Ghost Mountain Short

Few today remember, if they ever knew, the history of Cambodia's war years, including the unimaginable tragedies of the genocide known as the Killing Fields. But my father was witness to all of it. Though he was always reluctant to burden his children with his own despair, I nonetheless wanted to understand that story. Eventually, when I learned of a series of horrific events that had never been publicly revealed, I felt compelled to document it. It brought me into the world of refugees. The old, the young, mothers carrying newborn babies. The sick and decrepit. I was fascinated by their courage, their desperate fight to survive. And by qualities history seldom mentions, thus denying Cambodian survivors their due. That somehow, in the amidst of horror and tragedy, they demonstrated heartbreaking acts of decency, dignity and great compassion.