Is it safe for any of Fukushima's 160,000 nuclear refugees to return to home?

A Tamura resident used to harvest organic fruit from her orchard. 
Her house was decontaminated; her orchard was not. 
Authorities say it is ‘out of category’ – it does not fit  the categories  in the decontamination plan.
(Greenpeace: Fukushima's Returning Residents 2013)

Is it possible to decontaminate irradiated areas around the (still unstable) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and make them safely inhabitable again? 

In March 2011, a series of hydrogen explosions amid nuclear meltdowns (not acknowledged by the Japanese government until June 2011) at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant resulted in sudden evacuations of residents who lived  in communities around the plant.  

The first evacuation zones were simply concentrically drawn around the plant complex.  

March 11, March 12, and March 15, 2011 revised evacuation zones. (Image: Nature.com)

However when it was realized that radiation was not dispersing concentrically around the plant, but deviated because of winds, and gathering in hot spots (as far south as metropolitan Tokyo), the evacuation map was redrawn.  Iitate, a farming village 40 km northwest of the nuclear plant, showed  higher much higher radiation readings than some places adjacent to the plant.  The hot spots were created where snow, rain, and dust delivered radiation to the ground. 

Revised evacuation zone on April 11th, 2011. (Image: Wikipedia)

The evacuation zone, altered several times since 3/11, now includes eleven towns and extends up to 45 km (northwest) from the nuclear meltdowns. It is divided into three categories: a "no-return zone" (above 50 mSv of radiation dose per year); "no-residence zone" (above 20 mSv of radiation dose per year); and "zones being prepared for lift of evacuation order."

In the "no-residence zone," residents will be allowed to  enter the areas and return to their homes on a temporary basis, but they cannot stay overnight.  In "zones being prepared for lift of evacuation order," residents will be allowed to visit and to reopen stores or engage in farming.

In April 2012, the towns of Tamura, Kawauchi, and Minamisoma were reclassified. Tamura (10 miles west of the nuclear plant) was redesignated as being prepared for lift of evacuation order.  Kawauchi (15 miles west) was redesignated as two areas: a "No-residence zone" and a zone being prepared for lift of evacuation order.   And Minamisoma (16 miles north) was reclassified into three zones.

In July 2012, Iitate was also reclassified into three zones. Decontamination work was scheduled for houses, but not farmland.  Not surprisingly, since most of the former inhabitants were farmers,  Iitate remained a "ghost town" by December  2012.  Only a nursing home housed permanent residents (who had opted out of the April 2011 mass evacuation).

Despite the lifting of the evacuation order, running water, electricity, sewage systems and other infrastructure were not restored and hospitals and schools remain closed.  Proprietors of small businesses dependent on ruined local economies had lost their livelihoods. Except for decontamination projects, there is little employment available.  

In December 2012, Minamisoma  remained partly deserted.  Of the 70,000 residents (outside the exclusion zone) who voluntarily evacuated; one third have not returned.  Many in Minamisoma who did not voluntarily evacuate told filmmaker Ian Thomas Ash (In the Grey Zone, A2-B-C) that they could not afford to leave without economic assistance.

 In July 2013, authorities announced the preparation of resumption of utilities in Tamura, to ready for the return of residents. 

Greenpeace has questioned the feasibility of safe return, citing radiation monitoring that reveals inconsistent decontamination in Tamura: 

A recent Greenpeace survey found that decontamination programs have been effective for houses and many parts of major routes in the city.

But some lesser-used public roads, large areas of farmland and mountain areas still have high contamination levels, said Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace radiation protection adviser.

He said the cleaned houses and roads were like “islands” and “corridors” in an otherwise polluted region.

It would be “unrealistic” to ask residents to stay off contaminated roads and farmland, he said.

“They can be exposed to high levels of radiation” if they returned home, he said...

“It requires enormous dedication to reduce radiation levels on roads, on houses and farmland,” he said.

But Vande Putte added that radiation levels around houses have been “significantly lowered” after decontamination work.

Residents should be given adequate information before deciding whether to return to their homes, he said, and government financial assistance should continue regardless of their decision on going back.

Contaminated soil in temporary storage (plastic bags) in Tamura; long-term storage hasn’t been worked out. 
17,800 tons of contaminated soil and leaves remain in plastic bags piled along streets and in fields.

(Greenpeace: "Photo essay: Tamura, Japan the terrible dilemma for residents")

Authorities also plan to reopen Katsurao, Namie, Kawamata, Tomioka, and the no-go parts of Iiate,  although the evacuation order will continue through 2016 and 2017.  Most of the 83,000 nuclear refugees from these highly irradiated towns within the 20-km exclusion zone now doubt they will ever be able or want to return.

David McNeill and Miguel Quintana explore issues related to the ambitious decontamination and repopulation plan  in "Mission Impossible. What Future Fukushima?"  (ミッション・インポッシブル　福島に未来は ) published at The Asia-Pacific Journal.

At the top of concerns: uncertainty; contradictory monitoring reports; conflicts regarding what constitutes "safe" radiation limits; and how to deal with massive collections of irradiated soil and debris:

Nobody knows for certain how dangerous the radiation is.

