The oral histories presented here were conducted as part of a project to better understand the life experiences of Cambodian Americans who were children when Cambodia was overtaken by the Khmer Rouge. These vivid survivor accounts were recorded by Pacific Asian Counseling Services (PACS) as a project titled “Cambodian Americans – Oral History of 1.5 Generation” (CAOH). The concept was first developed by Cambodia Town, supported by the API UsCC capacity building projects and implemented by PACS to incorporate a mental health perspective.
A number of oral histories have been collected from older adult survivors but this age group has been largely overlooked. The CAOH project defined the 1.5 generation as children born in Cambodia between 1963 to 1969 and who came to the U.S. between 1980 to 1986. Now adults, their oral histories provide an opportunity to learn about their childhood before and after the Khmer Rouge, what they lost during that time period, their journey to the U.S. and how they adjusted to life in America.
One of the project goals was to explore the factors that contributed to their survival such as the coping skills used to handle emigration and how trauma impacted their well-being. While offering a realistic view of what happened, these oral histories are a message of hope for future generations. FUNDED BY THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPT. OF MENTAL HEALTH Under the Mental Health Services Act The oral histories are archived at CamCHAP and housed at the Historical Society of Long Beach at www.hslb.org/collections.
