In the beginning of 1980, I escaped from my country by boat. Fortunately, I survived and was able to keep all items I brought with me during this arduous journey. I was then drifted unsteadily through different refugee camps. During the first few years in the United States, I had to change my place of residence almost every year to earn my living. Wherever I went, the souvenirs of the journey went with me. They are my last connection with my homeland on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, where I was born and grew up with so many memories, where my loved ones are still living and where my whole nation is.
Every year on April 30, some of my friends and I tend to get together reminiscing, thinking of past events, of what remains in our hearts…and of challenging life ahead that requires a lot of perseverance. Years passed by. Not only I, but also thousands of people are not able to forget the painful memories in their journey to search for freedom. Some of them still keep what they brought with them during their escape, as I do.
I have visited quite a few museums, big and small, around the United States of America. Gazing with veneration at a lot of artifacts, from a pen to an automobile. When I visited the Jewish Holocaust museums, I was amazed at the display of a lot of items remaining from the German Concentration Camps. There was even a strand of hair. These museums want us to understand the events that impacted their nation during World War II. The displayed items may be lifeless, but these museums help voice their origins. Thanks to these artifacts, we are able to visualize the lives of people of previous centuries and of mankind. They are history!
As for the Vietnamese nation, since the tragic event in 1975 until the present day, people have found ways to flee the communists, left their motherland, and searched for a better life in another country. During this period, there are thousands of artifacts and documents from those who were released from the so-called “re-educated camps (which in fact are prisons) and fleers by boat or on foot, from different refugee camps to the beginning days in a third country. Behind each artifact is its owner’s story. If we collect all of these artifacts and documents, we will have a complete picture representing a miserable but magnanimous period of our Vietnamese communities or our whole nation.
Many of the young generations, either in the motherland or overseas, might not know anything about this historical period, a period in which thousands of grandparents, parents, brothers, and sisters have upheld the nation’s traditional dauntlessness struggle by their sacrifices, by their striving to overcome extreme difficulties in order for the younger generations to have a brighter future as it is today.
This tradition must continue. Hence, some of us who share the same vision, have discussed how those historical artifacts and documents can be collected and kept in one place so that the history of the Vietnamese refugees can be preserved concretely, vividly, and accurately. Hence, the Vietnamese Heritage Museum exists. Every day, this museum will remind us, the Vietnamese, old and young, that we should never forget our origin; we should always strive to continue the great task that our previous generations started, which is fighting for JUSTICE, for OUR COUNTRY, and OUR NATION. In addition, we also want the local residents to know more about our origin, our endeavor to rise in spite of hardship, and our contributions to the countries where we are residing.
The Vietnamese Heritage Museum is not a small project of an individual or a community. We would like to appeal to all “free” Vietnamese around the world who have the same ideal, please unite and work together to expand our Vietnamese Heritage Museum for now and years to come.
