Camp Z30-D: The Survivors

March 1, 2002 by Anh Do, Tran Phan, Eugene Garcia

Unsung heroes all around us have overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Here are some ways to connect:

  • At Home — Ask your parents, grandparents, children or other relatives about how they faced special challenges. Talk to them about the struggles of growing up, military service, immigration, persecution or other experiences. Ask about special lessons they learned.
  • Elsewhere — Talk to teachers, friends, people of different ethnic or religious groups about tolerance and intolerance.
  • Interviewing tips --— These issues can be extremely emotional, so you will need to approach them with patience and sensitivity.
  • Try a variety of formats, from casual chats at the park to formal interviews, whatever seems to work best.
  • Talk more than once and for more than an hour. You'll discover that new details come out the second time around, especially when dealing with long-suppressed memories.
  • Ask follow-up questions, what helped them, lessons they learned.
  • Keep a record — What you learn likely will be valued in your family for generations to come, possibly by others as well.
  • Document the experience on video or cassette tape.
  • Record your observations in a journal and share it with those you interviewed.
  • Turn your findings into a school project.

OTHER RESOURCES

  • Get more information online at

www.amnesty.org
www.vietworld.com
www.hrw.org
www.state.gov

  • Suggested books: "Diary of Anne Frank," Michael Herr's "Dispatches," Lu Van Thanh's "The Inviting Call of Wandering Souls," Nghia M. Vo's "The Pink Lotus," Bao Ninh's "The Sorrows of War," Stanley Karnow's "Vietnam: A History," W. Courtland Robinson's "Terms of Refuge: The Indochinese Exodus & the International Response."
  • Suggested videos/DVDs: Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth" and "Born on the Fourth of July," Roland Joffe's "The Killing Fields."

FIELD TRIPS

  • Visit the heart of Little Saigon, along Bolsa Avenue between Ward Street and Newland Avenue in Westminster, taking in the culture, sampling the food, touring the shops. You can do the same for other ethnic enclaves, such as Little Gaza in Anaheim or the Korean Commercial District in Garden Grove.
  • Go through the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 553-8403.
  • Browse the materials at the Southeast Asian Archive inside the main library of the University of California, Irvine. (949) 824-4968.

TO ORDER REPRINTS

  • $2.00 each (includes tax and mailing). Send a check or money order to InfoStore - Camp C30-D, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92701. To order by credit card call the InfoStore at (714) 796-6077.

MORE ON THE WEB

Go to www.ocregister.com for:

  • A complete online version of Camp Z30-D: The Survivors.
  • Additional photos.
  • Sound clips from interviews with the former prisoners.
  • Links to related Web sites

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

  • Give us your comments, exchange ideas with writers Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan or photographer Eugene Garcia, submit questions for the former inmates of Camp Z30-D and share your own experiences. Go to http://dialog.ocregister.com, register and join the discussion groups on Vietnam’s re-education prisons.