Mr.
Okamoto once talked about the strange illnesses which began
spreading among the native villages of Asiatic origin in the tiga
forests along the great Amour River which pours into the Pacific on the
other side of the northern edge of Sakhalin island. The people in these
villages continue to depend on the natural sources of food spplies from
fishing and hunting.
After a period, however, the efforts of NGOs and local government
agencies discovered that these illnesses were more often than not
caused by the freshwater fish polluted by the chemicals used in China's
Northeastern Region where the upper tributaries of Amour river run
northward.
If this is the case, there obviously is no effective measure Russia can
take within its own territorial bounds, since it involves only a number
of people way too small to make an international political ussue about.
With this issue becoming a reality, Mr. Okamoto's wider definition of
East Asia takes on a more realsitic meaning in that it reminds us of
the ancient time when we were not yet divided into competing and often
disputing neighbors.
March 6, 2009
Takemi Ichimura