Radiation levels in most areas of Fukushima have dropped by around 40 percent since the disaster began, according to central government estimates, but those figures are widely disbelieved. Official monitoring posts almost invariably give lower readings than hand-held Geiger counters, the result of a deliberate strategy of misinformation, say critics.

The disagreement over real radiation levels is far from academic. Local municipalities are desperate for evacuees to return and must decide on what basis, in terms of exposure to radiation, evacuation orders will be lifted. If they unilaterally declare their areas safe, evacuees could be forced to choose between returning home and losing vital monthly compensation from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), operator of the ruined Daiichi complex.

For the refugees, a worrying precedent has already been set in the municipality of Date, which lies outside the most contaminated areas. In December 2012, the local government lifted a “special evacuation” order imposed on 129 households because of a hotspot, arguing that radiation doses had fallen below 20 millisieverts per year (20 mSv/yr). Three months later the residents lost the $1000 a month they were receiving from Tepco for “psychological stress.”

...The Fukushima cleanup, however, faces another, perhaps insurmountable challenge: securing sites to store contaminated soil, leaves and sludge. Many landowners balk at hosting “interim” dumps – in principle for three years – until the central government builds a mid-term storage facility. Local governments throughout Japan have refused to accept the toxic waste, meaning it will probably stay in Fukushima for good. The waste is stored under blue tarpaulins across much of the prefecture, sometimes close to schools and homes.

This irradiated soil and leaf storage site is in Naraha. 

 (Photo: Issei Kato/Reuters via WSJ)

Alone in the Zone: Naoto Matsumura, caretaker of hundreds of animals in evacuated Tomioka, Fukushima

Alone in the Zone (原発20キロ圏内に生きる男)
via filmmakers Jeffrey Jousan and Ivan Kovac for VICE Japan 

Naoto Matsumura and his elder parents lived on a rice farm in Tomioka, a coastal town in Fukushima prefecture, known for having one of the longest cherry blossom tunnels in Japan.

After hearing the hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, eight miles away from their home, the Matsumuras  attempted to evacuate. However, they were turned away from a relative in Iwaki, a coastal town in southern Fukushima prefecture.  She feared they had been radioactively contaminated.  Afterwards, they were turned away from a shelter because it was full.

So they returned to their home, where his parents stayed until his mother became ill in April 2011. She then moved  to her daughter's home in Shizuoka where there was no room for the Matsumura's animals.  Therefore, Naoto Matsumura decided to stay—to take care of them.

He told filmmakers Jeffrey Jousan and Ivan Kovac that he gradually took on the task of caring for cattle, pigs, cats, dogs, and an ostrich (the sole survivor of a flock of 30 birds) throughout Tomioka, all left behind by owners who were initially told the evacuation would be temporary and short-term: 

Our dogs didn’t get fed for the first few days. When I did eventually feed them, the neighbors’ dogs started going crazy. I went over to check on them and found that they were all still tied up.

Everyone in town left thinking they would be back home in a week or so, I guess. From then on, I fed all the cats and dogs every day. They couldn’t stand the wait, so they’d all gather around barking up a storm as soon as they heard my truck. Everywhere I went there was always barking. Like, ‘we’re thirsty’ or, ‘we don’t have any food.’ So I just kept making the rounds.

Over a thousand cattle and hundreds of thousands of caged chickens died from starvation in Tomioka. Then on May 12, 2011, the Kan administration ordered the euthanasia of surviving cattle. But a bright spot for animal survivors was that Japanese authorities have allowed Matsumura to remain to care for animals since the return of the town's other 15,000 residents is unlikely.

(Left) A dog that survived trapped inside a cattle barn for a year and a half after 3/11 by eating the dead flesh of the starved cattle was rescued by Matsumura in the summer of 2012.  Naoto named the dog Kiseki (“Miracle”) because his hair eventually grew back. (Right) Kiseki, approximately two months after being rescued.

(Photo: Jeffrey Jousan and Ivan Kovac, VICE Japan )

Matsumura now spends six to seven hours a day feeding animals with supplies donated by support groups, before going to bed at around 7 p.m. He uses a solar panel to power his computer and cell phone and a kerosene heater and charcoal heated kosatsu (quilt-covered table) to keep warm during cold months. 

In the film, he describes Tomioka's idyllic past: 

Tomioka may be a small town, but it’s rich in nature. You’ve got the rivers, the ocean, and the mountains nearby. You can swim in the ocean, fish in the rivers, and go pick wild vegetables in the mountains. Except now we can't do any of that.

Filmmakers Jeffrey Jousan and Ivan Kovac share their motivation for making this film:

This is more than just the story of one man standing up to the government. Naoto Matsumura makes up the best inside each of us. We send him our emotional support and want the world to remember the sacrifice he is making for the animals and for his beliefs. In an age of social media, one man's story can easily be lost.

It is our goal that this doesn't happen to Naoto Matsumura. We hope you will feel the same way and join us to in showing our appreciation to this unique and courageous man. Naoto-San deserves much more than his 15 minutes of fame.

