Tokyo Medical University Scandal and a Broken Social Contract

Image from https://twitter.com/BFJNews/status/1026697347856838656

Even if you don’t usually follow Japanese news, you’ll have no doubt read about the Tokyo Medical University scandal by now. In summary, women were outperforming men on the entrance examination, so the university began docking the scores of all female applicants in order to maintain a male majority in both the program and in the profession. The sexism of all this has quite rightly attracted indignation from around the world. However, I haven’t yet seen anything insightful written about the further ramifications of entrance exam tampering. Not only were all women’s scores reduced, but the scores of some male candidates were inflated in exchange for (or the anticipation of) monetary donations from their parents. Men who had failed the test and returned to try again the following year had their scores decreased.

Sexism is par for the course in Japan, sadly. I think if the case only involved women facing higher hurdles to enter medicine the outrage would blow over fairly quickly. What will not blow over is the knowledge that entrance examinations are not the objective measure the social contract requires them to be. That is earth shattering.

In order to pass entrance examinations, children and young people attend cram schools (juku) or other forms of tutoring. It’s a sector worth tens of billions of US dollars. Families make enormous sacrifices to pay for it. A teacher I worked with estimated that it cost her about US$400,000 to get her son through the exams for a mid-level university (starting from elementary school). When I went to register my pregnancy at city hall I was given an information booklet about creating a savings plan for the foetus’s juku. Family life (and size) is organised around juku. Most middle-class Japanese kids don’t do chores. Their job is to study, and the family does what it has to do in order to support that. It’s kind of the foundation of the later stages of childhood.

Because if you pass the exam to get into a good school and then a good university, you’re set for life.

That’s the deal. That’s the social contract.

Now we know that has been broken.

In some ways, it was the last really strong contract that was left. It used to be, you got a job with a company and you’d be employed for life. You spent all your time working, and moved all over the country away from you family at a week’s notice, but you endured that because you were safe for life. That deal is gone. The top end of the contract was broken and we’ve had decades of upheaval and national soul searching about it.

The bottom end of the same ladder was still strong though, we thought. You might not be employed for life, but if you study hard you can pass the exam. Pass the exam and your status as a graduate from a good school means you will get the best of the jobs that are out there.

The whole ladder is gone now.

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Remembering the Atomic Bombs, Problematically

Today is the 69th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, and like every other school child in Japan, my son is interrupting his summer holidays to attend a special school session in remembrance. I support this, although I wish the "peace education" focused a little more on pro-active steps for peace and less on the promotion of a victim mentality. It's a small niggle, and I am glad that this day is treated with importance. It was an event that changed the world, not only Japan.

You know there's a "but" coming, so I'll get right to it.

The significance of the use of nuclear weapons lies in the type of destruction and the way the world was changed as a result. I don't in any way want to diminish or minimise the suffering of the people affected, but the loss of life was not statistically significant in comparison to other war time events. Around 70,000* people lost their lives in the bombing of Hiroshima, while the firebombing of Tokyo killed around 87,793 and was described by flight commander Gen. Thomas Power as “the greatest single disaster incurred by any enemy in military history”. In the battle of Okinawa around 100,000 Okinawan civilians and 110,071 Japanese soldiers died. Japan's overall death toll during the war was around 2,350,000.

While the atomic bombings are important events that deserve significant memorials and attention from the school curriculum, I'm frustrated by the lack of knowledge about anything else that happened during the war... and that's just speaking domestically, the issue of what Japan did to the rest of the world is a whole other can of worms. 

From Japan's Bureau of Statistics

I included this chart in a packet of demographic data on which I asked a second year university class to base essays. 90% of my students wrote that the huge dip in population growth in the 1940s was "because America dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki". The emphasis on those bombs throughout their elementary, JHS and SHS educations makes their answers unsurprising but still disappointing. 

*Estimates vary wildly and can get very political, but the difference in scale should be clear irrespective of which numbers you believe. 

