Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
3.11 2014 - Sydney, AU Report
Thank you for your efforts. These were our actions for 3.11
Uranium Free NSW held a commemoration vigil for Fukushima on 11/3/14. We gathered in Martin Place in central Sydney Australia at 5pm and handed out flyers.
At 7.30pm we held a candlelight vigil in front of Parliament House with 1 minute's silence in memory of the people lost in Fukushima.
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Uranium Free NSW held a commemoration vigil for Fukushima on 11/3/14. We gathered in Martin Place in central Sydney Australia at 5pm and handed out flyers.
At 7.30pm we held a candlelight vigil in front of Parliament House with 1 minute's silence in memory of the people lost in Fukushima.
Monday, March 17, 2014
3.11 2014 Laguna Beach, CA Report
My daughter, her friend and I stand at the center of this prayer line for Fukushima & the world on 3.11.14. Joining friends that we have worked with since we evacuated to California, gratitude goes out to MaryBeth Brangan & James Heddle for recording this special moment and for their relentless support in the movement. Please support their documentary, http://www.shutdowndoc.tv/
Our prayer: We send loving blessings to our Japanese friends and all those
suffering from Fukushima. We honor their suffering as sacred fuel
helping us to stop the nuclear insanity worldwide.
In helping them, we help ourselves and our progeny.
Powerful, meaningful day.
Cathy Iwane
Dear Friends,
Here is our report of our Fukushima 3rd. anniversary event
in Laguna Beach, C.A James Lerager curated with Mark
Chamberlain a commemorative art program at the BC Gallery Space
that included both photos and video.
Gary Headrick, Donna Gilmore and Harvey Wasserman spoke.
We showed our Shutdown: The California Fukushima Connection
trailer and videotaped the program after we had a silent group meditation
on the beach to connect with our Japanese network.
We send loving blessings to our Japanese friends and all those
suffering from Fukushima. We honor their suffering as sacred fuel to
stop the nuclear insanity worldwide.
Mary Beth and Jim
The Ecological Options Network
Sunday, March 16, 2014
3.11 2014 - Hilo, HI Report
We gathered during the evening on 3-11-14 at the Tsunami Memorial in Wailoa State Park in Hilo, HI. I was hoping to do a floating lantern event on the nearby body of water but the wind was blowing the wrong way and they would not float off so we changed plans and decided the mosaic in the memorial would simulate water so we lit the lanterns and and held our light boards that spelled out the simple message, NO NUKES. after recording all this we gathered in a circle and talked story, with everything from past tsunamis in Hilo and the one in Japan being mentioned plus the effects of Fukushima on both humans and other lifeforms in the Pacific Ocean.
First of all I would like to thank everyone for being here and showing your concern for what is happening in the world today. We are here because an earthquake and tsunami occurred three years ago and killed upwards of 20,000 people and made many more homeless but at the same time it set off a sequence of events that resulted in the triple meltdown that we call Fukushima.
Fukushima is a prefecture inhabited by people and is not a nuclear power plant built by GE and operated by TEPCO, but that word somehow has come to represent the totality of this disaster.
While I struggle with this because the perpetrators get lost when we use this term, the truth is it may not be inclusive enough, maybe it should be called the Pacific disaster. Because of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean humanity seems to have no qualms about using it as a sewer but that could be a very bad mistake. There are trends happening that seem to indicate that there are tipping points happening for various ocean species and plenty of culprits to go around such as ocean acidification and pesticides, the breakdown of our plastic rubbish, plus man-made nuclear contamination is nothing new considering the nuclear testing programs post WWII, but now we have Fukushima and very little determination to really fix it’s ongoing problems. I could reel off a bunch of numbers to try to explain the scope of this but no matter how hard I tried I could not tell you any concrete data because all of it is based on unreliable information. That is the core problem of nuclear power, there is almost nothing we are told by those who support it that even approximates the truth.
To the people who try to justify nuclear power and nuclear weapons we are all just statistics and since we all aren’t going to die from radiation (and the dead can’t defend themselves) and we all won’t get cancer and other maladies they just come up with models that make it seem like nothing is changing dramatically. We are supposed to believe that cancer is just a consequence of modern living so we should get used to it and most of the time cause and effect don’t become part of the equation. They are so callous that when large numbers of the people stationed on the USS Reagan became sick or disabled after the ship sailed into the plume the official position is that radiation was not the cause so it is just coincidence that this happened to so many in the prime of their lives. The Japanese are at least willing to admit that more people have died from the effects of the triple meltdown in Fukushima than were killed by the Tsunami. When they set standards for radiation in our food, water, and air they come up with a number of people per 100,000 who will get cancer, come up with a figure they think is acceptable and extrapolate from there and they give very little credence to the fact that children and pregnant women are way more susceptible. If you disagree with this thinking you are standing in the way of progress and economic growth. People in general and the planet we depend on are secondary to these man-made concepts.
