Still Praying for Tohoku: Little Change in Yamada, Iwate...

 Yamada in September 2013.  The small town in Iwate Prefecture 

was almost completely submerged by the 3/11 tsunami.  

(Photos: Scott Ree of Namida Project)

Map of Iwate Prefecture.  (Source: JNTO)

Map of Tohoku. (Source: Web-Japan)

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Background:

"Bureaucrat suspended for calling Tohoku reconstruction 'unnecessary' in 2011 blog post" (Asahi, Sept. 26, 2013) 

Disaster victims expressed anger when they were informed of the industry ministry bureaucrat’s remarks.

“They were uttered by someone who does not know anything about the disaster area,” said a 59-year-old man who lives in temporary housing in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture. “He may be smart, but he does not have the mind and heart of man.”

A 60-year-old woman who runs a restaurant in a temporary shopping area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, said: “We are trying to restore what we built over the years (and lost). As long as there is someone like him, reconstruction is impossible.”

"Tokyo puts Tohoku on games map, but will it be enough?" (JT, Sept. 24, 2013) 

With so many survivors still living in cramped temporary housing units, Yamada said, a lot of people aren’t happy to see the government spending so much cash on Olympic-related events.

"Fearing exodus, disaster-hit towns compete to offer highest subsidies" (Asahi, Sept. 22, 2013)

But the problem of solitary deaths among survivors could be more widespread, as many moved into accommodations rented by municipal offices over a broader area, potentially severing community links, the survey suggested Wednesday.

Complaints are also being raised over the differences in assistance levels in the Tohoku region. Many survivors are stuck in temporary housing because they lack the funds to rebuild.

Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, which hosts a nuclear power plant operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co., subsidizes payments for mortgage interest and provides assistance of up to 3 million yen to keep residents in the town.

The town’s population has fallen from more than 10,000 to around 7,700.

“The reason why we offer better subsidies than other municipalities is that we are more attentive to the issue,” a town official said

"Nearly 290,000 people still living in shelters two and a half years after the Tohoku disaster" (Rocket News, Sept. 16, 2019)

"Tally of solitary deaths at 81 for 3/11 evacuees" (Kyodo via JT, Sept. 11, 2013)

At least 81 evacuees have died alone in temporary housing in Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures since the 2011 quake and tsunami, a survey says.

"Disaster areas critically short of manpower" (Jiji via JT, Sept. 10, 2013)

"Tohoku still in dire need of medical support" (Jiji via JT, Sept. 11, 2013)

Thirty months after tsunami devastated the Tohoku coast, residents are still facing a lack of medical services because of delays in restarting damaged hospitals and clinics and the closures of others.

"7 disaster-area municipalities show biggest increase in elderly needing living assistance" (Mainichi, Sept. 2, 2013)

"Trillions for rebuilding Tohoku go unused" (Jiji via JT, July 13, 2013):

The Reconstruction Agency said Wednesday that ¥3.4 trillion — 35.2 percent — of the ¥9.74 trillion in the fiscal 2012 budget slated to rebuild areas hit by the March 2011 disasters went unused.

The year before, 39.4 percent of the reconstruction budget, or around ¥5.9 trillion, went unspent, indicating the recovery effort has suffered from poor planning...

Last year, ¥4.73 trillion was allocated to rebuild roads and embankments, as well as to relocate residential areas, but 43.9 percent in this category was unused.

Of the ¥655.6 billion earmarked for washing away contamination from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, 67.9 percent was unused, the agency said...

Unless rebuilding moves forward, devastated communities will keep shrinking, further slowing the process, observers said.

"Tohoku Has Been Rent Asunder for Future Generations" (引き裂かれた東北を後世に残す) (Roger Pulvers, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, March 13, 2013)

Quake victims allowed to stay in temporary housing another year" (Asahi, Feb. 25, 2013)

Victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake will be allowed to stay in temporary government housing for an additional year as new public housing construction lags in the three hardest-hit prefectures, sources said.

The central government's decision to extend the temporary housing limit to four years came after it was found that only 55 percent of the new houses planned in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2014.

The extension also means around 110,000 people still living in prefabricated temporary housing will have to continue to endure harsh living conditions.

About 300,000 people now live in temporary housing, including accommodations offered by the private sector and whose rent is subsidized by the government.

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Today is the last day of Washi Candle Garden decorated with washi (Japanese paper) 

illuminating messages from Tohoku residents and Tokyoites.

 ("Candles to remember Tohoku" by Magdalena Osumi, JT, Sept. 19, 2013)

-JD

Women of Fukushima: Our Tohoku Films

Via Women of Fukushima:

Our Tohoku Films. For people who may have missed some of our Tohoku stories, here they are. Big thanks to Jeffrey Jousan, the common link between all of these films.

Then and Now
http://bit.ly/thenandnowtohoku

Women of Fukushima
http://vimeo.com/51054104

Alone in the Zone
http://bit.ly/aloneinthezone

Aspri Building Hope in Fukushima
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsY-FXLwp_A

Curtains of Love for Otsuchi
http://youtu.be/ljtWzbyFCzU

Playground of Hope - Ishinomaki
http://youtu.be/wrCsySvvelc

Playground of Hope Japanese Version
http://youtu.be/3vQLAVxyizc

Kida Presentation UN April 29th, 2013
http://youtu.be/qPni8KFdRwc

Still "Praying for Japan" —Uncanny Terrain explores impact of 3/11 on Fukushima family farmers, animals, soil, & nuclear evacuees

Beautiful and heartrending trailer from Uncanny Terrain
a documentary film by Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski,
who lived and worked with Fukushima family farmers struggling in the aftermath of 3/11

This film is a must for all who are continuing to "pray for Japan" — for all who support the safety of Japanese people and animals, the recovery of Tohoku, and the survival of traditional Japanese rural culture.

