Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge: When Broken Glass Floats

Saturday, January 1, 2000
Author: 
Chanrithy Him
Asia
South Eastern Asia
Cambodia

It has been twelve years since I came to America. From here, I look back upon a childhood consumed by war. I could recognize the sounds of war at the age of four, when the spillover from the Vietnam conflict forced my family from the home my parents had spent their life savings to build in the affluent Takeo province in souther Cambodia. By the age of ten, I was forced to work in child labor camps, among thousands of children separated from parents and siblings by a system of social slavery instituted by the Khmer Rouge in their bizarre quest to create a utopian society.

To read excerpts from the book, click here