crime

5 Japanese children at Connecticut school reported safe

29 Comments

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I am grateful to know of those children who escaped safely, and, as an American, also feel grateful for the outpouring of sympathy and support coming from leaders in Japan, France, Great Britain and other nations.

8 ( +7 / -0 )

To Ranger_Miffy2: How is this article misleading. I'm sure the NHK reporter on the scene confirmed the fact that there were five Japanese national children who attended the school. The town where this happened is not very far from New York City where I'm sure hundreds of Japanese nationals work in various professions. They are probably the children of these Japanese.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Very Cool...and happy they are among the safe and sound...

4 ( +8 / -4 )

As an American I am sick to my stomach about ther latest incident of gun violence in this country. And this time taking the lives of 20 innocent children. For those who did not see it, the tape of President Obama's remarks is simply remarkable. My hat is off to him for allowing his emotions show through. I just pray, as he said, that this tragedy FINALLY brings about a intelligent discussion of gun control in America and moves us past the juvenile "they can take my gun from my cold dead hands" lunacy.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

They only care about the Japanese children??????

Moderator: Don't post rubbish like this.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This is what happens when single crazy people ruin the reputation of whole nations.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

AkariYoshidaDec. 16, 2012 - 07:50AM JST To own a gun is a right Americans have. Sadly some people choose to abuse this. You cannot takethe second amendment away from them though. The bad guys and the ones who want to do damage will always get the guns and will always find a way to kill

Absolutely wrong. Prohibiting guns directly eliminates cases like this one, when a child takes a gun from his mother and kills another 20 children. Neither the mother, not the child, who did the crime are "bad guys".

2 ( +2 / -0 )

A very tragic story and one I hope will not be repeated. I commend Obama for his words after, just hope that gun control can be tackled seriously now in the US. Doesn't firearm legislation require a certain amount of background checks/safe storage?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If you have not read Noel Perrin's "Giving up the Gun" then it could be an idea for a Christmas read. He says that Japan followed a singular path to ban guns way back at the beginning of Edo. As an American he found this intriguing.

Just for reference, some food for thought, even if you do not have to believe everything he says. One of those seminal books that you can always say that you have read, anyway!

http://books.google.co.jp/books/about/Giving_Up_the_Gun.html?id=xuY9AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It is difficult to understand why the killer's mother bought him the guns. Did she think about the possible danger involved and it was the guns that took away her precious life. The tragic thing is the guns also took away the lives and lovely childhood of the innocent kids. I wonder what the killer's mother feel if she had not been killed and survived this tragedy. How could she face the families of the victims?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The NHK reporter that was on the scene live evidently included information on Japanese kids in their initial story. I didn't see anything that has corroborated it or related to that on the Japanese site, though.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Something is very, very wrong!

Elbuda,

You are correct, it is the US & its GUNS, very very wrong..........

But will they learn & act on it? That is the question......hopefully they will collectively come to their senses sooner rather than later or never

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Hmmmmmmm..... Were the 5 "Japanese" children really Japanese or was one of their parents?

It always comes down to this, doesn't it? Regardless of the paperwork and specific passports and what people may say about various definitions, anyone who has one Japanese parent is Japanese. Period. If they have another parent of another nationality they are that (Irish, Cuban, American, whatever), too. Those kids are double. They have both.

Another possibility besides Japanese nationals having their children in a local school is exchange students who stay from a week to months or a year. Yes, even in elementary school. Especially if the student doesn't fit well in their home-country's system.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Did she think about the possible danger involved and it was the guns that took away her precious life.

I think you answered your own question.

This is NOT an isolated incident, and until the people in the US get their crap together you can expect it more and more and more. It's sad, but true.

If a bridge collapsed and people died, everyone would be screaming about insuring their safety, but when it comes to gun deaths like these, or it's just another sad tragedy. People have got to get it through their heads that while YES guns dont kill people people kill people, society in the US is losing (has lost?) moral values, ethics, and belief in helping others.

