About a year after the devastating quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan in March 2011, an evacuee living in temporary housing called local officials to report a suspected case of child abuse, a scene occurring with increasing frequency among stressed-out mothers in the region.
About a year after the devastating quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan in March 2011, an evacuee living in temporary housing called local officials to report a suspected case of child abuse, a scene occurring with increasing frequency among stressed-out mothers in the region.
“A mother is beating up her child,” the evacuee told a local official in the stricken coastal area of Miyagi Prefecture.
The mother, who is in her 30s, was spanking her young son while yelling, “We don’t need you,” according to the resident.
When a public health nurse visited the mother for counseling, she admitted that she has been under great stress since her family was forced to evacuate following the Great East Japan Earthquake.
“Temporary housing is small, and the walls are thin,” the homemaker said of her prefabricated home. “But my child would not remain quiet. I had nobody but him to take my stress out on.”
Protracted living in temporary housing, as well as separation from their communities and isolation in their new homes after the disaster, is taking a heavy emotional toll on victims and their families, resulting in an alarming spike in child abuse cases.
The prefectural child consultation center in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, which is in charge of the coastal area, reported that child abuse cases rose about 10 percent from 339 in fiscal 2010 to 374 in fiscal 2012. That mirrors the increases in reports of child abuse nationwide, with a record-high 66,807 in fiscal 2012, up 6,888 from the previous year.
But in the damaged coastal area of Miyagi Prefecture, the public health nurse said there were few reports of child abuse cases before the disaster struck.
Incidences are growing, however, she said, partly because parents living in temporary housing with young children are getting stressed out from having to live side by side with neighbors while enjoying little privacy.
The nurse also said some of the cases came out into the open with families forced to live closer together. Before, these instances may have gone unnoticed when they lived in detached housing, which afforded greater privacy.
In the instance with the mother in temporary housing, after several sessions with the nurse, she stopped physically abusing her son. But the mother flipped a dining table over in June when she became angry with him.
Officials in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, also reported the plight of abused children after the town, which co-hosts the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, was ordered to evacuate after the nuclear accident unfolded.
After the disaster, 12 children from Okuma were taken into temporary custody at child consultation centers due to cases of abuse or suspected abuse.
Of the children, six were placed in a children’s home and other facilities.
The cases came to the attention of local officials after being alerted by evacuees living in temporary housing and school teachers. Most cases involved neglect, in which parents abandoned their child-rearing responsibilities.
A temporary custody case occurred about once every two to three years before the disaster, according to town officials.
“We suspect that such cases shot up partly because parents can no longer receive help from their relatives after they were separated while evacuating,” an official said.
According to the Fukushima prefectural government, overall cases in which child consultation centers took action such as offering advice or placing children in children’s homes after receiving reports of abuse stood at 224 in fiscal 2010.
The number rose to 259 in fiscal 2011 and to 311 in fiscal 2012.
The increase is particularly steep at a child consultation center in Iwaki, which handles cases in the affected coastal area, including communities that were evacuated.
In fiscal 2010, there were 51 cases in that jurisdiction. The figure rose to 56 in fiscal 2011 and more than doubled to 120 in fiscal 2012.
A prefectural official said parents tend to vent on their children their pent-up frustration stemming from years of child rearing even before the disaster, coupled with the dramatic change in their living conditions and stress from the evacuation.
One such Fukushima parent is a woman who has been forced to live with her 3-year-old son outside the prefecture after the nuclear accident.
She voiced her regrets on scolding her son when she chatted with Megumi Tomita, 43, at a support organization commissioned by the Fukushima prefectural government that helps children and families affected by the disaster.
“I am getting irritated recently, despite myself,” the woman said. “I came to my senses when I saw his sleeping face, and wondered why I was getting on him so strongly.”
Sensing alarm in her behavior, Tomita thought the woman needed time away from her son, even if only for a little break. She suggested that the mother utilize a service that will take care of her child for a few hours.
The mother later started smiling and began talking about her family, cooking and other topics.
Tomita believes that the woman’s case could have led to child abuse, with no assistance from her family and neighbors in rearing her child.
“When she was living in Fukushima Prefecture, she was able to count on help from her husband, parents and neighbors,” the support worker said. “But she now finds herself living all alone in an unfamiliar place with her child.
“Although she cares about her son, she ends up treating him badly out of stress and anxiety, and consequently, plunges into bouts of self-loathing.”
Some mothers are forced to care for their children while fighting fatigue from their protracted evacuation.
Tomita said she knows a mother who needs to take intravenous fluids to be able to look after her child, although her health condition requires hospitalization.
Tomita and other members of the organization make the rounds to assist Fukushima evacuees living in Tokyo and such prefectures as Yamagata, Niigata and Saitama, where many are staying.
They work with support groups in those prefectures to talk with mothers to find out their needs.
“We don’t want to miss a sign that may lead to child abuse,” Tomita said.
(Yukiko Seino and Yoshiyuki Ito contributed to this article.)