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Sunday Surf

Sun-drying seaweed in Kamakura

This week the linkage is pretty parenting heavy, but let's start with a couple of completely-unrelated-to-children posts.

Ex-Pat Life

http://kirstyriceonline.com/2014/04/the-expat-cycle.html

At the end of a particularly good farewell brunch on the weekend I sat talking to our host, they’re leaving after 13 years in Doha. She talked about this special life, how your friends become your expat family. “It’s the one family you actually get to choose. That’s what makes it so good”.

We will be hit hard this summer, with some of our favourite people leaving Japan. I might have to pull this post out again in August.

Women

http://japaneseruleof7.com/japanese-women-and-work

“Anyway,” I continued as I unscrewed the wine, “let’s say your parents were going to buy a new house. Who’d make the ultimate decision, your mom or dad?
“My mom. And you better not eat those Calbee chips. They’ll make you fat.
“But they’re delicious. They’re black pepper. I love them. And I thought your dad brings home the paycheck?
“True, but it’s not his; it’s the family’s.
“Does your mom give him an allowance?
“She does,” she said with a smile, and this seemed to make her happy.
“Okay,” I continued. “So if they were going to buy a car, who would decide?
“Mom.
“Furniture? Sofas and tables and stuff?
“Mom, of course.
“Washing machine? TV? Fridge? Sony Playstation?
“Probably my mom,” she said, then added, as if surprised, “Huh, Japan is matriarchal!”
“I’m having a moment of clarity,” I said.
“You should’ve bought a bottle with a cork,” she said.

Ken takes a serious topic and puts a very entertaining spin on it. I have been pondering writing something on this topic for a while, but he has nailed it so perfectly I feel there is nothing left to say.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.jp/2014/04/haruko-obokata-standing-nail-perverted.html
While I don"t agree with much of what he says, in this case I think he's spot on. A man would never have been so hounded by the media for the same mistake.

http://www.livesayhaiti.com/2014/04/on-taking-women-home.html

The word comfort is from two Latin words that mean "with" and "strong".  God is with these women and He makes them strong.  He is with us and He makes us strong. Amy Carmichael said, "Comfort is not a soft, weakening commiseration; it is true, strengthening love."  I hope that sort of comfort is what Haitian women are experiencing as they are brought home after giving birth.  

Just a lovely post... go look.

Dogs

https://shibasenji.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/attunement

Even though he didn’t carry the bottle all the way to me, I cheered so enthusiastically, another trail walker couldn’t help but wander over to see what my commotion was about. I started to gush about Bowdu’s amazing retrieve, but stopped short when I saw this guy was accompanied by a Labrador Retriever; I might as well have been raving about my Shiba’s beautiful dump in the woods.

Parenting, Adoption and Education

http://groundedparents.com/2014/04/15/teaching-your-child-to-talk-back-or-raising-the-young-skeptic

Why would you want a kid who talks back?
Well, because you aren’t always right; and because other people aren’t always right.  A kid who just accepts what she is told, uncritically, is a kid who unequipped to deal with a world full of propaganda and urban myths and flat-out lies.

http://redthreadbroken.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/chinese-parents-abandon-children-at-guangzhou-baby-hatch-response

 Between late January and mid March, the Guangzhou baby hatch took in 262 children. This was an unexpectedly high number, causing the baby hatch to close in late March. In late February, a photojournalist captured 24 hours at the Guangzhou baby hatch, exposing some heart-wrenching, tear jerking moments.

http://theaccidentalmommy.blogspot.jp/2014/04/rad-vs-cat.html

Here's where it affects the RAD. For years, Genea has had the most insincere tone interacting with little beings. Seeing her new baby cousin, she'd say "aww. Oh look. At. The cute ba- there's a squirrel  can I have a lollipop  you have to wash my clothes now", with the same tone as if she were saying " I gotta take out the trash". It made my internal organs cringe but honestly, I stopped noticing it ages ago. Just part of Genea, one of those things she is going to have to learn. But with Bindi, it's sincere. She sounds like she really does think Bindi is cute. It sounds natural, and that right there is amazing all by itself. 

