Passion Runs High at Global Yokohama Conference as Delegates Demand a Nuclear Free World; Justice for Fukushima Citizens

With 11,500 participants from 30 countries attending this past weekend’s two-day Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World, which featured a total of more than 100 talk sessions, interactive workshops, musical performances and film screenings, plus information-laden booths from numerous NGOs and citizen organizations, every individual attendee undoubtedly had their own completely unique experience of the event. A commonality certainly shared by all, however, was a vision of a world vastly different to the one that allowed the Fukushima nuclear disaster to occur—as well as a staunch determination to ensure that nuclear destruction never befalls our planet again.

Organized by several major Japan-based and international NGOs (with the Peace Boat serving as secretariat), the weekend kicked off with an opening session where one panelist after the next expressed dismay at Japan’s present nuclear policies, as well as the suffering unleashed from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident. “Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency being housed within the economic ministry is no different than criminals living under the same roof as the police,” charged former Fukushima prefectural governor Eisaku Sato, long an outspoken critic of nuclear power.

Tetsunari Iida, the director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, spoke similarly of a “citizen revolution that has occurred as a result of the ludicrous, baseless statements that have continued to be released by the Japanese government following the Fukushima catastrophe”—a point echoed by German parliamentarian Rebecca Harms, who said pointedly, “With the majority public opinion in Japan now standing solidly against nuclear power, why the hell would Japan ever consider promoting it again?”

My own personal experience of the conference included interpreting for two amazing sessions, as well as filming several interviews for the upcoming documentary film project Uncanny Terrain, which follows organic farmers from Fukushima who have decided against all odds to continue their livelihoods—remaining on the land that has sometimes been in their families for generations, and continuing to produce food while testing it for safety standards. Not easy circumstances by any means, and I greatly admired the strength and conviction of the farmers I met who had travelled to Yokohama for the conference.

Speaking of food safety, I was also quite glad to run into fellow blogger Martin Frid, whom I have corresponded with for several years but actually never yet met in person. He was recently interviewed for an article titled "Fukushima Fallout", which looks in-depth at food-related concerns in Japan following the March disaster.

The first conference session that I helped interpret was an evening panel discussion titled “Real Talk About Creating a ‘New Japan’”, which featured a lineup of many well-known cultural figures—some of whom had also participated in the recent Atomic Café event held in Tokyo in November. While the panelists acknowledged existing differences of opinion—whether to stop nuclear power immediately or phase it out more gradually, for example—they all expressed the same future ideal for their country in terms of clean and sustainable energy, media accountability, and truly democratic policies.

“(Anthropologist Shinichi) Nakazawa can serve as the researcher for this new and improved Japan, while (singer Tokiko) Kato and (guitarist/violinist) Sugizo can write its music, (advertiser Miyako) Maekita and (visualist Macoto) Tezka can create its imagery, and (broadcaster Peter) Barakan can be its announcer!” they offered enthusiastically, referencing each of their own individual talents while reminding audience members that each one of us similarly has a role to play in contributing to this new future. The panelists also spoke supportively of the fledgling Greens Japan political party, which aims to put forth its first congressional candidates in 2013.

Scenes from the conference (Photos: Emilie McGlone)

The second session for which I assisted with interpretation was a Sunday afternoon event in the Global Discussion room titled “Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima”, where speakers from both regions shared their experiences in order to learn from one another and create a network of solidarity.

Anton Vdovichenko, who runs a Russian NGO for Chernobyl youth, explained that after the local economy was devastated by the accident, many adults lost their jobs and turned to drinking—which in turn often meant that their kids ended up in the streets doing likewise. He explained that his NGO organized activities to guide young people toward healthier futures—and that he would be on hand to offer guidance in case the young people of Fukushima began to experience similar hardships.

This was followed by a moving speech from Fukushima mother Mika Takamura, who shared her confusion at receiving absolutely no reliable information or directives from the government during the critical hours, days and weeks following the nuclear accident—as well as her pain at being unable to send her five year-old outside to play in their hometown of Minami-Soma, which borders the exclusion zone. “I am also unable to obtain a whole body (radiation) counter for my son because he does not meet the age requirement of six years,” she said, her eyes and voice displaying obvious anguish. 　

Mexico-, Brazil- and U.S.-based photographer Jan Smith rounded out the session, sharing his experience of traveling to Chernobyl following the 1986 nuclear disaster—and adding that he now saw similarities with Fukushima in terms of the human stories that had fallen through the cracks of both media sensationalism and government cover-up following the disasters. His excellent analysis of what he witnessed and experienced in Fukushima may be read here.

Additional conference highlights—among many, many others—included sessions connecting the experiences of hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki with those of Fukushima, various booths and tables to collect signatures for the presently ongoing citizen referendum on nuclear power, a room exclusively for Fukushima citizens to share their experiences since the disaster and network with others, a demonstration parading through the streets of Yokohama with the message of a nuclear-free world, and countless personal statements where everyone from musicians to academics to politicians shared their strong desire for a world where nuclear-related suffering exists no longer.

Actor Taro Yamamoto, who lost work for his vocal anti-nuclear campaigning, 

addresses conference attendees in main hall

Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director of the Kyoto-based NGO Green Action,

 speaks to participants in the weekend's march for a nuclear-free future 

(Photo: Emilie McGlone)

The weekend’s closing session included a lineup of speeches that were just as fiery as those from its debut—perhaps even more so, since everyone had since had time to become even further inspired by the intense energy generated during the weekend’s incredible lineup of events.

“This conference hall is overflowing with passion,” said emcee Tomoyo Nonaka, the former CEO of Sanyo Electric who now presides over the environmental organization Gaia Initiative. “While 3/11 made it clear that Japan was not living under a democracy, we are now standing at the threshold of truly being able to create a democratic nation for the first time in our history.”

This was followed by a chant from Abacca Anjain-Maddison, a former Marshall Islands senator who has campaigned long and tirelessly on behalf of the suffering caused from repeated nuclear testing by the U.S. government. In a sense echoing Nonaka, she said, “The words that I just sang refer to the energy exerted when a mother is giving birth.

The energy that I feel here tonight in this room is the very same.”

The powerful conference declaration may be read here, and videos may be watched on the event’s official television channel. Concrete ideas and proposals generated throughout the conference have also been compiled within an online resource titled the Forest of Action, to which ongoing contributions are encouraged.

Conference attendees Noboru Imamura (left) and Hito, both seasoned activists for disabled rights and other social causes. "Issues facing radiation survivors and disabled individuals have the same structure and root causes: Disrespect of human rights, empty rhetoric, and complete lack of responsibility," explained Imamura. "We must continue connecting different social movements in order to attain true justice for everyone."


