Organic tea farmer Ayumi Kinezuka on protecting Japan's rich family farm culture, food safety, and the need for reconnection—with each other, with land and nature...

In this 5-min. video (via Reciprocity/Food Sovereignty Japan) 
Ayumi Kinezuka talks about her family farming cooperative; community-supported farming;  how her father embraced organic farming after reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring,
 and Nouminren, the farmers' union.

Ayumi Kinezuka, after getting degrees in psychology and sociology at the University of California (Berkeley). returned home 10 years ago, to help carry on her family's organic tea farm near Fujieda, Shizuoka.

Her father, Toshiaki Kinezuka, is one of the pioneers of the global organic farming movement:  Thirty-seven years ago, he shifted his 2 hectare (5-acre) tea and orange farm to organic and founded a group with several tea growers that became Hito to No, Shizen wo Tsunagu Kai (Connecting People, Agriculture, and Nature). Their organic green and black teas are popular worldwide among tea enthusiasts.

In 2011, after they were hit (as was most of Japan) with fallout from the Fukushima meltdowns, the Kinezukas decided, at great financial loss, to destroy their entire crop from that year, even though the radiation readings of their tea were far below the Japanese government's safety standard.  The reason: as organic farmers, food safety is their integral to their ethos and they felt responsible to maintain their high standard of purity to protect their customers.

They are now continuing to recover from the accident, while strengthening organic food culture in many ways:  hosting WOOLF interns; deepening relationships with their consumers and other farmers, and welcoming urban dwellers in need of reconnecting with nature.

This is an inspirational family and community -- on every level.  The Kinezukas and their farming cooperative keep in contact with their customers and sell directly to them at their website, (naturalitea.com/), a trove of info on tea and the rich traditional Japanese way of life (reverencing nature, farming, food, relationships, and community).

In the second -part (5-min) of a 3-part series of video interviews,  

Ayumi Kinezuka relates why she became a farmer:

 it is a field in which she can help connect people with each other and with nature 

In the  final short video, she talks about miso-making, and rice-growing with friends (non-farmers who visit the Kinezuka farm during rice-planting, weeding, and harvesting seasons to enjoy connecting with the earth, others, and eating fresh, organic local foods).  She brings her social psychological and outreach skills to creating and deepening awareness, connections in all that she does.

Also in two (10- and 15-min.) videos at the same webpage, Toshiaki Kinezuka shares his story of why and how he became an organic farmer.

The above videos were made in January, 2011, during a peak  the Japanese organic farming movement, which had been developing steadily since the 1970's.  The multiple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant have hit farmers throughout Japan (not just in Fukushima) hard, especially organic farmers like the Kinezukas.

In this Women Rising radio interview (her interview begins at 20:30 of the tape), Ayumi Kinezuka describes her organic philosophy and how her family and their organic tea cooperative decided, at great financial loss, to destroy their entire 2011 crop  to protect the food safety of their customers.

I'm living in the community, hoping to protecting the rich culture we've inherited...There are not many young farmers...So when I came back ten years ago, one of the things I thought was very important was to have a network of young farmers because, first we need to share an understanding of our current situation...When I attended the youth meeting of Nouminren, I met a lot of young people and they are facing the same challenges.  As I talked to them, it was very inspiring, so I suggested to La Via Campesina to organize the youth...  Since 2008, we have started a regional youth gathering...

I think farming is not just the production of food. To produce the food is more like an expression of our own ideology or our own beliefs. So participating in La Via Campesina meetings and Nouminren meetings, I'm receiving a lot of information and education about how to perceive the world, how to perceive the current agricultural system, and so on. It's given me a lot of inspiration in that way...

I live in Shizuoka Prefecture, which is west of Tokyo, close to Mount Fuji. From the Fukushima nuclear power plant, it's about 400 km (260 miles) away.  I never imagined our farm would be affected when the accident happened. So after we harvested the tea, we sent our tea samples for testing and we found 350 becquerels of cesium in our tea. At the end of the second harvest season, after June, we found 150 becquerels. And the last harvest in October, there was 76 becquerels. Even though the government regulation at that time was 500 becquerels, and according to them, since it's below the regulation level, they say it's safe.

But as an organic farmer, we have never used any chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers in our fields to ensure the safety of our tea and food, and also to protect the environment. It was a very difficult time for us. We did not know how to understand this reality that our tea was contaminated.

So, collectively, since we're a group of organic tea farmers, we discussed and decided we were going to destroy all the tea we produced that year. All together, we destroyed more than 20 tons of tea that was produced in 2011.  Since then, we've been testing the tea at least three times a year to make it obvious to the consumer the truth about the tea.

We are very upset at what happened because we have been working so hard to build a community of organic farming, and at the same time, we've been working very hard to build very good relationships with consumers and producers. But all of a sudden, without our control, this accident put radioactivity into our tea. What's scary about radioactivity is that you can't see it, feel it, taste it, smell it, but it's still there. The accident contaminated our soil, air, water, and also all the plants, and, of course, our bodies too. We have to be very clear that we can't co-exist with this dangerous generation of power.

Now many people in Japan are living in cities so they are detached from nature. Even though human beings are part of nature, we forget that, and that is driving people crazy. So organic farming has the responsibility of connecting people back with nature. It is very nice when people come to my farm and they have a very beautiful smile on their face, and their eyes are just bright. That really tells us what is really essential for us to live as a human being. It's not just money, goods, iPhones, and computers. So I want to provide, as an organic farmer, not just safe food, but an opportunity for people to come back to nature and feel for themselves what it is like to be alive.

