A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History

Picture: Loung Ung, author of the memoir “First They Killed My Father.” (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

In an op-ed article by The New York Times, Loung Ung reflects on her trauma of surviving the Khmer Rouge regime and how that history is inextricably tied to her birthday, April 17 — the day the regime took over Cambodia in 1975. Though that date was later chosen arbitrarily for official documents, it came to symbolize both profound loss and enduring resilience.

My family was forced to march to a remote village. There we lived without religion, school, music, clocks, radios, movies, television or any modern technology. The soldiers dictated when we ate, slept and worked. Desperate to eliminate any threats, real or perceived, to their plans for the country, the soldiers proceeded to execute teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, civil servants, politicians, police officers, singers, actors.

While children elsewhere in the world watched TV, I watched public executions. While they played hide-and-seek with their friends, I hid in bomb shelters with mine; when a bomb hit and killed my friend Pithy, I brushed her brains off my sleeve. I will never forget the day they came for my father. They said they needed him to help pull an oxcart out of the mud. As he walked off with the soldiers, I did not pray for the gods to spare his life. I prayed only that his death be quick and painless. I was 7 years old.

My war ended in 1979 when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and defeated the Khmer Rouge's army. But it was too late for the 1.7 million Cambodians killed, almost a third of the country's population of seven million. Among the victims were my parents and two sisters. My birth date died with them.