Hundreds of Japanese citizens are engaged in a crowd-sourced effort to measure Fukushima radiation

Nice article at Yes! Magazine by Erika Lundahl about Safecast, the citizen radiation monitoring in Japan: Measuring Fukushima's Impact: How Geeks and Hackers Got Geiger Counters to the Masses: Hundreds of ordinary people are contributing to a crowd-sourced effort to measure Fukushima's impact:

Hundreds of ordinary people are contributing to a crowd-sourced effort to collect data on radiation levels for scientists and ordinary citizens to use and interpret. The project was launched by SafeCast, an organization formed in the wake of the 2011 earthquake to supplement the sparse data provided by the Japanese government on radiation travel patterns.

"We were completely appalled that there was no way to get this data," SafeCast co-founder Sean Bonner said, "and that people couldn't see what was happening to their environment."

Through online collaboration with scientists and programmers, Bonner and his collaborators engineered an easily reproducible and highly accurate GPS-enabled Geiger counter, which they call the bGeigie. They distributed the first batch of 100 to volunteers who crisscrossed Japan in cars, delivery vehicles, and on foot, collecting data on radiation unmatched in scope and accuracy. To make the information from the bGeigies widely available, SafeCast publishes copyright-free maps of the readings that come in from the devices.

Japan as Number One in Radiation Education: Lessons for the World

"Children taught radiation studies: Nuke education now compulsory subject in schools in Fukushima" 

(Story and Photo: Mizuho Aoki, JT, March 24, 2012)

Today Martin Frid at Kurashi reminds us that Japan is now number one in the world in radiation education.

The Japanese educational system should have been number one in radiation education starting in 1946, when Japan's grassroots nuclear-free movement began, amidst US Occupation censorship of news about the consequences of radiation fallout from the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When the US Occupation ended in 1952, the Japanese nuclear-free movement gathered more steam, especially after the March 1954 irradiation of the fishing boat, "The Lucky Dragon #5," by fallout from the US hydrogen test bombing of the island of Bikini in the Marshall Islands.  Outrage increased after people learned irradiated tuna was sold and eaten in Japan.  The explosion provided the initial scenes of the film quasi-sci-fi film Godzilla which premiered eight months after the bombing.

With the raw hindsight of 3/11, it's astonishing to realize that Washington was able to explode 105 nuclear test bombs in the Pacific from 1946 to 1962, vaporizing entire islands, irradiating the Asia-Pacific region, and, simultaneously, in partnership with the Japanese postwar political establishment, was able to overcome the nascent Japanese nuclear-free protest movement, and successfully promote the idea of nuclear energy production as "safe." How did nuclear industry promoters subdue awareness and concern in Japan about the dangers of nuclear radiation?

Yuki Tanaka and Peter Kuznick detail how Washington's "Atoms for Peace" program worked to counter the widespread perception of the dangers of nuclear radiation in Japan.  This program was especially calculated to obscure the memory of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic Energy Commissioner Thomas Murray and a US congressman even proposed that Japan's first nuclear energy plant be built in Hiroshima to push the images of radioactive carnage out of the Japanese public mind.  The Washington Post seconded their idea:

Many Americans are now aware … that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was not necessary. … How better to make a contribution to amends than by offering Japan the means for the peaceful utilization of atomic energy. How better, indeed, to dispel the impression in Asia that the United States regards Orientals merely as nuclear cannon fodder!"

Japan's first nuclear power plant was not built in Hiroshima, of course, but The Daily Yomiuri's traveling exhibition "The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy” did make a stop in the atom-bombed city in 1958, incredibly with the support of the Hiroshima establishment:

Although in other cities the exhibition was sponsored exclusively by the Yomiuri with the assistance of the U.S. Information Service, in Hiroshima co-sponsors also included the Hiroshima City Council, Hiroshima Prefectural Government, Hiroshima University, and the Chugoku Newspaper... All praised the promotion and application of this new powerful energy.  By contrast, many A-bomb survivors were skeptical and cautious about this non-military application of nuclear power, claiming that there was still no solution to the problem of managing radioactive materials produced by operating nuclear power reactors.

The newly completed A-bomb Museum building in Hiroshima was even used as the pavilion for the  exhibition:

Thus, in the same building, exhibits related to the devastation caused by the atomic bombing were displayed together with various dream-like applications of nuclear energy.  Such things as nuclear powered planes, ships and trains, as well as medical, agricultural and industrial uses of radioactive materials were displayed.

