It has been over two years since I have last seen my children, my little buddy Gunnar and my little princess Kianna. After all this time I still find it hard that to believe you were kidnapped from me by your mother to Japan. She has caused me so much pain. I so much wish to hold your hand and hug you once again. I haven’t heard your voice since August of 2009. I still have your last voicemail on my phone. It makes me cry every time I hear it. I still dream about you Gunnar and Kianna all the time. I often have dreams where we are reunited and we get to spend time together.
By Simon Scott
On April 3 last year Alex Kahney’s wife, Keiko Ono, took their two daughters, Selene, 9, and Cale, 7, and abruptly moved out of the family home in the Denenchofu, the up-market Tokyo suburb where they had lived for more than seven years. Naturally Alex, who works as a medical researcher and writer, was worried about getting access to his children, but his wife reassured him it would not be a problem. “She said to me: ‘Don’t worry, you will always be able to see them’.” But the following Friday his wife cancelled a camping trip he had arranged to go on with his daughters and after she failed to telephone on the Sunday as promised to arrange a visit with the kids that day, Alex become worried. From the U.S. Department of Justice, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
Title 18, Section 1204 of the United States Code makes it a federal crime to remove a child from the United States or retain a child outside the United States with the intent to obstruct a parent’s custodial rights, or to attempt to do so. See 18 U.S.C. § 1204. This crime is punishable by up to three years in prison. The law provides a defense where the taking parent acted pursuant to a valid court order obtained under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, or where the taking parent was fleeing domestic violence, or where the failure to return the child resulted from circumstances beyond the taking parent’s control and the taking parent made reasonable efforts to notify the left behind parent within 24 hours and returned the child as soon as possible. In order for an individual to file a complaint with the United Nations’ five human rights treaty bodies, their home nation must have ratified the optional protocols to the treaties which they have signed and ratified. Left-behind parents of children abducted to Japan (and also left-behind Japanese parents whose own family law system has excluded them from their children’s lives) would have an opportunity, as individuals, to file complaints with the UN regarding their human rights (and those of their children), if Japan would ratify the first optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
A young Iraq War veteran is in the fight of his life against his ex-wife to bring his children home. Michael Elias, who is now a Bergen County sheriff, claims his wife kidnapped their two young children and took them to Japan. We petition the Obama administration to: PUBLICLY press Japan for the return of Abducted U.S. Children and provide transparent dialogue with Japan on this issue. • AN ESTIMATED 10,0000 U.S. CHILDREN HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED TO OR RETAINED IN JAPAN. • JAPAN HAS NEVER RETURNED AN ABDUCTED CHILD. TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Justice Ministry proposed Friday that children's opinions be reflected when settling cross-border child custody disputes.
The idea was contained in the ministry's draft interim proposals for domestic legislation that it is preparing for submission to a regular Diet session next year, before Japan joins an international pact related to the matter known as the Hague Convention. PUBLICLY press Japan for the return of Abducted US Children and provide transparent dialogue with Japan on this issue. Hundreds, if not thousands (Child Abduction in Japan… The REAL Numbers of US Citizen Children have been abducted to, or retained in, the country of Japan.
Japan has never returned a single child, has no legal concept of “joint-custody”, no enforcement of visitation, no requirement for rules of evidence on claims of DV. The US Congress, in HR1326, has publicly condemned Japan and demanded the immediate return of this children. However, the Executive Branch has only held back-room discussions. Additionally, there are persuasive claims the DoS is significantly downplaying the number of actual cases. There needs to be complete transparency into this process, and public condemnation of Japan. These are our country’s children. We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/gKV And then Share it? ASSISTANT SECRETARY KURT CAMPBELL: “The President also very strongly affirmed the Japanese decision to enter into The Hague Convention — asked that this — on Child Abduction — asked that these steps be taken clearly and that the necessary implementing legislation would be addressed. He also indicated that while that was an important milestone for Japan, that — he also asked the Japanese prime minister and the government to focus on the preexisting cases, the cases that have come before. The prime minister indicated that very clearly, he knew about the number of cases. He mentioned 123. He said that he would take special care to focus on these particular issues as we — as Japan also works to implement the joining of The Hague Convention, which the United States appreciates greatly.” As you can imagine, parents with children abducted to Japan have been going through a very difficult time right now sick with worry about our children and trying to get the State Department to locate and contact our children. Many of the American left-behind parents living in Tokyo have evacuated to other areas, unfortunately without their abducted children. September 15, 2011
