Japan and child abduction (demonstration on Aug 23 in Tokyo during the visit of V.P. Biden)
Japan and child abduction (demonstration on Aug 23 in Tokyo during the visit of V.P. Biden)
Elijah Jacob
Modern Tokyo Times
A street demonstration and march from Mikawadai Park near exit 6 of Roppongi station past the US Embassy and Japan Federation of Bar Associations, ending in Hibiya Park on Tuesday August 23. The meeting starts at 11:00 am. The march starts at 11:30 am and goes till 12:30 pm.
Japan and Child Abduction: facts and issues raised by Fukushima
On July 28, there was a Congressional hearing in Congressman Chris Smith’s subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and Special Adviser to the Office of Children’s Issues Susan Jacobs testified. The next day there was a town hall meeting for left-behind parents that they attended along with Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs and the new director of the Office of Children’s Issues Beth Payne as well as other US Government officials. Ambassador Roos participated from Tokyo via DVC.
The general message was that the State Department was pleased that Japan has agreed to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. No reservations that would water down or invalidate the spirit and important principles of the convention would be tolerated. It was also indicated that there have been great efforts in diplomacy with the Japanese government on the issue of child abduction. Ambassador Roos and Assistant Secretary Campbell agreed in their approach of private diplomacy on the issue while defending the public diplomacy on North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens 30 years ago. Left-behind parents are baffled if not outraged at the insistence of conducting the diplomacy on child abduction of American children in Japan privately. Scarcely any details were given about the strategy for recovering children in existing cases.
There were a number of other troubling developments during the Congressional hearing and town hall meeting. In Assistant Secretary Campbell’s written testimony to the hearing, he wrote that “As recently as 2005, the Department counted only 11 reported abduction cases involving Japan.”(1) This is clearly incorrect. Data obtained from the State Department indicates there were 85 reported cases involving 114 children at that time. The actual number of cases is certainly higher and always more than the reported number of cases. As of January 2011, there were 230 reported cases involving 321 American children abducted internationally to Japan. Since Christopher Savoie’s arrest in September 2009, the annual rate of reported international abductions of American children to Japan seems to have nearly tripled. From 2000 to his arrest in 2009, 23 children per year were reported abducted. Since his arrest over the last two years, the rate is about 62 children per year. A report of the current number of cases was not prepared for the town hall, and there was a steadfast refusal to acknowledge inactivated cases in a private conversation.
At the town hall, Dr. Coleman from the Department of Health and Human Services, a nuclear radiation oncologist, stated that there was no radiation exposure risk in Japan. However, there are a number of reports that are cause for concern. Kevin Maher who just left the State Department after 30 years has just published a book. He stated that there was a US Government plan to evacuate 90,000 US citizens from Tokyo in the days following the earthquake. “The US high-ranking officials wanted to evacuate the US citizens [from Tokyo] but the local officials including Maher objected, as “it would severely undermine the US-Japan alliance.”(2) The plan was never implemented. Maher later left the State Department over unflattering remarks that he made about Okinawans. This week he published a book called “Japan that cannot decide” in Japanese by the publisher Bunshun Shinsho. There are several long term studies that will be conducted. Two million people from Fukushima will have their health monitored for 30 years to check for the effects of radiation. (3) There will be lifetime testing of the thyroid for those who are children now in Fukushima.(4) There will be an epidemiological study of 100,000 mother-child groups across the country for children from birth to 13 years of age.(5)
The cause for concern is justified considering that children have been found to have radioactive cesium in their urine and radiation exposure to their thyroid gland.(6-8)
Quite a number of concerns have been raised. The State Department and US Embassy are conducting private diplomacy. Meanwhile, they are under-reporting the numbers of cases and claiming that there is no radiation exposure risk. Furthermore, US radiation policy considerations and press reports indicate there are in fact considerable grounds for concern about radiation exposure risk.
Consequently, both foreign and Japanese left-behind parents will stage a street demonstration and march from Mikawadai Park near exit 6 of Roppongi station past the US Embassy and Japan Federation of Bar Associations, ending in Hibiya Park on Tuesday August 23. The meeting starts at 11:00 am. The march starts at 11:30 am and goes till 12:30 pm. Vice President Biden will be in Tokyo during that time. The purpose of the demonstration is to raise public awareness about the abduction issue and urge Vice President Biden to address child abduction publicly so that the human rights of children and parents are protected and abducted children are returned to their loving parents. (9, 10) In order to end child abduction in Japan, there must be public announcements on the issue from the highest ranking elected officials of both governments.
References:
1. http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2011/07/169210.htm
2. http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/08/us-government-considered-evacuation-of.html
3. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110627x2.html
4. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110725p2a00m0na007000c.html
5. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110812p2a00m0na011000c.html
6. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110627a2.html
7. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110701a2.html
8. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110705p2g00m0dm079000c.html
9. http://www.meetup.com/Left-Behind-Parents-Japan/events/29426721/
10. http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/4/e/7/1/highres_49220081.jpeg
Please visit the following websites for more information about child abduction:
Please inform friends about this issue.
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