The Sense of Sacred: Mauna Kea, Hawai'i and Oura Bay, Okinawa

The Okinawan movement to save Henoko and the Yambaru subtropical rainforest is one aspect of a global indigenous movement calling for respect of indigenous cultural heritage, especially natural sacred sites under ongoing threat of destruction.

Indigenous peoples know that sacred sites are centers of collective spiritual and psychological power that go into the past and into the future, connecting generations. Maybe this is why sacred and cultural heritage sites have been targeted for destruction by invading powers for millennia.

In "The Sense of Sacred: Mauna Kea and Oura Bay," published at The Asia-Pacific Journal earlier this month,  Katherine Muzik  compares the similarities between the struggles to save Mauna Kea in Hawai'i and Henoko in Okinawa to introduce William B.C. Chang's analysis of the foreign settler pattern of violating indigenous religious and cultural heritage rights as well as land rights and indigenous human rights:

“Sacred is not necessarily a place. It is a relationship, a deep visceral relationship: beyond reason, beyond law, beyond rationality.”

These words were recently spoken by William B.C. Chang, a University of Hawaii Law Professor, in his impassioned testimony to the UH Board of Regents, about the current conflict on Mauna Kea here in Hawaii.

To the Hawaiians, the Mountain known as Mauna Kea, or Mauna a Wākea, on the Island of Hawaii, is a sacred place. Thus, the proposed construction of the northern hemisphere’s biggest telescope, thirty meters tall (TMT), 18 stories high, on eight acres of the mountain top, costing $1.4 billion, has recently sparked peaceful but ardent protests and occupations by Native Hawaiians, environmentalists and allies across the Pacific. With 13 telescopes already blighting the landscape, the protesters seek to prevent further desecration.

To the Okinawans, the Sea known as Oura Bay, on the Island of Okinawa, is also a sacred place. For nearly two decades, Okinawans have protested its destruction by US/Japan military expansion.

Besides being sacred and beautiful, what else do these two very distant places share? They share history, of illegal takeovers by a foreign power and the subsequent, on-going outrage among the local populations. Locals in Hawaii and Okinawa are deeply angered by the heinous and reckless environmental destruction their islands have suffered. They are frustrated by the destruction that continues, despite prolonged protests. In both cases, illegal land-grabs by the US have resulted in the waste of their natural resources and the disintegration of their cultural identities. However, being sacred, both places continue to inspire passionate and courageous struggles against foreign dominance.

The Hawaiian Islands were once a kingdom, a sovereign nation. In a series of events, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893 by a group of US and European businessmen, ending in annexation as a “Territory of the United States” in 1900. And so too, were the Ryukyu Islands, sovereign. Invaded by Satsuma forces in 1609, they were formally annexed by Japan in 1879 as “Okinawa Prefecture”. After World War 2, the US “acquired” Okinawa from Japan, establishing military bases which have remained and proliferated, destructively, for the last seventy years.

Help restore beautiful Mt. Ogura in Arashiyama, Kyoto - Sunday, March 25, 2012

Via Deep Kyoto:

Poetry lovers and would-be conservationists! This Sunday (March 25th) People Together for Mount Ogura (PTO) needs your help to clean up Mount Ogura - the Poet's Mountain!

Read more here: English Page of 小倉山百人一集の会2012 (PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR MT. OGURA (PTO)):

PTO is a new citizens’ environmental and cultural action NPO, founded in Kyoto, March 2008.

Ogurayama is the beautiful dome-shaped mountain rising on the northern side of the Hozu Gorge as viewed from Arashiyama; a mountain quite unique in its literary associations – from the courtier poets and poetesses of Heian through Priest Saigyo (who had his first hermitage there), Fujiwara Teika (who compiled the karuta collection of 100 Poems by 100 Poets there) right down to Basho (who wrote his Saga Diary there), Kyorai and later haiku poets.

To Mount Ogura
another morning has come
of early winter showers;
when, only yesterday,
all four directions dimly glowed
with red and yellow leaves.

　　　　　　　　 - Fujiwara Teika

Today, Ogurayama is a ‘forgotten mountain’. On the one hand, it has become a storehouse of wildlife – kingfishers, little cuckoos, deer, wild rabbits, monkeys and so forth – for its varied forests comprise both broadleaf deciduous and broadleaf evergreen, with coniferous sections, too.

On the other, its environmental problems have become severe.

PTO and its volunteers are engaged in tackling the rampant pine disease, in replanting, in maintenance of the bamboo groves on Ogura’s lower slopes, and in collection of rubbish tipped illegally and its future prevention.

