Oral history interview of Nicolette To Mah

Oral history interview of Nicolette To Mah

Hilliard, Tony (Anthony Stephen), 1944

Mah, Nicolette To, 1957

5/25/18

In this interview, Nicole Mah recalls her experiences fleeing Vietnam in 1978. Born in Vietnam to parents of Chinese ancestry who fled communist China as teenagers, she remembers her parents and grandparents encouraging her to learn a skill. She learned to sew and describes her close-knit family and the enjoyable visits they made to her grandparents' home near the presidential palace in Ho Chi Minh City. She recalls escaping Vietnam with her aunt and five of her siblings in the middle of the night of January 1, 1978. Her parents and youngest sister could not join them because her sister was ill. They carried two changes of clothing and followed a woman who hid them in the bathroom of a home in the countryside. She describes in detail a harrowing night they spent hiding outside in a trench, listening to soldiers with guard dogs who were searching for them. She explains how they hid in the bottom of a fishing boat and watched the soldiers searching for them walk over the planks that hid them. The group joined others in a larger boat that included two young children whose father had been in the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam and faced imprisonment or death if he remained in Vietnam. She describes their journey toward Thailand; trying to bail water when the boat's pump broke; running out of food and water; and finally being rescued by a Thai fishing boat. She describes in detail the time they spent in a Thai detention center, while authorities verified their status as refugees. She describes in great detail the months they spent in an overcrowded refugee camp with no housing or electricity where they paid for the space they occupied and bartered or purchased the food and other supplies they needed by the sewing and knitting that Nicole and her sisters did. She explains the criteria used by various countries, including the United States, for accepting refugees and how they managed to get a sponsor in the United States. The family immigrated to Wichita, Kansas, through the efforts of the Catholic Church, and she remembers their experiences there, learning English and adjusting to life in this country. Her parents, sister, and grandparents later fled Vietnam by boat and were rescued by a United States Navy vessel in the South China Sea. She describes living through the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War and reflects on the war, her life, her family, her heritage, and her experiences as a refugee in the United States.

boat people; trauma; displaced persons camps; ARVN; Fall of Saigon;

Nicole To Mah and her family fled the communist regime in Vietnam in 1978, settling in the United States with her family.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975

Refugee camps

Immigrants--United States

Tet Offensive, 1968

Catholic Church

International Committee of the Red Cross

Digital Library of Georgia

moving image

http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/852