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Clinton Health Concerns; Interview with Hillary Clinton; Deadly Airstrikes in Syria Ahead of Ceasefire; France Terror Threat at its Maximum; Stabbing in Australia Inspired by ISIS; Marking 15 Years Since the September 11th Attacks; "Young Recluse" Phenomenon Well- Documented in Japan. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 12, 2016 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:09] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton's doctor says she has pneumonia after she stumbled leaving a September 11th commemoration. How it's creating new concerns over candidate transparency.

The French prime minister warns of new attacks and says France's terror threat is at its maximum.

And a virtual high school in Japan tries to pull students back from the brink of social isolation -- excuse me.

It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

There are many questions about Hillary Clinton's health right now after the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate became ill and stumbled at a 9/11 ceremony in New York Sunday. You'll see her doing that there as she was trying to get back in her car. Her doctor says Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. She is now cancelling a campaign trip to California as a result. The doctor says Clinton was overheated and dehydrated at the ceremony, but is now recovering.

Dr. Sujatha Reddy joins us now via Skype from Atlanta. Dr. Reddy -- thank you for joining us to talk about this situation with our presidential candidate.

We saw her stumble on her way into her van leaving the 9/11 event early. She apparently overheated. But then we learned Mrs. Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. What are your thoughts hearing the reports from her doctor on her health?

DR. SUJATHA REDDY, OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST: Yes. You know, I think when you put it all together, it makes sense. Very often with pneumonia, people can have fever, but also they can lose body moisture and vapor really as you're trying to fight this infection. So add that to a grueling schedule, and it's not shocking she would get dehydrated or overheated -- as they use that term.

Pneumonia itself again if you have a fever can make you really need more fluid. And I'm sure with her schedule she is probably unable to keep up with some of those needs.

ALLEN: But what should people think, just Americans think when they hear a candidate has pneumonia, and she is still going about her business? Is that something she should be doing? Or should she moderate or modulate a little bit?

REDDY: Yes, I think that's a great question. I think her doctor advised her to slow down. But she is in the throes of, you know, probably one of the most important events of her life. And it's a presidential campaign. I'm sure most people that get to this level are used to pushing things. And this is obviously a very important day in American history. So I can see why she did it.

But probably now looking back I'm sure she probably thinks she was better to have rested. But I can see why she tried to push it. But clearly she needed to rest.

ALLEN: And we're watching her now. She came out of her daughter's apartment just two hours later saying she felt great, and looking a lot better. So would you think that she can carry on with her schedule, this hectic campaign schedule which I was reading on the campaign trail, it's even more hard on you physically than it is mentally. It's that grueling.

REDDY: Yes -- which is pretty impressive when you hear that statement. You know, pneumonia is a very common infection. For most people it's going to get better in a week or two. I think, again, she is a little bit older. But she is also obviously a very vibrant lady. She again has accomplished more than a lot of people do in several lifetimes.

So, you know, I think this should be something that she should take seriously because we don't want her to get more sick. And I think recovering and resting is probably going to be the best prescription we could give her. Again, I'm just giving you my opinion based on what we know in the press release.

But you know, I don't think this is a serious life-threatening condition. Clearly she looked great when she did come out. I bet you they -- I'm guessing they gave her some IV fluids or had her drink a lot of fluids. And I'm sure that made her feel a lot better because I have a feeling she got very dehydrated this morning for a variety of factors.

You know, I do think this is a common infection. I wish her a speedy recovery. It probably will be good to slow down for a little while. But again, you know, any person that gets to this level is probably not used to ever slowing down.

ALLEN: We appreciate your thoughts, Dr. Sujatha Reddy in Atlanta. Thank you.

Let's turn now to the political impact Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis may have.

For that we're joined by CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott. Eugene -- since I did that interview, we have learned that Clinton is delaying her trip this week. What do we know about her schedule this week on the campaign versus her time to rest to make sure she is recovered?

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: We know that a major fundraiser that was scheduled for California has been canceled, at least for the time being. And there was a big economic speech planned for Tuesday that as of now she will not give. Beyond that, it remains to be certain (ph), and we're still waiting to hear from the campaign.