--Kimberly Hughes

“Atomic Café”: Japan’s entertainment personalities confront post-Fukushima sociopolitical realities, lament media silence during recent Tokyo event

Kenji Endo ("Enken"): "Living in this nuclear age and facing the dangers of radiation, it is important for each of us to do what fulfills us. My love is singing, and I will continue to do it passionately every day for the rest of my life."

Nine months following the triple earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that struck Japan on March 11th of this year, life has largely returned to business-as-usual as far as most of the country is concerned. With the majority of those living outside the affected regions unable to fully register the scale of the tragedy to begin with, even Tokyo—which was largely paralyzed during the days following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant due to fears of imminent large-scale nuclear emergency—now once again buzzes along obliviously in typical metropolis fashion as if nothing had ever occurred.

Helping to support this image of normalcy is a mainstream media that routinely downplays Fukushima’s ongoing health and environmental costs, despite ongoing bad news regarding leakages and radiation contamination, while a seemingly unrepentant Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) continues its pursuit of profit-making nuclear power over other possible sources of energy.

With notable exceptions such as a recent sit-in demonstration in front of the Ministry of Economy led by righteously angry Fukushima mothers, tremendous pressure is being exerted at most levels of society to tow the official line.

In few industries is this taboo stronger than in the world of entertainment, where media personalities are expected to keep critical thoughts to themselves lest they risk offending sensitive sponsors. In addition to a growing number of citizens, however, certain celebrities are violating this restriction to speak their minds against what they perceive to be strong injustice.

On a recent evening in Tokyo, several members of Japan’s entertainment and media industry who are all outspoken critics of Japan’s nuclear policies—broadcaster Peter Barakan, singer Tokiko Kato, citizen journalist Yu Tanaka, vocalist/guitarist Hiro Yamaguchi and actor Taro Yamamoto—gathered at a live music space in the artsy neighborhood of Daikanyama to do this very thing.

The November 23rd event, titled Atomic Café after the 1982 documentary film that satirized the nuclear fervor of 1940s and 1950s America, began with a powerful performance from rocker Kenji Endo (known as “Enken”). This was followed by an engaged two-hour discussion facilitated by lawyer/musician Kikujiro Shima, as panelists delved into the complexities of the social and political landscape that continue to define post-3.11 Japan.

Atomic Cafe panelists (L-R): Kikujiro Shima (facilitator), Peter Barakan, Tokiko Kato, Yu Tanaka, Taro Yamamoto, Hiro Yamaguchi

Perhaps the most egregious example of what can happen if one flouts the established rules of enforced silence surrounding the nuclear power industry may be seen in the case of Yamamoto, who lost his scheduled role in a forthcoming television drama after speaking his mind following the Fukushima disaster.

“Prior to 3/11, I had only ever expressed myself on an intellectual level; and as an actor, I had lived exclusively through my sponsor,” he told the audience. “After the accident occurred, however, I came in touch full-force with my emotions—which included extreme anger in addition to regret for not having spoken out sooner against nuclear power.”

Specifically, Yamamoto incurred the wrath of the scandal-shy media establishment by attending an anti-nuclear demonstration held in Tokyo on April 10th that drew some 20,000 people—announcing beforehand to his Twitter followers: “I can’t stay silent while Japan continues the state terrorism of nuclear power."

“I knew I was bound to lose work after making my views known, but it was shocking how quickly it actually happened,” Yamamoto told those in attendance. “Although it was an incredibly difficult thing to do given the constraints I was under, I thought about the possibility of another Fukushima occurring, and finally realized that I had no choice but to speak out.”

Despite differences in age, career and backgrounds, one common thread uniting all of the panelists was a passionate sense of righteous anger toward a bureaucratic system that has consistently protected the interests of the powerful corporate nuclear industry, while silencing any and all dissent regarding the human suffering that has transpired as a result of the Fukushima crisis.

Journalist and environmentalist Yu Tanaka, who has been speaking out against the dangers of nuclear power and radiation for decades, spared no contempt for those responsible for the recent tragedy, and its effect on the lives of society’s most vulnerable. “I recently took a group of Fukushima children to Okinawa, and they displayed obvious fear toward both the ocean and the rain, in addition to being afraid to stay outdoors more than ten minutes at a time,” Tanaka recounted. “They finally realized they were safe, but we had to send them back to Fukushima at the end of the trip knowing that they would once again be returning to this kind of stress and fear. These children have been robbed of their lives, and we must look clearly at who and what is responsible for it.”

Tanaka emphasized, however, that we now have a golden opportunity to transcend tragedy by creating a society with radically different values. “Other countries are making the shift to alternative energies, so why can't Japan—the number one technologically advanced nation in the world—do the same?” he challenged. “An Internet-based business model created at the grassroots level could in fact make the energy industry profitable enough so that companies will want to fund it. However, it is critical that we first break out of the existing dictatorship whereby TEPCO (The Tokyo Electric Power Company)—an enormous media sponsor—threatens any information outlet that dares criticize it.”

Peter Barakan agreed readily about the issue of media control, with which he is intimately familiar as a broadcaster. Originally from the UK but having spent the better part of his life in Japan, he has consistently challenged the existing climate of both overt and subtle media censorship by featuring the music of politicized artists on his radio programs, along with his own commentary regarding government policies in areas such as war and nuclear issues.

Within this climate, broadcasters who are willing to challenge the official line are a precious resource to those with few other outlets for expression. During his weekday morning radio program, Barakan recently read an email message from a listener who had returned to his hometown of Minami-Soma, one of the areas most severely affected by the nuclear crisis, and said that he was “seething with anger” as a result of being forced to remain at the mercy of a system that could only be described as “nuclear fascism.”

“As a monopoly—not to mention one that is, incidentally, in debt—TEPCO should most certainly not be spending its money on PR, which I believe should more rightly be termed as ‘propaganda’," Barakan remarked.

“Musicians speaking out on social issues are a minority in any country,” he also noted, “with the notable exception of the Vietnam war era during the 1960s and 1970s, when a group of top-name artists gathered in the USA for a major concert held in New York City titled Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE).”

In Japan, one consistently similar voice in this regard is that of Tokiko Kato, who has combined singing with social activism since the era of the ANPO (Japan-U.S. Security Treaty) protests during the 1960s. Long having advocated the eradication of all things nuclear, she was among the lineup of artists participating in the first grassroots-level Atomic Café Festival held in Tokyo in 1984, which aimed to “call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and nuclear power through music."

