Cambodia

From 1968-1974, the United States bombed Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge targets in Cambodia. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the air raids, garnering support for the Khmer Rouge among Cambodians, and in April of 1975, they overthrew the American-backed government of Lon Nol. The Khmer Rouge immediately implemented a ruthless vision for Cambodia. Cities were completely evacuated, families were separated, and 3 million people were driven into forced labor camps. Schools, hospitals, banks, and factories were shut down, and temples destroyed. Religious and professional people in any field were killed along with their extended families. People who weren't murdered faced death by starvation or exhaustion in the labor camps, or imprisonment, torture and certain death in Tuol Sleng, the notorious political prison in Phnom Penh. Until Vietnamese forces overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979, at least 1.7 million people died of execution, disease, starvation, torture and hard labor.

Cambodia
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Film

Documentary:

  • The Conscience of Nhem En, (short), Steven Okazaki, director, 2008
  • New Year Baby, Socheata Poeuv, director, 2006
  • S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, Rithy Panh, director, 2003
  • Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, David Munro, director, 1979

Fiction:

  • The Killing Fields, Roland Joffe, director, 1984

Theatre:

  • Catherine Filloux, Eyes of The Heart, Playscripts New York, 2007

Literature

Narrative nonfiction

  • David Chandler, Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999
  • Sucheng Chan, Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2003
  • Nic Dunlop, The Lost Executioner: A Story of the Khmer Rouge, Walker & Co, New York, 2006
  • Chanrithy Him, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge, W. W. Norton & Co, New York, 2001
  • Someth May, Cambodian Witness: The Autobiography of Someth May, Random House, New York, 1986
  • U Sam Oeur, Crossing Three Wildernesses, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2005
  • Dith Pran, Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs of Survivors, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1999
  • Theary Seng, Daughter of the Killing Fields: Asrei’s Story, Fusion Press, London, 2005
  • Molyda Szymusiak, The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1999
  • Loung Ung, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, Harper Perennial, New York, 2006
  • Loung Ung, Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind, Harper Perennial, New York, 2006
  • Bhavia C. Wagner, Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children of Cambodia, Wild Iris Press, 2008
  • Pin Yathay, Stay Alive, My Son, Cornell University Press, Ithica, NY, 2000
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