nuclear-news

Text and Photo by Yoshihiro Kaneda

In June, 2012, I went to the Fukushima Forum at the Iwaki City in Fukushima, Japan where I was born in. I heard victims’ voices which were facing against the power and they were very smart and new. They accumulated their knowledge and experiences from the past experiences of Minamata disease and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the forum, one guy who had lived near Fukushima Daiichi insisted on the importance of self-decision among people’s distrust of everything including the government, the congress, bureaucrats, industries, and the media.

In late September of 2013, I interviewed Setsuko Kuroda who was a member of Women from Fukushima Against Nukes and appears on the documentary “Women of Fukushima.” I am sorry for a late report and my English skill.

Q: Please tell me about the beginning of the Women from Fukushima Against Nukes?

A: After the accident, everybody evacuated here and there and I also evacuated once. Then, I returned here (the Koriyama City in Fukushima). We wanted something to do by those who lived here. I called Ruiko Mutoh (the representative of The Complainants for Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster) and Seiichi Nakate (the representative and mediator of Citizen’s Conference of the Support Child and Victims Law in The Nuclear Accident) to organize the meeting. At that time, radiation level in front of the Koriyama station was very high. It was the beginning that various movements were starting rapidly. So we did a protest meeting but there were sparse audiences in late April, 2011.

Q: What was the policy of the protest meeting?

A: We were not in dead silence.

Q: Did you already know people were in initial radiation exposure including iodine?

A: Yes. There were no big movement yet so we were in gloom. We wanted to express our anger and sorrow in the appreciable way. We were discussing about a sit-in in front of the prefectural office or Tokyo where more people would see us all over the country. While doing this, members were increasing. At the time, the youth gathered and started the No Nukes Tent in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Then, we decided the Three Days Sit-In there. Women who were good at the Internet mailed to spread our event information, women who were good at designing handouts created a handout, and we were discussing what we would do. Women from Fukushima exceeded over a hundred in a twinkling. It was our passionate debut on 28 to 30th October, 2011.

Q: I watched the closed meeting of the Women from Fukushima on YouTube. One member reported the situation of Chernobyl, one member reported the law of compensation for damaged assets, and other members also reported other issues. It looked very meaningful meeting. In the negotiation with bureaucrats of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on YouTube, I was so impressed by and understood clearly Ms. Kazue Morizono’s words “We, Women from Fukushima, have studied entire human history during a year.” I was surprised at the tremendous efforts how your group have accumulated knowledge, information, and experiences.

A: I had a chance to go to Chernobyl and reported it in the meeting. We have two regular meetings in a month. One is for decision making and one is for just a chat which we have known it is rather important. Facing each other with tea is very significant.

Q: How is recent situation?

A: After the event above, Women from Fukushima became famous abruptly among the antinuclear movements in Japan. Each splendid woman has innovated herself promptly. There are many problems such as the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial, the Complainants for Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, information for evacuation, safe food, and so on. So each woman has her own ground to act. It looks a little vague but it is good. Women from Fukushima should be humans to connect each movement like an ameba. The important is women’s flexibility, in other words, sloppiness which connects various movements against nukes. We have a huge annual event on March. Various people, citizens’ groups, and individuals come to the event from throughout the country and bring their plans to act and we organize workshops in two big venues. It will take hold. Women from Fukushima rent venues and schedule the event. It is a hard work for us.

Q: I know you are a ameba. Yesterday, I went to the Nationwide Meeting of Victim Relief of Nuclear Accident in Fukushima, speakers were a municipal assemblyman, a member of the opposition party, a lawyer, and representatives of NGOs. I didn’t want to see such authorities and I wanted the Women from Fukushima as speakers because you, the Women from Fukushima, stick directly to victims of the nuclear accident and you are also victims of the accident. But after the meeting, there was a social gathering at the upstairs in the same hall. I understood that guides, coordinators, and back uppers of audience were all of the members of Women from Fukushima. I figured out that the Women from Fukushima are very meaningful behind-the-scenes supporters.

A: Yes. Staffs of most events against nukes in Fukushima are us and the Women from Fukushima are here and there. We do important parts of various movements in Fukushima. Beside those activities, we have a group the Women from Fukushima Against Nukes which has no representative and we have only an accountant.

Q: I interviewed Mr. Kohzen, the lawyer of the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial. He said they could not gather plaintiffs in the Koriyama City and the Fukushima City in Fukushima, Japan. Why don’t people in both cities sue the administrator even though they have more cancer children than other cities in Fukushima?

A: There is an invisible pressure and is an oppressive atmosphere which encroaching on freedom of speech. We hardly say here is a very dangerous situation or it is good for children to evacuate. People like me are really the minority.

Q: What is an oppressive pressure?

A: See this scenery.(It was a beautiful, sunny, and peaceful pastoral landscape of suburb of the Koriyama City.) There is nothing bad in the scene and nobody mask here. Radiation is invisible and odorless which make us confuse. I rather hope if radiation is smelling bad everybody has a sense of crisis, but conversely the nation which is the base and the International atomic mafia seize that sense of crisis and mount a campaign which radiation is safe in various ways cleverly. They have money and use persons of title and their power is overwhelming.

