Constellation Earth - Nagasaki

People in Koodankulam, India pray for a Nuclear-Free World

People of Koodankulam, India praying for the victims of Hiroshima on August 7, 2012.

"We have chance to save Koodankulam ...."

(Photo: Amirtharaj Stephen, Dianuke.org)

Velcrow Ripper: "Lanterns of Memory"

Via fillmaker Velcrow Ripper:

"Each of us faces circumstances in life which compel us to carry heavy burdens of sorrow...Adversity assails us with hurricane force...Glowing sunrises are transformed into darkest nights...Our highest hopes are blasted...Our noblest dreams are shattered...

August 6, 2000. A Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor describes what she saw ("There was no place to hide...") and expresses her wish that this never happen again.

Woven throughout, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. ask us: why should we love our enemies?

Children's Peace Monument - Hiroshima

Hiroshima Day- ICAN booklet on catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons

Nagasaki bomb victim Sumiteru Taniguchi looks at a photo of himself taken in 1945.
(Source: ICAN Hiroshima Day booklet)

"As a 16-year-old boy, I was riding my bicycle down the street when the atomic bomb exploded 1.8 km away, scorching my back and leaving the skin on my right arm hanging down from the shoulder to the fingertips."

After 17 excruciating operations and a lifetime of struggle, Sumiteru Taniguchi, 67 year since the bombing of Hiroshima, still fights pro-actively to make sure no one has to suffer what he experienced in Hiroshima ever again.

In remembrance of Hiroshima Day and all of the past and potential future victims of the nuclear industry, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has launched a booklet for free digital distribution on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. Download here: http://www.icanw.org/files/ICAN-CHH.pdf

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a movement of non-government organizations in 60 countries advocating such a treaty, believes that discussions about nuclear weapons must focus not on narrow concepts of national security, but on the effects of these weapons on human beings – our health, our societies, and the environment on which we all depend.

ICAN notes that the same humanitarian discourse was used successfully in banning landmines and cluster munitions. While sharing the stories of anti-nuclear advocates and the survivors of nuclear bombing, testing, and mining the booklet provides pertinent information on:

• the known existing nuclear arsenals in the world
• immediate- and long- term effects of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• the devastation that would arise should regional nuclear war break out
• the consequences of nuclear testing
• the impact of mining on marginalized communities
• the massive diversion of public resources for the production of nuclear materials and technology
• currently standing international bans on weapons of mass destruction
• ICAN recommendations on how WE CAN act

With nuclear weapons and nuclear-based technology (including nuclear reactors) still proliferating no one is safe should disaster arise. Just recently, Japan's former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba's statement about the use of Japan's nuclear reactors as a deterrent was made public: "Having nuclear plants shows to other nations that Japan can make nuclear weapons."

In Nov. 22, 2011 Ishiba stressed that Japan isn’t about to make nuclear weapons. But, he said, with nearby North Korea suspected of working on them, Japan needs to assert itself and say it can also make them - but is choosing not to.

(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Unless we have a paradigm shift now, we will continue to be used by governments and industry as test mice of this obsolete nuclear deterrent ideology, living in a house of cards on a slanted table.

This booklet serves as a heart-wrenching reminder of the tragedies of the nuclear industry and the political stranglehold the industry maintains despite the enormous destruction it causes. It is a useful resource for anyone just learning about the consequences of nuclear weapons or fighting to make the shift to a nuclear-free world a reality.

Learn more about how you can abolish nuclear weapons:

ICAN homepage: http://www.icanw.org/
ICAN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/icanw.org
- posted by Jen Teeter

Satoko Oka Norimatsu and Gavan McCormack: Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States

Via Satoko Oka Norimatsu:

Please allow me to announce the publication of my book with Gavan McCormack: Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States, by Rowman and Littlefield, July 30, 2012.

I hope this book will be useful for our cause of bringing justice to Okinawa.

