Clip from Interview with Kakrona Khem
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Description
An excerpt from a video interview with Kakrona Khem, part of the Cambodian American Community of Oregon's oral history project documenting the experiences of survivors of the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979.
Interview by Samantha Khem, May 2009.
Rights
This digital access copy is made available as streaming media for personal, educational, and non-commercial use within the parameters of "fair use" as defined under U.S. Copyright law. It cannot be reproduced, distributed, or screened for commercial purposes. For more information, please contact Special Collections at Portland State University Library at: specialcollections@pdx.edu or (503) 725-9883.
Subjects
Oral histories, Cambodia -- Politics and government -- 1975-1979, Political atrocities -- Cambodia
Publication Date
5-2009
Disciplines
Asian History | Social History
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12690
Recommended Citation
Khem, Samantha, "Clip from Interview with Kakrona Khem" (2009). Oral History Interviews. 3.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12690
Comments
Kakrona Khem
Interviewed by Samantha Khem, May 2009
Transcribed by Patricia Schechter, 3 September 2014
Clip: 42:45-44:30
What do you think that life was like for your brother in [place name] because he was the oldest out of all of you?
About my brother?
Was he the one that had to take care of you?
My brother in Cambodia was a very good brother. He took care of me a lot when I was young. We didn’t have a dad, so he looked like a dad to me. When my mom did not have money to raise us he went to sell bread. He would wake up early in the morning and go to sell bread before classes start and bring food to help my mom to feed us.
When I grew up he tried to guide me [with] what job I wanted to do. He asked me. If this field feels good and you want it…I liked to be a mechanic at a power plant. I went down there. And when the Vietnamese came, he tried looking for me. He found me. He found a job for me over there, too.
Was it hard for him to find you after you were separated?
After we separated, he told me that somehow, he felt that I was not going die. He told me. He thought that I was going to survive and so he went looking for me at the place where I worked before. By some miracle, I went to apply for a job down there at the same time that he came looking for me. And we met each other down there. Very good timing that time that we met there.