Fukushima, as with the rest of Tohoku, was a bastion of organic, natural farming; slow, traditional Japanese culture. The shock, trauma, and continuing nuclear radiation assaults that started on 3/11 has shaken the idyllic way of life and identity of Fukushima organic farmers to the core.  Now farmers, who worked to build up good, organic soil and food have undertaken the responsibility for ongoing decontamination and recovery efforts, while dealing with collective fears regarding radioactive contamination of their products and persons, and uncertainty regarding their future and that of their descendants in their ancestral homeland.

The organic farmers of Fukushima prefecture toiled for 40 years to grow safe, nutritious and delicious crops on their ancestral land while two nuclear power plants in the prefecture helped feed Tokyo’s increasingly voracious energy appetite.

Since the March 2011 tsunami triggered the meltdown that spread radioactive contamination on much of the lush farmland of Fukushima and eastern Japan, the farmers have been caught between a government in constant denial of the risks of radiation, and outraged citizens who brand the farmers “child murderers” for continuing to cultivate irradiated land.

But the farmers, researchers and volunteers are committed to building a comprehensive monitoring and reporting network to inform citizens about contamination levels in food, air, water and land, so families can make their own informed decisions; and advancing experimental methods to decontaminate soil or prevent crops grown on contaminated soil from absorbing radiation.

Fukushima has demonstrated the need for greater public vigilance to keep all our food and energy producers honest, not just about radiation but about all the potential [pesticides, GMOs, industrial and other toxic] contaminants that our collective appetites introduce into our bodies and our communities.

For all who love traditional Japan, this is a film to support and see. Much more at the film's website: Uncannyterrain.com. 

Kyoto Journal is Back, with New Digital Issue

Via our friends and colleagues at KJ:

Kyoto Journal is Back, with New Digital Issue

With release of our 77th issue, the long-established all-volunteer-based Kyoto Journal is back in production!

Our transition from print to digital publication (and a total rebuild of our website) has been a challenging and time-consuming process. This issue puts KJ finally back on track as a quarterly melding of wide-ranging “insights from Asia,” noted for long-shelf-life content and distinctive design (now iPad-friendly too!)

Based in Kyoto, KJ’s network of contributors extends far afield: the 22 articles in this issue of over 200 pages take readers beyond the ancient capital to Hiroshima, Tokyo and Fukushima, to Korea, China, Nepal, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, delving into film and fiction, poetry, “off-the-beaten-track” travels, craft and calligraphy, architectural and archaeological investigations, yoga, post-disaster initiatives, and an informative reviews section.

Featured articles include:

• “Strong Children,” on a post-quake Tohoku support project, by Geoff Read

• “Engineering the Japanese Islands,” an interview with environmental historian Brett Walker, by Winifred Bird

• “Contested Terrain: Development, Identity and the Destruction of an Ancient City in Afghanistan,” a first-hand report by Isaac Blacksin

• “Between Darkness and Light: Reflections on Hindu India,” by Vinayak Bharne

• “Okamoto Taro; Nuclear Proliferation, and the “Myth of Tomorrow,” by Donald C. Wood and Akiko Takahashi“

• Tsa’lam: the Nomadic Route of Salt,” a yak-trail traced by expeditioner Jeff Fuchs

• Illuminating profiles of contemporary filmmakers Amar Kanwar, Koreeda Hirokazu, and Asoka Handagama

KJ was highly fortunate to have been supported by Heian Bunka Center from 1986 – 2010. The magazine is now a fully independent non-profit. Our next concern is to expand our subscriber base. Bandwidth and monthly charges for digital publication webtools aren’t cheap; we need to cover ongoing production expenses, hoping also to produce occasional specially-themed publications in print. Without a sponsor, we now depend on our readers — the KJ community — for vital support.

KJ is not a business. Neither staff nor contributors receive any payment.  We believe that KJ fulfils an important role as a place for non-mainstream material that digs deeper into the fertile soil of Asian experience. With the new potential of our website and digital format, we are eager to see KJ’s ongoing evolution, and to welcome new readers and subscribers.

Downloads of individual issues cost 1,200 yen (US$12.50). A full year’s subscription (4 issues) is an affordable 4,000 yen (about US$42). Check out our sampler of 77, and please sign up (or take out a gift subscription!), to help us keep on producing KJ.

We also have a newsletter – please sign up on our homepage and receive a full-length download of a classic issue, KJ 73, for free.



Visit the KJ website for more: http://kyotojournal.org/

Sketches of Myahk explores indigenous Japanese roots - still alive in northern Japan & Okinawa

Sketches of MYAHK Trailer

スケッチ・オブ・ミャーク 宮古島スペシャル

Koichi Onishi's documentary film, Sketches of Myahk, is a fascinating exploration of Japan's obscured indigenous heritage still extant in northern Japan and  Okinawa:

"I think Aomori connections with ancient Japan are much like those of Miyakojima," said Onishi, adding that he intends to shoot his next film in Aomori Prefecture.

Miyako is pronounced "Myahk" by locals. Two types of songs have been handed down through generations: "Aagu" folk songs that differ in style from traditional verses of the main Okinawa island and "kamiuta" sacred songs...

"Aomori (Prefecture) is home to the Sannai-Maruyama archaeological site and many other ruins from the prehistoric Jomon period (14,000 B.C. to 300 B.C.). Psychics closely related to folk beliefs like 'itako' shamans are still very much alive in our everyday lives," Onishi said. "(Aomori and) Miyakojima share a common bond in the way they retain traces of ancient Japan."

More about this beautiful film at Asahi.

Background: DNA research has confirmed that Ainu and Okinawans are direct descendants of Japan's first people, the Jomon, who entered what is now known as the Japanese archipelago through the area now known as Sakhalin, original home (along with the Kuriles, Hokkaido, and northern Tohoku)  to Ainu. Therefore Ainu and Okinawan cultures give us a sense of the richness of indigenous Japanese (Jomon)  culture.

Geneticists have also confirmed that mainland Japanese have descended from intermarriage of Jomon and later immigrants from Asia who brought rice and metal culture to Japan during the Yayoi period which lasted from around 300 BCE to 300. The later-comers entered the archipelago through Kyushu. New findings show that cultural exchanges went in multiple directions, with Asian mainlanders adopting Jomon culture as well as the other way around.

