Shadowlands

Featuring the work of Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong following their trip to the Fukushima region with Greenpeace in the autumn of 2011

On 11 March 2011 the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Japan changed forever. An earthquake and tsunami destroyed towns and villages on the northeast coast. Some 20,000 people died.

During the next 10 days, explosions and meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor plant released a massive amount of radiation.Over 150,000 people had to leave their homes for protection. Experts expect the 20km evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant will be uninhabitable for years. Most people who fled other areas have not returned because of high contamination and worry about unemployment. They dread ending up in a ghost town.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster showed once again the inherent risks of nuclear power and exposed the failures in the whole system. Politicians and regulators have ignored their responsibility to protect the public, and the nuclear industry has not been made accountable for its disasters. Similar systemic problems can be found in every country operating nuclear reactors. Every reactor can fail and put millions at risk. Reactors must be phased out and replaced with renewable energy.

Greenpeace visited people affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster to ensure their stories are heard.

Mrs Ogawara “Until now, I was anti nuclear energy, but I didn’t do much about it. And now that

such a terrible accident has happened I’ve started to feel

that if I don’t do something now then when will I do it?”

Tsushima

Fukushima city

Funehiki

Radiation contour map of the Fukushima Daiichi accident

Map adapted from original by Yukio Hyaykway, Gunmar University and Google Maps maps.google.com

8 microsieverts/hr4 microsieverts/hr2 microsieverts/hr1 microsieverts/hr0.5 microsieverts/hr0.25 microsieverts/hr0.125microsieverts/hr

Normal dose rate before Fukushima disaster: 0.08 microsieverts/hr

I gave birth to my daughter just after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred. Even in Japan, over 8,000 kilometres away, radioactivity was detected. This news scared me because I was breastfeeding. The Fukushima nuclear power plant is located about 40km east of my house. I was deeply concerned.

I started to self-study and shared what I learned about the risk of nuclear with friends and acquaintances. However, over time I moved away from the anti-nuclear movement. I became too busy raising my five children.

On the afternoon of 15 March, four days after the earthquake and tsunami, the alarm on the family’s personal radiation reader went off and kept beeping, with the levels of radiation going up and up. For the family, it was a really terrifying moment.

Mrs Ogawara feels so strongly about the dangers of nuclear power that she travelled to Germany in November to join other farmers speaking out during protests against the shipping of nuclear waste from France to Gorleben.

Until now I was anti nuclear energy, but I didn’t do much about it. And now that such a terrible accident has happened I’ve started to feel that if I don’t do something now then when wilI I do it? If we don’t do anything, who will? Every day I wonder what I should do. I’ve decided to try doing even tiny things, everything that I can offer.

Shin Ogawara and Tatsuko Ogawara (55 and 57) are worried about the future of their organic farm, which has been cultivated by the family for at least six generations –- over 130 years. They have five children and expect their eldest son to eventually continue the family tradition and run the farm in Funehiki in the Fukushima prefecture.

They produce 50 different kinds of vegetables and rice and also raise cows and chickens. Most of the produce is sold locally although sales are down. Since the Fukushima nuclear accident, they test their crops and land regularly themselves.

The family hope their organic farming methods will ensure their land was not as affected by radiation as much as conventional farms. They have been allowed to return to their farm and, despite the accident and worries, they are looking to the future. Mr Ogawara has decided to keep running the family farm.

If I was to continue organic farming elsewhere, it would take 20 to 30 years to prepare the soil. Right now I am 55, and if it takes that long to prepare the soil it means I’ll be at least 75. To leave here and start somewhere else is pretty near impossible.

The Chernobyl nuclear accident 25 years ago made the Ogawara family more sensitive to the dangers of nuclear accidents than most. Just after Chernobyl, Mrs Ogawara gave birth to her first child and bought a device to read radiation levels because she lived so near the Fukushima nuclear plant and was worried about potential accidents.

Mr and Mrs Ogawara From: Funehiki Evacuated to: Koriyama for five days

Mr Sato “We have this feeling that we want to go, but we can’t leave our grandparents who want to stay where they have been living for so long. You can’t just evacuate yourself.”

“Even if the older people stay and eventually get sick, in 20 or 30 years they are already at an age where they are going to die anyway. But the younger people, if they get sick, then that’s something that’s a little bit more serious. We [the younger generation] have this feeling that we want to go, but we can’t leave our grandparents who want to stay where they have been living for so long. You can’t just evacuate yourself.

