UN Scientific Committee’s Dialogue Meeting Rocks – “No Change in Conclusion” when Error Pointed Out
2022/07/22
The United Nations Science Commission on Radiation Effects from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (UNSCEAR), which compiled a report on the effects of radiation exposure from last year to this year, held an interactive meeting in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 21 to explain the contents of the report to the public. The meeting was held in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. The former UNSCEAR chair Gillian Haas and others explained that the radiation doses were low and that cancer and other health problems did not occur, but domestic researchers raised questions one after another, saying that the report contained errors and underestimated radiation doses.
From July 19 to 22, UNSCEAR has been conducting “outreach activities” in Japan to disseminate the report. On this day, a meeting for the public was held for the first time, attended by about 30 people, including domestic researchers and media representatives. The meeting began with an hour-long presentation on the report, which cited 500 papers selected from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed articles and other materials published by the end of 2019. He emphasized that the report was scientific and objective, citing 500 papers selected from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed papers published by the end of 2019, and pointed out that the radiation dose from the accident was extremely low. He pointed out that the radiation doses from the accident were extremely low. The report concluded that the large number of pediatric thyroid cancers found in Fukushima Prefecture were not the result of the accident, but rather “the result of ultra-sensitive screening tests.
Dr. Hiyako Sakiyama, a medical doctor and president of the NPO 3.11 Thyroid Cancer Children’s Fund, raised the issue of the radiation dose of radioactive iodine being estimated in half based on the dietary habits of the Japanese people. Looking at the amount of iodine in urine, which is publicized as a result of the secondary thyroid examination conducted by Fukushima Prefecture, she pointed out that “the amount of iodine that Japanese people are consuming from food is the same as the world average. He refuted the report, saying that the exposure in the report was “clearly underestimated.
Shinichi Kurokawa, professor emeritus at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), criticized the existence of impossible data in the report. He pointed out that the deposition rate of radioactive cesium, which is used as a model for simulations to estimate absorbed doses in the thyroid gland, is at a “physically impossible” rate. He harshly criticized the report.
He also sharply criticized the previous day’s press conference, in which Kurokawa and his group of researchers had responded that the error was a mere typo and that they had not received any suggestions that would change their conclusions. He expressed his anger, saying, “Why did they say that?”
In addition, a number of people from the audience raised questions about the data used and its contents, including a former fishery cooperative official who complained that the doses of fish he had measured had been revised downward. Haas and others, however, reiterated that while they would verify the areas pointed out, their conclusions would not change.
The term “scientific” means “picked up from published papers.”
In an interview with Synodos, former Japanese representative Mamon Akashi emphasized that the report was scientific. When asked about the fierce criticism that was leveled at him in his dialogue with the public, he responded. The report is based on a review of published papers, with the exception of personal dosimeter data from Minamisoma and Naraha, but most of the data has been reviewed. I only said that I picked up the data from the published papers, and I described it as scientific, not that I arbitrarily excluded any papers or tried to exclude any papers. I didn’t say that I arbitrarily excluded or tried to exclude any papers,” he responded.
He also emphasized that he had no idea about the report’s suggestion that errors had occurred in its own analysis, since it was outside his area of expertise.
Exposure to radiation from nuclear power plant accident, UN Scientific Committee concludes that “possibility of health hazard is low”….but Fukushima venue voices doubts
July 22, 2022
On July 21, the United Nations Scientific Committee on Radiation Effects (UNSCEAR), which compiled a report on the health effects of radiation exposure following the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, held an exchange of opinions with researchers in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. Gillian Haas, former chairperson of UNSCEAR, explained that “overall radiation doses are low and the possibility of an increase in cancer and other health problems is low. The researchers questioned the report, saying that it underestimated the radiation exposure.
The report was published in March of last year, summarizing the results of peer-reviewed papers published from the time of the accident to the end of 2019. Dr. Mikhail Baranov, the author of the report, commented on the large number of pediatric thyroid cancers confirmed in Fukushima Prefecture, saying, “I think the results of the ultra-sensitive screening tests have had an impact.
Many questions were raised from the audience. Dr. Hiyako Sakiyama, Ph.D., representative director of the “3.11 Thyroid Cancer Children’s Fund,” pointed out the problem of estimating the exposure to radioactive iodine released by the accident to be half the world average, based on a paper published more than 50 years ago, which stated that Japanese people eat a lot of marine products. As the Fukushima Prefectural People’s Health Survey shows, the amount of iodine ingested by Japanese people is the same as the world average,” she said. This is a clear underestimation of exposure.
