The Executive Director of the Prince D’Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap, Ly Seang Hong, has decided to donate $1 per guest for each night they stay to donate to the relief of Japan in the wake of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and radiation disaster.

“I think this is quite a sad story.  A whole Japanese town is wiped out. The radiation is scary too,” Ly said.

Ly, 30, the third son in a Khmer-Chinese family, took the decision after he noticed a number of cancellations of Japanese guests.

“About  40 percent of our guests our Japanese,” he said.

“This effort represents all of our hotel team, not just the owners,” Ly said.

He express hope that other hotels would join in similar pledges and get money flowing in to help the Japanese people.

“Hopefully we can encourage other hotels to contribute to this disaster,” he said.

Hotel General Manager Jeffrey Goh said the program started March 27 as part of Prince D’Angkor’s Social Community Service Program and will continue until April 30.

The sum is expected to be at least several thousand dollars.

The Japanese earthquake and tsunama produced ocean waves nearly 40 meters high and resulted in more than 12,500 deaths.

It was caused by a 9.0 magnitude undersea “megathrust” earthquake.

At least three nuclear reactors suffered explosions as a result of the tsunami, resulting in dangerous radiation leaks into the environment.

It is the most powerful earthquake ever to have hit Japan and among the five most powerful earthquakes on record in the world.