Saturday was the first anniversary of the death of Shigeru Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at age 13. The surviving relatives of Megumi and other Japanese who were abducted to North Korea have become more anxious over the past year as the coronavirus pandemic has limited their ability to campaign for rescue of their loved ones.
"As time has simply passed by, with no results produced, I am truly sad," said Megumi's mother Sakie, 85, responding to an online interview with news media on May 28, looking back the past year.
On a sideboard in the living room of the Yokotas' home in Kawasaki, photos of Shigeru and Megumi are placed side by side. "Good morning, papa." Every morning as she wakes up, Sakie speaks to Shigeru in the photo. "Let us pray, together."
A white box near the photos holds his ashes. Sakie said she placed it there "because I want Megumi to hold it tightly when she comes back," Shigeru was hospitalized in April 2018, about two years before he passed away at 87. Sakie has not had Shigeru's ashes entombed, partly because she wants to keep her late husband at home as long as she can.
It was in November 1977 that Megumi was abducted in Niigata, where the family lived at the time. Shigeru became the first representative of a group of abductees' relatives, formed in 1997, that campaigned for their rescue. In this effort, he traveled all over Japan with other members of the group.
The group's current leader, Shigeo Iizuka, 82, who succeeded him in 2007, said: "Thanks to Yokota, awareness of the abductees' issue has spread among people both at home and abroad. But, since no results have been achieved [in bringing all abductees home], I feel regretful and sorry."
Amid the pandemic, such activities as meetings to call for the rescue of the abductees have been postponed or scaled down over the year since Shigeru's death.
As relatives of the abductees have grown older, Shigeru is not the only one to have died. Kayoko Arimoto, whose daughter Keiko was abducted at age 23, died at 94 in February last year. Tamotsu Chimura, whose 66-year-old son Yasushi, a former abductee, was returned to Japan, died at 93 in July.
Megumi's younger brother Takuya Yokota, 52, is the secretary general of the group of abductees' relatives. Expressing frustration and distress, he said, "Although there is only a little time left, the situations have not changed at all."
Sakie said during the interview, "As I grow old, I feel my body growing stiff." She added, "Although I do feel that it would be very difficult for the diplomatic issue [related to the abductees] to move amid the pandemic, I do hope the issue will be solved as soon as possible."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
