with you and you have a good time with them and the next thing in five minutes they’re gunna kill you. So what choice do you have? You need to kill them or you be killed. And when they come back to the United States the people don’t understand and they call them baby killer and women killer, things like that. And they treat them really bad and that makes me sad because I, I was in Vietnam and I see what’s going on over there and the people here in America don’t see what’s going on over there so they only think the GIs are the ones that was the bad people but they’re not. Us: Mmhm. Susan: And it’s, war is really bad because nobody can trust nobody. And its just, and then the communists of course they’re gunna teach kid have a gun and they teach to kill and because the way that they tell them okay we don’t want a foreigner here, we need to kick them out, we need to tell them to leave and they don’t leave and we don’t kill them they’re going to kill us so a lot of the young vietnamese kids don’t understand that. I never, I never have been pro to that situation but I see what happened over there. Us: Mmhm. Susan: It’s really sad when it comes to war.
Object Description
Profile of | Susan H. |
Title | Orphan in Vietnam |
Profile bio | Susan, who would like to remain anonymous, was born in the French Monte Carlo in the 50s. Her mother was half Chinese and half French, while her father was half Chinese and half Vietnamese. After the death of her mother and abandonment by her father, she moved to Vietnam with an uncle and lived with his family there. Shortly after, when her uncle’s wife became pregnant, she was put in an orphanage and was responsible for taking care of the younger children, running away many times during her time there. She was adopted by an American family and moved to the United States when she was a teenager right before the end of the war, and as the only Asian in her school who barely spoke English, she was often ostracized by her classmates. Her two children are now fully grown and on their own. Susan now resides in San Diego, California with her husband, and her dog |
Profiler bio | Patricia Lee is majoring in Art at University of Southern California.; Nicholas Marano is majoring in Economy at University of Southern California |
Subject |
Civilian Refugee Vietnamese Adoption Death Experience in Vietnam War Language Memory of War Orphanage |
Profiled by | Lee, Patricia; Marano, Nicholas |
Profile date | 2014-03 |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Monte Carlo; San Diego |
Geographic subject (county) | San Diego |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | Monaco; USA |
Coverage date | 1963; 1974 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/susan-h/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:14:50); 4 transcripts |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | hsusan |
Description
Profile of | Susan H. |
Title | Memory of the War |
Format | 1 transcript, 2p |
Filename | hsusan-vid4_tr4.pdf |
Full text | Memory of the War Us: When you ran away North what did you experience, especially when you were on your own? Susan: I don’t know, I lived on the streets and I remember that and I just kinda hang out on the street with some other people. Us: Some other runaways or? Susan: Yeah. Us: Where there a lot, where there a lot of orphan children in the streets? Susan: Yup. Also some of them half American [unclear] half American too because they have at the end of the war was going on a lot of American GIs were there so they do have some children half American and half Vietnamese. And a lot of Vietnamese people don’t like them so they don’t take care of them so a lot of children are orphans for that. So they live on the streets. Us: Did you have any direct experience with communists? Susan: Sometimes we sit there at the restaurant or something and all of a sudden you saw a lady walk by the next thing the whole place is explode and body parts all over the place. Us: Did that happen often where there.. Susan: This happened often yes. Us: Very often? Susan: It happened in the market, and you could go to market and the next thing you know everything explode. Or movie theater. It always happened like that all the time just like what you see right now in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s just normal what we have over there. Us: How were you feeling at this time? Susan: I guess you just get scared but then you get used to it because it’s just life and it’s just the way it is. I mean you can’t change anything it’s just the way it is. So you get scared but you learn how to accept it. Us: Can you go into the Chinese side of your family? I know there has been a lot of conflict between Vietnam and China. Susan: Well I don’t know a lot about the history between Chinese and Vietnamese but I know that the Chinese were there like many thousand years ago and the Vietnamese people kind of blended with them. And when they, the French come over, it’s one thing about Ho Chi Min he, a lot of people think he’s a bad guy but he’s not in my opinion he’s not a bad guy. He only want to kick the [unclear] out of his country so he can unite it between the North and the South. And only thing that I don’t agree that I see American go over there in war with them and so many young American go there and they die for nothing because I don’t think they that war would have American serve in war. Us: Mmhm. Susan: And so that is the thing that I feel sad when I see so many young Americans come to Vietnam and then they die for nothing and when you come back to the United States people call them a baby killer and women killer but they have no choice because you can’t trust them you cant, when you’re in Vietnam and you’re at war you can’t trust nobody. And when a kid come up to you and you give them a candy and they, they hang out with you and you have a good time with them and the next thing in five minutes they’re gunna kill you. So what choice do you have? You need to kill them or you be killed. And when they come back to the United States the people don’t understand and they call them baby killer and women killer, things like that. And they treat them really bad and that makes me sad because I, I was in Vietnam and I see what’s going on over there and the people here in America don’t see what’s going on over there so they only think the GIs are the ones that was the bad people but they’re not. Us: Mmhm. Susan: And it’s, war is really bad because nobody can trust nobody. And its just, and then the communists of course they’re gunna teach kid have a gun and they teach to kill and because the way that they tell them okay we don’t want a foreigner here, we need to kick them out, we need to tell them to leave and they don’t leave and we don’t kill them they’re going to kill us so a lot of the young vietnamese kids don’t understand that. I never, I never have been pro to that situation but I see what happened over there. Us: Mmhm. Susan: It’s really sad when it comes to war. |
Archival file | Volume5/hsusan-vid4_tr4.pdf |