Involved in sustainable organic farming movements together with her late husband for the past several decades, Kato’s echoed Tanaka during the recent event with the resounding message that we must now work to transcend the current nuclear crisis by completely transforming our social values. “Many Fukushima citizens have had no choice until now other than working at nuclear plants, but more and more people—including many youth—are now moving to the countryside in order to begin creating completely new lifestyles,” she told the audience. “In addition to being fun, growing your own food also empowers you to begin taking charge of your own food safety.”

Tokiko Kato, with backdrop photo of her writing a note of support for local citizens

 while visiting affected regions following the 3.11 disaster

Hiro Yamaguchi, who has traveled numerous times with his band Heatwave to play music for residents from the cities of Minamisoma and its neighboring Soma in Fukushima prefecture, agreed with this last point. “I’ll never forget the many young women I’ve spoken with who are agonizing right now regarding whether or not they will ever be able to have children,” he remarked.“While power company officials may clearly be blamed for this accident, each one of us also needs to think seriously about the impact of our individual actions on society at large, so that we can help create a hopeful future.”

Yamamoto, before having to leave early from the event to attend another engagement, delivered an impassioned final speech regarding concrete steps that are now being taken in order to make positive change in this regard. Specifically speaking, he announced an initiative that he is helping to spearhead along with a collection of other public figures, whereby signatures will be collected in Tokyo and Osaka to call for a citizen referendum regarding the issue of nuclear power.

“I would like to ask each one of you here today to go home and call the offices of lawmaker candidates to ask the following three questions," he said. “First, given the certainty of future earthquakes occurring in Japan, what is their concrete plan for closing nuclear power plants? Second, what is their stance on the situation facing families near the Fukushima nuclear power plant whom the government has yet to evacuate? And finally, what is their plan for dealing with nuclear waste? And those who do not give acceptable answers should expect to feel the heat come election time.

“Hibakusha (people affected by nuclear radiation) are now increasing by the moment,” he said before exiting the stage. “We really don’t have any more time to waste.”

Text by Kimberly Hughes

Images by Mari Onoda

Late Autumn in Nikko

Kim Hughes' photos of Nikko in late autumn

Voices from Fukushima: Japanese citizens demand accountability on domestic, global levels as government continues reckless nuclear policies

Eight months have passed since the disaster of March 11th, since which time I have been riding the same emotional see-saw as many others after emerging from the cocoon of fear and shock that ruled the initial days and weeks following the outbreak of the nuclear crisis. When facing the choice, however, of engaging my critical mind or succumbing to the more comfortable state of mind that most others here seem to have clearly chosen—blissful denial—I seem to find myself on most days choosing the latter.

With the exception of occasionally attending and writing about Japan’s steadily growing anti-nuclear movement, I have by-and-large opted to focus upon my everyday life and personal concerns. For some living in Fukushima, however, no such escape option exists. Every day is filled with uncertainties and questions with regard to matters of basic survival: What food is safe to eat? Can I drink this water? Is it is safe to send the kids outside to play?

Outraged at being forced into this situation, a group of Fukushima women decided to take things to the next level by holding a sit-in last week in front of the Ministry of Economy. Organized by members of NGOs and ordinary citizens, the first leg of the sit-in from October 27-30 was attended exclusively by women from Fukushima, then followed by a week-long solidarity sit-in action until November 5th for anyone else who wished to offer their support.

With the national and prefectural governments continuing to add insult to injury following the 3.11 triple disaster by making one outrageously irresponsible decision after the next, there is plenty to be indignant about: Stopping citizens from attempting their own radiation measurements, radioactive dumping in Tokyo Bay, feeding Fukushima schoolchildren with quite possibly contaminated food, and releasing negligent information regarding radiation figures, for starters.

I visited the sit-in the end of the final week, after darkness had fallen. Around 30 or 40 women (and a few men) were in attendance—a small number compared to the hundreds who were normally there during the daytime, I was told. Speaking with the woman staffing the registration tent, I could barely hear our exchange because of trucks parked nearby with a loudspeaker blaring the same message over and over again: “How dare you women come here and protest without identifying yourself! Each and every one of you should put your face and name on the Internet. What kind of cowards are you?” Unreal.

"Women's Action: We Don't Need Nuclear Power!"

“Typical men!” commented the woman I was speaking with, referring to the voice behind the loudspeaker, as I turned to make my way to those assembled for the sit-in. Trying my best to ignore the loud distraction (and to quiet my own anger at those causing it), I sat down with the women and began listening to the speaker addressing the group. Born and raised in Fukushima but living in Ibaraki at the time of the 3.11 disaster, long-time anti-nuclear activist Yuko Yatabe was propelled by shock to travel to Chernobyl following what had happened in her home prefecture. There, she met with citizens in order to discuss the lessons that might be learned for those in Fukushima now facing similar anxieties.

Yatabe showing artwork drawn by a child from Chernobyl

In response to Yatabe’s presentation, one woman raised her hand and commented about the need for Fukushima citizens to become self-empowered with regard to their own health. I approached her as the group was dispersing to ask her what she meant. I learned that she was named Ms. Shirai, and that she ran a grassroots network for alternative energies. “If people in Fukushima are fearful and depressed, their immune systems will be compromised, and they will be at an increased risk for succumbing to the negative effects of radiation,” she told me in an extremely animated voice. “I am trying to reach as many people as I can with the message that there are things they can do to increase their chances of staying healthy, such as waking up early and absorbing positive energy from the sun, or thoroughly cleaning their food in order to reduce possible radiation consumption.”

Shirai, who aims to help empower Fukushima citizens to take charge of their own health

I returned to the sit-in several days later during the afternoon, when one or two hundred participants were in attendance. I was delighted to meet Ruiko Muto, a Fukushima woman whose moving speech during the September anti-nuclear action in Shinjuku had gone viral (at least in Japanese circles) and had inspired me greatly. “While men may try and approach the world intellectually, we women feel things—particularly the power of life itself,” she told me. “And I believe that there is nothing wrong with approaching activism from this emotional perspective.”

“This may appear to be Fukushima’s problem, but as a matter of fact, it will very soon be Tokyo’s problem, as well as that of other Japanese cities,” said another woman, Setsuko Kuroda, who had also traveled from Fukushima for the sit-in. “For this reason, we must all begin working together and cooperating.”

I also ran into Yuko Yatabe again, and was thrilled to see that she was together with a small group of women including Yukie Tokura from the STOP! Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant movement and performance artist/activist Rena Masuyama who were on their way to deliver a petition to the Diet demanding that Japan cancel a plan to export contaminated food from Fukushima. Thanks go to Shingetsu News for filming the meeting:

Perhaps the most egregious of all (in)actions—the failure to protect children—is now the subject of a worldwide petition from Avaaz that is still collecting signatures. The petition’s website (which was updated November 11th) reads:

Right now, thousands of local residents are still trapped in the highly contaminated areas in and around Fukushima City. With black rain falling from the sky and local crops poisoned, children in families left destitute by the tsunami can’t afford to get out — and the government is failing to help them.