Shinichi Kurokawa, a physicist emeritus professor at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), said, “In addition to several incorrect graphs and data, the report also gives physically impossible figures and underestimates the radiation doses by misquoting papers. It is far from a scientific report,” he criticized. Kurokawa and his group of researchers also demanded that the report be independently verified and that its conclusions be retracted.
The committee will consider modifying or correcting the points raised, but Haas said of the report, “The conclusions are solid and will not change significantly in the future.
The three members of the committee met with the governor of Fukushima Prefecture on March 20. Immediately thereafter, Chiba Chikako, 74, of the Ajisai no Kai, which supports pediatric thyroid cancer patients and others, directly asked Borislava Metcalfe, Executive Director, to reconsider the report, saying, “The conclusions of the report may promote discrimination and prejudice against patients and their families.
A woman who accompanied Ms. Chiba, a junior high school student at the time of the accident who developed thyroid cancer, said, “I am distressed that the report concludes that there is no causal relationship between radiation exposure and cancer in the absence of sufficient data on initial exposure doses. I hope that a proper investigation will be conducted. (Natsuko Katayama)
https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/191115?fbclid=IwAR16GvbZd5dYfA4sfOm3ED7X1-YJiOn-MLdbTAN4l_E_N6gAKyWF5s9SWsw
Seismic intensity of 5 on the Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan; operation suspended between Takahagi and Tomioka on Joban Line
May 22, 2022
At around 0:24 p.m. on March 22, an earthquake centered off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture hit Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, with an intensity of just under 5 on the Japanese seismic scale, while Koriyama City, Hirono Town, Tomioka Town, Namie Town, and other areas in Fukushima Prefecture registered an intensity of 4 on the Japanese scale. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the epicenter was about 5 km deep, and the magnitude of the quake was estimated at 6.0. There is no concern of a tsunami from this quake.
According to East Japan Railway Company, the earthquake caused a temporary power outage on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line between Shin-Shirakawa and Shiroishi Zao, suspending operations, which resumed at 0:32 pm. The line was reportedly delayed by up to 10 minutes.
Also, due to the earthquake, operation is suspended on the Joban Line between Takahagi (Takahagi City, Ibaraki Prefecture) and Tomioka (Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture) on the up and down lines.
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ5Q44YWQ5QUTIL00F.html?fbclid=IwAR23WM3gBJHdz7AUbi7pmI1lkOKNgpPyNpvK_TRmjrqeTGOk52FCnPCen8w
A housewife will run as candidate for Iwaki City Election 2020: “I want to protect Iwaki’s children”
[Iwaki City Election 2020] “I want to protect Iwaki’s children” A housewife who has continued to measure radioactivity decides to run for a bid.
Translated by Hervé Courtois
June 11, 2020
A housewife working on the nuclear accident problem that has been going on since 2011 will run for the Iwaki City election in September. She continues to measure air doses and soil radioactive pollution to protect children from exposure risks, and decided to take the first challenge to reflect the voices of life-saving mothers in municipal administration.
I can’t vote for the nuclear accident, and I can’t do what I want to do in Corona, but I want all of Iwaki’s children to grow healthy and quickly. For that, I must do what I can do now. I am aiming for a win. The voting and voting is September 13th.
[“Pollution is still ongoing”]
Mrs. Saori Suzuki (51) = Hirashita Hirakubo, Iwaki City = is preparing for her candidacy.
Born in Osaka. Lived in Osaka until the age of 2 and moved to Tokyo and Saitama when his father moved. After getting married, she started living in Iwaki. She lives with her husband, a daughter in the second year of college, and a son in the third year of high school. She ‘s been living in Iwaki for more than 20 years.
After all, the turning point was the nuclear accident in March 2011. Until then, she had only served as chairman of the PTA at a school where children attended. Active as a member of “Mothers’ Association Pursuing Initial Exposure to Iwaki”. While running a cram school, she continues to measure air dose and soil pollution density in schools and kindergartens.
“At that time, the children were in the 4th and the 2nd grades of elementary school. According to the location of the school, it could exceed 3μSv/h depending on the location. After continuing the measuring, the nuclear accident was not over, pollution was still continuing. I want all the children in Iwaki City to grow up in good health, not just their own children. It is the foundation of society to grow healthy both physically and mentally. Don’t sacrifice children for the sake of adults.”
