Asahi: Fukushima leader blasts Kan's plan to transform Fukushima into a nuclear waste dump

Noriyoshi Ohtsuki reports on the local response to former PM Kan's last-minute proposal before he left office: "Fukushima leader blasts nuclear waste site plan" at Asahi Japan Watch today:

A key business leader has lashed out at a government plan to construct an interim storage facility for radioactive waste in Fukushima Prefecture, site of an ongoing nuclear crisis, rather than in Tokyo.

Toshio Seya, a former banker and head of the Fukushima Chamber of Commerce and Industry, asked during a regular news conference on Aug. 30: "Why doesn't the government build (the proposed facility to store radioactive waste) in Tokyo's Odaiba district? After all, the beneficiary of nuclear power is Tokyo."

Greenpeace: Fukushima Schools Unsafe After Clean-Up

Finance Greenwatch:

"Greenpeace: Fukushima Schools Unsafe After Clean-Up" (PlanetArk)

August 30th, 2011

Greenpeace said on Monday that schools and surrounding areas located 60 km (38 miles) from Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear power plant were unsafe for children, showing radiation readings as much as 70 times internationally accepted levels...

David McNeill: "Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl"

David McNeill's latest, "Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl", published at The Independent:

Slowly, steadily, and often well behind the curve, the government has worsened its prognosis of the disaster. Last Friday, scientists affiliated with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant had released 15,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing Cesium, equivalent to about 168 times the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event that ushered in the nuclear age. (Professor Busby says the release is at least 72,000 times worse than Hiroshima)...

Many parents have already sent their children to live with relatives or friends hundreds of kilometres away. Some want the government to evacuate the entire two million population of Fukushima Prefecture. "They're demanding the right to be able to evacuate," says anti-nuclear activist Aileen Mioko Smith, who works with the parents. "In other words, if they evacuate they want the government to support them."

So far, at least, the authorities say that is not necessary. The official line is that the accident at the plant is winding down and radiation levels outside of the exclusion zone and designated "hot spots" are safe.

But many experts warn that the crisis is just beginning. Professor Tim Mousseau, a biological scientist who has spent more than a decade researching the genetic impact of radiation around Chernobyl, says he worries that many people in Fukushima are "burying their heads in the sand." His Chernobyl research concluded that biodiversity and the numbers of insects and spiders had shrunk inside the irradiated zone, and the bird population showed evidence of genetic defects, including smaller brain sizes.

Help save South Korea's only natural dolphin habitat in Jeju Island

Every summer, hundreds of dolphins, traveling from Alaska, visit the sea off the village of Gangjeong, Jeju Island. Video courtesy of Yang Dong-Kyu, a filmmaker who took this hauntingly beautiful footage of the dolphins responding to his calls during summer 2009. 

Jeju Island, a World Heritage Site, is a jewel of biodiversity. The southern coast of Jeju Island is home to soft coral habitat. In 2001, the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration designated it a national monument protection area. The Gangjeong coast is a seasonal habitat for hundreds of dolphins that live there from June until September. They migrate from Alaska through the North Pacific Ocean to Jeju Island, the only dolphin habitat in South Korea.

And now the South Korean government wants to destroy the dolphin habitat and the traditional farming and fishing village of Gangjeong to build a naval base to house warships. Jeju activist Sung-Hee Choi asks "Where will the sea creatures go?" Let's hope not into Jeju Island's dolphin aquariums.

Tragically, the South Korean government, which has one of the worst environmental protection ratings in the world, does not realize a need protect the nation's only natural dolphin habitat.  Supporting (wild) dolphin-friendly tourism at Jeju, one of the world's most beautiful tourist havens would bring visionary shift to its environmentally destructive track record.

Please help stop Seoul's planned destruction of this beautiful coast. To learn how, visit Save jeju Island.

The Cove star praises Miyake island's dolphin watching; hopes Taiji dolphin slaughter will end

The world's eye is again turning on Taiji, Wakayama, where local fishermen annually kill thousands of dolphins with harpoons. Among countless forms of systematic animal abuse worldwide, Taiji's dolphin hunt vies with the worst (American aerial "trophy" shooting of wolves and Canadian clubbing of baby seals) in its needless cruelty.