Description:

Resistant Islands offers a comprehensive overview of Okinawan history over half a millennium from the Ryukyu Kingdom to the present, focusing especially on the colonization by Japan, the islands' disastrous fate during World War II, and their subsequent and continuing subordination to US military purpose.

Adopting a people-centered, view of Japan’s post Cold War history and the US-Japan relationship, the authors focus on the fifteen-year Okinawan struggle to secure the return of Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, situated in the middle of a bustling residential area, from US to Okinawan control. They also highlight the Okinawan resistance to the US and Japanese governments’ plan to build a substitute new base at Henoko, on the environmentally sensitive northeastern shore of Okinawa. Forty years after Okinawa's belated "return" to Japan from direct US rule, its people reject the ongoing military role assigned their islands, under which they are required to continue to attach priority to US strategy.

In a persistent and deepening resistance without precedent in Japan's modern history, a peripheral and oppressed region stands up against the central government and its global superpower ally. One recent prime minister who tried to meet key Okinawan demands was brought down by bureaucratic and political pressure from Tokyo and Washington. His successors struggle in vain to find a formula that will allow them to meet US demands but also assuage Okinawan anger. Okinawa becomes a beacon of citizen democracy as its struggles raise key issues about popular sovereignty, democracy and human rights, and the future of Japan and the Asia-Pacific."

Okinawa becomes a beacon of citizen democracy as its struggles raise key issues about popular sovereignty, democracy and human rights, and the future of Japan and the Asia-Pacific.

Endorsed by Noam Chomsky, John Dower, Norma Field, Sun Ge, Glenn Hook and Ron Dore:

Resistant Islands is a tour de force—not only a stunning introduction to the resilience and vision of the people of Okinawa but also a devastating critique of official Tokyo’s obsequiousness to dictates emanating from Washington.

— John Dower, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kyoto Journal: "Fresh Currents" now available online

"Fresh Currents"--on Japan's renewable energy technologies

We are delighted to announce that our brand-new Kyoto Journal/Heian-Kyo Media publication, "Fresh Currents," is now available, here:

http://download.freshcurrents.org/

It can be downloaded without any password, and it's free!

We hope that you find it of interest, and will be motivated to pass it around widely.

Below, we provide cover letters in English and Japanese, for convenience in forwarding.

(英文の後に日本語訳が続きます)

To concerned individuals everywhere:

Please download your complimentary digital copy of *Fresh

Currents,* our book on Fukushima and Japan's energy future, HERE:

http://download.freshcurrents.org/

We now stand at a critical watershed for Japan and the world ― will we choose to revert to the dangerous, costly and centrally-controlled industry of nuclear power, rely on the CO2-producing fuels of oil and coal, or embrace the exciting new possibilities of decentralized renewable energy technologies?

Living only 60 kilometers from the Oi nuclear power plants (reopened in June amidst growing protests across the country), we felt compelled to add something positive to the growing movement towards a sustainable energy future. *Fresh Currents* was put together from a network of writers associated with *Kyoto Journal,* an NPO based in Kyoto that has been publishing in print and digitally for over 25 years.

This book would not have been possible without the kind donations of people who visited our Indiegogo campaign or the incredibly hard work of all the volunteer writers, translators, photographers, designers and illustrators. We deeply thank everyone who has been or who will be a part of our project!

A print edition will be available at the end of September (¥2000).

