Photos of Nuclear-Free rally in Yokohama at Starrybrooke

(Photo: Starrybrooke)
Many thanks to JohnTaro at Temple Valley Times for the head's up on the great photos of this weekend's Nuclear-Free demonstration in Yokohama, at Starrybrooke, by an American in Chiba (just east of Tokyo) who blogs on Japanese literature, Nuclear-Free Japan, and travel.

Martin Frid posted on the conference from his long perspective as a Nuclear-Free advocate, noting the new Mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon's special message for the conference closing event on Sunday evening, and the good coverage by Japanese media.

The Yokohama Declaration called for full support of Fukushima survivors.

Over 5000 advocates for a Nuclear Power Free world come together for Yokohama Conference

Report courtesy of the Japan Times (January 15, 2012):

A two-day antinuclear conference kicked off Saturday in Yokohama with the aim of sharing lessons from the Fukushima crisis and fostering global momentum against atomic power.

"Nuclear power plants are all over the world. In order to deal with this issue, we must create a global network," said Tatsuya Yoshioka, director of the nongovernmental organization Peace Boat, during the opening ceremony for the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power-Free World.

The conference drew thousands of participants to the Pacifico Yokohama convention center, including about 100 experts and activists from 30 countries and nearly 200 domestic groups.

Holding an event of this scale in Japan just 10 months after the Fukushima No. 1 plant meltdowns represents a significant meaning for the antinuclear movement, said Yoshioka, chairman of the event.

Germany's Rebecca Harms, a member of the European Parliament, said the Fukushima crisis had a strong impact on Europe, pointing to Germany's decision to close eight old reactors almost immediately after the crisis was triggered by the March 11 disasters.

She said Japan is now managing its electricity supply with much less dependence on nuclear power since only five of its 54 reactors are in operation.

She also said public opinion in Japan had changed and most oppose using atomic power in the future, bringing Japan's opinion in line with Germany's.

Japan does not need to go back to nuclear power, she said.

"Please, people of Japan, learn from the German experience."
NISA to OK Oi's reports
Kyodo

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is set to approve reports submitted by Kansai Electric on stress tests carried out on two idled reactors at the Oi power plant in Fukui Prefecture, government sources said Saturday.

This will be the first time NISA will issue an assessment on reactor stress tests reports. The government introduced the stress tests in light of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and made them a precondition for restarting idled reactors.

But even if NISA endorses the reports, it remains uncertain if the plant's idled reactors will be restarted immediately as other hurdles remain, including checks by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the sources said.

Kansai Electric Power Co. submitted stress tests reports for the Oi plant's No. 3 and 4 reactors last year. The reports said nuclear fuel in the reactors' cores would remain undamaged even in the event of an earthquake 1.8 times stronger than the maximum anticipated temblor in the area.

The reports also estimated that the cores could withstand an 11.4-meter tsunami — four times higher than the largest waves projected.

A Nuclear Power Free World is Possible- Conference Jan 14-15 Yokohama

A nuclear power free Japan and a nuclear power free world are possible. This weekend over 8000 people will gather in Yokohama Japan to share information on how to make this attainable goal a reality. Growing out of a coalition of Japan-based NGOs including the Citizens' Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC), FoE Japan, Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP), and Peace Boat, the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World will:

• bring together the voices of people who suffer from radiation exposure all around the world, whether by nuclear power or nuclear weapons - “Global Hibakusha”.
• facilitate the sharing of information with one another. Participants will learn from each other's experiences to illustrate the human and environmental consequences of the nuclear chain.
• aim to demonstrate that it is realistically possible to create a society that is not dependent on nuclear power.
• create a road map for the safe removal of existing nuclear power plants.
• present alternative policies based on renewable energy and propose action plans that can be implemented by Japan and other countries.

Mémé Madoka Watanabe, a Peace Boat staffer coordinating publicity within the Japanesecommunity shared some insight on Peace Boat's involvement in organizing the conference:

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, have both had a dramatic impact around the world. In response to this massive disaster and its tragic consequences to people's lives and environment, the people of Japan are trying to take steps towards recovery. Meanwhile, the nuclear power plant is still unstable and workers are forced to continue working in life-threatening conditions. As the radioactive contamination spreads, many people including children are forced to suffer from prolonged radiation exposure, unable to evacuate due to lack of support from the government.

It is vital that we do not continue to make the same mistakes. It is now time for humanity to put an end to the nuclear age that started with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Japan, well over half the population now supports the goal of breaking away from nuclear power. However, many people question whether it is practically possible to bring nuclear power to an end.

