About SURVIVING THE KHMER ROUGE GENOCIDE: Growing up as everything began
KC Ung is one of the survivors from the period of 1975 to 1979, during the reign of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, which makes a dark chapter in history.
At a mere 15 years old, KC Ung’s life was turning upside down overnight. In 1975, the Cambodian civil war that had been raging for years was now over, with the Khmer Rouge having seized victories one province at a time. What could have been a new era of peace was instead the beginning of the largest genocide in Asian history, claiming the lives of a quarter of the total Cambodian population. Families across the country were now thrown into a fight for survival, a fight that an unfortunate many people were not able to win. Execution, starvation, and disease plagued the population, but along with the atrocities was a strong sense of hope, resilience, and strength of spirit from those who continued to push forward to see another day.
Through SURVIVING THE KHMER ROUGE GENOCIDE Growing up as everything began, KC Ung details her harrowing journey through communist controlled Cambodia. She recalls the struggles of building homes along rivers and in mountains, foraging for food and enduring the hardships of labor camps. She shares harrowing experiences of escaping death and witnessing the Khmer Rouge’s brutal acts of torture and killing.
Follow her through these memories and experience the horror, and the hope, of surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Buy the book, and follow the author on social media:
Learn more about the writer. Visit the Author’s Website.
Author Bio:
KC was born in a small town in Mongkol Borey, Battambage province, Cambodia. She was 15 years old when her life took a drastic turn when the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country overnight. As a result, the entire population was evacuated to the countryside, and everyone was forced to become farmers. The Khmer Rouge, following their communist ideology, began targeting and eliminating individuals they deemed "worthless" due to their education.
During her early teenage years, from 1975 to 1979, KC endured a tumultuous life under the oppressive regime of the Khmer Rouge. Those five years were filled with uncertainty, as she lived each day without knowing what might happen to her- whether she would survive or perish. KC spent most of her time toiling in labor camps. She consumed whatever meager sustenance she could find just to survive.
The Khmer Rouge regime eventually fell when they were defeated by Vietnamese troops, marking the return of freedom for the people. Even in light of this, hardships continued to plague KC’s family. In a desperate bid for a better life, her father decided to escape to Thailand, a mere 50 kilometers (31 miles) away. What should have been a short drive in modern times turned into a treacherous, months-long ordeal for those pursuing the same goal. They faced imminent danger, with bombs exploding nearby while they took cover in trenches. Many lost their lives, but KC’s family managed to escape the horrors that surrounded them.
Eventually, KC and her family found solace and settled down in the United states.
New challenges now awaited her. Learning a new language proved to be a major hurdle as she had to adapt to a different culture. Despite speaking limited English, KC found herself taking a low-paying job,working in a flower shop as a cleaner and picking blueberries on weekends, all while striving to improve her language skills.
After getting married, KC and her husband ventured into crafting handcrafted silver jewelry. They both worked multiple jobs just to make ends meet. She also took a part-time role as a teacher aid through the international classroom program.
Her passion for sharing her experiences led her to accept a speaking engagement arranged by a friend at an international classroom setting. Some teenagers in her audience were moved to tears upon hearing her speeches, realizing how fortunate they were compared to KC. Some of the audience provided encouragement and suggested she write a book and share her story with the world. Due to her limited English writing skill and the absence of formal training, however she put the idea on hold for many years.
Finally, with the encouragement of friends and family, KC made the decision to write the story you are about to read. English writing remained a challenge for her, and she often struggled to comprehend the meaning of words she searched online. With the help of her children, however, she painstakingly pieced together her narrative and transformed it into a book. Simple tasks that would take 15 minutes for others required her one to two weeks of effort.
Night became sleepless as she worked on her story, driven by eagerness to share it with the world and impart the message that no matter how arduous life may be, we must always preserve and move forward.