But a group of brave mothers have taken to the streets to ensure their children are helped out of the disaster zone. Hundreds of supporters from around the country have gathered for a sit-in outside the Ministry of Economy in Tokyo demanding that Prime Minister Noda grant their children the opportunity to evacuate. We can stand with them.

This is, literally, the fight of their lives. Children, sitting in the midst of radioactive contamination, don’t have a day to lose. In hours, the government will decide whether to act at an emergency meeting -- let's build a giant outcry for a healthy future for Fukushima children. Sign the urgent petition on the right and forward this campaign widely -- it will be delivered directly to the Prime Minister's office before the meeting.

This blog article from Greenpeace gives beautiful insight into the hopeful aspects of the Fukushima women’s protest, and Tokyo area blogger Ruthie Iida gives a thought-provoking account of her visit to the sit-in on her website, Kanagawa Notebook. Finally, British-born, Paris-based Japanologist Kevin Dodd gives a nuanced account about the post-3.11 culture of silence surrounding nuclear issues (which I also referenced above) on his website Senrinomichi.

As I was leaving the sit-in during my second visit, one woman approached me to say that she had been extremely inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the way that it had taken off globally after being motivated by the Arab Spring and similar demonstrations in Europe. “These protests have their roots in the very same problems as do the nuclear issue in Japan,” she told me pointedly. “The nuclear industry are the 1%, while the rest of us are the 99%. If we want to solve these problems, it is critical that people from around the world continue working together in solidarity.”




--Kimberly Hughes

Distressed Fukushima Citizens Issue Global Appeal to Support Evacuation Plea; Safecast Project Provides Online Radiation Mapping

Parents of children living near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, forced to watch their children go to school each day wearing radiation-measuring dosimeters, are pleading with the Japanese government to instead issue an official evacuation to safe areas in order to ease their fears of possible contamination.

The above YouTube video, which a group of concerned Fukushima citizens have asked to be spread worldwide, gives a glimpse of the agony that several of these parents are experiencing from concern about continuing nuclear radiation emissions from the plant.

The group has issued a petition to Japan's Prime Minister Kan and Fukushima Governor Sato to officially evacuate babies, small children and pregnant women living in "radiation hot spot" areas. The text reads as follows:

Prime minister of Japan Mr. Naoto Kan
The Governor of Fukushima Prefecture Mr. Yuhei Sato

We are concerned for the safety of babies, pregnant women and young children who are sensitive to radiation and are currently living in the area where high radiation has been detected.

That radiation level is higher then the level of the radiation controlled area (designed as lower than 0.6 µSv/hr) and the “individual radiation exposure controlled area” ( designed as lower than 2.3 µSv/hr) in Japan.

We respectfully request the following actions to be taken:

1) We strongly request that you evacuate infants, small children and pregnant women who are most easily affected by radiation. They need to be immediately evacuated further than 30km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant No.1.

2) In addition to the 30km radius, we are strongly requesting you evacuate infants, pregnant women and children from any "Hot-spot" located outside the 30km evacuation perimeter where high levels of radiation are detected.

3) The 20km limited radiation caution area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant needs to be drastically broadened. Currently, infants, small children and pregnant women who are easily affected by radiation are still living in the “radiation controlled area” where theyʼve measured an exceeded radiation dosage. These people need to be evacuated further than the 30km area as soon as possible. We request to extend the evacuation area, create a safely designed evacuation route and enact legislation to improve the locations that accept people from evacuation areas.

Government should utilize its political power to work on the area that needs to be evacuated. You have tobroaden and ensure the evacuation route, and also find new places where those people can live. Thank you.

The petition may be accessed and signed online via the Moms & Children Rescue Fukushima website here.

In the absence of official government action, the citizen group Safecast is presently working to provide radiation mapping of the area. During the initial days following the earthquake, tsunami and outbreak of the nuclear crisis, its members collaborated with the members of the Tokyo Hackerspace group in order to fashion their own Geiger counters, which they affixed to the windows of several cars and drove through areas near the Fukushima plant to take radiation measurements that they in turn uploaded onto an online radiation map they themselves had created. The group has also made the Geiger counters available to schools, orphanages, and other facilities in Fukushima prefecture in a move to help begin empowering residents through understanding the levels of radiation in their areas.

Safecast and Tokyo Hackerspace members display their hand-fashioned Geiger counters 

and explain mapping program during a recent workshop

A video regarding on the Safecast/Tokyo Hackerspace collaboration and their radiation mapping work may be viewed below. (The report, which is in Japanese, starts around the 15 minute mark).

The Safecast blog also include videos about various citizen action projects taking place in Fukushima, as well as information on how to get involved with its volunteer mapping project in Fukushima and beyond.

A gripping open letter (full text of letter edited before publication at The Japan Times) from a concerned father in Fukushima may be read at this TTT post here.

--Kimberly Hughes

Haruki Marukami: As An Unrealistic Dreamer

World-renowned Japanese author Haruki Marukami was recently named the winner of the 2011 Premi Internacional Catalunya, whose judges praised him as having "built a literary bridge between east and west, bringing the two worlds together."

During Murakami's acceptance speech, delivered on June 9th in Barcelona, he first thanked the committee for the prestigious award, and memorialized the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan. Turning subsequently toward the matter of the ongoing nuclear crisis that followed, he powerfully and poignantly lamented the social values that allowed the Fukushima tragedy to occur:

Sixty-six years after the nuclear bombings, the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors have now been spreading radioactivity for three months, contaminating the soil, the ocean and the air around them. No one knows how and when we can stop this. This is the second source of devastation caused by nuclear power in Japan, but this time nobody dropped an atomic bomb. We, the Japanese people, paved our own way for this tragedy, making grave errors and contributing to the destruction of our own lands and lives.

Why did this occur? What happened to our rejection of nuclear power after World War II? What was it that corrupted our goal of a peaceful and prosperous society, which we had been pursuing so diligently?

The reason is simple. The reason is “efficiency”.

The electrical power companies insisted that nuclear plants offered an efficient power generation system. In other words, it was a system from which they could derive profit. For its part, the Japanese government doubted the stability of petroleum supplies, particularly since the oil crisis, and promoted nuclear power generation as national policy. The electrical power companies spent huge amounts of money on advertisements, thereby bribing the media to indoctrinate the Japanese people with the illusion that nuclear power generation was completely safe.