For Mr Sato not only were people affected by the accident, a whole way of life was changed. He laments that although he grew up in the countryside, he may never be able to return to the life he once knew.

I used to go to the mountains and pick wild vegetables during my lunch break and make them into tempura. There is a movement right now of cleaning up the radiation and moving back, but even if you clean up the radiation in the mountains when can we go back and eat these mushrooms and wild vegetables? You don’t know.

Even when I was little I would go to the mountains and teach myself which mushrooms were edible and which ones were not. There is a river flowing there and I even learned where the fish are concentrated. So, you can even say I was brought up by nature.

On March 21, 10 days after the Fukushima disaster, Kenta Sato (29) started putting pressure on the government to provide real information on the accident to the inhabitants of the nearby village of Iitate, where he was born. He now has some 6,000 followers on his Twitter account.

During the initial aftermath of the accident, Mr Sato became concerned about returning to work after reading reports on the safety of the area around his birth village. The information he saw on the internet conflicted with information coming from the authorities broadcast by the regular media, such as TV. The exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear disaster site is 30km, Iitate is 45km away.

He had doubts about going back to Iitate because of the accuracy of radiation readings, not knowing where they came from or what they meant. However, since he worked for his father he felt that the son of the manager could not stay away while others returned to work.

Iitate is a place where you can’t find a lot of information. The older people usually get information from the television and the younger from the internet. As my father heard that you only had to evacuate around the 30km radius, and our village is further away, he was under the impression it was safe.

Mr Sato no longer lives in the village. He left his job and moved back to Fukushima City to carry on his campaign. An article about his personal campaign appeared in the Wall Street Journal. However, he still felt uncomfortable and responsible for finding out more information, especially to protect the children in Iitate. Through his Twittering action, he got more information on exactly what the radiation numbers meant.

Kenta SatoFrom: Iitate Evacuated to: Fukushima City

Tsushima

Fukushima city

Itate





Mrs Suzuki “...I am worried because there are people who have evacuated. The people who thought they

should leave have already left. It is hard for me becauseI

have to deal with my son soI haven’t made any movements

towards quitting my job.”

The reason why we are staying here is because he is in the third grade in high school, the last year before college and, if you know the Japanese system, that’s the hardest year. And I am not going to move and leave him behind.

But I am worried because there are people who have evacuated. The people who thought they should leave have already left. It is hard for me because I have to deal with my son, so I haven’t made any movements towards quitting my job. And there is also the issue of finances so we haven’t made any plans towards leaving this place at the moment.

Despite this, her 13 year old daughter now stays with her family in Hokaido after the family visited in the summer. Mrs Suzuki doesn’t expect to see her daughter again until the spring.

Before she left here, she did have a change in lifestyle in how she would go to school and come back and we would not go outside. I want her to evacuate and feel safe. Our youngest daughter also needs to start elementary school so we are looking for schools here and also in Hokaido. For now our life is on hold.

Mrs. Akiyo Suzuki (44) was living in Fukushima City with her husband and three children when the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster hit. The accident at the nuclear power plant has forced her young family to split up and has had a major effect on her life.

From the beginning of the crisis, Mrs Suzuki – who works for a pharmaceutical company – found it hard to find clear information about the dangers from the accident, and discovered great differences on the internet compared with newspapers and television.

From before, I was in the habit of buying things without pesticide, and now I try to buy things without radiation but it’s not always written on the package.

Not only has her grocery shopping been affected but her whole family has been as well. Mrs Suzuki has three children: her son, the oldest, is in his last year at school, her 13-year-old daughter is a first grader in middle school, and her five-year-old daughter is about to begin school.

When the Fukushima accident happened, Mrs Suzuki’s mother initially called her at least twice a day to check on the family’s safety. Both her mother and her younger sister – who live in Hokaido – have invited them to move there, but the family decided that most of them would stay in Fukushima because of the son’s education.

Mrs Akiyo Suzuki From: Fukushima City Evacuated to: Hokkaido for one month

Tsushima

Fukushima city

Funehiki





Ms Oga “Finally by 9.30pm, we heard on the radio that there was

an evacuation within the 3km zone and that people who lived

within 10km were advised to stay inside their houses. At that moment, I realised the nuclear

accident was really happening.”

The house looked all right. It hadn’t collapsed in the aftershocks, but the land we wanted to farm and the rice fields were a mess, overgrown with lots of weed.

Ms Oga’s dog had disappeared without a trace. She has no idea if he is dead or alive. His chain was broken, so he may have been released by somebody, or escaped by himself.

