VAOHP0047 1 Narrator: DANH NHUT QUACH Interviewer: Michelle Pham Date: May 6, 2012 Location: Huntington Beach, California Sub-collection: Community Interviewers Length: 01:17:28 Transcriber: Khanh Bui Translator: Diane Tran Vietnamese American Oral History Project, UC Irvine DQ: My name is Quach Nhut Danh and I am a pharmacist, I was born in May 27 th, 1939. MP: Where were you born? DQ: I was born in Sóc Trăng, Vietnam. MP: What is the city? DQ: The city is Sóc Trăng. MP: Ok, Can you tell a little bit about the memory of your childhood? DQ: How is the childhood memory? What do you want to know? MP: Like when you were young, your daily activities like waking up in the morning, having breakfast, go to school, what is your regular day? DQ: During that time as you know the time I lived in Việt Nam when I was young we lived under the French, so my parents sent me to school and our condition was very poor, very limited. My childhood was not like young people here That time was before the war, after 1945 which was war time, I still went to school with the same poor condition and nothing compared here like I walked to school or if I rode my bike it did not even have a break, it was very hard. During the war time and after the war time with France, French people were exhausted, so our country Việt Nam went to a very hard and difficult condition during that period of time. I remembered when I was 9,10 years old, my father bought for me a bike as I said earlier that bike did not have a break, I had to ride until I wanted to stop then I put both my feet down to stop it. However, I only
VAOHP0047 2 walked to school because I did not have a lock to lock my bike, so I just walked. Nowsaday I see young people have better condition. This 21 st century is very different it provides lots better conditions. MP: How were your neighbors? DQ: My neighbors were fine. We were living hustlely closed togther in the Việt Nam society at that time. Our houses were closed so our neighbors were very happy, sweet and warm toward each other. MP: So do you have any brothers or sisters? DQ: Yes, I have 5 sisters and brother in our family. I am the oldest and I have 4 younger sisters. I m the only son. MP: Do you have any special career? DQ: What do you mean by special career? MP: Did you study pharmacy inviệt Nam? DQ: Yes, that time in Việt Nam I went to pharmacy school after passing the French high school test. I studied everything under French school systems that time, so the way I learned about pharmacy was different from America. When I came over here I experienced the completed differences, only the basic such as the foundation of chemistry or biology was a little bit similar as it was more advanced here. MP: How is school? What are the differences between America and France schools? DQ: Do you want to know about that? MP: Yes. DQ: The French school system required to pass high school tests, and entered the pharmacy program for 5 years. During the first year, pharmacy student had to find a pharmacy store to
VAOHP0047 3 work and gain experience, then started pharmacy school from the second year on until finished 4 years in school. That career was from French program at that time. It maybe change now, but during the time I studied pharmacy, the program taught in depth for a pharmacist to adapt more at the community, in the city or village. As I told you for example: the French Professor, who came from France, taught us what we should know very well as a pharmacist. In fact, they did not teach about clinical, only community pharmacy. They took plants and mushrooms to experiment which ones we could eat and which ones could not, and we had to teach people to be aware of poison mushrooms, it could kill people. The French program taught more about becoming a community pharmacist to serve the city, village or community pharmacy, and not only working in the clinic alone. MP: Were you marry in Việt Nam or here? DQ: Yes, that time I met my wife in pharmacy school in Việt Nam, she studied one year after me. MP: Oh, she also studied at pharmacy school. DQ: She was a pharmacist too. I met her at school. MP: When you met her, was it almost love at first sight? DQ: Yes, I was shy because my wife was very beautiful and there were lots of men went after her, so I had to try my best to find the way to get her attention. MP: How many children do you have? DQ: Àh, I had three children, two boys and a girl. My youngest one was born here, the two older ones Trí and Thuỳ Linh were born in Vietnam and came here when they were about 9 and 7 years old.
VAOHP0047 4 MP: Did you tell your children about when you were in Việt Nam or did you keep it and not want to tell them? DQ: Yes, I told them stories, I told them about Việt Nam traditions, and how family traditions. Like doctor Trí had a family history, he asked me and I explained for him to understand as we were Vietnamese and how we kept our family together by keeping in touch with family members. Especially now they have facebook, we can keep in touch among our family members, and doctor Trí kept that very well. MP: Do you think that my generation now and the next generation later, is it important to keep Vietnamese traditions going? DQ: I think that is very important, we always have to remember our root. Our Vietnamese idiom said: While drinking from the stream, remember the source. We always have to know where our root is. That is very important. Of course there is advanced in the modern country here, but keeping our root, tradition, and custom is very necessary. MP: If you see our generation and later generations, how do you convince me that it s important? Because I see some people in our generation and next generation used to say: I am American, I am not ViệtNamese, my parents are ViệtNamese, but I am 100% American. DQ: That is very subtle, but you have a very good question. To me I see most Vietnamese families wanted their children to know and keep their roots. We have a culture that has a long history of 4,000 years old. So we always have to address it just like I address to your generation and your generation addresses to the next generation. We have to remember our Vietnamese cultures, traditions. That is very important because that s also the foundation for us to step on to the new society ladder. Like are you American now right? MP: Yes.
