ASIA / PACIFIC
June 20, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Japan praises boy who survived alone, wonders about parents
By Yuri Kageyama
The Associated Press
OKYO — The remarkable survival
of a seven-year-old Japanese boy,
abandoned in a forest by his
parents who wanted to teach him a lesson,
prompted nationwide joy and relief. But
Japanese also wondered whether the
father and mother themselves might need
a stern lesson in parenting.
Yamato Tanooka (Tah-noh-oh-kah)
survived alone for nearly a week by finding
shelter in a military hut and drinking
water from a nearby faucet until he was
discovered by chance by a soldier. He
looked a bit worn out but was genki, the
military said, using a Japanese word
describing healthy children. A doctor who
examined him said he was dehydrated but
basically fine.
But some have reacted with outrage,
slamming what the parents did as
inexcusable — punishing a child for
misbehaving by leaving him in a forest
reputedly occupied by bears on the
northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
The parents said they had returned after a
few minutes, but couldn’t find him.
The incident was seen as underlining
how isolated the nuclear family has
become in modern Japanese society, with
parents not getting enough advice on
parenting, and the traditionally present
grandma and grandpa no longer part of
everyday life.
Mitsuko Tateishi, an educator who has
written a book urging mothers to take it
easy, said some parents are succumbing to
what she calls tremendous “good-mom
pressures,” such as having their children
excel and measuring up to other children.
“A child is not a dog or a cat. You have to
treat the child like a human individual,”
she said, stressing that calm explanations
of what is good versus bad is at the root of
parenting, not punishing a child with
abandonment.
Tateishi also believes Japan remains
behind the west in protecting children, and
doubted any concrete action would be
taken against the parents.
“The father is probably really sorry for
T
WEEKLONG ORDEAL. Yamato Tanooka, who was found after being abandoned in a forest by his parents
as punishment, waves as he leaves a hospital in Hakodate on the northern island of Hokkaido. Tanooka survived
alone for nearly a week by finding shelter in a military hut and drinking water from a nearby faucet (right photo,
foreground) until he was discovered by chance by a soldier. (Daisuke Suzuki/Kyodo News via AP)
what he did, but he is so misguided,” she
said.
Appearing outside the hospital where
the boy was flown by helicopter, the father,
Takayuki Tanooka, apologized, bowing
deeply, thanked everyone for the rescue,
and vowed to do a better job as a dad.
“We have raised him with love all along,”
Tanooka said, fighting tears. “I really
didn’t think it would come to that. We went
too far.”
Abandonment and child abuse are far
more common in Japan than the stereo-
type of the doting parent and stay-at-home
mom would suggest. Corporal punishment
in the name of discipline is common,
including beatings and getting thrown out
of homes in the cold.
There have been reports recently of
children who were starved. Even more
alarming, local school and community
officials have not adequately responded to
warning signs, such as a child’s bruises or
extreme hunger. In one case, parents in
their 20s kept their three-year-old chained
to a collar around his neck. The father was
arrested.
A report by Japanese police found that
child abuse is on the rise, with annually
reported cases doubling to nearly 74,000
over the last decade, resulting in nearly
700 prosecutions, triple the number a
decade ago, and more than 2,000 children
being placed in protective custody per
year.
Police said they don’t intend to press
child-neglect charges against his parents.
The boy’s ordeal, pieced together with
information from military and police
teams reported by local media, was
admirable for his resilience and resource-
fulness.
After apparently walking for several
miles, the boy found an empty hut in an
unoccupied military drill area and entered
a door that had been left open. The
Quonset hut-style building had no heat or
electricity and no food, but Yamato
huddled between mattresses on the floor
and drank water from the solitary faucet
outside the hut for several days.
Temperatures drop in the forested area
in northern Japan to below 50º Fahrenheit
at night, and there was rain during the
Dozens of whales stranded on Indonesia’s Java island, 10 die
PROBOLINGGO, Indo-
nesia (AP) — More than 30
whales were stranded on
the coast on Indonesia’s
main island of Java and 10
of them have died, ac-
cording to an official.
A mass rescue operation
managed to pull most of the
stranded whales into the
deep sea, said Wahid Noor
Azis, head of the local Fish-
ery and Maritime manage-
ment organization.
Wahid said the whales
began stranding them-
selves during high tide on
the coast of Pesisir village
in Probolinggo district in
the province of East Java.
The whales, numbering
about 32 to 35, are likely
short-finned pilot whales,
which live in tropical and
subtropical waters, Wahid
ASTHMA
IS
ON
THE RISE.
Help us find a cure.
1-800-LUNG-USA
said.
Dozens of locals using
two boats tried to drive the
last two stranded whales
still alive into the deep sea.
The provincial Conserva-
tion and Natural Resources
Agency
will
conduct
autopsies on the 10 dead
whales to find out why they
became stranded, Wahid
said. The locals will bury
the carcasses of the dead
whales after the autopsies.
Pilot whales are among
the largest of the oceanic
dolphins, exceeded in size
only by the killer whale.
They are also among the
most common cetaceans
stranded.
week, fuelling fears the boy, wearing only a
t-shirt when he went missing, might die
from exposure.
The soldier who found him had not been
part of the search effort, but when he asked
if the boy was Yamato Tanooka, the boy
nodded and said, “Yup.” The soldier gave
him rice balls, which he ate ravenously.
When the solider suggested they should go
home together, the boy nodded again and
said, “Yup.”
Although going without water is
dangerous even for a few days, people can
survive considerably longer without food.
But experts stress a water-only diet for so
long must have been painful.
Daijiro Hashimoto, a former governor
appearing on a talk show on TV Asahi,
wondered how the boy had endured the
loneliness, especially at night, and
suggested that perhaps he had imagined
he was on some adventure and was hiding
in a secret camp.
“He had to keep a very positive attitude,”
Hashimoto said, reflecting widespread
sentiment in Japan. “He is fantastic. He
didn’t know how long it might take, and
when he would ever be saved.”
Japanese media reports focused more on
how lucky and smart the boy had been, and
less on criticizing the parents. Yamato’s
father said he was sorry.
“I told him I was so sorry for causing him
such pain,” he told reporters.