A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers in Novel, First They Killed My Fathe by Loung Ung

The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators and the world’s response to the genocide.

Loung Ung 's First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers follows her struggles as a child during the Angkar rule. Children in Cambodia directly suffered from trauma, which obviously dismisses the myth that children experience less pain than adults. The importance of Ung 's book is the emotional impact she has on the reader because she gives a voice to the victims and to the dead. As Americans, this topic, the Cambodian genocide does not get taught commonly in education. It shows the trauma that the citizens went through and how it affected the country.

First They Killed My Father is based on a memoir of the genocide during Khmer Rouge seized power on Cambodia during1975. Depicts the era through the eyes of a child; story about gaining and losing of childhood.

The Khmer Rouge forces took over Cambodia, and evacuated the nation's cities. They emptied schools, hospitals, factories and abolished all forms of money and wages. Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self expression were forbidden. They were forced into the countryside to do forced labor, and got less than 90 grams of rice a day. Where most people died from fatigue, disease, execution, and starvation. Now people of Cambodia are exchanging this terrible genocide for healing. Trying to find peace and a resolution for all those who have lost loved ones, or encountered this terrible genocide

Ma made countless sacrifices for the family, the best example was when Grandma died. The family could not risked being stopped and not let into California. So Ma does the only thing she could think of, she lies to the guard, saying that grandma was sick and needed a doctor. She spends hours with the body waiting until a safe time to tell the family about the tragedy. In nearly every action, Ma always puts the family first even above her own needs but sometimes she will even put strangers above her as well. When they come across the starving kids at the camp Ma can’t help but feed them even if her family disagrees with her she decides that the children deserve to eat to. Ma thinks of everyone as if she is thinking of herself, making her one with the whole community, thus fulfilling the oversoul concept. While these sacrifices may seem small they take a great deal of leadership and

On the one hand, Youk Chhang was a survivor when the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia. One of his opinions was “Some Cambodians are anxious to forget and forgive. Others are angry and searching for justice” (Hyde 2). Chhang lost everything, and tells us this story. He was 13 years old when the Khmer

Arn-Chorn Pond was a sweet little boy before it all started. He would go outside and play with his friends and he was always very friendly. That lasted only until the Khmer Rouge came to his town and started making them suffer. They had to go to different camps and they got separated from their families. A lot of people got killed for no reason or they died from a disease or starvation. They had to get up very early in the morning and work in the rice field until bedtime. They would get very little food and very little sleep. So many people were killed without any explanation. After a few years of working hard and not getting enough rest they went into war. Kids of all ages had to learn how to shoot and if they didn’t cooperate they would get killed.

During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, many innocent people were put through harsh treatment including rape, slavery, and torture. Along with all of these things, many of these Cambodians were killed for being too weak to work or do anything else. Pol Pot, who was the leader at this time, has been estimated at killing around 2,500,000 Cambodians, which is nearly 20% of the population. During the novel it is apparent that the author 's purpose is to describe how life was during this time for a young boy named Arn, show how brutal survival was for those who did, and how the Khmer Rouge brainwashed their victims.

There is a Khmer word that describes the fate of two million people, about a quarter of the Cambodian population at the time – “Kamtech”, whose meaning is “to destroy with no traces left behind”. The responsible party is the Khmer Rouge, a political group who during the mid to late 1970s enacted a revolution according adopted the communist ideal of elimination of a social class system, and attempted to force that ideal on the population of Cambodia. Their leader was Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar), who promised that the policies set by the Khmer Rouge will bring the country to a state of utopia (Ly). If one were to look at film and pictures taken during the Khmer Rouge’s rule, there would be nothing to indicate that Pol Pot’s promises did not come to fruition: the surviving footage is almost entirely propaganda produced by the Khmer Rouge, and depicts Cambodia as the promised utopia (Panh). How can it be though, that in a country where the communist ideal has come to be, where everyone is equal and has their needs provided, that two million people are killed over the span of four years? Rithy Pahn, a film creator, tells the story of the missing people through his film The Missing Picture. In it, he tells stories of his experiences as an adolescent during the Khmer Rouge’s regime. The Missing Picture is ultimately about providing a replacement to the footage of Panh’s experiences (that was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge)—as a memorialization of the events that took place under the

The year is 1975. Five-year-old Luang Ung is living a comfortable lifestyle with her family–she loves going to the market and listening to the radio, specially if it bothers her big brothers. Her life is pretty great, that is, until the day the Khmer Rouge arrive. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, chronicles Ung’s own childhood growing up during the merciless Cambodian Genocide.

In First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung writes of her family’s struggle for survival during the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields. Her purpose for writing this was to inform the reader of the hardships that not only her family but the entire country endured during this genocide and the toll that these hardships and the brutality of war can take on an individual. She reflects back on this time in her life and focuses on the importance of family in difficult situations such as the one she experienced, and she expands on the personal growth she experienced during this time in her life.

Once Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge gained back control over Cambodia, “they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale” (“Khmer Rouge History”). Sihanouk once antagonized the Khmer, but now he decided to now create an alliance between them. He did this because he was furious about being overthrown and craved revenge. With the Khmer Rouge, they slowly were able to capture different pieces of land. Soon enough, the rebels were able to gain almost full control of Cambodia, despite the United States bombing that tried to prevent another regime change; this time from the Khmer Rouge. As the United States decided to halt to bombing the Khmer rebels were able to start obliterating certain parts of the country that were crucial to the political piece of the Cambodian government. All of this damage led to lack of food for the Cambodians and loss of their property since it was destroyed in the bombing. Surely enough, the Khmer Rouge was able to put an end to Lol Nol's rule and finally gained full control of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge wanted to “transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society in which there were no rich people, no poor people, and no exploitation” (“Khmer Rouge History”). After the violent overthrow from the Khmer Rouge to kick Lol Nol out of leadership, Sihanouk and the

The critics stated that Loung perpetuate racial tension in her book but the critics was wrong. From their argument, They stated that “Ung wants to distant herself from everything Khmer, but she should not have cashed in a subtitle “A Daughter of Cambodia Remember” and mislead the public into buying a book many assumed would be written from a Cambodian perspective”(Lay). The critics is like stating that she is not Cambodian but she is Cambodian who have a half Cambodian mother and a Cambodian father. This is like you are not a human but it is false but kinda true because human count as a high class animal. This is not Loung’s problem but it was the critics proclaimed she is not Cambodian. Someone stated in ung’s book, “We Cambodian have someone

Have you ever thought what would happen if a group of strangers would break into your home? And later , you would be separated from your parents and also your brothers or sisters. This is what exactly happened in Cambodia in 1970. The Cambodian genocide is the cause of this horrifying experience for the Cambodian people and the nation.

The history of Cambodia will be reviewed in this paper. The paper will focus on the history of Cambodia from the time that Pol Pot led the country until present time. The paper will look in detail at the genocide of Cambodia that occurred under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979 where an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians died. An analysis of the political landscape will be discussed in the paper.