http://www.findingmagnolia.com/2014/04/this-mothers-day-make-difference-when.html

 Samahope is a non-profit organization that uses crowdfunding to provide funds for doctors to give life-saving medical care to both mothers and children. The doctors Samahope partners with work in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, as well as right here in the city we call home, San Francisco.  These doctors do everything from correcting birth defects to providing safe birth services to helping families cope with trauma (ahem, right up our alley). And while you can give to these amazing doctors anytime during the year, there's an extra special way you can do it for Mother's Day, all while honoring your mom and giving her something special to remember.

http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/when-homeschooling-gets-crunchy-darcy-s-s-thoughts

 The fact that this is now being passed around by proponents of homeschooling and “unschooling” who are not religious and considered “progressive” is concerning. It seems that there is a new hatred of public school that is beginning to take root, and it has nothing to do with Christians. All the illogical, misinformed, sensationalist arguments against public schools that I’ve seen for years, is being repackaged, regurgitated, and spit out all over the websites of people who think they are some kind of pioneers, that this “rebellion” against formal education is all their idea. They ridicule other parents who put their kids in school, saying we must not love our kids if we send them to “government brainwashing centers” (sound familiar?). Which, of course, usually makes me laugh out loud because I’m pretty sure the homeschooling leaders of the conservative movement of the ’80′s invented that term.

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/04/09/bullied-student-threatened-with-wiretapping-charge

A high school sophomore in Pennsylvania who had been bullied all year by classmates with no help from his teacher decided to audio record the bullying on his iPad as evidence.
But instead of disciplining the bullies, school officials called police on him, threatening to have him arrested for felony wiretapping.

http://educationinjapan.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/cool-product-buzz-study-organizer-extraordinaire
 No quote for this, but I seriously want one! Best feature: you can take it outside and study under a tree.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/03/17/reference/after-school-clubs-falling-short-as-more-moms-work/#.U1m0hVdIoxE

Many working mothers have had to give up their jobs just because they can’t secure spots for their children at such facilities. The problem has become so acute that there is now a term describing difficulties confronting working mothers with first-graders: “shoichi no kabe” (the hurdle of the first grade).
Even students who are fortunate enough to gain admittance to an after-school club benefit for only a limited time. Many clubs — particularly the traditional, publicly funded ones — accept students only through the third grade, meaning that older children often have nowhere to go after school. Many end up staying home alone, often with a TV or computer games as their only companion.

We have had so many issues in this regard that I am definitely going to devote an entire post to the topic, but this is good introduction to how f-ing stupid the system here in Japan is.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/16/opinion/soronen-foster-children/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter

His roommate got to go home on school breaks and had a mother who called to check in on him. Adrian had no one to call when he struggled at school -- nowhere to call home, no one to send a gift, no one to see how he was doing. He worked nearly 60 hours a week just to pay for college, and when eventually his grades slipped, he was kicked out. He struggled with the ups and downs of depression. As Adrian said of children in foster care: "We are not equipped to go through this world alone."

 Although this article is about America, there are very similar issues faced by children in Japan who grow up in orphanages.

Tassie!

While I do read this blog (about foster parenting and autism) regularly, I confess I am sharing these posts solely because they have lots of pictures of the beautiful island of my birth, and made me nostalgic.
http://lovemanytrustfew.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/walking-talking
http://lovemanytrustfew.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/lake-st-clair

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My First PTA

Just before the winter break I had my first PTA meeting. We'd had observation classes and assemblies parents attended, all called "PTA", so I didn't realise that this one would be different. I turned up in jeans and a ratty old jumper (sweater, my American friends) expecting to watch the kids study for a bit then go home. I'm such a no0b to this whole parenting in Japan thing. I realised I'd misunderstood something when I walked into the classroom and all the other mothers/grandmothers were made up and dressed in their finest. After the lesson ended, there was a meeting. It was long. We all had to sit at our child's desk (the kids went home). There was a "class" discussion about the term three motto. It was a little awkward. I got mobbed by several mothers in a corner (but I think that deserves its own post). Anyway, all of that aside the first hour or so was listening to the teacher explain her approach to teaching. THAT was really interesting. I had to go to work afterwards, so I missed out on the motto discussion, tragically. We love our home room teacher very much and she will probably appear again, so let’s call her Ms. Smiles.

