REMEMBERING DR. SEIJI OHSUMIREMEMBERING DR. SEIJI OHSUMI:A DREAM FOR ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH CENTER
OF MARINE MAMMALS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
Nobuyuki MIYAZAKI1Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo,
5–1–5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277–0882, Japan
Corresponding author: nmiyazaki2184@gmail.com

Dr. Hiran Wasantha Jayewardene, adviser to the Minister of Strategic Planning and Development in
the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka invited me and Dr. Seiji Ohsumi to the International
Workshop of Marine Mammals to be held at Colombo in Sri Lanka during 5–9 April 2003. He, thenephew of Mr. Junius Richard Jayewardene who was the second President of Sri Lanka, had a chal-Fig. 1. International Workshop of Marine Mammals held in Colombo, Sri Lanka during 5–9 April
2003.

Fig. 2. Group photo taken with staﬀ of the SriLanka National Aquatic Resources Research andDevelopment Agency (NARA).

Fig. 3. Photo taken with Mr. Tyronne Fernando,
Minister Foreign Aﬀairs of Sri Lanka: Author,
Minister of Foreign Aﬀairs of Sri Lanka, Dr. Ohsumi, and Dr. Jayewardene (left to right).

Fig. 4. Photo taken with Sir Arthur Charles Clarke:
Dr. Ohsumi, Sir Clarke, and Author (left to right).

1

Professor Emeritus, AORI/UT.

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lenging idea to improve the economy through ecotourism such as whale watching and to establish
peace and stability at Trincomalee in the northeastern Sri Lanka, where a lot of refugees had illegally
moved from neighboring India.
Sri Lanka is located in one of the most valuable and important areas for geopolitical and scientiﬁcstudy in the Indian Ocean. Thus the establishment of a “Research Center of Marine Mammals in theIndian Ocean” would be very useful for mutual collaboration in marine science between Japan and SriLanka. In the workshop, we exchanged signiﬁcant scientiﬁc information on the behavior of marine
mammals and their environmental condition and discussed a cooperative research plan and education
system for young scientists between Japan and Sri Lanka (Fig. 1).
Since the Conference on the Treaty of Peace with Japan was held in San Francisco on 4 September
1951, Japan has had a close relationship with the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (thenknown as Ceylon). In spite of attack by the Japanese navy to Colombo and Trincomalee in 1942, Mr.
Junius Richard Jayewardene, who participated in the conference as a representative of Ceylon, madea historically impressive speech including the following words: “Hatred ceases not by hatred but bylove” and “Sri Lanka didn’t receive any war reparation from Japan”, and did not oﬃcially request toJapan for the World War II Reparations. Up to this day, the Japanese government has been continuing
strong support Sri Lanka through the program of Oﬃcial Development Assistance (ODA).
After the workshop on marine mammals, Dr. Hiran W. Jayewardene took us on a trip to Trincomalee, where many species of marine mammals such as sperm whales and blue whales often cameclose to the coast of this area and the people enjoyed whale watching from the cliﬀ on a hill. In addition, as this place is close to the naval station of Sri Lanka, this area is considered to be the best
location for improving marine science including whales’ observation and their environmental study inthe Indian Ocean. This area is also a memorial place for us, where the late Professor Masaharu Nishiwaki, Director of the Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, attended the International
Conference of Dugong dugon in 1972. On the way back to Colombo, we visited the National Aquatic
Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), where a lot of skull and skeleton samples ofthe stranded marine mammals were preserved and discussed future research of marine science there(Fig. 2).
In order to encourage research activity of marine science with mutual collaboration between Japanand Sri Lanka, Dr. Ohsumi, Dr. Jayewardene and I oﬃcially met Mr. Tyonne Fernando, the Ministerof Foreign Aﬀairs at the time (Fig. 3). Through fruitful discussion with him, we obtained a good feeling for the future research plan on marine mammals with mutual collaboration of both countries. As
the support program of ODA was one of the most useful ways for establishing our plan, Mr. Seiichiro
Otsuka, Ambassador of Japan, advised us to submit our research plan to the Japanese government
through the government of Sri Lanka. However, in 2005 the government of Sri Lanka started to ﬁercely ﬁght again against the anti-government group of Tamil (LTTE), thus our plan had to be stopped
unfortunately. Now, as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka becomes a peaceful and politically stable country, it is just time for establishing the cooperative research plan on marine mammals
between Japan and Sri Lanka.
Finally, we met the late Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, a famous writer of science ﬁction and fantasy,
and talked about our dream (Fig. 4). He had great interest in the “Biologging Science”, through which
we can obtain wonderful knowledge of marine mammals and their environmental condition without
killing animals. He strongly recommended that we should improve the new science and supply thefantastic knowledge to the public people in not only both countries but also all over the world. Now, it
is just time to realize our dream of establishing a “Research Center of Marine Mammals in the IndianOcean” under the brilliant spirit of the late Dr. Seiji Ohsumi.
Press hands in prayer.

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