Hundreds of thousands of people throughout Japan, including 155,000 in Kyoto, visited the exhibition when it stopped in their cities. However, nuclear-free activists, including many Hibakusha, and some media, notably The Mainichi, countered:

First, baptism with radioactive rain, then a surge of shrewd commercialism in the guise of 'atoms for peace' from abroad. 

Nuclear power propaganda efforts continued, and the nuclear industry made inroads by the 1960's. In 1966, Tokai, Japan's first nuclear power plant began operating, and in the 1970's, nuclear plants were constructed throughout the archipelago.  The nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are from this era.

Even throughout the heyday of nuclear boosterism, the Japanese nuclear-free movement stayed strong, with notable local successes. The movement strengthened after the Chernobyl meltdown and during the 1990's, a period of numerous nuclear accidents in Japan.

Local communities, Japanese civil society and nuclear-free activists stopped the construction of nuclear power plants, notably in Iwaishima, where the Chugoku Electric Power Company has attempted to build a nuclear power plant in the Inland Sea National Park. In 2006, musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and  Greenpeace launched an international awareness project protesting the Rokkasho [plutonium] Reprocessing Plant under a campaign called "Wings of Peace – No more Hiroshima Nagasaki."  Japanese nuclear-free activists warned of the risks at Fukushima Daiichi long before 3/11.

Gavan McCormack says it's no longer possible to kick Japan's radioactive cans down the road in "Japan as a Plutonium Superpower."  He suggests a way forward for Japan (and the world) in "Hubris Punished: Japan as Nuclear State."  It's the same choice that Japanese nuclear-free,  carbon-free, renewable energy, energy conservation, organic, and Slow Life advocates have been calling for and working towards: turning the ongoing disaster into a time of change towards a sustainable future.

Successive generations of Japan’s bureaucratic, political, corporate, and media elite have insisted that Japan pursue the nuclear power path at all costs. In retrospect, they drove the country forward, as the elite of the Kwantung Army drove it in the pre-war era, towards disaster, ignoring, coopting, or crushing all opposition. Only now, facing the costs—human, environmental and economic—the long-postponed debate opens...

What is called for, in short, is the reversal of a half century of core national policies and the switch to a renewable energy system beyond carbon and uranium.  Such a strategic decision, turning the present disaster into the opportunity to confront the key challenge of contemporary civilization, amounts to a revolutionary agenda, one only possible under the pressure of a mobilized and determined national citizenry.

At this crucial juncture, how Japan goes, the world is likely follow. The challenge is fundamentally political: can Japan’s civil society accomplish the sovereignty guaranteed it under the constitution and wrest control over the levers of state from the irresponsible bureaucratic and political forces that have driven it into the present crisis?

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Background:

"Children taught radiation studies: Nuke education now compulsory subject in schools in Fukushima" (Mizuho Aoki, JT, March 24, 2012)

Anti-Nuke Who's Who (Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Tokyo)

"The Kaminoseki Nuclear Power Plant: Community Conflicts and the Future of Japan’s Rural Periphery" (Tomomi Yamaguchi, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Oct. 10, 2011)

"Japan, the Atomic Bomb, and the “Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Power” (Yuki Tanaka and Peter Kuznick, The Asia-Pacific Journal, May 2, 2011)

"Hubris Punished: Japan as Nuclear State 驕れる者は久しからず−−核国家としての日本" (Gavan McCormack, The Asia-Pacific Journal, April 18, 2011)

Japan's Once-Powerful Nuclear Industry is Under Siege" (Caroline Fraser, Environment 360, March 17, 2011)

Japan as a Plutonium Superpower" (Gavan McCormack, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Dec. 9, 2007)

"The Power of Protest: The campaign against nuclear weapons was not simply an ideological movement; it was a potent political force"  (Lawrence Wittner,  Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, July-August 2004)

Filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka: "We need to face the problem otherwise it will never be solved..."

Via webdocumentary AU-DELA DU NUAGE °Yonaoshi 3.11, filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka:

The people of Fukushima think it's too late.

They think they have been contaminated and the country has abandoned them. They can't do anything about it so they better live without worrying.

A lot of people think like this. Today I read in the newspaper that the children of Fukushima say they will die anyway, so there's no need to study...

It is not only the cancer risk that grows. For example, heart attacks also. Cesium goes into the muscles...The risk of strokes also grows...Diabetes also...