In April 2018, when a plan to remove monitoring posts (real-time dosimetry system) installed in front of stations and schools emerged, a request form was submitted to Mayor Toshio Shimizu with the mothers in the city. In the request form, 1) that the residents have the right to decide whether or not the MP are not required 2) Do not remove until the decommissioning work is completed 3) Do not hold future scheduled inhabitants briefings on the premise of removal ─ I asked the mayor of Shimizu to appeal to the government, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finally withdrew the blank plan.
9 years have passed since the nuclear accident. Neither the government nor the Fukushima Prefecture will say anything about the exposure risk in areas where evacuation orders were not issued, they were only saying that the air dose had dropped significantly.
However, Mrs. Suzuki says from the experience that she continues to measure, “The air dose and soil pollution are different. Even if the air dose is low, the soil below it is often heavily contaminated with radioactivity. Even if the air dose is low, we cannot rest assured that it is impossible to completely restore the condition before the nuclear accident, but I think adults must continue to make efforts to approach it.” ..
The issue of nuclear accident and radiation exposure risk is said to be “not a vote”, and has not been the issue of elections in Fukushima. “I’m afraid to raise the issue of radioactive pollution and exposure to the front. I think I’m tired of thinking, but I don’t want to ignore that problem,” she said. In the third leaflet, she wrote, “Radioactivity problem after the nuclear accident.”
After the nuclear accident, when Iwaki City, which used rice produced in Hokkaido for school lunch, announced a policy to switch to rice produced in Iwaki, she joined the opposition movement. The LDP-affiliated city council welcomed “Promote rice consumption expansion and local production for local consumption” and “Dispel rumor and save local farmers”, but Suzuki signed the voice of a mother concerned about internal radiation Or submitted a request form to the city. Eventually, she heard a voice saying, “Do you disturb the reconstruction?” It is said that the farmers also strongly blamed her.
“I was asked what would happen to farmers. I was talking about compensation, but… I was accused directly over the phone. I also received an email. I hope you guys leave.”
Still, she did not stop activities to protect children from radioactive materials. She couldn’t stop.
Joined the Constitutional Democratic Party. Run as an official candidate. Although I thought about running as non-affiliated candidate, the winning line in the previous 2016 city council election was 2300 votes. An unnamed newcomer without an organization has high hurdles. “I can’t pursue an ideal society without being elected and not joining parliament,” says Suzuki.
“I think some people have different opinions, but I don’t have experience or an organization. I still need a backup. Local people said, “If you can run from the LDP, you will win easily.” ” If you can not say what you want to say, there is no point in winning.”
There is also a desire to increase the number of women councilorss.
“We also worked hard in last year’s 10/12 flood damage. The whole city was in hell. Many households use septic tanks, and sewage as well as muddy water entered the houses. Moved for the stunned residents. Fortunately, my home was not flooded, so I cleaned the flooded public hall with a high pressure washer. With that as the “support base,” we began distributing relief supplies.”
“It was natural that we needed human resources and supplies, but in fact, it was not the only thing that the victims needed. In cooperation with the government and the Council of Social Welfare, we have established a tea-only corner where you can talk about anything even if you are complaining. It’s important to have a cup of tea and take a break. That’s why I can do my best again. As with the nuclear accident, flood damage has not ended.
▽Is less than 3 months until the notification date. I can’t move as expected due to coronal blight, and I get impatient. If there were no problems with the new coronavirus, we would have held a lot of tea talks and mini gatherings, but… We plan to open an office in July, so I will do my best to prepare.”
━ Can a new wind be blown into Iwaki City Council 10 years after the nuclear accident? The voting and voting is September 13th.
Fukushima mothers record radiation for future generations
A member of Mothers’ Radiation Lab Fukushima cuts green tops off of turnips to measure their radiation level in a lab in Iwaki
April 10, 2020
Iwaki, Fukushima Pref. – A group of more than 10 mothers set up a citizen-led laboratory to monitor radiation levels in Fukushima communities only months after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at a nuclear power plant in the prefecture nine years ago.
Since the foundation of the institute on Nov. 13, 2011, it has been recording and disclosing radiation data on foodstuffs and soil it collected or were brought in by people from different parts of the prefecture, as well as seawater off the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
“If the risks of nuclear power had been thoroughly verified by the previous generations, I think the disaster would not have happened,” Kaori Suzuki, 54, an executive of Mothers’ Radiation Lab Fukushima, based in Iwaki, said in a recent interview.
