Send Me Your Spirit

Japan, Yasu Nagai, and the "Song for Megumi"

 Through the efforts of Yasu Nagai and by the invitation of Prime Minister Abe, Noel performed his"Song for Megumi" at a press conference at Kōtei, the Official Residence in Tokyo on Feb. 20, 2007.(Photo credit: EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Peter, Paul and Mary’s first tour of Japan happened in June of 1964. I met Yasu Nagai, the teen-age president of the PP&M fan club in Tokyo, as he stood backstage during our sound-check. I was totally enthralled by the country, the people and their kind and giving manner. And by the time the trio returned for its third visit in 1967, Yasu had taken my interest in his country seriously enough to introduce me to many of the cultural subtleties—including a visit to an artisan from whom I ordered a koto—a 13 string instrument that I subsequently played on stage in Japan as well as in my basement recording studio back in the states.

A fourth and fifth tour of Japan in 1969 and 1970 preceded the trio’s “taking time off for good behavior,” and following the release of our Live in Japan album in 1983, Peter, Mary and I returned to Japan several more times: in 1990, 1992, and 1995.  

Yasu’s continual support of folk music underlined his awareness of its power to make a positive change in the world. In 1993, Yasu had arranged for me to join Kosetsu Minami, one of the country’s premier performers, at the Green Day Celebration (the Japanese equivalent of Earth Day in the United States) and to lead the audience in a song I had written entitled “We Are One.” (The song was later selected by the Kidlinks organization to become part of their children’s outreach to create an awareness of our relationship to each other and the world around us.) Yasu and several other participants joined me on stage that night to express our reverence for our planet and subsequently, with his help and encouragement, I began to explore the possibility of solo performances at several of the small clubs in Kyoto and Tokyo.  

One of those solo visits was precipitated by a phone call in 2006.  On that occasion Yasu spoke to me of a young girl, Megumi Yokoto, who had been kidnapped by North Korea in 1977.  

Most of those declared missing from previous abductions by the DPRK were in their 20s; but Megumi was the youngest. She was 13 when she disappeared from the Japanese west coast city of Niigata. It was understood that, as part of a plan to learn more intimately the customs and language of Japan, some of the victims had been abducted to teach Japanese language and culture at North Korean spy schools. Now, almost 30 years later, the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was reawakening attempts to resolve the issue, and Yasu asked if I would write a song of protest to bring more attention to the kidnapping, express solidarity with the Japanese people and help to create a world-wide awareness of the situation.

Within a few months I had completed the “Song for Megumi,” and Yasu arranged for NHK, a Japanese television network, to come to my home studio in Blue Hill, Maine and videotape a performance. The subsequent airing of that news clip led to a return visit to Japan in February of 2007 where I did several interviews and sang the song at a press conference in the state house for the Prime Minister and his guests, including Megumi’s parents.

Though he was a teenager when we first met, Yasu Nagai instinctively knew that the music of Peter, Paul and Mary had a healing quality. Music’s capacity to transcend language barriers, to summon an emotional response and move the heart is timeless, and though the results of the Japanese outreach to the North Korean government still has yet to reach a satisfactory resolution, the continuing attempt to obtain Megumi’s freedom is strong and continues even today.  

Alas, Yasu is no longer with us…

EPILOGUE

Betty and I had attended the marriage of Yasu’s son Hisaya several years prior, and in turn, I had asked Yasu and his wife Mia to visit with us in the summer of 2008 for the wedding of our daughter Anna. They landed at the Bangor airport, rented a car, and an hour later, unfamiliar with the coastal fog of Maine, Yasu miscalculated the speed of his car and the severity of the turn of the road descending into Blue Hill, and tragically, both he and Mia died in the resulting accident.   

The world has lost a “loving advocate” for peace and harmony.  Long live Yasu’s legacy—alive and well—in his two sons, Hisaya and Genji! 

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Connections:

Read here the in-depth review of the North Korea / Japan abduction dispute.

Vibrations: 

See performance of SONG FOR MEGUMI at Prime Minister Abe’s press conference.

Doug Cameron joins Noel for the Tokyo concert premiere of SONG FOR MEGUMI.

Yasu Nagai, Kosetsu Minami, and Noel sing WE ARE ONE at Green Day

Kidlinks version of WE ARE ONE.

Resonance:

Noel’s essay is about how his 44-year friendship wth Yasu led not only  to his deep appreciation for Japan, its people, and its culture. His connection with Jasu also to his  involvement in Japan’s Green Day celebration and in raising international awareness of North Korea’s abduction of a number of Japanese citizens during the 1970s and 1980s. To borrow a line from “Facets of the Jewel,” “Our lives are connected.”  Perhaps you have a story of how a friendship opened you to worlds and connections you never imagined. If so, we invite you to share it.

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