Living Under Genocide

      I have never had to hide my identity from the Nazis or Cambodian soldiers, but somehow I could connect with Loung Ung and Anne Frank's accounts. Maybe because they were homesick and far from their hometowns, just like I miss Seoul. Though their descriptions of war and tragedy seemed distant to me, I could understand how homesick and out of place they felt. After all, Colombia is a long way from Korea. I could relate with Ung as she pleads to her father, "Why can't we go home to our own house? The soldiers promised that we could go home after three days" (39). Also, both stories are told through the eyes of young, innocent girls who convey the raw truth rather than manipulating the plot. Through these similarities, I could connect and learn about World War II and the Cambodian Genocide more than I did through AP World History textbooks. For example, while I read Anne Frank's diary, I learned a lot about what really happened during World War II: innocent people dying at the hands of an obsession. I felt similar emotions while reading the first fifty pages of First they Killed My Father. The book clearly explains the context and history of Cambodia, which made it easier to follow along even though I hadn't had much background information about Cambodia.

disclose-reveal a secret

    To me, Loung Ung's account more powerfully conveys her deep emotional distress by narrating on every small detail of the genocide than Anne Frank's diary. Ung recounts this story from a five-year-old-girl's perspective, which is interesting because it is based on a combination of innocence, confusion, curiosity, and fear. For example, she consistently asks her father: "Why are they doing this, Pa?"(27) or "I don't understand. What does all this mean?" (27) I could understand how frightened she might have felt to not tell anyone about her family's secrets and live under the eye of Cambodian soldiers.

ammunition- supply or quantity
 of bullet or shells

        First they Killed My Father is different from the Diary of Anne Frank because it tells a more unique and unknown story. When people are asked to recall genocides during the 20th century, the Holocaust and Stalin's Purge are the main events that come to their minds. However, people (like me) rarely remember the Cambodia genocide or they might have never heard of it. Millions of Cambodians such as  Loung Ung equally suffered from all kinds of atrocities and violence, but it is not an event that many people tend to be aware of, which makes the book so fascinating and special.