“But since it did occur, what we must do now is record our measurements and changes in the environment so we won’t make the same mistake,” said Suzuki, one of the founding members. “Passing down something that will be useful when major decisions must be made is the only thing we can do.”
The laboratory of 18 staff members, many of them mothers who mostly had no prior experience in measuring radiation, have trained themselves with support from scientists, and they now gauge levels of cesium 134, cesium 137, tritium and strontium 90 with five types of machines.
Samples they have measured include dust in vacuum cleaners, vegetables grown in home gardens, seasonal mushrooms picked in mountains and soil gathered in parks.
They have occasionally detected radiation above safety levels, and reports the lab releases every month on its website have specified which machine is used and other details for each outcome to make their activities as transparent as possible.
Their efforts have made academic contributions as well, with their measuring methods and results published in scientific journals such as Applied Radiation and Isotopes in 2016.
Suzuki said they started the initiative out of desperation to protect their children.
“We had to measure and eat. It was a matter of life and death,” the mother of two said.
As of April 6, 468 people in Iwaki, about 50 kilometers south of the crippled Fukushima plant, had died as a result of the events of March 2011, while more than 20,000 remained evacuated in and outside the city.
Noriko Tanaka, 40, who joined the group in May 2018, said studying radiation levels has changed how she perceives the environment around her.
“You don’t need to fear everything, randomly. Rather than worrying about everything and being stressed out by that, measuring and seeing the data make you relieved to find that some things are safer than you presumed,” Tanaka said.
“On the other hand, if you find a highly contaminated spot, for example, in a park where you thought it was safe to play, you can take precautionary measures,” she said.
Tanaka, who after the disaster temporarily fled from Iwaki to her husband’s home in Saitama Prefecture, found out during the evacuation that the couple were expecting their first child.
She had hoped to stay there or relocate elsewhere for safety, but with some family members not recognizing risks, her family eventually returned to Iwaki. Her husband was working at her family’s electrical construction firm, expecting orders for reconstruction in areas devastated by the March 11, 2011, triple disaster.
“At that time, the common atmosphere was like, ‘Do we need to go that far?’ I was pregnant and couldn’t live on my own. I couldn’t choose that. I had no choice but to be in Iwaki,” she said.
As time goes by, Tanaka has found that fewer people are discussing radiation effects.
The number of samples brought in by citizens last year was 1,573, up 131 from the year before, but it is showing a decreasing trend overall compared to years before, according to the lab.
“The Olympic Games are coming, and there are fewer media reports on radiation levels than before,” she said.
Officials have dubbed the Tokyo Summer Games the “Reconstruction Olympics,” with the hope of showcasing the country’s recovery from the 2011 catastrophe.
Because of that concept, the starting point of the Japan leg of the torch relay for the Olympics, which were recently put off for a year to the summer of 2021 due to the global coronavirus pandemic, was a soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture that served as a front-line base in the battle against the nuclear disaster.
Tanaka said logging accurate data and keeping them publicly available are all the more important. “To protect children, having information is essential in deciding what to eat or where to go,” she said, adding that judgments based on correct data will also prevent any discrimination.
Recalling that she lined up outside a supermarket for an hour with her children on March 13, 2011, Ai Kimura, who has two daughters, said, “Even now, sometimes I’m hit by remorse about my ignorance on radiation at that time.”
A couple of years later, Kimura, a member of the lab since March 2014, said she became even more insensitive to possible health risks after seeing her neighbors begin drying clothes and blankets outside, or having their children not wear masks.
“But when I joined the lab and started taking measurements, I was stunned that some showed high levels of radioactive contamination,” the 40-year-old said. “I was depressed. What have I done to my children because of my ignorance? … I think there are many mothers (who blame themselves) like me.”
Kimura said she feels that the fears people have toward the new coronavirus are similar to those toward radiation, as they are both invisible.
“Everyone forgets about (radiation) because its effects in 10 or 20 years are uncertain, unlike the new coronavirus that shows pneumonia-like symptoms in a couple of weeks,” she said. “I realized again that people in affected areas like us have been living every day with the same feelings toward the coronavirus pandemic.”
“It’s exhausting,” she said, adding her daughters must have had a hard time as she made them do things differently from their friends, such as wearing masks. “But I felt I was not wrong when my daughter said to me recently, ‘I was being protected by you, mom.’”
