MRS. NAKAHARA MADOKA (MRS. SOK KHEOUN)
BORN IN 1971 IN BATTAMBANG, LIVES IN KANAGAWA

The earrings are from her mother’s heritage, which she wore at all times while she was alive. Whenever her mother wore the earrings, Japanese people thought she was from a minority background. It is Khmer tradition to pierce the ears of daughters while they were young. Her mother put earrings on her when she was small. There was a problem when she wore them to school because young students were not allowed to wear earrings to school in Japan, according to the rules.

When her mother passed away, she and her siblings decided to divide the earrings into small pieces they each could keep. Some pieces are in Japan and some are with her siblings living in Canada. The reason for this division was not for the monetary value of the earrings; they want to keep a piece of the earrings with them because they think it will protect them and it makes them feel as though their mother is always with them to keep them warm. It is the intrinsic value of the earrings that matters because they thought that their mother used to keep them with her at all times.