Before we knew it, 30 percent of electricity generation was being supplied by nuclear power. Japan, a small island nation frequently struck by earthquakes, thus became the third leading nuclear power-generating country, without the Japanese people even realizing what was happening.

We had gone beyond the point of no return. The deed was done. Those who doubted nuclear power generation were now asked the intimidating question, “Would you be in favour of power shortages?” Japanese people had come to believe that reliance on nuclear power was inevitable. Living without air conditioning during a hot and humid Japanese summer is almost akin to torture. Consequently, those who harbour doubts about nuclear power generation came to be labelled as “unrealistic dreamers”.

And so we arrived where we are today. Nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be efficient, instead offer us a vision of hell. This is the reality.

The so-called “reality” that has been proclaimed by those who promote nuclear power, however, isn’t reality at all. It is nothing more than superficial “convenience”, which their flawed logic confused with reality itself.

This situation marked the collapse of the myth regarding Japan’s technological prowess, of which the Japanese people had been so proud. In addition, allowing this distorted logic represented the defeat of existing Japanese ethics and values. We now blame the electrical companies and Japanese government, which is right and necessary. At the same time however, we must also point the finger at ourselves. We are at once victims and perpetrators, and we must consider this fact seriously. If we fail to do so, we will make the same mistake again.

“Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”

We must take these words to our hearts.

Murakami's speech has been translated into English, Romanian, German, French, and Italian (with a Portuguese translation forthcoming shortly) through a collaborative project organized by the members of a Paris-based project known as Senrinomichi, which has been working to provide material, financial, and human assistance to those affected by the March 11th disaster.

Kevin, the Senrinomichi organizer who spearheaded the translation project (which is titled Planting Seeds Together, from the closing idea within Murakami's speech), explained the background to the initiative:

Since hearing the news about Murakami san’s Catalunya Prize speech in Barcelona on Friday, I had tried long and hard to find an English translation. For several days the search proved fruitless, and increasingly frustrating. All I could find were brief extracts, which merely increased my appetite rather than assuaging it. It was like offering a thirsty man vinegar, or inviting a music lover to listen to the final chorus from Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion and then saying there was no need to listen to the previous three hours.

What surprised me was how many people who don’t speak Japanese came forward to take favourable or unfavourable positions on the speech, on the basis of these very same selected media sound bites. Since March 11, I have learned to be distrustful of media reporting in a way that I never felt before. Bread and circuses, all efficiently packaged….

On Tuesday, I finally found the first translation, written by a self-styled ordinary salary man in Japan. I drank in those words, like a long cold beer after lashings of vinegar, posted the translation to Senrinomichi and went to sleep. But the following day the words kept coming back to me, and I understood that I had myself now to contribute to this translation, even if I did not understand the words of Murakami san’s text in Japanese. Let’s call it an interpretation of the translation. At other times this could seem perverse, but not now. Now this seems like the right thing, the only thing to do. How could it be otherwise? At such moments, life seems so simple.

In adding my grain of sand to the translation, something strange and unexpected happened. Drifting amid the words, the silences and interstices of the text, I began to make better sense of the whirlwind of thoughts and ideas that have been racing around in my head since March 11. Thoughts about Japan, the ephemeral, the notion of chance, the nuclear question, about what can each of us can do to help, thoughts that had initially led to the creation of this blog and subsequently provided its backdrop. In taking the time to think carefully about each of the words in the translation, and in listening to each of the pauses between the words – which seem to me no less important in Murakami san’s speech – I came to understand more clearly the recent Brownian motion of my own mind.

In this sense, perhaps I can say that I dreamed, and that I shared my story at least with myself, but also with anyone who is taking the trouble to read this.

I love and am occasionally afraid of the power of words, though unlike Murakami san I am not a writer. I am an ordinary salary man in Paris, who feels a kinship with my friend, the ordinary salary man in Tokyo, who I understand also loves words. It was from such kinship that Senrinomichi was born, even though I didn’t know that particular ordinary salary man before yesterday when, to borrow his image (again), a small, but very happy storm was unleashed on both our houses…

Translation is the work of a single person. Murakami san’s novels are assigned to a single translator per language, which explains why the non Japanese-speaking readers have to wait so long for translations to appear. Translation is a complex process, a lonely process, an enriching process, a creation in its own right. Words are powerful, they must be treated with respect, not hurried, not abused or treated “inconveniently”.

But at this time I keep thinking about the words, the ideas from the Barcelona speech. These words that should be heard and be published, not as media sound bites but in their entirety, not as part of a subsequent Murakami Collected Works, but here, now, everywhere.

In the absence of an official translation, but also inspired by the spirit of Murakami san’s speech, I would therefore like to propose something quite different, quite singular. That we – Japanese and other nationalities – work together to produce collaborative translations of the Barcelona speech, in English but also in other languages. And that we then communicate this to the traditional international mass media and internet sites in our different countries, which to date seem to have let us down with their reporting of this speech. In doing so, in our own way we take up the exhortation of Murakami Haruki, to go out together into the fields, to cultivate and sow seeds.

Together we would work like the workshop students of the great Renaissance artists, as cheerful artisans.

Finally, I cannot help but find resonance with the name we chose for our site, Senrinomichi,千里の道– the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Serendipity is everywhere just now. The very moment I completed my interpretation of the translation, the feed to Senriomichi was published on Haruki Murakami’s Facebook page. Am I dreaming this?

Perhaps this is all madness, perhaps translations are already envisaged, perhaps I need to sleep. Perhaps, perhaps perhaps… but just now all of this seems so obvious.

…“Everyone doing what they can do, all hearts together”

The full text of Murakami's speech in English may be read here.

Anyone interested in contributing to the collaborative translation project with additional languages is asked to please contact Senrinomichi via the group's Facebook page, or by e-mail at senrinomichi23@gmail.com.



- Kimberly Hughes

Citizens in Japan take proactive action as Fukushima radiation threats loom; ask for international support in signing petition, e-mailing officials

13 min. video showing highlights of Saturday 6/11 video in Shinjuku, Tokyo (shorter video may be watched here).

This past Saturday June 11th, which marked exactly three months since eastern Japan was struck in rapid succession by a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, citizens gathered in cities and towns the world over in impassioned demonstrations to let their government officials know in no uncertain terms that the era of nuclear power is over.

The event, known collectively as 6.11 Anti Nukes Day, included solidarity demonstrations held in Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, Taiwan and the United States. In cities across Japan, the demonstrations were of course particularly poignant given the ongoing uncertainty of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Several events were held in the nation’s capital of Tokyo alone, where the largest drew some 20,000 people to the central district of Shinjuku in a pulsing, unbarred, and at times raucous expression of emotion.

