Dear Mr. Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs:

On behalf of the Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan, we request that the Japanese government immediately help rescue Yoko Kaneko, whose life is currently in danger due to inhumane treatment by Jiang Zemin's regime in China. We hope that the Japanese government will, out of their humanitarian concern, help, through diplomatic channels and at an early date, to free Mrs. Kaneko from the persecution of her human rights, and return her to her family.

We've learned from Chinese media reports that Mrs.Yoko Kaneko was illegally arrested on May 24 while she was distributing Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials in Beijing. At the end of June, she was illegally sentenced without trial to one-and-a-half years of "re-education through forced labor." While she was detained in the Beijing Forced Labor Camp, she was brutally tortured and subjected to forced brainwashing. Yoko Kaneko's husband, Mr. Atsushi Kaneko, was allowed to visit Yoko in a Chinese jail on August 15. On his return, he said that he had seen that his wife was not in her right mind. She seemed to be an entirely different person. She was obviously extremely weak. She appeared to have lost 10 kilograms. Both of her wrists were black and blue. A few days before, Yoko suddenly fainted when her older sister visited her. Later she was sent to a hospital for treatment for four days. Her blood pressure had reached 220.

We are deeply concerned for Mrs. Kaneko's physical and mental condition. It pains our hearts. What Mrs. Kaneko is suffering reflects the reality of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang's regime. During the past three years, these good people who have remained committed to their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance have been deprived by Jiang of their freedom of belief, personal freedom and property rights, which are guaranteed by the Chinese constitution. These innocent practitioners have been illegally arrested, sentenced to imprisonment and cruelly tortured. Their property has been confiscated, their families broken up and some of them killed. According to internal sources in China, over 1,600 people have been tortured to death. Over 100 thousand Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally sentenced to imprisonment and forcibly sent to labor camps or mental hospitals where they have been injected with nerve-damaging drugs that were banned here during World War II. In recent history, of the cases in which a nation's resources and the tool of law have been used in the systematic violation and brutal persecution of human rights, we think of Hitler's persecution of the Jews in Germany. However, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners' human rights by Jiang's regime is even crueler.

Jiang has persecuted Falun Gong for three years. During these 1,000 days, Falun Gong practitioners living in democratic free countries all over the world have spent time and energy to tirelessly disclose the truth of the inhumane persecution to the governments and people of the world. They do this to engage the assistance of kind and just people in ending the brutal torture and the violation of human rights. Now, the international communities understand that the Falun Gong situation is not just a concern of the Chinese people, but a matter of international human rights. The governments of the U.S., Canada and other countries, as well as several famous international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, all issued an open statement condemning the persecution and requesting Jiang and the Chinese authorities to immediately stop the brutal crimes against the human rights and freedom of Falun Gong practitioners. The forces of justice in the international communities also have successfully rescued overseas practitioners who were detained in China for maintaining their belief in Falun Gong. These include Professor Zhang Kunlun from Canada, Ms. Zhu Ying, Mr. Lin Shenli, Australian citizen Ms. Zhang Cuiying, who is an artist, and Mr. Zhao Ming, a graduate student in Ireland.

Japan is a modern democratic country ruled by law. The Japanese people must understand that persecuting innocent people who abide by the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance violates basic human rights and offends human dignity. We believe that the Japanese government will surely assist good people, uphold justice and try all possible means to rescue Mrs. Kaneko, the wife of a Japanese citizen, who is still being persecuted by Jiang in China. We would like to express our sincere thanks for the efforts to rescue Mrs. Kaneko undertaken by the "Ultra Parties and Groups Assembly Alliance to Rescue Yoko Kaneko", which was founded by Japanese citizens and Japanese congressional members. We hope that the Japanese government will offer more specific and effective humanitarian assistance to help Mrs. Yoko Kaneko return to Japan as soon as possible to rejoin her husband and family.

Finally, please accept our sincere best wishes for both the nation of Japan and the Japanese people. We thank all just people of Japan for their concern and assistance in this matter of international human rights.

Taiwan Falun Dafa Association

August 2002