Children of Cambodia's killing fields : memoirs by survivors / compiled by Dith Pran ; introduction by Ben Kiernan ; edited by Kim DePaul.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dith Pran, 1942-2008.

DePaul, Kim.

Series:

Monograph series (Yale University. Southeast Asia Studies)

Yale Southeast Asia studies monograph series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political atrocities--Cambodia.

Political atrocities.

Children--Cambodia--Biography.

Children.

Cambodia--History--1975-1979.

Cambodia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This extraordinary book contains eyewitness accounts of life in Cambodia during Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, accounts written by survivors who were children at the time. The book has been put together by Dith Pran, whose own experiences in Cambodia were so graphically portrayed in the film The Killing Fields.The testimonies related here bear poignant witness to the slaughter the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the Cambodian people. The contributors-most of them now in the United States and pictured in photographs that accompany their stories-report on life in Democratic Kampuchea as seen through children's eyes. They speak of their bewilderment and pain as Khmer Rouge cadres tore their families apart, subjected them to harsh brainwashing, drove them from their homes to work in forced-labor camps, and executed captives in front of them. Their stories tell of suffering and the loss of innocence, the struggle to survive against all odds, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Compiler's Note

Introduction: A World Turned Upside Down

Songs My Enemies Taught Me

A Letter to My Mother

Worms from Our Skin

One Spoon of Rice

Memoir of a Child's Nightmare

New Year's Surprise

The Dark Years of My Life

Jail Without Walls

Witnessing the Horror

The Unfortunate Cambodia

Living in the Darkness

A Four-Year-Old's View of the Khmer Rouge

The Tragedy of My Homeland

Hurt, Pain, and Suffering

The Darkness of My Experience

Survival in Spite of Fear

Pol Pot

A Bitter Life

The Unplanned Journey

Motherland

My Mother's Courage

Escaping the Horror

When the Owl Cries

The End of Childhood

My Sadness

Life in Communism

The Nightmare

The Tonle Sap Lake Massacre

Notes to the Introduction

Glossary

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 195).

ISBN:

9786611722937

1-281-72293-6

0-300-13383-9

0-585-34760-3

OCLC:

923591351