Handprint Cherry Blossoms Bring Hope to Miyagi

Via Asahi:

"Handprint cherry blossoms of hope are in full bloom"

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--Although cherry blossoms are not in bloom yet in the Tohoku area, a handprinted painting of a tree in full bloom can currently be seen in the Ogatsu district of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, which was hit hard by the Great East Japan Earthquake. 

About 200 people including some from other parts of Japan, gathered together on March 30 and 31. Participants added their palm prints in pink and red paint to a white plastered wall, forming cherry blossoms on an illustrated tree.

The wall, which is four meters long and 40 meters wide, was built at Arahama beach in December as a canvas to express messages of hope.

“Because reconstruction has been stalled, I wanted to create an opportunity for people to come together here,” said Akira Komatsu, 38, a vice chairman of the committee for the canvas project. “I hope people's spirits will be raised by looking at this handmade cherry tree.”

Watch Lucy Walker's acclaimed documentary The Tsunami & The Cherry Blossom for free today

Watch Lucy Walker's acclaimed documentary The Tsunami & The Cherry Blossom for free today at her website: http://www.lucywalkerfilm.com/TSUNAMI-THE-CHERRY-BLOSSOM

Don't forget Tohoku

Via Scott Ree of the Namida Project: "Don't forget Tohoku." 

Solidarity With Tohoku: Summer School Campfire & Drumming

Solidarity with Tohoku:

The neighborhood in Tsukidate consists of both the old rice farming community, and the new evacuee community from the coast. The children were thus part of an event that brought both communities together.

Evacuee residents from the neighboring temporary container housing were invited to join camp events...

18 months after 3/11 - 343,000 still living in temporary housing (mostly shipping containers) in Tohoku

Tsukidate container temporary housing. Photo: Solidarity with Tohoku (SWTJ)

Sept. 11 marks 18 months since 3.11 and the start of the Fukushima meltdowns.

Kyodo's photo essay and progress report, "Tohoku long way from healing 18 months on" (published at JT) reveals hundreds of thousands are still homeless:

Tuesday marked the 1½-year anniversary of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters that devastated the Tohoku region, with confirmed deaths standing at 15,870 and 2,814 people still missing.

An additional 1,632 people died of disaster-related causes, including fatigue and poor health while living in evacuation shelters.

Some 343,000 people still live in about 136,000 temporary housing units, including private properties rented by the government...

A population drain has been a major problem in the disaster zone because many who evacuated have started new lives elsewhere and have no plans to return.

In Pacific coastal areas hit hard by the tsunami, authorities have been slow in preparing housing sites for collective relocation to safer ground.

Reconstruction has been particularly slow in Fukushima Prefecture amid the triple-meltdown disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which spewed massive radioactive fallout. And the effectively nationalized Tepco has been slow to mete out damages payments.

A number of municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture plan to construct "temporary towns" for evacuees to help them assemble outside their hometowns, but they have made scant progress.

Official data show that about 71,000 people from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures had evacuated outside their prefectures as of August, including about 61,000 from Fukushima alone.

In Sendai, which is now home to more than 3,000 households of evacuees from outside the city, efforts have been made by the local social welfare council to put together residents hailing from the same localities...

Asahi reports:

As for homes for disaster victims, construction has begun on only 470 houses out of some 23,000 units planned to be built, while 24 homes have been completed. The construction of some 15,000 homes is not expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2013, which is the deadline for evacuees to move out from temporary housing complexes. While some 21,500 homes in about 310 districts in 26 municipalities are planned to be relocated under the anti-disaster collective relocation promotion project, the relocation of only about 8,600 homes in some 150 districts in 18 municipalities has been given the green light from the central government.

One of the best close-up sources of English-language information on 3/11 survivors we've found is at Kyoto-based Solidarity with Tohoku's blog. The group is engaged in consistent support at multiple levels for the people of Tohoku.

...more than 300,000 people lost their habitual hometowns. These coastal people now mostly live in temporary container housing built for them by the government at the edge of towns and villages in the hilly interior of the country. However, little is done to socially integrate these displaced people into the culturally different rice-farming communities of the interior regions of northeastern Japan.

Container houses are made out of recycled shipping containers or new containers of similar design. They're also called "prefab" or "cargo container houses."

Photos of architect-designed shipping container housing reflect some (albeit stark) elegance. Shigeru Ban's shipping container housing appears pleasant inside, although the exterior could use greenery. The Ex-Container Project, formed by a group of architects, advocates for the use of new ex-containers as temporary, even permanent housing in Tohoku.

Shigeru Ban + Voluntary Architects Network + MUJI's Container Housing in Onagawa, Miyagi.
Photo: John Tubles, Archinect blogs

Apparently old shipping containers are being marketed worldwide as low-cost housing for migrant workers and trendy habitats and commercial buildings (restaurants, art galleries) for the economically privileged. This article published in August at an online design magazine reports on shipping container work camps for temporary oil field workers in Texas and a UK shipping container mobile hotel.

Why shipping containers? Is there a surfeit of them? The article cited above and comments at this architectural discussion forum say this is the case. Shipping containers are being marketed as housing and commercial units in countries with negative trade balances with China (where they come from) because these containers travel one-way; it's expensive to ship them back to China empty from the US & Japan.

However, their use for habitation has raises issues, especially when addressing their suitability for long-term or even short-term (depending on the condition of the container) temporary housing.

Steel conducts heat and cold therefore shipping containers used as homes in environments with extreme temperature variations (Tohoku winters) will normally have to be better insulated than most brick, block or wood structures. In temperate climates, moist interior air condenses against the steel, becoming clammy and forming rust unless the steel is well sealed and insulated.

