Kyodo World Service, May 19th, 2007
Visiting U.S. folk singer Noel Paul Stookey performed at a
concert in Tokyo on Saturday and called for support for efforts to
secure the release of Megumi Yokota, one of the Japanese people North
Korea abducted in the 1970s.
Stookey, a member of the legendary folk group Peter, Paul &
Mary, who recently released a song dedicated to her, told about 1,000
people in the audience that the abduction issue must be resolved with
the power of songs.
Stookey sang ''Song for Megumi,'' which he wrote and composed
himself, as Yokota's father Shigeru, 74, and mother Sakie, 71,
listened.
Among the participants were Japanese artists and others with
whom Stookey has formed friendships, including folk singer Kosetsu
Minami and writer C. W. Nicol.
''I believe this song will be carried by the winds and delivered
to Megumi,'' said Sakie, whose daughter was abducted at age 13 from
Niigata Prefecture in 1977. Pyongyang says she died in North Korea in
1994.
Shigeru said, ''Songs have the power to move the world. I hope
many people listen to the song and it will serve as an opportunity to
think about the abduction issue.''
Donations from the performers were given to the Yokotas at the
concert.
Before the concert began, Stookey told a news conference that
Saturday marked a day of prayer and hope.
Minami said, ''If I were in their shoes, I wonder if I could
endure it as Mr. and Mrs. Yokota do.''
''When I think about it, the words don't come forth. I hope
songs will ease their pain,'' Minami said.
Yokota is among the 17 people the Japanese government formally
claims were abducted by North Korea in the late 1970s and early
1980s. She is among the 13 North Korea admitted in 2002 to kidnapping
to the country.
While five of them were allowed to return to Japan, North Korea
maintains that Yokota and the other seven are dead, a claim disputed
by their families and the Japanese government.
