TOKYO – A seven-year-old boy missing since his parents abandoned him in a bear-inhabited forest in northern Japan nearly a week ago as a punishment was found alive on Friday (June 3), a rescuer said.
“The boy was found alive, but we don’t have information on details of his condition,” rescuer Satoshi Saito told AFP.
He said the boy identified himself as Yamato Tanooka.
The boy had been missing since Saturday after his parents said they made him get out of their car on a mountain road on the northernmost island of Hokkaido as punishment for misbehaving. He was reportedly without food or water.
The parents originally told police that their son had got lost while they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables – but later admitted they were angry and tried to punish him because he had thrown stones at cars and people.
The parents told police that they abandoned Yamato on a road, bounded on both sides by thick mountain forests, but quickly returned to find him missing.
Reuters, Internet screengrabs, YouTube screengrabs, REUTERS/Kyodo
The local town of Nanae requested military support after rescuers and police officers scoured the area for four days without success, with heavy rains at times hampering the search.
Rescuers said it was a frustratingly difficult task to find the boy due to a lack of evidence of his presence in the rugged mountainous area on the wild bear-inhabited island. The area is so remote that residents said they rarely go through it.
“We have done an unforgivable thing to our child, and we have caused a lot of trouble for everyone,” Yamato’s father Takayuki Tanooka told television reporters on Tuesday. “I just hope he is safe.”
The military joined the search on Wednesday, with a total of 75 personnel from the Ground Self-Defence Force deployed.
The search has gripped Japan, with news programmes offering hourly updates, and thousands have taken to the internet to both pray for the boy’s survival and excoriate his parents for what is seen as neglect.
“If I was a small child in this situation I would either run after the car or wait there until they came back. I just hope he is safely found,” one person wrote.
