Missing 7-year-old boy found alive in facility in forest after 6 days

[Ceewan]

HAKODATE, Japan (Kyodo) -- A 7-year-old boy who was missing for six days in mountain forests in northern Japan after being left there alone by his parents for misbehaving was found safe Friday.

Yamato Tanooka was last seen around 5 p.m. Saturday on a forest path in Nanae in Hokkaido, where his parents had left him before briefly driving away, according to the police. He did not have any external injuries.

The boy was found at around 7:50 a.m. by Self-Defense Forces personnel in an exercise area in the town of Shikabe in Hokkaido, 5 kilometers away from the town of Nanae where he had been left behind by his parents. He had been staying in a shelter used by troops when it rains.

The boy told SDF personnel that after walking through the forest he had been staying in the shelter, where he had been able to drink water, since Saturday night. The exercise area is regularly used by SDF troops.

He was taken to a hospital in Hakodate where he was later reunited with his parents and sister.

About 130 to 200 police officers and firefighters, as well as SDF personnel, had been searching for the boy. The police used a helicopter Monday to search for him, while firefighters rode horses along forest paths calling out the boy's name.

Yamaoto's parents had initially told investigators that their son disappeared when the family of four was collecting edible wild plants, according to the police.

But they later told the police that the story was untrue and that their son actually went missing after being left alone for about five minutes on their way home from a park.

His 44-year-old father told reporters Sunday that he told Yamato to get out of the car and then drove off "to scare him a little bit" as punishment for throwing stones at people and cars. But when he returned about five minutes later, the boy was not there.

The family searched for the boy for about half an hour before contacting the police when they could not find him.


Think the little stinker learned his lesson? That is a long time for a 7 year old to be on his own. That will leave an impact.

 

[barba]

Think the little stinker learned his lesson? ...

good thing this didn't happen in america. american parents would have marched that kid into the woods at gunpoint. shot him, buried him, and moved away. if the cops ever found the body and traced the evidence back, then they'd shoot the cops. start a high-speed chase, go find anyone they ever had a grudge against, shoot them, eat lunch, shoot the waitress when she hands them the check, and when the cops finally surround them, scream out some stupid movie line and shoot each other dead. then the press and the politicians would get involved and blame the restrictive gun laws for the incident, claiming that if only the child had had a gun in the first place, he would have been able to defend himself against his parents and none of this would have ever happened.

 

[Ceewan]

okay.....


Hokkaido boy's rescue draws wild cheers; father apologizes


HAKODATE, Hokkaido -- The father of a 7-year-old boy who was found safe on the morning of June 3 after remaining missing for six days in a mountain forest in Hokkaido, apologized profusely for forcing his son to go through such hardship.

The second-grader, Yamato Tanooka, was found at a Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) exercise area in the town of Shikabe, about 6 to 7 kilometers from the town of Nanae where he was last seen late on the afternoon of May 28 after being left alone by his parents as a punishment for misbehaving. His return to safety drew wild cheers from school officials, fellow students and neighbors as well as members of his search-and-rescue team.

The boy's father, Takayuki Tanooka, told reporters in front of the city-run Hatodate Hospital that he met his son and said he was sorry for giving the boy a hard time. Yamato nodded his head, the father said, adding he will try to give his son more love than before.

Tanooka and his family from the Hokkaido city of Hokuto drove off leaving Yamato in a mountain forest at around 5 p.m. on May 28 to punish him for misbehaving. When Tanooka returned shortly afterward, Yamato was not in sight.

A woman in the family's neighborhood commented, ''I'm glad he was found alive. He really did his best to hang in there. I'm really glad from the bottom of my heart.'' She says she has often seen him play catch with his father.

Yoshitaka Sawada, 48, vice principal of the Hokuto city Hamawake Elementary School, of which Yamato is a student, said he was really relieved to learn that the second-grader was found safe. Principal Tatsuya Kudo convened a special school assembly to announce Yamato's safe discovery. Schoolchildren cheered and clapped their hands. The school postponed an athletic meet scheduled for June 5 to pray for the boy's safe return.

After Yamato went missing, police, firefighters and local government employees combed the mountain forests. GSDF personnel joined the search on June 1. As many as 200 search-and-rescue members hunted for the boy at one point before the search mission's size was reduced on June 3.