On one hand, recent weeks have seen several positive developments that are being cautiously celebrated, including the shutdown of the Hamaoka nuclear plant (dubbed the “world’s most dangerous”), the increasing likelihood that plans will be scrapped for the Kaminoseki nuclear facility, and Prime Minister Kan’s announcement of Japan’s serious commitment to alternative energies within the nation’s future energy policy. Unanswered questions continue to percolate, however, regarding the issue of Fukushima’s fallout (both literal and otherwise) underneath the surface of mainstream public discourse, which seems to have forgotten about the crisis altogether as daily life has shifted back to “normal”.

This state of collective denial seems exactly the way that officialdom in Japan wants to keep things, judging by the number of baton-wielding police officers sent out to cover Saturday’s event—which far surpassed what would have been necessary for the ostensible purpose of “traffic control”. When I arrived for the evening portion of the Shinjuku demonstration, I was stunned to be greeted by an ocean of blue cop uniforms literally as far as I could see. This served two purposes: first, making the general public unaware of what was actually happening, since several layers of officers were surrounding the demonstrators, thereby blocking the action from view (and making it inaccessible to would-be participants); and second, giving the impression that whatever was going on was so “dangerous” as to necessitate such intense police coverage.


When I was finally able to join the event—after taking a circuitous route and ducking in between cops to reach it— I found instead a chilled-out atmosphere including a reggae singer performing anti-nuke songs atop a sound truck, people waving creative signs and handing out flyers, and others holding candles in silence. It was a peaceful, artistic and inspiring gathering—and the average passerby did not even know that it was going on.


Illustrated downloadable information guide for first-time protest-goers, also available via the website of Hajime Matsumoto, who runs the Shiroto no ran ("Amateur Revolt") shop and social collective in the Tokyo neighborhood of Koenji where 15,000 people gathered in April for an anti-nuke demonstration that he organized.

Among the many other Japanese cities hosting demonstrations on Saturday was Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture, where Tokyo resident Hideaki Matsuura decided to offer support to those who have been facing the disaster more intimately. “I thought the demo would be quite big since Koriyama has suffered significant radiation damage, but I was surprised to see that there were only around two or three hundred people there—and further shocked to see that almost no one was wearing face masks,” he told me. “During speech time, however, people gave very moving appeals about how their lives have been damaged, and how they and their families continue to fear for their safety.”

He also told me that he spoke after the event with a woman who described the culture of silence and complicity that continues to reign in Fukushima whereby people are culturally obliged to follow their elders—most of whom get their information from the mainstream media rather than the internet, and thereby believe the official assurances that radiation from the plant is “safe.” As a result, she said, anyone who goes against this prevailing logic—by wearing a mask, for example, or expressing a desire to move to a safer area—risks bullying and/or ostracization from the community.

An international collective known as “Todos Somos Japon: Fissures in the Planetary Apparatus” organized following the 3.11 disaster released a statement in support of the June 11th demonstrations in Japan that included the following:

Our thoughts should go especially to the women of Japan who, we are told, are those who are most strongly opposed to the government propaganda about patriotism and sacrifice. We understand they are struggling to resist this suicidal logic, which demands their families consume radioactive products to show the world that all is well in this country and a nuclear disaster is something we can live with. Their struggle is our struggle and their resistance needs our support.

Indeed, with official information non-forthcoming regarding the actual level of dangers, average citizens have had to take matters into their own hands in order to protect their safety and livelihoods. A friend of mine who is an organic farmer and surfer living along the coast of Chiba prefecture—which lies due south of Fukushima—has purchased a Geiger counter, as have many other farmers, in order to regulate the levels of radiation that may be affecting her fields. “I moved away from the city because I wanted a more natural lifestyle, but as soon as my dream was achieved, we suddenly had to begin living with all the fears and unknowns of radiation,” she lamented. “As a surfer, the idea of having to stay away from the ocean is unthinkable. Due to the real possibility of radiation contamination, however, I and most other surfers I know try to limit the time spent in the water—and then make sure we are living healthy lifestyles in order to limit any potential negative effects to our health.”

“In fact, this whole scare has made me appreciate the ocean—as well as life itself—even more deeply,” she added. “If it becomes too dangerous I may eventually have to move elsewhere, but I love living here and will do everything in my power to stay.”

The internet has been a powerful ally to citizens in Japan who seek to bypass official media channels in order to find and share information regarding what is actually happening with regard to the ongoing nuclear disaster. With the installation of a live webcam aimed directly at the Fukushima Daichi plant, for example, citizens are now able to monitor the situation and send out alerts via e-mail and Twitter when—as happened last week, for example—smoke was seen being emitted from one of its reactors.

A message that has recently been circulating around the Japanese Twittersphere calling for action reads as follows:

Here are a few examples of what is happening now in Japan:

1. The Japanese government allows fresh food to be on the market although it contains radiation 20-30 times higher than the global safety standard.

2. The Japanese government does not do anything even with food that contains radiation higher than Japanese safety standards.

3. The Japanese government does not inform its citizens of the results of the seafood radiation investigation, and does not allow Green Peace to conduct a thorough investigation of the sea environment around Japan.

4. According to UK researchers, more than 400,000 additional cancers will occur within the next 50 years on account of the radiation if no preventive efforts take place.

5. Air dose levels of radiation do not reflect the actual doses. Official air doses are half or quarter of the actual doses.

6. The Japanese government insists that 20mSv/year is safe for children at a school yard. The amount is 20 times higher than previous safety standards.

7. Data and information about Fukushima has been hidden, although radioactive particles keep spilling into the water and air every day.

8. Several millions of residents who evacuated from the area surrounding Fukushima still live in public buildings,gymnasiums, and such. There is no plan for them yet.

9. Several millions of Geiger counters donated by foreign counties are sitting, unused, in a warehouse.

Please send an email about these issues to the following Japanese officials:

Mr. Naoto Kan, prime minister (for all of the above): kan-naoto@nifty.com

Mr. Hosokawa, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Points 1.2.3.4): h04091@shugiin.go.jp

Mr. Takagi, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Points 5, 6): g02653@shugiin.go.jp

Mr. Kaieda, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Points 7, 8) office@kaiedabanri.jp

Mr. Matsumoto, Foreign Ministry (Point 9): info-matsumoto@memenet.or.jp

Please urge them to:

1) Conform to global standards on radiation safety in terms of food, water, and the environment

2) Check radiation levels in the air and water, and on the ground, which are more suitable to protect human life

3) Make all updated radiation information easily available to everyone

4) Disclose information and data regarding the Fukushima plant to Japanese and also the world

5) Take appropriate care of residents who have evacuated and who want to evacuate from Fukushima prefecture

6) Utilize the Geiger counters and other resources donated from foreign countries

Itsumi Kakefuda, a researcher with the Digital Human Research Center (affiliated with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial science and Technology), who translated the above appeal into English, said this with regard to fears among parents in Fukushima/Tokyo:

While different from the PTSD that is occurring within the afflicted areas, many parents of schoolchildren in the Tokyo metropolitan are also expressing fear, anger, and anxiety because of the confusion and lack of information. Clearly, the fundamental problem is the government and TEPCO, because of their horrible crisis communication. Sometimes this stress turns into cognitive/emotional overload, which can then lead instead to denial. Many interpersonal conflicts have also been increasing between those who are extremely concerned and are calling for action, vs. those who have chosen not to worry about the situation.

