| We ought to play the tapes anyway. |
The frail 64-year-old turned himself into US military authorities on September 11, two months after he left Pyongyang and came to Japan for medical treatment. Tokyo has called for leniency in his case so he could live in Japan with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters. In full uniform for the court-martial, Jenkins wept as he described his depression, fears of death and heavy drinking in the days leading up to his January 5, 1965 disappearance from his unit. He said he was afraid of being transferred to dangerous daytime patrols in the Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas, or worse: Vietnam. "I started to fear something for myself, but I started to fear even more that I might cause other soldiers to be killed. I started to drinking alcohol," he said, breaking down in tears. "I never drank so much before." After 10 days of planning, he headed for North Korea with a white tee-shirt tied to his rifle as a surrender flag. Jenkins said he was harshly mistreated in North Korea and forced to teach English to military cadets from 1981 until 1985, adding that refusing to do so would have brought "hardship to me and my family that would never end."The court-martial is the climax to one of the army's longest desertion sagas. Though army deserters from the 1940s are still being sought, no deserter or desertion suspect has surrendered after as long an absence as Jenkins. Jenkins joined the army as a teenager, received a Good Conduct Award after his first tour of duty in South Korea in 1961 and rose to the rank of sergeant.