Nam Keo and Family

Wing Luke Museum Collection

Getting Here 

We were forced to come here when our homelands were torn apart by war… we chose to come here, ambitious and in search of new opportunities. Work, education, marriage, family, adoption, war. What brought you or your family to the United States? What push and pull factors influenced the coming? And now that you are here, where do you belong? 

The systematic murder of two million Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime, and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees who survived its atrocities, left a gaping hole in Cambodian society. As refugees have reinvented themselves outside of Cambodia, they have contributed to their adopted homes while also bringing skills and knowledge back to their motherland.  Nam Keo and his wife Roeun Mol escaped to a camp in Thailand where they lived for three years. They spent nine months in a resettlement camp in the Philippines before coming to Seattle in 1984. From left are Noun Keo, Nem Keo and their parents Roeun Mol and Nam Keo in the Philippine camp in 1980.