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Background on Naoto Matsumura

警戒区域に生きる ～松村直登の闘い～　(Living in the Evacuation Zone ~ Naoto Matsumura's Struggle ~)  (Website of Naoto Matsumura's NPO)

Naoto Matsumura, Guardian of Fukushima's Animals  (Facebook page dedicated to Naoto Matsumura)

"The Most Radioactive Man on Earth Has the Kindest Heart (Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, March 12, 2013)

"Lone farmer in no-go zone sticks to defiant existence" (Kyodo via JT, April 6, 2012) 

"Living Alone in the Fukushima Evacuation Zone"  (Tomo Kosuga, Vice, March, 2012) 

"Japan tsunami anniversary: The man and his menagerie left behind in Fukushima" (The Telegraph, Julian Ryall, March 4, 2012) 

"Naoto Matsumura, Japanese Rice Farmer, Refuses To Leave Fukushima Nuclear Zone: (Eric Talmadge, AP via HuffPost, Aug. 31, 2011) 

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Updates on Animals in Fukushima:

Animal Friends Niigata on FB

More Background on Animals in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone:

"Keigo Sakamoto cares for 500 animals inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone" (TTT post, Oct. 8, 2013) 

"PROMETHEUS TRAP/ The disaster and animals: Woman repeatedly rescued pets in the Fukushima off-limits zone" (Article 8 of an investigative series by Misuzu Tsukue, Asahi, May 8, 2013)

"The Lost Pets of Fukushima: Photos" (Discovery.com, Dec. 12, 2012)

"Fukushima pets in no-go zone face harsh winter" (photo slide show of animal rescue, featuring United Kennel Club Japan (UKC Japan)) (Reuters, Jan. 31, 2012)

"Activist Hiroshi Hoshi defies fallout to pluck animals from Fukushima dead zone" (Rick Wallace, The Australian, June 27, 2011)

"Thousands of Animals Left to Die Around Fukushima" (Discovery.com, June 9, 2011)

"Welfare groups race to rescue Japan's abandoned animals" (Mark Tutton, CNN, March 17, 2011)

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Towns evacuated around Fukushima on April 11th, 2011. (Image: Wikipedia)

Keigo Sakamoto cares for 500 animals inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone

In September 2013, Keigo Sakamoto,  holds his dog, Atom. A farmer in Naraha, a town of previously 8,000 in Futaba district, Sakomoto refused to leave his home inside the exclusion zone.  He remained to care for  500 animals that owners were forced to leave behind when ordered to evacuate their homes and farms.  

(Photo: Damir Sakoji/Reuters)

On March 11, 2011, the Japanese government began what was believed to be a temporary evacuation of residents who lived in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.  On March 12, and again, on March 15, the evacuation was expanded in size after several hydrogen explosions at the plant's reactors.  The evacuation zone, altered several times since 3/12, now includes eleven towns and extends up to 45 km from the nuclear meltdowns.

Hundreds of thousands of these evacuees were forced to leave behind many thousands of animals.

Initially the severity of the nuclear disaster was downplayed, leading residents to believe that their evacuation would be short-term and temporary. Thinking they could come back and get them soon afterwards, many evacuees left pets and farm animals with enough food and water for a few days.

Others did not want to leave beloved pets behind, even for a few days, and tried to bring their pets with them, but temporary shelters in Fukushima prefecture did not provide for pets until a "Pet Village" was open three months later,  in June, 2011. Faced without any other options, many refugees kept their pets inside their cars parked outside of temporary shelters; some even chose to stay inside their cars with their pets. (Niigata Prefecture, which accepted 10,000 nuclear refugees, had established a system to care for pets from the start.)

Animals left behind included dogs tied in backyards, cats in locked homes, and farm animals confined in barns and pens, without the opportunity to escape to forage for food and water.

Animal welfare groups scrambling  to feed and save animals throughout Tohoku's earthquake and tsunami-hit area also tended to and rescued animals within the overlapping nuclear exclusion zone for the first few weeks of the evacuation. However, their animal rescues were impeded when Tokyo enacted a strict “Do Not Enter” policy on April 22, 2011.

Animal Friends Niigata, HEART Tokushima, the Japan Cat Network (based in Shiga Prefecture, near Kyoto), and Animal Rescue Kansai (ArkBark) were some of the animal welfare groups that joined to form Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS) to support shelters caring for animals  affected by both the natural and nuclear disasters.(JEARS suspended its Facebook page in February of this year, directing animal supporters to member groups that are still actively caring for Fukushima rescue animals.)

Yoko Mieko, who lost four of her twelve cats during the disaster started a campaign for the rescue and care of animals left behind.  She regularly went into the exclusion zone to feed and rescue animals. On June 30, 2011, the cram school teacher issued a video plea, "Cry from Fukushima: Help animals around the nuclear plant" on YouTube.

Some individuals and animal welfare groups sneaked into the zone to attempt to feed and save animals. 1,500 dogs and cats were rescued the first six months.

Nine months later, when the severity of the nuclear meltdowns became undeniable, and  the public realized that the temporary evacuation order would not be lifted  as they were initially led to believe, the Japanese government gave into pleas from rescue groups asking that they be allowed to save any surviving animals from freezing to death during the winter. 16 humane groups were permitted to enter the zone from Dec. 7 to Dec. 27, 2011 where they were able to rescue some animals among the thousands they found starving, ill, and dead.

