The following is from Masayuki Takayama's latest book, "Henkenjizai: Who Buried Shinzo Abe?
This book is the latest in a series of bound editions of his famous columns in weekly Shincho, but the original text has been polished to make it even easier to read.
He deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature for this one book alone.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Former Prime Minister Abe Reveals Northern Fiction
It was November 1977 when Megumi Yokota disappeared on her way home from school.
Her father, Shigeru, searched for his daughter until dawn.
He opened all the toilets in the school building to search for her, and the next day and the day after, he walked along the school's paths, paths, and the beach but could find no trace of her.
Finally, he squatted down and wept.
In 1988, after ten years of such days, Kim Hyon-Hui, who was involved in the Korean Airline bombing, told her story of a Japanese woman who had been abducted.
She was captured by Japanese embassy staff in Bahrain.
But Korea wanted her in custody.
Before the war, Japan provided education, medical care, and infrastructure to the uncivilized Korean people.
However, they felt that they had been mistreated and wanted money and assistance from Japan.
The demand for Kim Hyon-hui's custody was one such example.
South Korea, however, was reluctant to provide any further information on the abductions.
They were people who did not know the word "indebtedness.
The extradition of Kim Hyon-Hui was a painful mistake on the part of Japan.
Nevertheless, to the Yokotas, it seemed like a small glimmer of hope.
As if in pursuit, a personal letter was sent to the parents of Keiko Arimoto, who disappeared while studying in the U.K., saying that she was being held captive in North Korea.
It was the first piece of evidence proving that North Korea had abducted Japanese nationals.
However, instead of investigating the matter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs turned the parents away from the letter, stating that it would interfere with Japan-North Korea negotiations.
However, rather than investigate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shut down the boy's parents and turned them away, saying that "this would interfere with Japan-North Korea negotiations.''
The parents went to Takako Doi's office.
As it turned out, the visit was a complete disaster, and Doi, like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, forbade them to tell anyone and immediately reported the matter to Chongryon.
Two months later, Keiko, her husband, and their child, who had revealed the North's secrets, died a suspicious death.
No one, not even the authorities or politicians, wanted to deal with them.
However, one person listened to Keiko's parents and promised to solve the problem.
That person was Mr. Abe, who was then secretary to her father, Foreign Minister Shintaro," wrote Ms. Sakie in a Sankei Shimbun article in memory of the former prime minister.
Ten years later, in 1997, news of Megumi suddenly came out.
A North Korean agent testified that a 13-year-old girl had been abducted, and a North Korean defector told of his eyewitness account of Ms. Megumi's disappearance.
However, Hideo Den, Yasuhiko Yoshida of Saitama University, and others went on to deny the story, saying that it was a fabrication by South Korea.
The reaction of cultural figures who call themselves progressives in Japan was that North Korea, a communist state, would never abduct anyone.
The abductions have remained ignored in the diplomatic arena as well.
A roundtable discussion between Anami Koreshige, Director-General of the Asian Affairs Bureau, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Club, the Kasumi Club symbolized it.
An Asahi reporter quipped, "The abduction allegation is gaining momentum despite no evidence."
I would have liked to have heard such a line at the time of the Morikake affair, but I'll leave it at that.
Riding on this lead, Anami said, "There is no evidence. We can't move on suspicions."
The Asahi editorial, which had so guided him, also wrote an editorial in which it taunted the families of the abductees, asking whether the abduction scandal had become an obstacle to negotiations for normalization between Japan and North Korea.
Kunihiko Makita, director of the Asian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed Anan's lead and said at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party's Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, "Is it right to halt normalization negotiations between Japan and North Korea over the (alleged) abduction of only ten people?
It is the same argument as Asahi.
Surprisingly, such a person was a diplomat in Japan.
The North must have thought that Asahi had persuaded Japanese public opinion.
In 2002, the North invited Prime Minister Koizumi to admit to abducting Japanese nationals.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had promised that if Japan admitted this, Japan would smile and give them 1 trillion yen.
However, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe, who was accompanying Prime Minister Koizumi, knowing that he was being wiretapped, told Koizumi that if the abductees did not return to Japan, there would be no other choice but to break off the agreement.
Thus, five of the abductees were returned to Japan, but eight of them, including Megumi, were declared dead.
However, "Mr. Abe strongly told us that there was no evidence of their deaths," said Ms. Sakie, "and revealed the North's fiction.
In fact, some of the bone fragments brought by the North as "Megumi's bones" were found to belong to "a completely different person, and more than one person," according to a DNA analysis.
When Hitoshi Tanaka of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the five people who had returned to Japan would be sent back due to verbal agreements with the criminal state of North Korea, Deputy Minister Abe firmly refused, saying, "I will not let them be held hostage in diplomatic negotiations,'' and their families also returned to Japan.
The North did not get a single yen.
Former Prime Minister Abe showed that an unarmed Japan can negotiate openly even with a rogue nation.
In comparison, the ugliness of the Asahi Shimbun, which lives by false accusations and mere makeshift, was strangely conspicuous.
(July 28, 2022 issue)
2024/1/11 in Kyoto
