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Aged
, 37,
Vietnamese-born and New York-bred.
d. 7 July, 2005,
Liverpool Street/ Aldgate Circle line train, London. |
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Mike Matsushita had only recently moved to London because of
love. In May he left his job as a tourist guide in Vietnam and was
one month into a new life with his British girlfriend in London.
It was the end of a long period of travel after he left his bank
job in New York in 2001. It included Latin America, Africa,
Australia,
Cambodia and Vietnam, the country his parents had fled to escape
the Communists. For the final 18 months, he was a tour guide for
Intrepid Travels in Cambodia and Vietnam. It was there he met and
fell in love with English colleague Rosie Cowan. Friends said they
planned to marry. On 7 July, Mr Matushita died on the Piccadilly
Line as he travelled from his home in Islington to a new job in IT
recruitment. When he was reported missing, his parents David and
Muoi, and his childhood friend David Golovner, flew to London and
searched hospitals for him. But police confirmed his death from
identification found at the scene. Mr Matsushita's biological
father was a South Vietnamese soldier who died during the Vietnam
War. His mother, also Vietnamese, then met US aid worker David
Matsushita, who adopted the boy and moved to New York after the
war. Mr Golovner said his friend always showed a keen interest in
bringing people of different cultures together. And his work as a
tour guide emphasised this, as he took Western travellers to local
orphanages. Mr Golovner told US news website Newsday: "He always
said 'The kids have no money, they're barefoot, but they are
always happy.' "He wanted to find what the essence was that made
them so happy and then share that with others." With this in mind,
Mr Matsushita's family and friends launched a new charity in his
honour, to benefit orphans in Cambodia. Intrepid Travel, where Mr
Matsushita worked for 18 months until May, has pledged to match
all donations and pay administrative costs. Mr Golovner said: "He
had a huge passion for life. As a friend, he was my brother. As a
person, he was a resident of the world. He had the ability to see
the wonder in everything."
Courtesy of
BBC

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