I can’t speak for everybody but I know in my heart the time has come to end Nuclear, both the weapons systems and power. They are both a ticking time bomb and a gun to our heads. None of us knows when events will happen that will unleash the destruction this technology is capable of and we can’t anticipate the results. We can’t move forward thinking this is a logical way for mankind to interact with God’s creation. We have to learn lessons from the experiences that we live through, there no longer is a village where we are because we figured out that the Ocean can sweep through here at any time with little warning. When it comes to Nuclear we are creating a mess that will exist into the future longer than man has roamed the Earth and our children don’t deserve to deal with this. We have truly clean technologies to replace this horrible mistake and even though it goes against prevailing wisdom that growth has to come at any cost we are getting smarter about runaway consumption. The situation in Japan is made worse because we can’t collectively be convincing enough that we all have had enough. The people who are behind Nuclear still think that there is a chance we will forget and in the meantime they are spreading their poisonous systems to poorer nations that are even less equipped to deal with calamity. Since they have been lying since day one and for the most part they get away with it they are doubling down and we need to raise our voices and show our faces like Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg BoertjeObed, who will continue to be incarcerated for civil disobedience, and stop the destructive ways from happening over again. We can no longer continue to be Sheeple and pretend that the desecration of our surroundings is acceptable, we need to change our leaders and if that doesn’t work we need to change our systems because just sitting around waiting for the change to happen just won’t get us where we need to go. We are not on this planet to serve the needs of corporations and the wants of governments, they should be serving our needs and contributing to a better life and environment for all.
This talk was scheduled, but there was not enough time:
First of all I would like to thank everyone for being here and showing your concern for what is happening in the world today. We are here because an earthquake and tsunami occurred three years ago and killed upwards of 20,000 people and made many more homeless but at the same time it set off a sequence of events that resulted in the triple meltdown that we call Fukushima.
Fukushima is a prefecture inhabited by people and is not a nuclear power plant built by GE and operated by TEPCO, but that word somehow has come to represent the totality of this disaster.
While I struggle with this because the perpetrators get lost when we use this term, the truth is it may not be inclusive enough, maybe it should be called the Pacific disaster. Because of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean humanity seems to have no qualms about using it as a sewer but that could be a very bad mistake. There are trends happening that seem to indicate that there are tipping points happening for various ocean species and plenty of culprits to go around such as ocean acidification and pesticides, the breakdown of our plastic rubbish, plus man-made nuclear contamination is nothing new considering the nuclear testing programs post WWII, but now we have Fukushima and very little determination to really fix it’s ongoing problems. I could reel off a bunch of numbers to try to explain the scope of this but no matter how hard I tried I could not tell you any concrete data because all of it is based on unreliable information. That is the core problem of nuclear power, there is almost nothing we are told by those who support it that even approximates the truth.
To the people who try to justify nuclear power and nuclear weapons we are all just statistics and since we all aren’t going to die from radiation (and the dead can’t defend themselves) and we all won’t get cancer and other maladies they just come up with models that make it seem like nothing is changing dramatically. We are supposed to believe that cancer is just a consequence of modern living so we should get used to it and most of the time cause and effect don’t become part of the equation. They are so callous that when large numbers of the people stationed on the USS Reagan became sick or disabled after the ship sailed into the plume the official position is that radiation was not the cause so it is just coincidence that this happened to so many in the prime of their lives. The Japanese are at least willing to admit that more people have died from the effects of the triple meltdown in Fukushima than were killed by the Tsunami. When they set standards for radiation in our food, water, and air they come up with a number of people per 100,000 who will get cancer, come up with a figure they think is acceptable and extrapolate from there and they give very little credence to the fact that children and pregnant women are way more susceptible. If you disagree with this thinking you are standing in the way of progress and economic growth. People in general and the planet we depend on are secondary to these man-made concepts.
