DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Iraq War Vet Fights for Return of Children Taken by Estranged Wife to Japan

**Quigoxito** · 10-07-2011, 07:27 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/07...wife-to-japan/

When veteran Michael Elias was serving in Iraq in 2008, he longed for the day when he could return home to his wife and two children in New Jersey.

When that day finally came, he was not ready for the nightmare he has endured for the past three years.

His marriage soon fell apart and his wife, Mayumi Nakamura, did the unthinkable when she violated a Bergen County court order and fled in December 2008 with the couple's 2-year-old son, Michael, and 4-year-old daughter, Jade, back to her native Japan. In Japan, a lack of child-custody laws means Elias, a former sergeant of the United States Marine Corps, has basically lost all rights to see his children or have them return stateside.

The former soldier has been fighting to get back his children ever since, reaching out to local congressmen and testifying on Capitol Hill to no avail.

Whenever I hear stories like this it really irritates me. I know that one of the girls who was my roommate in Iraq her then-husband took all the money out of their account, left their daughter with family or someone and took off to Mexico. Granted at least he didn't take the kid with him but people like that are dirtbags.

IMO, this is not quite the same. I mean she's Japanese, her marriage to an American didn't work out...seems natural to want to go back home.

I mean, if you say, fell in love with a Kuwaiti man and moved there for him...then the marriage didn't work out...wouldn't you wanna leave and come back home?

Okay, I get that the "right" thing maybe isn't to violate a court order and split before working it out...but I understand the sentiment and don't think she's a dirtbag.

I really hate it when people who claim to be parents abuse their kids like this. Abducting your children and sneaking away out of the country or to another state or anywhere and taking them from the other parent is child abuse. The only reason that someone has to take off with their children is if there is abuse from one of the parents or any abuse going on in the home. Otherwise what this woman did was just wrong. Again, I don't see this as child abuse, either. Maybe if she snuck in the middle of the night and abducted the kid...but as I understand this article, I mean she is living in a foreign place cuz of a man she's no longer married to, she has the kids...maybe he's deployed at the time, not sure.

So, she wants to go home...again, maybe the more correct thing is to stick around, fight it out in court as to who gets custody of the kids, then leave with them...

10-07-2011, 07:27 PM	#2
Quigoxito Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 442 Senior Member	http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/07...wife-to-japan/ When veteran Michael Elias was serving in Iraq in 2008, he longed for the day when he could return home to his wife and two children in New Jersey. When that day finally came, he was not ready for the nightmare he has endured for the past three years. His marriage soon fell apart and his wife, Mayumi Nakamura, did the unthinkable when she violated a Bergen County court order and fled in December 2008 with the couple's 2-year-old son, Michael, and 4-year-old daughter, Jade, back to her native Japan. In Japan, a lack of child-custody laws means Elias, a former sergeant of the United States Marine Corps, has basically lost all rights to see his children or have them return stateside. The former soldier has been fighting to get back his children ever since, reaching out to local congressmen and testifying on Capitol Hill to no avail. Whenever I hear stories like this it really irritates me. I know that one of the girls who was my roommate in Iraq her then-husband took all the money out of their account, left their daughter with family or someone and took off to Mexico. Granted at least he didn't take the kid with him but people like that are dirtbags. IMO, this is not quite the same. I mean she's Japanese, her marriage to an American didn't work out...seems natural to want to go back home. I mean, if you say, fell in love with a Kuwaiti man and moved there for him...then the marriage didn't work out...wouldn't you wanna leave and come back home? Okay, I get that the "right" thing maybe isn't to violate a court order and split before working it out...but I understand the sentiment and don't think she's a dirtbag. I really hate it when people who claim to be parents abuse their kids like this. Abducting your children and sneaking away out of the country or to another state or anywhere and taking them from the other parent is child abuse. The only reason that someone has to take off with their children is if there is abuse from one of the parents or any abuse going on in the home. Otherwise what this woman did was just wrong. Again, I don't see this as child abuse, either. Maybe if she snuck in the middle of the night and abducted the kid...but as I understand this article, I mean she is living in a foreign place cuz of a man she's no longer married to, she has the kids...maybe he's deployed at the time, not sure. So, she wants to go home...again, maybe the more correct thing is to stick around, fight it out in court as to who gets custody of the kids, then leave with them...
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