By Liz Abrams, February 11, 2021 — This is a story of what happened to my middle grandson in 1990s.
The family was missing the grandson for a long while—too long—and so it caused us to start checking all possible facilities in the city to no avail. After a while, about a year and a half later, not too soon, his mother, my daughter, received a postcard from Tokyo, Japan from the missing grandson. The assertive young man at 19 had a powerful build, six-foot-two, two hundred and fifty pounds. He was an excellent athlete in high school and a strong competitive game player online.
The best day of my life that year, we spoke to him by phone. His friend in Japan, another game player, invited him to visit and made him gain employment there. The host family paid his transport and he landed in Tokyo, warmly welcomed, and his dark complexion did not deter his opportunity for employment with the security company. The employer trained him in basic martial arts. Later on, we learned that he had a basic command of the language, and that landed him another position in Kyoto as a personal bodyguard for a well-known Osaka celebrity. Of course, the family all breathed a great sigh of relief, realizing that the grandson living in Philadelphia did not have much chance of survival, he made his own escape. The grandson is now a living example and role model for his younger siblings and neighborhood youth. They don’t have to live under siege.