Others challenging the official line that radiation is safe and harmless are many artists and musicians, including Rankin’ Taxi, who performed at last Saturday’s gathering in Shinjuku. The group teamed up with the Ainu Dub band for the powerful “You Can’t See It and You Can’t Smell It Either," that minces no words (nor images) in its criticism of nuclear power and the handling of the Fukushima crisis:

Internationally renowned author Haruki Murakami delivered a speech last week in Barcelona upon receipt of the Catalonia International Prize wherein he interrogated the values of “efficiency” and “convenience” that he argues led to the Fukushima crisis via Japan’s passive acceptance of nuclear power. He then went on to poignantly challenge human beings across the globe to together create a future that instead prioritizes life and humanity. An English translation of Murakami’s speech is available at the “A Daily Life in Uptown Tokyo” blog .

Further information on what actually occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the days and weeks following the crisis, which went unreported in establishment news for months, is available in CNN interviews with physicist Dr. Michio Kaku and nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderson.

For more on radiation and precautions against its potential negative effects, see thes essays from herbalist Ingrid Naiman and this lecture by Kyoto University Professor Hiroaki Koide.

Additional reports on Saturday’s demonstrations across Japan may be read in the New York Times and Tokyo Progressive. Paul Jobin's "Dying for TEPCO? Japan's Nuclear Contract Workers" published at The Asia-Pacific Journal providess disturbing insight into the top-down workings of the nuclear power system as it plays out in Japan, and Dahr Jamail's "Fukushima: It's Worse Than You Think" at Al Jazeera online powerfully discusses the Fukushima disaster in its historical context.

Your signing a petition to stop the remaining nuclear reactors in Japan and a transition to clean, safe energy sources would be greatly appreciated. It may be accessed here.

- Kimberly Hughes

Amidst hopeful signs, activists continue impassioned efforts to stop nuclear power plant in gorgeous Seto Inland Sea

Movement supporters' kayaks lined up near site of the proposed Kaminoseki nuclear power plant, Yamaguchi Prefecture, March 2011

A movement to stop construction of a nuclear power plant near the town of Kaminoseki in Yamaguchi prefecture saw a hopeful development late last week when the governor announced that it was considering to refuse any further lease of the land for the plant’s construction. According to an article in The Japan Times:

The Yamaguchi Prefectural Government might invalidate Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s license to reclaim land in the Kaminoseki area for a nuclear power plant, Gov. Sekinari Nii said Thursday.

Nii also told reporters the prefecture will set its policy direction "while examining developments" related to the government's review of nuclear energy policy in light of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

This news was welcomed with cautioned joy by a group of activists whom I met with in March after deciding to leave Tokyo during the initial bewildering days following the earthquake and tsunami, when the nuclear crisis in Fukushima was still unfolding. At this time, throngs of so-called genpatsu nanmin, or “nuclear power refugees”, headed westward from the greater Tokyo metropolitan area for safer climes when it appeared likely that a cloud of deadly radiation could be well on its way toward the Kanto region. At the invitation of a friend in Hiroshima, I boarded an early morning train—well aware of the irony given my destination—to seek refuge and also meet with local anti-nuclear activists, including those involved in trying to stop the Kaminoseki nuclear plant in neighboring Yamaguchi prefecture.

After spending several days and nights in an internet café glued to the news in order to try and make sense of the crisis, one of the first organizers I ventured out to speak with was Shoji Kihara, the author of a book called Nuclear Scandal, which outs the entire system whereby payouts are made to bribe people into supporting nuclear power despite its dangers. At the time, Kihara’s sense was that the Yamaguchi prefectural government would indeed eventually prohibit the plant from being built.

“It is a tragic irony, but in a sense the Fukushima accident probably had to happen in order to wake people up regarding the need for nuclear power policies to change,” he told me. “Electric power companies presently allocate nearly their entire energy budget toward nuclear power, with close to nothing at all for any sort of alternative energies. If the industry had not been so intent upon pushing nuclear power, what happened in Fukushima could have been avoided altogether. But now, people living near the Fukushima plant will experience the same cycle of worry, anxiety and fear that hibakusha have had to endure for more than 65 years, whether in Hiroshima, Nagasaki or Chernobyl.”

Several days later, I had an opportunity to chat with several more anti-nuclear activists while visiting the Hiroshima Center for Nonviolence and Peace, headed by Dr. Mitsuo Okamoto—a professor of Peace Studies under whom I studied while an exchange student in Hiroshima nearly twenty years ago. The professor's wife Tamayo is a committed campaigner against nuclear power, and through her introduction, I received an opportunity to actually visit the proposed plant site together with another dedicated member of the 'Stop Kaminoseki' movement, who travels to the site at least once every week to support the locals in their struggle.

Masahiro Watarida, my host for the day, picked me up several days later in the early morning for the three-hour drive to the plant, located at the tip of a peninsula facing the gorgeous Seto Inland Sea. An extremely kind and soft-spoken man, Watarida retired early from his nearly twenty-year career in the organic produce distribution industry in order to spend a year in the United States learning English and studying food security issues before returning to Hiroshima to become a full-time activist. He was extremely generous with his knowledge regarding the workings of the nuclear power industry and it's effects upon ordinary peoples' lives.

He told me that since the plant site was not in direct view of residents in the town of Kaminoseki, it was easier for the Chugoku Electric Power Company to buy them off and keep them quiet about nuclear power's potential dangers. “The fishermen’s cooperative from Kaminoseki sold their fishing rights around the plant site for hundreds of millions of yen, and the people have also gotten quite used to the cushy arrangement whereby the power company hands out huge subsidies for road repairs and other local projects,” he explained.