VAOHP0047 5 DQ: But if you refuse to accept, I think when you are trained to remember your roots and your ancestors, you are willing to accept it. Your willingness is that acceptance. Maybe because no one passed those to you so you are easy to forget. MP: Do your family have an ancestors shrine to worship? DQ: Yes, we have. MP: How is the order arranged? Because I am Catholic so I am not familiar, Can you show me that? DQ: Remember the shrine is of course for any religion. We have only one Holy One from above, so we have to remember to have the only one who above all such as Catholic has God and for Buddhism, to me they have to have the one who created everything on earth, that is God. All religions are good. No religion is bad, but we have to remember our ancestors like our great grandparents, grandparents and parents. We have to have a shrine for them. MP: You have your ancestors on the shrine, so who are up there? Like my house, my mother has our grandparents shrine. She also has grandfather, grandmother, and uncle pictures. How about your shrine and who are in those pictures? DQ: I have my parents on the shrine. I also have my grandparents and great grandparents on the shrine in ViệtNam. I only have my parents and my wife s parents here who are grandparents of doctor Trí. MP: I m going to address about the Vietnam war, is that ok? DQ: Sure, ok. MP: How does the war in Vietnam affect your family and community? DQ: Ok, in Việt Nam, you know that you are lucky to be born here, but the generation of doctor Trí also do not know because he was too young. I am the one who directly influenced during that
VAOHP0047 6 time, so during the Việt Nam war I had to join the army or served in military or government. I had to work for the government. MP: What did you do when you served for the government? DQ: I graduated in 1964, where were you by that time? MP: I was in heaven. DQ: In 1964 I got assigned to the government healthcare with three more people to the West while most of my friends joined the army or worked in military. Do you know the West? The West is MP: In the south. (Nam is the south, Tây is the West) That is Vietnamese right? DQ: In the south, in that delta. MP: Àh DQ: My responsibility is I have to have you been in Việt Nam before? MP: Yes, I went to Sài Gòn when I was young because my father s family lived in Sài Gòn, I did not go to Hà Nội or to DQ: Ồh, Sài Gòn, that s enough. I lived in the West. You know the geography of Mekong River? MP: Yes DQ: Mekong River is very big. I was responsible for 16 hospitals about medical logistic. I got trained at Okinawa in Japan about medical logistic. Let me tell you this one is very important because back in 1954, the France left because they lost at the battlefield Điện Biên Phủ acknowledged by the Geneva. However, they still left us their old system which was the French s medical logistic, I only talk about the medical logistic part. The way they organized the medical field in the hospital was completely different from America. MP: How was the difference?
VAOHP0047 7 DQ: Ok, the French medicine items were different. In America they had somethings called Federal Stock Number, and each item had a different number. French did not have that. MP: So how did they keep track of it? DQ: They kept track by name, that was all. It did not keep track by Federal Stock Number as American did, so I got trained like that in Okinawa so that I came back to set up the new system. I dropped all old systems from French and installed my new plan for all 16 hospitals because none of the people there got trained like me. That time I came to work with the help of 13 Koreans and 6 or 7 American Counselors that America sent to assist me to set up the new systems. The Korean people knew the system before so they had more experiences to help me done that. MP: Did you know they still used your systems in Việt Nam or dropped that long time ago? DQ: I did not know if they still used it or not. Maybe they used the different one now and I did not know if it was American systems which donated by America. Let me ask about that later. MP: How long had you studied in Okinawa? DQ: Okinawa, I actually studied in Sài Gòn more because I had American Counselors there and only went to a short training. MP: Did you have any difficulty in that training? Was the language barrier or was it all French or? DQ: Good question. That time I studied at pharmacy school, I went to study in Vietnamese- American school to learn English, that school was in Sài Gòn, so I knew some English, but I learned and talked more when I started to deal with American Counselors. MP: What did your parents do before the war?
