A “navel ” engagement

The December wind blew cold over the choppy waters of Beppu Bay in southern Japan. Fighting the blast and cutting through the waves, 200 boats proceeded along the coast, each flying a red flag. Their length and shape marked them as fishing craft: 20 to 30 feet long with a tall cabin near the bow. Normally their owners spent their days far apart on the shallow waters of the bay, fishing for the prized tax red snapper. Today they sailed in a grim convoy toward the shipping port of Oita City. Each vessel carried several fishers, their faces tanned by sun, wind, and salt. The boats were dwarfed by the towering candy-striped smokestacks of steel and oil refineries along the shore.

On the other side of the smokestacks, a convoy of buses and cars rolled along the main road. It headed toward the same destination as the fishing boats: the office of the governor. About 250 villagers filled the vehicles: old women with scarves covering their heads, teenage girls dressed in high school uniforms, farmers with hands gnarled from years of wielding the hoe, and several high school teachers, some silver-haired and others young. They joked noisily, but the nervousness in their laughter betrayed their anxiety about their undertaking.

The fishers and the other villagers opposed Governor Taki s plans for further industrial development. The second phase of the New Industrial City (NIC) would cover their beaches with concrete and fill in their shallow offshore waters with mud to make an industrial site.