Helicopter
Helicopter
By Seksa Sea
Contents
Prologue
Cambodia
They’re Back Again
Mandatory
Walked
Hard Labor
Hunger
Last Words
Soldiers
Flight
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
To Dad
Prologue
Many events have lead to the genocide of Cambodia in 1975 to 1979, that has been caused by the infamous rule of Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge was a time period in which Cambodia was changed greatly in terms of agricultural and technological development. Millions of people died during the four year period in which Cambodia was renamed to Democratic Kampuchea. Before the Khmer Rouge took power of Cambodia . This time was also known as Year Zero for Cambodians when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the capital city. Before the events of the Khmer Rouge, the country was named the Kingdom of Cambodia by King Sihanouk in 1953. In 1965, Sihanouk allowed North Vietnamese troops to enter Cambodian grounds in order to help with their mission against the US government in South Vietnam. Because of this, Cambodia had broken off the relations between the U.S. and Cambodia. In 1969, the U.S. began bombing the North Vietnamese troops that were in Cambodia, which affected not only the North Vietnamese, but also Cambodian civilians. By 1970, the Prime Minster of Cambodia, Lon Nol formed a military coup to overthrow Sihanouk which had succeeded, leading to the exile of Sihanouk in China. During the few years leading up to the events of 1975, Lon Nol had became the leader of Cambodia. However, during this time, Cambodia had lost many of it’s land to the North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge troops. By the time of 1975, Lon Nol is then overthrown by the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk becomes the head of state once again, only to resign the following year.
This story will describe the events of the Khmer Rouge in the four year period from the very start in 1975 to the very end in 1979.
Cambodia
April 17th, 1975. I looked into the horizon; there I saw a dark green colored vehicle, a military tank, speeding towards the dusty streets of Phnom Penh. Cambodia is generally a blazing hot city with dirt brown buildings and smoky clouds. The area is either filled with dust or dirt; there isn’t any place without dust. When the expensive cars drive by, it creates a small burst of warm wind to the side of the streets. Since the war between us and the Americans started a few years back when I was just eight years old, I’ve been hearing many loud noises of screams and explosions throughout the night. I wonder why their driving the tanks here in the streets I thought to myself. Looking around I saw hundreds of people gathered along the sides of the roads, all of them waving their hands left and right, left and right. “Chey You Kampuchea, Chey You Kampuchea,” the gigantic crowd shouted with pride and happiness. My five older siblings (three sisters and one brother), my mother, and my father started to cheer along with the other civilians.
Even though I had no clue about what had just happened, I started to chant along with them, I laughed and smiled full of joy. “Thank You! Thank You!” I tried to yell at the Cambodian soldiers sitting on top of each military tank. “What are they doing?” I asked my eldest brother, Sakol.
He replied, “You see, we’ve just won the war against the Americans, we are victorious, the great and powerful Kampuchea!” He then added on “No more fear, no more bombs, it’s going to be peaceful from now on, okay Seang?”
I smiled back at him, “I hope so too, I hate the sounds of explosions.” Today was the day in which we succeeded, we finally drove back the American forces, and we actually beat the Americans with our own Cambodian forces. My oldest brother, Sakol was just a scrawny, but smart looking man. Throughout the years of schooling he was always the top student in the classes. He knew everything from street smarts to school smarts. He was the man of the house besides my father. My brother even earned his own money and supplied money for the house with his vast knowledge on economics and trading old magazines and newspapers. Even at his young age of 18, he understood the world like my dad. Growing up, he wants to become a businessman and earn lots of money. When I grow up, I want to be just like him, just like my brother.
“Everyone, let’s go back inside to our house. The soldiers already left. Come on, hurry up,” my dad said to my entire family. My dad was a doctor, a famous doctor in Phnom Penh as a matter of fact. Whoever had trouble in health or needed medication would always come to my dad’s workplace. I’d see a new visitor every day as he was not only kind, but helpful to the entire population of Phnom Penh. At this time, my dad was already old, aged around 40-50, I could never remember. In fact, my dad was so well known that if I said I was his son to random people throughout Phnom Penh, they would treat me respectfully. I could only think positive thoughts about him; my dad is a kind man, respectful, optimistic, caring, and selfless. He would always bring fruit to the prisoners in the prison at Phnom Penh every week since they are underfed in the prison cells. Not only civilians know him, but also prisoners and throughout the entire Phnom Penh recognized my dad. That’s what I love about him, he is an outstanding person unlike most people he is what you can call a hero.
After the parade ending with the soldiers leaving the streets of Phnom Penh, my family and I were back at our house and I said to my youngest sister Ping who is 6 years old “Hey! Wanna plays hide and seek?”
She obviously responded with “I’ll go call Sophea and Lynn.” Both Sophea and Lynn are my two older sisters, one being 16 and another is 22 years old. After a few moments later, Sophea, Lynn, and Ping all gathered out in the front of our small house. We then counted to twenty with Ping being the seeker, and during the twenty seconds we hid. It took a very long time before Ping could actually find us since she isn’t very bright or smart for her age. After finishing playing hide and seek for around an hour or even longer, it was time for lunch in the top floor of the house.