VAOHP0047 8 DQ: Àh, before the war my parents worked... My father was in a high position, he worked (19:50) in the tax department, for a big tax firm in Sài Gòn. But working for government did not make my parents had more money, so that was my motivation to try harder in school. MP: What did your father do after the war? DQ: Àh, after the war unfortunately my father died in an accident before the war ended, and I only brought my mother here with me in 1975. MP: How were you and your family involved in the war? Did you do anything? When I was young my father and his youngest sister had to sell drugs illegally for people. During the war did you do anything or..? DQ: What did you say you sold? MP: Did you participated or went to the battlefield during the war? DQ: Went to battlefields? MP: Yes. DQ: No, as I said earlier I worked for the government more, and my duty was like the events happened in 1968, there was a death of (21:20) You know that right? MP: Yes. DQ: You are good at history? MP: Yes, I love history. DQ: You love history? MP: Yes. DQ: In 1968 before that death tendency, there were invasion in some hospitals in the West, so I had to work very hard to send medicines for our people, many people got injured. I only helped
VAOHP0047 9 people that way during that time and not going to the battlefields. MP: How old were you by that time? DQ: I was 27 years old. MP: OH, you were so young. Remembered about that period, did you wake up in the middle of the night by the bombing sound? DQ: That time did you know that I always had a bunker in my house, and I always slept under that bunker. Every night doctor Trí and I could sleep on the top and there was a net bed prepared under the bunker for the family to sleep. I had some sand bags on the top to prevent the impact, so when we heard the bomb sound we knew where to avoid. MP: What did you remember the most like hearing people crying such as? DQ: Yeah, as I told you I worked at the hospitals and most of the time I saw people crying and screaming a lot because that where they commonly came. MP: But after a while did you go through it such as getting over it or did you just became numb Did you feel bad for them or could not feel it after all? DQ: Yeah, those sad stories needed time to overcome the emotion. I actually remembered those sad things in our country through out the war. MP: Yes, could you tell me a story that you remember the most? DQ: Story of people died? MP: Yes. DQ: Did you want to hear it? MP: Yes. But if it was uncomfortable for you then off course, I did not want to force you.
VAOHP0047 10 DQ: You should not hear about those stories. It made me remembered in some old counties, people died unreasonable. Did you understand? It was very sad, you should only knew that people died injustice because the bombing. They died of a glaring injustice. MP: Did you commonly see many women, children and men? DQ: Most men went to the army, only children and old people, did you understand? Young people and men were all in the military. MP: That time did they allow women to be in the army or only for men? DQ: Ồh, there was a section for women in ViệtNamese army. MP: In America they allowed women in the military but not in the battlefields. How about in Vietnam, did women go to the battlefields? DQ: No, not at the battlefields. MP: Àh. DQ: In America they did not allow for women to be at the battlefields? How about a lady she was a pilot? MP: Yes, only a pilot, but she was not allowed in frontier. DQ: why she was not? MP: I did not know why. DQ: Off course. They had to respect women. MP: During the war, were there any family or friends had to be in prison? DQ: Yes, there were a lot of my friends being in prison. MP: Why was that? DQ: As you knew that they could not escape in 1975, so all of them got arrested and put in prison.
VAOHP0047 11 MP: This was after 1975 right? DQ: After 1975. MP: In history I learned that there were two seperated prisons, one only for regular prisoner, and the other one for re-education camp. Did you know about the re-education camp? DQ: The re-education camp after 1975 you knew that, right? MP: Yes. DQ: But I already left by that time in 1975, so I did not know even though I heard about that. MP: What did you hear about the re-education camp? DQ: I heard from my friends that anyone in re-education camp had to stay at least three years or more. Many people had to send to the North re-education camp, too. MP: Ồh, in the North meant up North right? DQ: Yeah, All pharmacists and doctors about healthcare were released after three years because they were short of people in that profession. MP: Staying at least three years? DQ: three years or two years something like that, they got the order from the government to go back helping people there. MP: I wanted to ask you about the last day in Việt Nam, did you remember anything about that very last day before going to America? DQ: That time in April... Did you know the Việt Nam war in that April? I saw the American Counselors left their houses in my neighbor during April. I saw them moved out everything, did you understand? MP: I understand.
VAOHP0047 12 DQ: They told me if I wanted to go they prepared the document for me. I did not want to go by that time. I wanted to stay home because of the war there were lack of medicines and a lot of things including medication and supply, all supplies and all equipments. MP: So they gave everything? DQ: They gave everything from A to Z. Surgical supply, equipment, everything... ambulance... MP: When I came back to Việt Nam, I saw the ambulance in Việt Nam now did not have anything inside. The ambulance here had medicines and everything to help patients. I remembered in Việt Nam, my neighbor worked in the ambulance, and I opened and saw nothing inside. DQ: Oh yeah, empty. MP: There was nothing. DQ: Did you know why? Because people stealed it at night, so they tried to avoid it. You know? MP: Really? DQ: In Việt Nam even before 1975, it was the same. The ambulance was empty, they did not want to put anything inside because they were afraid people stealed them at night. MP: Did they have a lock or something? DQ: Still. They only keep it in house. Did that make you very uncomfortable? The ambulance here had everything on. MP: Yeah, right. DQ: You paid good attention there. That was interesting. MP: When I came there, I saw that while driving the car. It just something when I walked, I looked out all the time. DQ: You were good.
