Humanity wins

Humanity wins

The agreement reached by the Indonesian, Japanese, North
Korean and American governments to allow Charles Robert Jenkins
to meet wit his wife Hitomi Soga in Indonesia has touched not
only the hearts of all Japanese, but many people across the globe
who have followed the dramatic story of these two people.

Jenkins is an American soldier who deserted during the Korean
War 39 years ago, while Soga was one of the Japanese women
kidnapped by the North Korean government to train its spies in
Japanese language and culture. Both were among the hundreds of
millions of victims of Cold War political adventures, but love
united them and gave them two children.

Their agony continued when Soga was allowed by the North
Korean government to return to Japan two years ago. She wanted to
go with her beloved husband and children, but Jenkins could not
go to Japan given the extradition treaty between the U.S. and
Japan. Under U.S. law, he is a criminal.

Until the Jakarta meeting, the Japanese government had tried
to solve the problem politically, but to no avail. This is
because the U.S. government sticks to the law. Anyway, the U.S.
is a country where the law holds supremacy, something that the
Americans are very proud of and which helps make the nation the
champion of democracy.

History shows that the implementation of the law is sometimes
painful and in conflict with humanitarian feelings, and
governments most of the time do not much care about these
consequences and stick to the law.

The Jenkins-Soga drama is a rare event in history where
humanity has won out over the law, where the power of love has
broken all the obstacles set up by governments.

All of the people of Japan are certainly very grateful to
Indonesia for its efforts to make this reunion a reality.

YASUYUKI SATO
Jakarta