Cambodian Refugees and the Effects of Surviving Genocide

Due to the actions of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, almost one-fourth of the country’s population died while many more Cambodians became refugees. The refugees fled to other Asian countries at first, but many of them eventually journeyed to the United States. The United States needed to “rescue” these refugees because many of them were still dying of starvation and had nowhere else to go. The horrific genocide that took place in Cambodia during the late 1970s left a lasting impression on the refugees who managed to escape. The refugees had lost family members and friends in the genocide. Many of the refugees were emotionally distraught by the actions involved in the mass killings. Loung Ung, a Cambodian refugee, wrote about her experiences and the impact the genocide had on her in First They Killed My Father. The distress poured onto the refugees during their time in Cambodia reflected many refugees’ mental health as they continued their lives in the United States. Although the death count related to the Cambodian genocide is somewhere around two million, the genocide destroyed many more people’s lives including the lives of many refugees who ended up in the United States.

In 1975, American involvement in southeastern Asia reached its end in the post-Vietnam War period. The same year, a group, the Khmer Rouge, arose to power in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was strongly influenced by Communism and quickly took over the nation’s government. Approximately 30,000 Cambodians fled the country when the Khmer Rouge took control, and many more would later follow. Of the 30,000 refugees, 4,600 of them fled into the United States in 1975. The Khmer Rouge emptied out Cambodia’s cities and put the citizens to work in the fields of Cambodia. They broke up families based on where they wanted each individual to work. All previous ideas of community, family, and religion were banished from the culture by the Khmer Rouge. They insisted that all of these former ideas must be replaced by a complete commitment to the Communist party only. After gaining control of the government, the Khmer Rouge also soon instated what became known as the “killing fields.” The Khmer Rouge and all of their followers planned to fix and reorganize Cambodian society. In order to do this, they believed that all remnants of the culture prior to their overtaking of the government should be removed. They began beating and killing many helpless citizens of Cambodia. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge and their followers had killed millions of Cambodians by several different means including murder, disease, and starvation. It is believed that over one-fourth of the entire population of Cambodia may have been killed during these four years of genocide. The Vietnamese eventually invaded Cambodia in 1978 and 1979, stripping the Khmer Rouge of their power. Once the Khmer Rouge was removed from power, the “floodgates” opened up for Cambodian refugees leaving their country.

Although thousands and thousands of Cambodian refugees fled the country after Vietnam cleared out the Khmer Rouge, many Cambodians died due to their inability to escape during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Fleeing during the genocide was almost not an option due to the strict constraints held by the Khmer Rouge as only 1,100 Cambodian refugees made it to the United States during 1976 and only 300 arrived in 1977. As the Vietnamese came into Cambodia, a large amount of the Cambodian population made their way westward. Over 500,000 Cambodians fled into Thailand and another 100,000 entered Vietnam. The United States soon began accepting increasing numbers of Cambodian refugees. In 1979, 6,000 Cambodian refugees entered the United States. A year later, 16,000 more refugees followed. 1981 saw the largest number of Cambodian refugees enter the United States, 27,100. Throughout the early and mid-1980s, ten to twenty thousand refugees were accepted into the United States each year from Cambodia. Every refugee who made their way into America carried stories of the tragedies they experienced during the genocide.

Loung Ung brings a personal aspect to the horrors of the genocide in her book, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. The book spans her experiences from just before the initial invasion by the Khmer Rouge until she leaves a refugee camp in Thailand for America. Ung begins the book by placing the facts of the genocide into perspective: “From 1975 to 1979-through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor-the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country’s population.”# By placing this fact at the beginning of the book, Ung creates an immediate feeling of sympathy for anyone who had to face this disaster. As she continues on with her story, the personal aspect becomes a major factor in truly understanding the impact that this genocide had on the Cambodian people. The reader is led through the story that describes how Ung and her family were forced to abandon their former lives and lie about anything that could put them in danger. Ung even discusses how she would try to avoid talking to people because if something slipped out of her mouth, then her and her family could become immediate targets of the Khmer Rouge. She soon loses two sisters, one to disease and one to murder by soldiers from the Khmer Rouge, as well as both of her parents to murder. She constantly visualizes how her family was killed and is affected immensely psychologically. The effects of her family’s deaths make her desire revenge on the Khmer Rouge, but she knows she has little chance to do much harm to them. Although she survived the genocide and eventually entered America as a refugee, the effects of experiencing the genocide around her and the deaths of her family members certainly have had a lasting impact.

