Chapter I Notes_Down with the Cities!

DOWN WITH THE CITIES!

Nakashima Tadashi

Translation from the Japanese of "Toshi wo Horobose," first

serialized in the periodical Kankyo Hakai, reprinted in 1992 in

book form by the Japan Communal Society Association, and

republished as a commercially available book in 1994 by Maijisha

Publishing Co. This translation is of the earliest version, and

does not reflect subsequent updates, additions, and changes by

the author.

Permission for posting on Project Gutenberg has been securied by

the translator from all concerned parties. This translation is

to be distributed freely throughout the world to anyone at all,

and is not to be sold for commercial profit.

Mr. Nakashima (born 1920) is a self-sufficient farmer in the

hill country of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He entered the Army in

1939, and was in Taiwan at the end of the war. In 1945 he

returned to his family farm and began farming. In 1954 Mr.

Nakashima began raising free-range chickens, and embarked on the

long process of developing his method of producing "natural

eggs," for which he is now well known in Japan. About 1975 he

started studying the writings of the Edo Period thinker Ando

Shoeki. He has also written a book entitled "Minomushi Kakumei --

Dokuritsu Noumin no Sho" (The Bagworm Revolution -- A Book for

Independent Farmers). The author has also written and published

extensively on free-range chicken farming.

The order of Japanese personal names follows East Asian custom:

surname followed by given name.

Some footnotes are the author's, and others are the

translator's. The latter are identified by the notation

"(Translator's note)" at the end of those footnotes.

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PREAMBLE

Saying "Down with the cities!" is not a rash statement. If we do

not get rid of the cities, the human race will disappear from

the face of the Earth. The cities are none other than the source

of all pollution, and the root of all evil. One may try to leave

the cities as they are and get rid of only the pollution, but it

will be wasted effort. Environmental destruction and pollution

are caused by none other than the functioning of the urban

machine; pollution is, we may say, the unavoidable respiratory

function, metabolic function, and bowel movements of the cities.

If we plug up the nose, mouth, and anus of a human being, is it

possible to continue living? Therefore, if we are to banish urban

pollution from the Earth, we must eliminate the cities

themselves.

CHAPTER I

Urban Sprawl

The cities are spreading out like amoebae. No matter what part of

the world, and no matter what kind of political or economic

system, the expansion of the cities is more than apparent

wherever you look. If urbanization continues in this manner, the

entire surface of the Earth will in time be covered with cities.

I should explain that by urbanization I do not mean merely the

spread of what we normally call "cities." In urbanization I

include interurban buildups, those along train lines and roads,

housing developments, tourist facilities at resorts, rural

factories, and a host of other things. We must also consider the

buildups in the centers of villages, and asphalt roads in (what

is mistakenly considered to be) the boondocks as a kind of

urbanization. In other words, the city is not just something that

we distinguish from the country by region alone; we must also

make a clear distinction in accordance with differences in

industries (that is, class). To wit, the city is a place that is

home to the secondary and tertiary industries, or is a place

where the employees of such industries dwell. No matter how far

back in the sticks one goes, if one finds anything relating to

the secondary or tertiary industries -- such as public facilities

or concrete river bank walls -- such a place must also be

recognized as the city.

Let us then examine the reasons for the unbounded, continuous

expansion of the cities.

Reason One

Throughout the entire world, in no matter what country,

"modernization" is the glorious banner under which all people

gather. If something is done under the name of modernization, it

is considered good, and if it stands in the way of modernization,

it is automatically evil. Modernization: Expressed in different

terms it is the prosperity of the secondary and tertiary

industries. [1] And since these industries are based in the

cities, modernization means urbanization.

Right now, all around the world, increasing numbers of people

are, with the aim of achieving modernization, engaging in the

secondary and tertiary industries, and that is why we witness the

further, inevitable expansion of the cities. As long as

modernization is not negated as an evil, urbanization will

continue unabated.

Reason Two

Modernization -- if we look at this in another way we see that it

is the pursuit of Convenience, Extravagance, and Ease; it

signifies the ceaseless advance toward infinite prosperity.

And the pursuit of convenience, extravagance, and ease is none

other than an expression of instinctual human greed -- we want to

have it easier and eat more delectable cuisine, we want to do

more stimulating things, we want objects that are rarer and more

beautiful. Thus the secondary and tertiary industries, in

manufacturing and supplying us with festivals and entertainment

and trinkets and gewgaws, are able to scale the heights of

prosperity, and the cities thereby continue their boundless

expansion.