Of more concern, Brian Pagnotta at Archdaily says "...the coatings used to make the containers durable for ocean transport also happen to contain a number of harmful chemicals, such as chromate, phosphorous, and lead-based paints. Moreover, wood floors that line the majority of shipping container buildings are infused with hazardous chemical pesticides like arsenic and chromium to keep pests away. The entire structure needs to be sandblasted bare, floors need to be replaced, and openings need to be cut with a torch or fireman’s saw. The average container eventually produces nearly a thousand pounds of hazardous waste before it can be used as a structure. All of this, coupled with the fossil fuels required to move the container into place with heavy machinery, contribute significantly to its ecological footprint."

This is a photo of a temporary shipping container shelter in Tanohate in Iwate prefecture (the entire village was washed into the sea) that does not look it meets basic standards.

Martin Frid of Kurashi (who is taking a closer look) responds:

What I saw and photographed in June 2011 in Minamisanriku looked very temporary, clean and organized. We stopped there briefly to open our vans and many people emerged who appreciated the clothing, books, candy, food.

What I heard was that some people rejected the design and the sterility of the environment, but for some, it is the only way to manage. I also saw the large water tanks and sewage systems that go with this setup. Camps (if that is the right word) are often located near schools or on other public land, but residents in the neighborhood (in normal housing, untouched by the tsunami) may have complaints too, I don't know. Obviously the entire supply side, including stores and banking and postal services are another huge issue.

There are some permanent housing projects, including this beautiful collaboration between Rias no Mori and Kogakuin University. John Tubles of Archinect notes, "This community of 11 units perched atop a hill overlooking Shirahama Coast. According to one of the residents the not only the thought of permanence is comforting, but as well the tangible familiarity of these materials contribute to the easiness of living in place that was severely affected by the disaster."

"A permanent housing community aimed towards building “re-normalizing” the life of victims by creating a permanent housing unit that utilizes as much traditional material (ie. domestic wood beams+columns, slate and plaster) and carpentry as possible. A collaboration between Rias no Mori and Kogakuin University, this community of 11 units perched atop a hill overlooking Shirahama Coast." Photo: John Tubles, Archinect blogs

However, Tubles adds that isolation is also an issue at this scenic site as well as Ban's project in Onagawa:

Both are away from any form of community amenities like shopping, civic buildings or place of work. Moreover locating housing communities on hilltops and making it a viable solution demands for higher density, therefore more housing units and adequate social spaces takes the back seat.

For example, when I visited the Onagawa housing facility, there are designated social spaces that were locked and not used because of the lack of managing personnel, and the main covered public space is only really utilized during market days which is once a week. So often young children are not out playing and socializing with neighbors instead they are limited within the confides of their housing units.

Okinawan author Tatsuhiro Oshiro: "Okinawa and disaster-struck Tohoku region sacrificed for Tokyo"

National sacrifice zones are part of every industrialized nation, located in areas where regional economies are not essential to national finance and industry. Nature and people who live in these national sacrifice zones are considered expendable. National sacrifice zones include communities and entire regions that "host" uranium mines, nuclear plants, nuclear waste sites, chemical plants, coal fields (mountaintop removal sites), fracking sites, oil fields, factory farms, uranium and nuclear weapons testing sites, and military bases.

Tokyo's use of Okinawa as a "national sacrifice zone" began during World War II, when Japanese government leaders knew they would inevitably lose the Pacific War against the US.  Some leaders, including Prime Minister Konoe, pushed for an early surrender, however his and other voices were drowned out by those who decided to "sacrifice" Okinawa in a last, hellish battle, seeking to prolong the war, in the belief this would result in better terms of surrender.

The cost of this decision: one third (100-150,000) of the population of Okinawa, 70,000 Japanese soldiers and 12,000 American soldiers; the dislocation of 90 percent of the Okinawan people, and the near-total destruction of material Ryukyuan culture. In the postwar period, Tokyo ceded Okinawa to Washington which seized and destroyed entire villages "by bayonet and bulldozer" throughout the prefecture, to make way for massive military bases used for weapons testing and training during US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Even after the 1972 "reversion" to Tokyo rule, the US military bases remained.

In the 1990's, Washington resurrected expansion plans (including a massive war training base at Henoko and Oura Bay that dated back to the 1960's). Okinawans have protested this plan since its inception. 

Tohoko (along with Fukui) was decided upon as a national nuclear sacrifice zone also during the postwar period when US nuclear industry companies sought to introduce the "peaceful atom" to Japan. Eiji Oguma details Tohoku's history and the selection process (which exploited the region's economic poverty) in"The Hidden Face of Disaster: 3.11, the Historical Structure and Future of Japan’s Northeast", published at The Asia-Pacific Journal on Aug. 1, 2012. 

Mainichi writer Yudai Nakazawa article (published on March 16, 2012) gives voice to Okinawan novelist Tatsuhiro Oshiro's insights into the connections betweenTokyo's sacrifice of Okinawa and Tohoku.

Okinawa and disaster-struck Tohoku region sacrificed for Tokyo: Okinawan novelist

It was through Tatsuhiro Oshiro's collection of stories, "Hatsukayo," that I learned that hibiscus have a special place in the culture of Okinawa. I had arrived in Japan's southernmost prefecture amidst a festival celebrating the New Year in the afterlife, and the sight of people placing offerings of hibiscus -- known as "flowers of the afterlife" -- on their ancestors' graves in the cold rain was something to behold. It overlapped with Okinawa's tragic history.

Newspaper headlines that day were all about the U.S. military realignment, including the transfer of U.S. troops to Guam and the Futenma air station relocation issue.

"The papers here are like this all the time," Oshiro, 86, said as he glanced at the headlines. "I wrote some 20 years ago that Okinawa was a domestic colony, and I wondered at first if I'd gone too far. But these days, the expression 'domestic (internal) colony' has become widely accepted."

Looking over at the window, Oshiro continued: "It's cold these days, so I bury myself under the covers and wonder whether the people living in the disaster areas (in the Tohoku region) are warm enough. Who would've thought that Okinawa and the Tohoku region would be linked this way in solidarity?"

Oshiro says that the Tohoku region holds a special place in his heart. When he attended the award ceremony in Tokyo for the Akutagawa Prize, which he received for his novel "Cocktail Party," he had also traveled through Fukushima on the suggestion of a former college classmate.