In spite of that, they say everything is fine.

This is because these are diseases anyone can have...

Concerning the accident, we all have to face this: Face the fact that we've been contaminated and that it's not over, that there is still no serious compensation even though we lost our way of life, and that for a long time, our health will be exposed to danger.

Can we just go along saying, " Everything is fine."

We need to face the problem otherwise it will never be solved.

For many years, Japanese electricity companies have hidden information.  In 2007, it was revealed that nuclear power plants had hidden many accidents.  On this occasion, a complete report was ordered, with many details. It revealed 456 accidents. Among them, there had been very serious accidents. And they had hidden everything...

We lost trust...

They knew there was a meltdown but they didn't say it.

To avoid the explosion and release internal pressure, they vent radioactive vapor into the air, releasing a lot of radiation. But when they did this, they didn't inform the population to escape in a certain direction. They didn't reveal the quantity released into the air. They didn't say anything.

And it was only after the accident, one, two, three months later, that the inhabitants of the cities nearby, Futaba, Okuma, or Minami-Soma, finally learnt about the facts, one after the other.

This was an unbelievable situation.

They were not prepared for crisis management, although these facts were openly revealed, one year has passed, and there is still no one to take responsibility.

Before and after the disaster, the very same people are still in charge.  It is an incredible situation.

If they had changed to new people, people we can trust, it would have been different...

---

Hitomi Kamanaka is a Japanese documentary filmmaker known particularly for her films on the danger of atomic power and the nuclear industry in Japan. In 2012, she directed a movie on internal contamination where she interviews 4 doctors from Japan and Russia who studied the consequences of Hiroshima, Tchernobyl, and now Fukushima.

ドキュメンタリー映画監督, 鎌仲ひとみは2012年に発表した映画で、広島、チェルノビルそして福島での被曝（ひ

ばく）の影響を研究している日本とロシアの４人の医師にインタビューしている。

---

Interview conducted by Keiko Courdy for 霧の向こう＊AU-DELA DU NUAGE°Yonaoshi 3.11_ Japan Webdoc project in Tokyo on June 18, 2012

Background: Hitomi Kamanaka's website: http://kamanaka.com/

Background: 

Hitomi Kamanaka's website: http://kamanaka.com/

"Complicity and Victimhood: Director Kamanaka Hitomi's Nuclear Warnings" (Norma Field, The Asia-Pacific Journal, May 2, 2011)

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)

Former Mayor of Futaba Town in Fukushima Appeals in 8 European Countries

Katsutaka Idogawa on protecting the right to evacuate: "The  20mSv/y limit 
dose is madness. Being exposed to radiation is an exposure to violence."

Katsutaka Idogawa, former Mayor of Futaba Town, the site of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, will travel to France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Switzerland.  He will be reaching out to municipal leaders and citizen groups about the ongoing situation in Fukushima.

Seven days after the disasters of March 11, 2011, Idogawa temporarily evacuated town residents 45 kilometers away to Kawamata City. After witnessing ashes floating down from the sky, fallout from the explosion at reactor no. 1, and measuring radiation levels on his dosimeter, he came to the conclusion that the only way for the people of Futaba to be safe would be to be as far as possible. Without waiting governmental advice, he put the safety of the people first and arranged for the town to be relocated to Saitama prefecture.

On May 12 he will meet with citizen groups at Penly Nuclear Power Plant in Le Havre, France on the English Channel where fires in April 2012 led to radioactive leakage. For a map of nuclear sites in France visit the Greenpeace France the Nuclear Around You page. From May 13-15, he will participate in an international conference aboard Peace Boat on its way to Stockholm.  Participants include:

• Alain Correa (STOP EPR Network, France)- sign the petition to stop construction of next nuclear reactor here
• Olivier Florens (Europe Ecology – The Greens)
• Iida Tetsunari (Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies)
• Lena Lindahl (Sustainable Sweden Association)
• Andrey Ozharovskiy (Nuclear expert with Bellona working to prevent the construction of a plant by Hitachi in Lithuania)
• Sato Kenta (“Fukushima Conference”, from Iitate Village)
• Yoshioka Tatsuya (Co-founder and Director of Peace Boat) 

Fire at Penly Nuclear Power Plant April 2012

After meeting with experts, politicians and citizens working on nuclear issues at an event organized by ICAN Sweden, IPPNW Sweden, and the Sustainable Sweden Association on the 16th, he will travel to the location of planned nuclear power plant at Pyhäjoki, Finland to meet with the mayor and citizens from the 17-18th. Despite protests, Toshiba has won the bid to build this plant making it the 6th plant in the country. According to the Nuclear Heritage Network, the site of the proposed plant, on the untouched Hanhikivi peninsula, is an important nesting area for almost twenty endangered bird species and migrating arctic birds. Furthermore, the plant is at risk of having no access to cooling water in the winter months due to pack ice in the gulf of Bothnia.

