NIIGATA (TR) – Miyoshi Soga was abducted by North Korea from Sado City in 1978. She celebrates her 93rd birthday on Saturday.
Her daughter, Hitomi Soga, was abducted as well. However, she later returned to Japan.
Hitomi spoke to NHK (Dec. 28) in an interview, saying that there is not much time left for them to be reunited. She also called for the return of all abductees from Japan as soon as possible.
Hitomi was abducted by North Korean agents on August 12, 1978 as she was returning back from shopping at a store near her home with her mother Miyoshi in Sado. Soga returned to Japan in 2002, but Miyoshi’s whereabouts are still unknown.
“I’ve reached an age where I worry every day about whether my mother is doing well,” Hitomi told the national broadcaster. “The more I think about it, the more endless it becomes. [I wonder] whether she’s staying warm in the cold winter, whether she’s eating well. I just want her to be healthy.”
She also expressed her hope for her mother’s early return to Japan. “My mother was kind and hardworking. We were like friends and could talk about anything,” she said. “I want to listen to my mother’s stories, have her listen to mine and live a life of laughing and talking about all sorts of things.”
The abduction victims and their families are getting older. As a result, Hitomi has been working at the Sado City Abductees Affairs Section since April of this year, working even harder than before to resolve the abduction issue.
She has also visited Niigata Prefecture and six other prefectures to give lectures, calling for the return of the abduction victims.
“I want Megumi Yokota’s mother, Sakie, and Keiko Arimoto’s father, Akihiro, to meet their daughters,” she said. “I want to see my mother too.” Regarding the Japanese government, she said, I want them to “use all means possible to hold a Japan-North Korea summit as soon as possible. We really don’t have much time. So, I want everyone to be able to return to their beloved families.”
