If Kinapping Foreign Children without
leaving
Traces at all, Terrorism, what is Terrorism?
This 13-years old girl, Megumi Yokota was kidnapped from a small 
town by the sea in Japan on 15 Nov. 1977 by North Korean
agents. It was attempted very secretly as though she had
disappeared in thin air.
Megumi Yokota's parents were left in agony for a long twenty years without
having the slightest idea of the where-about of her.
But finally, the truth came to light...
At the beginning of this book, written by journalist Kenji Ishidaka, 
he describes how he got to the fact about Megumi Yokota's
missing and the first time he went to meet her parents to explain what
he found out.
The mother, Sakie Yokota said:
"It is the first time after twenty years that an information was brought
so clearly and also hopefully. Really, the first time... This is like a
dream...or something unreal. I wish what you say is true, I hope she is
well. That is all I wish."
In course of the investigations of the kidnapped persons, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea gave the ashes, which they claimed were the
remains of Megumi Yokota, back to Japan and said that she had died. But
DNA tests proved not only that they were not Megumi Yokota's ashes but
ashes of two different unknown persons!
This all proves how North Korea is ignoring human rights and liberty.
On 28 April 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush met Sakie Yokota to hear
the story about Megumi Yokota.
The following is an excerpt of a written testimony by Sakie Yokota, mother
of abductee Megumi Yokota, for a joint Asia-Pacific and human rights subcommittees
hearing under the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations
Committee:
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Chairman Leach, Chairman Smith, honorable members of the committees, I
would like to thank you for providing me this valuable opportunity to speak
to you today.
I am Sakie Yokota, mother of Megumi Yokota, who was 13 years old when she
was abducted to North Korea in November 1977, 29 long years ago. For 20
agonizing years after Megumi disappeared while on her way home from school,
we did not know what happened to her. It was 20 years later, in 1997, when
we learned she had been kidnapped by North Korean agents and used as a
teacher for the "Japanization" of North Korean agents at the
intelligence training school of the Kim Jong IL Political Military University
on the outskirts of Pyongyang, North Korea.
Naturally, we were immediately overjoyed we with the thought that Megumi
is alive and hoped to be able to see her right away. At the same time,
we were plagued by doubt about why an incident of this proportion had not
been known to us for so long.
Since then, nine more years have passed and we are still unable to reach
our daughter. It saddens me profoundly and I feel so humiliated whenever
I think about why we cannot rescue her.
I feel a deep burning anger toward the North Korean regime. It has invented
countless lies and deceptions while defiantly mocking us with its claim
of innocence. We need to rescue the abductees from as many as 12 different
countries who were innocent of any wrongdoing when they became victims
of the outrageous state terrorism perpetrated by North Korea. They have
been seeking our help...for too many years now. We must also not forget
the North Korean people who suffer from atrocious human rights abuses of
their government.
In case of my daughter Megumi, we learned about her abduction from a North
Korean agent who later took asylum. He testified that when Megumi was kidnapped,
"she was held in a small dark chamber in the bottom of a special intelligence
ship, where she scraped the walls with her fingers while crying out desperately,
'Mother, help me!' and that is how she was carried across the dark sea.
We and the parents of other abductees are running out of time because of
our advancing age. My daughter and other abductees must be alive somewhere
in North Korea. The whole world knows the savagery of that country and
how lightly it makes of human lives. The description by your president,
George W, Bush, calling it the "axis of evil," is exactly right.
Numerous youngsters of Japan, South Korea and many other countries have
been detained for several decades. They know they could be sent to a concentration
camp or be executed if they don't behave as ordered. They are waiting for
our help, even now. It is as if they are being drowned. If we see someone
being drowned it is the nature of our humanity that we would immediately
jump into the water extending our hand to help, putting aside everything
else.
We families are fatigued, both physically and mentally, yet we cannot stop
as long as our children are seeking our help. I pray that the people of
Japan and America, and all freedom-loving people of the world, in unison,
will demonstrate to North Korea that we are really "angry."
I plead for all the countries to join us in saying that we will not forgive
the abductions, all the victims must be returned immediately or we will
initiate economic sanctions."
Last month in Japan, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer kindly inspected
the site...where Megumi was abducted. He obviously felt the cruelty of
the abduction and remarked, "this is one of the saddest stories, if
not the saddest, I have ever heard." We cannot recover the lost years
for our children, but we can rescue the victims that were abducted...and
allow them to spend the rest of their life in the lands of freedom. This
is a sincere wish from the bottom of our hearts for all of the family members.
Members of Congress, members of the administration and people of America,
please render us your help.
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2004.12.31.
2006.05.05. updated
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