Signs warning of the radiation that goes hand in hand with the
 impending nuclear plant at Pyhäjoki. For more images click here

From May 19-22nd he will visit Helsinki and Latvia, making his way to the Middelgrunden Wind Farm in Copenhagen for May 24-25. He will end his tour with a presentations to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

Pass the unwanted plutonium: Weapons grade plutonium shipped from France to Japan today

Greenpeace protests shipment at Cherbourg- Photo courtesy of La Stampa

Weapons-grade plutonium has been shipped from France for use in a MOX reactor in Takahama City, Fukui that is not in service. The fuel will travel past over 70 different countries along the way, many of which have been protesting the transport. There has been no environmental assessment of the impact of the radioactive shipment and countries along the way have not been adequately consulted. (See Green Action statement against the shipment in Japanese)

Opposition to the shipment has been felt not only in Japan, but around the world. Green Action, Citizens Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), Joint Action for Nuclear Free Korea,   Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC), Physicians for Social Responsibility, Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE), and Friends of the Earth, are urging U.S. Secretary of State Senator John Kerry to take action to stop the shipment due to the following concerns:

• No demand for plutonium fuel in Japan , no possibility for its use now, utility admits it is undetermined whether or not the fuel to be transported will be used ;
• Japan continuing to acquire, stockpile and attempt to scale up its use of weapons-usable plutonium, including efforts to start-up and operate the Rokkasho reprocessing plant;
• A flawed U.S. policy of supporting Japan’s plutonium program which does not contribute to, but on the contrary distracts from stabilizing on-going non-proliferation efforts in East Asia;
• Japan’s program and its U.S. support undermining on-going U.S. Republic of Korea (ROK) Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (123) negotiations, including encouraging ROK to seek reprocessing and separated plutonium;
• The impact of the shipment on exacerbating further tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the East Sea/Sea of Japan, particularly in relation to the nuclear program of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK); and,
• Inadequate transport security plan, including for passage through the Korea Strait.

 CORE’s spokesman Martin Forwood stated:

"Given that the upcoming shipment is being made at the request of AREVA because it has become tired of storing the fuel in France – and that KEPCO is reported as being undecided as to whether the MOX fuel will ever be used – these Barrow ships are doing little more than playing ‘Pass the Plutonium Parcel’ with a batch of unwanted and dangerous fuel."

 According to NHK world, on Monday French activists held protests against the shipment:

About 50 activists gathered at the northwestern port of Cherbourg on Monday... The activists wore headbands with the Japanese slogan saying "Stop MOX" and called for a halt to the delivery... A spokesperson for the activists said France is pressuring Japan by sending the fuel over when the country is trying to decide on new energy policies. 

For a video of the convey click here.

Videos of protests, courtesy of NHK here.

STOP MOX- Courtesy of Greenpeace Cherbourg Twitter Account

- Posted by Jen Teeter

FRYING DUTCHMAN special no nukes performance and talk by Toshiya Morita in Kyoto Dec 12th

Travel route of radiation from Fukushima
shared by Toshiya Morita and available here

During the parliamentary elections, the Frying Dutchman, a dance-rock band known for its outspoken stance against nuclear power, gave a special performance at Bukkyo University in Kyoto tonight. Following, writer Toshiya Morita who has been covering the nuclear accident since March 11, 2011, spoke to the need for everyone to be prepared for another nuclear disaster.

The Frying Dutchman became popular throughout Japan after their post-disaster performance of "Human Error" at Sanjo Bridge, a popular gathering spot in Kyoto. "Human Error" details the fallacies of nuclear power, the process by which the nuclear industry has tricked the public, and the tireless efforts of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. Their set opened with this song:

Genpatsu Iranai!
No more nuclear power!
(Applause)

Dondondondondon Koe ageyou ze!
Keep raising and raising and raising your voices!
(Applause)

Ai wo komete FUCK YOU!
With love FUCK YOU!
(APPLAUSE)

Koe wo ageyou!
Koe wo agete minna de tomerushikanaize!
Raise your voices, raise your voices-
all we can do join forces to stop nuclear power!
(APPLAUSE)

Okashii da ze! Okashii da ze!
It's not right! It's not right!

