Hands in the Valley--Kuzu's Water and Our Pledge (August 1994)

Hands in the Valley--Kuzu's Water and Our Pledge (August 1994)

When the idea of building a treatment plant in the mountains of Kuzuu-cho, Tochigi Prefecture, came up that summer, my eyes darkened. Industrial waste was to be buried in the valley that I had known since my birth. At the briefing, the contractor repeatedly said, "It is safe" and "We are monitoring the situation," but to me, these were just excuses. The water in this land is the flow of life from the roots of the mountain. Once it is polluted, it cannot be restored.

We began a sit-in. We lined up with handmade banners in the old forest along the Umamon River in the Iioka district of the town of Katsurao. Young mothers stood with their young children in their arms, and elderly people wiped away their sweat as they appealed. Everyone was there with a sense of prayer rather than anger. They wanted to pass on the tranquility and water of the valley to their children and grandchildren. That was all.

The government called it "private-sector vitality. The reality, however, was that the private sector was just a name change and cash flow for golf course operators who failed after the collapse of the bubble economy. When the logic of the city falls on rural areas, the voices of those who live there are drowned out. But we did not back down.

The wind in the valley. The sound of the well. The feel of cold water. It was too good to lose. Today, I listen to the sound of the river.
(August 1994)