The Japanese festival of cherry blossom viewing is celebrated in Washington, DC every year. Cherry blossoms were donated by Japan 98 years ago to promote goodwill. Today, Japan considers itself a close ally of the US. However, there is a dark side to Japan that most Americans are unaware of. For the past 58 years, Japan has continued to perpetrate human rights abuses against American children, our most vulnerable citizens.
These actions have finally started to strain relations between the United States and Japan. In the last decade alone, 231 American children have been reported illegally abducted to Japan. All legal and diplomatic means to recover them have proven futile. Since the end of the post World-War II occupation and re-establishment of Japan’s sovereign government in 1952, Japan has not repatriated a single kidnapped child. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction provides a remedy for retrieving children who have been abducted internationally. It has been ratified by 81 countries, but Japan has not acceded to the treaty. Japan is more than just a haven for international child abduction. It is quite literally a black hole for abduction, from which no child has ever returned.
Denial of access between abducted child victims and left-behind parents often occurs in Japan. There is no enforcement of law that protects abducted children, so a judge only upholds the status quo. This system therefore encourages child abduction where the abductor refrains from ever allowing access to the left behind parent. A status quo is established that allows the abductor to retain possession of the child without punishment. The child is stolen as if he or she were property rather than a loving human being. These barbarous practices are upheld by the Japanese government and court system.
Japanese abduct children from around the world, bring them to Japan, and never return. The Japanese government has turned a blind eye to the pleas of left-behind parents worldwide. It is a violation of human dignity to deny a child access to both parents. The damage caused is heart wrenching and incalculable. Lifelong psychological scars remain. No logic can justify why children should be stripped from their parents never to see them again. A parent’s love for his or her own child is the basis of life and the foundation of human psychology. The Japanese demonstrate outright defiance of this fundamental premise of human nature.
Child kidnapping is only one of many troubling issues where Japan defies international conventions. Toyota’s nefarious pattern of business practices has recklessly ended and endangered the lives of American citizens, killing at least 37 American citizens. Inhabitants of Taiji, Japan became notorious in the academy award winning documentary The Cove by regularly slaughtering dolphins. Japan defies international treaty by hunting whales for consumption. Atlantic bluefin tuna are overfished and are critically endangered. These unlawful practices are marked by considerable attempts at concealment, which is tacit acknowledgment of guilt. A very disturbing pattern emerges. Car manufacturers have a callous disregard for the safety of their drivers. Fisherman catch and slaughter dolphins, whales, and tuna disrespecting international law and environmental ecosystems. Children are routinely depicted as victims of physical and sexual violence in comic books and video games sold on every street corner in Japan where the age of consent is 13. Is this a safe environment for our abducted children?
The Japanese government has no regard for the well-being of our stolen American children. How can the Japanese possibly uphold a system that legally permits someone to steal a child from a parent, never to be seen again? This practice is morally and ethically reprehensible. It is unacceptable and must end. How can a nation that we call an ally continue to perpetrate such despicable human rights violations against our children, and get away with it? Worldwide efforts seek to bring Japan into compliance with universally accepted norms to reunite kidnapped children with their left-behind parents. We call upon the State Department to negotiate the release of children unlawfully retained in Japan. We call upon the Justice Department to extradite Japanese abductors. We call upon Congress to pass legislation that condemns Japan and establishes mechanisms to reunite children with their left-behind parents. Finally, we ask you to remember our children whenever you observe the cherry blossoms this spring and remember this dark side of the cherry blossoms.
Denial of access between abducted child victims and left-behind parents often occurs in Japan. There is no enforcement of law that protects abducted children, so a judge only upholds the status quo. This system therefore encourages child abduction where the abductor refrains from ever allowing access to the left behind parent. A status quo is established that allows the abductor to retain possession of the child without punishment. The child is stolen as if he or she were property rather than a loving human being. These barbarous practices are upheld by the Japanese government and court system.
Japanese abduct children from around the world, bring them to Japan, and never return. The Japanese government has turned a blind eye to the pleas of left-behind parents worldwide. It is a violation of human dignity to deny a child access to both parents. The damage caused is heart wrenching and incalculable. Lifelong psychological scars remain. No logic can justify why children should be stripped from their parents never to see them again. A parent’s love for his or her own child is the basis of life and the foundation of human psychology. The Japanese demonstrate outright defiance of this fundamental premise of human nature.
Child kidnapping is only one of many troubling issues where Japan defies international conventions. Toyota’s nefarious pattern of business practices has recklessly ended and endangered the lives of American citizens, killing at least 37 American citizens. Inhabitants of Taiji, Japan became notorious in the academy award winning documentary The Cove by regularly slaughtering dolphins. Japan defies international treaty by hunting whales for consumption. Atlantic bluefin tuna are overfished and are critically endangered. These unlawful practices are marked by considerable attempts at concealment, which is tacit acknowledgment of guilt. A very disturbing pattern emerges. Car manufacturers have a callous disregard for the safety of their drivers. Fisherman catch and slaughter dolphins, whales, and tuna disrespecting international law and environmental ecosystems. Children are routinely depicted as victims of physical and sexual violence in comic books and video games sold on every street corner in Japan where the age of consent is 13. Is this a safe environment for our abducted children?
The Japanese government has no regard for the well-being of our stolen American children. How can the Japanese possibly uphold a system that legally permits someone to steal a child from a parent, never to be seen again? This practice is morally and ethically reprehensible. It is unacceptable and must end. How can a nation that we call an ally continue to perpetrate such despicable human rights violations against our children, and get away with it? Worldwide efforts seek to bring Japan into compliance with universally accepted norms to reunite kidnapped children with their left-behind parents. We call upon the State Department to negotiate the release of children unlawfully retained in Japan. We call upon the Justice Department to extradite Japanese abductors. We call upon Congress to pass legislation that condemns Japan and establishes mechanisms to reunite children with their left-behind parents. Finally, we ask you to remember our children whenever you observe the cherry blossoms this spring and remember this dark side of the cherry blossoms.
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