Watarida told me that the town of Kaminoseki and its environs are a “hotspot for biodiversity”, rich in seaweed and aquatic creatures such as the sunameri (finless black porpoise), and featuring one of the last pristine untouched spots in the entire Seto Inland Sea. “This was an extremely important area from around the 17th to the 19th centuries in terms of communication and transportation, so there is also enormous potential here in terms of tourism and history,” he explained. “We still have hopes that the local community here will wake up to these possibilities and stop being so dependent upon corporate handouts.”


The story was a completely different one, however, Watarida said, for those living on the nearby island of Iwaishima (mostly fishermen, and their wives), who literally find the proposed nuclear power plant site staring them directly in the face. He said that they had been loudly protesting the plant—which sits a mere four kilometers away from their island—since its inception some thirty years ago. Its fishing cooperative members staunchly refused to sell their rights to the electric power company, choosing instead to put up an impassioned fight to protect their natural way of life.

“Since the islanders of Iwaishima do not have many employment opportunities other than fishing due to being separated from the mainland, many men have gone on assignments to work in nuclear power plants in Shikoku or other parts of Japan,” Watarida explained. “They know the dirty truth of the industry firsthand, and in fact, a majority of these men have already died from cancer.”

After winding our way to the end of the peninsula, we parked the car and headed to an impressively constructed log house that a group of activists had built as their headquarters of sorts. Almost immediately, we came across a friendly looking man who was cutting down some bamboo trees. Watarida told me he was a fisherman from Iwaishima who was helping to lead the movement against the plant. When he heard I was a journalist, he remarked, “tell those people in the big cities if they need so much electricity, they can take this ugly nuclear plant and put it in their own backyard!”

In addition to the fishermen and their wives from Iwaishima, I learned that the movement had also recently gotten a fresh infusion of energy from a cadre of young kayakers concerned with environmental destruction, who began coming in from all around the country to lend their voices and support. Several of them were inside the log house when we arrived, and invited us in to chat over steaming cups of organic biwa (loquat) tea harvested from Iwaishima island—one of the local, small-scale sustainable industries that the islanders were trying to emphasize in their fight against the plant.

One of the youth, I was told, was a twenty year-old who spearheaded a ten-day hunger strike two months earlier with four other young activists in an effort to try and stop construction of the plant. The young man, whose name was Naoya Okamoto but was known mostly by the nickname "Kin", told me that he knew absolutely nothing at all about nuclear power until a year prior; but after learning about it from a friend who had heard a speaker on the issue, he knew he had to act. “Radiation affects young people the worst, but most youth have no idea about this issue,” Kin said. “I wanted to do something to try and change the world before I turned twenty, and I figured that a hunger strike might work in terms of shocking people into paying attention to this critical problem.”


Right to left: Kin,Watarida, and another young movement supporter
After finishing our tea, we made our way down a steep path to the plant site at the peninsula’s tip. Although a moratorium was called on further construction at the Kaminoseki site following the disaster at the Fukushima plant, the Chugoku Electric Power Company tried to find a loophole by sending a crew to the site to conduct “research”, which consisted of blasting dynamite into the ground and then clearing the rubble. “Clearly, this is not ‘research’; it is construction,” Watarida observed. “Just one more of the company’s lies.”

Ignoring both the posted signs and the periodic loudspeaker outbursts telling non-workers to stay away, we proceeded to the water’s edge. Coming down the path, we held on to bamboo railings that had been crafted by the man we ran into earlier, whose name I learned was Yoshito Kanata. We found him sitting on the edge of a kayak, drinking a beer.

“The people who are supporting this plant have been completely brainwashed by money, and are now totally dependent on it,“ he told us after motioning us over. “On Iwaishima, we fish for our own dinner, because nothing tastes better than something you have worked for and gotten through your own sweat and hard work.” He snorted with laughter, raising his beer into the air, but then grew serious again. “If this plant is built and something goes wrong, the entire Seto Inland Sea will be completely destroyed.”

Watarida told me later that Kanata once worked at a nuclear power plant on nearby Shikoku Island, but found the conditions so horrifying there that he lasted only one month, and never returned.

We sat for awhile, watching a bora fish arcing across the bay in a series of graceful, energetic leaps. “These islanders know how to live in harmony with nature, and we need to learn from them,” Watarida finally said slowly, looking off into the distance. “The seashore—it’s a part of the commons.”

Masahiro Watarida points toward Iwaishima from the proposed plant site

Yoshito Kanata standing next to construction clearly underway

Back at the log house, another activist named Yota Nakayama was busy e-mailing and making telephone calls. He said that after the Fukushima accident, he had been contacting the Chugoku Electric Power Company and the Ministry of the Economy every day to demand that construction at the Kaminoseki plant be stopped immediately.

When I told him that I was from Arizona, he told me he had been to the Hopi and Navajo reservations several times as a participant in the Longest Walk, an event organized to raise awareness and facilitate social action regarding various issues facing Native Americans. He was in touch with friends who were on the walk, and told me that when they learned of the disaster in Japan, they had just arrived onto the Hopi reservation.

We both noted that the timing of this was an interesting convergence in light of the Hopi Prophecy, which is a message passed down through several generations that tribal elders decided to release publicly after being horrified to learn that plutonium and uranium taken forcibly from their land (an act that they described as “carving out the earth’s vital organs”) were used to create the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—themselves actions that were part of the prophecy.

Their message described how humankind had come to stand at the crossroads of two possible futures, depending on which actions were taken: either peaceful sustainability or total annihilation. I had learned about this from a 1986 documentary film titled Hopi no yogen (The Hopi Prophecy), a classic among social activists in Japan that I had seen the previous year at an arts festival. Unsurprisingly, some were now saying that the recent disaster in Japan was further evidence of the world now having arrived at this moment of truth.

After chatting a bit more with the group, Watarida and I made the drive back to Hiroshima—stopping first on the waterfront in Kaminoseki, where a young man called Nobu—a long-haired musician who was one of the core activists from the log house—had gone to play his guitar and sing in the hopes of reaching out to locals with his message. Although he rarely attracted an audience, he said, still he continued going to sing in the town every day in the hopes that even one local would be touched by his music and consider joining the movement.


Nobu singing for the cause in Kaminoseki
Nobu's melodies were hauntingly beautiful, and while we listened—each of us sitting apart from each other along the dock with our own thoughts, and yet very much together—I felt an incredible sense of oneness with this group and its purpose. I wanted to stop time to keep the feeling, to explore the region further, to go deeper with the connections I had begun to forge. I knew, however, that the time was approaching for me return to Tokyo in order to move on with life—in whatever direction that would turn out to be.

This post was excerpted from 'Finding Hope in Hiroshima,' a photo-essay presently awaiting publication. Kimberly Hughes is a Tokyo-based writer, freelance translator, and university educator. Her writings may be found at http://kimmiesunshine.wordpress.com.