[00:05:05] ALLEN: And, you know, there is a lot of second-guessing, of course, at this stage in the campaign about transparency. We just heard from the doctor that this isn't necessarily serious, pneumonia. But at the same time, perhaps the American voters have been waiting for more transparent Hillary Clinton after the e-mail scandal went on and on and on. And now this.

So is this somewhat of a scar on her campaign at this point? And we certainly hope that physically she is doing much better.

SCOTT: There are questions about whether or not she should have made this public Friday once she knew. And if she should not have gone to the fundraiser Friday night where she made the comments about the deplorables that actually became major news over the weekend.

But whether or not she will remain healthy enough to move forward remains to be seen in terms of how people are responding to that (inaudible) depending on a lot of times their politics.

ALLEN: Exactly. And speaking of politics, Donald Trump has been quiet since this broke out. This is kind of out of character for him although both candidates have certainly been criticized for not releasing more of their health records. What do you make of that?

SCOTT: Well, I think a lot of people have been surprised at how quiet the Trump campaign has been. But our reporting says that the Trump campaign wanted to be respectful. And that people and surrogates affiliated with the campaign have been instructed to remain silent and not to comment on the incident.

ALLEN: So the question moving forward is how will she handle this in the days ahead? Perhaps the campaign is thinking about making light of it or making statements about it, or having it go away, or it's something maybe her doctor just continues to handle. What do you think that they're thinking about regarding this?

SCOTT: I would imagine that their priority is to focus on her health, get her to a healthy place and to communicate that she still is the best candidate to lead the American people despite pneumonia, which is a very common illness, but a very serious one that she needs to attend to right now. But she still wants to move forward in this campaign.

ALLEN: Political reporter Eugene Scott for us. Thank you -- Eugene.

SCOTT: Thank you. ALLEN: Before Hillary Clinton's illness went public, she sat down

with CNN's Chris Cuomo for an exclusive interview on Friday. Clinton talked about her plan to fight ISIS and criticized Donald Trump's approach. Here is the interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think it is time for a candid, honest conversation about what we face because it's not just ISIS. I actually think that intensifying our efforts against ISIS could lead to their defeat. By that I mean depriving them of territory, including their headquarter city, Raqqa in Syria, taking back the cities they seized in Iraq.

But that's not the end of the struggle. The struggle is against a violent ideology, a form of violent jihadism that is very much propagated over the Internet, which is attractive, unfortunately, to young men and some young women across the world who are looking for some meaning in their lives and find it in this call to violence and evil.

But there is something about this struggle that really demands more than governance that is we have to protect our country by working with one another. And that most certainly includes the American-Muslim community.

What unfortunately Donald Trump has done is made our job harder and given a lot of aid and comfort to ISIS operatives, even ISIS officials who want to create this as some kind of clash of civilization, a religious war. It's not. And we can't let it become that.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: But it sounds like strength when he says it. And people when they're afraid like and need the idea of a strong leader. What do you say to the supporters of him who resonate with that message?

CLINTON: Well, there is phony strength and there is real strength. And it's phony strength to not know what you're talking about and to make outrageous statements that will actually make our job harder, no matter how in the moment it sounds.

Real strength is leveling with the American people and making it clear we will defeat ISIS. I do believe that. But that we've got to make sure that here at home we're not opening doors to people who feel that somehow they want to be part of this global movement because Donald Trump has said it's a war between us and them. And that's pretty attractive to people.

[00:10:06] And we're finding more and more as we look at the profiles of some of the folks who get radicalized and recruited that there is an element of mental illness in some. There is an element of just total alienation.

We don't have the depth of problems that you see in Europe, because we've done a much better job of assimilating people from everywhere. We are a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that. It's a great asset.

So we can't let Trump or anybody of his ilk undermine one of our greatest strengths. So real strength will come here at home in making sure we work with law enforcement and with schools and with community organizations to help people identify anyone who is being recruited, to try to intervene early to have the best intelligence and intelligence surge that will better prepare us to protect ourselves.