I can’t speak for everybody but I know in my heart the time has come to end Nuclear, both the weapons systems and power. They are both a ticking time bomb and a gun to our heads. None of us knows when events will happen that will unleash the destruction this technology is capable of and we can’t anticipate the results. We can’t move forward thinking this is a logical way for mankind to interact with God’s creation. We have to learn lessons from the experiences that we live through, there no longer is a village where we are because we figured out that the Ocean can sweep through here at any time with little warning. When it comes to Nuclear we are creating a mess that will exist into the future longer than man has roamed the Earth and our children don’t deserve to deal with this. We have truly clean technologies to replace this horrible mistake and even though it goes against prevailing wisdom that growth has to come at any cost we are getting smarter about runaway consumption. The situation in Japan is made worse because we can’t collectively be convincing enough that we all have had enough. The people who are behind Nuclear still think that there is a chance we will forget and in the meantime they are spreading their poisonous systems to poorer nations that are even less equipped to deal with calamity. Since they have been lying since day one and for the most part they get away with it they are doubling down and we need to raise our voices and show our faces like Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg BoertjeObed, who will continue to be incarcerated for civil disobedience, and stop the destructive ways from happening over again. We can no longer continue to be Sheeple and pretend that the desecration of our surroundings is acceptable, we need to change our leaders and if that doesn’t work we need to change our systems because just sitting around waiting for the change to happen just won’t get us where we need to go. We are not on this planet to serve the needs of corporations and the wants of governments, they should be serving our needs and contributing to a better life and environment for all.
Geoff Shaw
Saturday, March 15, 2014
3.11 2014 - Detroit, MI Report
March 11, 2014
Statement by Dr. Kazuyuki Katayama, Consul-General of Japan in Detroit, On the Occasion of the Third Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake
Three years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, resulting in a tremendous number of irreplaceable lives lost and unprecedented damage, mainly in the Tohoku region of Japan. On this occasion, I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy to all those affected by the disaster.
We were overwhelmed by the immediate outpouring of compassion and support from the international community, particularly the U.S., including both Michigan and Ohio. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express our sincere gratitude once again, on behalf of the Government and people of Japan.
Tragically, two American JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching Program) participants Ms. Taylor Anderson and Mr. Monty Dickson, dispatched to Ishinomaki City and Rikuzentakata City respectively, died in the tsunami. Earlier this month, I had an opportunity to participate in the film event: “Live Your Dream,” which portrayed the lives and dreams of these two JET participants. Viewing together with their family members, the film’s director, students and others, I was extremely moved to recognize that the bereaved family―still coping with the reality of profound grief―as well as many other friends in the U.S. have shown enduring support and compassion to Japan. The Japanese people will never forget this kind outreach.
Since his inauguration as Prime Minister in December 2012, Mr. Shinzo Abe has visited the affected area thirteen times and implemented ground-based initiatives to accelerate the restoration of the stricken areas. Seventy percent of the public work projects, such as highland relocation of evacuees and construction of housing, has already begun. The Government of Japan will complete the highland relocation of evacuees in two-hundred areas and construction of over 10,000 houses in twelve months, although
many live greatly inconvenienced lives even now. In addition to the rebuilding of infrastructure and residential accommodations, it is extremely important to address the mental health of the victims, especially including the well-being of children. The Government of Japan continues to take initiatives at the front line to address the serious issues of radiation, contaminated water, nuclear reactor abandonment, amongst others at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Taking the policy “Without the reconstruction of Fukushima, there will not be a rebirth of Japan” as its fundamental consideration, the Government of Japan seeks to develop strongly in the future, with the people of Japan, hand in hand with citizens of the international community. As we do so, I humbly request your continued support.
Kazuyuki Katayama
Consul General of Japan in Detroit
Statement by Dr. Kazuyuki Katayama, Consul-General of Japan in Detroit, On the Occasion of the Third Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake
Three years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, resulting in a tremendous number of irreplaceable lives lost and unprecedented damage, mainly in the Tohoku region of Japan. On this occasion, I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy to all those affected by the disaster.
We were overwhelmed by the immediate outpouring of compassion and support from the international community, particularly the U.S., including both Michigan and Ohio. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express our sincere gratitude once again, on behalf of the Government and people of Japan.
Tragically, two American JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching Program) participants Ms. Taylor Anderson and Mr. Monty Dickson, dispatched to Ishinomaki City and Rikuzentakata City respectively, died in the tsunami. Earlier this month, I had an opportunity to participate in the film event: “Live Your Dream,” which portrayed the lives and dreams of these two JET participants. Viewing together with their family members, the film’s director, students and others, I was extremely moved to recognize that the bereaved family―still coping with the reality of profound grief―as well as many other friends in the U.S. have shown enduring support and compassion to Japan. The Japanese people will never forget this kind outreach.