VAOHP0047 13 MP: The last day that you left, doctor Trí went with you, and with... DQ: With doctor Trí s sister Thuỳ Linh. MP: How many people with you besides your wife and you? DQ: Àh, I brought my mother and my youngest sister. MP: Did you go by boat or? DQ: By airplane. MP: When and why did you want to go? What made you want to leave? DQ: Àh, I thought that time everybody had to prepare to leave, and I thought about leaving behind all my properties and stuffs but somehow I thought I just left for a short time and not forever, so I prepared for doctor Trí and his sister each had one backpack, that was it. Try to escapse out of the country because the fights were so near to Xuân Lộc did you know? MP: Yes. DQ: That time I thought we just got out of the country for a while, if everything became peaceful, we had a chance to come back rather than stucked there and could not go anywhere. So I left the country just in case. MP: When you were on the airplane looking down to the country. Did you remember any emotional thoughts about the country? DQ: Ồh what a good question. Your question was good because that time I went to the airport waiting for two days. Those two nights I learned that American airplane could not land during the day because of the shooting, so they landed at night. American took us to the airport by the trucks. When I came to the airport, I saw Vietnamese police and they seemed that they wanted to take us back by stopped us to check and watching unlikely, but American airplane came and opened the back door for us to drive through and parked the trucks there. While we got off the
VAOHP0047 14 truck and ran inside the airplane, American people still secured us by stopped the police and did not let them come inside. I prepared if they arrested me what could I give them? My camera so they could let me go, but they could do nothing since American people already stopped them. There were no chairs on the airplane because they took them off to carry more people. We all sat on the floor. MP: What was your emotion? DQ: There was. MP: Were you sad because you had to leave the country or? DQ: That was a good question. I was very emotional when I felt that I actually left my country, left my house. My mind was shaking and my heart was fretting intensively. My homesick feeling was invading inside of me, a mix feeling but I tried to put in my head that I was participated to get ahead with the future. MP: Did you think you would be back by that time or your head already knew this was the last day? DQ: I only knew when I arrived to the airport, they told us that we were going to Philippines for refugee so I knew we were gone. MP: Yes. DQ: We did not know about the rumor at that time in Việt Nam that American people would take us to Phú Quoc island. Phú Quoc was the island outside of Phan Thiết. MP: My father took me to Phan Thiết one time for vacation. DQ: Really? Phú Quoc was outside of Phan Thiết, about 8 hours more. So I thought of going there... But when we were on the airplane, they said we went to Philippine. Well, I did not see the way back right at that moment.
VAOHP0047 15 MP: Did you go to Philippine after leaving Việt Nam? DQ: No. They took us directly to Philippine. MP: Did you stay in refugee camp when you came to Philippine? DQ: In Philippine there was a refugee called Clark air field. American people already emptied some trucks and some buildings for us to stay, they were ready for that. MP: Did you know the name of that camp? DQ: It was Clark, in the Clark airport. MP: What did you think of the US policy doing after the war, did you think like other people that American dropped out from the South to let the North Việt Nam took over the government power? DQ: I was not in the position to talk about politic because I did not know much about that. I saw the country problem at that time was in other bigger country hands, I could not understand completely so I could not say anything. However, I was sorry for our lost and we must change our life to adjust it especially we had to leave our houses behind like that without knowing what was going to happen to our future and how our children turned out. That was my main concern at that time to see how we were going to live and how our children settled in. MP: Did you loose everything since you left? Everything was gone? DQ: Everything was gone. I did not bring anything with me except a few hundred dollars. I was working on my career for more than 10 years and also owned my business. I earned money comfortable there. MP: So the Việt Cộng took everything when you left, all your financial and everything? Did they take over or you tried to bring it with you? DQ: I could not bring anything with me, everyone only had a backpack.
