NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: A teenage girl with an ailing family who feels left out every time father’s day comes around is searching for her Japanese dad, who abandoned her and her mother 15 years ago.
Chatiyamol Nakajima, 15, is a grade 10 student at Satree Thung Song School and has asked the government complaints centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat and media to help in her search for her father, Koichi Nakajima.
Her father was Japanese and had married Kusuma Tidsri, who is now 40, and abandoned her just three months into her pregnancy, she said. Her mother had returned home to give birth.
Chatiyamol now lives with her 75-year-old grandmother Lamai Tidsri.
Grandma Lamai told reporters her daughter had gone to Bangkok to find work and ended up marrying a Japanese man who was 45-years-old at the time.
“They lived together for a short time until a problem occurred, causing my daughter to come back home immediately and never contact Koichi again. I learned that the father also tried finding her but was unsuccessful,” Mrs Lamai said.
Ms Chatiyamol said she had constantly been trying to get more information from her mother, only to end up with very little.
"Shortly after her business collapsed, she was diagnosed with depression and left the house to live in a temple somewhere in Bangkok, which has made my quest to find my father even harder,” she lamented.
“As far as I know Koichi is a frequent flyer for his work and is currently around 60 years-old," grandma Lamai added.
"Now that I have been diagnosed with cancer, I just fear that when I die no one will be around to take care of my granddaughter.
"I’m sure it would be wonderful if they could reunite, so she will never feel like an outcast again when father’s day comes around,” she said.
Deputy provincial governor Sakol Chuntaruk said officials were trying find Chatiyamol’s father through various channels and they been in contact with the Foreign Ministry and the Japanese embassy seeking further assistance in the matter.