So what is the "new solidarity" this writer -- who for years has focused on the suffering of Okinawa -- talking about? The answer is this: sacrifice that state power imposes on the weak. In other words, political discrimination.

The islands have been a part of Japan only since the late 1800s, when the Meiji government annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom and eventually renamed it Okinawa Prefecture. After the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty were signed in 1951, Okinawa Prefecture was put under U.S. military administration. As a result, while Okinawa constituted a mere 0.6 percent of Japan's land area, more than 70 percent of U.S. military bases in Japan were built there. Meanwhile, the Tohoku region, which relied heavily on the agricultural and natural resource industries, became an enormous source of labor for Tokyo. Furthermore, the electrical power produced by nuclear power plants that have been built in high concentrations in de-populated areas has not benefitted local communities, but rather Tokyo and other major metropolitan areas.

Both the numerous incidents and accidents that occur because of the military bases in Okinawa and the dangers of nuclear disasters in Tohoku have ostensibly been set off with massive subsidies handed out to local communities. However, we've arrived at a point now where we can no longer overlook the history of the weak being placed at the mercy of national policies, or the contradictions and inconsistencies that have long been left unaddressed.

"This imposition of sacrifice is a carrot-or-stick situation," Oshiro said. "To change this situation, there's nothing but for Diet members from Okinawa to do their job well..."

It was when Oshiro refolded his arms over his chest that a deafening roar was heard outside.

"That's a military plane," Oshiro explained. "They're always flying above, so this area's been designated as a noise pollution area. The nearby Shuri Junior High School is a soundproof facility. There are times when the planes fly even lower, and we have to stop talking altogether." This, I learned, was Okinawa's reality.

Last year, Oshiro published "Futenma yo" (To Futenma), a book of short stories. In the first story, whose title is that of the book, Oshiro eagerly tackles the Futenma relocation through a family who lives near the air station.

The story reaches its climax when the musical accompaniment to a Ryukyu dance is drowned out by the noise from U.S. helicopters, but our heroine continues to perform. Her determination symbolizes the local culture that refuses to be defeated by the heavy burdens of military bases. At the same time, however, the heroine's grandmother's plan to find a family heirloom buried on ancestral lands that have been seized by the U.S. military ends in failure.

In the book, Oshiro addresses uncompromising will and crushed hopes. "These two extremes represent the essence of the military base issue," Oshiro said. "My intention was to write about the identity of the Okinawan people who want to weave our history together and regain the land that's steeped with memories."

The Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami and nuclear disaster have forced many people from the Tohoku region from their homelands. Asked whether this tragedy is something that can be shared with Okinawa, Oshiro rips open a package to reveal the March issue of the literary journal Bungakukai. It features a debate between two of Oshiro's acquaintances -- Fukushima resident, novelist and monk Sokyu Genyu and former foreign ministry official Masaru Sato -- in a section titled "Interpreting 'Japan' through Fukushima and Okinawa."

Oshiro said: "I think it was Jan. 9 that Genyu stopped by here when he was in Okinawa to give a lecture. That's when he told me about his interview with Sato. Genyu said, "We have to do something that puts us in confrontation with the state.'"

In the magazine interview, Genyu said there was a parallel between the proposed construction of an intermediate storage facility for radioactive waste in Fukushima and the issue of U.S. military bases. Here, too, the government's failure to act has already led partly to the imposition of sacrifices. Amid the ongoing political confusion in Japan, is there any reason not to be pessimistic?

"Japanese people have grown accustomed to luxuries in their everyday lives, right? I wonder if an ideology or policy that will trim off the excess fat and desires from our lives won't emerge," he said. "But my outlook is not grim."

Asked why, Oshiro responded: "After the massive earthquake, those in the disaster areas didn't panic, and have been acting levelheadedly while being considerate of each other. That's hopeful. There's a very old concept of mutual support in Okinawa, too, called 'yuimaru.' If we're able to foster this spirit around the country, I believe that we'll be able to build a new kind of civilization."

Suddenly, instead of the roar of military jets, birds could be heard chirping outside.

After the interview, I got into a car driven by a local friend of mine, heading toward U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan. The city was in the midst of mayoral elections, and candidates and their campaign crews drove around, loudly appealing to voters for their support.

"Look, it's a KC130 refueling aircraft!" my friend said, suddenly. "It's a touch-and-go landing."

We watched as a dark aircraft made a sharp dive in the air right above us. Its explosive noise drowned out election pledges being shouted through amplifiers. This was everyday life here, I thought. Experiencing, if just for a moment, the "sacrifice being imposed on the weak," I was struck again by the weight of Oshiro's words.

(By Yudai Nakazawa, Evening Edition Department)

Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan Urge Noda Government to open a Real Public Debate

Press Conference: 31 July, 2012 (Tuesday) 14:30 – 15:15

Place: Diet Members' No. 2 Office Building of the Lower House, No. 2 Conference Room

Speakers - Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan:

Murakami Tatsuya (Mayor of Tokai Village, Co-Initiator)

Sakurai Katsunobu (Mayor of Minamisoma City, Co-Initiator)

Uehara Hiroko (Former Mayor of Kunitachi City, Secretary General)

International Speakers:

Seo Hyeong-won (Councilor, Gwacheon City Council, Member of Steering Committee of Green Party Korea)

Baerbel Hoehn (Vice Chair, Alliance '90/Greens Parliamentary group)

Statements of Support:

Mayors for Alternative Energy and Nuclear Free World, Korea

Ms Ulli Sima, Executive City Councillor for Environment of Vienna

Language: Press Conference will be held in Japanese, with English interpretation available.

About Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan

The “Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan” network was officially launched in Tokyo on April 28, 2012. This network was initiated by mayors and local municipal leaders attending the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World held in Yokohama in January 2012. As at July 2012, 77 mayors from 36 prefectures (of a total of 47) throughout Japan have declared their participation in this network.

For more information including members, past resolutions and statements, visit their site:

http://mayors.npfree.jp.

“Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan” Office: Nohira, Ochi

Tel: 03-6851-9791 Fax: 03-3363-7562

Mobile: 090-6015-6820 Email: mayors@npfree.jp

http://mayors.npfree.jp/

Japanese Protesters to V-22 Osprey Aircraft: "Go Back to America!"

(Photo: AFP, via PressTV)

"Go Back to America!" - On Sunday, more than 1,000 Japanese demonstrators demonstrated outside Iwakuni (US Marine mega-base located on the Inland Sea, a little south of Hiroshima), protesting proposed deployment (low altitude testing & flight training) of the V-22 Osprey aircraft.

Read more about this weekend's protests at Press TV, The Japan Daily Press (Adam Westlake hits the gist of the matter - Tokyo's disregard of community responses to what happens in their backyards [even when public security, environmental protection and democratic process are at stake]) and The Japan Times: "Ospreys reach Iwakuni; protest held" (Eric Johnston's, as usual, thorough analysis):

..After being assembled and test-flown at Iwakuni, the Osprey are expected to relocate to Okinawa in early October. But 41 towns and villages in Okinawa, as well as the prefectural assembly and governor, have formally opposed the deployment, making that schedule politically troublesome. The Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly also opposes the odd-looking aircraft, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane.

In a further setback for Tokyo's hopes for an early deployment, the National Governors' Association passed a resolution Friday opposing the move...

In Iwakuni Monday, protesters said Noda faces a clear political crisis over the Osprey deployment but noted the issue needs to be seen in a larger context.

"Opposition to the Ospreys is a continuation of the Ajisai (hydrangea) Revolution, the anger people feel and the protests over nuclear power that have been taking place in Tokyo and elsewhere all summer," said Kyoko Taniguchi, a protester from Hiroshima.

Iwakuni Mayor Yoshihiko Fukuda said Iwakuni's "forced acceptance" of the Ospreys without convincing the public of their safety or receiving a final U.S. report on the two recent accidents, due next month, has only fueled local anger.

Despite concerns expressed by the Japanese government and opposition by local government officials in Kyushu and Okinawa as well as ordinary citizens, the U.S. Marines want to push through a plan to test/flight training V-22 Osprey aircraft throughout Okinawa and much of the Japanese mainland, according to Kosuke Takahashi in US Marines eye Japan as a training yard" at The Asia Times:

(Map: The Asia Times)

The Japan Times (via Kyodo) reported that the US Marines want to test and train at very low altitudes (less than 60 meters):

U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys may fly at as low as 60 meters above ground during training across various areas in Japan after they become mission-operational, according to documents and other information..

How high the aircraft fly during low-altitude training along six routes covering parts of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu was specified in a document attached to a report by the U.S. military on the environmental impact of Osprey operations in Japan. It is believed the Futenma Ospreys will stage their mainland drills from the Iwakuni base.

The report says the aircraft will fly an average of 150 meters above ground. But an accompanying document says the Ospreys will sometimes fly at about 60 meters except between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., when the minimum will be about 150 meters.

Colorado residents who formed Peaceful Skies Coalition in 2010 stopped proposed Low Altitude Training Area (LATA) military training flights over the skies of New Mexico and Colorado. They were concerned about flight altitudes at 300 feet (about 90 meters):

The low-altitude flight training exercises would have involved training exercises performed at altitudes as low as 300 feet above the ground and generated significant concern among local residents and Colorado military units that also use the airspace.

[Senator] Udall, along with Sen. Michael Bennet, wrote to the Air Force to request more consultation with local and state agencies, citing concerns about impacts wilderness areas, wildlife and even ski resorts.

The Asahi's "Objections raised over U.S. plan for Osprey flights outside Okinawa" details the proposed V-22 low-level (60-150 meters) test/flight training routes, which according to this map, include urban and highly sensitive natural landscapes.

Objections to the Osprey deployment are now being heard in other prefectures following the Defense Ministry’s release on June 13 of an environmental assessment report submitted by the U.S. Marine Corps. It showed that the U.S. military is planning low-altitude Osprey training flights on Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.

The report--the first time the U.S. military has admitted it was planning low-altitude training flights in Japan--showed six different flight routes named by different colors.

Three routes are planned for mountainous areas of the Tohoku and Shinetsu regions of Honshu. One planned route extends from Shikoku to the Kii Peninsula of Honshu, while the other two routes are over Kyushu and the Amami islands between Kyushu and Okinawa.

The report states that flight and tactical training exercises involving the Osprey would bring the aircraft as low as about 150 meters [actually 60 meters] above ground.

Over the course of a year, 330 training flights are planned for the six routes, with about one-third of them taking place between late afternoon and night, according to the report.

Flight of the Valkyries: US Plan to Train V-22 Osprey throughout Okinawa & Mainland Japan

Despite concerns expressed by the Japanese government and opposition by local government officials in Kyushu and Okinawa, the U.S. Marines want to push through a plan to "train" the accident prone V-22 Osprey aircraft throughout Okinawa and much of the Japanese mainland, according to Kosuke Takahashi in US Marines eye Japan as a training yard" published last week at The Asia Times:

(Map: The Asia Times)

Taking advantage of the scheduled deployment of MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft to Okinawa, the USMC plans to conduct training flights over almost all of mainland Japan. With US Marines being forced to reduce their military footprint on Okinawa due to local opposition, America seems intent on making the rest of Japan its training yard.

According to a recent USMC report titled "Final Environmental Review for Basing MV-22 at MCAS Futenma and Operating in Japan (April 2012)" the US will use this situation to moves the Ospreys around the Japanese mainland freely. This report, published on Japan's Ministry of Defense website, shows detailed plans for low-altitude flight training in Japan via six different flight routes above the Japanese archipelago highlighted by different colors [above].

Specifically, those six routes are: the Tohoku route across Akita prefecture(pink); the Tohoku route across Miyagi prefecture(green); the Hokushinetsu route across Nigata prefecture(blue); the Shikoku- the Kii peninsula route(orange); the Kyushu route (yellow); the Amami Islands route (purple).

