Monday, Oct. 03, 2005

Bernard Krisher

By Anthony Spaeth

When 31-year-old American reporter Bernard Krisher arrived in Tokyo in 1962, many people said he was too brash, too much of a New Yorker, too darned pushy to get along in decorous Asia. They were right about one thing: Krisher is pushy. In 1963, he ambushed Indonesian President Sukarno in a Tokyo antique shop and got a rare journalist's visa to Jakarta. Once Krisher was there, Sukarno introduced him to Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia; the two men have been friends ever since. In 1975, Krisher flexed his connections in Tokyo to become the first journalist to interview Hirohito, Japan's wartime emperor.

At 74, the Tokyo-based Krisher is as pushy as ever, although he's evolved from a reporter of events into a participant in them. In 1993 he founded the Cambodia Daily to give that war-ravaged land its first taste of an independent press. After North Korea suffered devastating floods in 1994, Krisher raised more than $50,000 to ship rice, corn and medical supplies. (The U.S. Treasury Department, mindful of American sanctions on North Korea, froze one of his bank accounts.) Krisher's biggest project is the building of 275 schools in Cambodia, 100 of which are equipped with computers and have access to the Internet. "This closes the gap," says Krisher, "and for Cambodia the gap is not only food and clothing. It's information."

Virtually all the funds, equipment and technology for these projects have been wheedled or cajoled by Krisher from his network of friends and contacts. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank provide matching donations for the Cambodia schools project. Krisher constantly seeks out new benefactors. In early 2004, he wrote British author J.K. Rowling urging her to allow a cut-rate, Khmer-language version of Harry Potter. "Children in Cambodia simply haven't read since the days of Pol Pot," he says. "They needed such a book." After lengthy negotiations, Rowling agreed. A Japanese businessman put up $15,000 for printing costs. Today, Cambodian families can buy their child Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone for 50˘—thanks to Bernie Krisher's wizardry.