Protesters hit the Los Angeles theater showing documentary about Megumi Yokota kidnapping
The above picture is from a protest held at the opening of the documentary “Abduction“, which tells the story of North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizen Megumi Yokota. The protesters represent a group of American parents whose children have been “stolen” by Japan. They claim that Japan is supporting the kidnapping of children through its refusal to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which has been signed by every G7 country other than Japan. What the hell is this Hague whachacallit? Here’s what Wikipedia says:
The Convention was drafted to “insure the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence.” The Hague Convention seeks “to protect children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence, as well as to secure protection for the rights of access.” The primary intention of the Convention is to preserve whatever status quo child custody arrangement existed immediately before an alleged wrongful removal or retention thereby deterring a parent from crossing international boundaries in search of a more sympathetic court. The Convention applies only to children under the age of 16.
Many of the members of the group that protested at the theater were Americans who married Japanese citizens. They lived in America and had children, which would make the USA the childrens’ country of “habitual residence.” However, their marriages went bad and their Japanese spouses ended up taking the kids to Japan, which has not signed the Hague Convention. As a result, most of them will never be able to see their children again. There is a lot of information about the issue on the group’s official site.
It’s a horrible situation for a parent to find themselves in and I can’t blame them for holding the protest to bring attention to the issue. However, it’s quite a stretch to equate the Japanese government’s unwillingness to take a fair stance in international child custody disputes to the North Korean governmental policy of forcibly kidnapping Japanese nationals. And for God’s sake, don’t hold up a sign that says “JAPAN STEALS CHILDREN.”
If you’re a non-Japanese person who is thinking about marrying a Japanese citizen, you might want to examine your rights and prepare for the worst by consulting this link(which was posted a few days ago on Gen Kanai’s blog). Of course, you could always trust your partner, but who does that these days?
(I’ll admit it. I chose the most offensive sign for the image in this story. I just couldn’t resist. There are plenty of pictures of far more reasonable protesters on the groups homepage).
[Story found Via The Korea Liberator]
