Sarah Childrey
SOC 202 Blog #5
When Savoie’s two children didn’t show up for the first day of school he began to worry. His ex-wife and their mother, Noriko, took them from Franklin TN to Japan without telling him. Basically, she abducted them. After she abducted them he was granted full custody by a court in Tennessee. However, Japan is not part of the 1980 Hague Convention on international child abduction. Therefore, they didn’t have to adhere to the court’s decision. They don’t necessarily recognize split custody. "Japan is an important partner and friend of the U.S., but on this issue, our points of view differ," the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said. "Our two nations approach divorce and child-rearing differently. Parental child abduction is not considered a crime in Japan."
So, Savoie took matters into his own hands and went to Fukuoka to get his children back. Although his ex-wife had abducted them and he had full custody in the states he was charged with abduction in Japan and thrown in jail. Now, Savoie sits in jail, charged with the abduction of minors. “And his Japanese ex-wife -- a fugitive in the United States for taking his children from Tennessee -- is considered the victim.” In my opinion it isn’t right to view either parents as completely innocent or guilty because there could be more to the story than we know. However, it definitely sounds as though the father was treated unfairly and his hands were tied. The concern shouldn’t be about the parents’ battle but about the well being of the two children. However, because the mother got him arrested, he is facing up to five years in jail. This will indeed affect the future of the children.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/29/japan.father.abduction/index.html?iref=newssearch
5 comments:
This story immediately caught my eye when going through the blog. There are so many stories where fathers do not take care of their children and basically are absent. This is one bittersweet story of when a father who has custody of his children was thrown in jail after a grueling trip to Japan to retrieve them from their mother. I most defiantly side with the father and I hope he is able to get his children.
I also side with the father, because from the beginning the mother abducted the children. I find it odd that a man who actually wants to take care of his kids, gets jail time for "abducting" them. But there are thousands of men walking the streets with the kids...and they don't take care of them. That seems very backwards to me. I hope he gets out of jail and is reunited with his children.
I actually side against the father.
This strikes me as an example of someone taking advantage of local laws that favor them rather then obey the laws of the courts of the other country.
All 4 of them were Japanese citizens. The mother and father were dual citizens, while the children were Japanese. Under Japanese law the mother and children should have been able to go back to Japan to raise the kids in their extended family, away from the cheating father who, by Japanese standards, abandoned the family so he could have a hot new wife.
But instead of obeying the laws that applied to all 4 of them, he used the US courts (which, like any country, favor natives) to essentially trap all 4 of them here.
If the situation had been reversed, and American children were being held by seemingly "corrupt" (or at least inhumane) foreign courts and the native parent escaped with the kids back to America, she would be cheered on, while the foreigner who came back to the US to kidnap children that the US courts said he could not have would be painted the villain.
In other words..... people are siding with the parent from their own culture. Americans are siding with the father, Japanese are siding with the mother.
Which makes this whole case fascinating to watch.
This is a really sad story. You are right that we don't know everything about the story and both parents could have their reasons to think the other is unfit. It also could be just selfishness on both their parts. The true victims are the children. Even in divorce, unless there is abuse, children need both parents in their lives. I feel sorry for the father, but the children are really the ones in need.
How could a mother just decide to not just let the father see the children but to just take them out of the states altogether, like it has been said before there are so many women who complain that the father is not involved and now the father is wanting to and is now sitting in jail for loving his children. Japan needs to take another look at this and let him have his children back.
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