UNESCO World Heritage trees vandalized

About 169 square kilometers of forest in the Shirakami-Sanchi have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, and when just a few trees in that forest are vandalized, it becomes national news in Japan:

About 20 beech trees in the Shirakami mountain range, a World Heritage site that straddles Aomori and Akita prefectures, have been vandalized, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday.

Kanji and katakana letters were carved into the trees. The carvings were about 10 to 20 centimeters in diameter, with some more than 1 cm deep.

6 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 1, 2008 at 2:52 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: UNESCO World Heritage Site

http://www.cunning-linguist.co.uk Victoria

“when just a few trees in that forest are vandalized, it becomes national news in Japan”

I think its good that they pay attention before the problem becomes bigger. In the west we don’t bother doing that, and look at what people get up to over here!

http://www.otakimura.blogspot.com taintus

What do people “get up to over here”?
In the west we don’t bother doing what?

Most forests in “the west”, Europe, the U.S., and Canada at least are managed more carefully than those in Japan. Take a look at my blog: In the Pines for more info.

Rob A

Ya know, I hate to be the one to play this ‘crisis’ down, but I don’t think it’s going to hurt the trees much to have a design carved into them.

kabocha

Hmmm, I’m not sure it’s the trees themselves that people are concerned with; it’s the fact that the area has historical and cultural significance and carving figures onto them blemishes that image.

anon

LOL @ cross, “those damn christians!”

weirdo

Those were オ　and 十, Kanji and Katakana , not crosses.

UNESCO World Heritage trees vandalized

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