In addition to conducting surveys on radiation readings in the environment and food items, the lab in May 2017 opened a clinic with a full-time doctor to provide free medical checkups on internal exposure.
“I think it’s necessary to keep checking children’s health as they grow up, rather than drawing a conclusion saying there won’t be any problem with this level of radiation exposure,” said Misao Fujita, 58, a doctor who is a native of Tochigi Prefecture.
Fujita said the amount of radiation exposure dosage and risks of health damage differ among children even if they live in the same area, depending on such factors as their location and behavior in the days after the nuclear disaster, whether they evacuated and what they eat now.
Those who underwent Fujita’s medical checkups when they were children include a woman who now takes her own child to the clinic, in addition to a number of young decontamination workers.
“The nuclear disaster is something that’s carried on to coming generations. That’s what we have left,” Fujita said. “We must also not forget that about 30,000 people are still unable to return to their hometowns in the prefecture. The disaster isn’t over yet.”
Japanese Mothers Find High Levels of Radiation in Food Post-Fukushima Disaster
Support the “Mothers’ Radiation Lab Fukushima” with your donations
Activities of “Mothers’ Radiation Lab Fukushima”
Nuclide measurement: Caesium 134, 137 · Strontium 90 · Tritium
Cooperating associations: Okinawa – Kumi no Sato, others
Cooperating associations: Team “Team Mama Beku: group protecting the children’s environment”
Contractor overcharging Iwaki, Tamura for decontamination workers’ lodging expenses in Fukushima
A construction company on Friday disclosed that has been padding the lodging bills of the decontamination workers involved in decommissioning work related to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
Hazama Ando Corp. said an internal probe had found that one of its employees instructed a subcontractor to overcharge the Iwaki and Tamura municipal governments by a combined ¥80 million (around $724,770) and to make it appear that more workers were involved. Receipts for their lodging expenses were found to have been altered.
The central government is helping prefectural and municipal governments decontaminate areas tainted by fallout from the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant in March 2011.
The contractors secure related work orders from both sectors, but the main contractors customarily shoulder the expenses of the subcontractors, after which the state reimburses them and asks Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. to foot the bill.
Toshiaki Nomura, president of the Tokyo-based construction company, apologized for the incident, which involved the padding of bills related to both decontamination and radiation monitoring in the two cities, which are both around 40 km from the crippled complex.
The company was found to have overcharged Iwaki by an estimated ¥53 million and Tamura by around ¥27 million and to have overstated the number of workers mobilized.
Hazama Ando charged Iwaki ¥7,500 per overnight stay instead of ¥5,000, and stated that around 15,000 workers were involved instead of the actual 11,000.
The Tamura Municipal Government was charged ¥5,500 per person for accommodation, or ¥500 higher than the actual amount, and was told that 10,000 workers were involved rather than 5,600.
Hazama Ando is looking into why an employee instructed a subcontractor to overcharge for accommodations and make it appear that more workers were involved. The employee in question has told the company he had acted “haphazardly.”
Japan’s post-tsunami recovery plan: tomatoes, fish and hula-dancing
Six years after the Fukushima disaster, local government is working with private firms in one Japanese city to rebuild its economy
Tomatoes growing in Japan’s Wonder Farm as part of Iwaki City’s reconstruction efforts after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
It’s a cold January day in Iwaki City, 211km north of Tokyo. But here, in a balmy glasshouse, light and sunny, pop music is being piped in, and tonnes of tomatoes are ripening and being picked.
They’re not in the ground; they’re being grown from waist-high pots of coconut matting. These are no ordinary tomatoes. They are growing on Wonder Farm, an “integrated agricultural theme park”, run by Tomato Land Iwaki, which is part-funded by the local city council and the Fukushima prefecture.
But another of the Wonder Farm partners is train firm Japan Rail East, which sells the tomatoes via its own restaurants. Because these small red fruits are part of plans by the local city government and local businesses to reinvigorate the local Iwaki economy after the devastating impact of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor, a mere 50km up the coast.
After such a cataclysmic series of events, rebuilding an economy based on fishing, agriculture and tourism is not easy. It requires some innovative thinking. Luckily, that’s something with which this area is already familiar. Fifty years ago, another of its industries, coal mining, faced decline. Here in Iwaki City, the Joban coal mining company came up with a novel idea. It retrained coal miners’ daughters as hula dancers and created the Spa Resort Hawaiians, Japan’s first theme park, which from its opening in 1966 until the events of March 2011, attracted thousands of visitors a year to its array of pleasures, including golf, a huge swimming pool and hot springs centre, and, of course, hula dancing and fire knife displays.