Since his inauguration as Prime Minister in December 2012, Mr. Shinzo Abe has visited the affected area thirteen times and implemented ground-based initiatives to accelerate the restoration of the stricken areas. Seventy percent of the public work projects, such as highland relocation of evacuees and construction of housing, has already begun. The Government of Japan will complete the highland relocation of evacuees in two-hundred areas and construction of over 10,000 houses in twelve months, although
many live greatly inconvenienced lives even now. In addition to the rebuilding of infrastructure and residential accommodations, it is extremely important to address the mental health of the victims, especially including the well-being of children. The Government of Japan continues to take initiatives at the front line to address the serious issues of radiation, contaminated water, nuclear reactor abandonment, amongst others at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Taking the policy “Without the reconstruction of Fukushima, there will not be a rebirth of Japan” as its fundamental consideration, the Government of Japan seeks to develop strongly in the future, with the people of Japan, hand in hand with citizens of the international community. As we do so, I humbly request your continued support.
Kazuyuki Katayama
Consul General of Japan in Detroit
3.11 2014 - Portland, OR Report
March 11, 2014 Day 1095 following the start of the global disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi.
To: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Your Honor:
On this the third anniversary of Fukushima-Daiichi and the nightmare that ensued which we all share, please accept our deepest sympathies and continued solidarity. As people working within organizations promoting environmental and social justice, we understand the need to end nuclear power, weapons and the constant threat of nuclear war. We the undersigned are keenly aware of the terrible toll that is exacted on a population under such stresses. After the terrible loss from the Tsunami, to have the added burden of three melt-throughs and their inevitable after-effects to carry must certainly be a bitter weight.
No Nukes NW
To: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Your Honor:
On this the third anniversary of Fukushima-Daiichi and the nightmare that ensued which we all share, please accept our deepest sympathies and continued solidarity. As people working within organizations promoting environmental and social justice, we understand the need to end nuclear power, weapons and the constant threat of nuclear war. We the undersigned are keenly aware of the terrible toll that is exacted on a population under such stresses. After the terrible loss from the Tsunami, to have the added burden of three melt-throughs and their inevitable after-effects to carry must certainly be a bitter weight.
We stand with you today on 311 to remember those lost from this tragedy, those who will continue to suffer in the coming years due to radiation and we remember all of those who no longer can go home. We stand with you today to demand from your government and ours, that we put an end immediately to nuclear madness and hurt no more of the living on our cherished planet Earth so that we can make way for future generations.
Be strong, people of Japan. We are with you. We have shed many tears for you and for our planet since that terrible day in March of 2011. To the Prime Minister, we implore you to shut down and keep shut down all nuclear reactors in Japan. You have seen the damage that they cause. You have alternate options which will not kill people. There is solar, there is wind. Surely you must have begun looking at those options since Fukushima-Daiichi melted through the containment within hours of the earthquake. Your ocean will give you power if you let it. The sun will bring enough warmth to your country. Shed no more death upon your people and those of us living abroad. We ask the same from our Government!
It is time to recognize the toll from nuclear power and it is time to remove all the nice words around it. Nuclear power kills. It is that simple. Please, Prime Minister. Do not allow nuclear power in your country to be restored. You have lived almost without it for 3 years now. You would be considered a hero should you stay the right course. Be that person. The entire world would thank you.
Thank you for hearing our words today and feeling our hearts and our sympathy.
Be well Japan.
No Nukes!
Sincerely,
Mimi German for
Be strong, people of Japan. We are with you. We have shed many tears for you and for our planet since that terrible day in March of 2011. To the Prime Minister, we implore you to shut down and keep shut down all nuclear reactors in Japan. You have seen the damage that they cause. You have alternate options which will not kill people. There is solar, there is wind. Surely you must have begun looking at those options since Fukushima-Daiichi melted through the containment within hours of the earthquake. Your ocean will give you power if you let it. The sun will bring enough warmth to your country. Shed no more death upon your people and those of us living abroad. We ask the same from our Government!
It is time to recognize the toll from nuclear power and it is time to remove all the nice words around it. Nuclear power kills. It is that simple. Please, Prime Minister. Do not allow nuclear power in your country to be restored. You have lived almost without it for 3 years now. You would be considered a hero should you stay the right course. Be that person. The entire world would thank you.
Thank you for hearing our words today and feeling our hearts and our sympathy.
Be well Japan.
No Nukes!
