When a nongovernmental organization based in Kyoto sent a study team to Afghanistan's Herat Province in November 2001, just a month after the Taliban regime had collapsed under the onslaught of U.S. retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks, it found a human disaster in progress.
"Due to over 20 years' isolation and civil war, Afghanistan's infrastructure had been destroyed and the country's education and health services were inadequate," said NICCO Secretary General Norimasa Orii. "Its once-rich woods had disappeared and agricultural production had plummeted."
What had survived, however, were proud people living a life based on Islam and taking good care of their families, Orii said. They also seemed to feel a closeness with Japan, despite living just near the border with Iran.