The Japanese government defends the dolphin hunt at Taiji as part of Japanese culinary culture, however large-scale dolphin kills at Taiji only began in 1969. " Does anyone know a Japanese person who has actually eaten a dolphin?

Let's also hope the dolphin activists who come to Taiji will also speak out against the planned dolphin aquarium in Kyoto.

The Cove star praises dolphin-watching in Japan, hopes slaughter will end in Taiji
Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press
Aug 26, 2011

TOKYO - The star of the Oscar-winning movie about dolphin-killing in Japan had only praise for a small island off the eastern coast that thrives on snorkeling with dolphins, and he urged the rest of the country to follow that example. Ric O'Barry was heading to Taiji, the southwestern town made notorious in the documentary The Cove, where the annual dolphin hunt is set to start Sept. 1. But he stopped along the way at the island of Miyakejima for a look at how dolphins can be spared and used for tourism.

"It's very encouraging to see people celebrating dolphins, respecting dolphins, and I'm all for that," O'Barry said Friday. "We support them all the way."

Chikara Atsuta, an official with the tourism agency at Miyakejima, said he welcomed O'Barry's praise, and expressed hopes more people from abroad would visit the island of 2,700 people, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Tokyo.

"I feel so grateful," he said. "We do not hunt dolphins."

Miyakejima's dolphins live in the area so residents have even given them names. In contrast, dolphins are migratory in Taiji and so the same kind of dolphin-watching would be difficult to duplicate.

But O'Barry urged Taiji to turn to whale-watching and other forms of tourism that are kinder to animal life.

O'Barry said he will lead a prayer ceremony in Taiji for people who have died in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster and for the dolphins about to die in the hunt. He is travelling by bus with two dozen people who are all dolphin-lovers, he said.

Wakayama Prefectural police have said some 100 riot police are carrying out drills to prepare for possible confrontation with activists as the annual dolphin hunts begins, including chasing boats and making arrests...

O'Barry was an expert at training dolphins, such as the ones for the 1960s "Flipper" TV series, until he had a change of heart and instead devoted his life to saving dolphins...

Only about 2,000 dolphins are caught in Taiji every year. But the slaughter, as captured in The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, is so striking that the town has become synonymous with the practice.

In that film, fishermen on boats scare dolphins into a small cove and bayonet them. The dolphins writhe in pain and turn the waters red with blood...

Read the entire article here. The Cove website: www.thecovemovie.com.

Tatsuhiko Kodama: Fukushima fallout 30 times Hiroshima's; urges systematic monitoring & efficient decontamination

Fukushima fallout said 30 times Hiroshima's: Expert paints dire picture of decontamination zone, slams government for foot-dragging

By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
The Japan Times
Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011

Kodama, a professor of systems biology and medicine at the University of Tokyo, used clear-cut terms to get his message across. His ruthless criticism of the government's slow response has been viewed at least 1 million times.

"It means a significantly large amount of radioactive material was released compared with the atomic bomb," he told the Diet committee.

"What has the Diet been doing as 70,000 people are forced to evacuate and wander outside of their homes?"

Despite a hard-nosed image, the expert on radiology and cancer briefly showed a softer side while speaking to The Japan Times about his two grandchildren and their summer in the Tokyo heat.

"A lot of people ask me this, but Tokyo is safe from radiation now," Kodama, who heads the university's Radioisotope Center and the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, said Aug. 12.

"My two grandchildren swim outside in the pool, and there is no concern with the safety of food at this point."

But his expression became grave when discussing the 20-km no-go zone in Fukushima, explaining that decontamination of such areas will take not years but decades.

There are places he wouldn't let his grandchildren spend time outdoors freely, even in areas outside of the restricted zone.

"Cesium has been detected from urine and breast milk from those residing in Fukushima Prefecture, and the cause for that is still not specified," he warned...

"My theory is this — instead of trying to decide what is safe and what isn't at this point, we should focus on properly measuring the level of contamination in each area and on how to cleanse them."

