TOKYO – The “missing” father of a nine-year-old Thai-Japanese boy has agreed to travel from Tokyo to Bangkok in order to be reunited with an old photograph of himself he thought he lost years ago.
Katzumi Zato, the absent dad of Phichit boy Keigo Zato, was recently tracked down by Thai and Japanese government officials through an old picture that shows Katzumi shirtless, wearing sunglasses and apparently having an excellent time.
“Actually, it is a miracle really,” Katzumi told Japanese paper Tokyo Shimbun over the weekend. “I always wondered what the hell happened to that picture.”
“When the government contacted me, I was nervous at first, because I was completely kamikazed [“shitfaced” in Japanese] in that picture. But when they told me they would help me track it down, I was actually quite relieved. I could not deny it any longer. Yes, that is me in that crazy picture.”
The reluctant father, who recently thanked Keigo on the phone for keeping the picture, now says he would like to meet his son in person, briefly, in order to persuade him to relinquish the old photograph.
“If Keigo agrees to give me that picture, I would love to come see him. Sure, why not? It’s the least I could do since he kept it for me all these years,” he said. “I hope he will understand how much the picture means to me. It sure does bring back a lot of good memories.”
Asked what he will do with the picture once he reclaims it, Katzumi said, “I look so very ridiculous. It is rather humiliating really to have it printed everywhere. What kind of son would disrespect their father like this? But I accept that Keigo, being a hafu taijin [“half foreigner” in Japanese], does not know better.”
Katzumi has not yet decided what he will do with the picture. “I will bring it back to Japan, stick it on my fridge, or just tear it up. Either way, it is much better if that long-lost photo is with me, where it belongs.”