The President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: For the past 50 years, Japan has denied loving American parents custodial rights or any access to their abducted children. Yet Japanese Prime Ministers have no reservation about publicly demanding the return of Japanese citizens abducted to North Korea. This week Prime Minister Noda stated they would spare no effort towards achieving the return of all abductees. We ask that you immediately follow his example and publicly address the abduction of U.S. children to and within Japan during next week’s meeting in New York with Prime Minister Noda and that public efforts continue until:
Trevor Wittman, the owner and head trainer at the Grudge Training Center in Denver, Colorado, is on a mission to make a difference—and not just inside the Octagon. Osaka, Japan - According to William Lake, on August 24, 2011, 14 year-old Mary Victoria Lake, a U.S. citizen, who was kidnapped by her mother and taken to Japan in 2005, in one of the most high-profile international kidnapping cases in the United States, walked into the U.S. consulate in Osaka, Japan. Translator’s Note: The following is a translation of an article written by Professor Takao Tanase for the December 2009 edition of Jiyū to Seigi, a Japanese legal periodical. Divorce and familial breakdown has become a major problem in modern Japanese society, yet the law does not provide any meaningful protection for the noncustodial parent. Professor Tanase analyzes this issue from a comparative and theoretical perspective, looking at the current Japanese visitation laws in place today, while contrasting those with the system in the United States. He also looks at how those laws affect actual families, and how the courts have implemented and enforced visitation agreements and orders. This article concludes that not only are the rights of the noncustodial parent insufficient to maintain a meaningful relation with their children following divorce, but that they hardly exist at all.
TOKYO — Timing their message to coincide with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Japan, a small but vocal group of activists marched in the streets Tuesday, urging Japan to sign an international treaty on parental child abduction.
Most of the two dozen marchers were American and other foreign fathers who have been cut off from their half-Japanese children by mothers who refuse to share custody and are shielded from doing so by current Japanese law. Bring Abducted Children Home parents and members sent Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a letter concerning his upcoming meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. BAC Home is urging the Vice President to publicly address the ongoing issue of children taken from the United States and abducted to Japan. By Brian Prager American parents are shocked by the latest public ceremonial actions of John Roos, the U.S. Ambassador to the Child Abductor’s Utopia of Japan. WASHINGTON — The United States pressed Japan Thursday to let parents see children snatched by estranged partners, saying it would not tolerate loopholes as Tokyo moves to resolve the longtime source of tension.
Rep. Smith urges the Department of State to negotiate MOU with Japan concurrently with The Hague Convention or 173 American children abducted to Japan and their parents may be left behind permanently. Testifying are The Honorable Susan Jacobs and The Honorable Kurt Campbell The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights held a hearing on "Improving Implementation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction." Testifying are The Honorable Susan Jacobs and The Honorable Kurt Campbell. WASHINGTON – Ever since Christopher Savoie was arrested in 2009 after a failed attempt to retrieve his abducted children, Japan has been overwhelmed by international pressure to resolve its ever-increasing number of abduction cases. After years of demarches and public pleas by foreign governments, Japan has finally announced its intention to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
STEPHEN LONG: It's a parent's nightmare, a couple splits up, and one parent abducts the child or children and flees overseas. There's been a spate of cases where children have been taken to Japan.
Parents whose kids were taken their without their consent say the Australian Government's failing to prevent future abductions. They say Japanese consulates are freely issuing new passports to parents who want to abduct children. Sarah Dingle reports. Parental kidnappings do not garner the media attention and sense of urgency from law enforcement that they deserve. Experts say there is a perception among the public and law enforcement officials that children kidnapped by their parents are not in danger. While it is true that statistics from the US department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Protection indicate that only 4% of children abducted by their parents are physically harmed, can we so easily forget to consider the emotional toll it takes on these innocent victims.
Susan Sachinelli
Child abductions unfortunately occur all over the world. And while some of the cases are solved, a majority of the cases are not, even when the parent knows who the abductor is – the other parent. A discouraging phenomenon in Australia has been parents, mainly Japanese, abducting the child or children back to Japan. The Australian Embassy located in Japan said in 2010, there were 13 abductions to date. NIIGATA -- A Mexican man was found guilty and given a suspended jail term Tuesday for attempting to recover his abducted daughter last November by entering his own home, which he had been locked out of in Niigata on the Sea of Japan, and encountering resistance from the child’s grandmother who tried to prevent him from seeing his daughter. Both he and the Grandmother received minor injuries as a result of her resistance and the ensuing altercation, but the grandmother was not charged with any crime.
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