(Applause)

Okane yori motto daiji no aru yo ne!
There are things more important than money!

(Applause)
Wasureta ha ikenai ne!
We can't forget!
 (APPLAUSE)

Shizen enerugi minna dashite ikou!
Everyone, let's all use natural energy!
(APPLAUSE)

Minna de koe wo agemashypu!
Enryou nakute koe agemashyou!
(APPLAUSE)

Nani ga daiji ka saikakunin shiyou ze!!

Ai!
Love!
(AI)

Ai!
Love!
(AI)

AI!
Love!
(AI)

AI
LOVE
(AI)

Genpatsu ha hitsuyou nai!
We don't need to nuclear power!
(APPLAUSE!!)

Genpatsu hantai!
(APPLAUSE!!)

For the full English and Japanese lyrics of "Human Error" check the FRYING DUTCHMAN website. Despite the ongoing nuclear disaster, there are still political parties that promote the continued use of nuclear power, do not discourage its use, or do not even discuss nuclear power in their platform. The FRYING DUTCHMAN may have power to convince people to vote against nuclear power.

The FRYING DUTCHMAN will also be one of many performers at the Nuclear Free Now! Conference in Tokyo on the 15th of December from 3:30-5pm at the Hibiya Outdoor Music Hall.

Following the performance, which was more raging than a dance hall, Toshiya Morita urged the audience to develop an exit strategy well before a nuclear disaster strikes, pointing out that Kyoto is within the exclusion zone for a nuclear disaster, only 60 kilometers from the Ohi nuclear reactor.

"My wife and I have planned to meet at Kyoto station should their be a nuclear accident. That way we can both meet and get on the bullet train immediately. If trains are not running, like after Fukushima, then we have a plan for which bus to take....By the way, who were the first people to leave Fukushima after the disaster? The family members of the workers at Tokyo Electric who controlled the reactor because they already knew how to evacuate in the event of a nuclear disaster." 

Regardless of stance on nuclear power, he urged the audience to not only prepare an evacuation strategy for themselves, but to be prepared to accept evacuees emphasizing the impossibility of depending only on the government. Next he discussed how radiation has flowed from Fukushima along the paths of major roads and trains tracks contaminating major cities throughout Eastern Japan. Osaka and Kyoto have also been contaminated through food coming in from contaminated regions.

Although the accident of four nuclear reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant has not been converged, 
the athletic meet of spring of an elementary school is being held in Fukushima. The children who do play 
ball and race have to do a mask so that the dust of radioactivity may not be inhaled. May 2002

He also noted how parents and children have not been vigilant in ensuring children are wearing masks to prevent the inhalation of radiation contaminated dust. He pointed out how the child to the left of the picture was clearly not wearing a mask properly during an outdoor Sports Day event, and showed other photos of unmasked children, or children that did not cover their noses with the masks.

Finally, he shared the advice of Dr. Shintaro Hida, a doctor who entered Hiroshima immediately after the U.S. government dropped the nuclear bomb over the city. Also, receiving radiation poisoning himself, he studied how radiation changed the lives of over 6000 people. He asked the oldest living survivors of the bombing how they lived so long, and they most common answer was "by not overeating."

In the end, he reminded us that the people in Fukushima are fighting harder than anyone now in Japan to get rid of nuclear power. It is because of their courage and determination that we have come this far.

- Posted by Jen Teeter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

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

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

Learn more about how you can abolish nuclear weapons:

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

Mayor of Futaba asks PM Noda why SPEEDI nuclear radiation info was not released to residents of Fukushima

Moving testimony by Mr. Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, where Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is located. Mr. Idogawa testified that the day of Unit 1's explosion, the Japanese government did not announce SPEEDI data regarding levels of nuclear radiation, so Futaba's residents evacuated northwest, to an area with even higher levels of nuclear radiation (because of wind drifts) than their town. Many citizens of Futaba were exposed to these higher levels of radiation including children.

Senator Masako Mori also severely questioned to Prime Minister Noda about Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant's accident.