Everyone in the US in a manner of speaking is to blame for this incident, and the next one that happens too. Oh and it will happen, eventually, mark my words.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

To own a gun is a right Americans have. Sadly some people choose to abuse this. You cannot takethe second amendment away from them though. The bad guys and the ones who want to do damage will always get the guns and will always find a way to kill

0 ( +2 / -2 )

To own a gun is a right Americans have. Sadly some people choose to abuse this. You cannot takethe second amendment away from them though. The bad guys and the ones who want to do damage will always get the guns and will always find a way to kill

This is a stale argument seeing as how the founding fathers who wrote the constitution could never have considered the idiocy of what is happening today.

YOU CAN take away the second amendment if the will and desire is there. However there is no will nor desire because it means money. No one cares about the lost lives only about protecting THEIR precious rights. The constitution was written as a guideline, and guidelines get changed. Look the US instituted prohibition because people at the time fought over the "evils" of alcohol, long story short, it got changed.

Also your argument about bad guys getting guns etc etc etc, it's stale and in my opinion and ignorant response to the problem at hand. ALL these mass shootings were done by people who basically were not "bad". Many if not all procured their weapons LEGALLY. So dont argue the point about bad people obtaining guns even if their were laws against them please, it just waters down the discussion.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sadly, mass shootings are becoming routine in the states. Another shoot-out occurred at a mall in Portland Oregon just a few days prior to this latest massacre.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I do not think that surviving Japanese kids want to go back to the same school. If they go back there, it will bring back the unpleasant memory of unthinkable crime. They will also miss their lost friends face and voice. Psychological scar will last for their life time. It is a right moment for changing another school.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@akkk1 & @hobart_mark:

I would have to agree with both of you. It's times like this incident & others that makes me ashamed to be an American & would want to move away from America as fast as possible.

@Athletes:

I agree. I think that everyone involved in that school should transfer to other elementary schools.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Today, our day here at an elementary school started with a faculty meeting. We were not to bring the subject up with the kids ourselves, but if asked we were to answer to the best of our abilties. If any child seems different than normal or otherwise troubled, we have a counselor at the school and the child should go talk to her. Even here, half way down the Atlantic coast from Connecticut, the teachers are somber and no one has smiled this morning.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I scanned this story twice. Where does the contents match the headline?

Here's where the contents match the headline:

NHK, which had a reporter giving a live broadcast from the scene, said that five of the children at the school were Japanese, and that all five were safe.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I am very glad to hear that.

Sadly american culture right now is torn deeply and that trauma is appearing in daily life with such tragic events. Guns are a terrible tool for this anger and pain, and should be strictly regulated, they have no place in a peaceful society. Sadly there is a powerful lobby that has tremendous impact on the highest levels of government. So once again the US shows that it is a shell, with a soft interior of weakness and needs to grow up. I am glad about those children very glad that they are safe. I hope they and the other survivors get counseling and help. they will need it.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

America is a culture of violence and the media fuels the fires that burn within the mentally unbalanced...by providing non stop coverage of these heinous crimes....

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I am happy non of these kids from Japan were killed but for the other kids, my guess all American, very, very sad. And now reports that the MOTHER of this idiot killer with mental problems,that SHE was the one buying the guns her idiot son used to kill her husband at home, then to kill her at her kindergarten and almost 30 other victims?? Something is very, very wrong!

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Isn't this article a bit misleading? Were the five tykes Japanese nationals, or Japanese-American? Which is it? I'd be very surprised to hear there were five Japanese nationals there. Not seeing any mention of them in either status on the news sources so far.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Hmmmmmmm..... Were the 5 "Japanese" children really Japanese or was one of their parents? Although it is a great opportunity for Japanese children virtually all Japanese parents living overseas who plan to return to Japan do not send their children to a local school.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

22 stabed in China this in America, what's going on?

-12 ( +2 / -14 )

They might have dipped classes, lucky kids

-23 ( +0 / -23 )

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