We work so that Mt. Ogura will once again become a true inspiration for people who seek enjoyment of natural beauty, and will find its rightful place again in the living local culture of Sagano.

Rendezvous: JR Saga-Arashiyama Station ticket barrier at 9:40. Depart: 9:45

Wangari Mathaai: When we destroy our natural environment, we degrade ourselves; in helping the earth to heal, we heal ourselves

Wangaari Mathaai, the late Kenyan visionary, articulated the interconnections between democracy, demilitarization, human rights and environmentalism in her holistic vision of a life-sustaining civilization:

Spiritual Environmentalism: Healing Ourselves by Replenishing the Earth

During my more than three decades as an environmentalist and campaigner for democratic rights, people have often asked me whether spirituality, different religious traditions, and the Bible in particular had inspired me, and influenced my activism and the work of the Green Belt Movement (GBM). Did I conceive conservation of the environment and empowerment of ordinary people as a kind of religious vocation? Were there spiritual lessons to be learned and applied to their own environmental efforts, or in their lives as a whole?...

However, I never differentiated between activities that might be called "spiritual" and those that might be termed "secular." After a few years I came to recognize that our efforts weren't only about planting trees, but were also about sowing seeds of a different sort—the ones necessary to give communities the self-confidence and self-knowledge to rediscover their authentic voice and speak out on behalf of their rights (human, environmental, civic, and political). Our task also became to expand what we call "democratic space," in which ordinary citizens could make decisions on their own behalf to benefit themselves, their community, their country, and the environment that sustains them...

In the process of helping the earth to heal, we help ourselves.

Through my experiences and observations, I have come to believe that the physical destruction of the earth extends to us, too. If we live in an environment that's wounded—where the water is polluted, the air is filled with soot and fumes, the food is contaminated with heavy metals and plastic residues, or the soil is practically dust—it hurts us, chipping away at our health and creating injuries at a physical, psychological, and spiritual level. In degrading the environment, therefore, we degrade ourselves.

The reverse is also true. In the process of helping the earth to heal, we help ourselves. If we see the earth bleeding from the loss of topsoil, biodiversity, or drought and desertification, and if we help reclaim or save what is lost—for instance, through regeneration of degraded forests—the planet will help us in our self-healing and indeed survival. When we can eat healthier, nonadulterated food; when we breathe clean air and drink clean water; when the soil can produce an abundance of vegetables or grains, our own sicknesses and unhealthy lifestyles become healed. The same values we employ in the service of the earth's replenishment work on us, too. We can love ourselves as we love the earth; feel grateful for who we are, even as we are grateful for the earth's bounty; better ourselves, even as we use that self-empowerment to improve the earth; offer service to ourselves, even as we practice volunteerism for the earth.

Human beings have a consciousness by which we can appreciate love, beauty, creativity, and innovation or mourn the lack thereof. To the extent that we can go beyond ourselves and ordinary biological instincts, we can experience what it means to be human and therefore different from other animals. We can appreciate the delicacy of dew or a flower in bloom, water as it runs over the pebbles or the majesty of an elephant, the fragility of the butterfly or a field of wheat or leaves blowing in the wind. Such aesthetic responses are valid in their own right, and as reactions to the natural world they can inspire in us a sense of wonder and beauty that in turn encourages a sense of the divine.

The environment becomes sacred, because to destroy what is essential to life is to destroy life itself.

That consciousness acknowledges that while a certain tree, forest, or mountain itself may not be holy, the life-sustaining services it provides—the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink—are what make existence possible, and so deserve our respect and veneration. From this point of view, the environment becomes sacred, because to destroy what is essential to life is to destroy life itself.

Read more of this entire excerpt of Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World here.

Tessa Morris-Suzuki's just-released To the Diamond Mountains sheds much-needed light on the Korean peninsula's past & present

Released on November 16, Tessa Morris-Suzuki's To the Diamond Mountains: A Hundred-Year Journey through China and Korea could not be more timely.

Korea scholar Alexis Dudden gives this description:

Tessa Morris-Suzuki is the most important writer of Northeast Asia today.

Told through a historian's eyes and with a humanist's compassion, To the Diamond Mountains achieves an artful balance between the geopolitical concerns swirling around the region and the lives lived there now, particularly among North Koreans. The book lucidly blends together ancient pasts with present realities, presenting a subtly powerful case that those who would fail to understand the layers of Northeast Asia's deeply interwoven whole are playing with fire.

To sample this travelogue/history that creates an illuminating, multi-dimensional portrait of Korean peninsula, read an excerpt at The Asia-Pacific Journal.