More info on the plan to turn Japan and Okinawa into a vast US military training site at "Why mainland Japan should care about the Osprey deployment in Okinawa" posted at Seetell Japan:

Under the proposed action, the USMC would make the fullest possible use of Camp Fuji in Shizuoka prefecture and Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture on mainland Japan and those six routes extending along Japanese islands. Currently, the CH-46E squadrons do not use Camp Fuji and MCAS Iwakuni and those routes.

The MV-22 squadrons are expected to conduct 28% and 4% of these six route operations between evening and night, respectively, or about one-third of them during late afternoon and night. In addition, the US plans to conduct low-level flight training down to 500 feet, or 152 meters, above ground level in those six courses, at airspeeds of 120 to 250 knots, depending upon the flight mode.

The Asahi's "Objections raised over U.S. plan for Osprey flights outside Okinawa" details the invasive nature of the training plan and mainland prefectural opposition:

Objections to the Osprey deployment are now being heard in other prefectures following the Defense Ministry’s release on June 13 of an environmental assessment report submitted by the U.S. Marine Corps. It showed that the U.S. military is planning low-altitude Osprey training flights on Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.

The report--the first time the U.S. military has admitted it was planning low-altitude training flights in Japan--showed six different flight routes named by different colors.

Three routes are planned for mountainous areas of the Tohoku and Shinetsu regions of Honshu. One planned route extends from Shikoku to the Kii Peninsula of Honshu, while the other two routes are over Kyushu and the Amami islands between Kyushu and Okinawa.

The report states that flight and tactical training exercises involving the Osprey would bring the aircraft as low as about 150 meters above ground.

Over the course of a year, 330 training flights are planned for the six routes, with about one-third of them taking place between late afternoon and night, according to the report.

(Protest Rally against proposed use of Okinawa as a V-22 Osprey training ground.

Photo taken in front of Okinawa prefectural building on July 1.

Photo: Naofumi Nakato of Okinawa Outreach)

Artists bring message of harmony, spirit of earlier era to Tokyo event

Alicia Bay Laurel performs "Rinpoche", a song that she wrote for Tibetan Buddhist master Kyabje Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche, which includes an enlightenment mantra, at his request

This past Sunday, in a home that doubles as a café and event space overlooking the stunning vistas of the Hachioji Basin in western Tokyo, one might have thought they had traveled back in time.

Accompanied to the backdrop of a flashing multi-colored light show, artist and author Alicia Bay Laurel—whose 1970 best-seller “Living On the Earth” has inspired generations of hippies and permaculturists across the planet—strummed her acoustic guitar and told fascinating stories of her life as a traveling artist.

“Over and over again, I watched people come to Hawaii and heal their bodies and spirits simply by absorbing the energy from the sun and the ocean,” she said, speaking of Maui island, her home for some 25 years. Her stay there served as the inspiration for her second book, “Being of the Sun”—described by Amazon as a “cult classic among nature-worshippers to this day”.

Laurel has earned a devoted following in Japan, where she has traveled nearly every year since 2006 to play music, sign individual copies of her books and CDs in her trademark flowing script, and collaborate with numerous artists, musicians and designers. She illustrated a book for bestselling author Banana Yoshimoto in 2010, and her works have helped raise funds for environmental nonprofit Artist Power Bank, as well as its sister project Kurkku, a complex of environmentally sustainable businesses. Her designs also helped raise funds for survivors following the 2011 disaster in Tohoku.

This past Sunday’s event, held at the aptly named Holistic Earth Café, indeed featured a distinctly Beatnik vibe. Guests were invited to try on and purchase hemp-based clothing, and the lineup of kitchen offerings even included fresh hemp pasta. “I could easily imagine myself in northern California in the 1960s, but here we are in present-day Tokyo,” Laurel commented. “The popularity of Living On the Earth never diminished in Japan, in large part because of the absolutely phenomenal community of people here who are committed to the ideas represented in the book.”

Event attendee, who told Laurel that he and his wife utilized the advice from her book to home-birth all three of their children

Laurel was joined by actress-turned-environmentalist Ikue Masudo (who was also a featured speaker at Harukaze 2010, a peace and sustainability event held in Tokyo). Masudo left the metropolitan capital several years ago to build an organic café and event space along the gorgeous shores of the Boso peninsula in Chiba prefecture, later going on to the island of Ishigaki in Okinawa, where she is now in the midst of creating a retreat and healing center. “My hope is that more and more people will become connected with the natural world, which will have positive repercussions for society on the whole,” she said, sharing her own personal story of becoming deeply inspired to change her life after filming television documentaries that featured swimming with dolphins in Hawaii and aboriginal communities in Australia.

Ikue Masudo

Sunday’s event, while unmistakably holding a vision for a better world, was most certainly not exclusively idealistic. Kathie Inoue, vocalist and ukulele player for the Hawaiian/reggae band Inoue Ohana, utilized the time in-between the band’s upbeat set to urge attendees to take action by adding their voices to citizen movements to end nuclear power and advocate alternative energies—including a recent worldwide petition urging Japan not to restart its nuclear reactors.

“There are many tools, including social networking sites like Facebook, that we can use to share information with each other and encourage positive social change,” she said, also echoing Laurel and Masuda with her message of simple living.

Kathie and Keni Inoue performing a chilled-out acoustic version of their song "Touch the Sun"

Alicia Bay Laurel and the full Inoue Ohana band play Yokohama Thumbs Up on June 21^st, and Kunitachi Chikyuya on June 22^nd. Laurel’s complete Japan tour schedule may be found on her website. In addition, this article provides a lovely introduction to her work and her long-standing connection with Japan.

--Kimberly Hughes

Fukushima Organic Farmers Fight Odds to Continue Livelihood Amidst Radiation’s Unknowns

Filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed Koziarski with organic farmer Seiji Sugeno in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima

This past January, while most participants at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World in Yokohama were angrily demanding that the government relocate endangered Fukushima citizens to safety, a small delegation of organic farmers had a different message to share. They had no intention of leaving their family land, they said, and as long as radiation levels remained within prescribed safety limits, others were urged to continue consuming Fukushima crops in support of the prefecture’s revitalization.