Sincerely,
Mimi German for
No Nukes NW
3.11 2014 - Seattle, WA Report
March 11, 2014. I am standing on the sidewalk in the shadow of a skyscraper outside the Japanese Consulate in downtown Seattle on a beautiful sunny day, exactly three years after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent triple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi. “Good afternoon sir, would you like to learn more about Fukushima?” I extend my arm in a posture conveying energy, friendliness, and openness. My hand holds a flyer with health information regarding the hazards of nuclear radiation, news resources, as well as suggestions for citizen action.
A few muscles twitch in one side of his cheek, signaling that he has heard me and at least for a nanosecond contemplated the boundaries of his known world, but he does not break stride, continuing on down Sixth Avenue, perhaps to a business lunch, to see a friend, to the gym, or some other destination. I have been in his shoes and his state of mind many times, sidewalk-autopilot, carrying out my mission in life.
We all have our collections of stories, the sum total of which creates the “I” – that larger than life imaginary person who plays the starring role in our personal dramas. To the extent that the story is infused with truth, love, compassion, and wisdom, the story shines with a powerful brilliance, like sunlight spreading out across the arc of the planet, illuminating and warming every living being that moves. Those rare beings that can tell stories imbued with those enlightened qualities are the saints, enlightened ones and sages of our world, who visit now and then for the sole purpose of assisting us in awakening from our small stories that sometimes – at least speaking for myself – contain more shadows than light. The beauty of community is that in listening to and sharing our stories with each other, we have the opportunity to discover our shadows, mirroring the light of understanding and self discovery to each other on our mutual journey of awakening.
A few friends show up to join me in sidewalk outreach. We share smiles and words of support, taking heart that we are not alone, that there are others who are pressing the pause button on the collective societal story with its dominant themes of material progress, external wealth, unlimited consumption and economic growth. I had created the event “3 year Anniversary Vigil at Japanese Consulate” on Facebook, concerned by the collective stories chanted like mantras in the mainstream media in the aftermath of the worst industrial accident in history – that nuclear power is safe, that radiation can be safely cleaned up, and that “low levels” of radiation pose no threat (ignoring the frequent redefining upwards by regulatory agencies as to what constitutes a “low level”. The event was held in coordination with similar events at a dozen or so other Japanese Consulates in the U.S., as well as around the world.
Out of 1314 guests invited from around the world, twenty had indicated “going”, with twenty-two “maybe”. As a gesture of courtesy and protocol, I had telephoned the Consulate on Friday afternoon, requesting permission to deliver a letter of concerns to the Consul General to be forwarded to the Prime Minister of Japan. On Monday, the Consul’s office called me again to go over protocol, informing me that only one person would be allowed into their office to deliver the letter. Earlier, when I had walked around the corner at Sixth and Union, the uniformed security guards spotted me instantly. Clearly, they had read every detail on the Facebook event page and were mobilized in anticipation of a large crowd. I greeted them like old friends as I walked up and they smiled in my direction. Our initial meeting in January had been stressful for them, until they figured out my intentions were peaceful and I was not intentionally out to make their lives difficult but simply exercising my free speech rights, being careful not to infringe upon other’s rights. It was immediately clarified which crack in the sidewalk represented the demarcation between private property (where my free speech rights became more limited) and the public sidewalk.
Fast forward to March 11. A big casually dressed man walked over and asked me if I was Jordan. I said yes with a smile, and he introduced himself as Justin from the State Department, indicating that he was here to oversee the meeting with the Consulate and to act as my escort. I indicated that my intentions were peaceful and answered his many questions. It was becoming clearer as time passed that most of the people who had indicated “going” and “maybe” on Facebook, were coming in spirit only, and not in physical form. We were five in number, including a soft-spoken man in his sixties who rode his motorcycle up from Renton. He was a “down-winder”, born near the former nuclear weapons production facility at Hanford, who had recently buried his brother. He died of cancer.
Certainly there was no issue with needing a permit – required for large gatherings when public obstruction of the sidewalk was likely. Two reporters from a local TV and radio station showed up. I noticed that a significantly higher proportion of pedestrians accepted the flyers while the TV camera was filming me. Perhaps people thought I was a movie star? One of the reporters asked me why I was here and what my message was.