Unfortunately, for many Cambodian refugees, the mere experience of living through the genocide has placed a large damper on their lives, mainly psychologically. Living through genocide the way the Cambodian refugees have has led to terrible long-term consequences. Despite it being more than twenty-five years later, the lasting impact is still seen in Cambodian refugees. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that sixty-two percent of Cambodian refugees who came to America to escape the Khmer Rouge are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Another fifty-one percent suffer from severe depression. During interviews with the refugees, significant factors for their stress and depression became noticeably clear. While living in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, ninety-nine percent of the refugees had experienced starvation. Ninety-six percent were forced to work manual labor for the Khmer Rouge. The most significant factor could very well be the fact that ninety percent of the refugees had lost a friend or family member to murder by the Khmer Rouge.# Although these refugees survived, they were forced into near-death experiences and were also forced to witness death as friends and family fell around them. Escaping genocide by coming to America was definitely an improvement for the Cambodian refugees, but many experienced problems within the United States as well.

As a result of the mental health problems related to witnessing the genocide, Cambodian teens became prone to joining gangs in the United States. While in Cambodia, many of the refugees had seen beatings and murders in person. These images often stuck into the refugee’s mind leaving emotional scars on the individual. The scars lead to a distorted reality for the individual. A specific example of the distorted reality arises out of a 1995 conviction for the murder of seven rival gang members by three Cambodian gang members. One of the Cambodian gang members being convicted, Roatha Buth, was said to be a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the effects of living through the genocide as a very young boy. Buth also stated that he had nightmares of cannibalism and the dead bodies of Cambodians on boats for many years. The nightmares are very common among Cambodian refugees and represent part of their distorted reality. It is when these nightmares meet their reality that problems ensue. For those who witnessed murders as a young child, it can also impact a certain disregard for human life, leading to the murders the Cambodian gang members commit. Another major factor in young Cambodian refugees entering gangs is their economic status. Due to the fact that many of the Cambodian refugees enter the United States with little money, they are forced to live in lower class housing which is typically infested with crime, making it easier for the refugees to join gangs and become involved in crime. The last major factor is that many of the refugees lost family members during the genocide, resulting in a lack of parental figures or role models for these young Cambodians living in America. No matter how many overall factors can be related to these young Cambodians joining gangs, it is clear that the genocide during the rule of the Khmer Rouge has had a lasting impact on Cambodian refugees in the United States.

The Cambodian genocide is an event that has hurt the Cambodian people throughout time. The obvious and immediate impact of the Cambodian genocide was on the approximately two million people who died as a result. Many of the people who survived the genocide were subject to starvation and torturing as a direct result of the actions of the Khmer Rouge. The survivors were also impacted psychologically by being witnesses to the murders of innocent Cambodians. Some of the survivors were even forced to see their own family members murdered. These terrible events led to the emotional scars carried by many of the Cambodian refugees who entered the United States. The emotional scars resulted in psychological problems such as depression, which, in turn, impacted the actions of Cambodian refugees in America. A major example of the impact is the young Cambodians joining gangs and killing other people. These negative events are then carried out in the media, which could easily result in negative feelings towards Cambodians as a whole. Therefore, the genocide which occurred thousands of miles away and many years ago has an impact on American society. The true impact of a major genocide is reflected in the chain of events that occur in response. The major focus on genocides is naturally the mass amount of murders, but the post-genocide effects are oftentimes overlooked. The post-genocide effects greatly impacted the Cambodian refugees and have resulted in continuing problems for them within the United States. Fortunately, the Cambodian refugees are not experiencing as many problems today as they have before in the United States. As the youngest generation of Cambodian refugees grows older, the terrible effects of the genocide will slowly disappear. The stories of the tragedy will continue to carry on from generation to generation, but, hopefully, the negative effects of the impact of the genocide will pass on with the refugees.

“Cambodian Refugee Admissions to the United States.” Cambodia in Modern History: Beauty and Darkness. 29 Oct. 2003. . Canniff, Julie G. Cambodian Refugees’ Pathway to Success: Developing a Bi-Cultural Identity. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2001. Chan, Sucheng. Survivors: Cambodian Refugees in the United States. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004. Larrubia, Evelyn. “Leader of Asian Boyz Convicted of 3 Murders.” Los Angeles Times 2 March 1999. Marshall, Grant N., et. al. “Mental Health of Cambodian Refugees 2 Decades After Resettlement in the United States.” Journal of the American Medical Association. 3 Aug. 2005, Vol. 294, No. 5. Ung, Loung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001.