Is this a wrong impression of Cambodia?

By Phy • July 9th, 2008

You might think what this post is about or that it will answer the question Is this a wrong impression of Cambodia? Well, I’m afraid it is just about a little observation of mine I wish to share and get feedbacks from people like you.

Before you start reading this post, I have this little confession to make. I don’t speak Japanese well enough to understand the conversation myself; in fact, I would sweat and end up speaking English instead or gave up totally if my conversation partner doesn’t speak English. It was my friend (who was there with me) who helped explain it. Alright, here goes the little story.

On the afternoon of Jul 7 after spending a bit of time in the Central Library thinking over the outline for my master’s thesis report, I came out and found a friend of mine who I usually met on Mondays, the only day of the week when I would go to the library. He was sitting by the twin ponds relaxing and taking some fresh warm breeze. I joined him and observed the happenings in the area. As always, an old Japanese man was feeding sparrows and pigeons. People were chatting by the ponds. Fish were jumping from time to time for some reason I don’t know. A long-necked wild-like bird that had been there a few times already was craning its neck looking to catch some fish for dinner. It attracted attention of all the people walking by; some even tried to get it but failed. My friend and I were observing the bird and hoping to witness how it catches its prey.

A middle-aged Japanese woman who was a resident near the university was walking her little dog around there. The dog approached us with his tail wagging joyfully.  It’s then a small conversation began.

“Do you love dogs?” her first question went in Japanese. “yes, very much,” my honest response came, also in Japanese, again the language I had studied intensively for about 6 months and learned barely enough to survive.

“Which country do you come from?” she asked the two of us after a short silence.

“Cambodia,” we replied humbly.

“Well, I learned from high school history subject that Cambodia was at war and lots of people suffered,” she went on, asking, “Is this still happening?”

Surprised, my friend replied with a smile, “No, war ended a long time ago.” “1979,” he added. “We’re now at peace. No more war.”

“Yokatta,” the woman exclaimed in Japanese, meaning something like “what a relief!“.

The conversation ended shortly after that as her dog seemed to be bored and wanted to go somewhere else.

It was not the first time since I came to Japan in 2006. From my observation, war and landmines seem to be the first things that come to the mind of Japanese people when they hear the word Cambodia. The second is, to me, Angkor Wat.

Most surprisingly, some don’t even know where Cambodia is!

I believe this will change by the time Cambodians of my generation are gone.

Comments(4) My Thoughts

Comments

By Savuth on July 9th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

It is not strange It’s also happened to me before. This is the view of older japanese people had on Cambodia. They though we are at war but if you ask the younger generation they know better about Cambodia.

By Phy on July 9th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
@Savuth: So what do you think would be the first things that come to young Japanese people’s mind when they hear of the word Cambodia?
By sophat on July 14th, 2008 at 7:45 am

Most ordinary Americans I’ve met, whether young or old, don’t really know where Cambodia is, but that also applies to other small countries as ordinary Americans seemed to be very ego-centric and have rarely traveled abroad (most don’t even have a passport!). Nor can many situate their own country on the world map. Anyway, on hearing Cambodia, most associate it to the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields, and the Vietnam War (esp for veterans). But it appears more often now that I get response like, “oh, yeah, I’ve visited Angkor Wat; it was amazing”, “I’ve heard about Angkor Wat; I was in Vietnam during the war”, “A friend or relative of mine visited Angkor; they loved it.”, “We plan to visit Angkor Wat one day”, and [Q: Have you ever visited Angkor?] “I really wanted to visit Angkor when I was in Vietnam [or Thailand] but …”. Although the last evoke a little disappointment, there are clear signs that Cambodia is shedding its old war image, as evident in the more than 2 million foreign tourists in 2007 who will further spread the message.

What I am more disturbed with here is that some Cambodian-Americans here have never visited Cambodia in the 30 years since they’ve fled the country!

By Phy on July 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
@Sophat: Thanks for your input based on your experience in the US. I was surprised lots of US citizens don’t even have a passport and that some can hardly locate their country on the map. Well, i strongly believe that with Cambodians of our generation the war image of Cambodia will bit by bit become mere history and that economic development and growing tourist industry will replace the war image thing in foreigners’ mind. It’s just a matter of time!

I don’t care much about what other Cambodians are doing that doesn’t contribute to development of the country; i do care what people do that helps, believing that it will get us to attract more of good things for our nation. And I focus on what I can do to contribute.

 

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