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, Sinina Moeun, left, and Phalkun Tep smile while holding rabbits belonging to Moeun's family. Both women were refugees from Cambodia, and about to graduate from West Seattle High School. The two young women were among 60 Cambodian students graduating from Seattle high schools that year, at the time the largest group of Cambodian students to graduate from Seattle's public schools. The Cambodian American Education Association threw a party for the group, awarding each an English dictionary.

Caption information source: "In a class of their own," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 2, 1989, p. 17.
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