A rally was held this fall in a popular public hall in central Tokyo to support the families of Japanese abducted by North Korea, the venue packed with some 2,000 supporters, in-laws, and friends of the abductees. The event was entitled “National Rally: We Will Rescue All of the Abduction Victims.”

　　　The organizers forged ahead with a rally on September 2 for the second time this year, which marks the 10^th year of the return to Japan of the first – and so far the only – group of five abductees, determined to deliver a message to North Korea that the abductees must by all means be returned to Japan.

　　　The organizers’ aim was to inform Kim Jong-un, the First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, that the anger of the people of Japan and the Japanese government has remained – and will remain – unabated no matter how much time may slip by; that Japan will continue to demand that all of the abductees be accounted for and returned; and that without resolving the abduction issue, no normalization of diplomatic relations with Pyongyang will be feasible, nor will Japan extend any economic assistance which the North badly needs.

　　　The rally was truly a national event, with the members of various nation-wide supporting bodies participating as organizers, including: the “Association of the Abduction Victims’ Families,” the “National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN),” and the “Federation of Bi-Partisan Members of the Diet to Resolve the Abduction Issue.” Also participating were the “National Governors’ Association” and the “Association of Members of Local Assemblies,” as well as Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and the then Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who subsequently resigned to form a new political party.

　　　Despite expressing hearty thanks for the support given her and her colleagues, Mrs. Sakie Yokota, now 76, admits being ridden with a grave sense of fear and anger. Mrs. Yokota, the mother of Megumi Yokota (13 at the time of her abduction in 1977), had this to say:

　　　“It was in 1997, while the late Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was still in office, that we learned our little Megumi was still alive in North Korea. After Mr. Hashimoto, we had a rapid succession of prime ministers – Keizo Obuchi, Yoshiro Mori, and then Junichiro Koizumi, who in 2002 went to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-il, making possible the return of some of the abductees, including Ms Soga and the Hasuikes. However, another decade has since slipped by, with nothing whatsoever happening in terms of the return of, or even concrete news about, our daughter, as well as other abductees. In point of fact, the incumbent prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, is the tenth since Mr. Koizumi.”

I believe it worthwhile to remind the reader that Japan has had a total of 14 foreign ministers positioned to deal directly with North Korea over the abduction matters, if they wanted – ranging from Yukihiko Ikeda, who served the Koizumi cabinet, to Koichiro Gemba, the current foreign minister.

Continues Megumi’s mother: “Politics in Japan is unstable, to say the least, which seriously adds to our concern as my husband and I have sadly been unable to discern any sign of determination on the part of our government leaders to resolve the abduction issue. It’s been 35 long years since North Korea took Megumi away from us; all this while I have done my very best to save our daughter so I won’t have to regret any lack of effort should I die. But my husband and I have become old and weak. I am at an age where I could die at any time, but before I die, I really do want to hear Megumi’s voice once again.”

Hearing Sakie’s heartrending appeal as a mother to help her daughter, I honestly have no words to console her. All of the parents, brothers, and sisters, as well as in-laws of the abduction victims are getting on in years. All of them – including Shigeo IIzuka, leader of the abduction victims’ families and brother of Yaeko Taguchi, abducted in 1978, as well as Fumiyo Saito whose brother Kaoru Matsumoto was abducted three years later – are desperately appealing to public opinion, saying that “there really is not much time left, so please do something to help the victims.”

Distracted by Matters Relating to Colonial-Era Remains

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had this to say about seizing an opportunity to resolve the abduction issue as we face the new administration in the North:

“The abduction of Japanese citizens was ordered by the late General Secretary Kim Jong-il, so I believe the important thing is to create a framework in which the current North Korean regime can comfortably contend it had nothing to do with the incident directly. The key to a successful resolution of the abduction issue is to have the new North Korean leader understand clearly that, without resolving this issue, there will be no normalization of diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang, and no Japanese assistance. Japan must start disseminating precise information which convinces Kim Jong-un that, only by returning all of the abductees to Japan, will North Korea have a chance to obtain sizable economic assistance from Japan and expect to sustain its current regime. Japan must face North Korea with strong determination and resolve, unafraid of continuing to exert pressure whenever necessary. It is also necessary to win the consent and support of the US and other nations in terms of Japan’s basic posture toward the abduction issue.”

In a new development, Japan and North Korea held consultative talks in Beijing starting on August 29 for the first time in four years. What originally was scheduled to be two days of consultations was extended by one day, with both sides agreeing to continue discussions on “matters of mutual interest” in government-level consultations to be held later in the year. While the Japanese side naturally expects the abduction issue to be included in forthcoming talks, the North Korean side has yet to make its position clear. Meanwhile, in the midst of the bilateral consultations in Beijing, Pyongyang received a private Japanese delegation preparing to recover the remains of Japanese who died in Korea at the end of the Pacific War. North Korea provided information pertaining to the activities of the delegation, including footage of the four-man Japanese team digging up what appeared to be mud-covered remains.