The moral and intellectual challenge presented to humanity by Fukushima is such that it cannot be neatly condensed into a thirty-second sound bite for the evening news. The scope of the worst industrial disaster in history is disturbingly complex, involving multiple scientific disciplines – nuclear physics, oceanography, genetics, public health, and a test of our willingness to face the potential for horrifying consequences to all life with a commitment to truth over political expediency and the comfortable narrative that “the experts” will fix everything. But of course, such a non-answer was entirely unsatisfactory for the reporter. I struggled to come up with a serving of macaroni and cheese that would be palatable for the average TV viewer, to no avail. She asked me if I was “anti-nuke” and I gently deflected any attempt to be placed in that box, indicating that I preferred to be portrayed as being for something – like a sustainable planet – rather than against anything. I kept thinking of Lakota Chief Arvol Lookinghorse’s powerful message at the United Nations, that all life is interconnected, and that without giving thanks and respect for the Earth Mother, without waking up to the cries of distress from nature and responding with compassion and wisdom, very soon we will destroy the very foundation of life which supports us, and with it, our children’s future, and the future of all beings.
A few minutes before 1:00 p.m., Justin walked over and asked me if I wanted to go up to the Consulate now. Walking through the revolving doors, followed by Justin and the head of security, I was politely greeted by Aikiko, a young woman from the Consulate staff. As we proceeded up the escalators, I engaged her with small talk, asking about the proper pronunciation of Fukushima. She congratulated me on getting it correct – most people say Fu Ku SHEE mah, however, the correct pronunciation is Fu KU shee mah. As we approached the elevators, Justin spontaneously asked me if I had any weapons, knives, anything that might be interpreted as causing harm. I said “no”. “Jordan, do you have a gun?” he abruptly asked. I said no, feeling slightly intimidated by the line of questioning which was now bordering on interrogation. “I have never owned a gun,” I replied, hoping to put him at ease.
Our procession exited the elevator and I was invited to step out first, though I had no idea whether to turn left or right – was the security team nervous, or just testing me again to see how I would react to unexpected situations? I calmly stood in the hallway and waited, following everyone to the entrance of the Consulate where we were buzzed in. I emptied my pockets, stepped through the metal detector and was ushered into a small bare conference room with an airport lounge style couch and a few chairs, joined by another staff member from the Consulate.
It had never occurred to me to consider what my reception might be like. Having done years of meditation, with a singular focus on being in the present moment, I sometimes neglect to anticipate unexpected situations, preferring stubbornly (or wisely?) not to have expectations. I suppose in one of my fantasies, I would be invited to sit in an antique chair, served fine Japanese green tea, and warmly engaged in conversation regarding my interest in Japan. I could have told them that my eleven year old is studying Japanese and that we had eaten delicious noodle soup at the Tokyo airport once. Whatever such notions I held of intimacy, elegance, and relaxed conversation were quickly dispelled as – still standing – with all eyes upon me, it become clear that they were waiting for me to speak.
I presented the small paper bag containing the hand folded origami peace cranes that my daughter had made – seven in total – supposedly a lucky number in every culture and very briefly summarized the contents of the letter I had written, addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Thank you for your welcome. I’m here to offer my condolences for the great tragedy that occurred three years ago – the earthquake and tsunami, and the suffering caused by the subsequent disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Our deep prayers and wishes are with all the Japanese people, that their resilience and indomitable spirit may enable them to quickly recover from these unfortunate events. I’m also here as a global citizen to express my concern over the ongoing radiation emergency caused by Fukushima Daiichi, and to impress upon you the importance of taking this matter very seriously. We need to act quickly in order to protect the children and all life.
I bowed in an expression of humility as I offered, with both arms extended and palms upward, the manila envelope containing two signed copies of the letter. The staff person bowed in receiving the letter and, after quickly realizing that there would be no green tea, no polite cultural exchange, certainly no policy statements on Fukushima, I indicated to Jason that I had completed my mission. I had planted a seed of awakening in a crack in the edifice of empire, imagining that one day that seed, combined with innumerable other seeds planted by legions of peaceful activists, might one day grow into a lush verdant paradise covering the entire surface of the earth, a pure land environment where the basic elements – air, earth, water – are pure and life giving, where internal and external disease are unheard of, where people and all life live in an atmosphere of mutual respect and love. Namo Amida, Buddha of Infinite Light.
Exiting the building, Jason thanked me for my cooperation and he asked me if I had accomplished what I had wanted. I told him yes, adding that it was the Japanese children and my own daughter that had brought me here, sharing how challenging it can be as a parent, committed to truth, with knowledge of the many problems of sufferings on the planet, simultaneously carrying the hopes and dreams of all children in my heart and hands. “Do you have kids?”, I asked him. “Yes, four” and he hinted that he understood the dilemma I spoke of. We shook hands and went our separate ways, certain to meet again at one of the crossroads within this infinite time-space universe.