That's the hard work that is required. That's the work that the people I was meeting with today from Republican and Democratic administrations know we have to do. And it's not the loose talk and the bombastic commentary that is going to defeat this enemy. It's the millions of decisions by strong patriotic Americans and our allies around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So, again, that was our Hillary Clinton interview on Friday, a day that she did meet with advisers. She gave that exclusive interview, and she also had a fundraiser Friday evening. So it was a full day on a day that she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

We'll see how her week pans out as we start a new week.

In other news, we're following a ceasefire that's set to begin at sundown Monday in Syria after a weekend of deadly bombings. A rights group says at least 90 people were killed in air strikes on rebel-held areas.

These are -- this is video from Idlib as rescuers try to save people from the rubble. The Syrian government announced its support of the U.S. and Russia-backed troops Saturday. But after years of war, many are skeptical on the rebel side that it will hold.

Our Jamana Karachi has more from neighboring Jordan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A day before the U.S. and Russian negotiators' cessation of hostilities is due to take effect in Syria, that is at sundown on Monday, the first day of the Muslim Eid celebration there was no sign of letup in the violence. Activists we spoke to in rebel-held eastern Aleppo said that on Sunday, bombardment, air strikes continued on different neighborhoods in the city. That's a day after dozens were killed and wounded in air strikes on various neighborhoods of rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

And the worst attack on Saturday was in northwestern Syria in Idlib. There activists and a monitoring group say that an air strike on a very busy market -- this is when people had gathered at the market to prepare for the Muslim Eid, they were out shopping and an air strike happened.

An eyewitness we spoke to in Idlib described a horrific scene at the market. Many of those killed and wounded. And there were scores killed and wounded in that air strike they say were women and children.

Those we spoke to in rebel held parts of Syria, especially in Aleppo, they say they want to see a pause in the violence because this is a key term. We've heard the United Nations calling for a pause in the violence to make a delivery that is desperately needed aid, especially in besieged areas like Aleppo, something that has not happened in weeks.

So people say they want to see that, but they are very skeptical of the Russians. They are skeptical of the regime. They're just skeptical of all parties in this conflict really abiding by the cessation of hostilities. And if they do, they say how long is it going to last for?

One activist we spoke to says we have seen truces. We've seen cessation of hostilities in the past take effect and then fall apart. And the violence that comes after that is -- has been much worse. So they ask why is this and how is this going to be any different?

Jomana Karadsheh -- CNN, Amman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And Turkey is launching airstrikes of its own in other parts of northern Syria. According to state media, those strikes killed 20 ISIS militants south of the country's shared border. A few buildings were also destroyed. This is part of Turkey's ongoing push to eradicate ISIS from the border regions.

France is facing more terror threat. We'll tell you what the country's prime minister is saying about national security when we come back here on CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:15:07] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

Sources say police in Paris have arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of planning a terror attack. That would be the second ISIS- connected plot officials have thwarted in the last week. The boy was allegedly planning to hit a public place in the French capital. He had been under house arrest since France declared a state of emergency last November, but sources did not say why.

The French prime minister says the terror threat is at its maximum. He laid out just how major this problem has become.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANUEL VALLS, FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): On our own territory we have -- the justice minister reminded us this morning -- 1,350 people under investigation who today are in prison. 293 of those people are in direct link to terrorist groups, and we can consider, and I understand the weight of these numbers, that there are about 15,000 people in France who are monitored because these people are in the process of radicalization. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:03] ALLEN: Valls went on to commend the work that security forces have done to this point but he warned that new attacks could still be coming.

Police in Australia say the stabbing of a 59-year-old man was a terror attack inspired by ISIS. They think the suspect was trying to lure police so he could attack them too. Cameron Price of Seven Network in Australia has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMERON PRICE, SEVEN NETWORK REPORTER: This is the moment Ihsas Khan was taken down by police after allegedly going on a terrifying rampage through the streets of Minto.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he stab someone?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh no.

PRICE: the victim, 59-year-old Wayne Greenhalgh was selected at random. The bloodied floor of the (inaudible) hair salon evidence of the alleged lone wolf attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He came into the shop, he's old, he's 40 plus -- and he called me help, help, help. I was shocked. I didn't know what else to do.

