On Monday, police and rescue workers continued to search a vast forest in northern Japan for a little seven year old boy who was abandoned there by his parents nearly three days ago. The little boy, Yamato Tano-oka, had suddenly gone missing after his parents had left him in the forest in an effort to punish the boy and try and teach him a lesson.
Police and volunteer searchers continue to comb the large and dense forest at Nanae, Hokkaido, but have yet to turn up any evidence of the boy. There are about 130 or so people involved in the search. The forest is an extremely wild portion of northern Japan and it is filled with dangerous wildlife, especially bears.
When police first arrived on the scene, Yamato’s parents told them that they had stopped to look at the forest and to pick some wild flowers and plants. That was when they noticed that their young seven year old son was suddenly missing. After further questioning by the police, however, the parents eventually admitted that they had left Yamato there in the forest as a punishment.
They told the police that earlier in the day, Yamato had been throwing rocks at nearby cars and the parents decided to leave him there alone as a punishment. The family drove some 500 yards or so away from him down the road. After a few minutes, they returned but Yamato was gone. All of this had happened on a family outing on Saturday.
A police spokesman said that, “The parents left the boy in the mountains as punishment. They said that they went back to the site immediately but that the boy was no longer there.”
The boy’s father had admitted to the police that he had lied to them at first out of shame for what they had done. The search continues and the police have yet to decide if they will charge the parents with child abandonment or not. The incident has sparked outrage on social media as many have weighed in against the parents decision to leave the boy out in the elements.
Searchers are concerned for the boy’s survival as temperatures dip overnight into the 40’s, he has no food or water, and there are bears roaming the nearby woods.
PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters / The Japan Times