Look for Fresh Currents & Kyoto Journal on Facebook

Translation by Yukiko Naito

あらゆる地域にお住まいの関係者各位：

以下のサイトから、フクシマと日本のエネルギーの将来に関する私たちの本「Fresh Currents (新たな潮流)」の補足版をダウンロードして下さい。

http://download.freshcurrents.org/

現在、日本だけにとどまらず、全世界が、非常に重要な分岐点に立っています。

----危険で、犠牲を伴う（高価な）、一括管理方式の原子力産

業に踵（きびす）を返すのか、二酸化炭素を排出する石油や石炭の燃料に依存するのか、あるいは、分散型の再生可能エネルギー技術の心躍る新たな可能性を追求するのか

---我々はどれを選んでいくのでしょうか？

大飯原発では、全国各地の高まる反対の声にもかかわらず６月に再稼動を始めました。その大飯原発から６０キロしか離れていないところに住む私たちは、矢も盾もたまらず、持続可能なエネルギーの未来に向けて今拡大する運動に何らかのポジティブな行動を賦与したいと思い至ったのです。「Fresh

Currents (新たな潮流)」の企画は、Kyoto Journal（京都ジャーナル）---２５年以上前から印刷版と電子版を出版する京都を拠点とする

NPO法人---に参画するライターのネットワークから起ち上がりました。この本は、私たちのIndiegogo

キャンペーンサイトを訪ねてご寄付下さった方々やボランティアのライター、翻訳者、写真家、デザイナーやイラストレーターの方々の信じがたい程のお骨折りがなければ実現しなかったのです。私たちは、プロジェクトにご参加下さった方々、また、これから、ご参加下さるであろう方々お一人お一人に心から深く感謝します！

印刷版（一部２０００円）は、９月末に出来上がります。

私たちの取り組みにご参加下さい！

「Fresh Currents (新たな潮流)」のプロジェクトでは、あなたにご協力頂きたい四つのことがあります：

・ フィードバック（ご意見、ご講評）を下さい！ あなたが特に有益だと思われたテキスト(文書)をお知らせ下さい。

・ この「Fresh Currents (新たな潮流)」のPDF

を我々のエネルギーの将来に関心を持つ教育関係者や環境関連団体や市民団体の方々、個人、ブログ、あるいは、ウェブサイトにご送付下さい。

この出版物が殖え広まりますように！

・ 私たちは、日本の出版社を捜しています。この件についてご提案、あるいは、ご助言を頂ければ幸いです。

・ 原子力、フクシマ、そして、再生可能エネルギー技術に関するフィルムの上映を京都で行いたいと思っています。お気に入りのお薦めフィルムがおありですか？

以下が連絡の窓口です。よろしくお願いいたします。

Heartwork Editor：Jennifer Teeter: teeter42@gmail.com

有難うございます！

Fresh Currentsチーム

フェイスブックでFresh CurrentsとKyoto Journalをご覧下さい。

ハイライトのいくつか：

「我々はどのようにして此処に至ったのか」から

・ マイクル・シュナイダーの提言：我々はどのようにしてフクシマに応える必要があるか

・ 日本における原子力の歴史**

・ 東北の魂**

・ 日本のメディアにおける原発レポート**

・ 認められなければならないもの**

*「これから」から***

・ *アイリーン・スミス、硬直した政治体制の矛盾を語る***

・ *あなた自身のエネルギーを増やそう***

・ *２０１２年の再生エネルギー状況報告***

・ *２０５０年における日本の再生エネルギー風景のビジョン***

・ *日本の固定価格買い取り制度に関するガイド***

・ *再生可能エネルギーと将来を展望するビジネスモデル***

・ *積極的に関与する仏教***

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/

7.29: Nuclear-Free activists completely surround the Diet Buiilding in Tokyo; turn police barricades into "ribbon of light"

(Photo: Asahi)

(Photo: Ajisai)

(Photo: Yoshiteru Hayashi)

(Filmmaker John Junkerman: It was wonderful to see it, how they turned the police barrier into a ribbon of light. Photo: Shin Inoue)

★7.29 Human Chain Action Against The Diet Building For A Nuclear Free World

Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes

Via Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes (anti-nuclear coalition organized by residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area):

Human Chain Action

Date: July 29, 2012 (Sun)

16:30 Departure: 15:30 Demo: Start Rally

19:00: Surrounding the National Assembly (Candlelight rally)

Meeting place: Hibiya Park Nakasaiwai gate