After many years of the French rule in Cambodia, Cambodia finally got its independence after the Geneva Conference in 1954. When Cambodia became an indendent country, king Sihanouk became very active in Cambodia politics. In the 1960s, he abdicated and put his father as the king of Cambodia. Sihanouk made himself the chief of state that gave him more authority in Cambodia. During his ruling years, he accepted United States financial aid and military aid, and the French became the advisers for the Cambodian military.
During Sihanouk year, Sihanouk engaged in some film makings. Besides that, area like Phnom Penh was very prosperous under his regime. However, rural areas still suffered from poverty. People believed that Sihanouk government was corrupted. Therefore, some resistances against the Sihanouk government emerged later. In the mid-60s, resistance force led by a general called Lon Nol and the others such as Sam Sary and Dap Chhuon had been planning the overthrown of Sihanouk. In 1970, when Sihanouk went to France, Lon Nol led a coup to overthrow Sihanouk government. Phnom Penh fell into the control of Lon Nol, and he established relationship with the United States and received fund and military assisitance to fight against communism in the country.
In order to regain control, Sihanouk called up the Khmer Rouge, which was led by the communists such as Pol Pot, from the jungle to fight against Lon Nol. Cambodia turned to the state of civil war when the Khmer Rouge fought with Lon Nol force for several years. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge was ready to attack Phnom Penh. Lon Nol finally lost his position after his defeat, and he fled to the Aloha Land – Hawaii.
When the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh after its victory, the civilians in Phnom Penh were happy, so they celebrated about the end of the civil war when the Khmer Rouge soldiers entered the city. However, it was just the beginning of the nightmare in Cambodia. Few hours after the communist took over Phnom Penh, they warned the civilians that the United States was going to bomb Phnom Penh. Actually, it was just an excuse for the Khmer Rouge to remove all people from the cities. After that, people in Phnom Penh were forced to move to the countryside, and they needed to live and work there during the Khmer Rouge years. The Khmer Rouge evacuated the existence of the city in order to start their extreme communism policy, so they forced all the people in the city to move to the countryside.
When the Khmer Rouge took over, Angkar led by Pol Pot and his fellows became the head of the country. Everyone in Cambodia should regard them as parents. As a result, concept of family disappeared. The children should obey the Angkar instead of their parents, and religions were totally abandoned. There should be no economy within the country, so currency became useless in the country. New people from the city were forced to live in the way of Old people, who was regarded as the model citizens because they dedicated their life in farming and poverty. The New people needed to farm when they moved to the countryside. In the year of reign of terror under the control of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot took Mao Ze Dong as his model. He ordered to kill all the professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers. It was very similar to the Cultural Revolution in China from 1966-1976. Moreover, the country was no longer aided by the other countries. When one person starved, the others also had to starve. As a result, even though some of the Cambodians were not killed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers, they still died from famines and epidemics. People continued to involve in hard labor work, and children were trained as children soldiers to fight against enemies such as the Vietnamese.
Those “disobeyed” the Angkor, would be executed by the Khmer Rouge during this terrible period. The most terrible scene during the Khmer Rouge year was the Tuol Sleng – S-21. It was a place for the Angkar to execute the people who “disobeyed” the Angkar and the Khmer Rouge. These victims included the suspects within the communist party. Before they were executed, they suffered from torture until they admitted they had betrayed the Khmer Rouge, but they still had to die although they had told the “facts”. These victims would be forced to take a photo before their execution. Looking at the photos , these victims all looked hopeless and helpless. When most people saw the black white photos and the face of the victims, although they were nothing special, those five thousand photos could really haunt us and give us an uncomfortable feeling because the victims just looked alright before the terrible torture and execution, so why should they die?
In 1979, Khmer Rouge regime finally came to an end when the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia and liberated the Cambodians. However, about two millions peole died during the Khmer Rouge year from 1975 to 1979. People from the countryside moved back to the cities. However, since many professionals were killed during the bloody year, it made the rebuilt process of the country very difficult. Cambodia remained very poor until today. Therefore, many people fled to Thailand as refugees in the late 1979 and 1980, and they would have a chance to settle in western countries like the United States to find a better life and enjoy political stability.
First They Killed My Father written by Loung Ung told us everything about the Khmer Rouge year. At the beginning of the book, Loung talked about her background and her joyful time with her family in Phnom Penh before the coming of the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh, everything changed. She and her family needed to fled to the countryside just like the other people in Phnom Penh. They needed to abandon all their previous privilege in the city and became the new people. During the tough trip to the rural side, it showed that money was no longer useful as they could use it as toilet paper. In order to protect themselves from execution, Loung’s father have told his family to be quiet and not to reveal their original identity. They could not let the Khmer Rouge know they related to Lon Nol’s government before.
Unfortunately, just like all the Cambodians at that time, the cruel Khmer Rouge forced this Luong’s family to break up. Luong’s brother Meng and Khouy, and her sister Keav were all forced to work in labor camp. Keav was an unlucky one, she suffered from hunger. Due to insufficient food and no medical service in the country, she finally died in the hospital without any medical service near the labor camps. There was no medical service because all the doctors were killed by the Khmer Rouge, and the Angkar just would not receive any medical assistance from other countries. Although Luong was still being with her father in the early period during the Khmer Rouge year, in December 1976, the Khmer Rouge came to take his fahter away and he never returned. He was probably sent to the notorious Tuol Sleng – S-21 and being executed by the Khmer Rouge.
