Phnom Penh

The scene starts on the busy streets of Phnom Penh, a scene not different from that of American towns and cities, even to this day. Kids laughing, playing, wearing colorful shirts, being careless of the grumpy food vendors in their way. A busy city, full of life. Loung and her parents are at a local…

Both Japan and Cambodia are countries which belong to Asia, the largest continent on Earth. On the other hand, based on the term “geographical realm”, they are in different realms. One is in East Asia, and the other is in Southeast Asia. They also have the distinction in many aspects such as physical pattern, history, population features, economic and political issues, and socio-cultural issues. The characteristics of Japan and Cambodia will be explored obviously by looking at the similarities…

Meas Sokha, a former prisoner of the Cambodian Genocide, retold her story about what she experienced during the Cambodian Genocide. She explained how the Khmer Rouge guards would treat the prisoners. The guards took the gall bladders of the deceased prisoners that the guards, themselves, most likely killed, and used them to drink wine (Campbell). Sokha explains the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and how she was treated during the Khmer Rouge. “Sokha also told the U.N. backed ECOC that he witnessed…

Pol pot, whose real name was Saloth Sar, was the Cambodian revolutionary who lead the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until 1997. He became the leader of Cambodia on 17 April 1975, when his forces captured Phnom Penh. At first his politic of anti-Soviet got a lot of other countries supporting, like China, U.S, Thailand and some European countries. After he began working for the Far-left police and massacred a lot of innocent citizens, he was condemned by the international society. Pol Pot had a really…

Music is a defining feature of culture, and likewise a loss of music culture can have a giant effect on an overall culture. This is the case in Cambodia, where the effects of the Khmer Rouge and the loss of both a musical and cultural identity have occurred.1 Due to this, there has been a movement to restore traditional Khmer music and other cultural art.2 Through a variety of studies, this situation has been documented to a large extent. The current research focuses on the nature of the music…

truly starve. Geopolitical tensions jeopardized aid attempts led by the Joint Mission which was made of the UNICEF and ICRC. The new government was led by Heng Samrin, who defected to Vietnam, this resulted in Vietnam maintaining a strong control over Phnom Pehn. Throughout 1979 thousands of Cambodians fled to the Thai border, but the Thai military kept them from entering the country. Many were starving, had malaria, and were in very poor health. Some humanitarian agencies organized several…

It is ok to want change, but the thing to understand about change is that it doesn’t all happen over night. It is true Cambodia was in a bad state and needed a reform but the fact that Pol Pot wanted the reform to occur in two years was what pushed him to act so radically. One thing that is very noticeable in the regime is that the things that he felt were bad in Capitalism and should be kept from the people he still did. To cover for it he created the name Angkar, so in a way Pol Pot, his…

The memoir First they Killed my Father voices the thoughts of a five-year-old Cambodian girl who endures a life of war. The novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, explores the two sides, both victim and oppressor, both Jew and German through the eyes of two children, Shmuel and Bruno. Both texts are written but with the intention to be spoken of, and to spread the powerful message they contain. First they Killed my Father is the autobiography of the conscious Loung Ung and The Boy in the Striped…

Historically, war have been a vital between counties for control over each other. For century war have been fought mainly over power and control. The battle over power and control have led to the matter of life and death, a path either to safety or to begin ruin, but in all cases it led to death and ruin many individuals home and life’s. Likewise, War has been and still is one ways or reason to influence and the spread of “culture”, “civilization” and mostly importantly “religion” (Michael Lee…

The Cambodian Genocide The Cambodian genocide lasted from 1975-1979 and killed “approximately 1.7 million people” (Kiernan). The Cambodian genocide was run by the “Khmer Rouge regime headed by Pol Pot combined extremist ideology with ethnic animosity and a diabolical disregard for human life to produce repression, misery, and murder on a massive scale“ (Kiernan). The Khmer Rouge’s goal during this genocide was to fix society by limiting religions and races. During the genocide “Certain minority…