Japanese boy abandoned by parents is found after 6 days
By now you may all know the story of how 7-year-old Yamato Tanooka got lost in the woods: his parents disciplined him by putting him out of the car, and when they returned “a few minutes later” he was gone. A huge search of the nearby forest was mounted, and as the days wore on it seemed less and less likely that he would ever be found alive.
But a very wonderful thing has happened—Yamato has been discovered, alive and well:
…at a military base on Friday, about 5.5km (3.4 miles) from where he went missing last Saturday.
The site had allegedly already been searched on Monday morning, but the boy was not found. The search team comprised 180 people and search dogs.
The soldier who found Tanooka had not been part of any previous rescue efforts, AP reports.
Yamato told police he had walked to the military base by himself soon after his parents left him.
“I drank water to get by,” he reportedly said. “There wasn’t anything to eat.”…
The soldier who found him had not been searching for him, but discovered the boy on opening the door of a building on the base. It’s not at all clear why the boy had not been found during the earlier search. It’s also not at all clear how the boy had managed to locate the base in the dense woods. Was it just chance? (From this recent story, we know how easy it is to get lost in dense woods and wander around aimlessly without progressing very far at all.)
All of Japan is talking about the event, and the child’s father has apologized profusely on behalf of the parents. It’s not all that unusual for parents to threaten to leave children somewhere in order to make them behave, but it’s rare that they actually leave the child rather than merely use the threat as a tool.
I have my own memories about such things; you may have quite a few yourselves. When I was a child and my mother used to drive me hither and yon, she would often get annoyed at something I did or said, and would threaten to put me out of the car and make me walk home. Sometimes this happened when we were very far away from home, and it scared me (although I can’t remember what sparked the incidents; my recollection of myself was as having been well-behaved).
I do remember calling her bluff once, though. It’s no coincidence that we weren’t all that far from the house at the time, the weather was decent, and I probably could have successfully walked home. I think I was around eight or nine, and when my mother stopped the car and said I should get out I did just that—I jumped out angrily and started to walk away. But my mother didn’t drive away; instead, she followed me slowly in the car with her window rolled down and ordered me to get in. This went on for perhaps a half block, and then I complied. It seemed I had made my point, although it took its toll on both of us.
When my son was young, the scene played out very differently. Neither my husband nor I was going to threaten our son with any such thing, but he was sometimes pretty headstrong and we still had to discipline him. Once when he was about two and a half we were in a large mall and had been there for several hours. It was time to go home, and we told our son so.
“No!” he said vehemently. “I want to stay!”
When we insisted we needed to go, our son said even more forcefully that he was going to stay in the mall. So instead of our abandoning him, he was proposing to abandon us.
My husband asked him, “But who will take care of you?” Without missing a beat, standing smack in the middle of the mall, our son immediately pointed to the first man who walked by. “He will!” our son said firmly and triumphantly, not the least bit perturbed. Then a woman passed by, and our son pointed again: “She will.”
He had a point. We finally just picked him up and took him out of there.
How not to get lost, http://weaponsman.com/?p=32430.
Compass and pace.
My early childhood incident was getting lost at a large Easter Egg hunt on base in West Germany and being returned to my parents by the MPs.
Having raised a wild son who darn near got himself in more trouble than he could get out of in his late teen years – thank Heaven for outstanding attorneys and level-headed judges – I can relate to the mall story. Your boy sounded like a classic Bernie voter-in-training (“HE will” “SHE will”) at that age.
Funny stories….. I was driving my niece & nephew up to Paradise on Mt Rainier, when they started arguing so much it was distracting my driving. I found a grassy pull-off & told tem to get out of the car & fight it out on the grass.. I stayed in the car while the did a few token wrestles, followed by giggling, they got in the car & we had a fun time after that
Your son knew that you can get away with a lot when you’re that cute.
Very good PR for the Japanese self defense forces. Especially during these days.
Almost shows that they have the mamuratai of kami-sama.
The translation of the public apology is pretty accurate as well, from what I can trace back to Japanese lines that are normally used for such situations.
He had a point. We finally just picked him up and took him out of there.
Which shows that often trying to reason with a young child is a waste of time. Just DO IT. The story my mother told in later years is when my brother was told to perform some trivial chore which would have taken all of 30 seconds of his time. “Why?” said my brother. “To help out the family,” replied my mother. This went on for several iterations of WHY, when my mother, quite exasperated by then, replied,“BECAUSE I SAID SO.” “OK,” replied my brother, who proceeded to complete the 30-second task.
I remember two phrases that worked with me and my brothers:
1. “You don’t want me to pull over and stop the car.”
2. “Wait until your father gets home.”
We raised 5 boys, all of whom got lost at least once in their lives.
The first was also the oldest, about age 7, in a mall. After an hour of frantic searching (with 4 others in tow!), security found him at the door where we had come in, because, he explained, he figured we would have to go out that way to get to the car.
He now does software programming for security firms.
They all made Eagle Scout and haven’t gotten lost in the woods since then.
***OM Says:
June 4th, 2016 at 11:07 am
How not to get lost, http://weaponsman.com/?p=32430.
Compass and pace.
***
Excellent link; thank you!
When i was seven plus and older, my mother didn’t supervise my wanderings around the semi-rural edge of East Lansing, Michigan. My mother grew up on a small farm, on a narrow dirt road, in Kansas. I don’t think it occurred to her that I shouldn’t wander around like that. I recall wandering many blocks from home, sometimes by myself.
I’m happy that the tyke surrendered to Japanese officers before twenty-five years had passed.
He’s lucky that his AWOL status did not trigger compulsory seppuku… with a paring knife.
I have never and would never threaten to abandon my children. On the other hand, we have on occasion stopped in safe spot along the road and put one of our children out of the vehicle and stayed there until he calmed down or changed his behavior. It usually did not take more than 10 or 15 minutes before we were able to continue on our way. Yes, it made us late on occasion, but that is part of the price you pay to be a parent.
It amazes me that so few adults have less patience than a toddler.
Another tip on How Not To Get Lost. Go downhill, always. You’ll reach a stream, follow the street to where the people are. That’s what annoyed me so much about The Blair Witch Project. They keep hanging around in the Haunted Woods instead of following the creek downhill. OK, that’s not fair. They also had to deal with a witch.