PRICE: witnesses say the victim was on his regular afternoon walk when Khan began stabbing him. First -- trying to slash his throat, then chest, slicing off his thumb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Told him to put the knife down and don't be stupid. And he tried to stab me as well.

PRICE: Chang had just arrived home when he saw what was happening. Grabbed a fence post and ran to help.

(inaudible) and just bashed him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strike him in the middle of the head and that startled him. That put him back long enough for the (inaudible) to get into the shop.

PRICE: Fan (ph) bravely ushered Wayne to the backyard, applied pressure to his wounds before returning to lock the front door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then the guy who banged the glass, everything to get in, but he couldn't. My next door tried to hold him back. He said yes, I have to die today. It's my day.

PRICE: Moments later when police arrive, Khan turned his attention to them. CATHERINE BURN, NORTH SOUTH WALES POLICE: We alleged down the track

that he -- that he was going to attack them also. That didn't happen fortunately.

PRICE: Khan has been charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone is running and yelling Allahu Akbar. This is a good day to die.

BURNS: That is what leads us to have the belief that it was inspired by ISIS.

PRICE: Minto local officials say they called the national terror hotline about Khan as recently as last week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He'd stand out the front of people's houses holding the Koran, reciting and just staring into houses.

PRICE: this attack came less than a week after Islamic state called for lone wolf attacks in Sydney. And almost 15 years to the day since September 11th.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Connecting them both is a violent Islamist ideology, which perverts the religion of Islam and seeks to destroy and threaten our way of life.

PRICE: The prime minister praised those who came to help Wayne.

TURNBULL: We've all got an interest in being alert to threats in our community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Another random ISIS attack. Our thanks to Cameron Price of Seven Network with that report.

A nasty looking typhoon is taking aim at Taiwan. And our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is keeping an eye on this one. And this one has been brewing for a few days, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely.

You know, Natalie. The thing with this particular story, it really resembles something we saw about a month ago that was devastating across portions of Taiwan. And we'll touch on that momentarily.

But look at this. We've got three storms across this area, one with medium chance of formation near portions of Vietnam, eventually down towards Laos and Thailand.

The center of your screen, that's Meranti. That's what we're concerned about. There is a disturbance behind that that has a higher probability of forming into a tropical disturbance. And then, of course, there is one near Japan that is moving away from Japan. But again, we'll touch on what is happening with Meranti because the winds have really, really exploded in the past 24 hours here when it comes to how strong they have gotten. And just the satellite presentation on the storm -- all quadrants have been very impressive. You look for a strong outflow. You see the outer bands here -- very much organized and symmetrical.

You know this storm system -- it is trekking just to the west and eventually to the north. It will brush by the northern tip of Luzon. So if you're watching us across the Philippines, this potentially just brings in some heavy rain showers on the northern tier of the island.

But again, here is another way to look at this storm with the Joint Typhoon Warning Center now calling this a violent typhoon as it sit there's with 215 kilometer per hour winds which would compared to a healthy category 4 disturbance and unfortunately there isn't much that's going to change about the storm system. It might strengthen just to here and then it would make landfall still as a category 4 storm.

I think some time around lunchtime on Wednesday is what the best estimation is at this point for a landfall. And that would be in the southern tip of Taiwan. Again notice the deep area in red, that is typhoon force winds, north of 120 miles per hour. Get near the center of that and, of course, we're talking winds potentially as high as 250 or so kilometers per hour.

[00:25:05] But when you look at, this and we often say with tropical disturbances, 90 percent of the fatalities, they're related to the rain and also related to storm surge -- the water element. And the wave height is going to be tremendous with this potentially 15 meters high as this storm system approaches land. So the storm surge going to be devastating potentially.

And then you look at the track of it again, it takes it in right toward portions of southern Taiwan. Beyond that it re-emerges back out towards parts of the Fujian province on Thursday morning across that region.

Again, when you look at recent history, Natalie, and see that Nepartak was a typhoon that formed on the 2nd of July so just a little over, of course, a couple of months ago here and made landfall on July 8th. It took with it about 100 lives. It left behind 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in damage. Made landfall almost in the identical spot as what the forecast currently is for Meranti. You see how it's paralleling Nepartak's track.