“We were driven by the need to survive,” explains Yukio Sakamoto, a director at the Joban coal mining company. “Yes, it was a radical change, but it was a success because everyone in the company focused on the plan. It wasn’t about knowledge or expertise, but mindset.” The idea faced considerable opposition: “People said coal miners should just dig coal. But we trained the daughters of coal miners as professional dancers.”
That kind of ingenuity has been called for even more since 2011 in this part of Japan. It’s been hard work for everyone involved to try and get visitors back to the region and to restart the market for local food and produce. The city government has worked with regional and national bodies to measure radioactivity levels in local produce, and the figures are publicly available. But rebuilding trust that food from Fukushima is safe has been slow. The local fish market may be open, but almost all its stock is from elsewhere in the country.
Still, at least it is open and Senzaka Yoshio, one of the officers at the La Mew Mew fish market, which was badly damaged by the earthquake and tsunami, says visitor levels are now back up to 80% of the pre-disaster days.
Further along the quay from the fish market are more fish. Live ones, this time, in the spacious tanks of the Fukushima Aquarium. When the tsunami hit, this aquarium lost 90% of its creatures. It reopened just four months later, in July 2011, a feat possible, according to executive director Yoshitaka Abe, due to teamwork, local leadership and co-operation with other aquarium authorities, who sent specialists and volunteers to help with the reconstruction work.
The Fukushima aquarium, which reopened just four months after the tsunami of March 2011.
For Sakamoto, at the Spa Resort Hawaiians, overcoming the 2011 disaster has been about local people. The resort has brought more than 9,500 jobs to the area. On the day of the earthquake, there were 617 guests in the hotel. All got safely home. But many employees lost family members and homes. “We continue our operation thinking about the people who suffered,” he says. “Our main idea was not to fire people because of the difficulty in the business, but to redeploy them.”
Futaba daruma a symbol of hope, nostalgia for Fukushima
Many people visited a daruma fair to buy Futaba darumas in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on Jan. 7.
Daruma dolls, traditional round-shaped representations of the Indian priest Bodhidharma used as charms for the fulfillment of special wishes, are typically painted red, the color of his religious vestment, and have black eyebrows and a wispy beard painted on a white face.
But Futaba daruma, produced in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, feature blue-rimmed faces. The blue represents the Pacific Ocean, which stretches to the east of the town.
On the New Year’s Day, many of the townsfolk would go to the seaside to watch the first sunrise of the year turning the vast expanse of water into a sea of shiny gold.
But the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, which generated massive tsunami and the catastrophic accident at the nuclear power plant partly located in the town, drastically changed the fate of Futaba.
All of the residents were evacuated. Even now, 6,000 or so townsfolk live in 38 prefectures across the nation.
When I asked evacuees what they missed about life in the town before the nuclear disaster, they cited tea they would drink together with other members of the community after farm work, the local Bon Festival dance and local “kagura,” or sacred Shinto music and dancing. They also talked nostalgically about the rice and vegetable fields which they took great care of, the croaking of frogs, flying fireflies and the sweet taste of freshly picked tomatoes.
What was lost is the richness of life that cannot be bought.
Kaori Araki, who has just celebrated reaching adulthood, cited the smell of the sea. “But what I miss most is my relationships with people,” she added.
After leaving Futaba, Araki lived in Tokyo and Fukui, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures before settling down in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. Her current residence is her seventh since she left an evacuation center.
On that day in March 2011, Araki, then a second-year junior high school student, escaped the tsunami with a friend. At a Coming-of-Age ceremony on Jan. 3, she met the friend, who also ended up living in a remote community, for the first time in about six years.
The government plans to ensure that some areas in Futaba will be inhabitable in five years. The municipal government has estimated that the town’s population a decade from now will be between 2,000 and 3,000.
In a survey of heads of families from Futaba conducted last fall, however, only 13 percent of the respondents said they wanted to return to the town.
A daruma fair to sell Futaba daruma started in front of temporary housing in Iwaki on Jan. 7.
The fair has been organized by volunteers since 2012 to keep this local New Year tradition alive. On Jan. 8, special buses brought people to the event from various locations both inside and outside the prefecture. There must have been many emotional reunions at the fair.