VAOHP0047 16 MP: Did you remember what you put in the backpack? DQ: Ồh there were only a few set of clothes in each backpack, the same as Trí and Thuỳ Linh, and I had additional of a few hundred dollars that I changed the last minutes. I also brought with me some pictures from our album which from the time we were in Việt Nam. MP: Did you have the attention to show doctor Quách when he grew up? DQ: Yes, normally doctor Quách saw and knew about that. As I said earlier, I also had a library of pictures to show my children so they knew. Recently my son, Jonathan, he followed Doctor Quỳnh Kiều to go to Việt Nam for volunteer with the medical mission. MP: I am going to Africa this summer. DQ: Why didn t you go with doctor Quỳnh Kiều to Việt Nam? MP: Because I did not have connection, and I did not know doctor Quỳnh Kiều. DQ: Did you want to? I gave you the connection. MP: Ok. DQ: Going to Việt Nam is better, you can help ViệtNamese people. MP: I am going to Africa this year, I plan to go to Việt Nam next year but I do not have any connection. DQ: Ok, I give you the connection now. MP: Sound great. DQ: Every year doctor Quỳnh Kiều worked there two times, one in July and one in March. MP: How long have you stay in Philippine after evacuated by the airplane? DQ: I stayed only a few days because they did not even have room for us. That time many Vietnamese were evacuated by boats and airplanes. So they took us to Wake Island by boat and after that I went to Fort Chaffee.
VAOHP0047 17 MP: How long have you stay in Fort Chaffee? DQ: Àh my whole journey from Việt Nam to Fort Chaffee to Connecticut was about two weeks, I did not stay long. Many people got there and had no place to stay, so they took all of them out. MP: I think you are better than many people because you did not loose any family members. DQ: No, I left by the airplane so I did not loose anybody. MP: I lost my cousin from aunt Lủng s son and uncle Hựu, I heard my mother telling me that back to 1974, my uncle Hựu and my cousin aunt Lủng s son went by boat and that boat was sink. DQ: Àh, was he your brother? MP: No, my cousin, I only called his name at home like anh cô Lủng and my mother s brother. DQ: During that itinerary time did you remember how many people died, did you know the number? MP: No. DQ: 500 thousands people died in the ocean. MP: I am very surprised. I thought only a few thousands. DQ: Five hundred thousands. MP: When you stayed at the refugee camps, what was your experience? DQ: My good experience was I did not have to work at all, I am off from everything. American people did not allow us to do anything there, only going to eat. I only believed that in April 30 th the day Sài Gòn was lost, there must be many people died. That time I was at Wake Island, I remembered it was on April 30 th at Wake Island and they took us out two days later, we started a new life.
VAOHP0047 18 MP: When you were in Vietnam, it seemed like you exposed to Western culture since you were young so when you came to America the culture at the refugee camp and here, was it a shock to you? DQ: Just a little because as you said I was exposed to work with American Counselors before in 1967, 1968 then the time I worked in Cần Thơ, in the West. I worked from 1967 to 1975. MP: How did you go to America? Did you have sponsor or have? DQ: I had some siblings, I had to thank my younger sister because that time I came to many places but could not go, my Counselor took me to the American Ambassy but the man in charge for signature was not there, he told me he must be leaving that night, and I had to come back the next morning to get the document that he signed for me. I could not get in the next day because there were so many people waiting there. Fortunately my sister studied abroad in America before, she sent one American man to give me directly the document so I had that paperwork to go. MP: So she sets up everything? DQ: Yes, she sets it up. MP: So the first place you stayed was Connecticut? Together with your wife, doctor Quách and Thuỳ Linh. DQ: Yeah. MP: How long have you stayed in Connecticut? DQ: I stayed only 3 months. MP: Why was that? DQ: I stayed only 3 months because I had to go back to school. I applied in Nebraska for school and there were some friends studied there first and introduced me. I went to the interview and got
VAOHP0047 19 accepted because I had the advantage of the time I studied in Việt Nam, I already knew some English. MP: When you went to school, did your wife had to take care of things at home? DQ: She was working, she worked at Russell Stover Candies. She said she made candies by chain, when she could not catch up, she ate it. That worked so fast, she could not catch up, so she hid that in the bag. MP: She must be sick of candies later on right? DQ: I did not know if she was sick of candies or not but later on she worked in other place. She worked in the library of a bank. MP: Did you work that time or only study? DQ: I did work study. MP: What work study was about? DQ: My work study was about biopharmaceutical. That time in school I had foodstamp, and I still kept it until now. MP: I have never seen foodstamp. DQ: I give it to you to take a look. MP: Nowsaday I saw my friends worked at the clinic and it was not using foodstamp any more, they gave you a card just like credit card. So they put money to that card every month without issueing any papers. DQ: Ồh that was excellent. DQ: That time I had foodstamp. It helped with my living, and supported Trí to go to school. I showed you so you could see when I worked at Missouri, too. I had a lot to tell you. MP: Yes.