When the search-and-rescue team was preparing to resume their search at 9 a.m. on June 3, Yamato's grandfather and others contacted the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) just after 8:20 a.m. to inquire if Hokkaido Prefectural Police notification to Yamato's mother that the boy had been found was for real.

When the SDF confirmed the information, rescue members happily clapped their hands and smiled. A member of the SDF said, ''To be honest, I really felt a sense of relief.''

Firefighter Kozo Shibata, 36, who had participated in the search over the past several days, commented, ''I planned to continue searching until he was found. The search was very tough because it was a riparian and grassy area.''

According to Yoshiyuki Sakai, a pediatrician at Hakodate Hospital who tended to Yamato, the boy was brought to the hospital without major injuries and only suffered minor dehydration and malnutrition as well as light cuts on his arms and legs.


So they must have a real excellent translator for this newsite, their english is better than mine. I had to look riparian up. Just in case I was not the only one who wasn't familar with the word;

riparian: relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.

 

[fruxano]

Glad to hear this had a happy ending, I didn't think it would given the boy's young age and how long he had been missing.
Fortunately I'm wrong though.

 

[Ceewan]

Abandoned Hokkaido boy's survival aided by string of lucky circumstances


A 7-year-old boy left in the mountains as a disciplinary measure, who survived to be discovered six days later, was aided by a string of lucky circumstances that helped keep him alive.

The child, Yamato Tanooka, of Hokuto, Hokkaido, was found at an exercise area for the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) located outside the search site. According to the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF), Yamato was inside a simple, cylindrically-shaped building used for lodging and breaks by SDF personnel during exercises. The building is capable of accommodating 50 people and the inside had a boarded floor and around 40 mattresses.

The exercise area was about six kilometers from the location where Yamato went missing, and a GSDF representative says, "Walking along the roads it would be about 10 kilometers. They are mountain roads with ups and downs, and even for an SDF member it would take around 2 1/2 hours (to make it to the exercise area)."

Hokkaido Prefectural Police, firefighters and others searched up to 15 kilometers from the point where Yamato went missing. An SDF member even drove on a motorcycle and checked the roads up to near the exercise area where Yamato was found. However, the exercise area itself was not included in the search area because it was in the opposite direction from that which Yamato's family had driven after dropping him off, it was in the direction of the mountains, and it was thought that it was too far for Yamato to walk by himself. Furthermore, at around 9:50 a.m. on May 30 an SDF member on a patrol unrelated to the search had checked the building at the exercise area where Yamato was found but is said to have noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

Around the exercise area are thickets taller than Yamato. The inside of the exercise area contains multiple interconnected unpaved roads, bordered on either side by thick growth of trees six to 10 meters in height, forming a maze-like environment. The surroundings cannot be surveyed even by someone of adult height. A GSDF representative says, "Yamato probably avoided side roads and chose the wider roads, leading him to the facility where he was found."

According to prefectural police, Yamato says that he was at the exercise area facility from the night of May 28.

There was a tap water sink outside the building where Yamato was, but there was no food, and the stoves and lights of the building were unusable in the absence of a power generator. Yamato reportedly said he tried to turn on the lights but they wouldn't turn on. There were no other buildings in the exercise area where he could rest, and the nearest private house was about one kilometer away.

According to the Hakodate Local Meteorological Office, from May 28 through June 2 there were several periods of rain in the city of Hakodate, especially at night. In the town of Mori, by the town of Shikabe, the minimum temperatures on four of the six days that Yamato was missing were below 10 degrees Celsius.
(Mainichi)

Yamato was only lightly clothed. An SDF member said, "I think it was a correct decision (by Yamato) to rest between the mats (in the building) to prevent hypothermia."

Kazue Oshiro, 48, a doctor at the cardio-vascular center of Hokkaido Ohno Hospital who has accompanied mountain climber Yuichiro Miura on expedition to Mount Everest and is knowledgeable about life or death situations on mountains, cites four factors that helped Yamato survive. One is that he found a structure to shelter him from wind and rain, another was that he did not go away from this structure, yet another was that it was not the middle of winter, and the fourth was that he had drinking water.

