Filmmakers tackle custody issue

Charlie Reed

Stars and Stripes

Marine 1st Lt. Cole Johns’ dreams of reuniting with his children were dashed after he met filmmakers David Hearn and Matt Antell last year. He last saw his two young sons, Tetsuaki and Takeshi, in March 2007 before he deployed to Iraq. A few months later, Johns said, his Japanese ex-wife took them to Japan and cut off communication. He clung to hope that the court order he was granted would resolve the issue. "I kept saying, ‘I’m an American with a U.S. court order, I’ll be able to get them back,’ " said Johns, 29, an infantry officer stationed in Hawaii.

That prospect faded after Hearn and Antell interviewed him for their documentary "From the Shadows." The film chronicles parents who have been cut off from their children living in Japan by the country’s family court system, which does not recognize foreign custody orders and favors sole-custody divorce customs that typically grant guardianship to mothers.

Source: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65441