For these reasons and more, a coalition of Japan-based Peace Boat is acting as the secretariat for the conference on behalf of the coalition of Japan based NGO's.

Watanabe stressed how the event is a positive step for the world to move towards eliminating nuclear power as an option:

This event will be an important and positive step for Japan and other countries towards taking action for a nuclear power free world. The presence of both organizations and independent citizens will show that efforts since the disaster to learn from Fukushima have not gone unnoticed. We aim to learn from Fukushima, exchange lessons about nuclear power from around the world and make clear the need to break away from nuclear power. It is also a chance for us to show the people of Fukushima, many of whom feel despondent about the future, that positive action is being taken.The conference will bring together ideas from around the globe to propose action plans that can be carried out by Japan and other countries all over the world.

She also noted how the conference is an outgrowth of other related Peace Boat activities:

Activities such as the Global Voyage for a Nuclear Free World - Peace Boat Hibakusha Project, bringing survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings around the world to give testimony and advocate for nuclear abolition, while meeting with people affected by the nuclear chain around the world, have contributed to public education about the need to move towards a nuclear free world. Peace Boat also carries out other activities promoting nuclear weapon free zones, disarmament for development, and more.

Since March 17, 2011 in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Peace Boat has been active in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, one of the hardest hit cities on the coast of northeast Japan. Peace Boat is acting in a coordination role between Ishinomaki’s local government and the many NGOs, institutions and individuals offering help in the area and dispatching volunteers each week. With 10,000 volunteers to date. Some of the relief and recovery activities include preparing and serving hot meals, delivering relief goods, cleaning mud out of homes and businesses and salvaging fishing equipment.More recently volunteers have been supporting the communities in the Temporary Houses by distributing a newsletter and becoming part of the community as well as helping to identify and serve their needs. Their presence not only supports the physical recovery of the towns but also gives the local community the encouragement to rebuild.

- Posted by Jen Teeter

Writers & Poets Walk to Save Jeju Island

Via Regina Pyon of SPARK:

The 11th day of writers' and poets' walk toward Gangjeong...

On January 5, they are walking from Gyeryong Duma samgori to Gyebaek Sagori of Chungnam province.

For more photos, visit director Cho's photo essay: http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GdUL/146.

Okinawa Update: "Standing Down" the Sit-In • Receipt of EIS documents

The Ryukyu Shimpo reported the decision last night to change direction (to "stand down" the "sit in" at Kencho) to preserve the unity of the Okinawan Movement. According to scholar Gavan McCormack, "It clearly was not taken easily but was taken for principled reasons."

This just published at Mainichi:"Okinawa accepts additional documents for gov't report on U.S. base."

Gordon Hirabayashi, challenger of the constitutionality of WWII Japanese American incarceration, passes at age 93

(Hirabayashi (left) is joined by fellow coram nobis plaintiffs Min Yasui and Fred Korematsu in 1983. He was the last surviving plaintiff who challenged the legality of the wartime exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Photo: Steven Okazaki

Yesterday Gordon Hirabayashi, the last surviving plaintiff who challenged the constitutionality of U.S. wartime exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans, passed yesterday.

Rafu Shimpo, a bilingual newspaper for the Los Angeles Japanese American community, published a thorough and moving obituary (that does not use the euphemism "internment"):

Civil Rights Icon Gordon Hirabayashi Dies at 93 -
Wartime Supreme Court case was reopened in 1983

Gordon K. Hirabayashi, who challenged the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, passed away on Monday. A resident of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he was 93.

The announcement was made on Facebook by his son Jay, who wrote, “He was an American hero besides being a great father who taught me about the values of honesty, integrity, and justice. My mother, Esther Hirabayashi, who was 87, also passed away this morning about ten hours later. She was a beautiful, intelligent, generous soul. Although my parents were divorced, they somehow chose to leave us on the same day. I am missing them a lot right now.”

Hirabayashi is remembered along with Minoru Yasui (1916-1986) and Fred Korematsu (1919-2005) for violating curfew and exclusion orders imposed on West Coast Japanese Americans and appealing their convictions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled against them, accepting the government’s argument of military necessity.

Through a legal maneuver called writ of error coram nobis, the three cases were reopened in 1983 by a group of mostly Japanese American attorneys on the basis of newly uncovered documents showing that the government knew Japanese Americans did not pose a security threat but hid that information from the court. The convictions were overturned, thus strengthening the movement to obtain redress for former internees.

A biography of Hirabayashi, to be published by University of Washington Press, is being written by his nephew, Lane Hirabayashi of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, and brother, James Hirabayashi, former dean of ethnic studies at San Francisco State University.