(Diamond Mountain (Kŭmgangsan) is one of the best known mountains in North Korea. Its name means "a firm heart in the face of truth." Between 1998-2010, Pyongyang allowed South Korean tourists to visit (by ship and bus) the craggy, wild, relatively untouched scenic area. In 2002, North Korea separated Diamond Mountain from Kangwŏn Province and created a a separately-administered tourist region, allowing South Korean conglomerate, Hyundai, to operate hotels there. Over a million South Koreans visted the area, but in 2008, after a South Korean woman was shot, when she allegedly entered a military area, Seoul banned further travel there. In 2010, after South Korea blamed the North for the mysterious sinking of the Cheonan, Pyongyang seized the South Korean hotels.)

Global Work Party: Tree Planting with Electric Vehicles in Hakodate, Japan

Over 7,347 events were held in 188 countries across the planet to encourage governments and communities to take action to reverse climate change as a part 350.org's Global Work Party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they’re having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they’re putting up solar panels on the President’s office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they’re installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic.

Campaigners from 350.org have convinced the Obama administration to reinstall solar panels on the White House after rejecting 350.org's first proposal. The Reagan Administration removed solar panels erected on the White House by former climate-minded U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The Mexican government has also agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 10%.

With October 10th being just a little over a week before the tenth ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) being held in Nagoya which will cover the adverse effects of climate change on biodiversity, actions in Japan were organized to urge the Japanese government to make stronger commitments to reducing CO2 emissions by transitioning to greener technologies. The tree planters in the photo above used electric vehicles to plant 100 beech trees on Mt. Kijihiki. Organizer Peter Howlett describes the solidarity event:

Our tree planting began by first meeting at Oshima-Ohno Station. (This will be the new Shinkansen Hakodate Station in 2015.) Planters were shuttled from here in Mitsubishi's new electric vehicle; i-MiEV up to the top of Mt. Kijihiki where we planted 100 beech trees. This photo was taken mid-planting. We chose Mt. Kijihiki because we are proposing the installing of a community wind farm (10-15 2000Kw turbines) on this mountaintop to power a Ride-the-Wind shuttle train to connect New Hakodate Station with old Hakodate Station (18km).

If such a delicate and difficult task as planting trees on a mountaintop can be achieved with the use of renewable energy-based technologies , surely with the proper sense of commitment and urgency, these technologies can be adapted in all aspects of our daily lives.

350. org organized a similar event last year to raise awareness of global CO2 emissions in October 2009 where 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations took place in 181 countries. CNN called it "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." With almost 7,350 events this year, it is clear that the movement to protect our earth from climate disaster is only growing stronger and stronger.

-Jen Teeter

SAVE HIRABARI SATOYAMA: How can Nagoya City allow the destruction of this biodiverse treasure while hosting a UN conference on biodiversity?

From Takuya Kamibayashi of Hirabari Satoyama Conservancy:

Hirabari Satoyama is in real danger...

On the 29th of May, developers started blocking visitors' entry to Hirabari Satoyama.

Inside of the Satoyama, local children were growing rice inside of buckets—not inside the rice fields that actually exist inside of Satoyama. But once the developers started the blockade, the children were forced to remove buckets. The only available alternative location for the rice buckets seemed to be the public pathway that actually runs inside of Satoyama; but without a clear explanation, it was also blocked. Some locals asked Nagoya City for an explanation why it allowed the blockade of a public road, but the city turned them away.

I also had a chance to plant rice seedlings inside of buckets, and also to tour inside of Satoyama. What I witnessed there: shining eyes of kids–finding out how their food grows, looking up at the big Totoro tree, discovering the mystery of life. Now, they have not only mystery of the nature, but also the mystery of disappearance of nature.

Hiroaki Somiya, a retired professor at Nagoya University, lives right next to this problematic land. The coordinator of activities at Hirabari Satoyama including rice planting—he cannot help but wonder:

Why does the nature of Nagoya City, the host of COP10 (upcoming UN meeting on the Convention for Biodiversity), keep being destroyed?

How are we—who live in the cities—supposed to understand the importance of biodiversity?

Our Satoyama might be a small problem compared to really big issues, but it all relates to each other. There is no reason we can destroy small ones.

Professor Somiya sees how the struggle between Nagoya City's and the developers and the Hirabari Satoyama Conservancy over these 12 acres is a microcosm of the ongoing global epic between destructive forces and people who respect and want to preserve their natural environments.

