A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
Until the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, the Ung family fled their home and moved from village to village in an effort to hide their identity, their education, and their former life of privilege. Eventually, the family dispersed in order to survive.
Because Loung was resilient and determined, she was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while other siblings were sent to labour camps. As the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia, destroying the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her surviving siblings were slowly reunited. Bolstered by the shocking bravery of one brother, the vision of the other, and sustained by her sister's gentle kindness amid brutality, Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life.