When Loung’s father was gone, her mother told Loung, Chou, and Kim to leave, because if they stayed together, they would just die together. Loung and Chou left the village Ro Leap and joined a camp which trained children soldiers. The situation in the camp was tough. Loung and Chou needed to have many harsh military trainings and harsh works to do, and they were looked down by the Khmer because of their Chinese background and their lighter skin. Later, Loung returned to Ro Leap to visit her mother once again, but her mother and her youngest sister Geak disappeared when Loung arrived Ro Leap. It meant they had died.
At the later part of story, it talks about the invasion of the Vietnamese, and it shows that the Vietnamese soldiers were not really the liberator of the Cambodians, because the Vietnamese soldiers were not well-disciplined. For example, Loung was nearly raped by a Vietnamese soldier in the jungle, but luckily she escaped from it.
When the Khmer lost control because of the Vietnamese invasion, the reign of terror came to an end. Loung reunited her brother Meng in Bet Tang. Later, they went back to Phnom Penh, but it was not the same when everything had been destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. At last, Meng decided to fled to Thailand with Loung, believing that Loung was such a smart girl and should not lose a chance to live in overseas. After the dangerous journey, Meng and Loung finally arrived the Thailand refugee camp, and at last Loung and Meng were adopted by an American from Vermont. Loung new life just began.
First They Killed My Father is really an amazing book. It is a case study for all those shits happened in the Khmer Rouge years as shown in the film we have watched in class. Loung provided us a picture to see how bad was the situation during the Khmer Rouge year. It let us know the real emotion of the people – how people suffered, their anger toward Pol Pot, their sadness toward the loss of family, and so on. It is really a good book, and I am touched by the sad issues described in the book, such as how Loung lost her father, mother, and sisters. Although this book is good, there was a group of people, especially the Khmers, came to criticize Loung, saying that she was lying and the information of this book was wrong because Loung provided wrong information about Cambodian culture and history. They accused Loung discriminated the Khmer by saying they had dark skin, and they believed Loung took the Khmer Rouge year for her commercial purpose and personal fame.
People from Khmer Institute kept complaining Loung described the Khmer culture and history wrongfully. For example, a guy called Virah Prahm said that there was no chicken fight and there should not be a trip to the Angkor Wat because it was impossible to travel the Angkor Wat in the 70s. Besides that, Virah Prahm said Loung tried to glorify herself in the story by mentioning a lot about her Chinese background and social privilege. However, except some mistakes on describing Khmer cultures, I just feel this guy is very narrow-minded and just could not accept the facts. Her wealthy background was the fact, and why this guy should think Loung try to glorify herself? I just could not understand why this guy think in that way.
Loung was angry at the Khmer Rouge, so she always said “I hate them all” in the story, but it does not mean she hates all the Khmer people. I just feel that some readers are over-sensitive on it. The Khmer Rouge was so cruel at that time, and it killed her father, mother, and sisters, so how could Loung not to be angry? Besides that, many people accused Loung looked down at the Khmer because they had dark skin. However, from the story, we just see that Loung was actually looked down by the Khmer because she and her sister had whiter skin. So, I feel that it was Khmer discriminated Loung, not Loung discriminated the Khmer.
Many people put blame on Loung’s family because they believed that Loung’s father was corrupted to serve the Lon Nol government. They believed that Loung’s father and other Lon Nol’s officials were responsible for all the bad things happened in those four years of terror. Therefore, these people just could not stand with Loung keep on emphasizing her rich background. However, if she did not talk about her previous good life before the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh, how could she made a big contrast to show Khmer Rouge year was extremely terrible and changed the things in Cambodia dramatically? Yes, Loung may made some mistakes by saying her family was only in the middle class when the Khmer regarded them as the upper class because middle class in Cambodia would not be able to afford more than two cars. However, it is not a big mistake, because the major theme of this book is to talk about the terrible year under the Khmer Rouge, not the social culture and economic status of Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge years. Even Loung made some mistakes, she should be forgiven because basically she was not raised in Cambodia since she left the country when she was just ten years old. May be she should really do more researches about the Khmer culture and the Cambodian society, but anyway she should not be blamed by the others harshly.
From the analysis in the Khmer Institute website, the Khmer Institute just found anyway to prove Loung wrong. For example, on the issue of child soldier training camp, Loung stated that the children in the camp ranged from ten to fifteen years old. The criticizer said that Loung was only eight years old at that time, so how she would be in the camp. I felt that the criticizer was too radical and nearly brainless. If we think clearly and logically, although Loung was just eight years old, she was taller than her sister Chou. In the chaotic situation, I believed that the Khmer Rouge would not really have time to ask about their age. When Loung was tall, looked dirty because there was no chancr for her to have makeup, the Khmer Rouge thought she was ten years old or older was really explainable. The criticizer just attempted to find bone from the egg to say Loung giving wrong information. He should save his breath.
I do not really know Loung’s personalities, but I believed her book is very useful, because it described the things happened in the Khmer Rouge year, and it gives us a case study and general picture about what was going on in those years. If she is really a person cares about money and fame, I do not think she would engage in the Campaign for a landmines to raise money for a program in Cambodia that make plastic arms and legs for the victims of landmines. It is true that Loung made some mistakes on describing the Khmer culture and history, but she should not be harshly criticized. She was also the one lost her father, mother, and sisters during the bloody year, and now people still came to put blame on her, so I feel that it would probably give Miss Ung extra pain. I believe that Miss Ung did not look down at the Khmer, because if she really discriminated the Khmer, would she make trips back to Cambodia and sit at the Angkor Wat to sell things with the Khmer kids? I just see that the Khmer is very narrow-minded in this case, and it is the time for the Khmer to stop fighting with each other. Their criticisms on this book will not change my atttitude on this book. I really like this book and I regard it useful.