This year Nagoya City seeks the prestige of holding a UN conference, touting the slogan "Life in Harmony, into the future," following a 2008 Japanese government announcement of its "Satoyama Initiative." According to Eric Johnston in "Battle lines drawn across Nagoya land: Loss of 'satoyama' risks loss of face ahead of biodiversity summit" published in the Japan Times on March 4, Tokyo plans push this initiative during the October U.N. meeting "to promote protection worldwide of natural habitats from urbanization. Thus if the site comes under development, this would be a major embarrassment."

What does this contradiction between talk and action say about about Nagoya City's and the Japanese government's commitment to saving biodiversity when they are unable to figure out how and commit to saving an irreplaceable biodiverse treasure in Nagoya's own backyard?

There's still time to change course and save the Hirabari Satoyama. Its fate will determine whether Nagoya's holding the COP10 conference and Tokyo's "Satoyama Initiative" reflects a sincere commitment to a sustainable and biodiverse future or a tragic, transparent pretense.

What is a satoyama?

Satoyama (里山) is a manifestation of the traditional Japanese keen awareness of healthy and respectful symbiosis between people and their natural environment. An ancient Japanese concept describing the transitional space between mountain foothills and flat farmland, the word derives from Sato (里) meaning homeland, and yama (山) meaning mountain. Japanese farmers have refined satoyama, havens of biodiversity, through centuries of small-scale farming and forestry.
Because of unsustainable historical changes, many satoyama have been destroyed. In the 1980's and 1990's, renewed awareness resulted in a satoyama conservation movement.

See Jen Teeter's post "Where Children can see Totoro: Hirabari Satoyama and COP10" on Hibaraki Satoyama and one of its defenders, website designer and book binder Takuya Kamibayashi, who shared this latest disturbing news with us.

Please visit the English-language website for the Hirabari Satoyama Conservancy and its Facebook site (lots of wonderful photos that show what's at stake).

Peace Not War Japan’s Film/Live Music Festival Highlights Citizen Movements: Mt. Takao・Okinawa's Yanbaru Forest・ Iraqi Refugees in Jordan

Japanese singer UA, speaking from Takae Village, Yanbaru, Okinawa: "Yes, there are problems here...but these are actually reflections of what is occurring inside ourselves. We must remember that we have the power of dreams, since as we know, dreams can often be strong enough to change the world.”

The Kunitachi Peace Film and Live Music Festival, a three-night event organized by Peace Not War Japan, wrapped up last week at a small live music house in the western Tokyo town of Kunitachi. Held from November 1st-3rd, the festival featured a lineup of performers, speakers and documentary films to raise awareness and funds for peace-related issues in Japan and beyond.

The first night’s theme highlighted efforts to halt construction of a highway bypass tunnel through Mt. Takao, a popular nature spot located about one hour west of Tokyo. The evening featured two films: "Mt. Takao—24 Years of Memories" documenting the history of the dedicated citizen movement to protect the mountain from destruction; and “Little Goblin’s Wish”, a creative short film highlighting nature scenes from Mt. Takao. The second film featured musical accompaniment by Tengugakudan (“goblin band”), named after the long-nosed tengu goblins which Japanese folklore has long associated with the forests of Mt. Takao. The band, which played a set later that evening, also regularly performs at various festivals and events to raise awareness for the plight facing Mt. Takao. A video of the band performing at the Satsukimirai festival held in May 2008 at the Artcomplex Center of Tokyo is here.

Following the screenings, Masako Sakata from the eco-action group Kenju-no-kai spoke frankly about the environmental damage that threatens to worsen on Mt. Takao should the partially completed tunnel project continue. “When similar construction took place recently in another prefecture, the mountain started to gradually die off, along with many species of living creatures,” she lamented. “Since all mountains are connected，there is no doubt that the same thing will happen to Mt. Takao if the project proceeds.”

Tengakudan's lively set featured a belly dancer, a dancing tengu, a double bassist, a violinist, and a guitarist who doubled as a Tuvan throat singer. Between songs, lead singer Mocca echoed Sakata on the idea of connection amongst living beings:“I have only one message for those forces that seek to separate living things, whether they be national borders or mountain highways," she told the audience passionately: “We are all one and the same. And just as water flows, separates and then comes back together; so are we all meant to be connected as one—not divided by unnatural boundaries.”

With Tengugakudan’s soulful groove and the positive energies of the evening’s speakers energizing the crowd, the evening finished off with Sakata encouraging everyone present to get involved—no matter how intimidating they may find the idea of political action. “We recently had a visitor from southern India who told us he was part of a movement where tree huggers actually convinced construction workers to lay down their tools and go home,” she recounted. “With the same dedication, we can help save Mt. Takao.

