This comes as a response to what we believe is Highly Inaccurate
writing by Rachel Aviv in her recent article about Sharon Stern, Butoh and
Katsura Kan published in the New Yorker Magazine on April 06, 2020.
This opinion reaction was sent on April 10, 2020, from Tibor Stern, President of F.A.C.T. and the father of the deceased Sharon Stern, on behalf of the Sharon Stern Estate.
In our opinion, we believe the article is very misleading and didn’t accurately
portray the destructive nature of Butoh dance form and failed to address the
undue influence of Katsura Kan over his student, Sharon Stern, which led to her
inner destruction of self, loss of critical thinking, and encouragement of
suicide leading to her death in 2012.
"Rachel,
After reading your article in the "New Yorker," I realized how unethical, mean spirited, biased, untruthful and deceiving in nature your final article was, in my opinion.
You portray the perpetrator as an innocent man while you are bashing my family and the real victim, my daughter, may she rest in peace.
It is beyond my comprehension how a man that was found guilty for the wrongful death of my daughter in the court of law could be called a 'noble man' by the writer of New Yorker Magazine.
You and your magazine missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring light to this tremendous epidemic that destroys thousands of great families in our country.
I can assure you that I had many projects to share with you in the future... no more!!!
I have many credible and honest writers, journalists, and media outlets that are eager to expose the horrific abuse to the vulnerable and weak victims of undue influence and brainwashing. They all have one thing in common, which is to stop the abusers through education by bringing awareness to the public at large. Unlike you, in my opinion.
Yes, you may sell more prints, but it is my belief that this type of writing is more suitable for tabloid publishing.
You were so busy with my wife's diamonds, but do you care at all what a tremendous philanthropist my wife is? 25% of our yearly income is donated to charities. Do you even know that the diamonds represent 70% of our not-for-profit organization's budget? The organization saves children from abuse, unites families, works with law enforcement, helps victims to start a new life, assists with food and housing, psychological care, etc. I believe that you were blinded with jealousy over her diamonds which kept you from seeing our true nature. To write a quote as you did: "Sterns like only diamonds," is highly inaccurate, defamatory in nature and is extremely unethical journalism. Nothing is farther from the truth.
It is my opinion, as a result of our conversations (which I will keep to myself at this point), that you have portrayed my family through the eyes of your own family struggle. When you have an assignment, you should leave those past issues and struggles on your kitchen table.
There is a saying, "One who doesn't confront evil will empower evil;" I believe you have achieved that through your article. Is Katsura Kan the kind of exemplary teacher that you chose to portray as a victim? You may regret saying that one day; I wonder how you would react if your kids would have such a teacher as Katsura Kan.
Now to the facts.
1. When Anna initially approached me for fact-finding, I knew it would be a problem when she opened with the first question: Is it true that your daughter had a hooked nose and a sly smile? I understood that she was only interested in selective facts that would fit your agenda. I find that highly offensive, discriminatory in nature, defamatory, unethical, mean-spirited and anti-Semetic in nature. In Nazi Germany, Jews were portrayed in caricatures this way and were sent to gas chambers. I lost my whole family in Auschwitz. You tried to apologize many times, but your apology is not accepted. She didn't have a hooked nose, nor sly smile. Why was it so important for you to wrongly emphasize false physical attributes?
2. I never told you Katsura Kan killed my daughter! My daughter committed suicide. What I told you is: Katsura Kan brought the death upon my daughter. Katsura Kan contributed to the death of my daughter. Katsura Kan is responsible for the death of my daughter; he was found guilty for the wrongful death of Sharon Stern in the court of law.
3. Denmark. At the event of 100 dancers, they didn't stay all over the town. Katsura kept my daughter for 2 weeks in a place called Christiana, also known as being the center for drug trading in a dangerous part of Copenhagen. At that point, my daughter was mentally broken down. When I contacted Detective Thomas Miller from the Copenhagen police force for help to find my daughter and join me in the search for her, he advised me not to go there because I would be endangering my life. He told me his police force doesn't even go there. I went and took pictures as evidence. I shared with you the whole event, but I guess it didn't fit into your agenda for this article. Would you want your children's teacher taking them to this kind of place?
4. Lawsuit. You spoke to our attorney, Ben Murphey, for hours, I believe. Not one piece of input, not one quote of his did you include in the article. The only thing you made sure of including is Katsura Kan's quotes and lies. Our judicial system allowed Katsura Kan 6 years of lying and deceiving the court while wasting tax payer's money with 3-4 appeals of his, which were all denied. Yet, you chose to believe him as your 'judicial expert.' According to you, this 'poor, innocent man' was denied justice. The court admitted every, single piece of evidence submitted to the exhibit. Each of those clearly indicated his guilt. Among the exhibits were evidence of his manipulation of my daughter to her death, denying her much needed mental health care, telling my daughter which day to die with instructions to first take money from her family and to wire it to his bank account in Japan. He wrote, 'you are stupid to follow me in to danger,' 'kisses to the stupid girl.'
