(JA)Tokyo's strutting crows may have a point

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Tokyo's strutting crows may have a point

 

Asahi Newspaper

VOX POPULI.VOX DEI

 

May 10, 2001

 

Despite links dating back to time immemorial, crows now face perhaps their

worst crisis ever in their relationship with humans.

 

Following a similar move last year, the Tokyo metropolitan government

embarked Wednesday on an emergency campaign to capture young crows and

remove the birds' nests.

 

The crows had it coming, Tokyo officials contend, because they started the

war by daring to intimidate and even attack humans. The attacks justify the

temporary recourse to strong-arm tactics as a form of self-defense, they

say.

 

Normally, the crows would defiantly assert their freedom, chanting, as

someone once suggested, ``Karasu no katte desho,'' or ``Crows are free to do

as they please.'' But the situation is too serious for that now.

 

Still, crows would have a case. They would say that a Tokyo overflowing with

delicacies-garbage-amounts to an open invitation. They would angrily charge

that seemingly kind humans had dropped their pretense and adopted a policy

of eradication when things no longer suited their convenience. They would

accuse humans of being self-centered, arguing that renegades that attack

people constitute only a tiny minority of Tokyo's crow population.

 

Idyllic times of peaceful coexistence between humans and crows come to mind.

The Taisho Era (1912-1926) was such a time, as demonstrated by the familiar

children's song ``Yuyake Koyake'' (Sunset Glow). Uko Nakamura's lyrics

include the refrain ``Karasu to issho ni kaerimasho'' (Let's go home with

the crows). This and other lines in the song indicate that in those days,

crows were still perceived as a creature for children to walk with as they

headed home.

 

In another Taisho children's song, ``Nanatsu no Ko'' (Seven-Year-Old Child),

a parent crow croaks ``kawai'' (how cute!) and ``kawai'' again to convey its

great attachment to its fledgling.

 

Up until the end of World War II, sparrows were supposed to make the sound

``chu,'' which also means loyalty, and crows to caw ``ko,'' or filial piety.

Compared with the stuffiness of these cries, the word ``kawai'' in Ujo

Noguchi's lyrics seems even lovelier.

 

In the dispute with humans, crows might also assert that they were treated

as sacred birds in ancient times, referring to events documented in the

mythical world of the nation's oldest history books. That would be a matter

of how one interpreted history.

 

But there is obviously no need to go that far to resolve the problem.

 

Experts agree the Tokyo metropolitan government will have to return to the

basic problem of how to clear the streets of the garbage on which the crows

feed. Assuming that problem can be solved, when will we again see a time of

peaceful coexistence between humans and crows? (The Asahi Shimbun, May 9)

 

Copyright 2001 Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or

republication without written permission.