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Abuse: Two abandoned children in Osaka
Author: Haru Sugiyama
Publisher: Chikuma Shobo (September, 2013)
Hardcover (265pages)
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In
the summer of 2010, two children, aged three and one, were found lying on top
of each other, starved to death in a studio apartment near the Minami downtown district of Osaka. Their mother was a sex worker who worked at a sex-related parlour nearby. For fifty days, she did not return to her children, and was staying
with a male acquaintance. On SNS (social networking services), she posted
photos of herself on outings with her friends from her hometown of Yokkaichi,
and of herself having fun at a club in Osaka.
Six months after the incident came to light, I met with the
mother, Ms. Mei (an alias) in the reception room of the headquarters of the
Osaka Prefectural Police Department. She thanked me for leaving offerings of
sweets at the Buddhist altar for the children’s spirits. She was a calm young mother you
would see anywhere. At the time of her marriage, Ms. Mei was a responsible
family woman who made appropriate use of public support and was involved in
establishing a mother’s club.
Ms. Mei divorced, left the house with the children, and moved
several times to within the Mie Prefecture, Nagoya, then to Osaka, until her
children died a grisly death. It was a mere year and a number of months. During
that time, there was next to no contact from the children’s father, nor did he
provide any financial support.
I approached administrative organizations which were involved in
this case, and all of them appeared disturbed at Ms. Mei’s actions, stating, “This
was something you would never see,” or “This was our first time experiencing something
like this.”
Ms. Mei was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment.
Neglect:
Why did Mana die?
Author: Haru Sugiyama
Publisher: Shogakukan (November
2004)
Hardcover (253 pages)
Mana’s mother was a housewife, and the incident took place in the
family home. Ten years later, the mother and child isolated themselves and
drifted. Her children eventually died.
The concept of gender for Japanese people has changed greatly in
the past 20 years. Single-mother families have exploded in numbers since the
mid-1990s. In the workplace, non-permanent employment has become the norm.
Under the surface, great changes have been taking place in Japanese society.
Poverty in women is directly related to poverty in children. Ever since the Lehman shock in autumn of 2008, there has been an
increase in young mothers with young children. These mothers have nothing to
take pride in apart from their status as mothers; once they are cornered into
harsh situations, they often turn on their children, whom they tend to
mistakenly think of as their property.
When considering what will bring happiness to a child, it is important that mothers are allowed to step back from child-rearing. If it at least becomes commonly accepted that mothers are not the ones solely responsible for child-rearing, this can lead to happiness of many children.
What has become clear to me in writing this book is that abuse is
a problem of discrimination. If values dictate that only the worthy will
survive, and if these values become rampant, abuse will only become a more
severe problem.
Since April, I myself have been involved in supporting children
who are growing up in impoverished households. There are little Ms. Meis
everywhere. And I am surprised at this reality.
I want
the mechanisms of abuse to be known across a wider audience. I want to see growth
in the kind of support that is deeply knowledgeable of these mechanisms. That
is my wish. (Haru Sugiyama, author of this book)Original article in Japanese on Wan's website.
Translated and adapted by Shana Rieko Shimizu and Naoko Hirose
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