The Kinekuza Family taking a break.
 (via Samovar Life: photo and (great blog post on the Kinezuka tea festival))

Ayumi Kinezuka: "TPP and the dismantling of Japanese Agriculture"

Preface: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), perhaps the world's most ambitious free trade agreement, is currently under negotiation. What began as a small regional free trade agreement has become one of the primary tools in the United States' geopolitical pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region...

This "Food First Backgrounder" outlines the agreement's assault on democracy and food sovereignty and examines the TPP's likely impacts on food and agriculture in Japan, the latest country to join negotiations.


TPP and the Dismantling of Japanese Agriculture

By Ayumi Kinezuka

According to the Buddhist concept of “shindo-fuji,” a healthy body comes from healthy soil, so one must appreciate the environment one lives in. Japan has a strong food movement, rooted in shindo-fuji, promoting local production and consumption.

However, agricultural imports have been on the rise since World War II, severely undermining Japanese food production: in 1965, Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate was 73 percent, but by 2010, it had dropped to 39 percent. Japanese food self-sufficiency—now one of the lowest among OECD countries—is often explained as merely the result of changes in dietary preferences. Often missing in this discussion, however, is the tremendous pressure the US applied on Japan to accept surpluses of wheat, soybeans and corn following WWII.

The traditional Japanese diet—rice combined with locally produced vegetables and fish—constituted one of the biggest barriers to post-war US imports. To open up a market for US food products, Japanese diets had to change to include bread, meat and dairy products. Through the US-funded “Nutrition Improvement Action” program, people were told, “Eating rice makes you stupid! Eat Bread!” School lunch menus were westernized and “American Trains” and “Kitchen Cars” crisscrossed the country to promote a western diet.

Today, Japanese people consume 9.5 percent more wheat, 152 percent more animal products and 131 percent more fat than in the 1950s. According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAFF), TPP would drop food self-sufficiency from 39 to 14 percent. Rice production would be hit severely. This could destroy Japanese agriculture and its rural culture.

Additionally, important land reform laws passed in the 1940s and 50s that safeguard farmers’ right to land have come under attack. Under pressure from the private sector, the government passed a revised land law in June 2009 cancelling the principle of “land to the tiller,” allowing non-farmers to own farmland and foreign capital to lease farmland. Deregulation under TPP would grant foreign investors further influence over national policies that protect farmers, farmland and rural communities.

The opposition against TPP in Japan encompasses a wide range of groups from progressive to conservative forces such as the Japan Agriculture and Fishery Organization, the Japan Medical Association and others. As much as 94 percent of prefectural assemblies and 80 percent of local city assemblies have passed resolutions against TPP. In Hokkaido, the opposition encompasses almost all groups and organizations in the prefecture, including the finance community.

Of the 13 political parties, seven are opposed to TPP and only one party is vocal about its support to TPP. Opposition transcends traditional political divisions, demonstrating that a broad political coalition against TPP is possible. To do that, we must increase international solidarity among farmers, citizens’ groups and local communities. The farmers of Japan hope to build strong alliances with groups and farmers in other TPP negotiating countries to stop corporate interests from destroying our agriculture and eroding our work for food sovereignty.

Ayumi Kinezuka is a young organic farmer in Shizuoka Prefecture. She studied psychology and sociology at UC Berkeley before returning home to carry on her family's tea farm.

She wrote this article for the Summer 2013 (Volume 19, No. 2) edition of Food First Backgrounder: "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Threat to Democracy and Food Sovereignty."  Food First Backgrounder is published by the Institute for Food and Development Policy, an Oakland-based think tank.

World Food Sovereignty Day • Soil and Peace Festival @Hibiya Park, Tokyo - Oct. 20, 2013

Today is the international family farmer movement Via Campesina's World Food Sovereignty Day; and this weekend, Japanese organic family farmers and their supporters will join in a celebration of the best of visionary Japanese (organic, recycling, nuclear-free, GMO-free, fair-trade, Slow Life, satoyama, Tohoku-supporting) culture.

Via the Consumers Union of Japan:

There will be a Soil and Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo, on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening.

A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Kato Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco.

Website with more info (J) here.

40,000 rally in Tokyo for a nuclear-free and war-free Japan (and World); Global Article 9 gathering in Osaka

(Via Jacinta Hin and Beautiful Energy)

More via our friends at Beautiful Energy - The Stand for a Nuclear Free World:

Good Morning world! Today is NO NUKES DAY in Tokyo, the day of the big demonstration. Many people from all over Japan coming together in protest to ask for a nuclear-free Japan.

If you're in Tokyo, JOIN, be seen, be heard, make a difference!

If you cannot join in person, be with all of us in spirit and heart.

To get you in the mood, we have the perfect song for you. Talented musician Natsu of our Beautiful Energy core group, has created a NO NUKES version of a famous pop song. Listen to her beautiful voice and soulful NO NUKES, BABY and be connected with us today!

At the end of September, nuclear-free supporters held two rallies after TEPCO asked for permission to restart TEPCO on Friday asked Japan's nuclear watchdog for permission to restart its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

Since September 15, all of Japan's nuclear plants have been in shut-down for maintenance.

---

Also over the weekend, the Global Article Nine Campaign held 

its second international conference  supporting a (nuclear-free) world without war:  

the Article Nine World Conference in Osaka.

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.

---

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) 

---

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)

---

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)

---

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)

---

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).

---

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)