“Gordon believed very strongly that his war-time Supreme Court case, and his 1980s coram nobis case, were both the JA community’s and the larger American public’s cases,” Lane Hirabayashi told the Rafu Shimpo. “He never felt, that is, that these were somehow exclusively his own. My understanding is that he remained profoundly grateful to all the individuals, networks, and the organizations that supported him, and never forgot that these included people of all colors, from all walks of life.

“Thus he believed that the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling in his coram nobis appeal, vacating his conviction after more than four decades, was a victory for everyone.”

The coram nobis cases were the subject of an Oscar-nominated 1985 documentary by Steven Okazaki, “Unfinished Business,” and two books, Justice at War (1983) and Justice Delayed (1989) by Peter Irons, who led the effort to reopen the cases...

(Source for quotes: The Courage of Their Convictions: 16 Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court by Peter Irons, 1988)

DENSHO: The Japanese American Legacy Project has a series of interviews with Gordon Hirabayashi online and a thoughtful exploration of terminology used to describe the mass detention: "Frontier Colonies or Concentration Camps? Euphemisms for the Incarceration".

Another Happy Ending from Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue & Support (JEARS)

(Photo by JEARS volunteers, Junko & son in Tokushima City, Tokushima)
The JEARS chickens, who now call the Hototogisu bakery their home, would like to wish all our supporters a Happy New Year! Thank you for helping us save them. ♥

Now loving cared for by Sara and her husband, Shuzo at Hototogisu Bakery & Farm in Okayama.

The JEARS chickens were found and fed by the JEARS team, led by Susan Roberts of the Japan Cat Network (JCN), for many months near the radioactive area in Fukushima. Many volunteers took turns to feed and water the chickens until JEARS volunteer Junko found their new home – an organic farm and bakery in Okayama prefecture, many 100s of kilometers from where they were found.

It was all hands on deck as the eggs were carefully tested for any signs of contamination and the whole team lept for joy when they found out that chickens and eggs were competely free of any contamination -no trace what so ever – and they could safely be transferred to their new home.

Visit Sara's blog here: Wallabi's Farm: The English Hototogisu Bakery and Farm Blog. She has a great recipe for Sataa Andagi OKINAWA donuts!


(Rice drying in the sun at beautiful Hototogisu Farm in Okayama)

New Year's Message from Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue & Support

Many thanks to all at Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support for all they're doing for the voiceless survivors of 3/11 and the Fukushima meltdowns. Please visit their website if you'd like to help...

Mama cat Rin and her daughter Shii were rescued from Fukushima not a moment too late. Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of Animal Friends Niigata, one of our coalition shelters, tells us that no one at AFN thought the kitten would make it through. The volunteers had to feed little Shii by hand for several months. But look at her now: cuteness pure!

お母さん猫のりんちゃんと娘のしいちゃん。福島から救出されました。JEARS共同シェルターの一つ、アニマルフレンズ新潟のイザベラ・ガラオン青木はその当時の状況を振り返って、こう言います。「あの時はこの子猫が生き延びるとは誰も思いませんでした。ボランティア達が数ヶ月に渡ってミルクを飲ませたり食事をさせたりして。。。見てください、こんな可愛い子に大きくなったんですよ！」 

Charlotte, safe in Niigata, eating her holiday meal in tinsel finery

Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World: Jan 14-15, Yokohama, Japan

From our friends at Peace Boat, Greenpeace, Green Action, and other organizers of The Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World:

After the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima, Japan, the world is now faced with a serious decision. Can we live with the fear of a similar accident occurring yet again?

On January 14-15 2012, the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World will be held in Yokohama, Japan. Participants from Japan and all over the world will gather to consider the issues surrounding nuclear power and discuss steps that can be taken towards a nuclear power free world.

Come and be a part of this conference.

http://npfree.jp/english.html

福島での原発事故を受け、世界の人々は選択を迫られています。また起こるやもしれない事態を恐れながら生きていかなければならないのでしょうか。1月14日、15日に横浜­のパシフィコセンターで脱原発世界会議を開催いたします。日本、そして世界中から人やゲストが来場し、原子力にまつわる問題、そしてこれから私たちが取れる行動を提案して­いきます。ぜひご参加下さい。

詳細はこちらhttp://npfree.jp/index.html

More somber New Year's for Nuclear Refugees still in Limbo...9 months after 3/11

A more somber New Year's for nuclear refugees dependent on the Japanese government for assistance. They remain in limbo, nine months after 3/11.

Via AFP: "New Year despair for Japan's nuclear refugees":

"That is the most stressful thing. I would almost rather that the government said we have to abandon hope of ever going back home. I'm trying to be prepared for the worst."