According to Kodama, the Radioisotope Center estimates that radioactive materials released from Fukushima No. 1 amount to about 29.6 times of that released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The group also found out that radiation from Fukushima will only decrease by one-tenth per year, which is about 100 times slower than radiation from the bomb...

Another sign of a lax government can be seen in how local governments appear to be short of equipment to measure radiation contamination in food and other produce.

Considering that contamination will be a major problem for the next couple of decades, the central government shouldn't hesitate to invest in and develop, even mass-produce, equipment that can allow checks for radiation.

Some companies have told Kodama it would only take three months to develop a system for efficient radiation measurement.

Kodama advised the government to take two different approaches in decontaminating Fukushima.

The first step should focus on creating a rough map of the wider area and the level of contamination, possibly using remote-control helicopters and Japan's advanced GPS system.

For emergency decontamination procedures, each community should have a call-in center that conducts quick cleanups once a request is made from residents...

"I am aware that there are many opinions regarding nuclear power. However, I believe all of us can agree that Fukushima and the surrounding area needs to be decontaminated as soon as possible," he said.

Read the entire article here.

John Einarsen's In the Realm of the Bicycle up for People's Choice Award!

 Congratulations to John Einarsen for the nomination of his recent book of photography, In the Realm of the Bicycle, for a People's Choice Award.

The photographer (and KJ's founding editor, stylish art director) uses photography as a medium to expand and deepen perception. In this book, the focus is bicycles in Japan's ancient capital, but the field of vision is infinite:

Each encounter I had with a member of this vast race revealed an individual with a personality all its own, the result of a history at once common and mysterious. Inevitably, I came to see them as they really were: creatures who populated the niches and nooks and corners and alleys of neighborhoods and streets and lives....

Most of the images in the book were taken in Kyoto over the years.

Cycle Kyoto adds this note:

Each photo in In the Realm of the Bicycle is a haiku, a brief fleeting moment that contains a larger truth.

To view a sample some of the pages, go to: blurb.com.

The cover of In the Realm of the Bicycle is by long-time KJ graphic designer Tiery Le.

The Kyoto Journal: Perspectives From Asia (a/k/a KJ) emerged from Kyoto's international cultural milieu during the 1980's; the iconic English-language quarterly will embark a new incarnation online in September.

Gill Chun Koh: Jeju Island graffiti

To learn about extraordinary Jeju Island artist Gill Chun Koh, please see these articles at The Jeju Weekly:

"'Sasam Art': The artists' way: Jeju artists lead way to truth, justice, and healing"

"An artist's focus on social causes: Gill Chun Koh, April 3 artist and activist"

"Island of Peace: The Peace Culture of Jeju"

Lao Tzu: War as futile death wish & collective funeral

One who would guide a leader of men in
the uses of life
Will warn him against the use of arms for
conquest.
Even the finest arms are an instrument of
evil;
An army's harvest is a waste of thorns
In time of war men, civilized in peace,
Turn from their higher to their lower
nature.
But triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks a triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill.
The death of a multitude is cause for
mourning
Conduct your triumph as a funeral.

- Lao Tzu

Hong Sung-dam: "Gangjeong by the Sea"

"Gangeong by the Sea" by Hong Sung-dam
Hong Sung-dam was born on the island of Hauido and raised in Gwangju, where as a youth, he took part in the 1980 uprising against Chun Doo-hwan's military dictatorship. In July 1989, Hong was arrested for allegedly breaking the National Security Act for sending slides of a mural he had created, along with around 200 other South Korean artists, to North Korea). Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience; he was released from prison (where he was kept in solitary confinement for three years after being tortured by the Korean CIA) in the early 1990s.

A member of Korea's globally renowned Minjung (politically and socially engaged) art movement, the artist was commissioned by the Government of South Korea to create a mural for Chonnam National University. Human Rights Solidarity published this interview with Hong Sung-dam in 2002: "War Serves the Politicians but Not the People."



"Gangeong by the Sea II" by Hong Sung-dam