VAOHP0047 20 DANH QUACH PART 2 MP: Ok, I just wanted to make sure that you were in Việt Nam came to Philippine then to Wake Island, and to Connecticut, to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, then to Nebraska. Why did you want to come to Southern California? DQ: Oh yeah, when I graduated in Nebraska school, I had to go to work right away because I got a job at the state hospital in Missouri Saint Joseph Missouri. My wife had to study pharmacy again, but let me tell you the program in America was very different, especially pharmacology, I did not study that a lot in Việt Nam, very barely, it was more over here. Even though it was different but we tried hard enough we made it. I was done with the nation board after passing the board test, after that the school introduced me to Missouri to work at the state hospital. Did you know that was the company of pony express. MP: The original pony express? DQ: Yeah. MP: Oh, so exciting. So why did you come to Southern California later on right? I meant Missouri? DQ: Later on I lived in Missouri a year and worked in the state hospital. I witnessed how American people were sick. I went to Pony express to visit because I lived in the apartment nearby the Pony express. I took notice of their history because I liked history very much. I was waiting for my wife to pass the test so both of us taking the pharmacy board over here. MP: In California? DQ: When we were done with the board of California, we decided to move over here because there were more Vietnamese. MP: Were there ViệtNamese by that time?
VAOHP0047 21 DQ: Yes, small number by that time. We lived a few years in Nerbraska, it was vey sad. MP: Why was that? DQ: There were no ViệtNamese. Every time we met ViệtNamese, it was sad. They asked us to go to restaurent to eat soup (phở) this and that. Before it was so sad that I realized it was important to have the love of our people. MP: Why did you think there were many Vietnamese in Southern California? Was that because camp Pendleton or El Toro? DQ: Because of camp Pendleton, and when I graduated I saw Vietnamese in California I liked that better. The weather was warmer and there were more government aids, more help, that state had more aids. MP: South California before was? DQ: The best. MP: When you came to Southern California where did you started your bussiness? DQ: Àh my bussiness started in 1978 right at the pharmacy Danh now. MP: Why did you start this pharmacy? DQ: Actually we had nothing to work on over here as you see I showed you the loan document to open a bussiness here, I only wanted to serve the community here because that time I needed the income. My wife worked at the hospital by that time, I had to open a pharmacy. That time there was one more ViệtNamese doctor, they wrote the precription. Did you know the good thing here was when the pharmacy already opened, that time we did not know about American medicines, only French medicines which was different from Herb medicines and Chinese medicines. ViệtNamese did not know how the way of a pharmacy worked. Did you know the pharmacy here was self label for everything, and it was not like that in ViệtNam; the pharmacy
VAOHP0047 22 in Việt Nam sold the whole box and you had to take that to re-sell, that was it no label and no precription. MP: Ồh, that was so scary. DQ: Yes. MP: You just let me read an article that your pharmacy was not the so so pharmacy, it had completed medicines, no clothes. DQ: I talked to you about this later. This was what you did not know that I had to ask the board of pharmacy to type in Vietnamese because Vietnamese people did not understand English. Did you know that was in our label? MP: How did you do the symbols, or you wrote by hand? DQ: No, typing because that time there was no computer, only type writer. We had to label in Vietnamese, we had to call the board of pharmacy to ask the permission. MP: How was the process of getting a permission, was that process difficult? DQ: No, that process was not difficult, they only said that we must be careful. If the inspectors came, we must explain to them because they did not know. MP: So did you choose the little Sài Gòn area? DQ: Yes, I picked it. MP: Why did you pick little Sài Gòn area, and not Newport Beach or Los Angles? DQ: I selected Little Sài Gòn because it was closed to most Vietnamese doctors, and when I looked it in the map, it was in between freeway 405 and 22, the American people already moved out of that place. MP: How was the landscape at that time?
