16/06/2026
what not possible??
One warm August evening in Japan, 19-year-old Hitomi Soga was kidnapped by North Korean agents.
It was 1978 on the quiet Japanese island of Sado, and Hitomi and her mother Miyoshi were preparing for the Obon Festival, a time to honour the spirits of the dead.
They were walking back home from the shops when they were ambushed, bound, hooded, and dragged onto a boat.
"At that moment, I was so, so afraid," says Hitomi. "I thought, where are they taking us? I wonder where my mum is? I was just absolutely flooded with worry and fear."
Days later, Hitomi stepped on shore into a totally different world.
"It was only when they removed the covering from my face that I realized, this is not Japan. I was in a different country."
She had been taken to the isolated dictatorship of North Korea, a victim of a secret state-sponsored abduction program which targeted dozens – perhaps hundreds – of Japanese citizens during the 70s and 80s.
Abductees were used as 'living textbooks' by North Korean spies, who would train in Japanese language and customs so they could infiltrate Japan.
For two years, Hitomi was held at a military barracks near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. She had no idea where her mother was.
Then, she was told she had to marry. Her husband was to be a man called Charles Jenkins, the US's most well-known defector to North Korea.
"I remember the day we first met. It was a very rainy day and I felt very worried and nervous," she says. "But Charles was a very kind person."
Hitomi had no choice but to accept the marriage. The couple had two daughters, and the family became a useful propaganda tool for the North Koreans. Charles even had roles in movies, playing evil American villains.
Hitomi, meanwhile, settled into a semblance of normal life.
"I would spend my time growing vegetables," she says. "There were no concerts, cinemas. There wasn't anything to do for fun. There was fear and worry on a daily basis. But because I had my family around me, I could find some comfort in that."
In 2002, North Korea admitted to the abduction of 13 Japanese citizens - and 24 years after her kidnapping, Hitomi had a chance to go home.
Her father and sister had already held a funeral for Hitomi and her mother years before. They were overjoyed to see Hitomi again.
"We all just cried and cried. I was just so happy to be reunited with them both," she says.
Two years later, Hitomi’s husband and daughters were able to join her - but to this day, Hitomi knows nothing of her mother.
She campaigns tirelessly for other abductees, and if her mother is alive, she wants to tell her to never give up.
Hitomi thinks her mother would say this to her in reply:
"Well, if Hitomi is fighting and will never give up, then I will do the same."
🎧 Lives Less Ordinary https://bbc.in/4usNkTy
