More than 30 Japanese volunteers who built a
boardwalk and overlook at Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park
are coming back this summer to revegetate trampled meadows. While
Japan is not known for environmentalism, these teachers, engineers,
nurses and other professionals have formed a Tokyo-based group,
Japan Volunteers in Parks Association. They responded to a letter
from Hiro Yamaguchi, an administrator and adult-education
specialist with Waseda University, who noted that “critics state
that Japan thinks that world problems can be solved with money
alone, and not with active engagement … We would like to do our
part in changing that image.” The group hopes Mount Rainier will
establish a sister-park relationship with Japan’s Mount Fujiyama,
and members hope to expand volunteer efforts to parks in Alaska,
Australia, Canada and England, as well as elsewhere in the United
States.
Contact Hiro Yamaguchi, JVIPA, #402
2-9-21, Hanakoganei-Minami, Kodaira-shi, Tokyo 187, Japan,
telephone 81-3-3207-1454, fax 81-3-3202-8638, e-mail
viphiroy@mn.waseda.ac.jp; or write Jim Callahan, Mount Rainier
National Park, Star Route Tahoma Woods, Ashford, WA 98304
(360/569-2211, ext. 3365).
” Catharine Walkinshaw
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Hands across the water.
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