VAOHP0047 23 DQ: That time? That place as you said whatever I wanted to eat for lunch I had to bring it with me, there was nothing there. People did not live around that area only the Á Đông market which was an air field long ago. Next to that the Asian Village and it was a nursery, plant nursery. Phước Lộc Thọ that time was a factory. MP: How about the clinic of Doctor Trí? DQ: Next to that was the building I rented. MP: So your borrowed document which I saw was the loan paperwork? Did you have that loan for buying the land? DQ: No, not yet. I borrowed the money to buy the pharmacy, to set up the carbinet, and bought medicines. MP: Can you take me through the process of starting buy land and starting to change Little Sài Gòn to what it is now? DQ: Oh yeah, I worked on that from 1978 to 1980 to help many people. Local people needed medications, and they might need to send back to Vietnam for their family and relatives. Closed to that time I heard Vietnamese people started coming from the refugee camps in the 80s after escaped out of the country by boats (we used to call boat people) MP: Like my father, escaped from the country right? DQ: Uhm, Escaping. I thought there were lot of lands in the front right? We had to buy land in order for the ViệtNamese people, so when they came over they had a community place for Việtnamese. I had a friend who wanted me to buy land because that time I had some money. MP: What was your friend name? DQ: Mr. Trần Triệu Phát, he was a broker and lived next door. That time we worked together, I had little time but he had a lot more time. So we bought some of the lands in the front of our
VAOHP0047 24 property, opposite the street side. The shopping center we had was down to Ward St., Nguyễn Huệ and Đồng Khánh was completed in 1984. After that done, Vietnamese people started to come over, and as the same time I expanded the bussiness to help many people. I was very happy to do that. MP: Did you establish the shipping company by that time yet? DQ: I had to use Air France for the shipping. I didn t have shipping company. My stock here I clearly told you everyday about that right? MP: Yes. DQ: The people just came over here were very poor. Like your father, they tried putting money, stuffs and everything to send to Việt Nam, because that time Việt Nam was very poor. MP: Food, clothes and medicines... DQ: There were many people came from Việt Nam later visit me and said during that time most of the medicines sent home from Danh pharmacy helped many many people, they could have died without those medicines. That was why they knew the pharmacy name. MP: That time I read the history book and your name Danh was in that history book along with France Gel. I talked to other people when I was working on the interview. They said that they did not like France Gel. I did not know what France Gel did, but that long time ago you and France Gel were the top or anything. DQ: My working character was different, French Gel was part of Chinese, Chinese root, but he was a ViệtNamese. Most people did not like hime because his character, but to me I had my own way to deal with bussiness. MP: That was what I heard back and forth. DQ: Did you hear any bad thing about me?
VAOHP0047 25 MP: Ồh No, only heard that you were very handsome. That time at the beginning of your bussiness, I read the history about the events during the late 1980 s, there were some people attacked the ViệtNamese shops like making graffiti, breaking glasses and things. Did you experience the racism? DQ: Àh the racism, a little bit from the beginning, I would not dare to say racism in America. During that period the people especially in Orange County, did you know? People in Newport Beach said that they could not understand how the ViệtNamese people set up in Orange County? Orange County was very difficult to set up even the Japanese in 1945 got chased out, all of them. Why you did overcome that? Maybe you left your homeland because you lost your country, so they were pity on you they let you stayed here otherwise noway that your people could stay here. MP: But we settled out of hand and determined to suceed. DQ: They showed good adaptation to us, just like they did a favor to us. I read an article of some people in Newport Beach, they accepted us because we lost our country and our Vietnamese people were comfortable to deal with so there was not much clash. MP: What challenge did you experience when you started your life in America? Was that difficult or easy? DQ: Yes, there was. You should remember that we did not have anything in hands. As you knew your father, your family they all had to start over again. Only your generation later that you all had, what was the best successful in America? We had the judgematic, fairness, security, so we tried everything patiently we had to be successful. It was not that peacefully fairness. MP: Where did you live before? Was it also in Orange County?
VAOHP0047 26 DQ: I lived in Fountain Valley. I bought the house in 1979. Actually I borrowed $40,000.00 to buy the pharmacy store and did not use them all. I saved it for the down payment of the house in Fountain Valley. MP: Ok, now we are going to move to a little bit more personal questions about your life here. DQ: Sure. MP: When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you think you are ViệtNamese or American or both? DQ: I also see myself as ViệtNamese do you know? MP: Yes. DQ: I live here of course I have to thank the country America for everything. I had nothing when I came over here and America took care of me. So I always do something to show my gratitude and thank the people who accepted me. I might not be well-off if I went to French. MP: Citizenship to be in French? DQ: The citizenship was more difficult. MP: Really? DQ: Very difficult, it might not be like in America. I did not want to talk bad about West people but based on the things in the past, I saw people in the West did not help us as much as people here. MP: The West people did not have gorvernment aid. DQ: Yes they did but it was not as good as over here. MP: Because I asked my father the same question that who he was Vietnamese or American or both. He said he did not know because he could not get along with his neighbors because the
VAOHP0047 27 language barrier, but when he came back to Vietnam he did not get along with anyone any more because his mind was changed since he lived long enough in America. DQ: That was Americanized. MP: Yes. So it was not sure. Did you see yourself as Vietnamese? DQ: Yeah, Vietnamese. MP: When you came to America, did you earn your citizenship right away? DQ: No, I got citizenship in 1984, about 9 years later. MP: I knew this now. Did you participate in US politic? DQ: Àh I only contributed to help Republican party. MP: We discussed how Vietnamese people support more for conservative republican than democracy. What did you think about that? DQ: Most ViệtNamese people liked to vote for republican governement more and somehow favored them. MP: Did you still keep in touch with your family in Việt Nam? DQ: Yes I did. MP: Who got left there from your family? DQ: Some cousins. MP: In your opinion, did you think our generation and the next generation after that would loose the value of our own country? DQ: The value of our homeland was inside of our parents, I did not think your generation would loose it because when you came to me for this interview I knew you had it. I believed you would never loose it. I did not talk about ViệtNam politic, but for the young Vietnamese, you could never forget about your own country.
