日本警方搜救被父母抛弃在森林的7岁男孩

AS IT IS 2016-06-02 Search On For Boy Abandoned by Parents in Japan 日本警方搜救被父母抛弃在森林的7岁男孩

A Japanese boy remains¹ missing four days after his parents abandoned him as a punishment, police said.

Japan’s military joined the search Wednesday for a 7-year-old boy missing in a forest in northern Japan.

But on Wednesday night, Yamato Tanooka still had not been found. About 275 soldiers, police and volunteers searched for him Wednesday.

The boy has been missing since Saturday, when his parents made him get out of their car to punish him for throwing rocks at cars and people, according to police.

Kyodo News Service said police are looking into whether the parents should be charged with child abandonment. Child psychiatrists³ said even a threat of leaving a child behind is child abuse because of the stress it creates.

Police said the boy’s father, Takayuki Tanooka, returned to the area to look for his son a few minutes later, but could not find him.

The child was left on a road by woods that are home to bears. He had no food or water, and there has been heavy rain. Temperatures at night have been in the mid-40s, according to news reports from Japan.

Tanooka first told police his son disappeared while the family was picking vegetables. He later said that he and his wife had punished their son for bad behavior.

Father is Embarrassed

Tanooka told news media he was embarrassed for leaving his child on the road – for what he said was supposed to be for a few minutes.

“I regret what I did to my child,” he said.

The search for the 7-year-old boy was a major news story in Japan, with TV networks doing many live updates. Many people went on Twitter to criticize the parents.

“What kind of parents would abandon a child in bear country?” wrote Helene Hamilton. “They should be charged -- especially if he is hurt or killed.”

Judith Cohen is a doctor and professor of psychiatry⁴ at Drexel University College of Medicine in Pennsylvania. She said parents are expected to give children a “basic sense of security and safety.”

“When parents make that conditional⁵ on a child’s good behavior, children lose their sense of safety and security, which is really a core need for children to grow up,” Cohen said.

Janet Rosenzweig, vice² president for research at Prevent Child Abuse America, understands parents get uneasy⁶ when children do not behave.

“But I can’t think of anything worse than abandoning a child in a strange and unknown place,” Rosenzweig said. She said children suffer emotionally when they are abandoned, or even warned that their parents might leave them behind.

But the damage is more than emotional, she said. “With modern science, we know that traumatic stress washes a kid’s brain and blocks intellectual growth,” Rosenzweig said.

Cohen said the best way to discipline a child is to set limits and warn in advance about punishment for pushing limits. Let children know that TV or computer use will be removed if they do not behave.

If parents want a child to leave a fun activity, such as swimming, they might warn that time in that activity is running out.

“For young children, it might be as simple as saying, ‘We have to leave in the time it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ ” Cohen said.

Words in This Story

abandon -- v. to leave someone behind

stress – n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life

core – adj. the central part of something

embarrass – v. to make (someone) feel confused and foolish in front of other people

traumatic – adj. causing someone to become very upset in a way that can lead to serious mental and emotional problems

intellectual – adj. relating to the ability to think in a logical way

discipline – n. control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed and punishing bad behavior

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 psychiatrists   

n.精神病专家，精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They are psychiatrists in good standing. 他们是合格的精神病医生。 来自辞典例句
• Some psychiatrists have patients who grow almost alarmed at how congenial they suddenly feel. 有些精神分析学家发现，他们的某些病人在突然感到惬意的时候几乎会兴奋起来。 来自名作英译部分

4 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

5 conditional   

adj.条件的，带有条件的

参考例句：

• My agreement is conditional on your help.你肯帮助我才同意。
• There are two forms of most-favored-nation treatment:conditional and unconditional.最惠国待遇有两种形式:有条件的和无条件的。

6 uneasy   

adj.心神不安的，担心的，令人不安的

参考例句：

• He feels uneasy today.他今天心里感到不安。
• She had an uneasy feeling that they were still following her.她有一种他们仍在跟踪她的不安感觉。