Social Development

Ms Smiles is focusing heavily on developing the children’s kindness and ability to communicate. In the activity we observed before the meeting, students gave presentations about a randomly assigned classmate, talking about what they were good at or some surprising thing they hadn’t know about the person before the assignment. She told us about incidents like a child accidentally breaking a bowl at lunch and his friends escorting him to the kitchens to apologise with him so that he wouldn’t feel as scared.  She explained that she always encourages the children to ask her “why” questions, even if it means they end up researching where rain comes from instead of finishing the reading assignment for the day. She also encourages the children to explain how they arrived at their own conclusions instead of just giving their answers. 

Maths

I was really fascinated by the way Ms Smiles is teaching maths. I observed a class when they were just starting to work on the times tables, and I think if I had been taught that way I wouldn’t have the issues I do with maths. She is sensitive to the different learning styles of the kids and included pretty much every sensory helper you can think of. The times tables are colour coded and the same coding is repeated on the memorisation cards and in the textbook. They used the multiplication tables to draw shapes like in this video:

They use music and do chants. They use practical examples (four kids need two sheets of paper each, how many sheets of paper should you buy in total?). The tables are tied into the way they learned addition and subtraction the year before (ie, 7 is 5 and 2. The 7 times table is the 5 times table plus the 2 times table: 2 x 2 = 4, 2 x 5 = 10, 4 + 10 = 14 which is 2 x 7). They even did a version where each problem has to be deduced from puns. It's not really translatable unfortunately.

Integrated Learning

I’ve written before about how much I like the integration of a single topic over several subject areas in Japanese elementary schools. At the meeting we were told about an upcoming class trip to the supermarket. Last year’s national maths tests showed that students performed exceptionally poorly at “real world math” problems like “You have a 100 yen coin. You buy a 10 yen candy and a 50 yen pencil. What coins do you receive in change?” Ms Smiles suggested that few elementary aged children do their own shopping and are probably unfamiliar with what denominations of coins there are. Partly in response to these test results the second grade teachers organised for the children to walk to the supermarket (it’s a really long walk actually, and up-hill all the way back) and do some shopping. The parents had to provide a shopping list and 4x 100 yen coins. The children shopped in small groups and had to read one another’s shopping lists and help locate the items. We parents had to promise to cook dinner with what the kids bought that night. The lesson included road safety, reading, navigating the supermarket, calculating the change and writing a report on the ingredients the group had purchased. Tiger was incredibly proud of himself after this activity, incidentally. 

PE

The kids are doing skipping (jump rope) in PE and it was part of their homework for the winter vacation. Ms Smiles explained that the cross-lateral coordination required for skipping assists brain development particularly important at this age. The unit of study was called “Awaken, Skipping Masters!” (めざめ、なわとび名人！)  I’m pretty sure the kids will be doing this in no time:

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Sunday Surf (On a Monday)

I'm joining Authentic Parenting and Hobo Mama for Sunday Surf. Share your best reading of the week, and link up your post at either blog!
For more great reading, visit Hobo Mama or Authentic Parenting for the latest Sunday Surf and linky.
Happy Surfing!

Parenting, Adoption, Education

http://my--fascinating--life.blogspot.jp/2013/10/on-cellphones-and-judgement.html

Kids give so much negative feedback, so much of the time (I won't / I didn't / I can't / I don't want to) that it's positively thrilling, at times, to know that there might be a tiny adult somewhere, inside my phone, who is going to say something encouraging to me, send me a nice email, do something that will make me laugh or maybe just give me ten seconds of respite so I don't yell. I need encouragement through my day, and often the place I get the most is through my phone. I don't think this is anything to be sneezed at.