The United Kennel Club Japan (UKC Japan), was one of the groups that helped in this highly publicized rescue of hundreds of animals. UKC Japan is now caring for many of these animals at its shelter in Tokyo.

After some disturbing film footage of the rescue was aired on television, the Japanese government decided to refuse animal rescuers further entry into the zone, going so far as arresting Hiroshi and Leo Hoshi on Jan. 28, 2012, for not heeding the no-entry order.  The Hoshi family, at their own expense, had rescued over 200 animals.  The Hachiko Animal Federation is sponsoring a petition asking for their release, with the plea to Chief Prosecutor Toru Sakai, that such a release on humanitarian grounds would be just in that there was no criminal intent; the Hoshis were simply unable to witness suffering animals and do nothing.

The compassionate and heroic work of Keigo Sakamoto (and that of others who also stayed to care for animals left behind; residents who regularly visit their former homes to care for animals; Japanese and international animal welfare groups; and countless individuals in Japan and around the world supporting the humane treatment of natural and nuclear disaster animal victims) are some of the jagged silver lining stories of post-3/11 Japan.

On June 8, 2011, Keigo Sakamoto holds two of his dogs in the front yard of his house. Sakamoto lost his livelihood as an egg farmer, but was allowed to remain in the exclusion zone to care for animals.  

(Photo: AP Photographer David Guttenfelder on assignment for National Geographic Magazine)

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Updates:

Animal Friends Niigata on FB

Some Background: 

"Alone in the Zone: Naoto Matsumura, caretaker of hundreds of animals in evacuated Tomioka, Fukushima" (TTT, Oct. 10, 2013)

"PROMETHEUS TRAP/ The disaster and animals: Woman repeatedly rescued pets in the Fukushima off-limits zone" (Article 8 of an investigative series by Misuzu Tsukue, Asahi, May 8, 2013)

"PROMETHEUS TRAP/ The disaster and animals: Pets forgotten in the mass evacuation" (Article 3 of an investigative series by Misuzu Tsukue, Asahi, April 26, 2013)

"The Lost Pets of Fukushima: Photos" (Discovery.com, Dec. 12, 2012)

"Yasusuke Ota: The Abandoned Animals of Fukushima"
(Aesthetica Magazine, Oct. 3, 2012)

"Fukushima's rebel farmers refuse to abandon livestock: Small band of renegades make regular trips to nuclear evacuation zone to feed cattle, in defiance of government orders" (Justin McCurry, The Guardian, Feb. 28, 2012)

"Fukushima pets in no-go zone face harsh winter" (photo slide show of animal rescue, featuring United Kennel Club Japan (UKC Japan) ) (Reuters, Jan. 31, 2012)

"Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die" (Kyung Lah, CNN, Jan. 26, 2012)

"Activist Hiroshi Hoshi defies fallout to pluck animals from Fukushima dead zone" (Rick Wallace, The Australian, June 27, 2011)

"Thousands of Animals Left to Die Around Fukushima" (Discovery.com, June 9, 2011)

"Welfare groups race to rescue Japan's abandoned animals" (Mark Tutton, CNN, March 17, 2011)

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Towns evacuated around Fukushima on April 11th, 2011. (Image: Wikipedia)

-JD

Damir Sagoji: "Broken Lives of Fukushima" • Japan's nuclear refugees "in limbo"

Mieko Okubo poses with a portrait of her father-in-law Fumio Okubo in the room where he committed suicide. His old jacket hangs on the wall. Fumio, a 102-year-old farmer, hanged himself in the house where he had lived for all of his life after authorities ordered the town of Iitate be evacuated following the nuclear disaster at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant. 

Mieko, who lives outside the exclusion zone, comes back every other day to feed Fumio's dog and clean the house. She says he committed suicide because he could not stand the idea of ending his life anywhere else.  

(Text and Photo: Damir Sagoji)

See all of Sagoji's powerful documentary photographs of some of Japan's largely forgotten 160,000 nuclear refugees (from the 30-km+ exclusion zone) here (NBC News online).

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NYT's Martin Fackler's report on 83,000 nuclear refugees (from the 20-km exclusion zone)  around Fukushima Daiichi , takes the reader through the evacuated town of Namie. The Japanese government says these towns will be decontaminated enough by 2017 to allow the return of former residents, but many are skeptical:

Two and a half years after the plant belched plumes of radioactive materials over northeast Japan, the almost 83,000 nuclear refugees evacuated from the worst-hit areas are still unable to go home. Some have moved on, reluctantly, but tens of thousands remain in a legal and emotional limbo while the government holds out hope that they can one day return.

As they wait, many are growing bitter. Most have supported the official goal of decontaminating the towns so that people can return to homes that some families inhabited for generations. Now they suspect the government knows that the unprecedented cleanup will take years, if not decades longer than promised, as a growing chorus of independent experts have warned, but will not admit it for fear of dooming plans to restart Japan’s other nuclear plants.

That has left the people of Namie and many of the 10 other evacuated towns with few good choices. They can continue to live in cramped temporary housing and collect relatively meager monthly compensation from the government. Or they can try to build a new life elsewhere, a near impossibility for many unless the government admits defeat and fully compensates them for their lost homes and livelihoods.