The radiation levels in the exclusion zone are still very high, so Ms Oga has no idea when they will ever be able to return. Since the accident, they have moved numerous times between relatives and different centres. Currently, she is living in a small apartment in Aizu, far from her home.

For now, her husband has found a job and they also receiving some compensation money from a fund that Tepco, the owner of the nuclear plant in Fukushima, set up together with international agencies.

I would like to stay with the Okuma Machi community, but I am not sure if that will happen. As for our home, due to the Japanese climate, the wooden house will start to need repairs after about 10 years, and the farm land will be in a bad condition. The whole area will be very difficult to decontaminate. Maybe we will be able to return one day where the radiation levels are low enough that we can farm again.

Ayako Oga (39), long-time resident and farmer from the village of Okuma Machi, was evacuated from her newly built home when the disaster struck. She may never be able to return because it is 7.5km from the Daiichi nuclear plant, and now inside the exclusion zone.

Ms Oga and her husband had recently finished building their new home, which was designed by a friend according to their wishes, and had just moved in. Their new house is built with wood from the local forest, is energy efficient with solar panels, and they have their own water well.

On 11 March, Ms Oga was in the carpenter’s workshop to discuss some work on the house when the earthquake happened. After the emergency, the electricity went out and she realised that something serious was going on; she was worried about a potential nuclear accident.

We drove 5, 10km to try and get reception on the radio because we wanted information, but still there was no reception. Finally by 9.30pm we heard on the radio that there was an evacuation within the 3km zone and that people who lived within 10km were advised to stay inside their houses. At that moment, I realised the nuclear accident was really happening.

The couple had to make the most difficult choice of their lives:

We wanted to return to the village and tell our friends and neighbours to evacuate. We also knew our dog was tied up at the house.

But Ms Oga and her husband also realised they had to keep driving. It was just too dangerous to return. They drove 40km to a friend’s house. There they watched the news and then they knew for sure that the nuclear plant had exploded. As with other people in the region, she has had three chances to return to her property, but she did not want to apply, believing that it shouldn’t be so easy for people to return to such a contaminated area. Her husband did go for the second allowed visit to have a look.

Ms Ayoko OgaFrom: Okuna MachiEvacuated to: Isewa

Tsushima

Fukushima city

Okuna Machi





Ms Tanji “I closed [the school] down right after the accident for four days and, even then, they requested me to keep it open. But I said for the sake of the children let me take four days off.”

The parents removed and buried the top soil in a corner of the school grounds after wrapping it in plastic. They also cleaned the roof of the school.

During the summer holidays, the government finally sent the school an educational poster explaining to children how to play outside safely. They were told to avoid water in gutters or on grass. Happy children on the poster explain how they dust themselves off to make sure contamination doesn’t come inside. Ms Tanji is not surprised this is all the help and information the government has sent her.

In reality I would like the children to go away from this area. But since the parents have work around here, they need this service. They want me to continue. I closed it down right after the accident for four days and, even then, they requested me to keep it open. But I said for the sake of the children let me take four days off.

The only thing they can do is prevent more radiation being consumed by making sure they are given food that is not from inside the prefecture. They stopped serving milk and are now serving yoghurt from elsewhere.

Yoko Tanji (57), headmistress of Minami Nursery School in Fukushima, continues to run the school even though she’d prefer the children were moved away from the radiation. She has only been able to keep her school operating because the parents of her 165 pupils decontaminated it to make it safer for the children, whose ages range from young babies to six years old. The government did not help.

Ms Tanji, a trained nurse, insisted on shutting her nursery school for four days following the earthquake, ensuing tsunami and nuclear disaster, to protect the children. With the help of a father who had equipment for reading radiation levels, she determined the levels outside of the building and in the school play area.

Having still not received any information from the government, in June the parents cleaned up the school yard with the help of Fukushima Network for Saving Children, a local charity. They wanted their children to be able to play outside in a safe environment.

After they cleaned up, we sent a survey to the parents and asked if they thought it was okay to let the children play outside. The amount of radiation went down to about an eighth of what it was. There were some parents who thought it was okay , and some parents who thought it wasn’t. We decided to shorten the amount of time the children spent outside.

Ms TanjiFrom: Fukushima CityEvacuated to: Didn’t leave

Tsushima

Fukushima city

Funehiki





Greenpeace International,

Ottho Heldringstraat 5,

1066 AZ Amsterdam,

The Netherlands

www.greenpeace.org/fukushima

Shadowlands

Documents

Transcript of Shadowlands