Abducted (&Brainwashed) Robot-Like Japanese Released From North Korea (Weird!)

Japan News Today ^ | 16 October 2002 | Japan News Today

[AmericanInTokyo]

Abductees clam up on what happened to other Japanese

Takuya Karube

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 20:00 JST TOKYO — The family members of Japanese who are reported to have died since being abducted to North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s were disappointed Wednesday over not being able to obtain helpful information from five abductees who began a temporary homecoming Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference held after talks with the five abductees, the members of six families all expressed dissatisfaction, saying the five responded to their questions in almost the same manner.

Not only did the five people have no current information regarding the abductees Pyongyang said have died, they also did not say anything negative about North Korea and refrained from talking about issues related to their abductions, the family members said.

"Anything related to politics as well as the abductions was totally rejected. They did not know a Korean Air jet was bombed (by North Korean agents in 1987). They did not know about missing Japanese nationals," said Shigeo Iizuka, 64, whose sister Yaeko Taguchi was abducted to the North in June 1978 and listed as among the dead abductees by Pyongyang.

"They could not face us directly and all looked down. I am happy that they temporary returned but disappointed at their reaction," he added.

Teruaki Masumoto, 47, younger brother of Rumiko Masumoto who was abducted in August 1978 and listed among the dead by Pyongyang, asked the five how they were abducted from Japan and how they have been treated in North Korea.

He said the only accounts he was able to get from them were that the five did not face any violence when they were abducted and thereafter they have been treated politely by North Koreans.

Initially the family members were scheduled to meet with the five all at once, but it was decided that each family would have talks separately with Yasushi Chimura, Fukie Hamamoto, Kaoru Hasuike, Yukiko Okudo and Hitomi Soga.

What the five told each family was more or less the same, the family members said.

Hasuike's brother Toru, 47, said, "Besides the parents of Megumi Yokota, the five at the beginning said they did not want to have talks."

Toru said he was not sure why the five were only willing to meet the parents of Yokota, who was abducted to North Korea and reportedly died in the country after having a daughter.

"It seems the five had a prior agreement what to say," the brother said.

Upon leaving to Japan Hasuike told his children in North Korea he would be on a business trip, while his wife Yukiko Okudo told them she would be on a trip, according to Kaoru.

Toru added that he was advised by his younger brother not to get involved too much in the abduction issue. Toru said his younger brother spoke as if he was someone in the government, saying, "The abduction issue should be resolved and not hinder normalizing ties between the two countries." (Kyodo News)

[AmericanInTokyo]

Japanese who were kidnapped some as long as 25 years ago, are now in Japan. They were 'let go' to Japan recently (their families in North Korea basically 'held hostage'), to be briefly reunited with their families they have not seen in years. North Korea always denied knowing anything about this.

As expected, the abductees to a person had been brainwashed and you can tell from their almost unanimous action in Japan where they should have been free to speak their mind. One of the released (temporarily--they have to go back to Pyongyang, North Korea), a female, is married to a US military defector to North Korea. This is something right out of twilight zone!

[Chi-townChief]

"This is something right out of twilight zone!"

Try "The Manchurian Candidate."

[Orual]

[ko_kyi]

Kim Jong Il is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful man I have ever met.

Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?

[wideawake]

LOL!

[aculeus]

Child abduction is an old Marxist practice.

Be proud, lefties, be very proud.

[dighton]

[The Old Hoosier]

Brainwashed, or fearful for the lives of their new families in N. Korea.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is really sad.

[moyden]

North Korea is every liberal's wet dream.

[summer]

North Korea has always denied knowing anything about this.

Actually, according to the NYT, the North Korean government recently admitted what they were doing: abducting the most ordinary of Japanese citizens, including young students studying abroad in Europe, and then having North Korean spies assume the kidnapped Japanese citizens' identities. I read this article, below, and had chills up my spine. North Korea is really a frightening place, and labeling them part of an "axis of evil" was right on the money:

The NYT -- FOREIGN DESK | September 28, 2002, Saturday

Plot Confirmed, Japan Feels No Less Pain

By HOWARD W. FRENCH (NYT) 1683 words

Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 1, Column 2 LEAD PARAGRAPH - It took three months for Rumiko Masumoto to muster the courage to tell her family about her new boyfriend. Then, over dinner one August night in 1978, her brother recalls now, she shared her secret.

''I have met a man who I have become close with,'' said Ms. Masumoto, 23. ''Tomorrow we are going to the beach for a date.'' But her wonderful secret presaged disaster....

[summer]

BTW, I believe the above NYT article stated the first ones in Japan to raise questions about this plot, many years ago, and to point in the right direction, was a highly "conservative" Japanese newspaper. I thought that was interesting - the NYT acknowledging conservatives are the ones who, at least in this case, had the brains to figure out what was actually going on.

[summer]

FYI also see posts #11 and #12.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

NK is diabolical. Let anyone in Europe who disputes George W. Bush's description of North Korea have a closer look at this.

[summer]

Yeah, GW gets a lot of grief from his critics, but I believe he is much closer to ascertaining and communicating the facts than his critics. Peace is good, but to think that these governments, like North Korea, are as nice as sugar and spice, is just living in a child's world. People need to grow up.

[91B]

I like this picture better.

What is up with the second site? Whoever put that page together seemed impressed with Potemkin Pyongyang.

[dighton]

What is up with the second site? Whoever put that page together seemed impressed with Potemkin Pyongyang.

Hmmmmmmm, it appears you're right.

I hadn't bothered reading the captions, as purplish text on a black background is somewhat forbidding.

[thedugal]

Brainwashed, or fearful for the lives of their new families in N. Korea.

I speak Japanese and saw the live press conference after the five arrived in Japan. I can assure you, they are brainwashed. No hollywood movie has ever captured the eyes of a soulless human being such as these. These people are spiritually dead. I nearly lost it. It is a pure human horror.

Yes they are certainly fearful for their family but that fear is instinctual. Even if they didn't have families held hostage they would return to N. Korea. If they were physically detained in Japan they would go temporarily insane until they could be deprogrammed if that is possible.

I don't have the proper words to convey this horror. You have to see it, and if you don't speak Japanese you may not understand. But even if you can't speak Japanese you can probably see that these people have been soul-raped.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thankyou. Yes, I meant to add that up until only recently (last three weeks) N. Korea denied this. And then 'revealed' this fact when Koizumi was there for a one day meeting.

What is wierd of course is that all of these foreigners (from the N. Korean perspective) such as Japanese and US (who defected) were all put in the same general area for foreigners and watched, and forced to inter marry, and also carry out espionage training. All the while, the NK government a few years ago said it initiated a nationwide search, and no such foreigners were in it's midst.

What a bunch of liars.

They need to actually counter kidnap the brainwashed Japanese and deprogram them, to get all of the intelligence of the whole apparatus of NK kidnapping and espionage. Of course,their relatives back in North Korea as bargaining chips would be tortured and executed.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I saw it, too, of course (the Tokyo press conference with the abducted sitting next to their relatives they had not see in 25 years) and was irate more than I was sad. It was outrageous. It was so phoney (the comments of the abductees). I speak japanese of course, as do you. It was terrible what they did to these people. They are just shells.

One can imagine the several US military there that defected, even if they had a change of heart, are also programmed in such a cruel, 1984-like way.

There is little press on this in the US. The US news won't carry any of thise. Man I wish the press conferrence where the kidnapped just got up, took a bow, looked downward, and said "it is good to be here."

Everyone of them sporting a Kim Il Sung badge on their lapels.

Horrendous.