“The national government orders us to go back, but then orders us to just wait and wait,” said Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of this town of 20,000 people that was hastily evacuated when explosions began to rock the plant. “The bureaucrats want to avoid taking responsibility for everything that has happened, and we commoners pay the price.”

Fukushima evacuation zone in April 2011.

 83,000 nuclear refugees were evacuated from the 20-km exclusion zone.

At present, the entire nuclear refugee population is over 160,000.

 (Image: Wikipedia)

The Targeted Village depicts human consequences of weapons testing and war training in Okinawa - Yamagata Int. Documentary Film Festival Oct. 12 & 15, 2013

Mikami Chie's The Targeted Village will be showing at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival on Oct. 12 and Oct. 15, 2013.

The film follows Okinawan opposition to the construction of U.S. military V-22 Osprey low-level flight training helipads near the eco-village of Takae, located in a well-preserved area of Yanbaru, a subtropical rainforest in the northern part of the main island.

The US military appropriated land in Yanbaru during the 1950's "Bayonets and Bulldozers" period of base expansion throughout Okinawa, when US readied Okinawa for Vietnam War training and support.  The biodiverse subtropical rainforest, now a World Heritage Site candidate, was (and is) used  by US Marines for "jungle training." Locals were made to dress like Vietnamese people, for war games.

Residents have been protesting V-22 Osprey helipad construction since the plans were announced in 2006.  WWF Japan details unique and endangered wildlife, plant life and a gentle way of life under threat.

Subtropical natural forest and mountain stream remain, and the area provides habitats for over 4,000 species of wildlife. 11 animals and 12 plants are peculiar to the Yanbaru area. A large number of Threatened Species are listed in the Red List, 188 species in Okinawan Red List, and 177 in the Red List of Environment Ministry...

Takae has as many as 157 inhabitants, of them 14 people are elementary and junior high schoolers and 11 people are preschooler. They live freely and vivaciously in the environment of great biodiversity. Takae is seemingly moderate, yet there is a U.S. military base just like everywhere in Okinawa. In our daily life, helicopters crisscross overhead of our settlement, right next to the schoolhouse in the middle of class, morning, noon, and night with a loud noise.

Ryukyu Shimpo's "Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting makes documentary film The Target Village" reveals the director's motivation:

People in the audience who came to know the issue of Takae, which has received little attention from the Japanese major news media, gave their thoughts. One said, “I didn’t know that the role of media had stopped to the extent that it has.” Mikami said, “If people see the children of Takae in tears in the film, they will no longer say that they want to uphold Japan-U.S. Security Arrangements if that is the result.” She continued, “People will change their minds for sure when they come to know what is going on at Takae.”

...Mikami said, “Through this film, I would like people to think about who it is who makes the children of Takae cry.”

Protest Tent in Takae

The film also spotlights last year's historic all-prefectural opposition to US Marines' forced deployment of the accident-prone Osprey aircraft to Futenma, a base in the middle of Ginowan City, Okinawa for low-level testing and flight training.

In late September, Okinawans blocked two gates at the Futenma (a weapons testing and war training base) during their third day of mass protests over Osprey training in Okinawa.  (The land on which Futenma was constructed was also forcibly appropriated by the US military in the postwar period. The owners of homes, stores, schools, and rice fields which made up several small farming villages were forced off their property at gunpoint; bulldozers were sent in in the middle of the night to raze homes and other private property.)

Between 1954 and 1955, US military forced owners from homes and rice farms
 in the former village of Isahama, to make way for the construction of  Futenma, 
a training base and launchpad for the US war in Vietnam. 

(Photo: Okinawan Prefectural Government)

Okinawan women protest US military forced seizure of their homes and land in July 1955.

(Background: "Land requisition by bayonet and bulldozer";
photo:  Okinawa Prefectural Government)

In September 2012, long-time peace and democracy activist  Mrs. Etsumi Taira,
was forcibly removed from the sit-in site. Mrs. Taira is the wife of Reverend Osamu Taira.

(Photo: Tomoyuki Toyozato)

In "Okinawan Protests Explode", published at  The Asia-Pacific Journal, author chinin usii, explains:

Okinawans oppose the MV-22 Osprey, not just because they are dangerous. We are also expressing our anger against the denial of our lives, our dignity, and our democracy, throughout history, and we are also voicing our determination so that such treatment of our people will not be repeated. If we allow this, we will be allowing such injustice to be inflicted on our children and grandchildren, and people in other regions of the world.

Late September 2012 sit-in protest against forced US military low-level 
testing and training of  accident-prone V-22 Osprey aircraft at Futenma, 
built on seized Okinawan property, for training and as a launchpad for the US war in Vietnam.
(Photo: Rev. Natsume Taira) 

And Gavan McCormack elaborates:

In Eastern Europe back in '89 there was a point of no return. It was passed. Hollowed out, the system soon collapsed, but nobody realized till Berliners actually took to the wall. The live links from Futenma are all but unbearable to watch. But it is our history. It is the lone protester in Tiananmen for our times. The citizens of a core region of the democratic world are rising and the world does not want to know.