The theme of the second evening was that of militarism—in particular, the Winter Soldier testimonies of Iraq Veterans Against the War members from the U.S. military. A screening was held of the documentary “Fuyu no heishi” ("Winter Soldier" in Japanese), which portrayed the testimonies of former soldiers regarding the atrocities that they committed against Iraqi civilians, as well as the criminal folly of the military system that had forced them into the war to begin with. The screening was followed by a Q and A session with director Junichi Tabo, a freelance journalist with experience reporting from Kuwait and Iraq during both recent wars. “When I brought two U.S. Iraqi war veterans to Japan in September for a nationwide speaking tour, they were absolutely floored by the fact that so many ordinary Japanese citizens showed up to hear them speak,” Tabo recounted.

Reggae singer Takeru, who performed the same evening with an extremely positive and laid-back groove, summed up the feelings of many: “I’ve heard unbelievable reports that many commanders in the U.S. army actually order their subordinates to engage in war games. When you consider the real-life suffering that war causes for everyone, however—the soldiers included—the situation is obviously anything but a game.”

A portion of the evening’s proceeds went toward the Collateral Repair Project (CRP), a grassroots-level project to support Iraqi refugees that was started by two women in the U.S. together with two displaced Iraqi women in Jordan. Communicating daily by e-mail, the team raises and then distributes funds to help less fortunate Iraqi refugees get back on their feet. “For Iraqis living on the edge, every unforeseen expense becomes a crisis,” explained CRP co-director Mary Madsen, who is based in Oregon in the United States. “We see emergencies every day regarding the basics of everyday living—food, heat, blankets, medical supplies, rent for those facing eviction, etc.—with the numbers growing, and each new case seeming worse than the last. If we can intercede in one crisis, even just once, it very often stops an escalation and compounding of events.” Funds raised from the Kunitachi event went toward purchasing a much-needed refrigerator for Haiyat, a widowed Iraqi refugee woman with six children. Further information on the CRP's activities and how to support Iraqi refugees is here.

The third and final night of the event was dedicated to the movement to protect the “Broccoli Forest” in the village of Takae in Okinawa’s Yanbaru region. Named for the lush greenery of the local trees, which actually resemble spears of broccoli, the forest is said to have one of the most diverse arrays of wildlife species in all of Japan. Nevertheless, the U.S. military plans to build helipads (a shortened term for helicopter landing pads) in the village, threatening the living beings and the natural lifestyle of those living there.

Kondo Ichiro of the citizen group Yuntaku Takae (which translates roughly to “relaxed chatting in Takae”, highlighting the region’s laid-back spirit), explained to the evening’s crowd that a lawsuit had been filed against the participants of the sit-in movement to protect the forest. As a result, the defendants were prohibited from any further organizing—including posting any details of the sit-in on their blog. “It is up to others to lend a hand to the movement, since our voice has been stifled at the source,” he explained to the audience. A link to information in English on the citizen movement to protect the village may be found here.

"Peace Takae" T-shirts and other goods for sale

Kondo’s talk was followed by a showing of the documentary film Kukuru, which portrays the citizen movement in Takae while focusing on a performance given in the village by famous Japanese singer UA.

Taking an interesting spiritual angle, UA commented: "Yes, there are problems here...but these are actually reflections of what is occurring inside outselves. We must remember that we have the power of dreams, since as we know, dreams can often be strong enough to change the world.”

The video also featured the clearly politicized voices of several local residents.“The danger we are facing here, which threatens to poison the environment for our children, is surrounding us—and yet nevertheless remains invisible,” said one woman. “And whether we’re talking about Takae, Henoko, or places as far away as Rwanda, it is all part of the same problematic system, in which we are all actually complicit without even realizing it.”

Another resident commented, “It is extremely painful to think that soldiers are being trained here to go and kill people in other nations.”

“We read in the paper one day about the ‘agreement’ between the Japanese and U.S. governments to build these helipads, but this was certainly no ‘agreement’ on our part,” said yet another local resident, echoing the deep sense of anger and betrayal on the part of many citizens in other areas of Okinawa regarding the issue of U.S. military bases in the prefecture.

A portion of proceeds from the events went toward supporting the work of Kenju-no-kai, the Collateral Repair Project, and Yuntaku Takae. Peace Not War Japan thanks all participating artists, who are listed here. PNWJ will continue combining music, dance and positive action for peace at the second annual Harukaze: Spring Love event, to be held next spring in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. More information to follow!

- Kimberly Hughes