In the evening, I attended a screening of “Reactor”, hosted by the Moontown Foundation, connecting me with a roomful of other artists and visionaries striving to build community through facilitating the telling of new stories that bring healing and awakening to people and planet. Recalling the contrast between light and shadow in our personal stories, although at times, we glorify the light, we need not fear or demonize darkness. Beauty is revealed in the interplay of light and shadow, and the serenely steady mind which observes impermanent phenomena, flashing across our retina, leaping from neuron to neuron within our cortex, maintaining perfect equanimity and openness as we continually update our stories, until perhaps one day the story dissolves into a perfect stream of consciousness with no fixed boundaries – the no-story story. Meanwhile, enjoy the journey and keep telling and listening to stories – yours, other people’s, and the stories of all living beings, the Earth and stars.
Our procession exited the elevator and I was invited to step out first, though I had no idea whether to turn left or right – was the security team nervous, or just testing me again to see how I would react to unexpected situations? I calmly stood in the hallway and waited, following everyone to the entrance of the Consulate where we were buzzed in. I emptied my pockets, stepped through the metal detector and was ushered into a small bare conference room with an airport lounge style couch and a few chairs, joined by another staff member from the Consulate.
It had never occurred to me to consider what my reception might be like. Having done years of meditation, with a singular focus on being in the present moment, I sometimes neglect to anticipate unexpected situations, preferring stubbornly (or wisely?) not to have expectations. I suppose in one of my fantasies, I would be invited to sit in an antique chair, served fine Japanese green tea, and warmly engaged in conversation regarding my interest in Japan. I could have told them that my eleven year old is studying Japanese and that we had eaten delicious noodle soup at the Tokyo airport once. Whatever such notions I held of intimacy, elegance, and relaxed conversation were quickly dispelled as – still standing – with all eyes upon me, it become clear that they were waiting for me to speak.
I presented the small paper bag containing the hand folded origami peace cranes that my daughter had made – seven in total – supposedly a lucky number in every culture and very briefly summarized the contents of the letter I had written, addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Thank you for your welcome. I’m here to offer my condolences for the great tragedy that occurred three years ago – the earthquake and tsunami, and the suffering caused by the subsequent disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Our deep prayers and wishes are with all the Japanese people, that their resilience and indomitable spirit may enable them to quickly recover from these unfortunate events. I’m also here as a global citizen to express my concern over the ongoing radiation emergency caused by Fukushima Daiichi, and to impress upon you the importance of taking this matter very seriously. We need to act quickly in order to protect the children and all life.
I bowed in an expression of humility as I offered, with both arms extended and palms upward, the manila envelope containing two signed copies of the letter. The staff person bowed in receiving the letter and, after quickly realizing that there would be no green tea, no polite cultural exchange, certainly no policy statements on Fukushima, I indicated to Jason that I had completed my mission. I had planted a seed of awakening in a crack in the edifice of empire, imagining that one day that seed, combined with innumerable other seeds planted by legions of peaceful activists, might one day grow into a lush verdant paradise covering the entire surface of the earth, a pure land environment where the basic elements – air, earth, water – are pure and life giving, where internal and external disease are unheard of, where people and all life live in an atmosphere of mutual respect and love. Namo Amida, Buddha of Infinite Light.
Exiting the building, Jason thanked me for my cooperation and he asked me if I had accomplished what I had wanted. I told him yes, adding that it was the Japanese children and my own daughter that had brought me here, sharing how challenging it can be as a parent, committed to truth, with knowledge of the many problems of sufferings on the planet, simultaneously carrying the hopes and dreams of all children in my heart and hands. “Do you have kids?”, I asked him. “Yes, four” and he hinted that he understood the dilemma I spoke of. We shook hands and went our separate ways, certain to meet again at one of the crossroads within this infinite time-space universe.
In the evening, I attended a screening of “Reactor”, hosted by the Moontown Foundation, connecting me with a roomful of other artists and visionaries striving to build community through facilitating the telling of new stories that bring healing and awakening to people and planet. Recalling the contrast between light and shadow in our personal stories, although at times, we glorify the light, we need not fear or demonize darkness. Beauty is revealed in the interplay of light and shadow, and the serenely steady mind which observes impermanent phenomena, flashing across our retina, leaping from neuron to neuron within our cortex, maintaining perfect equanimity and openness as we continually update our stories, until perhaps one day the story dissolves into a perfect stream of consciousness with no fixed boundaries – the no-story story. Meanwhile, enjoy the journey and keep telling and listening to stories – yours, other people’s, and the stories of all living beings, the Earth and stars.
