Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story

I just spent a teary hour and a half watching Abduction, a documentary by Canadian journalists Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim about the handful of Japanese people who were abducted by North Korea in the late 1970s. It was really, really well done. I think I like well-made documentaries about important subjects more than chick flicks. And that's saying a lot.

I say handful, but by some estimates over 100 Japanese were abducted by the North Koreans. The reason? To serve as trainers who would teach North Korean spies not only how to speak Japanese, but how to BE Japanese.

Megumi Yokota was by far the youngest abductee. She was only 13 when she disappeared. The North Koreans presumably made a mistake, because the rest of the people they kidnapped were in their twenties. Kim Jong Il's report to Koizumi said that she had committed suicide in a mental hospital in the early 90s, but her parents aren't buying it. I don't blame them for being skeptical. The ashes the North Koreans sent back in a little cloth-wrapped urn were declared a mismatch after a DNA test.

Megumi disappeared on her way home from school one fall evening. There were absolutely no clues to here whereabouts until an investigative journalist from the Sankei News published an article entertaining the idea that people were being kidnapped by North Koreans off the Sea of Japan coast. The reason for his suspicions? A young couple was jumped, covered with sacks, and thrown into a bush in preparation for transport late at night, but were discovered by a man walking his dog on the beach before they were shipped away. When the kidnappers told the couple to be quiet, they said: "Please be quiet" (Shizuka ni shinasai) instead of "Shut up!" (Shizuka ni shiro)

"This tiny detail was enough to tell me that the kidnappers were not Japanese," the journalist tells us. Smart man! Turns out he was right.

For decades since this became accepted as truth in the early 80s, the abductees' families--led by Megumi's parents--lobbied in front of the LDP headquarters and in every other way possible for this issue to be prioritized. They went from polite begging to screaming "You stupid assholes!" through megaphones at the windows of the Diet members. It wasn't until 1997 that Prime Minister Mori--and later Koizumi--started to take the issue seriously. By then, a bunch of the abductees had died mysterious, unconfirmed deaths (gas poisonings, car accidents, etc), all of them in their late twenties.

Five of the admittedly kidnapped 13 were returned to Japan in October 2002. Kim Jong Il also presented Koizumi with eight death certificates, which he later admitted were all forged.

Two weeks ago, Megumi's dad announced that he was stepping down from the head of the abductee support group. You'll understand why if you watch the documentary. It's a stressful, unfruitful position to hold. Japan's dance with North Korea--not being able to use military force, nuclear deterrence, not pissing off South Korea, China, or the US--makes it impossible to be even remotely stern with Kim's regime. The best they can do is offer more rice to feed the famished masses in hopes that they'll return the favor with more truthful information.

Anyway, the search for truth continues, and the mysteriously evil North Korean regime continues to baffle us all, but in the meantime, I invite you to watch this documentary, listen to Paul Stookey's song, and contemplate what the hell it must have been like to be part of Kim Jong Il's spy training crew for all that time. And be very, very grateful that that wasn't you.

Comments

[Jenanime]

As soon as this is available I am going to watch it. It is difficult to believe that things like this have happened still in the last 30-40 years.

[Safari Media]

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*Digital 5.1 Sound
*Deleted Scenes
*"Making of" Documentary
*Subtitles in 8 languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and others

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