And yet I've read and heard a few people saying some pretty judgy things about mothers who spend too much time on their phones, and it bothers me. I don't disagree that probably, lots of us could do a better job to get the balance right between boredom, engagement and distraction (I talked about pushing kids through the boredom barrier recently, and I'm all too aware that sometimes I use my phone as a way to avoid pushing through my own). However, this attitude always, always makes me uncomfortable, and not (just) because it makes me feel guilty.

I don't know. I think that most mothers who I see idly thumbing on their phones are probably bored; bored and tired and wondering how much longer they have to stay at the swings until they can legitimately claim it's time for dinner. And if you think they shouldn't be bored and tired, if you would prefer to see them engaging their children more actively, I have a solution - offer to babysit and give that mother a bit of time to herself. Yes, that's right - walk up to her and say 'hey there, mama, you look like you could do with a break. How about I push that swing for you while you take an hour or so to read a book in that coffee shop?'

Is this too weird? Is it impossible? Would nobody ever, ever, do it, because they would seem like some kind of crazy kidnapper, offering to look after a stranger's children? Well, maybe this is right, but my opinion is: if we don't know a person well enough to offer to babysit her kids, we don't know her well enough to judge the fact that she is on her cellphon

http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2013/sep/26/science-teaching-japan-video 
Really interesting video about attempts to promote science in Japanese schools. I was particularly interested by one teacher's observations that kids don't like science because they just want to get the answer, they aren't interested in the process. They are used to, and expect, instant gratification.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/

In literary fiction, like Dostoyevsky, “there is no single, overarching authorial voice,” he said. “Each character presents a different version of reality, and they aren’t necessarily reliable. You have to participate as a reader in this dialectic, which is really something you have to do in real life.”
Dr. Castano added that, in many cases, “popular fiction seems to be more focused on the plot.”
“Characters can be interchangeable and usually more stereotypical in the way they are described,” he said.

http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/2013/10/would-jesus-be-cool-with-keeping-poor.html

With limited resources and the hospital an hour away, the family did not know what to do. They loved their granddaughter and wanted to find her help so they approached the leaders in their community about the situation. The leaders contacted some missionaries in town and told them about this family.

And just like that, this little girl was brought to an orphanage, where she would be separated from her family for the next 3 years.

The family wasn't offered transportation to the hospital, or advice on nutrition for a malnourished child, or high caloric foods or help paying hospital bills. The only option presented was the removal of their child.

So for the next three years a child with a family that loved her sat in an orphanage. She became one of many children cared for by multiple caregivers a day that came and went and picked up their paychecks at the end of the month. She got three nutritious meals a day and toys donated from America to play with and the occasional trip to town for ice cream, but she lacked a child's greatest need- a family to love her. She watched adoptive parents arrive to take their kids home and was left wondering where her family was and why she wasn't with them.

Essentially, an orphan had been created.

While this little girl wondered, an hour away a family in a village was left missing their daughter.

http://mamalode.com/story/detail/sugar-rush

We—collectively, as a society—are teaching our kids the very thing that so many of us spend an entire adult lifetime trying to unlearn.

Sweets = happiness. Sugar = fun. Cupcakes = love.

The celebration hasn’t happened until we feel sick and our teeth are coated in sugar residue.

Our bodies naturally crave sweet things because of their easy energy content. Encouraging a psychological attachment to sweets as a shortcut to positive feelings is unwise. And yet, we reinforce this message constantly to our very young children with a flashing neon sign that says JUNK FOOD = FUN PARTY.

