Our Translation Project of
"The Families
of
Abductees" started at the end of year 2005. We
started because we found there was no book in English on abduction” at all. People didn’t know about
the "abduction",
because there was no book on it. If
people didn’t
know about
it, they could not help. If there was
no help from people internationally, we could not solve the problem.
We
find the book “The Families of Abductees”
is the best book for the purpose. It is
about
real experiences and real voices of actual families of abductees. It is not
a book on politics, but rather true stories of the families. They say
that the abduction was harder than death. They have lived hard and
tried their best against all the
difficulties.
We
decided to work as volunteers for this Project.
We didn’t
collect money. We
didn’t
spend money. We didn’t accept money. By being volunteers for the Translation
Project, we not only
translated it, but also we
read it and found many facts which we did not know
before.
In year 2006,
we had spent about a half-year for initial
translation bymainly Japanese. In
the second half of the year 2006, we had worked forediting and also for
standardizing all the chapters by both Japanese and
Americans. Though
the review and improvement by native speakers of English still continue
today, we reached the point that we could
discuss thepublication with the publisher. Starting
this January we have been talking about publishing in more concrete
term. As a Japanese publisher, Kobunsha
represents a copyright of the book, Kobunsha has been
talking to American publishers through its US agent.
The agent has
been spending some time and working hard to
find a good American publishers, but still working on it.
We know that to publish is as difficult as to
translate it. Our belief has not changed that we need international
cooperation to rescue the abductees. To
get help from people internationally, we need to let them know the
facts. To
know the facts, there should be at least one English book on the
abduction. We also continue to believe
that it is the
best way to do the Project by volunteers without spending money.
It is the end
of the first half of 2007. We have not
been able to rescuer the abductees yet. We
know that there is still no book on
abduction in English. The
majority of the world population do no know abut the “abduction”, though we
appreciate Patty Kim and
Chris Sheridan of Safari Media, the creator of the
movie “Abduction: Megumi
Yokota Story”,
and Noel
"Paul" Stookey of "Peter, Paul &
Mary". However we should not stand still
depending only on them. We have to work
harder ourselves. This
time, I am reporting the status of the Project, and asking your
continuous support for the Project.
Without
a book, people don’t know about it. If they don’t know, they
cannot
help. If
people don’t
help, we cannot rescue the abductees. It
is not easy, but we will never give-up.
Thank you very
much
for your support.
Please send
your
message to Kobunsha.