福島第一原発を抱える双葉町の町長である井戸川氏は、１号機が爆発した日のことについて証言。日本政府がSPEEDIのデータを公表していなかった事から、双葉町民は放射­能が流れる方向と同じ北西方向に避難してしまい、子どもも含んだたくさんの町民が被曝しました。国会にて森まさ子参議院議員は福島第一原発事故に関して野田首相の責任を厳­しく追求しました

From Hiroshima & Nagasaki to Fukushima: Dr. Shuntaro Hida describes censorship of information about the effects of low-dose nuclear radiation

"How many times do we have to be exposed to nuclear radiation?" This video footage is of Dr. Shuntaro Hida speaking in front of Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima city at the "One Million Action Hoping to Live a Life without Nuclear Power" held April 26, 2011. Dr. Hida treated Hiroshima survivors exposed to the high dose of radiation from the Hiroshima atomic bombing. He also treated patients exposed to low doses of nuclear radiation; found them suffering from a disease called "Bura Bura Syndrome" caused by low-dose internal exposure. Dr. Hida describes the US military occupation's censorship of information about the health effects of nuclear radiation. (Original footage: Sunameri (Finless Porpoise) YouTube channel. This clip with English subtitles: via Canale di Koikzuka77. Dr. Hida is also featured in Hitomi Kamanaka's "Radiation: A Slow Death, A new Generation of Hibakusha".)

In "A-bomb doctor warns of further Fukushima woes"  (JT via Kyodo), Dr. Shuntaro Hida, a Hiroshima survivor & physician, links lack of public awareness about the effects of radiation with US military occupation censorship of information about the effects of radiation after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

The amount of research into and public knowledge about internal exposure to radiation is still limited because the United States "concealed" information about the problem for a long time after it dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Hida says. "It is a fight to change the mindset of each and every person," Hida says, recalling his decades-long struggles to make people aware of the danger of internal exposure to radiation amid a lack of scientific data.

"Under the Occupation until the early 1950s, people were forbidden from "speaking, recording or doing research into symptoms of atomic-bomb survivors," he says. "I was stalked by the military police when I was talking about what I witnessed in Hiroshima," and arrested several times by the Occupation forces for "not abiding by their Occupation policy."

Hida, as a representative of a group of medical professionals called the Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions, urged U.N. Secretary General U Thant in 1975 to hold an international conference on the effects of radiation on hibakusha, which was realized two years later.

"It's anger that has kept me speaking to this day. How could I remain silent even 67 years after the bombings?" Hida says.

Dr. Hida's 2006 memoir, Under the Mushroom-Shaped Cloud in Hiroshima, is available online at this link.

Uncanny Terrain: Rio+20: Four Fukushima Farmers 福島：その土地に残る意味

Uncanny Terrain:

This video, capturing the diverse views of four Fukushima activist farmers, screens beginning June 16 in the Rio+20 United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, where one of the main subjects of the documentary Uncanny Terrain, Seiji Sugeno, director of the Fukushima Organic Farmers Network, is presenting.

Fukushima Organic Farmers Fight Odds to Continue Livelihood Amidst Radiation’s Unknowns

Filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed Koziarski with organic farmer Seiji Sugeno in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima

This past January, while most participants at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World in Yokohama were angrily demanding that the government relocate endangered Fukushima citizens to safety, a small delegation of organic farmers had a different message to share. They had no intention of leaving their family land, they said, and as long as radiation levels remained within prescribed safety limits, others were urged to continue consuming Fukushima crops in support of the prefecture’s revitalization.

Fast-forward nearly five months. Consumers nationwide remained mistrustful of food grown within Fukushima prefecture, and outrage loomed large against Prime Minister Noda’s likely decision to restart the Ohi nuclear power plant, while a group of Fukushima citizens were calling for criminal charges against the officials responsible for the disaster. Within this social climate, I wondered, had the farmers’ message changed in any way?

To find out, I decided to take a day trip one recent Friday up to Nihonmatsu, located approximately 50 km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. There, I would accompany documentary filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed Koziarski on a visit to the farm of Seiji Sugeno, one of the several farmers to be profiled in their upcoming film, “Uncanny Terrain”. 

I recalled that Sugeno, a leader of the Fukushima Organic Farmers Network, had been one of the more staunch bearers of the “stay on the land and continue to eat local” message.

As the three of us made our way through winding roads to Sugeno’s farm, the rolling green fields and gorgeous blooming flowers reminded me of the prefecture's stunning beauty—also prompting me to reflect that Fukushima has inherited the painful legacy of Chernobyl: its name now automatically equated with the nuclear accident itself in the minds of people around the world.

