Father and daughter were able to see one another for the first time since 2003
In the midst of the natural and nuclear disaster in Japan over the past weeks, a local man was reconnected with his daughter who was abducted by her mother eight years ago.
It took a team of investigators and interpreters to find Lance Litwiller’s daughter, Kaira. Since the 2003 abduction, Litwiller has tried to find his daughter and advocate for changing the Japanese law that allowed this to happen.
“It was a really beautiful experience,” he said of seeing his teenage daughter for the first time since she was 6. “It was incredibly emotional for me.”
Kaira attended school in Littlefork before she was taken to Japan. Litwiller had been given custody of the girl; but the mother took an opportunity during a summer vacation trip to abduct the girl to the country many feel is a safe haven for parents, especially women, to avoid custody disputes in the United States.
An estimated 200 cases of parental abduction to Japan happen annually. Japan has not signed the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction and therefore does not recognize international parental abductions.
Litwiller was left with little legal recourse to return his daughter to the U.S. He found her in Japan not long after the 2003 abduction, but the mother was able to flee with the girl before Litwiller could work out the custody issues.
A legal case was pending against the mother, Ritsuko, in the U.S. for passport fraud and child abduction, but Litwiller had the charges dropped so his ex-wife could return to the U.S. with the child.
Litwiller has received several emails from his ex-wife since 2003, most of them coming in the last two years. He was able to send money last Christmas so his daughter could receive a game she wanted. But besides a few photographs and infrequent contact with his ex-wife, Litwiller’s deep desire to gain a connection with his daughter had remained unfulfilled.
In March he received word from investigators he hired about the school his daughter attended. Knowing she would be going on spring break, Litwiller made immediate plans to fly to Okinawa to see if he could reestablish the relationship.
He said he tried to avoid traveling through Tokyo because of the risk of radiation caused by a nuclear disaster that occurred after the recent earthquake. But he was forced to enter the city in a short flight layover, and said the chance to see his daughter was worth the risk.
Upon arriving in Okinawa, he waited just outside the school investigators told him that his daughter attended. He was accompanied by a translator, in case the girl did not remember her first language that he assumed she had not used since leaving the U.S.
He waited on a Monday outside the school, and lost hope after she did not come out of the building after several hours. He learned later that the Monday had been a Japanese national holiday. Tuesday would prove to be the moment he had been waiting for eight years.
He approached her just outside the school, as many of her schoolmates and teachers milled around.
“She had a shocked and concerned look on her face until I started talking,” Litwiller said. “Then that look of fear turned into a big smile.”
Litwiller said he walked with his daughter and one of her friends for the two miles it took the girls to get home.
He said they talked about the 14-year old’s life and he showed her pictures of her past in America, as well as her family in Borderland.
“She remembered me,” he said.
But as they neared Kaira’s apartment, he did not want to risk a confrontation with his ex-wife, so Litwiller got a hug from Kaira and walked back toward the school. Both turned around and waved multiple times, not wanting the experience to end, he said.
Litwiller asked to see his daughter again, and later received a message from his ex-wife agreeing to meet. Litwiller said he had the opportunity to spend several hours with both his daughter and her mother that Friday.
He said he learned during that trip that she loves animals, as does he. And he said they have the same smile and the same eyes.
Work obligations and travel arrangements necessitated he return to the U.S. the next day.
“I don’t want to miss another day with her,” Litwiller said. The past few years have been difficult, but he said it is even more bittersweet now that he has spent time with her. “Now I know where she is and it’s driving me insane.”
“I desperately want to reestablish that relationship,” he said, speaking of his daughter. He looks to the future, but can’t help think of the formative years he has already missed.
“I can’t believe how she’s grown up, my little girl,” he said. “It was like a lifetime has passed. It’s so sad to me that I missed out on the years where a child’s world revolves around their parents.”
He said he plans to return to Japan as soon as possible to continue the relationship and communication he has built. a
“I want to have whatever part of that I can,” he said.
