Thursday, May 25, 2006
By Esther Wu
The Dallas Morning News (Texas, USA)
Many of us have only heard about Cambodia's Killing Fields. Paul Thai lived through it.
He was only 12 when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of his homeland. He said he witnessed hundreds of people being tortured or starved to death – including eight of his 17 siblings.
In 1979, Mr. Thai, his parents and most of his surviving brothers and sisters escaped Cambodia and found refuge in the United States. The family was among the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees who relocated in East Dallas, or what would become known as "Little Asia."
Mr. Thai was one of several Southeast Asian refugees featured in a 1986 KERA-TV (Channel 13) documentary called Starting Over in America. The program will be rebroadcast at 7 tonight to commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
The program chronicles the arrival and survival of what was then America's most recent wave of refugees as they battled to overcome crime, poverty and prejudice, according to a KERA release.
"The documentary examined how refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos struggled to reunite scattered families and rebuild shattered lives in North Texas," said Sylvia Komatsu, KERA's senior vice president of content. "Two decades later, the stories remain heartrending and inspirational, and reveal the resiliency of the human spirit to persevere."
KERA has revisited many of the people in the documentary to find out what has happened to them since the program first aired. These updates have aired periodically on KERA and can also be heard online at www.kera.org.
Among those featured in the film are Lily Dam, who recently returned to Vietnam for the first time since communists forced her family to flee more than three decades ago, and Tithvanthan Samrith, a single parent of three who came to Dallas after the Khmer Rouge killed his wife and a fourth child.
The documentary also focuses on the work of Dallas police Officer Ron Cowart and nursing professor Charles Kemp, a pair of Vietnam veterans who were instrumental in helping the refugees resettle in Little Asia.
Mr. Thai, now 43 and a lieutenant with the Dallas Police Department, said he and his family stayed in Little Asia almost 12 years, moving only after he and his siblings began to marry and start families. When Mr. Thai married, he and his wife, Marina, lived with her family in Garland for several years.
Reflecting on his life in America, Mr. Thai said, "I am truly thankful for the opportunities this country has offered me."
When he arrived, he said, he had three goals: to own a home, get an education and to one day have a healthy and happy family.
Today, Mr. Thai, his wife and their five children own their home in Rockwall. He received a degree in criminal justice in 1994 and is completing his master's degree in professional development.
"It's been a great life," Mr. Thai said.
Other programs commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on KERA include:
• Japanland, The Final Test, 2 p.m. Sunday. The show takes viewers to several parts of the country, from Tokyo to a beef farm in Matzuzaka.
• Monkey Dance, 10 p.m. Tuesday. A story about how three Cambodian-American youths come to terms with their families' cultural traditions and modern American society.
• Hawaiians: Reflecting Spirit, 10 p.m. Wednesday.The film explores Hawaii's rich cultural heritage as related by several famous Hawaiians.
E-mail ewu@dallasnews.com
He was only 12 when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of his homeland. He said he witnessed hundreds of people being tortured or starved to death – including eight of his 17 siblings.
In 1979, Mr. Thai, his parents and most of his surviving brothers and sisters escaped Cambodia and found refuge in the United States. The family was among the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees who relocated in East Dallas, or what would become known as "Little Asia."
Mr. Thai was one of several Southeast Asian refugees featured in a 1986 KERA-TV (Channel 13) documentary called Starting Over in America. The program will be rebroadcast at 7 tonight to commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
The program chronicles the arrival and survival of what was then America's most recent wave of refugees as they battled to overcome crime, poverty and prejudice, according to a KERA release.
"The documentary examined how refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos struggled to reunite scattered families and rebuild shattered lives in North Texas," said Sylvia Komatsu, KERA's senior vice president of content. "Two decades later, the stories remain heartrending and inspirational, and reveal the resiliency of the human spirit to persevere."
KERA has revisited many of the people in the documentary to find out what has happened to them since the program first aired. These updates have aired periodically on KERA and can also be heard online at www.kera.org.
Among those featured in the film are Lily Dam, who recently returned to Vietnam for the first time since communists forced her family to flee more than three decades ago, and Tithvanthan Samrith, a single parent of three who came to Dallas after the Khmer Rouge killed his wife and a fourth child.
The documentary also focuses on the work of Dallas police Officer Ron Cowart and nursing professor Charles Kemp, a pair of Vietnam veterans who were instrumental in helping the refugees resettle in Little Asia.
Mr. Thai, now 43 and a lieutenant with the Dallas Police Department, said he and his family stayed in Little Asia almost 12 years, moving only after he and his siblings began to marry and start families. When Mr. Thai married, he and his wife, Marina, lived with her family in Garland for several years.
Reflecting on his life in America, Mr. Thai said, "I am truly thankful for the opportunities this country has offered me."
When he arrived, he said, he had three goals: to own a home, get an education and to one day have a healthy and happy family.
Today, Mr. Thai, his wife and their five children own their home in Rockwall. He received a degree in criminal justice in 1994 and is completing his master's degree in professional development.
"It's been a great life," Mr. Thai said.
Other programs commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on KERA include:
• Japanland, The Final Test, 2 p.m. Sunday. The show takes viewers to several parts of the country, from Tokyo to a beef farm in Matzuzaka.
• Monkey Dance, 10 p.m. Tuesday. A story about how three Cambodian-American youths come to terms with their families' cultural traditions and modern American society.
• Hawaiians: Reflecting Spirit, 10 p.m. Wednesday.The film explores Hawaii's rich cultural heritage as related by several famous Hawaiians.
E-mail ewu@dallasnews.com
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