Boy found safe after being left in forest by parents
Print Edition
NEARLY a week after he was abandoned in the forest by his parents, the boy did not shed a tear when he was found safe yesterday. The soldier who discovered him by chance in a military hut gave him two rice balls, which 7-year-old Yamato Tanooka ate ravenously. He looked a bit worn out but was “genki,” the military said, using a Japanese word describing healthy children.
The boy’s safe return was welcomed in a nation riveted by his disappearance and undergoing intense soul-searching about how it raises and disciplines its children.
Yamato’s story, as pieced together from comments from the military and police, was admirable in resourcefulness and resilience.
His parents, trying to teach him a lesson for misbehaving and throwing rocks, made him get out of the car last Saturday on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido in a forest reputedly ridden with bears. They couldn’t find him when they returned several minutes later.
Apparently walking for several kilometers, the boy found the empty hut in a military drill area and entered a door that had been left open. The longhouse-style hut had no heat or power and no food, but Yamato huddled between mattresses on the floor and drank water from the solitary faucet outside the hut for several days, local media reported.
A massive manhunt, including 180 people and search dogs, had found no trace of him. The soldier who found him had not been part of the frenzied search effort, but soon the boy identified himself as Yamato Tanooka.
Appearing outside the hospital where the boy was flown in by helicopter, his father apologized, bowing deeply, thanked everyone for the rescue and vowed to do a better job as his dad.
“We have raised him with love all along,” said the father, Takayuki Tanooka, fighting tears. “I really didn’t think it would come to that. We went too far.”
Military officials expressed admiration for the boy’s perseverance, as the building where he was found was far from where he had disappeared and involved a rigorous uphill climb.
The boy was dehydrated and had minor scratches on his arms and feet, but no serious health risks were found, a doctor who examined him said on nationally televised news.
Although going without water is dangerous even for a few days, people can survive longer without food, such as people who have fasted or gone on hunger strikes for a few weeks. While experts say a water-only diet for so long must have been painful, the boy apparently stayed at the hut for much of the time. More details on his experience were not immediately available.
Asked what he had told his son after he was found, the father said, “I told him I was so sorry for causing him such pain.”
The nation welcomed the boy’s safe return. Old photos of Yamato, wearing a cowboy hat, holding up two fingers in a peace sign, his bangs falling over a proud smile, were flashed across gain and again on TV.
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