Recapturing the Past
My life so far has been a roller coaster ride. In 1970, my family, including my three brothers and one sister, went to live in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, Southeast Asia. They had moved to the city to escape ongoing civil wars in the countryside. My father took a job with the United States embassy in Phnom Penh. My mother stayed home to take care of the children.
In 1975, the war approached the city and a few months later the communist party known as the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) claimed their victory.
Several weeks before the fall of Phnom Penh, the US evacuated their diplomats out of Cambodia. My parents were asked to leave with them, but they didn’t seriously consider the offer. Who knew that when the war was over, we would be subjected to genocide?
One week before the fall, my parents changed their minds; they wanted to take the offer, but it was too late. When we arrived at the airport,artillery bombardment prevented any aircraft from landing. The next morning my father left on his motocycle. Alone, he rode off and was never seen again. His goal was to get to the border and return for the rest of us later, this never happened. The turning point occured on April 17, 1975, at 9:30 AM. My family was evacuated from our home at gunpoint, with other city dwellers. The Khmer Rouge announced that everyone had to leave the city for three days to allow them to conduct a "mop up" operation and to avoid casualities when the American B-52’s bombed the city.
Without my father, we carried what belongings we could to my mother’s birthplace in the counrtyside, in the Kandal Province. At ten years old, I quickly learned how to made fishing nets and traps. There was no school, the Khmer Rouge had destroyed all the school buildings. Herding cattle and water buffalo were my assigned duites. My childhood as I knew it was over.
In January 1979, my mother wanted me to go to school, so I went to live with my aunt near south Vietnam. In October, of that year, I decided to leave Cambodia with her.
(to be continued in the next issue.)
Volume 2 Issue 2 March/April 1997