So, of course, you know, this area certainly is still in heavy recovery mode. So we're going to watch the story and see how it develops because a lot of people stand to be impacted, Natalie.

ALLEN: Absolutely. And it doesn't seem fair getting a double hit as well. Pedram -- thanks so much.

JAVAHERI: Yes. ALLEN: A stumble at a 9/11 ceremony in New York raises more questions

about Hillary Clinton's health. We'll look into some answers coming ahead here.

Plus, it was a day of remembrance across the U.S. We'll show you how America paid tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks 15 years on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] ALLEN: And welcome back to our viewers around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories.

Heavy fighting continued over the weekend in Syria as a U.S. and Russian-backed ceasefire is set to begin. A rights group says at least 90 people were killed in air strikes on rebel-held areas Saturday and Sunday. The truce is set to start Monday at sundown.

South Korea says it is preparing for the worst case scenario with North Korea. Leader Kim Jong-un oversaw yet another nuclear test on Friday. The South is calling for stronger sanctions and more international pressure on him and his regime.

Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka has won the U.S. open after a gruelling match with defending champ Novak Djokovic. His victory earned him a third grand slam title. Wawrinka only needs a win at Wimbledon to complete a career grand slam.

Pretty great snap.

Hillary Clinton is cancelling a trip to California, Monday, after she became ill at a 9/11 ceremony in New York. The U.S. Democratic presidential candidate was diagnosed with pneumonia, Friday. Her doctor says Clinton was overheated and dehydrated Sunday and is now recovering.

Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis wasn't disclosed for hours after her departure early from the 9/11 ceremony. Her health has been the subject of rumors before.

CNN's Michael Holmes spoke about that earlier with CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: There are two issues at play here. On the one hand, there are outrageous conspiracy theories about Clinton's health that have percolated on the Web for months. They're on the cover of the "National Enquirer."

You know, these are mostly from right-wing Web sites and trashy outlets suggesting that Clinton has a secret illness, that she is on death's door, that she is going to die, this kind of stuff, all right.

That's been out there for a long time. And that has to be taken off to the side because that's nonsense. But there are now very real question, legitimate questions about this pneumonia, about whether she should have been going out, you know, on public events this weekend and things like that.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a diagnosis on Friday. Is that something that they should have mentioned?

STELTER: Yes, diagnosis on Friday. And then on Sunday morning, she chose to attend the 9/11 ceremony for obvious understandable reasons. She was one of New York's senators during 9/11. This was an important 15-anniversary occasion. She also knew Donald Trump would also be there. There were a number of reasons why she would choose to attend this event despite having pneumonia.

Initially, when she left at 9:30 A.M., the Press Core was told nothing for about 90 minutes. Then the Press Core was told she felt overheated, but was now feeling better. And then only seven hours later were journalists and the public told that actually she has pneumonia and has been diagnosed with it for two days.

That does seem strange. I've even seen a number of Democratic press and others actually criticizing that choice by the Clinton campaign to keep information so close to the vest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter there.

It has been 15 years since nearly 3,000 people were killed in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Across the United States, Sunday, people paused to remember the lives lost on 9/11.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BAGPIPES PLAYING)

(BELL)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fifteen years may seem like a long time. But for the families who lost a piece of their heart that day, I imagine it can seem like just yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael Patrick Iken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daniel Ilkanayev.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frederick J. Ill, Jr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my father, John Patrick Gallagher. Dad, me and mom think about you every single day. But we'll never stop loving you and missing you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stephen A. Knapp.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eugueni Kniazev.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my Uncle Andrew Fisher. Uncle Andrew, words cannot describe how much everyone loves you and misses you. And I look forward for us finally meeting in heaven.

OBAMA: We remember and we will never forget the nearly 3,000 beautiful lives taken from us so cruelly. We come together in prayer and in gratitude for the strength that has fortified us across these 15 years. And we renew the love and the faith that binds us together as one American family.

(FLUTE PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for my late husband Mark Colaio, my later brother-in-law Stephen J. Colaio and my brother Thomas Pedicini, 15 years later the love you three shared while you were alive still lives on in all of us.