Global Article 9 Conference in Osaka - October 14, 2013

Via Global Article 9: 

Invitation to the Global Article 9 Conference in Kansai 2013

Article 9 of Japan's Constitution states that Japan renounces both war and military capability.  This article has unique value in today's global society.

Across the world, more and more countries are adopting pacifist constitutions that not only prohibit war in favor of peaceful resolution of conflicts, but also ban weapons of mass destruction – including nuclear weapons. Having experienced the horrors of World War II, Japan's adoption of Article 9 is one of the earliest manifestations of such a legal norm. The preamble to the Japanese Constitution guarantees the right to live in peace, an important concept that overlaps with the notion of the 'Human Right to Peace' which is currently being debated by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In spite of this, the Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his Liberal Democratic administration are maneuvering to distort the pacifist constitution by revising Article 9. This coincides with dangerous moves to justify Japan's former invasion and colonization of countries across the Asia Pacific region. In the face of these threats, many peace-loving Japanese citizens have joined together to oppose this constitutional revision, and are working to spread the value of Article 9 around the world. While there may be some Japanese politicians who have appalled the world with statements that approve of war-time slavery, the Japanese people do not approve of these statements. The movement to protect human rights and peace is spreading across Japan, and has forged links with youth activists, and others campaigning for nuclear weapons abolition, to end end nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, and to protect employment, education and living standards.

After the great success of the “Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War” of May 2008, which attracted 30,000 participants, the 'Global Article 9 Conference in Kansai 2013' will be held in Osaka in October 2013. We ask you to consider attending, and further cooperation not only in preventing constitutional revision but also in together spreading Article 9's message of peace around the world.

Co-Initiators of the 'Global Article 9 Conference in Kansai 2013

Ikeda Kayoko (Translator)
Niikura Osamu (Secretary General of International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Lecturer at Aoyama Gakuin University)
Yoshioka Tatsuya (Peace Boat Co-Founder and Director)
Kido Eiichi (Osaka School of International Public Policy)            
Matsuura Goro (Catholic Bishop)

Continued Witness for Peace in Jeju Island, South Korea

Around 500 people participate in a Catholic Solidarity for Peace in Jeju Island protest at the entrance to the construction site for the naval base in Gangjeong Village, Jeju Island in Seogwipo opposing the construction of the naval base, Sept. 30.  As of Oct. 10, Catholic Solidarity for Peace in Jeju Island will have held mass every day there, and announced that they will continue the daily masses as long as the construction continues.

 (Photo by Kim Tae-hyeong, staff photographer, The Hankyoreh)

Police officers carry nuns from Catholic Solidarity for Peace in Jeju Island away from a mass being held in front of the main gate to the Gangjeong Village naval base construction site in Seogwipo, Oct. 1. 

A police force staffed by young women was mobilized to move the nuns. 

(by Kim Tae-hyeong, staff photographer, The Hankyoreh)

Via Save Jeju Island

Temporary Housing Limbo & Grassroots Rebuilding in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

On 3/11, tidal waves swept over 46% of Ishinomaki, killing more than 3,000  and destroying 20,000 homes. 400 people remain missing. The small coastal town of 164,000 (now 150,000), the second largest city in MIyagi prefecture, was one of the hardest hit two and a half years ago.

Many survivors are unemployed and homeless.   29,000 disaster survivors still live in temporary housing and rentals around Ishinomaki. About 80 households are still waiting for temporary housing units to become available.

"Elderly residents huddle against the cold on benches outside their temporary housing estate in Ishinomaki,
 the Tohoku region of Japan, in March 2012. They're among hundreds of thousands of people waiting for 
the government to build them new homes more than one year after the earthquake and tsunami."
 (Text and Photo: Alex Zolbert, CNN, Dec. 14, 2012)

Temporary housing in Ishinomaki in September, 2013. 

(Photo: Ted Chion Jun, Asia Report)

16,000 Ishinomaki residents are in their third year of living in cramped temporary housing. Permanent housing is still in the planning stage and mired in understandable controversy: the city wants to appropriate land for public housing from survivors without compensation for loss.  

In January of this year, Tokyo extended the number of years disaster victims could stay in temporary housing from three to four years. Under Japan's disaster relief law, residents are allowed to stay in emergency housing for only two years. 

Many locals think that the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima has diverted the Japanese government's attention from supporting the recovery of survivors in Tohoku.

Ishinomaki used to house Japan's third largest fishing port; the battered industry will never recover completely; and is now under threat from repeated intentional radiation leaks from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.

As with the rest of Miyagi, Ishinomaki lacks adequate medical services:

“Some people have stopped going to hospitals,” an Ishinomaki official said.

The city’s health consultation services have been concentrated mainly on preventive steps for evacuees living in temporary housing.

However, progress has been made in clearing disaster debris , as Ishinomaki Photo Blog's two-year comparison of landscape photos reflect:

1-Chome Center. 

 (Photos: Ishinomaki Photo Blog 

And, at the grassroots, locals and volunteers are moving towards reconstruction, albeit at a creeping pace.

Residents who can afford to, have rebuilt on the sites of their former homes, without government assistance; resulting in a boom for small construction companies.

