Production: Liason Bureau (1997) Production assistance and Distribution: Kurein-House & Ningen Kodo Kenkyujo Original Story: Adachihara Toru and Noguchi Shin Script and Direction: Yoshida Kazuo Starring: Kato Go
Synopsis
By the end of the 1960s Japan was experiencing a wave of intense economic growth which drew labour into the cities, rapidly depopulating remote rural areas. The village of Ohara in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture was no exception. However, in Ohara the abandoned village fields were now being farmed by members of the ADEA (Agricultural Developemnt Engineering Association), a group of young people who aimed to bring a new initiative to the country's traditional system of farming. The ADEA was led by Professor Adachihara Toru, a professor at a local technical college.
In May 1974 the group's attention was drawn to a notice which had been put up by the side of a paddy field. It gave warning that the forest plantation in the vicinity was to be aerially sprayed with herbicide. There were not enough workers to cut the undergrowth, which, if left uncut, would overwhelm the young saplings. This is why the Forestry Corporation had chosen to spray.
However, to aerially spray herbicide onto a wide area of forest would pollute the water and the soil and lead to destruction of the ecosystem. It had to be prevented. But how? Mere protest is ultimately unproductive, and so the group came up with a couter-proposal of its own: it offered to mobilize enough young people from all over the country to cut the undergrowth by hand.
Cutting undergrowth is one of the most arduous parts of forestry work. At first, people laughed at the idea that a group of inexperienced youngsters could do it.
But, Adachihara and his group began to put their plan into action. They contacted universities all over the country - Yamagata, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka - enlisting volunteers. They sought out young people from the corners of the city. But still the doubts persisted. Would the volunteers really come? And if they did come would they be satisfied with the spartan conditions of abandoned farmhouses and disused schools which was the only accommodation available? And, would they really be able to work on the steep forest slopes under a burning summer sun? People said that Adachihara's proposal was the impractical plan of an idealistic academic. However, he pressed on, inviting people to "spend a summer of your youth in the mountains, caring for the forest." He invited them to become Saviors of the Forest..
Not only students repsonded to the appeal. There were also teachers, female office workers, middle-aged employees disillusioned with company life.... People of all backgrounds, ages and livelihoods responded to the challenge of cutting the undergrowth in over 200 hectares of planted mountain forest. Among them was a young man whose total visual disability did not stop him from wanting to do "something to help." These people stretched themselves to the limits, encouraging each other through the hard times - stung by wasps, enduring rashes from poisonous plants, nearly collapsing from sunstroke.... And in the end - after 57 days - the task was completed.
Those first Saviours of the Forest had not been content simply to protest, but had come up with their own plan of action. They had put it into operation and carried it through despite the people who had said that it was impossible.
The film Saviours of the Forest (Grass-Cutting Crusade) is a dramatized record of a movement which began 24 years ago in the mountains of Toyama and has continued uninterrupted up to the present day. Its theme deals not only with the environmental problem but also looks at how an effective action by citizens with an alternative of their own was organized. In this sense, it encourages people to come up with practical solutions for the problems which threaten the survival of our civilization and our earth. The film ends on a memorable note with these words:
We were a group of people with many different views, but with one common objective and the determination to achieve it. In our future world we will all need to work together. Is it possible? In Toyama this summer we proved that it was.