Getting Here: Journeys from Vietnam
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- čas přidán 20. 09. 2017
- In the early 1970's there were fewer than 100 ethnic Vietnamese in Houston. Today, the region is home to more Vietnamese Americans than any other place in America outside of California. This program highlights the fascinating and often harrowing stories of several Vietnamese families as they escaped Vietnam and came to call Houston home.
My family and I escaped Viet Nam on 4/30/1975 by boat. American Navy ship picked us up and they brought us to the U.S. We started our lives in New York City. I became a naturalized U.S citizen in 1986. I am forever grateful to the USA that they saved our lives at sea, and they gave us a new and better life in this wonderful country. I thank you USA.
I’m glad you came to America! I hope you’ve had a great life here. Sending love from New Mexico (although I’m from upstate NY) 🙏🏼❤️
God bless you. Some of us didn’t make it.
Welcome my dear. America is grateful you made it here !
I see my parents in this documentary; figuratively speaking of course.
My parents achieved so much here, after narrowly escaping the war , pirates and refugee camps with they’re lives.
I owe my parents so much, for the sacrifices they made.
This film was beautifully done.
One Of My Mom's Old Co Worker Came On A Boat From Vietnam.
Being a boat person myself at 9 years old, this video brought back so many memories. I couldn’t hold back and cried like a baby
I’m so thankful you and your family made it. We’re blessed as a nation to have all of these Vietnamese in the USA.
I have a lot of Vietnamese friends. They’ve become family. I’ve been blessed. Americans take so much for granted. I hear these stories and I cry. No one should ever have to live thru such horrific conditions to just live be happy and safe. May god bless all those that struggle for peace.
As a millennial born-and-bred Vietnamese, I would like to acknowledge the sufferings my fellow South Vietnamese had gone through to escape in 1975. I will never fully understand your pain but I hope you find peace and keep telling your story.
So sad & moved. I too am an refugee when my family escaped Vietnam 🇻🇳 in 1978, arriving to Australia in 1979. I wish these documents would be made in Australia for the many Vietnamese who escaped as well. I am so grateful for my courageous mother who built a vessel to take us to the sea for freedom. We are very resilient - Vietnamese people. RIP, my beloved mother. She would have loved to tell her story. I will ensure her legacy lives on. 💖🙏❤️
Thanks for making this document. I show this to my children and students in Vietnamese Language Class. They need to know why they are here, where they are from. God bless your work ❤
Thank you for sharing with your students! My children watch it occasionally and shared with their friends. Was hesitant at first but Ernie, the producer, did a great job! I'm glad he edited most of my crying out.
My entire family fled northern Vietnam by boat in 1978, my mother, father, great-aunt and twin brother. On arrival in Hong Kong the British Red Cross took care of us, gave us immunization and we were housed openly which meant we weren't locked up in camps. We stayed in Hong Kong, still under British rule then, for about 18 months before we got on a plane to Britain and arrived in November 1980. My brother and I were just over 3yrs old. My parents never talked about fleeing Vietnam, it was just too traumatic for them. We had no memories as my brother and I were just babies. We moved to London in 1986 where we have been ever since. I owe it to my parents for escaping Vietnam on a boat all those years ago and we thank Britain for taking us in and giving us a chance of another life. I have relatives in the US and Canada who I have never met and do not know where they are to this day.
One of the best documentary segments I've seen in a long time. Thank you for putting this together!
I am surprised that a PBS station had a positive segment on Vietnam.
PBS rooted for the communists.
Hollywood needs to make an actual movie on the boat people.
I too was in Vietnam 1969-71 … the boat people got a lot better welcome then the veterans.
I was one of those vets welcoming them here….although i was killing their countrymen…VC
I support these refugees.
Hi Jimmy Nguyen, when I started watching this video, I couldn’t believe my ears what I heard you said that you’re from Rach Gia. Our family is from there too. Hearing all your stories, it just brought back some of childhood memories of how we escaped. I’m just happy to hear that someone came from the same city in Vietnam telling their story which is similar to mine.
Hi Dan, it's great to see so many people here watched and felt what we went through. But we made it!
@@jimmynguyen8716 Jimmy, was curious rather your parents were ever able to come and visit you in the United States?
This story brings back a very sad memory for me. My family was the boat people also. We left Vietnam in May 1978. Our boat sank in the middle of the night. When I watched this story, I cry my eyes out. God bless us all! 🙏🏻
I too cry my heart out for 30 mins while filming and couldn't control the emotions of my childhood. But We're all here and being an American
I hope your family survived that! 😔🙏🏼
People should watch this. This is a beautiful and moving film.
Great stories have brought me back in those days. Thanks for this documentary video.
Respect my Asian community, Cambodia Filipino Vietnam Thailand and Laos From Suriname 🇸🇷🤙✊
So amazing stories you guys share. My Tears can’t stop while listening your journey.
Thanks for sharing ❤️
Hello
i actually melt down and cried following Jimmy's story
Thank you very for sharing your stories, very much like the story of my family fleeing Vietnam. Please stay strong and be proud.
Amazing, sad, everything, that reminds us of the difficulties these people had to endure.