The bus stop near her house is an ordinary rural scenery in Japan.

Q: Mr. Kohzen, the lawyer of the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial, said activists are like clandestine Kirishitans(Christians) in Fukushima.

A: We do not hide. But we are a minority overwhelmingly. You know, the left wing political parties such as the Social Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party insist on denuclearization but they have never said evacuation although Mizuho Fukushima, a previous leader of the Social Democratic Party, acted for evacuation from Fukushima earnestly. But their regional organization is different. Only a part of citizens’ groups like us screams evacuation which would be a negative image for them.

Q: Why is evacuation a negative image for them? Because continuous leaking radioactive water and air from the crippled plant blow toward North West, to the Koriyama City.

A: Due to the national policy. The nation and the prefecture government seem not to make Fukushima as a empty zone. Apparently, the Fukushima and Koriyama cities are in high radiation areas but the Fukushima City has the prefecture government and the Koriyama City is a commercial center in Fukushima. Both the national and the local governments do not want to hollow out of both cities. Moreover, if the government admit 1mSV per a year for an annual additional dose as a threshold which was old standard before the nuclear accident in Japan they should compensate over 1 million victims for their damages.
*The national policy is called all-people-return policy (it means that all evacuees return to Fukushima) which was decided by the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan), was changed on Dec 20th, 2013 by the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) as a ruling party. The cabinet of LDP announced the new policy that they would give compensation for evacuees from the most dangerous areas which are in over 50mSV per a year. Details are not announced yet.

* 1mSV per a year for an annual additional dose as a threshold is nationwide common requirement by most of Japanese.

Q: LDP’s assemblymen admitted their responsibility of inviting nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

A: Of course, three reactors exploded in visible. They declared denuclearization. But regarding with Fukushima issue, the important issue is having proper thoughts of children’s evacuation. However, actually, Fukushima seems to be suppressed by the skillful manipulation. They force us to forget everything like the accident never happened. They have money and title and they can influence a lot of people. They use various ways to persuade us. They use a person who have influence on regional communities. That person organizes a study meeting about radiation. Everybody is worrying about radiation so people gather at their meetings. If the person has a good title or is famous, people want to hear him or her. They give you a solution that you will be safe if you care about radiation. It happens everywhere in Fukushima such as study meetings and lecture meetings. If the host is the Koriyama City government, there would be a large audience for them.

* Regarding with radioactive contamination, the national and municipal governments take the same way to persuade people all over the country.

In front of the Koriyama City Station, people are waiting for the Crown Prince where public dose meter shows 2.09 mSV/h.

Q: Is a manipulator the national, prefectural, or city government?

A: All. There are many ways to do it. For example, they use citizens’ groups and individuals. The public information in the Koriyama City is terrible because their evidences of the radiation levels in the city are complete fictions. They announce it proudly with using tax. Their way to do that is from experiences of Chernobyl and they repeat in Japan.

Q: Whom do they use for persuasion of people? Are they Professors?

A: The most famous is Shunichi Yamashita, a vice president of Fukushima Medical University. And Sohkyu Genyu, a monk and a writer, lives in near the Koriyama City. We expected him first but he went over. He says radiation is safe like Yamashita. And a famous German translator was too. He was brainwashed. They might be brought over to the power carefully.

Q: Did they change by money from TEPCO(Tokyo Electric Power Company)? Because I read about the essay of a writer. TEPCO proposed $50,000 to interview him for TEPCO’s PR magazine. Usually, the guaranteed fee is $200 to $500. (After the interview, I read Makoto Sataka’s book. The book introduced Antonio Inoki who is a congressman and a Japanese professional wrestler got 1 million dollars for one time lecture for nuclear power plant promotion for a governor election in Aomori prefecture, Japan. The guaranteed fee is usually $30,000 at most. )

A: I don’t know. But it is possible.

Q: Why is the mass media called the Mass Garbage by protesters? I know the media didn’t pick up the movement of protesters until the 200,000 people’s march in June, 2012. And they reported only the government announcement.

A: The mass media is the biggest criminal. (She stared at me fixedly.) They don’t say truth. No media is good. The media is worse than TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company). The exception is Tokyo Shinbun (Tokyo News Paper). But we cannot buy a copy in Fukushima. Who can allow this children’s environment and the situation of workers for Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant? When workers accumulate a certain amount radiation in their bodies (TEPCO limits accumulated radiation dose for a worker due to their health,) TEPCO fire them and would not know what disease they will have after the retirement from the Fukushima Daiichi. TEPCO should carry out a follow-up survey on their health like a civil servant.

Q: What do you think activism and sectionalism?

A: Our movement is still conservative, I mean the way of activism is still old, in my sense. The movement requires women’s carelessness and composed sense. I often think men are exclusive. Women’s activism is more flexible, tender, easy to connect with, easy to leave from, and being free.

Q: Do you try not to oppress individuality?

A: No. If you feel tired due to the movement, the movement is something wrong. I believe the power which 200,000 individuals gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence spontaneously. It happened at that day. The power I believe is invisible now but it will change our roots by individuals.

Q: Thank you.