Yoko Kaneko Recalls Her 548 Day Abduction By the Followers of Jiang and His Regime, Part 1

On May 24, 2002, two Faun Dafa practitioners and myself travelled from Japan and arrived in Beijing to appeal in Tiananmen Square. We were arrested, around 11 am on the way there, while passing out Falun Dafa truth clarifying materials to people walking on the street and in a residential area. The police took the two Japanese citizens away that evening and locked me in the basement alone, because I am a Chinese citizen. Three police were watching me.

Upon returning to Japan, Yoko was welcomed by her husband and Falun Dafa practitioners in Japan and was interviewed by the media

After she returned to her home in Niigata, this picture was taken of her Japanese family; from left to right: her husband's mother, 90-year-old grandmother and Yoko with her husband)

On the day I was arrested, the temperature was very high in Beijing, around 35-36oC (96oF), but it was very cold at night. I wore a summer outfit, with a short sleeve shirt and a summer skirt. The police would not allow me wear my socks and forced me to stand on the cold cement bare foot. The police wore their cotton-filled jackets and still complained about the cold. They refused to listen to me clarify the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong and cursed and insulted me. They locked me in the basement until the following afternoon. It was that evening that they sent me to a detention centre. They found that I had a high blood pressure reading of more than 200, which was far above their admittance standard. Because of legal issues surrounding the fact that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and my husband is Japanese, they went to get permission from an Official, before admitting me.

They forced handcuffs and ankle shackles on me and sent me to their designated hospital--the Warm Spring Hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, they cuffed my hands and ankles to a bed and forcibly gave me injections of an unknown drug. I told them Falun Dafa is being persecuted in China. One supervisor ordered, "Take that Falun Gong special bed out and let's see if she's as good as she thinks she is." The Falun Gong bed is a specially designed torture device. It is a 2-feet wide by 6-foot long wooden board with four legs. Many straps are nailed on the board. Four or five policemen forcibly tied me on the bed with the straps from my ankles to my shoulders. They stepped on the board to make sure the belts were very tight and said while tightening, "Aren't you a Dafa disciple? Aren't you capable of enduring? Your Master is too kind to you and I am letting you enjoy enduring!" Then they cuffed my hands onto the legs of the bed, which was extremely painful. My face was perspiring, because of the pain. My body could not move at all. I was tied in this position three whole days and was almost unconscious, because of the pain. They attached a blood pressure monitor to me, because they were afraid that I might die due to the torture. Later, they saw that I was almost dead and removed me from the bed. They told me sarcastically, "We will send you to a great place." They sent me to the Beijing Police Hospital, where they torture Falun Dafa practitioners more brutally.

Upon arriving, the police said to me, "We will help you fully enjoy your stay!" I was on a hunger strike all this time. They cuffed me onto a bed and inserted a tube through my nose into my stomach to force-feed me. I refused to be force-fed. They then stretched my body by cuffing my hands and shackling my feet to the bed. Because my body was stretched to the limit, my wrists were bleeding. While torturing me, they said, "This is not treating a human, this is killing a pig." On top of all this, I had a feeding tube through my nose and a catheter, so I would not have to get off the bed to use the toilet. I was also having my period, so they stripped the clothing off my lower body and forced me to lay me in that condition on a piece of plastic sheet. In the hot June temperature, Beijing weather, I was soaked in sweat, blood and the food from the feeding tube. I could no longer move at all, because I had been tied to the bed almost twenty days without care or being allowed to bathe. All the doctors and nurses avoided me, because of the disgusting odour. One Office Supervisor said to me, "If you promise not to practise Falun Gong, I can send you back to Japan." I answered, "What is wrong with Falun Gong? You have committed a sin by persecuting Falun Gong like this. You must let me go back to Japan without any conditions! It is impossible for me to give up Falun Gong!" I was very weak. They knew that my husband was a Japanese citizen and dared not kill me. When they finally untied me from that bed, I could not get up by myself. My back was in such poor condition that I could not walk. They took me back to the detention centre and sentenced me to18 months in a labour camp.

Four or five police held my hand and tried to force me to put my finger print on a document and go through the labour camp procedures. I said loudly, "I am innocent! You are violating my human rights and freedom of belief! Falun Gong is Great!" I struggled for about half an hour, but they eventually obtained my fingerprint. I told them that I would sue them. I do not accept all that they forced me to have done. They later pushed me against the wall, while several police beat and kicked me, choked my neck and took my picture.

I could not walk by myself and my blood pressure was so high that the labour camp refused to accept me, so I was taken back to the detention centre. I was refused three times by the labour camp and I insisted that I should be released according to their regulation. But, the police went to a higher level to get an "authorisation slip" and forced the labour camp to accept me.

It was very late when I arrived at the labour camp. They forced me to stand in the hall and would not allow me to sleep. I was too weak to stand, so the police asked me to squat. I could not even squat, so they found someone to watch me. They let me sleep after waiting a long time, but woke me up in the morning before the others awoke and asked me squat in the hall again. Later, when they saw that I was truly dying, they sent me to Tiantanghe Hospital.

Now that I am home, my leg still has the wound from when they kicked me 18 months ago. My right arm has not yet fully recovered and I am unable to move it normally.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/12/19/62877.html