Fast-forward nearly five months. Consumers nationwide remained mistrustful of food grown within Fukushima prefecture, and outrage loomed large against Prime Minister Noda’s likely decision to restart the Ohi nuclear power plant, while a group of Fukushima citizens were calling for criminal charges against the officials responsible for the disaster. Within this social climate, I wondered, had the farmers’ message changed in any way?

To find out, I decided to take a day trip one recent Friday up to Nihonmatsu, located approximately 50 km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. There, I would accompany documentary filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed Koziarski on a visit to the farm of Seiji Sugeno, one of the several farmers to be profiled in their upcoming film, “Uncanny Terrain”. 

I recalled that Sugeno, a leader of the Fukushima Organic Farmers Network, had been one of the more staunch bearers of the “stay on the land and continue to eat local” message.

As the three of us made our way through winding roads to Sugeno’s farm, the rolling green fields and gorgeous blooming flowers reminded me of the prefecture's stunning beauty—also prompting me to reflect that Fukushima has inherited the painful legacy of Chernobyl: its name now automatically equated with the nuclear accident itself in the minds of people around the world.

Sugeno was out when we arrived onto his land, whose name translates roughly as the “Playful Cloud Farm”. We found his daughter Mizuho inside the greenhouse, tending to the family’s 1800-some tomato plants.

“Last year after the disaster, people still had hope that things might turn out okay, and most farmers decided to stay here and plant,” she said. “But due to the new restrictions on acceptable radiation levels, nearly half of the farmers in our area have given up and figured it just isn’t worth it to grow their crops this year. It’s really too bad.”

After rolling up in his sunflower oil-powered tractor, Sugeno echoed his daughter’s sentiments. He was adamant about staying on his land this season to plant, he said, despite the extra labor necessary to measure all food for radiation levels and sprinkle zeolite in local rice fields on government order—and despite the possibility that crops from an entire region could be judged unfit for shipping onto the market if even one local field were found to exceed radiation limits.

“This year is really critical, particularly for people who didn’t plant last year,” he said. “If they let their land go for one more season, it may be ruined permanently.”

Both Sugeno and his daughter were honest about the discouragement they sometimes felt regarding what was essentially a lonely battle, but pointed out the strength and encouragement that they received from the relationships that they have created with others around the world following the 3.11 disaster. Mizuho has traveled overseas several times to meet with organic farmers in Thailand and New Zealand, and her father heads shortly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a delegate to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development—a forum he most certainly intends to utilize to the fullest in order to share his experience with others.

“Large corporations talk about the future of our world in terms of economics, but the truth is that it is small, sustainable farms like ours that make the most important contribution to biodiversity—with rice fields acting to prevent flooding, for example,” he emphasized. “And it was only after the nuclear accident that this truly became clear to me.”

Sugeno then rolled back out into his fields, while Mizuho took Ed, Junko and myself on a drive through more vibrantly beautiful landscapes to visit the family’s canola farm, which her father had decided to grow for another season after determining that radiation levels in the area were low enough to warrant planting.

After later parting ways with Mizuho, the three of us headed to the local michinoeki, a facility featuring local wares and produce that may be found in many small towns around the country. Sugeno is one of the directors of the Nihonmatsu branch, where radiation detection machinery has been installed in order to make sure that every food item sold falls below the maximum acceptable level of 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, and where residents may also come to be measured by a whole-body counter that can detect existing radiation levels. When we arrived, a television installed at the entrance was repeatedly broadcasting a national television news program whose interviewer was emphasizing the farmers’ struggle to appeal to citizens regarding the safety of the local food.

"For a Fukushima Full of Smiles"

As we hiked later that afternoon in the gorgeous sunshine around the grounds of the Nihonmatsu Castle—which was completely deserted except for our presence—Junko, Ed and I had a chance to chat about the bizarre new post-3.11 world, which seems in a certain sense to have fragmented into various parallel realities, depending upon which news sources people read, and how they might personally be inclined to believe. This was certainly the case in Tokyo—and, I imagined, was likely numerous times more so the case for residents in Fukushima.

While government-mandated maximum safety levels for food stand at 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, many activists, including filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka, argue strongly that any possible exposure to internal radiation through measures including food consumption should be avoided entirely. As a measure of support for the Fukushima farmers, however, the filmmakers have consumed almost exclusively local food during their most recent two-month stay—explaining that many crops have tended to hover in the area of 20-30 becquerels, which is well within the government-set safety zone.

“Are these levels dangerous? You’ll find any number of opinions on the matter, because frankly, nobody knows,” Junko commented. She pointed out that Aya Marumori, the Executive Health Director of the Citizens’ Radioactivity Measuring Station (and a speaker during a recent event held in Tokyo) visited numerous doctors, who fell into one of two categories: either claiming that radiation was totally harmless, or else that it was completely deadly. “She finally came across one doctor who said: ‘We don’t know.’ And that’s who she decided to trust.”

“Radiation effects will most certainly be one of the long-term aftermaths of the disaster, although—as with Chernobyl—the causality cannot be proven,” added Ed, pointing out that this matter was taken up in-depth within the recent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ feature issue on low-level radiation. “In addition to this, though, are the other ill health effects such as diabetes and cancers that will result from the existing stress and fear, as well as the social phenomenon of uncertainty. Honestly, no one has any idea how the situation here will continue to play out into the future.”

The Uncanny Terrain blog follows the progress of the film, including Ed's thoughtful piece titled “Would You Stay?” documenting the ways that communities in Fukushima have fragmented following the crisis. The filmmakers are also gratefully accepting donations via Google to help them complete their project, as well as assistance with volunteer translation.

A recent article from the Japan Times also sensitively describes the many complexities that continue to face farmers--and food consumers--in Fukushima following last year's disaster.

--Kimberly Hughes