During and after the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, an estimated one million Cambodians sought refuge in other countries. Over 130,000 eventually settled in the United States between 1975 and 1985, often after long periods spent in refugee camps in Thailand. Many Cambodians settled in Washington state, with the majority of those living in King County. As of 2019, over 18,000 Cambodians live in Seattle.

Here, Hay Vrey, left, and Voeuk Soth, both refugees from Cambodia, pray for Cambodians who have died at the hands of Vietnamese forces. They were taking part in a program at Sharples High School (now Aki Kurose Middle School) in Seattle, attended by about 250 Cambodians, which included speakers, prayers, and a collection of donations for Cambodian refugees. The Vietnamese troops had been mounting a major attack on Cambodian refugee camps on the Thailand border at the time.

Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 7, 1985, p. 5, photo caption
Caption information source: Cambodians in the US fact sheet, Pew Research Center, retrieved at https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/asian-americans-cambodians-in-the-u-s/
Caption information source: “Cambodians in the United States: Refugees, Immigrants, American Ethnic Minority” by Suchen Chang, Oxford Research Encyclopedia, retrieved at https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-317
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.