I can’t help but believe that in doing so we will pass on all of our negative patterns. When I’m sad, frustrated, depressed about the winter, cold, tired, or overwhelmed, I want SOMETHING CHOCOLATE WITH FROSTING. It’s a test of my will power not to eat crap when I feel strong negative emotions, searching for a certain level of happiness and satisfaction in sweets. I usually win, but it’s hard and I know I’m not alone. I see this kind of complaint posted everywhere.

We were taught that whether we want to admit it our not. That’s a lesson we learned at the knee of this idyllic childhood-party-sweets-holiday mentality. If we don’t want to raise kids who struggle with the food issues of our generation we need to stop the constant association of positive social events and sugar.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/hanako0809/archives/4611542.html
(Japanese only)

今回、母子手帳を再交付してもらう
ことはまーにとってだけでなく、今後
S市で特別養子縁組をするかもしれ
ない人にとっても大事になってくるこ
とかもしれない…と思ったので、どう
してもやってほしいと思いました。

Race, Privilege, Social Issues

http://www.wideopenground.com/where-racism-exists/

I’ve written before that I grew up in the south, in an area intensely battling racism and homophobia. The area is odd. At the “yamboree” as we called the county fair, the Ku Klux Klan had a booth each year, and also sometimes the Ku Klux Klan would parade down town and give out candy to all the kids.

http://www.connie-zhou.com/asian-american-awakening/

When I was five I was put in a different school because there was an ESL (English as a Second Language) program there. You may be wondering, “what’s wrong with that?” Well, for starters, I was born in Ohio and English was my native tongue. I was reading novels by kindergarten (totally spelled that wrong the first time, fail) and I prided myself on the fact that I had an extensive vocabulary for a toddler. I had been speaking English with exquisite finesse up to that point in my life (okay, that may all be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point). So I didn’t know why I was being put in an ESL program, but I didn’t argue because who’s going to listen to a five year old? At that age, you don’t question things, you just accept. I carried forth with my days throwing raisins at the teacher and drawing cartoon characters on the desks. It wasn’t until later in life I tried to analyze the situation and came to this conclusion: I was put in that program for one reason, I was a shy Asian girl and everyone jumped to the conclusion that I couldn’t speak English. I know I tend to joke about this story, but there’s a lesson to be learned.
As a young child, I didn’t understand race or skin color. I assumed everyone was white, including me. I hope I can speak for most Asian-Americans here, but there is that earth-shatterning [sic] moment in our childhood when we realize we’re not white.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/10370243/The-last-of-the-Viking-whalers.html

It isn’t a scarcity of whales that is bringing down the curtain, or even the complicated politics of whaling. It is something far more prosaic and inexorable: Norwegian children, even those who grow up in the seafaring stronghold of Lofoten, simply do not want to become whalers any more. Nor do they want to brave storm-tossed winter seas to net fortunes in cod, as their forebears have done for centuries. Instead, they aspire to safer, salaried jobs in distant cities or with the offshore oil industry, and they have been leaving their island communities in droves. 

http://marshmallowsensei.com/2013/10/14/tokyo-2020-an-honest-introduction/

What a legacy Japan could achieve if it not only celebrates the things that make Japan distinct and unique but openly looks to share that with the world and in the process widen the definition of what it is to be Japanese to include the best of other cultures too. Because some of those other cultures are already here, they are already making significant contributions to Japanese life. They raise families, they participate in the local community and they contribute in myriad untold ways to the growth of the nation.

In 2020 Japan will seek to introduce itself to the world.

Hopefully it’ll be an honest introduction.

And unlike Britain the rest of the World will be welcome for more than just the summer.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/10/the-homosexual-deathstyle-or-a-fixation-on-gay-sex.html

It seems to me that a lot of the worst homophobia stems from looking at a gay person and seeing the “disgusting” sex they have, rather than seeing a person, a person with passions and interests and likes and dislikes and dreams and, well, a life. So much of the discussion of “the homosexual lifestyle” centers on this idea that gay people spend their lives obsessed with going from bar to bar for sex rather than, well, having a range of interests and forming a range of relationships.