　　　Abe takes a cautious view of the new development, remarking:

　　　“Needless to say, retrieving the remains of Japanese citizens who perished in Korea at the end of the war, as well as paying homage to their graves, is a serious matter. Particularly significant is retrieval of the remains of those who died while serving their country in the armed services. This is a critical matter that the government should take full charge of. I think, however, it would be a great mistake if the people of Japan should somehow tend to lose interest in the abduction issue by being enticed to pay undue attention to the matter of bringing home the remains. Bringing home those who are alive now should be the top priority.”

Meanwhile, NARKN Chairman Tsutomu Nishioka argues that of Kim Jong-un’s primary concern is to secure sizable funds from Japan, maintaining: “I have information alleging North Korea is demanding 4 million yen (approximately US$51,000) per set of remains, ostensibly to cover expenses. There is a total of 34,000 Japanese who are known to have died in Korea at the time of Japanese repatriation following the end of the war, with the remains of 21,600 of them left behind. Should Japan recover all of these remains, North Korea could theoretically receive a lump sum of some 8.4 billion yen (approximately US$10.8 million) from the Japanese government.”

The US government has reportedly retrieved remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War in the 1950s by paying Pyongyang US$50,000 per soldier. The US government is known for systematically maintaining records of the war-dead, including the date and place of death in action alongside the DNA data of their relatives. So it is capable of determining if the remains are real, and if so, who they belong to.

Measures to Deal with North Korea

　　　Meanwhile, the Japanese government has yet to sort out information pertaining to the deceased in Korea to that extent. Therefore, if remains were actually collected in Korea, it would become extremely difficult for the authorities to determine who they actually belonged to, and whether they belong to soldiers or civilians. Absolute caution must be exercised under such circumstances. Otherwise, an incident similar to that which happened in 2004 to Misoji Yabunaka, then Chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Asia-Pacific Bureau, could recur. As head of a Japanese delegation visiting Pyongyang, Yabunaka took a North Korean pledge at its face value and brought back what he was told – and believed – were the remains of Megumi Yokota. Following a series of DNA tests in Japan, the remains turned out to be those of two total strangers. Points out Nishioka:

　　　“I suspect that the North is trying to distract Japanese attention from the abduction issue by drawing public attention to the latest development in recovering the remains. The ‘Seishinkai,’ an organization that represents the bereaved families of those whose remains are buried in North Korea, may have been infiltrated by a North Korean intelligence outfit. We know, for example, that the daughter of one of the hijackers of Japan Airlines Flight 351 ( ‘Yodo’) is involved with the Seishinkai. We must strictly bear these things in mind and take discrete measures.” (Nine members of the Japan Red Army hijacked JAL 351 in March of 1970 on a flight out of Tokyo, forcing the plane to fly to Fukuoka and Seoul before being given permission to land in Pyongyang, where the hijackers were granted asylum. Some of the hijackers later returned to Japan, where they were tried for their crimes and imprisoned.)

　　　So far, North Korea has shied away from grappling squarely with the reality of its abductions of Japanese citizens. However, Nishioka emphasizes that Japan has the means of coping with the situation. On August 31, the conservative daily Sankei Shimbun reported in a front-page scoop that “Megumi was alive in 2001.” Initially, the North Korean government had told Tokyo that Megumi committed suicide in March 1993, but Pyongyang later retracted that statement, maintaining that Megumi actually died in April 1994. What is significant about the Sankei exclusive is that she was believed to be alive in 2001 – seven years after the revised North Korean record certified afresh that she had indeed passed away. Nishoika continues:

　　　“In point of fact, we actually have more detailed information concerning the abductees. We are fully aware that they are isolated and constantly kept under the surveillance and control of the Ministry of State Security, various intelligence outfits, and the Workers’ Party leadership. I would think that Kim Jong-un is hoping to settle the abduction issue by returning only those who actually do not have access to top secret information as a ploy to obtain economic assistance from Japan. However, we do have a good amount of credible information pertaining to those who regularly access highly sensitive information as well as those who do not. In other words, we know quite a bit about what is happening in the North. So, the important thing for Japan to do is to make Kim come to grips with the fact that it will be impossible for him to try and conceal from us the facts concerning the abduction issue.”

　　　Sakie Yokota emphasizes that Japan does not deserve to be called a nation if it remains shamefully incapable of rescuing all of the abductees. What this nation needs in terms of measures to make it a normal nation, I believe, is revision of its post-war “peace” constitution – as soon as possible – to become a normal – and stronger – nation with more credible military power that nations like North Korea and China will reckon with.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 525 in the September 6, 2012 issue of The Weekly Shincho.)