JAPAN: After nearly 40 years living in North Korea, Charles Jenkins touched down last night in Japan, where he risks arrest and imprisonment for allegedly deserting the US army.
Mr Jenkins arrived with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and daughters, Mika and Belinda, after saying he was prepared to "sacrifice" himself for the sake of his family.
"I know the risk I will face if I go to Japan, but I'm willing to take the risk, because the most important thing for me is that my daughters can be reunited with their mother," he reportedly told a member of the Indonesian government in Jakarta, where he had been staying to avoid extradition to the US for allegedly defecting from his army post to North Korea in 1965.
Mr Jenkins (64), a heavy smoker, is reportedly suffering from lung and stomach problems that require specialist treatment, and immediately checked into a central Tokyo hospital. His health has visibly declined since the family's reunion in Jakarta on July 9th.
Much of the commentary on Japanese TV was dominated by the decision by Mika and Belinda to remove their Kim Il Sung lapel badges from their jackets during the journey to Tokyo. Mr Jenkins removed his in Jakarta after apparently being convinced to do so by his wife.
"Ms Soga's dream finally comes true," was how Japan's NHK TV last night described the family's arrival. Ms Soga was kidnapped by North Korean agents from Japan in the 1970s and then spent 21 months separated from her family after she was repatriated from Pyongyang in 2002.
After half a lifetime being buffeted between Cold War rivals she told Japanese TV viewers that she just wants to live quietly with her husband and daughters in Japan.
But with the US government maintaining the right to arrest and prosecute her husband for desertion under a Status of Forces Agreement with Japan, her ordeal is not over yet.
US ambassador to Japan Mr Howard Baker struck a conciliatory note on Saturday when he said: "There are no plans for US officials to see Jenkins in the immediate future," but he also advised Mr Jenkins to turn himself in and admit his crimes.
"As and when we can gain custody of him, he will be charged. With what and when and on what basis, I can't tell you," Mr Baker said. "But it will be treated as the very serious incident that it is."
Mr Baker and the Japanese government risk huge political damage if they push their case against the ailing ex-GI in Japan, where there is enormous public sympathy for his wife. The story of Ms Soga's abduction, repatriation and long separation from her family, and her quiet stoicism in the face of this ordeal, have made her possibly the most famous and popular woman in the country.
Most Japanese want to see her and the much older Mr Jenkins live out their remaining years in peace with their two daughters.
Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said last night: "America still retains the right to ask Japan to put Sgt Jenkins into custody, according to the Status of Forces Agreement. However, in the light of Mr Jenkins's health, they have delayed any action.
"As long as he is in this medical condition, they have no immediate plans to arrest Mr Jenkins."