A shy cat looking for a new start
Saffron came to ARK in the spring of 2024, his life a miracle in itself. He'd been found languishing without food or water after his owner passed away, leaving a home in total disarray. The first thing Saffron did upon arriving at ARK was drink huge amounts of water. It's no exaggeration to say he was rescued in the knick of time.
After surviving these tough and lonely circumstances, Saffron was understandably wary of getting close to people. But with time, patience and care, his heart is opening up again and he has the makings of a loyal and steadfast companion.
With this traumatic experience behind him, Saffron is gradually learning to open his heart and enjoy human companionship once more. |
Seitaro Matsuo
Tantalizing tidbits can lure Saffron out from hiding. He has also gotten comfortable with gentle brushing and returns the favor with affectionate rubs. All this gorgeous fellow needs now is someone to scoop him up, hold him tight and make him feel safe again.
If you are interested in adopting, email ARK at Tokyoark@arkbark.net or call 050-1557-2763 (English or Japanese) Monday to Saturday (bilingual) for more information. Animal Refuge Kansai (with offices in Kansai and Tokyo) is an NPO founded by U.K. native Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered and microchipped. Prospective owners are required to undergo a screening process. Web: www.arkbark.net
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The Mainichi
2 hours ago
- The Mainichi
A-bomb trees carrying on aging survivors' legacy as silent witnesses
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But when we use trees as a kind of buffer in the conversation, the message comes across more gently and softly," said Chikara Horiguchi, the 80-year-old master gardener of so-called atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima. Horiguchi, a native of Miyazaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan, became Hiroshima Prefecture's first certified arborist in 1992. While he initially hoped to work with private gardens, he realized that overseeing greenery in the city is itself an act of advocating for peace. Currently, around 160 trees standing within 2 kilometers of ground zero are registered by the Hiroshima city government as remaining "survivors" of the blast, based on the testimonies of residents and on-site investigations. Demonstrating the impact of the weapons of mass destruction, a study conducted more than a decade ago found that the vast majority of single-trunk trees leant toward the hypocenter due to slower growth on the more exposed side. In some cases, the trees have served as a beacon of hope for people who experienced the tragedy. Chinese parasol trees, now taking root in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, became symbolic of survival following the testimony of Suzuko Numata, who lost her left leg in the wake of the blast and her fiance in the war. Numata, who died in 2011 at the age of 87, had devoted herself to telling visitors of how the tree had given her the will to continue living after seeing it bud again following the bombing. At that time, it was located in the courtyard of the Hiroshima post and telecommunications bureau where she worked. The "aogiri" tree, as the species is named in Japanese, was transplanted to the memorial park in 1973 from its original location 1.3 km away from the hypocenter, and became the catalyst for distributing seeds and saplings throughout the city and abroad. Efforts to spread the trees' message of peace beyond Japan have continued for over a decade under a global volunteer initiative called Green Legacy Hiroshima, which is backed by entities including a U.N. training arm in support of sustainable development goals. "I think no other living thing can convey some of the spirit of the hibaku-jumoku," said Nassrine Azimi, a co-founder of the initiative who formerly served as the first director of the Hiroshima office of U.N. Institute for Training and Research, referring to the Japanese word meaning "atomic-bombed trees." "You send a seed, you put it in a package, off it goes, and then six months later we get photos from the world," she said during a recent interview in Hiroshima. Green Legacy Hiroshima has delivered seeds of such trees to around 140 locations in over 40 countries while working with partners around the world, including an anti-nuclear weapons group in Oregon launched by Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Hideko Tamura-Snider. The 91-year-old recalled the challenges when trying to get the seed-planting project started in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon, where she lives, noting during an online interview that "nobody was interested" at first. Thanks to her perseverance, however, there are now over 55 second-generation atomic-bombed trees planted in Oregon -- reportedly the densest population outside Japan. Tamura-Snider was just 11 years old on the day of the atomic bombing, which took the life of her mother. She moved to the United States after high school where she earned various degrees and served as a clinical social worker. Drawn into advocating peace and nuclear non-proliferation, she founded One Sunny Day Initiatives in 2007 as part of efforts to serve as a bridge between Japanese and Americans, who fought a bitter war after Japan's surprise assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941, resulting in the world's first nuclear attack. "Americans carry wounds from Pearl Harbor, and Japanese carry wounds from everything, from the war...I wanted the Americans and the Japanese to get to know each other in such a way, not as a visitor from a foreign country, but a human being," said Tamura-Snider, who has also spoken at universities and events in the United States about her wartime experience. Collaborating with Green Legacy Hiroshima since 2017 to plant seeds of peace, she said her love for trees goes back to childhood, when her