MR. GORO ENDO (MR.THLANG SAMAL）
BORN IN 1945 IN PHNOM PENH, LIVES IN SAITAMA

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Samal travelled to Khao-I-Dang – a refugee camp along the Khmer–Thai border – to search for his family. He met a cousin who told him that all of his family members had died. Refusing to believe this news, he told a Japanese volunteer group working there to contact him in Japan should they receive any news about his family. Later on, a nephew-in-law wrote him a letter to inform him that his third brother, Thlang Sopha, was alive in Cambodia. He then sent a letter from Japan telling Khao-I-Dang camp to pick up his surviving brother in Cambodia and bring him to live in Japan. The letter was sent, via a broker, straight to his brother. It cost 100,000 JPY. After receiving the letter, his brother immediately replied that he agreed to come to Japan. Samal prepared all the necessary documents in order to bring his brother, sister-in-law and one nephew to Japan.

It is beyond describing that his parents, brothers and sisters all passed away. Samal is not at peace. There was only his brother and him left helping each other in Japan. When he reunited with his brother in 1982, he was very excited because the brother came with his family, wife and son. This makes him feel that he has a family in Japan, but they live in two different cities. He lives in Saitama, and his brother lived in Kanagawa. Unfortunately, his brother passed away in 2004, leaving him alone.