The Planetary Society of Japan : Column

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YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

March 5, 2008

Many advices given to KU-MA

KU-MA (Kodomo---Children, Uchu---Space and Mirai---Future Association) was made available for public reference from the middle of February in accordance with application procedures for starting up NPO (nonprofit organization). If there were no problem, it will be officially setup around the middle of June. Most likely, homestretch last spurt of my life will begin from there.

Today, I invited my close friends to explain about KU-MA and in return they gave me many valuable advices.

We set a vision of KU-MA as:

-----From viewpoint of space, to change adults, to brighten children and to bring forth a beautiful star-----

In order to achieve the vision, KU-MA must do:

      ・ Space education
      ・ Cooperation
      ・ Cultivation of leaders
      ・ Setting up the center of activities
      ・ Service for children of the world

On the other hand, the benefits of the members joining KU-MA are:

Truth: To newly find something attractive about space by “KU-MA Space Newspaper”.
Sympathy: To share with children the joys of learning the charms about space through practical way of space education.

Cooperation: To strengthen the circle of human rings sharing the charms of space through space education to cultivate leaders.

Growth: To obtain an incentive for self-fulfillment and one’s brighter life by having a central base of activities through cooperation among members.

Future: To send out the messages to the world and to have confidence in building bright and peaceful society.

As sub-organizations to support KU-MA, we are planning to setup “One thousand members committee for children, space and future” and “Space Education Academy” that develops programs of attractive activities and educational materials as well as research works. The outline of such framework is now building up. Please pay your attention to our desperate efforts until the middle of June. Below is to introduce my message contained in the leaflet of KU-MA.

For future of Japan and the world

On the wall of my study room at home are hanging three photographs. On the top is bluish beautifully shining earth as viewed by an astronaut from 400km high; the middle is the earth floating on moon surface as taken by an Apollo astronaut from 380 thousand kilometers away; the bottom is the earth taken by Voyager from far away beyond Neptune----a lonely dot faintly shining blue.

“Life”-----it is the word to knock on my mind during all this while as I’ve been looking at the three pictures over ten years. Each one of them appeals to my heart of the preciousness of “lives” living on this mother planet. Several years earlier, when I asked middle school students in a certain town of Hokkaido to write the word they associate from the three photographs of the earth above mentioned, seventy-two percent of them wrote “life”. It was a moment my mind and children’s resonated over the difference of fifty years of age. That night I had a determination to setup KU-MA at hotel staying on a travel.

Children are very much fond of live nature and creatures. Especially, talk on space spurs their curiosity and imagination and the history of human challenging against space stimulates their adventurous minds. On the other hand, the papers we read frequently report grim news of juvenile tragedies. In every country of the world, “dignity of life” is exposed to grave danger so as to take children’s interests away from “knowledge” and “society”. The keyword to solve all this is their naïve love for nature, life and space deeply rooted in their minds, which was assured by Q&A session on “three earths”.

Twentieth century clarified before our eyes of the historical truth of universe that it was born more than ten billion years before during all this while galaxies and stars came into existence, and along the excessive amount of time has evolved “life” in a natural process of universe. Every creature on earth has long continued chains of relayed lives, one lifespan to another, before a life came into this world and the very beginning of life is originated from debris of galaxies and stars. When children are told of this fact, they are deeply moved emotionally inside their mind and heart.

We Japanese have long cultivated our sensitivity to feel “life” in everything of nature endowed with rich forest, stream and ocean. This is high time to send out this sensitivity of ours to the world particularly at the time when earth environment is so much endangered. All member staffs of KU-MA will make hard efforts through mutual cooperation and actual work with friends so as to prove that the best guarantee to build rich future for Japan and the world is to prepare the stage to provide the opportunities to lavishly serve for the betterment of people of the world so that all children will grow their unlimited love for “home planet” and “life” along with their own shining lives.

Please refer to URL below for your opinion and comment.

http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/kenminsomu/
npo/npo_jyuran/index.html

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp

(Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)