Animals, Linguistics (The first link should explain why those are together today!)

http://voodoobii.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/fox-goes-kon/

...according to recent studies, animals really do have regional accents. Yes, that’s right. Dogs generally tend to have a different pitch, tone, and display a variety of vocal mechanisms depending on where they are from. The Canine Behavioiur Centre in Cumbria explained that Scottish dogs bark somewhat more lightly than dogs in Liverpool, for example. It gives me unspeakable pleasure to envision a dog speaking with a brogue.
Cows were also found to have regional dialects by John Well, professor of phonetics at the University of London. This is interesting, as in English they tend to be capable of producing one consonant. In Mongolia and parts of India they are capable of producing complex plosives by bursting forth with a gutteral umboo in Mongolian and hambaa in Bengali.
Unfortunately, this theory does not hold water across the animal kingdom. Cats make a sound very similar to meow around the world. In France they go miao, in China they go mao, in Sweden they go mjau, and in Turkish mijyav. Could this be attributed to cats’ universal not-giving-a-fuckage? Probable.

http://tenthousandthingsfromkyoto.blogspot.jp/2013/10/alone-in-zone-naoto-matsumura-caretaker.html

Naoto Matsumura and his elder parents lived on a rice farm in Tomioka, a coastal town in Fukushima prefecture, known for having one of the longest cherry blossom tunnels in Japan.

After hearing the hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, eight miles away from their home, the Matsumuras  attempted to evacuate. However, they were turned away from a relative in Iwaki, a coastal town in southern Fukushima prefecture.  She feared they had been radioactively contaminated.  Afterwards, they were turned away from a shelter because it was full.

So they returned to their home, where his parents stayed until his mother became ill in April 2011. She then moved  to her daughter's home in Shizuoka where there was no room for the Matsumura's animals.  Therefore, Naoto Matsumura decided to stay—to take care of them.

He told filmmakers Jeffrey Jousan and Ivan Kovac that he gradually took on the task of caring for cattle, pigs, cats, dogs, and an ostrich (the sole survivor of a flock of 30 birds) throughout Tomioka, all left behind by owners who were initially told the evacuation would be temporary and short-term: 

Our dogs didn’t get fed for the first few days. When I did eventually feed them, the neighbors’ dogs started going crazy. I went over to check on them and found that they were all still tied up.

Everyone in town left thinking they would be back home in a week or so, I guess. From then on, I fed all the cats and dogs every day. They couldn’t stand the wait, so they’d all gather around barking up a storm as soon as they heard my truck. Everywhere I went there was always barking. Like, ‘we’re thirsty’ or, ‘we don’t have any food.’ So I just kept making the rounds.

Over a thousand cattle and hundreds of thousands of caged chickens died from starvation in Tomioka. Then on May 12, 2011, the Kan administration ordered the euthanasia of surviving cattle. But a bright spot for animal survivors was that Japanese authorities have allowed Matsumura to remain to care for animals since the return of the town's other 15,000 residents is unlikely.

http://awesomedogs.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/are-you-positive-ask-your-dog/

You do not necessarily punish a dog by ignoring it.  If a dog wants you to go away, ignoring them is a carrot.  Even the happiest married couples probably realize it’s nice to see your spouse leave so you can have a bubble bath.  Love you – go away – come back later.  Do not assume your presence is always a gift to the universe.  You’re special, but not THAT special.  None of us is.
The point being that in order to aspire to compassionate – to be more humane and kinder, we need to stop talking so much and we need to start listening.
We listen by watching the dog’s reaction.  When you reach to pat a dog on the head and see that slight ducking and shying away, then take note.  Look for escape and avoidance behaviours.  They can be hard to spot.  Relief can look oddly similar to joy.
Avoid a technique-centric approach and choose communication.  When you stop – really stop – and listen, you realize that all dogs respond to positive reinforcement.  Unfortunately, too often, the human thinks they are being positive and the dog firmly disagrees.  You must truly hear what the dog is saying.

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