North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter

Child abduction is one of the most traumatic experiences for a family. In 1977, middle school student Megumi Yokota disappeared on her way home from school in the coastal city of Niigata, Japan. Despite massive efforts on the part of the community and the local police, Megumi's disappearance was never solved. It was years later that Megumi's parents finally received information leading them to believe that she, like several other Japanese citizens known of at the time, had been abducted by North Korean agents. It was not until 2002 that North Korea officially admitted to the abductions, but question remains over whether or not Megumi is still alive, leaving her family without closure. Written by Megumi's mother, Sakie Yokota, North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter is by no means a highly polished work of nonfiction. As a writer, Yokota tends to dwell too much on details while letting some of the larger questions out of her grasp, and the last few chapters start to feel repetitive as she reaches for an ending that does not exist. What this book definitely is, however, is a stunningly moving story of loss and a life lived in perpetual uncertainty. Yokota's memories of her daughter contain the kind of intense detail that can only exist when something has been thought through and examined thousands of times over, and it is easy to imagine her determination to hang on to each tiny bit of memory, knowing that there may be no more. Yokota's carefully kind tone toward anyone who has ever been involved in Megumi's case is both moving and somehow painful, as is her painstaking effort to thank every person who has ever helped her or sent her hopeful wishes for Megumi's return. Her campaign to retrieve her daughter, unwavering even in the face of government resistance, is truly inspirational. Still, what inspires the deepest heartache and outrage in the reader is the loss of Yokota's own life to a potentially hopeless search. That neither the Japanese government nor anyone else has been able to bring about the return of Megumi or at least determine some clear resolution regarding her fate is maddening, as is Yokota's powerlessness in the situation. Regardless of its few shortcomings , North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter is an extremely moving and heartbreaking story. A good read.

This book is the well-written true account by Sakie Yokota, whose 13-year-old beautiful, vivacious daughter Megumi was kidnapped in 1977. Sakie Yokota and her husband did not know what had happened to their child for twenty endless years, only to find out in 1997 that their child had been taken off the streets of the seaside town of Niigata, Japan by North Korean agents and spirited away to North Korea - locked in the holds of a boat, yet! Furthermore, the Yokotas have still not been able to get their daughter back, but they're the kind of decent parents who never stop trying to gain her release. This story is an outrage unlike any other I've ever encountered. This is one of the sickest crimes I've ever heard of and there is absolutely no justification for it. No country has the right to kidnap citizens of other countries to begin with, especially for "political" reasons, but for them to have stolen the Yokota's child on her way home from school is reprehensible. Sakie Yokota deserves a medal for writing this book and for exposing the bizarre North Korean practice of kidnapping foreign nationals. Megumi was not the only person kidnapped. She's one of several. It's so outrageous, and such a cowardly act on behalf of the North Korean government, that for once in my life I'm at a loss for words. Suffice it to say the book is worth reading and is an education in itself about a regime whose practices need to be stopped and stopped at once. I want to add here that it is my hope, and also my prayer, that Megumi Yokota is allowed to return home soon to the parents who still haven't given up on seeing her again.

Throughout its split from its southern half, North Korea has not been a country of virtue. "North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter" is the heart wrenching tale of a Japanese mother who lost her thirteen-year-old daughter to Communist North Korea. Sakie Yokota tells her story of her most unusual tragedy, and how she coped with the events . . . A story of anguish and the kindness of others, "North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter" is intriguing and a riveting read of one woman's saga.

Until you read it, you cannot understand that abduction is harder than death for a family. Until you read it, you don't know what's really going on in East Asia. By reading this book, you will find the world through the eyes of a mother. Then you will find, the mother, a very ordinary mother changed a country, because of her love for her daughter.