Tears mingled with smiles and hugs yesterday when five Japanese abducted by North Korea set foot on home soil for the first time after nearly a quarter of a century in the secretive communist state.
On a windy, cloudless day, family members carrying bouquets of red flowers, Japanese national flags and "Welcome Home" banners greeted the five -- neatly dressed with blue ribbons in their lapels -- on the tarmac at Haneda airport in Tokyo.
PHOTO: AP
The five were snatched from their hometowns in northern Japan in 1978 and are the only certain survivors from among the 13 people North Korea admits to having abducted to teach the Japanese language and culture to its spies.
Crying and smiling, a bespectacled Fukie Hamamoto, 47, embraced her relatives after leaving the plane arm-in-arm with her husband, Yasushi Chimura. The two were kidnapped together and married in North Korea, where they have a daughter and two sons.
"I am so happy that I could meet you all again," a beaming Hamamoto said at a news conference later.
The other four, looking tired and tense, spoke briefly and in rusty Japanese before retiring to their rooms in a Tokyo hotel.
"I am sorry to have caused everyone such worry," said a thin and somber Kaoru Hasuike, who was a university student when he was abducted with Yukiko Okudo.
Married now, they have a son in college in North Korea.
Kaoru's mother, Hatsui, said she had resolved not to cry but was unable to hold back tears when she saw her son.
"He's really tall and he leaned down and hugged me and said, 'I'm sorry to have worried you'," she said. "And then the long 24 years seemed somehow a bit shorter."
Also on hand to welcome back the abductees were relatives of another eight who Pyongyang says are dead -- of suicide, illness and accidents. Many Japanese, angry over the abductions and suspicious of North Korea's accounts, believe they are either still alive or were victims of foul play.
"Of course, their relatives, but all of us ... are truly happy to see that they have returned and are well," said Shigeru Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was kidnapped when she was 13 and is said by Pyongyang to have killed herself in 1993.
The reunited families spent time after the abductees' arrival getting reacquainted.
The relatives are hoping to learn more about the circumstances of the kidnappings and about those said to be dead.
But many fear the abductees will not be able to speak their minds since they had to leave family members in North Korea and are only expected to be in Japan a week or two before returning.
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