VAOHP0047 28 MP: In my opinion, I saw some of my cousins who were about 12 or 14 years old, they started loosen it a little. I could feel that when talking about things in Vietnam at home in my mother family such as the three wheels bicycle or riding the bike I did not think they cared. DQ: At least there were lots of people like you, we did not expect 100% of people like that, but the majority of people like you who were very much be Việt Namese. You young people should participate to students organizations to help other people. I saw you did that so I was not worry about the second gereration, but the third generation I was not sure, it was up to all of you. It was like a little tree we tried to nurture it to make sure it was strong enough to stand by itself. It was hard to tell about the third generation. MP: Did you participate in any community activities? DP: I participated that time as you could read about that here. Some organizations, business offices, they used to organize the Tet Festival and other events. I had pictures of them here. MP: What event did you enjoy the most? Like me I liked to involve in the Eucharist Youth, I liked to teach children. Which one did you like? DQ: That was very good. MP: I taught the course of children, and I had a broken clarion. I taught Morse code and I taught bible for the last course so I was a little tired. DQ: Was bible too high for you? MP:No, I did not know something kids used to ask, I was afraid of giving them the wrong answer. It was different for Catholic as my belief, so I saw it was hard to teach. There were something I believed and there were also something I did not believe, so I did not know how to teach them when they asked. DQ: You worked on those socials very good.
VAOHP0047 29 MP: I was on the retreat for a few months, I learned more from that. DQ: Interesting. MP: Last question before we look at all stuffs. If you have a chance to talk to my generation and the next generation after that, what do you want them to understand about Vietnamese culture, like if you have to say one thing about Vietnamese culture, what are you going to say? DQ: Which part do you want to talk about? MP: I want to know why our identity is so important, more than anything else? DQ: Our identity is more important because I see this through other communities in America. Which community has good relationship to become fond of their native country, that community has a deeper vision and their success helps them to open their mind which motivates them to be successful in the easier way. I see our community friend like Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Philippine which we could have it like that in each of our families, those are very important. My point is you never ignore or forget about your root. Your root is very very important. MP: I am afraid that I forget because my vocabulary and my way of speaking Vietnamese are not really good so I kind of afraid. DQ: Not like that, I give you information about those traditions, they are very important. You see only the tradition of New Year Day I already had a few ten of pages. This information you should put in the library for the young people and your generation to know about. There are lots of good things like the meaning of the New Year Day and how you prepare for it. To Vietnamese New Year Day is the most important day. MP: Why? DQ: Do you know? MP: Why do you think New Year Day is the most important day?
VAOHP0047 30 DQ: Because we invited our ancestors to join us on that day. The whole family gather together to celebrate and wishing the best things and giving out the red envelop for luck, but the most important thing is we remember our parents, grandparents. Before that we have some days that we worship our ancestors do you see that. MP: How do we normally worship our ancestors? Because my Mom used to... DQ: This is in here, this has all that teaches about how to worship. MP: Yes. DQ: Which fruits are which, this one and that one, it has all like flowers and fruits which represent for what. There are food for the New Year Day how they prepare and what they mean. Do you see? MP: Yes. DQ: That is tradition, very important, I keep for you, the shape of the cakes and how they look like. The bamboo stick, which you don t know about, that bamboo stick is the one gets put up high on New Year Day, very important. Then the tradition of farewell to Mr. Fire, do you know Mr. Fire? MP: No DQ: Mr. Fire who is Chief of the Kitchen, people used to have a farewell ritual on the 23 rd of December every year to send him off. MP: Oh, that is why my Mother put the candle on top of the bucket? DQ: Uhm, do you know that Mr. Fire stays in the house for the whole year, he knows what you do right or wrong, so he gets the report to bring up to God on the 23 rd of the New Year, so kind of spy. He reports and that is our good tradition. MP: Oh, I do not know.
VAOHP0047 31 MP: Can you describe these pictures for me? DQ: I want to show you the first period of time at the pharmacy. MP: Is this your wife right? DQ: Do you see my pharmacy sells many things to send to Việt Nam not only pharmacy alone. People pack many things into boxes here to send to Việt Nam. MP: Is this fabric? DQ: That is fabric, they put in the box to send out. They pack stuffs here do you see? And this one they come to buy things here. MP: And these are your medicines? DQ: These medicines are over the counter, inside is the precription. This is my wife s pharmacy, and this one is mine. MP: This one I know, it s next to Doctor Trí clinical. Where is this one? DQ: This is the old one, I already moved this one to the other side of the street. MP: Inside Asian. DQ: This is my family back then. MP: Thank you very much.