• 15
  • January
    2012

A Maryland naval commander hopes 2012 will bring him one step closer to being reunited with his daughter.

He has been engaged in a custody dispute with his Japanese wife and her family since 2003. The man was stationed in Japan in July 2003 when his wife left him and took their 9-month-old daughter.

Japanese courts denied the man custody of his daughter. His ex-wife committed suicide in 2007, but the courts gave sole custody to the woman's mother.

The naval commander hopes recent developments in Japan will work in his favor. In 1980, Japan refused to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. However, in May 2011, the government began preparations to sign the treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced in October 2011 that he will ask the Diet, the Japanese legislature, to ratify the legislation when it opens in 2012. However, there are some indications that members of the Diet may not vote to pass the legislation or may delay it for several years.

Even if Japan agrees to join the Hague Convention, the treaty is not retroactive so the naval commander and other parents like him may still be in limbo.

The naval commander and about 100 other parents are working with the U.S. government to help them regain custody of their children. In 2010, the parents formed a lobbying group, Bring Abducted Children Home.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey is championing the group. In May 2011, he sponsored the International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act of 2011. If it passes, the act will allow the president to impose sanctions against countries that allow international abductions.

Meanwhile, the naval commander's daughter is now 9-years-old, and he has only visited with her three times since his wife left him. He flew to Japan to check on his daughter following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Her grandmother refused to allow him to see his child.

Source: The Japan Times, "Few options for left-behind parents even if Hague OK'd," Masami Ito, Dec. 29, 2011.