[00:35:00] OBAMA: May God bless the memory of the loved ones here and across the country. And may God forever bless the United States of America.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Hundreds of thousands of Catalans gathered to rally for independence from Spain on Sunday.

This was the scene in Barcelona where more than half a million people flooded the streets. The succession movement has been hampered by legal blocks from the Spanish government. But support for Catalan independence is growing even in Spain. A July poll had 48 percent of people in favor of Catalan's separation.

And in Mexico City, hundreds of people marched through the streets waving pride flags Sunday in support of the president's proposal to allow same-sex marriage throughout the country.

Just one day earlier, protesters across Mexico rallied against the proposal. Same-sex marriage is allowed in Mexico City, but it is still banned under local laws in many of Mexico's 31 states.

A new government survey in Japan shows hundreds of thousands of teenagers and young adults avoid social contact and rarely leave home. They find digital fantasy worlds more appealing than the real world. But as Will Ripley explains, a new virtual high school is trying to lure them back to learning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Japan's conformist classroom setting has changed little over the years. Compare Japanese students today to almost 25 years ago. The same uniforms, long hours, even mandatory cleaning duty. A disciplined, demanding environment much like Japanese society itself.

Traditional school left Ikumi Shimizu (ph) increasingly frustrated, telling his father it was all a waste of time.

MAKOTO "MAK" SHIMIZU, FATHER: So let's say in a situation to pretend to get along with people around him.

RIPLEY: Mak Shimizu worried about his son's future.

SHIMIZU: Not going to high school, not graduating high school, college would be a bad thing for him in long-term.

RIPLEY: You are afraid he would drop out?

SHIMIZU: Yeah, yes, yes.

RIPLEY: Withdrawing from school and society is a documented social phenomenon in Japan. They even have a word for it here.

(on-camera): Hikikomori, reclusive teenagers and young adults who hole up in their homes sometimes for years, avoiding face to face contact.

[00:40:00] (voice-over): A new Japanese government survey says 541,000, more than half a million teenagers and young adults are hikikomori, and that's actually down from the last survey six years ago.

Those who study the problem say Japanese anime, manga and video games allow some to escape to a fantasy world, a world that only comes to light at special event likes this where fans are free to dress like the characters they idolize. This is where Takeshi Natzuno searches for students who may be on the verge of dropping out.

TAKESHI NATZUNO, BOARD MEMBER, N HIGH SCHOOL: We welcome the students who cannot fit into the standard program.

RIPLEY: Natzuno is on the board of "N" high school, a fully accredited virtual high school, hoping to identify, educate and develop unique talent.

(on-camera): Oh this is the English class.

(voice-over): Students learn using a smartphone and computer app, sometimes even virtual reality.

NATZUNO: We have to make our course very enjoyable and very fun, very attractive.

RIPLEY: Like a video game.

NATZUNO: Like a video game.

RIPLEY: Shimizu enrolled as a freshman.

(on-camera): So this is your school?

IKUMI SHIMIZU, N HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Yes. RIPLEY (voice-over): He often finishes a full day's class work in less than an hour, allowing the 15-year-old to work part-time as an I.T. engineer and competing global hacking competitions. Shimizu says he tries to see friends once or twice a week, but spends most of his time in this tiny Tokyo apartment.

(on-camera) Do you worry about the social aspect, meeting other teenagers, that sort of thing?

(voice-over): "That's what my parents worry about a lot," he says. "But I don't worry about it. I don't really like to communicate with other people."

His parents hope learning in the virtual world will lead to success in the real one.

Will Ripley, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We certainly hope so.

Well, we all have seen the photo, the iconic photo from New York. That's Greta Friedman, the nurse kissed by the sailor in New York City's Times Square in 1945.

Well, we have learned now that she has died. She was 92 years old.

Her son says she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Virginia. For a long time, we really didn't know the genesis of this photo. But the sailor we have learned embraced her amidst spontaneous celebrations over Japan's surrender in World War II.

Greta once said, quote, "It wasn't that much of a kiss."

That will kill the picture.

She said the sailor was just overjoyed that he didn't have to go back to work.

I still love it.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

"World Sport" is next with all the highlights from the men's final of the U.S. Open.

I'll see you in about 15 minutes for more CNN NEWSROOM.

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