Iwata Karen`s Documentary Letter

How are you? It’s been awhile.

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to speak to you.

Are you sleeping in blankets now?

Are you free of bad dreams now?

Tokyo’s winters…you can’t see your breath in them.

Or see the stars.

I’m sorry I left for Tokyo without saying goodbye.

Truthfully, I thought about it a lot.

I wondered if it was okay to wear these beautiful costumes and sing while everyone else was struggling.

Should I give up my dream?

I worried about it a lot.

But recently, the members and I visited Rikuzen-Takata village in Iwate Prefecture and I shook hands with a little girl in the rain.

She said “Your hands are so warm”

And then I knew what we had to do.

My job was to embrace these cold hands and warm their harts

I lost any doubt at that moment.

I took the baton and began to try to help one, or two or three people.

At the school I was going to go to, my seat is still open.

People have told me to visit once.

And I told them…

I can’t.

There are other things I have to do.

I have to find my place within AKB48.

I can’t go back until then.

God gave me the biggest obstacle and opportunity at the same.

Am I being tested?

I was..chosen.

That’s why I will cut open the future with everyone.

That is my destiny.

-Iwata Karen, 12th generation KKS, in AKB48’s Documentary The Show Must Go On