Sugeno was out when we arrived onto his land, whose name translates roughly as the “Playful Cloud Farm”. We found his daughter Mizuho inside the greenhouse, tending to the family’s 1800-some tomato plants.

“Last year after the disaster, people still had hope that things might turn out okay, and most farmers decided to stay here and plant,” she said. “But due to the new restrictions on acceptable radiation levels, nearly half of the farmers in our area have given up and figured it just isn’t worth it to grow their crops this year. It’s really too bad.”

After rolling up in his sunflower oil-powered tractor, Sugeno echoed his daughter’s sentiments. He was adamant about staying on his land this season to plant, he said, despite the extra labor necessary to measure all food for radiation levels and sprinkle zeolite in local rice fields on government order—and despite the possibility that crops from an entire region could be judged unfit for shipping onto the market if even one local field were found to exceed radiation limits.

“This year is really critical, particularly for people who didn’t plant last year,” he said. “If they let their land go for one more season, it may be ruined permanently.”

Both Sugeno and his daughter were honest about the discouragement they sometimes felt regarding what was essentially a lonely battle, but pointed out the strength and encouragement that they received from the relationships that they have created with others around the world following the 3.11 disaster. Mizuho has traveled overseas several times to meet with organic farmers in Thailand and New Zealand, and her father heads shortly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a delegate to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development—a forum he most certainly intends to utilize to the fullest in order to share his experience with others.

“Large corporations talk about the future of our world in terms of economics, but the truth is that it is small, sustainable farms like ours that make the most important contribution to biodiversity—with rice fields acting to prevent flooding, for example,” he emphasized. “And it was only after the nuclear accident that this truly became clear to me.”

Sugeno then rolled back out into his fields, while Mizuho took Ed, Junko and myself on a drive through more vibrantly beautiful landscapes to visit the family’s canola farm, which her father had decided to grow for another season after determining that radiation levels in the area were low enough to warrant planting.

After later parting ways with Mizuho, the three of us headed to the local michinoeki, a facility featuring local wares and produce that may be found in many small towns around the country. Sugeno is one of the directors of the Nihonmatsu branch, where radiation detection machinery has been installed in order to make sure that every food item sold falls below the maximum acceptable level of 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, and where residents may also come to be measured by a whole-body counter that can detect existing radiation levels. When we arrived, a television installed at the entrance was repeatedly broadcasting a national television news program whose interviewer was emphasizing the farmers’ struggle to appeal to citizens regarding the safety of the local food.

"For a Fukushima Full of Smiles"

As we hiked later that afternoon in the gorgeous sunshine around the grounds of the Nihonmatsu Castle—which was completely deserted except for our presence—Junko, Ed and I had a chance to chat about the bizarre new post-3.11 world, which seems in a certain sense to have fragmented into various parallel realities, depending upon which news sources people read, and how they might personally be inclined to believe. This was certainly the case in Tokyo—and, I imagined, was likely numerous times more so the case for residents in Fukushima.

While government-mandated maximum safety levels for food stand at 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, many activists, including filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka, argue strongly that any possible exposure to internal radiation through measures including food consumption should be avoided entirely. As a measure of support for the Fukushima farmers, however, the filmmakers have consumed almost exclusively local food during their most recent two-month stay—explaining that many crops have tended to hover in the area of 20-30 becquerels, which is well within the government-set safety zone.

“Are these levels dangerous? You’ll find any number of opinions on the matter, because frankly, nobody knows,” Junko commented. She pointed out that Aya Marumori, the Executive Health Director of the Citizens’ Radioactivity Measuring Station (and a speaker during a recent event held in Tokyo) visited numerous doctors, who fell into one of two categories: either claiming that radiation was totally harmless, or else that it was completely deadly. “She finally came across one doctor who said: ‘We don’t know.’ And that’s who she decided to trust.”

“Radiation effects will most certainly be one of the long-term aftermaths of the disaster, although—as with Chernobyl—the causality cannot be proven,” added Ed, pointing out that this matter was taken up in-depth within the recent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ feature issue on low-level radiation. “In addition to this, though, are the other ill health effects such as diabetes and cancers that will result from the existing stress and fear, as well as the social phenomenon of uncertainty. Honestly, no one has any idea how the situation here will continue to play out into the future.”

