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Dr. Yanagisawa, can
you tell us something about your childhood? |
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When I was four years old,
my family moved from Tokyo to the town of Matsuyama, where my father had
been offered a job teaching botany. Japan was getting deeper and deeper
into World War II, and food was scarce in those days, but in Matsuyama,
there was nature in abundance. I used to tumble about each day in the lotus
fields, wondering, "Why don't flowers move? Why don't plants speak?" When
I asked my father one day if it didn't hurt flowers when their stems were
broken, he answered with confidence, "Plants don't have nerves, so they
don't feel pain." Still, it troubled me when I saw white liquid coming from
the stem of a dandelion where it was broken and the next day saw that the
stem had turned brown and dry where it had been severed. It seemed to me
that dandelions must suffer in a way we humans can't understand. |
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Was there an experience
that sparked your interest in science? |
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Yes. Actually, it happened when I was
five. I would often find newborn puppies and kittens abandoned in an open
field, and I would always take them home and try to raise them. But baby
animals are fragile. Soon they would die, and I would bury them under a
tree in our garden, placing a stone over their graves with jars of water
in front. One blazing hot August day, I began stroking one of the gravestones
as if to pet it, but I found that it was so hot that I couldn't keep my
hand there. Next I touched the water in a jar and found it warm but not
as hot as the stone. Then I touched the ground and found it cooler than
either the stone or the water. I ran into my house breathless with excitement,
thinking I'd glimpsed some divine secret. From then on I was captivated
by nature's mysteries.
When I got to junior high school my father was transferred, and we moved
back to Tokyo again. My parents believed that a woman could never find happiness
as a scholar, and I had always been taught that the most important thing
was to get married as soon as possible. But I couldn't suppress my interest
in the science of life. In my third year in high school, I confessed to
my parents that I wanted to go on to college and study biology. They agreed
on the condition that I enroll at a women's university. And so it was that
I continued my studies in the department of botany at Ochanomizu
University. |
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