Photo/Illutration A photo of Shigeru Yokota with his three children on a family outing (Provided by Shigeru Yokota)

Touching family photos taken by the father of Megumi Yokota, the junior high school student abducted by North Korean agents in 1977, are on display at a major Tokyo department store.

The special exhibition began Aug. 2 at Takashimaya Co.’s flagship Nihonbashi outlet comprised mainly of 120 photos taken of Megumi by Shigeru Yokota, along with her clothes, letters and drawings. 

Shigeru died in 2020 without seeing his daughter again after she was abducted at age 13.

Chieko Tachibana, 58, a resident of Akishima in western Tokyo, took in the exhibition, which runs through Aug. 14.

“I felt close to her when looking at the photos because we are the same age,” Tachibana said. “But that also made me feel how tragic the abduction was. I realized how accustomed I had become about the issue since everyone knows about it now.”

As a special attraction on the opening day, Sakie Yokota, 87, and Akihiro Arimoto, 95, talked about their respective daughters. Keiko Arimoto was also abducted by North Korea in 1983 at age 23 while studying in London. 

Yokota and Arimoto are the only parents of abductees who are still alive, a reflection of how many years have passed since the abductions.

Sakie said about her daughter, “She loved nature, was always laughing and had many friends.”

Arimoto said Keiko would always run away when she got in a fight with a sibling, but added, “She also made difficult decisions like when thinking about studying abroad.”

Sakie said she continued to believe that her daughter would once again step foot on her native soil while she was still living.

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