grandfather, who headed a multinational corporation, had a "huge, huge garden that was like a paradise in spring." To mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki this year, Green Legacy Hiroshima spearheaded a planting of two saplings from Hiroshima at the U.N. headquarters in New York in May, with plans to also conduct a similar planting at the former Japanese internment camp in Manzanar in California in September. "Until recently, most of Hiroshima's efforts have been verbal or human-centered, and I think it's very nice to bring a new dimension," said Azimi. Drawing renewed attention to the surviving greenery, the Hiroshima city government has launched a new project this year to use pruned branches of atomic-bombed trees to make products that convey peace, accepting proposals from interested individuals and organizations. Beyond caring for atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima and educating visitors to the city through tours, Horiguchi has traveled across the world, including the U.N. office at Geneva, to advocate for peace through their enduring legacy. "Every country has its own unique relationship between trees and people, but I get the sense that there's always some emotional closeness. I believe that connection is universal," said Horiguchi. "I hope people can feel, through trees, that peace is important, and that nuclear weapons are wrong." (By Donican Lam)
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A reopened nuclear launch site in Okinawa reveals dark legacy
Photo taken in April shows a former launch site for Mace B nuclear cruise missiles in the Okinawa Prefecture village of Onna. By Satomi Ishihara The tranquil village of Onna is one of Okinawa's most beautiful spots. Scenic beaches, dramatic rock formations and lavish seaside resorts dot the coast. But there's a dark legacy here -- a former nuclear cruise missile launch site built during the postwar U.S. military occupation. The Mace B cruise missile launch site is the last remainder of four that were constructed in the 1960s. Opened to the public for the first time this spring, the large concrete building, roughly 9 meters tall and 100 meters wide, sits on a hill facing the East China Sea. The United States occupied Okinawa from 1945 to 1972. As Cold War tensions increased, it accelerated its deployment of nuclear weapons on the main island despite anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan following the radioactive contamination of a Japanese fishing boat in the mid-1950s. The Fukuryu Maru No. 5 was exposed to fallout from the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll in 1954, killing one crew member and sickening the other 22. Following Okinawa's return to Japanese rule in May 1972, Soka Gakkai, a major Japanese Buddhist organization, purchased the lot that included the Onna launch site in 1976. With this year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the group restored the interior and opened the base to the public in March. Some 3,000 people have visited so far. "It gave me goosebumps. I was aware of problems involving U.S. military bases, but I had no idea about the deployment of nuclear weapons (in Okinawa)," said a 41-year-old woman who was visiting the site from Sapporo, northern Japan, with her parents. "Okinawa might not exist now if any nuclear missiles had been fired," she said. Isao Kuwae, 61, secretary general of Soka Gakkai in Okinawa, suggested that when the missile base was being erected local contractors may not have known what they were building. He added the Onna site is "the only place where you can see with your own eyes the past presence of nuclear weapons in Okinawa." A Mace B cruise missile was said to have a payload 70 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that the U.S. military dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of the year. With a range of over 2,000 kilometers, the missiles, deployed at the bases in Okinawa in the first half of the 1960s, could strike China and parts of the Soviet Union. They were reportedly made ready for war during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. But with the subsequent development of new missiles, the need for Mace B missiles diminished. They were removed from Okinawa starting in 1969, when the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on Okinawa's return to Japan without nuclear weapons. Although Japan regained sovereignty and independence in 1952 under the terms of the San Fransico Peace Treaty, Okinawa continued under U.S. military rule for the next 20 years. In 1967, Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato declared the so-called three non-nuclear principles -- not producing, not possessing and not allowing any nation to bring nuclear weapons into Japanese territory. At the time, the U.S. had some 1,300 nuclear weapons in Okinawa. "The three principles came into existence because there were nuclear weapons in Okinawa," said Masaaki Gabe, 70, professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus. "The Japanese government felt assured because of U.S. protection." Despite occupying approximately 0.6 percent of Japan's total land area, Okinawa still hosts some 70 percent of U.S. military facilities in the country, Gabe noted. In Yomitan, another Okinawa village where Mace B missiles had been deployed, Junshi Toyoda, 65, a local government official involved in compilation of the village history, said that present fears about the possible deployment of long-range missiles still exist. Threats from contemporary missiles with a firing range of several thousand kilometers overlap with those caused by the presence of nuclear weapons in the past. "The fact that nuclear weapons exist today makes it easier to feel the crises that was close to home during the Cold War era. I hope people will first learn about the deployment history of nuclear weapons in Okinawa," Toyoda said. © KYODO
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