5. I have evidence of at least 10 different pieces of correspondence from Katsura inviting Sharon in February 2012 to San Francisco to attend the Butoh performance. Where did you come up with the notion that she was not invited? Seems to me that you are interested only in limited facts that fit your agenda. In my opinion, your conduct on this subject was highly unethical, which doesn't comply with the journalistic code of ethics.
6. Many more cases have landed on our desks against Katsura Kan and his group. Second victim of Katsura Kan: One more documented complaint from a young female student of Katsura came to our attention. The alleged complaint was: Katsura drugged her and raped her and she didn't remember anything about her whereabouts for 2 weeks. I informed you about this and the victim's request to stay anonymous. I have the victim's girl friend, also a Butoh dancer, to testify on this matter. I have the consent of the victim to expose this story only if I can keep her anonymous, which I am. I told you that I would like to connect you with her. She is fragile and afraid for her life. I never heard back from you showing any further interest in her story. I am glad it didn't work out; I believe that you would twist her story, too, which would further harm her recovery. There was a case of a Butoh dancer disappearing in the forest somewhere in Japan. It is no wonder that they are all fearful to speak out. I have a new complaint from Butoh dancers about Katsura's ex-student who is operating a Butoh retreat and promoting pedophilia in the name of enlightenment and cleanliness. When they complained to Katsura, he brushed it to the side. It just so happens that Katsura is a welcome guest at this center numerous times each year. The petition is signed by 200 ex-students. This new project will go to a highly ethical journalist who will confront the evil.
7. You had the opportunity to challenge why Naropa, an accredited, American university, allowed an unlicensed construction worker from Japan to teach the MFA Program curriculum of psychology and philosophy in the student body classroom while we all know that his Butoh dance curriculum teaches pain, suffering and death! Butoh was banned in Japan for these reasons! He claims, and you second it, that his English is to be blamed for his convictions. If that is so, don't you ask how he could teach, in English, university-level psychology and philosophy courses for the MFA program?
8. You wrote that his goal was modest: To survive as an avant-garde artist - don’t be so naive! His goal was to have sex with beautiful young students of his, exploit them mentally, physically and monetarily, and destroy their ego and critical thinking so he can manipulate them as a toy. He admitted to having sex with 160 of his female dance students. You quoted Katsura saying, "If married couples had a crisis in their relationship, they can go to the choreographer." You made him out to be a marriage counselor, but we see what happened with my daughter's marriage after 4 years of his brainwashing through destructive dance - she is six feet under! Wake up, girl!
9. You claim Kan's loss in the lawsuit against him was a kind of evil fairy tale. Wrong! It brought justice. I believe your writing created an evil fairy tale.
10. Finally, your quote: “There was almost a kind of nobility in his encyclopedic candidness.“ Enclosed, see the picture of him with Hitler (which I gave to you) that he posted to upset me. I believe that you may be able to find some nobility in Hitler, too. Katsura doesn’t need an advocate anymore; he has you. As I mentioned earlier, “One who doesn’t confront evil will empower the evil.” I believe you did just that.
For closing: Who are you, Rachel Aviv? What do you stand for? In my opinion, you are a dishonest journalist and I also believe you are highly unethical. I provided you with all supporting material in hope and belief that your article will bring awareness to educate the public about the cult epidemic that destroys thousands of American families.
Unfortunately, I believe you missed an opportunity to educate the public, the vulnerable, and the sick. In my belief there can be only 2 reasons for that: 1) Katsura Kan managed to manipulate you as he did 160 of his own students; 2) In my opinion, you must have had a wicked agenda in your mind to have successfully twisted all of the facts on this story. I do not think that you are too naive to be manipulated by Katsura, but your writing shows otherwise.
In my opinion, you do not have even a minimal understanding regarding the subjects of cults, brainwashing, exploitation, undue influence, nor a minimum ounce of compassion for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims in this epidemic who lose their critical thinking and are in dire need of direction. My recommendation to you would be that you no longer write about these subjects in which you do not understand as I further believe your writing may inflict more toxic harm on the victims by being grossly misleading.
You and your team denied my request for the article NOT to be published without me first checking all related facts. The responsibility for this article lies on you. I trust the readers will have their own conclusion about this article after reading my own published response."
Tibor Stern
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