Hitomi Soga
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Hitomi Soga (曽我ひとみ Soga Hitomi, b. May 17, 1959) is a Japanese woman who was abducted to North Korea together with her mother Miyoshi Soga from Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture in 1978. She married Charles Robert Jenkins in North Korea and currently lives in Japan. She reunited with her husband and two daughters in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 9, 2004.
Hitomi, a Japanese nurse, was abducted from her home town of Sado, Niigata, Japan in 1978 August 12 in order to train North Korean espionage agents in Japanese customs and language. Her then 46 year old mother disappeared at the same time, and has not been heard from since. She met Charles Robert Jenkins at the start of July 1980, when he was asked to teach her English. They both had a mutual hatred of the North Korean regime and married in 1980 August 8.
As part of a group of five kidnap victims North Korea allowed her to make a brief visit to Japan in 2002, but she never returned, while the Japanese called for the return of her family left in North Korea. Her husband and her daughters also came to Japan on July 18, 2004. Jenkins was incarcerated in a U. S. base for desertion for 26 days, and then returned to Japanese soil to join Hitomi.
According to reports, they intend to settle on Sado Island in Japan, which is Soga's hometown.