Roy D'Oliveiro, it’s very sad knowing there are refugees right now. Nobody ever want to leave their home if they didn’t have to. We were so lucky the US saved us and took us in after they boomed our country to death.
Amazing !! I see a lot of hurt & pain breaks my heart but they have tenacity courage and gratitude to make life as much as they can in this short life. I don’t know what else to say however I hope they also get the support they need until today x
Thumbs up for this Amazing and challenging story of Vietnam refugee. ♥️♥️ 🇵🇭
😢 my parents, sisters, and grandma came on a boat. Very sad stories on the boat - hunger, thirst, Thai pirates, people dying. Then it was Bidong Island for 6 months before they arrived in Melbourne Australia. Thank you Malcolm Frasier for letting my family in. I was born a couple of years after my family arrived. A few years ago I met Tammie Frasier. The wife of Malcolm. She told me that she had countless conversations with her husband in the 70s to let these Vietnamese refugees into Australia. It was such an amazing feeling to have met and converse with Tammie. That I wouldn’t be here standing in front of her if it wasn’t for her convincing her husband that it was the right thing to do.
Michael Tran - welcome to the orphanage, bro. :). I was in the same situation. My family could only afford to have one person escaped. I was the oldest son so there I went. I ended up in an orphanage in Galang refugee camp. I’ve always wondered who I would be become if I did not make that trip. One thing I know for sure it would not be closed to the person I’ve become today. Peace and enjoy life to the fullest.
Thanks for telling your tourneys, good information for my kids,
I love this video. Some Vietnamese people have told me their journey.
I am a Houstonian and black I love yall. I love the food and have made so many deep connections with Vietnamese people living in deep south east Houston.
So thankful these beautiful people survived.
Very moving. ❤
Luck brought you to the land of promise.
One minute of silence to remember those who perished at sea!
Thank for sharing. I was a boat people escaped Việt Nam 1978.
Awesome
Nice to watch your guys
I’m a boat people too
Mỹ Lê, 6/72 Thủ Đức, POW 1975-1978
Texas A&M 1988
I recommend this video should have subtitle to let Vietnamese young people have a different look about the VN war!
Lovely peoples ....reminding Me 4/82 I was one among your Guys!
I left VN when I was 10 yrs old. And I barely remember my childhood or the details of the voyage. Yet the two guys in this video have such vivid memories when they were only 5 or 6 yrs. old when they left. Makes me question what's true and whats imagined.
God bless me with a very clear memory of the harse childhood. I remember everything. went back home in 1994. Had a taxi driver take me straight home without Google maps. You don't have to questions what's true or imagine as all Vietnamese in youth in this generation experience it first hand.
I am fifty two years old but I still remember all the things that happened to my childhood especially all the badly things that vc did with my father and my family.
Xin chào ...dân vn luôn yêu quý mọi người ..và thấu hiểu mọi người. Chúng tôi chỉ đang bị bịt miệng bởi "+S" :(
Chúng tôi muốn tách khỏi miền bắc .lập khu tự trị miền Nam .liệu có tài liệu nào làm điều đó ...chúng tôi là thế hệ trẻ ở miền nam
It will happen soon.............................................
Viet Cong also randomly fired rockets at Bien Hoa Air Base during my tour from 69 to 70. Hit chow hall behind our barracks, pilot quarters on our right, place where we worked and who only knows where else on base. I heard some Army personnel were killed on one of those attacks, but no one I knew. tried to keep us from sleeping and kill morale, but I only lost sleep. Lady at 5:04 reminded me of this.
It is truly sad that many of the released from the 're-education' camps with the help of the US reunited families never lived very long afterwards. The hardships and brutality of the camps shorten the lives of these men but thankfully they got to live free and spent the rest of life with their families.
're-education camps' = actual PRISONS
My father was in that prison for 11 yrs. He has dementia 2 years after coming to America and has pass. But thank God he experience freedom at the end of his life.
I landed in Montreal, Canada in December so yeah, it was cold.
I'm trying to get to Canada myself.
My Aunt told me she can't afford to sponsor me.
I'm in Cali but want to go north desperately.
I rather be cold than too hot
In the long run, the United States did win the Vietnam War. Look at Vietnam today it is a thriving country that embraced free market capitalism. Their government realized in the mid 1990's that socialism is doomed to fail and so many Viets were escaping their country. And although late, it is a huge validation for all Americans, New Zealanders, Australians and South Korean soldiers who paid the ultimate price for freedom. I am a Filipino and can still remember the tragic plight of the boat people who came and are welcomed here in the Philippines.
The communist government of Vietnam embraced a "free market capitalism" only to fatten their wallets. Corruption is rampant and is 10 times worse than anything found in the West. The divide between the rich and the poor is greater today than before the communists took over the country. Forty-six years later after the communist took over the country, the average every day citizen continues to suffer. Wake the f*** up and face reality.
Oh yeah? Well why are there aren't any hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people risking their lives trying to escape Vietnam now compared during the communist regime? It means their quality of living improved and improving. There's always been corruption on all types of government even in communist ones. I'm pretty sure all the commie politburos and their families squandered Vietnam's wealth during their regime.I bet you haven't even been to Vietnam yourself it''s so much more pleasant and free there compared to the dark ages of socialism.