"If any of these factors had been missing, survival would have been difficult. Still, after a few more days (of Yamato not being found) it may have been dangerous (for his chances of survival)," she says.

On June 4, it was learned from local firefighting authorities that Yamato's parents said on May 30, two days after Yamato had gone missing, "Our daughter says Yamato 'went in the direction of the mountains' (immediately after being dropped off). We want you to search in the direction of the mountains."

The search effort was expanded in the direction of Mount Komagatake based on this information from the family, but they did not search within the exercise area, which is located at the foot of the mountain, though they searched nearby.

Regarding the search area, the Hakodate Central Police Station denied there was any problem in its selection, but said that it wanted to take this case into consideration in its future searches.

On June 4, Hakodate Municipal Hospital, where Yamato is being treated, announced that he would not leave the hospital until June 6 or later. While he does not have any serious problems with his health, they are carefully looking at his psychological state after having spent a rough week. Prefectural police are waiting for Yamato to recover, after which they intend to ask him about the circumstances under which he was left in the mountains.

 

[barba]

this kid is going to go down in history with shoichi yokoi and hiroo onoda.

 

[Ceewan]

Abandoned Japanese boy released from hospital


TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese boy who was found nearly a week after he was abandoned in a forest by his parents as punishment waved to onlookers as he was released from a hospital Tuesday.

Seven-year-old Yamato Tanooka was met with loud camera flashes and cheers from dozens of people when he appeared outside the hospital in the city of Hakodate on the northern island of Hokkaido. Wearing a baseball gap and a gray jacket over a T-shirt, Yamato waved at the crowd while he holding a greeting card in the shape of an oversized baseball.

When asked what he would like to do, he said he wants to play baseball.

"I am fine," Yamato said when a reporter asked how he is feeling.

Yamato added he would like to go back to school soon and is looking forward to participating in a sports day at his school.

Before leaving the hospital, his father bowed to the cameras and said, "Thank you."

Yamato was found in a military training ground hut on Friday, six days after he was reported missing. Japanese media said the boy experienced only light dehydration and minor bruises on an arm and both of his legs, even though he had not eaten and drunk only water.

Shunsuke Kudo, an assistant section chief for the Hokkaido police department public relations division, said the police were not intending to press charges against his parents for child neglect.

Kudo said the police were considering reporting the case to a children's welfare center.

Miki Kurotatsu with Hakodate Children's Welfare Center declined to comment on whether the center had received a report from the police because it was a private matter.

His parents reported Yamato went missing on May 29, initially telling police their son disappeared when they were collecting plants in the forest. Later the father, Takayuki Tanooka (Tah-noh-oh-kah), said he had planned to leave Yamato briefly in the forest as punishment because the boy had been throwing rocks at people and cars at a river earlier that day.

The punishment drew public scrutiny, generating debate in Japan over what is considered to be excessive in disciplining children.

Takayuki told reporters after his son was found that he regretted his action.



Time for some unsolicited commentary:
So personally, I don't have a problem with what the father did. He had no idea the stubborn little kid was going to go off in the opposite diretion after the father left. The normal thing for a kid to do would be either to stay put or follow in the direction his parents left. It is obvious that his parents were worried about him or they wouldn't have searched so hard. The kid wasn't beaten, no history was mentioned of physical abuse. I have raised kids and getting them to listen to you and do the right thing is hard. I don't know how many times I have said myself, if you "don't come with us we are going to leave you here". Not that I ever did it. This guy did. I am sure he was shocked when he went back and couldn't find the kid. It is a hard job being a parent (not that it easy being a kid). People do the best they can and sometimes stuff like this happens. I am sure both parents and child will grow from this and become closer. That is how it works. That is how love works. We make mistakes and we grow from them.

 

[EzikialRage]

In the old days parents would spank their kid's ass.Today some might still do that while others might ground the child(probably wouldn't work with a 7 year old), have the child stand in the corner with their hands behind their back, or take their child's favorite toys away for awhile. I have to wonder if leaving the child in the woods was a common punishment in Japan where a parent would say if you want to act like a wild animal then I'll leave you in the woods in order to make a point? Or was this a prank that got out of hand instead of a punishment?