The Uncanny Terrain blog follows the progress of the film, including Ed's thoughtful piece titled “Would You Stay?” documenting the ways that communities in Fukushima have fragmented following the crisis. The filmmakers are also gratefully accepting donations via Google to help them complete their project, as well as assistance with volunteer translation.

A recent article from the Japan Times also sensitively describes the many complexities that continue to face farmers--and food consumers--in Fukushima following last year's disaster.

--Kimberly Hughes

Women's "Die-In" against the Restart of Ooi Nuke Plant (Jun/07/2012)

On June 7, 2012, about 70 women including 10 women from Fukushima did a "die-in" in front of the Prime Minister's official residence to protest the restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant [in Fukui prefecture]. Before the die-in, 10 Fukushima women visited the Cabinet Office and met with officials to submit a letter of requests addressed to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

This video clip shows the words from the Fukushima women and part of the die-in.

On the very next day, June 8, 2012, Prime Minister Noda held a press conference and declared he would restart Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.

The original video by OurPlanet-TV: http://youtu.be/ODNhDhw_-VY

Translation and captioning by tokyobrowntabby.

Video editing by sievert311 (http://www.youtube.com/user/sievert311).

David McNeill: " Latest readings from tsunami-stricken nuclear plant overturn claims that reactors have been made safe"

David McNeill at The Independent, "Still critical: radiation levels at Fukushima can kill in minutes: Latest readings from tsunami-stricken nuclear plant overturn claims that reactors have been made safe":

A lethal level of radiation has been detected inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, throwing fresh doubts over the operator's claims that the disabled complex is under control....

The struggle to decommission the Daiichi plant continues as a potentially epic battle looms between pro- and anti-nuclear forces. Only one of Japan's 54 reactors is still online after Reactor 6 of the world's largest nuclear complex, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, shut down for maintenance earlier this week.

With Japan's nuclear power capacity down to less than two per cent, from 30 per cent, the Government and businesses fear a summer power crisis unless idling plants are restarted. However, each plant needs approval from sceptical local communities, and post-Fukushima surveys put opposition to nuclear power in Japan at around 80 per cent. Public fears have forced regulators to order tests to determine whether the plants will stand up to another large earthquake or tsunami.

Tepco's disgraced executives also face a 5.5-trillion-yen (£42bn) lawsuit by shareholders. "The company repeatedly ignored tsunami and earthquake research showing that the plant would be overwhelmed," said lead lawyer Hiroyuki Kawai this week. "The plant was run haphazardly and carelessly."

Uncanny Terrain「超自然の大地」: One Year After the Meltdown 震災から１年

Via Uncanny Terrain:

Filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski spent five months inside Japan's nuclear contamination zone, living and working with the farmers, researchers and volunteers who have committed themselves to take the nuclear crisis as an opportunity to build a better society.

We're going beyond disaster reporting, to show what it is really like for these people who refuse to bow to devastating odds. Now we need your help to return to Japan and revisit those working on the front lines of the nuclear crisis, as they mark the one-year anniversary and the farmers prepare to plant again.

We need to raise $10,000 by March 31 to cover the cost of traveling to Japan and shooting there through the May planting. Please join us by donating to and sharing our new IndieGoGo campaign. We encourage PayPal contributions because they are tax-deductible, and funds are available to us immediately...

The organic farmers of Fukushima prefecture toiled for 40 years to grow safe, nutritious and delicious crops on their ancestral land while two nuclear power plants in the prefecture helped feed Tokyo's increasingly voracious energy appetite. Since the March 2011 tsunami triggered the meltdown that spread radioactive contamination on much of the lush farmland of Fukushima and eastern Japan, the farmers have been caught between a government in constant denial of the risks of radiation, and outraged citizens who brand the farmers "child murderers" for continuing to cultivate irradiated land.

But the farmers, researchers and volunteers are committed to building a comprehensive monitoring and reporting network to inform citizens about contamination levels in food, air, water and land, so families can make their own informed decisions; and advancing experimental methods to decontaminate soil or prevent crops grown on contaminated soil from absorbing radiation.

Fukushima has demonstrated the need for greater public vigilance to keep all our food and energy producers honest, not just about radiation but about all the potential contaminants that our collective appetites introduce into our bodies and our communities. Please support Uncanny Terrain and help generate dialogue about these vital issues and assure that the struggles of people in Fukushima can stimulate positive change in the world. Thank you!

Please consider donating to this crucial project, at Indiegogo.