Putting Myself in the Victims Situations

KAWAKATSU Rise
9th grade, Nantan Municipal Sonobe Junior High School

“Mom, Dad, Help me… I’m here…”
Over 45 years ago, in Autumn, a girl who lived in Niigata prefecture was abducted on the way home after her extracurricular activities. She was smuggled in a boat, and when she got off the boat, she was in North Korea. She couldn’t see her family or friends and was threatened to be killed if she didn’t cooperate. She dreamed of going home to Japan every day but tried hard to live in a country where no family or friends lived. In one day, her happy days ground to a halt, and she was alone standing in an unknown place. She was not sure if she could be alive tomorrow.

“If I were Megumi…”
In a social science class, we watched “The Pledge to Megumi,” a movie about the abduction of YOKOTA, Megumi. She was just like me, a junior high school student living with her parents and brothers… All of a sudden, she was a victim of abduction. She cried out for help in a boat being tossed by strong waves until her voice became hoarse. This heartbreaking scene is still deep in my heart. I felt Megumi’s pain as if I were in the movie. She must have experienced an unbelievable level of fear and insecurity. Also, Megumi’s parents must’ve felt inexpressible difficulty losing their daughter in one day and having been told she had run away.

I knew about the issue. Now, I look back. I had many chances to learn about this human rights violation. But…
“Right. That’s a problem.”
I was definitely thinking the issue was irrelevant, that it was someone else’s problem. In the class, a discussion I had with my classmates reminded me how I was thinking before. I was uninterested, and that was terrible. This abduction issue has not been resolved, even today, which may be due to so many people, who are also Japanese, avoiding and facing the true meaning of the issue like me.

In the class discussion, we had a theme, “know the true history and think about it yourself.” I feel that this is what we, today’s junior high school students, are required to do.

The most critical point is that this issue has hit a wall and has been in the doldrums for a long time. As a result, the effort to bring back the abductees is at a crucial point. The victims and their families are growing older and losing energy to continue their campaigns, and the public is losing interest.

We should put ourselves in the shoes of the victims and their families. Instead of giving up because it is an issue between governments, we should raise our antennas high up to be involved. I may realize how helpless and insignificant I am as a junior high school student, but I will continue to learn the history and become a member of a society who is involved in the campaign, working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.