Cambodian ofcials Ravy Oum (right) and Bun-tha Ek (left) with Professor Yoshiaki Ishizawa in Phnom PenhTwo Cambodian Alumni of Sophia Receive Foreign Minister’s Commendations#04Buntha Ek, Deputy Director-General in charge of Intangible Cultural Heri-tage, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts for the Kingdom of Cambodia (’99 M.A. in Area Studies) and Ravy Oum, Vice Rector, Royal University of Phnom Penh (’02 PhD in Area Studies) have been awarded Japan’s Foreign Minister’s Commendations for FY2019.Both Cambodian ofcials are former international students at the graduate school of Sophia University. Professor Yoshiaki Ishizawa, Director of the Sophia Asia Center for Research and Human Development and the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, for his work on restoring and preserving the ancient site of Angkor Wat, mentored their mas-ter’s and doctoral theses before they returned home to Cambodia. The honor bestowed upon Ek and Oum is the re-sult of their years of work strengthening the links between Cambodia and Japan.Reacting to their award, the two com-mented: “During the Pol Pot regime we lost our families, and we were so poor we did not always know where our next meal was coming from. Yet, we believed that if we just kept at our studies, a time would come when we would be able to give our best for our nation. The end result of our effort was gaining entry to graduate school in Japan as government-spon-sored international students. So many Japanese people helped us during our stay in Japan. The acclaim for what we now are goes to the people of Japan; we are so grateful for their goodwill.”Dr. Sadako Ogata, Professor Emeritus at Sophia University and a former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, sadly passed away on October 22.Her long years of service and many achievements gained great and widespread respect from the public, as she put tremendous effort into the development of higher education while encouraging youth world-wide to excel. Serving as the rst female UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1990-2000) and President of the Japan International Coop-eration Agency (2003-2012), Dr. Ogata was at the forefront in solving global issues, particularly in the areas of human rights and refugees.The entire Sophia community is deeply saddened by this loss, and ex-tends its sincere condolences.Dr. Sadako Ogata, ProfessorEmeritus at Sophia University and Former UN Refugee Chief,Passes Away#05In SOPHIA magazine vol.1 issued in 2015, Dr. Ogata was interviewed by Professor Yasuhiro Ueki.This article is available online.5Campus news
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