Bun Tharum, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh
When an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, Cambodian students in Japan found themselves in a frightening situation. But through social media and other communications, most students were able to check on each other during and after the quake.
When the shaking ended, all of the students were accounted for. Except one. Tea Seang Houng. The search for Tea Seang Huong by her friends demonstrates the important role social media and the Internet have come to play for Cambodians around the world.
Tea Seang Houng, who had been in Japan since March 2010 and was studying to be a translator, left Tokyo on March 9 to visit her host family on the northeast of the island of Honshu. Before she left, on March 7, she updated her Facebook profile, telling 309 friends, in Chinese (according to Google Translate): “A couple of days I can go to Sendai. Unfortunately, this is not holding the mood to travel. Anyway, hope this trip will be harvested [fruitful] in Sendai.”
On March 8, a friend replied, in Japanese, “You be careful!”
Seang Hourng’s message in Chinese language for her Facebook friends, telling them about her visit to Sendai.
At 2:46 pm on the afternoon of March 11, a massive earthquake began off the northeast coast of Honshu—130 kilometers east of Sendai city, which sits on the eastern edge of the Eurasian Plate, whose geological collision into the Pacific Plate triggered the earthquake.
The quake, a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale, triggered a tsunami, a massive wall of water 10 meters high that swept across Honshu’s northeastern coast. The tsunami devastated the entire region, including Sendai, leaving 1.15 million households and businesses in and around the city of 500,000 without power or water, according to the city government. The earthquake shook buildings across the island, including in Tokyo.
More than 200 Cambodian students in Japan experienced the quake, and Facebook became a main source of information for them.
“Huge earthquake!!” Chea Poleng, vice president of the Cambodian Student Association in Japan, typed on her iPhone just after the earthquake. “First experience escape from earthquake ><>
Also that night, a Cambodian student in Hong Kong, Sreng Nearirath, reported on Facebook: “one of Cambodian students named Ms. Tea Seng Huong was spending her time at the host family in the hardest-hit Sendai and now could not be contacted according the email of the Cambodian Student Association in Japan (CSAJ) “
1 comment:
I hope she is Ok. It's neat how facebook has filed the void making it possible for her messages to be passed along. I do however find it odd that her message posted on March 15th was in English. Couldsomeoneget word to her andlet her know that peophere in theUSA are wishing her all the best. And could she or a relative please post a comment and a picture to my blog at http://www.survivorsearch.blogspot.com
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