Future of the Coast of Sanriku - What We Can Do Now -
Professor Emeritus, Yokohama National University
Vice President, Re-Use of the Debris, Great Forest Wall Project
Akira Miyawaki

It has been four billion years since life came into existence on earth and five million years since mankind came into existence. During that duration of history, we managed to earn money, gather material wealth and harness energy and eliminate all the things that are a nuisance to us. As a result, we have a life that is far better than that any of our ancestors had ever dreamed of. In March 2011, however, priceless lives of close to 20,000 people were claimed by the Great East Japan Earthquake off the coast of Sanriku and the great tsunami that followed. The most important thing of all is life. In the city of Kamaishi, lives of almost 1,000 people were taken away within a matter of an instant by the tsunami waves that went over the coastal levee with reinforced concrete that was supposed to be so strong that it entered the Guinness Book of Records.　No matter how much of scientific, technical or medical knowledge and expertise are gathered, life that is once lost can never be revived. It is not something that matters only to the coast of Sanriku. This magnitude of natural disaster could happen anywhere in Japan that is said to suffer from more natural disasters than anywhere else in the whole world. What can we do to protect lives of people and their enriched lives?

After the earthquake, we visited the town of Otsuchi located on the north side of the city of Kamaishi, close to the northern end of the broad-leaved evergreen forest, for the purpose of investigation. There, we found principal trees that are indigenous to the area such as Quercus myrsinaefolia and Machilus thunbergii that still remained intact. However, as we investigated along the shoreline that stretched from the town of Otsuchi to the Sendai Plain, we found out that the pine trees that had been painstakingly planted there to become a tide-water control forest had been completely eradicated. Not only that, they got washed away inland by the tsunami and ended up causing secondary disasters by damaging houses and cars on the inland flat land and along the river.

What we can do now…should not be just a simple act of building an iron-reinforced coastal levee. In the archipelago of Japan that is surrounded by the water, putting everything on top of the pedestal of raised land would only inconvenience people’s lives, given the landscape that is often towered by mountains nearby.　Along the shore that has always been resided by people is the place that is most abundant in terms of the ecosystem and enjoys high microbial productivity. Many residents have passed their lives on to many generations that followed. Make a “forest with trees that are indigenous to the home of the people there that can also protect their lives.” Use the trees that have survived through thousands of years there that were confirmed intact in our vegetation survey in the disaster area, such as machilus thunbergii, quercus myrsinifolia, Japanese evergreen oak, quercus stenophylla and also castanopsis sieboldii for the area to the south of the Sendai Plain. Shouldn’t that be what we should do? Hard and solid facilities or iron fortified concrete is said to last only a little over 50 years at this point even if we spent billions of yen. Some say it would be difficult to make them last for more than 100 years even if we mend them. What we want to do is to leverage this crisis as an opportunity to create a real forest that will last for 9,000 years until the next Ice Age that is expected to come, throughout and regardless of turnovers of individuals. Trees that are grown too big can be carefully cut down and will not be burned or thrown out: They can be used for furniture or construction materials just like the German timber industry does. Pine trees that are not suitable for the land will have to be cut down or re-planted when they die, requiring constant and eternal care, but forests that are in accordance with potential natural vegetation that is indigenous to the area are awaited by the subsequent forests.

Locally, they become disaster-prevention forests/environment preservation forests and commercial forests that protect lives and also form a green landscape that is original to the land and becomes insatiable resources for tourism.
Globally, given that 50% of the dry weight of forest is carbon, CO2 will be absorbed and fixed, preventing global warming and by planting various types of trees, a biodiversity will be sustained.

Planting trees to create a forest of life that protects life is something any of us can do once we put our heart into it. Just like how the Japanese people have been creating “home town forests made of home town trees” that are the equivalent of groves of village shrines as they built new villages and towns for the last 4,000 years, we will pick up seeds of Castanopsis, Machilus thunbergii and oaks to make pots of seedlings filled with roots for the future. We will break de-poisoned remnant organic rubble and debris of concrete into sizes smaller than human heads and make rounded mounds that allow air to pass through easily by mixing them with soil. We will then plant trees wherever possible all over Minamisanriku as a part of a national movement or a national project. We will then send out the know-how and results gained from it to all over Japan, to all over Asia and throughout the world. Let us create forests of life. It is something we can do from where we stand, for the future of Sanriku and for the future of Japan, to ensure rich lives for 7 billion people and hand down our DNAs to the future no matter what happens on this finite mother earth. You will do it for your own sake, to protect the people, land and the mother earth that you love. I will continue planting trees as long as I live together with you – to support real lives and lives that people live and our genes, our DNA that will last for the future.