Hitomi Soga
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Hitomi Soga (Japanese: 曽我ひとみ Soga Hitomi, born May 17, 1959) is a Japanese woman who was abducted to North Korea together with her mother, Miyoshi Soga, from Sado Island, Japan, in 1978. She married Charles Robert Jenkins, an American defector to North Korea, in 1980. Soga currently lives in Japan.
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[edit] Abduction and life in North Korea
Soga, a nurse, was abducted from her hometown of Mano-cho, now part of the city of Sado, Niigata, on August 12, 1978, and taken to North Korea to train agents in Japanese customs and language. Her then 46-year-old mother, Miyoshi, disappeared at the same time and has not been heard from since. The North Koreans gave Soga the Korean name Min Hye-gyong (Korean: 민혜경). She met Jenkins in early July 1980, when he was asked to teach her English, and they married on August 8, 1980.
[edit] Repatriation
Soga was one of a group of five Japanese abductees whom North Korea allowed to visit their homeland in September 2002. Though the trip was intended to be brief, she—like her four companions—never returned to North Korea, and many Japanese called on North Korea to release family members who had been left behind. She was reunited with her husband and two daughters in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 9, 2004. The family came to Japan on July 18, 2004. Jenkins was court-martialed and incarcerated for desertion at a U.S. military installation in Japan for 26 days, but then released. They now live on Sado Island in Soga's hometown where, according to media reports, the family has settled.
[edit] Further reading
- "Abductee Soga marks 5 years since return from North Korea, says she enjoys work", Mainichi Shimbun, October 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-18. (English)
- Mackinnon, Rabecca. "Japanese abductee caught in Cold War tug-of-love", CNN, November 7, 2002.
- staff. "Japan abductee meets family again", BBC News, July 9, 2004.
- Ressa, Maria. "A Cold War love story", CNN, July 9, 2004.
