Creator
Nawuth Keat
Cambodian survivor of the Khmer Rouge period who told his life story in the memoir Alive in the Killing Fields.
Nawuth Keat is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide and the author, with Martha E. Kendall, of the memoir Alive in the Killing Fields (2009).[1][2] He grew up in the Cambodian village of Salatrave, where his childhood nickname was Mop.[1][2]
Life
Keat was nine years old and in the third grade when Khmer Rouge soldiers attacked his village around 1973. He hid in a well and survived by pretending to be dead. He was shot three times, twice in the elbow and once in the hip, and doctors treated his wounds without painkillers.[3][2] He then lived in a city for two years.[3]
When the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, he was taken back to his village. Under Democratic Kampuchea (1975 to 1979) he was forced to grow crops from sunrise to sunset, and he went hungry through the food shortages. He gathered snakes, rats, frogs, fish and wild mushrooms to eat, and took food the Khmer Rouge had stored.[3][1] He escaped from a labor camp and lived in the jungle for many months. He saw a Khmer Rouge killing.[1]
In 1978 Vietnamese forces entered his village and pushed the Khmer Rouge into the jungle. Keat fled to a city under Vietnamese control with a group that one account puts at about 100 people and another at about 30. He stayed there until 1980.[3][1] He then crossed into Thailand and spent three months in a refugee camp.[3] A plan to resettle him in Paris failed when the sponsor could not buy the tickets. At a medical exam the scars from his gunshot wounds were first mistaken for an infection, until a doctor cleared him to travel to the United States.[1] He arrived in the United States in 1982, landing in San Francisco.[4][1]
Keat settled in Oregon: in Salem at age 14 by one account, and in Portland by another. He later lived and worked in Portland.[3][1] He spoke no English when he arrived. He took English as a Second Language classes at an Oregon community college, entered high school as a sophomore at 17 and graduated in three years. He turned down a scholarship offered by an Oregon college.[3]
Alive in the Killing Fields
Keat later enrolled in Kendall's World Literature class at San Jose City College. He told her about his childhood in rough English, and she offered to write down his story.[5][2] He wanted people to know the truth about what happened, and he broke a long silence to tell what had happened to his people and his country.[2][6]
Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide was published by National Geographic in October 2009.[6][7] A 128-page hardback edition appeared in Australia on December 15, 2009.[8] The memoir is written for middle-grade readers and for readers aged 12 and older, and it is available in hardcover and electronic editions.[2][6] School Library Journal called it a compelling account of a child's life in 1970s Cambodia.[5]
Recognition
For Alive in the Killing Fields:
- Junior Library Guild selection[5]
- Notable Book, National Council for the Social Studies[5]
- Selected for the California Collection[5]
Works
- Alive in the Killing Fields (Book)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Alive in the Killing Fields, Wikipedia
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, BookDragon, Alive in the Killing Fields (April 23, 2011)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 San Benito News, Harrowing tale ends in good life (November 16, 2007)
- ↑ IS 445 Refugee Pathfinder for Grades 5 to 12 (PDF, 2019)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Martha Kendall official site, Alive in the Killing Fields
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 I'm Your Neighbor Books, Alive in the Killing Fields (March 1, 2025)
- ↑ Kirkus Reviews, Alive in the Killing Fields
- ↑ Penguin Books Australia, Alive in the Killing Fields