Reason Three

There is one other abettor of urbanization that we must not

overlook: the bewitching power of the money economy. In order to

make more money, the city manufactures more merchandise than

necessary, and forces services down our throats. Charged with the

economic mission known as the Pursuit of Profit, the secondary

and tertiary industries work hard at money making, and this too

leads to the expansion of the cities.

The above three elements -- (1) a national policy of

modernization, i.e., urbanization; (2) the instinctive desire of

human beings for prosperity, i.e., urbanization; (3) the Pursuit

of Profit, which propels the secondary and tertiary industries to

make more and more money, i.e., urbanization -- combine to cause

the increasing spread of the cities. This is symbolized in, for

example, the construction industry.

Urbanization is, in more concrete terms, the covering of

everything with concrete. Whether buildings or roads or

riverbanks or seashores, the rule of thumb in modern times is to

make it out of concrete. There are, to be sure, occasional pea

gravel gardens or dirt playing fields in the cities, but these

are few and far between. Cities are made by smothering the ground

with concrete. Indeed, the city can be understood as construction

itself.

Never-Ending Construction

The world is full of construction officials, who, if they cannot

plan some kind of project, are capable of nothing but yawning;

the proprietors of construction companies, who, in order to make

money, cannot rest from their labors for a minute; the pitiful

part-time farmers who pay back their loans by engaging in

construction work; the proprietors of cement and gravel companies

who will be in a pickle if they cannot get someone to use the

tons of building materials they have made; the truckers and the

dealers in construction machinery and fuel for them; the big shot

politicians like Tanaka Kakuei whose life work is pork barrel;

the idiotic voters who weep for joy over the services brought in

by construction (that is, urbanization)... With an arrangement

like this, it is almost assured that, even if the vast oceans dry

up, there will always be construction going on in the world. At

this rate, it will not be that far in the future before they are

carrying out construction work among the peaks of the Himalayas.

There are some who will say, "Come now, they wouldn't go so far

as to do such unnecessary work in the Himalayas," but if this is

so, then when all the construction work in the world has been

completed and there is no more to be done, is it possible to

think that the Ministry of Construction will disband itself, that

the construction companies will go belly up, that the cement

companies will close down, or that the part-time farmers will

hang themselves? There is no doubt that when such a time comes

they will carry out needless construction work like covering over

the peaks of the Himalayas with concrete. There will be no end to

construction work, and consequently the urbanization of the

Earth's surface will continue until the ground disappears

entirely. [2]

Even now, in every place imaginable, they are building solid

concrete walls in places where, they think, perhaps once in a

thousand years there will be a landslide; they needlessly dig up

bamboo groves which will most assuredly not be washed away, and

stack up concrete blocks. There are instances in which by merest

chance, such a place is visited by natural disaster, and they

take the matter to court saying that it is the government's

oversight. In actuality, however, the authorities, whom one would

expect to be bitter over losing the case, are smiling

contentedly. This is because the government has obtained proof of

the need to pour astronomical sums of money into a totally

needless construction project, the excuse being that one never

knows when disaster will strike. Though the government and the

construction companies openly plan and carry out needless

construction projects everywhere so the contractors can profit,

there is little fear that the citizens will ever take them to

court over any of it.

In addition, the government uses construction projects to

stimulate the economy. Using construction bonds as a convenient

cover, it spurts out wads of money (merely in order to make it

circulate a little better), dig up our precious land, and cover

it over with concrete. [3] Why must they go to such lengths to

stimulate the economy? It is for no other reason than to

facilitate the even greater activities of the secondary and

tertiary industries, which results in the waste, contamination,

and destruction of the city.

Chapter I Notes

It is possible to modernize agriculture (a primary industry) as

well, but this becomes possible only with the intervention of

the secondary and tertiary industries. Agriculture is meant to be

in accord with the cycle of Nature; it is supposed to be

ceaseless repetition.

Indeed, this has already been realized in Japan, for the

Ministry of Construction is building a gargantuan concrete

embankment on Mt. Fuji, Japan's highest. (Translator's note)

In comparison with construction bonds, the money-losing savings

bonds are still better. This is because the savings bonds are not

used to directly destroy the land (though it will come around to

that sooner or later).