INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Boy Abandoned In Woods By Parents Found After Six Days

By Nancy Bailey
Published on: 15:11 PST, Jun 2, 2016

A boy who was abandoned by his parents in a Japanese forest has been found alive and unharmed on Friday.

The boy, 7-year-old Yamato Tanooka of Hokuto, Hokkaido, was discovered in a building on a Japanese military base about 2.5 miles from where he disappeared last Saturday.

Tanooka’s parents left him by the side of a road, reportedly as punishment for throwing rocks at cars, according to Reuters.

“One of our soldiers was preparing for drills this morning and unlocked the door of a building on the base, and there he was,” a member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces told NHK national television.

“When he asked ‘are you Yamato?’ the boy said yes. Then he said he was hungry, so the soldier gave him some water, bread and riceballs.”

Yamato told the police that he walked to the SDF facility on his own through the mountains. The boy was carrying no food or water.

On Saturday, Tanooka’s parents told police that their son had been misbehaving, so they made him get out of the car. They drove off, but then returned shortly to retrieve him, only to find he was not there, according to Japan Times.

When Tanooka’s parents first filed the report, they told the police that the child had gotten lost while the family was walking in the area to pick wild vegetables. Later, however, they admitted they were angry because he was throwing stones at cars and people, and they had wanted to punish him.

The boy’s disappearance elicited a search by about 200 rescuers and police officers throughout the mountains in Nanae. But the search produced no results, so the rescue team had been scaled down.

SDF troops joined in the search Wednesday.

There was no sign of the boy, and as time went on, fears rose for his safety, as the area has some history of bear attacks.

Reactions about the boy’s rescue run the gamut, from joy for the parents, to blame.

“I’ll bet the kid never ever ever throws rocks at cars again!” – oh look

“Don’t know about that… pretty stubborn kid. Probably ran off as soon as his parents were out of site, to give them a lesson. Oh Boy, did they get a lesson. The kid got a helicopter ride to the hospital. So, who do you think won this particular stubborn-match?”

“Oh, some background I got from my Japanese wife. They left him twice on the road that day, and the first time he wasn’t giving in. The second time, he disappeared. He was at a cabin used by the army for training most of the time. He found water but was getting pretty hungry… probably why he decided to not keep hiding.”

“That kid… wow… I thought my kid was stubborn. Those parents don’t have a chance.” -fixerdave

“The parents should lose custody of that child. They are not fit to have him. They endangered his life.” – Texana

“Wow, what a turn of events, 6 days missing? How did he survive? So many questions.” – PapiGuilo

“Thank goodness for an unexpected happy ending. I’m sure the police will have a lot of questions for him and his parents about what happened, and other parents will think twice about abandoning their kids anywhere.” – Hans Gruber

“The boy was reportedly lost near Nanae. The base is near Shikabe. Shikabe is 18 km from Nanae ‘as the crow flies.’ They want me to believe a 7 year old went over 18 km cross-country through the mountains with no food or water? I don’t believe it.”

“I find it easier to believe somebody dropped him…” – similarly

How the child survived and where he spent his time is still under investigation.

[Photo by Shuji Kajiyama/AP]

Share this article: Boy Abandoned In Woods By Parents Found After Six Days
More from Inquisitr