The Ishinomori Manga Museum, which is dedicated to  manga creator Shotaro Ishinomori, has reopened. The museum was originally opened in 2001 to celebrate Ishinomori whose career spanned from 1954 until his death in 1998. Although the building was damaged by the earthquake, the museum’s collection of 90,000 pages survived,, and are now on display

Young small business owners who lost their businesses have created Ishinomaki 2.0 (post-3/11 junior chamber of commerce) lost their businesses together to consider the future of the town. At a space called "The Revival Bar," these entrepreneurs bring together resources, ideas and people from across Japan seeking to regenerate Ishinomaki's shopping district, much of which was closed because of economic malaise even before 3/11.

According to a National Police Agency  Sept. 10, 2013 report, 15,883 people in 12 prefectures died in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and aftershocks;  2,654 people still missing in six prefectures; and 6,146 people were injured in 20 prefectures.

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.

"Nearly 290,000 people still living in shelters two and a half years after the Tohoku disaster" (Rocket News, Sept. 16, 2013)

"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)

"Tsunami victims still waiting for new homes" (Asia Report, 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" (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.

"Japan election a world away from tsunami-hit town" (Alex Zolbert, CNN, Dec. 14, 2012)

It's been nine months since I took the photos, but as the temperature drops below zero at the start of another Japanese winter, one image stubbornly dwells on my mind.

It's not of the tsunami-inflicted destruction -- the flattened homes, mangled cars or piles of debris -- in Ishinomaki, one of the worst-hit areas in the Tohoku region, in the country's north.

Instead, it is an image of retirees huddled on small benches outside their temporary homes...

Sixty-seven-year-old Katsuji Ogata lost his wife in the tsunami. He used to run a small restaurant in Ishinomaki. Now it's a simple food truck.

He is even more outspoken, saying "the government hasn't done a thing for us. They've only cleared the debris."

"City slowly returns to life ten months after disaster" (Kimberly Hughes, TTT, Jan. 21, 2012)

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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)

First Slow Food International event opens in Asia; Can local, organic farming & food production be revived in South Korea? (90% of its food is imported; mostly from China & the US)

Via Slow Food International:

Just an hour outside of the chaos and pollution of Seoul, the city of Namyangju lies in an area known for its clean water, magnificent natural scenery and the health and longevity of its residents. It is here - where the long history of traditional handicrafts is still practiced by locals and an organic farming movement is growing rapidly - that small-scale producers from across Asia and Oceania have been arriving for AsiO Gusto,  what will be Slow Food’s first international event on the continent.

Asia is a continent where the issues that Slow Food is working on are highly evident: industrialization, monocultures, nutrition security…” said Paolo Di Croce, Secretary General of Slow Food. “South Korea imports 40% of its national dish, kimchi. It’s crazy that even a country with such strong traditions is still following the rules of the global market. Slow Food is less developed here compared to other parts of the world so AsiO Gusto is a great opportunity to bring together these delegates to share knowledge, build friendships and develop an understanding that farmers are facing the same problems everywhere.

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Reading that South Korea imports more than 40% of its national dish, kimchee, was startling.  Where is most of South Korea's kimchee being made? China.

South Korea imports 90% of its food, much of it from China and the U.S. 

Seoul, the world’s second largest metropolitan area, is dominated by chain stores and franchises.  Seoul's restaurants serve kimchi made in China, vegetables from Australia,  fruit from Pakistan and the US, fish from Norway, rice from China and Thailand, and industrially farmed meat from the US.

Small-scale farmers and food processors are still a huge part of traditional Korean culture and an important part of food production.  The average farm is still between 2 and 5 acres and most food producers are family-run.

However local family farmers and food producers are under threat of "free trade" pacts (including with China) that have threatened their survival.  South Korean food self-sufficiency has dropped to the lowest level in history.  Farmland has dropped to the lowest level since 1970  because Seoul has incorporated vast amounts of farmland into commercial and industrial development projects and recreational “green spaces” for weekend urbanite tourists.  Namyangju, the "organic city," is one of South Korea's green travel destinations.

The Korean organic, slow, family farmer and food producer movement centers on food and cultural sovereignty and the survival of centuries-old food traditions. In parallel with the global movement, the movement is ultimately about democracy, environmental sustainability, simplicity, as well as safe and healthy food production.

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Background:

" Cooperative Small-Scale Farming Movements Make Strides Around the World"
(Food Tank, April 3, 2013)

The Korean Women Peasants Association (KWPA), a organization of women farmers in South Korea, gained recognition recently when it won the Food Sovereignty Prize in 2012 for its work to promote food sovereignty, defend small-scale Korean farmers, and end violence against women. KWPA created the Sister Gardens initiative, which supports local food production by linking women farmers directly with local consumers. KWPA also began the Native Seed Campaign to safeguard biodiversity within agroecosystems and preserve native seeds.

"Korean Food, Land and Democracy: A Conversation with Anders Riel Müller* (Christine Ahn, March 19, 2013, Korea Policy Institute)

South Korea has been experiencing declining food self sufficiency for the past 20 years, and it has worsened over the past 5-6 years largely due to the new Free Trade Agreements with the United States and European Union. South Korea is also now in negotiations with Australia. These large agricultural exporting nations view South Korea as a major market for their agricultural products.

