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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a formal floor step rather than a policy debate. It mentions members such as Jill Tokuda.
Official title: RETURNING JAPANESE CITIZENS ABDUCTED BY NORTH KOREA
Issued
September 15, 2026
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Download official House Record PDFReturn to issue contextMs. Tokuda of Hawaii was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.)
Ms. TOKUDA. Madam Speaker, imagine sending your 13-year-old daughter to school and waiting nearly 50 years for her to come home.
abducted her daughter, Megumi, in 1977. As a parent, that thought is absolutely heartbreaking.
I think about my own sons. I imagine them growing up without me at an age so young that, after all those years, they might not even recognize my face.
Koichiro Iizuka knows what that is like. His mother was abducted when he was just 1 year old.
abducted by North Korea. While 5 returned home, 12 remain unaccounted for.
Their families have grown old waiting. Many passed away. Sakie is now 90 years old. Every year without answers is another year stolen from them.
This is not only Japan's tragedy. David Sneddon, an American college student who disappeared while hiking in China in 2004, is also believed by his family and many others to have been abducted by North Korea. His fate remains unknown.
These cases are a warning. When governments are allowed to make people disappear, no family and no country are beyond their reach.
Japan is one of America's closest friends and allies. If President Trump has an opportunity to speak to Kim Jong-un, he must raise these abductions directly. He must press for the return of every abductee and a full, credible accounting for those who remain missing, including David Sneddon.
agreements. It must also be about human beings. Democracies must stand together in defense of our people and their most basic human rights. Time has already taken far too much from these families. We cannot allow silence to take away their last hope for answers.
restoring funding for public broadcasting
Ms. TOKUDA. Madam Speaker, this is not the first time I have taken to the floor to talk about Kauai Community Radio, KKCR.
lost $83,000. I warned then that this wasn't simply about radio programming. It was about whether communities would have a trusted lifeline when disaster strikes.
Last week, Hurricane Lowell proved the point. When the storm hit Kauai, power went out across the island. Cell service and internet became unreliable. Roads were blocked. Trees came down. Communities were cut off.
KKCR stayed on the air. When the power failed, they switched to a generator. When the internet went down, they used a donated Starlink connection. When trees went down around their North Shore station, they kept broadcasting.
For a time, KKCR was the only station that Kauai could hear. They carried updates from the mayor and emergency management officials. They relayed calls from listeners who were reporting weather, road conditions, and power outages in their neighborhoods. They told people where they could find food, ice, water, and help. They played music to keep people calm. In the digital age, when clocks and phones had gone dark, they even reminded people what time it was.
communication. More than three decades later, Hurricane Lowell shows us why that mission still matters.
not entertainment but a lifeline. We must restore this funding because when the next disaster comes, the question is not whether people will need KKCR. It is whether KKCR will still be on the air to answer the call.