There were some green-colored daruma dolls sold at the fair as well. Green is the color of the school emblem of Futaba High School, which is to be closed at the end of March.
I hope that the daruma sold at the fair will help the purchasers fulfill their respective wishes.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201701090024.html
Tsunami Evacuation Hindered by Traffic in Iwaki
Some residents who attempted to drive to higher ground after tsunami warnings in northeastern Japan early Tuesday found themselves caught in traffic.
An official of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, says a main road from the coastal district to inland areas was filled with cars apparently trying to evacuate.
The official says he saw many cars carrying entire families and that the traffic congestion was unusual for that time of day. He says the atmosphere was tense, as the residents were apparently reminded of the March 2011 tsunami.
He called on residents not to use their cars if they are able to evacuate on foot, as part of the road is designated as an area that could be submerged in the event of a tsunami.
In Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, more than 100 people evacuated to a park on higher ground.
But a narrow road leading to the park soon became jammed.
Some drivers parked their cars on the roadside, hindering others from getting by. Traffic was backed up for a long way as a result.
The city has been asking residents to evacuate on foot in principle.
Men Over 30 Whole-Body Counter Examination increasing at Iwaki city Mothers Radiation Lab
Since 2014 the number of men over 30 years old having whole body counter examination(Radioactivity measurement of the whole body) is increasing at the Tarachine Mothers Radiation Lab in Iwaki city, Fukushima,. Most of them are decontamination workers.
Whole-body counter men examinees breakdown by age.
Mother’s Radiation Lab & Clinic in Iwaki, Fukushima
A radiation measuring center organized and run by independent citizens, after being lied, betrayed and abandoned by the Japanese Government.
About them :
http://www.iwakisokuteishitu.com/english/aboutus.html
Here is the page of Tarachine in English with donation information using PayPal.
Iwaki Radiation Measuring Center NPO “Tarachine”
http://www.iwakisokuteishitu.com/english/e-donations.html
And some of their participating actions:
Fukushima Children Fund
https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/fukushima-children-fund/
East Japan Soil Measurement Project of Minna no Data, Dec.2015 to Sept. 2016
Fire destroys Fukushima nuclear disaster evacuee housing
Fueled by strong winds, fire engulfs temporary housing at the Yoshima industrial park in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on Oct. 6, 2016.
IWAKI, Fukushima — A fire on Oct. 6 destroyed temporary housing for residents of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, who evacuated here due to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, police said.
The fire broke out at around 4:25 p.m. and destroyed 19 homes in four single-story, prefabricated wooden buildings at the Yoshima industrial park in Iwaki. According to prefectural police, a 16-year-old boy was treated for smoke inhalation. The Okuma Municipal Government will supply the five households that lost their residences with housing elsewhere.
There were 72 households living in 86 of the 31-building complex’s 122 residences. Some 90 percent of Okuma residents’ original homes are within a nuclear disaster no-go zone around the Fukushima plant, and it is unknown when those living in the Yoshima industrial park might be able to return to the town.
Sho Tsukamoto, 29, an employee of a construction company who lost his residence and his possessions in the fire, said, “I even lost the picture of my dead father and other photos of my family that I brought from Okuma.”
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161007/p2a/00m/0na/006000c
Iwaki mayor makes formal request for city to host baseball, softball games during 2020 Olympics
Iwaki Mayor Toshio Shimizu on Friday presented a request to 2020 Tokyo Olympic organizers, seeking to host a baseball game and a softball game in the city in Fukushima Prefecture.
Shimizu submitted the request to Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, and Toshiei Mizuochi, senior vice minister of both the sports ministry and the Cabinet Office.
The request comes as Tokyo Olympic organizers are arranging to stage one first-round game each for baseball and softball in Fukushima Prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, as part of reconstruction efforts.
They are said to be considering Iwaki, Fukushima and Koriyama cities as candidate sites.
The Iwaki municipal government wants the games played at Iwaki Green Stadium, which is occasionally used for Japanese professional baseball games and was the venue of the Under-15 World Cup baseball competition in July and August.
Shimizu expressed hope that the stadium will be chosen as an Olympic venue as that would “give hope and courage” to survivors of the quake and tsunami which also triggered a nuclear accident in the prefecture.
The main ballpark for the 2020 Summer Games is set to be Yokohama Stadium in Kanagawa Prefecture.
In the request, Shimizu and the mayors of eight nearby towns and villages are also requesting that the Olympic torch relay run on National Route 6 in the coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture.
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