-Caveat Lector-

> FYI
>
> >From http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/25/1035504882647.html
>
>   Print this article |   Close this window
> Forgotten man emerges into the light
>
> October 26 2002
>
> In the bitter cold of a winter's night in 1965, US Army Sergeant Charles Robert 
>Jenkins was
> leading his three-man squad on patrol near the demilitarised zone that divides North 
>and
> South Korea.
>
> It was just past 2.30am when Jenkins signalled to his troops to wait while he went 
>forward
> to check something. That was the last they would see of him.
>
> Three weeks later, North Korean radio triumphantly announced that Jenkins, a 
>25-year-old
> from small town America, had seen the light and defected.
>
> For the best part of 40 years, Jenkins was essentially a forgotten man, leaving 
>behind an
> army that regarded him as a traitor. However, his family in North Carolina refused to
> believe he had gone of his own free will.
>
> Suddenly, almost 38 years after he left his patrol, Charles Jenkins has emerged from 
>the
> shadows in a most unexpected and unusual way. When Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro
> Koizumi, returned from his historic meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-il last 
>month, he
> brought news that the Stalinist state had admitted abducting 13 Japanese nationals.
>
> In a strange twist to an already bizarre story, Japan learnt that one of the five 
>surviving
> abductees, Hitomi Soga, had married a US Army defector. His name: Charles Robert
> Jenkins.
>
> Ms Soga, now 43, had been shopping with her mother on Sado Island off the Sea of 
>Japan
> coast in 1978 when they were bundled into bags by agents of Pyongyang. Ms Soga, a
> teenage nursing student, was spirited away to North Korea to train its agents in 
>Japanese
> language and culture. She never saw her mother again.
>
> Gradually accepting her fate, she asked to learn English. Her teacher was Charles 
>Jenkins.
> They fell in love and married in 1980, and have two daughters, Mika, 19, and 
>Belinda, 17.
>
> In the past week, since Ms Soga returned to Japan with the four other survivors for 
>a visit,
> the missing years in the life of Charles Jenkins have started to assume some form.
>
> Jenkins, now 62, and his daughters came to the airport at Pyongyang to see off Ms 
>Soga.
> Japanese officials asked Jenkins if he wanted to go with her, but explained that 
>because of
> his situation "it's not easy".
>
> Jenkins also told the officials about his life with Soga.
>
> "Hitomi is almost 20 years younger than me, but she made us a very good family," he 
>told
> the officials, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.
>
> "I do appreciate her for that, even though she may have felt lonely for marrying a 
>man this
> much older."
>
> Jenkins stood at the fence waving goodbye, a "very lonely figure".
>
> Ms Soga has told her relatives of their life in Pyongyang, getting up early to make 
>lunches
> for their daughters, who are students at the Pyongyang University of Foreign 
>Studies. Her
> husband, she said, was kind, "though we sometimes argue".
>
> As debate continues over whether Ms Soga and the other returnees will eventually 
>settle
> back in Japan, Jenkins's official status as a deserter has emerged as a pressing 
>issue. He
> would presumably face immediate arrest should he leave North Korea.
>
> In a move that underlines how strongly Japan wants the five abductees to come home,
> Tokyo has made a special request to Washington that Jenkins be granted amnesty.
>
> Back in North Carolina, his family is elated to know he is alive, but refuses to 
>accept that
> any amnesty is necessary.
>
> "I don't believe this about him being a deserter," his sister, Pat Harrell, told The 
>New York
> Times.
>
> His family has always questioned the authenticity of a farewell letter the army says 
>Jenkins
> left behind, which began: "Dear Mother, I am sorry for the trouble I will cause you."
>
> For the past 37 years the question has been whether Jenkins was a deserter or was
> abducted. Now, as the story of the Japanese abductees unfolds, we are tantalisingly 
>close
> to the answer.
>
> On the superficial evidence, it would seem that Jenkins did betray his country. He 
>is one of
> four US servicemen who are alleged to have deserted to the North during the 1960s,
> subsequently used as Cold War trophies by Pyongyang in propaganda material.
>
> In 1996 the Pentagon classed Jenkins and the other three servicemen as defectors. In
> addition, there are apparently between 10 and 15 US prisoners of war from the Korean
> War still in North Korea.
>
> What would make Jenkins, an average young man from an average American town, turn to
> the embrace of a communist enemy?
>
> His life until then holds few clues. In his home town of Rich Square, a farming 
>hamlet of
> 1000 people, Jenkins was given the nickname Super because his strength was out of
> proportion to his slender frame.
>
> After struggling at school, he seemed to have found his niche with the army, a 
>logical
> extension of enjoyable days in the National Guard. He served at a US base in Japan 
>before
> his tour of duty in South Korea.
>
> While family and friends have remained loyal, others are not so sure.
>
> "I think Jenkins's friends and relatives are in denial and engaged in wishful 
>thinking," said
> Bill Sizemore, a journalist who has written on the Jenkins case for the newspaper The
> Virginian-Pilot.
>
> "One of his friends told me six years ago that Jenkins told him on his last visit 
>home, in late
> '64 or early '65, that 'when he left this time, he wasn't coming back'."
>
> Ms Soga also reportedly told Japanese officials in Pyongyang recently that her 
>husband had
> gone to North Korea to avoid service in Vietnam.
>
> "That sounds plausible to me," Sizemore said.
>
> The only person who really knows what happened on that winter's night near the DMZ is
> Charles Jenkins.
>
> "We don't know if he was abducted or deserted," said Lynn O'Shea, of the National 
>Alliance
> of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen.
>
> "However, based on the evidence, one must consider the possibility that he was 
>abducted.
> Until someone can question Charles Jenkins on neutral ground with his family 
>protected, we
> don't think we will ever have the answer to that question.
>
> "We know the North Koreans kidnapped foreign nationals. An obvious question is: why
> wouldn't they want Americans for their spy school also?"
>
> This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/25/
> 1035504882647.html
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> A<>E<>R
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
> Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send
> (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's 
>important)
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without 
>charge or
> profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of 
>information for
> non-profit research and educational purposes only.
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
> "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth
> shut."
> --- Ernest Hemingway
>
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always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
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