@@countercultureexcesstvbrai7386 The Vietnamese are still leaving Vietnam but you wouldn't know about it because there is no war so there is no coverage of their exodus.
How has life improved when you have people still living in slums or people foraging for scraps to try to sell to make a living? IMHO, life has not improved enough to make a difference.
Don't be fooled by the glitzy high rise condos and bright lights that are all due to foreign investments. Behind those glitzy high rise condos and bright lights are slums which are more representative of real life in Vietnam.
FYI, I'm Vietnamese and I have been back to Vietnam. I can attest to all the beggars living on the streets and the poor people trying to sell lottery tickets to earn a hot meal. Like I said, wake the f*** up and face reality.
Hey Pinoy, you know shit about Vietnam. Maybe stick to what you know.
Grow up your delusional.
Took me 9 times to escape from Vietnam 1985
I think of all the refugee camps, Malaysia was the best.
Es una tragedia para los países cuando los dividen, los pueblos quedan confrontados y sus dirigentes se aferran al poder no importando el sufrimiento de sus ciudadanos, hoy Vietnam demostró al mundo como resurgir de las cenizas, un país que se autodenomina pacífico repunta en el sudeste Asiático. Un país progresista con sus luces y sombras. Admiro tanto a Vietnam y los Vietnamitas.
I wish my family would've been accepted somewhere else. When we got to the US we receieved many threats from supremacist groups so we went to El Salvador and Guatemala, but we saw the same situation unfolding there so we went to Mexico. I am now a proud Mexican citizen.
I would say to you that we do not live in a perfect world where everyone is universally accepted. There will always be those that hate. I would also point out that the U.S. veterans returning from Vietnam were also treated poorly upon their return. Speaking from experience you would do whatever you could to hide the fact that you had just returned or that you were even in the military. Yes I will admit to wearing a longer hair wig… I have personal experience with bottles, rocks, and even bricks being thrown. Not to even mention the derogatory filth that was yelled at me. I would like to tell you that your experience was unique… It was not. Even people who did what this country asked them to do were vilified when they returned. I’m sorry that you and your family had to see the ugly side of the United States but rest assured returning vets had to endure it also. I have friends who couldn’t and ended up taking their own lives. Nothing is perfect but I assume you and your family left Vietnam for a reason… It is a different world now. I’m glad that you and your family found peace and a better life.
@@bamboomaker1193 thanks for your words and also thanks for your service.
Sao ko có bản tiếng việt
bấm vào dấu 3. ngay trên góc
I too landed in Songkla,Thailand in 1977, then send to military camp in the mountains at the age of 11. The military personnel took VN young men as a punching bag and at night the military personnel take turns robes/ rapped the VN boats people. Let’s go Brandon
Chloe Dao!
If America as nation considered is a good guy, why the hell they killed the first elected south Vietnam, President Ngo Dinh Diem. Why North Korea and South Korea could be separated and considered 2 countries but not Vietnam.
Nghiệp lực rất lớn, có thể sánh với núi Tu-Di, có thể sâu dường biển cả, có thể ngăn đạo thánh'.
Vì thế chúng sanh chớ khinh điều quấy nhỏ mà cho là không tội, sau khi chết đều có quả báo dầu đến mảy mún đều phải chịu lấy. (trich trang 72 Kinh DIA TANG) 🙏🙏🙏Đại Bi, Đại Nguyện, Đại Thánh, Đại Từ, Bổn Tôn Địa-Tạng Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát 🙏🙏🙏Đại Bi, Đại Nguyện, Đại Thánh, Đại Từ, Bổn Tôn Địa-Tạng Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát 🙏🙏🙏Đại Bi, Đại Nguyện, Đại Thánh, Đại Từ, Bổn Tôn Địa-Tạng Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát
🙏🙏🙏...🙏🙏🙏...🙏🙏🙏
God Protected Those Refugees.
Do you know there are always massacres the enemy after wining of war. But that didn’t happen in VietNam after North won. Think about it. Don’t let some few moment make you lost you mind
@Hung Tran are you sure about that? Or your grandfather committed the crime again someone. If yes, that make sense. My dad was high position in old regime. He only went to re-education camp for 3 years. So check out what crime did your grandpa committed
@Hung Tran people shit into your face and your criminal family. Criminal is criminal
I know the facts. You just prejudiced and stubborn to believe the truth. If you can’t contribute to Vietnam development, leaves it alone. You lier
The communist North Vietnam did not kill you,but they put all South Vietnameses Soldier in prison ,then starving them to DEAD..........Fuck HoChiMinh.
I’m crying watching this
So the execution of bay lop is justified.
One day soon there will be a perfect government with Christ Jesus ruling from heaven over the earth! No more suffering under man’s governments. No more evil people hurting innocent children. No war. The earth will be cleansed of all evil. And all of the Almighty Jehovah’s people of all races will live unitedly forever more. The Bible says the righteous will inherit the earth and live forever upon it. All of Psalms chapter 37 tells of this great hope when the evildoers will be gone and Jehovah will give us the desires of our hearts!