This house was two floors high and was starting to get old since we bought this house when Ping was born. It was tinted brown due to the large amounts of dust that would gather on the wall. The front door was just a rusty gate with cobwebs and broken metal all over. The floor of the house is made out of mucky marble that has been covered in dust due to it being never cleaned daily. The step of each of the staircase that climbs to the top floor is wooden and creaks with each step along the way. Each floor has a maximum of 3-4 windows that is used to view the outside streets of peopling walking and selling food. The ceiling is also old with fractures throughout the entire ceiling and each crack connected to a larger crack which in turn could be dangerous in the future. Even though the house is small, it’s still I house my family lives in today and hopefully for our future lives. Throughout the house there are also multiple rooms that all have a similar plain design of wood and white walls with a bed in the middle. I share a room with Ping, while my dad and mom, brother, and two older sisters get a room to their own. This could get annoying some of times due to the fact that Ping can become very loud at night with her obnoxious snoring. Personally, I have been asking for a room of my own, but my parents have never been able to get me one since the house is too small to create a new room.
Talking about Ping, she is lovable cute little sister who gets anything she wants when she asks. When we are playing with marbles, she would use her cute face and kindly ask if she could have one, and in the next few seconds she is playing with a new set of marbles. Ping is the type of person who also cries and becomes very loud when she doesn’t get what she wants. She becomes very selfish when it comes to sharing her belongings. Once it’s her, you can’t take it from anymore because she will cry until you stop caring about it. However, even though she could b
e annoying some of times or most of times, she is still my little sister whom I care deeply about.
There is also Sophea who is the third oldest child with Ping being the youngest, then myself, Sophea, Sakol, and finally Lynn being the oldest child. Sophea is a person who is physically very strong and is generally the person who would do the most housework. She is also a very commanding girl and loves to push people around to follow what she does. Most of the times, her voice could already be enough to make you start following her due to the deepness of her voice even though she is a girl. She is very strong for her age and could even win a fight against Sakol which still amazes me today. I’ve always though ever since I was born that generally, boys are stronger than girls, but Sophea proves this wrong. I remember when I was only 5 years old when Sakol tried to open this box with only his hands and he could never rip through the box. Sophea then came to save the day and easily as if it was just paper, tore the box in half and to my surprised, a box of cookies fell out. Still thinking about, she is not only strong, but she is also very fast. She could run ten times faster than me or anyone in the family. It’s as if she was adopted since both my father and mother are neither that strong nor that fast compared to her.
Finally, there is Lynn who is as stated before, the oldest in the family. She is just an above average person. Good in everything, but best in none, someone who is just a jack of all trades. She is good at school, when buying and selling food, finance, and understanding what’s happening in Phnom Penh currently. Most of the time it’s either her or Sakol who my parents put in charge of the house when they are gone to go to work. She understands what’s best for the future of our lives and how we should plan our money and what we eat. She usually is the one who buys the food from the market for example fresh vegetables or fish and is also the one who cooks them for the family. Excluding today, she is often at school in the morning studying about medicine, trying to be just like her father who is a doctor. With so many things on her mind, I don’t know how she can cope with all the things she has to do daily. She has to cook, buy food, study, take care of me and Ping, and practice her Khmer reading and writing.
When we finished lunch which was amok and rice, I had to go study my Khmer and do the writing homework that school had assigned me before the school break started. There was a school break due to the war between us and the Americans and they all had to be stopped for safety reasons to not go outside early in the morning or late at night. I kind of enjoy that we have such a long holiday because personally I’m not very a smart kid to begin with, I'm skinny, and I’m as weak as Ping who is four years younger than me. I have black hair and thick glasses that I have to wear daily in order to see in the distant. I am just an uneducated, small, dependent, and needs other people to do things for me kind of person. I am deeply terrified of bugs of all sorts from cockroaches to spiders; I am scared of all insects. Everyone in my family keeps making fun of me because of this due to the fact that Cambodia and specifically Phnom Penh is filled with bugs inside and outside the home. Even small cupboard or corner in the house has at least on cockroach living inside. The funny thing is none of my other family members are scared of insects including Ping who bravely tries to find them throughout the house.
Throughout the rest of the day after the parade had finished, I kept on asking my parents if they would come the next day and if meant the actual finish of the war. “Is this really it? Is this the end? From now on, no more noises in the night!” I asked my dad.
He responded with “Sure… Sure… No more from no own, okay Seang, no more questions about this.”
Even after that response I still thought about the future. Is everything actually going back to a time without war? Are we just going to celebrate from now on I thought. If things did go back to a time when I was five when there was no talk about the war, it would gladly be a happy ending to this war between America and Cambodia. I wonder what’s next, I wonder what’s next.
They’re Back Again