Cherishing the Memory of Japanese Friend Seiei Toyama

The news that Mr. Seiei Toyama was critically ill came from the Engebei Desert Control Committee of Inner Mongolia on February 26, 2004. And at 9 a.m. the next day came the sad news that the old man had passed away. The people of Inner Mongolia were grief-stricken at losing such a respectful old friend who had been building lasting friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people with his deeds.

Mr. Toyama was a professor of Tottori University, recipient of the title of Envoy of Sino-Japanese Friendship, the Friendship Award of the People’s Republic of China and the Steed Award of Inner Mongolia. He was also honorary citizen of Inner Mongolia.

Mr. Toyama started to have the idea of greening China’s deserts as early as 1935 when he studied farming culture and botanical ecology in China. In 1990 despite of his old age of 84 and poor health, he came to Engebei, the heart of the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia, China, determined to change the ecological environment there with hard labour and turn this vast desert into an oasis to benefit humankind. Over the past 14 years, in answer to Mr. Toyama’s call more than 7,000 Japanese volunteers from various circles came to Engebei with him, bearing their own expenses. They stayed there for about 8 to 9 months each year, working almost 10 hours a day. They feared no hardship and worked hard on this endless desert, leaving patches of green behind them. They have put over 19,700 hectares of desert land under control, planting millions of trees, more than 5.3 million of them are growing.

The old man said: “To green the desert, we must work like the legendary Foolish Old Man removing the mountain. Only when we continue the work generation after generation, can desertification be curbed. Greening the desert not only benefits China, but Japan as well. Environmental issues have transcended the national boundaries and to solve them requires concerted efforts of the whole world.”

Thanks to the unremitting efforts made by Toyama and the many Japanese volunteers, today, on this piece of desolate and uninhabited desert luxuriant trees give shades in summer and vegetables and melons are grown on the farmland protected by poplars. At present more than 300 people live here. Mr. Toyama received the humanity award of the United Nations for his contribution in this area.

What Mr. Toyama had done gives concrete expression to what he had pledged: letting the friendship between the people of China and Japan last generation after generation. When his tree-planting comrades-in-arms asked about his wish at his deathbed, he replied: “I want to stand on the sand dunes once more.”

Mr. Toyama has left us, but his spirit of fighting desertification to the last days of his life and afforesting the desert to improve ecological conditions to benefit humanity will live forever. We will always remember him.