(Central News Agency reporter Dai Yazhen’s special report from Tokyo on the 21st) There are outrageous parents in Japan. A 48-year-old father took his two sons to climb Mount Fuji yesterday. As a result, his 7-year-old son complained of exhaustion and got emotional. Unexpectedly, his father asked him to stay alone at the sixth station to wait while he continued climbing with his older brother. The boy was left alone and was discovered by Mountain House personnel who called the police.
According to Japan's TBS TV station, the rescued boy lives in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. He is 7 years old and is in the second grade of elementary school. Yesterday morning, he, his 48-year-old father and his brother, who is in the first grade of junior high school, challenged the Fujinomiya route on Mount Fuji together.
After the group arrived at the sixth station, the 7-year-old boy started shouting "tired" and getting emotional. Since his elder brother had already walked up the mountain, the father told his younger son, "Wait here," and then left him alone near the sixth station while he continued to catch up with his elder brother.
At around 7:30 a.m., the mountain house staff found the boy sitting alone on a bench without an adult around him. After realizing something was wrong, he immediately called the police for help, saying, "A child was left alone and is now sitting on the bench."
After receiving the report, the police rushed to the scene to assist the boy and contacted his father to request his return. By this time, my father and brother had climbed all the way to the eighth station, and they turned back after receiving notification from the police.
Fortunately, the boy was not injured, but it is worth noting that it was raining at the sixth station and the scene was still covered in fog. The police were quite dissatisfied with leaving a 7-year-old child waiting alone in a high mountain environment with poor weather conditions.
After the father returned, the police handed the boy back to him and warned him sternly, "Since three people came to climb together, they should choose to give up climbing. Leaving the child alone should not happen at all."
In the face of the police warning, his father also admitted that his judgment was inappropriate, saying "I made a rash act, I am very sorry" and expressed reflection on this.
The police also take this opportunity to remind that when climbing in a group, you should not just focus on your own speed or whether you can reach the summit. Instead, you should adjust your pace to the weakest among your companions and look after each other along the way to prevent members from getting separated.
The "Fujinomiya Route" where the incident occurred is one of the four main climbing routes on Mount Fuji. It is located on the Shizuoka Prefecture side. Climbers usually start from the 5th station of the Fujinomiya entrance at an altitude of 2,400 meters and head towards the top of the mountain.
According to the Fuji Climbing official website, although the Fujinomiya route is the shortest to the top of the four routes, after passing the sixth station, there will be steep rock fields and uphill roads on hard ground. In other words, just because a hiking route is "shorter" does not mean it is "easier to walk."
In addition, the weather, temperature and visibility in mountainous areas may change rapidly in a short period of time. Not to mention leaving a 7-year-old child alone in the mountains cannot rule out the possibility of getting lost or the child suddenly becoming unwell. Although the boy was safe this time, the incident once again raised concerns about the safety of parent-child mountaineering.