Korean agriculture is in crisis. First of all 40 percent of the agricultural population is over 60 years old, and average farm household debt has been exceeding annual total income since 2003. They carry a very heavy debt load. And the South Korean government is very limited in terms of what it can do to help farmers because of the restrictions placed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). For example, because South Korea is a party to the WTO, it means that virtually all of the old support programs that once protected farmers have been dismantled. The government is trying new ways to support farmers by helping them convert to organic and by emphasizing the aesthetic value of the rural countryside.

The agricultural sector is in decline. The amount of farmland in use is in decline, as is the land ownership among farmers. More farmers are now farming on rented land—in fact, 50% are now leasing land. Development policy has also changed so that more agricultural land has been opened up for urban and industrial development.

"South Korea's Food Security Alarm" (John Berthelsen, Asia  Sentinel, April 29, 2011)

...South Korea...imports more than 90 percent of its food from overseas, including almost all of its wheat and corn.

The government recently bought more than 325,999 hectares in Mongolia as part of its effort to develop an overseas food base to procure more food resources. That is after the Daewoo chaebol was stymied in its effort in 2008 to lease 1.3 million hectares of Madagascar – almost half the country's arable land -- for 99 years....As many as 60 South Korean companies are involved in farming in 16 countries, harvesting some 87,000 metric tons of grain from 24,000 hectares of farmland, according to Anders Riel Muller, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy, USA...

... Samsung Economic Research Institute... issued a 16-page report on food security. The report, titled New Food Strategies in the Age of Global Food Crises...advocates that "it is necessary to secure foreign bases for food production through overseas agricultural development," providing comprehensive support for domestic firms striving to build food production bases abroad," and pay for it through overseas agricultural development funds. Among other things, the report advocates that the government draw up a roadmap for agricultural cooperation to develop food resources in the starvation-ridden North Korea "through inter-Korean agricultural cooperation is useful in the context of building South Korea's overseas food base, while at the same time preparing for surging food demand upon unification."

Food stability in South Korea has experienced a continuous decline, caused by rapidly increased grain price volatility and intensified import source concentration as the western countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, devote more and more of their corn production to biofuels. It is estimated that 35 percent of corn production is now going into biofuels. In addition, the report says, "food safety fell to its lowest level in 2008...

The report notes with something akin to alarm that the international grain market "is subject to an oligopoly of the four major global grain conglomerates: Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, LDC, and Bunge," which have the power not only to perform grain trading functions but to "affect government policy with respect to international trade and agricultural markets using their massive capabilities to obtain information worldwide. South Korea imports 80 percent of its gran through the four. The four giants, the report continues, "exercise tremendous leverage over the worldwide food industry. Business for grain majors has expanded beyond traditional trading of crops to seeds, fertilizers, food and food processing, finance, and bio-energy production. At times, the four grain majors have encroached on consumer welfare by exerting their influence on agricultural producers, or by creating an oligopoly regime."

As food imports have increased, so has anxiety over agricultural product safety, the report notes, with "spiraling increases in the share of GMO food imports, which have risen from about 30 percent to over 50 percent in 2008, "posing a greater threat to food safety."

...South Korea's big problem, according to Anders Muller, is partly to history, in which Japanese colonizers'only interest was to convert Korea in to a supplier of food and other products to fuel their imperial ambitions. In doing so, the Japanese administrators allied themselves with the ruling landlord elite. By the 1920s, the majority of peasants in Korea had been reduced to tenant farmers delivering up to 50 percent of their harvests in taxes."

South Korea, Muller writes, "has historically shown little interest in its agricultural sector throughout the post Korean War period. The rural population and agriculture was primarily regarded as a source of cheap food and cheap labor for the country's dizzying industrial development." Agricultural investment dried up as successive dictators like Park Hung Hee neglected the countryside for industrialization...

"South Korean Food Imports At 80-90%" (Martin Frid, Kurashi, Oct. 6, 2011)

I was rather shocked to learn that South Korea imports almost all its food from China and the United States. Nearly 90% is imported, according to Asian Sentinel - and that includes almost all its wheat and corn, quoting a Samsung report from SERI World. Some 16 countries supply the country with other food items...

NHK: "Ainu Find Their Voice"

Via Jen Teeter and Aotearoa Ainumosir Exchange Programme アオテアロア・アイヌモシリ交流プログラム:

NHK World (日本語は以下）has put together a story about our Ainu revitalization initiatives and Erana Brewerton's visit to Japan. With the main focus of the story being scenes in Nibutani of applying the Te Ataarangi method for Maori language revitalization to the Ainu language, there are also interviews of Maki Sekine and Erana. Through this five minute story, we hope that many people will come to realize just how hard and persistently we are working at the grassroots level for Ainu language revitalization.

You can also catch glimpses of these people and more!

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/newsline/201309261624.html

私たちのアイヌ語復興の取組みがエラナさんの来日とともに、NHK 国際のニュースで取り上げられました。マオリ語復興のテ・アタアランギ教授法をアイヌ語に応用している北海道、二風谷でのシーンを中心に、エラナさんや関根真紀さんなどのインタビューを紹介してくれています。５分間のニュースですが、地道な取組みが、たくさんの方の理解につながることを祈っています