Schools, libraries, research institutions are filled with records that inform our understanding of history. But what if no record exists of your experience? That’s the case for many Vietnamese displaced by war, refugees who escaped the country under a cloak of darkness or victims of pirate attacks at sea. The lack of records, photos and physical can rob us of a true understanding of war and its aftermath, but now initiatives across the globe are seeking to collect oral histories of refugees for a fuller picture of the Vietnamese experience than what can be found in the history books.