Since his early school days, Kenji Kuraki remembers being shunned by his classmates, called names and even discriminated against by a teacher. The bullying was the result of prejudice against him and his identity, he says.
Kuraki was born Roeum Reth in 1982 at the Khao-I-Dang Holding Center, a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. He immigrated to Japan with his parents when he was 4 years old. By the age of 5, his left leg was paralyzed by the poliovirus, he says.
As an immigrant and person living with a physical impairment in Japanese society, Kuraki says it was like having a “double disability.”
In full: https://vodenglish.news/from-refugee-to-rowing-coach-a-cambodian-finds-his-place-on-the-water/