3.11 2014 - Burnley, UK Report
PRESS RELEASE
REMEMBERING FUKUSHIMA THREE YEARS ON
Members of East Lancashire CND from Colne, Barnoldswick, Burnley and Accrington held a Vigil outside Burnley College and UCLAN Campus to remember the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11th March 2011. This caused the disastrous melt down of 3 nuclear reactors and wide scale lethal radiation around Fukushima and the Pacific Ocean.
The event highlighted the inherent dangers of nuclear power for the environment and human health. Relevant CND literature was distributed which also showed the connection between nuclear power and weapons. In particular, people were invited to sign the petition to scrap the £100 billion Trident renewal programme.
Members were joined in the Act of Remembrance by College Students.
CND Members & Students outside Burnley College on 11th March 2014
David Penney
Chair, East Lancashire CND
Noyna House, 2 Noyna Street, Colne BB8 0PE
Tel: 01282 870076; Mobile: 07948 203836
E-mail: david.penney53@ntlworld.com
REMEMBERING FUKUSHIMA THREE YEARS ON
Members of East Lancashire CND from Colne, Barnoldswick, Burnley and Accrington held a Vigil outside Burnley College and UCLAN Campus to remember the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11th March 2011. This caused the disastrous melt down of 3 nuclear reactors and wide scale lethal radiation around Fukushima and the Pacific Ocean.
The event highlighted the inherent dangers of nuclear power for the environment and human health. Relevant CND literature was distributed which also showed the connection between nuclear power and weapons. In particular, people were invited to sign the petition to scrap the £100 billion Trident renewal programme.
Members were joined in the Act of Remembrance by College Students.
CND Members & Students outside Burnley College on 11th March 2014
David Penney
Chair, East Lancashire CND
Noyna House, 2 Noyna Street, Colne BB8 0PE
Tel: 01282 870076; Mobile: 07948 203836
E-mail: david.penney53@ntlworld.com
* * *
The Madness of Man
No more to swim in your bluest seas, farewell my dear Pacific,
long did you sustain a myriad of lives, true unimaginable bounty,
You gave all for free and still we stole your life away.
Goodbye salty sea air, no more to breathe your sweetness.
Soon a plume shall come, raining poison death upon us,
watch for wicked winds of radiation,
to silent creep, and deadly seep into
soil and irrigation, you mustn't eat
of tainted wheat, now flee thee to
south of the equator.
C.A Guilfoyle
THE LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE:
A Symbol of Hope in a dark world
A POEM OF HOPE
One laugh can start a minute.
One rose can dawn the hope.
One seed can set off nature.
One creature can spark spring.
One friend can make a difference.
One breath of fresh air will relieve our lungs.
One sunbeam will light our world.
One star guides millions of minds.
One laugh can change the gloom.
One word starts a life and it’s all up to you.
Leanne T from Riverside Primary School, UK
REMEMBERING FUKUSHIMA
Burnley College/UCLAN, 11th March 2014, 12pm
We have been reminded recently of the dangers of nuclear power stations with the devastating earthquake (8.9 on the Richter scale) and tsunami in Japan on 11th March 2011. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima’s 4 nuclear reactors is now classified at the maximum level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, even worse than Chernobyl with the meltdown of three reactors.
As well as hundreds of tons of melted radioactive fuel in Reactors 1, 2 and 3, there are unsafe pools of spent nuclear fuel rods in Reactor 4 - more than 1,300 in all, amounting to some 400 tons of uranium. Contaminated groundwater is flowing into the sea at the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool every week with radiation spreading throughout the Pacific. The site generates every day about 700 tons of contaminated water.
Fukushima, after 3 years, a 20 kilometre exclusion zone is still in place due to the high levels of radiation with the nuclear plant in a critical state with the risk of further leaks of radiation.
The people of Chernobyl and the surrounding area were exposed to radioactivity in 1986, 90 times greater than that from the explosion of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The long term effects are terrifying. Some areas will be radioactive for 24,000 years, which is the half life of highly radioactive plutonium. A millionth of a gram of plutonium is enough to cause lung cancer. Fukushima area faces worse hazards.
Sayings:
“Mother Earth is only one being
And we, the children of all nations
Must learn to protect her
All living things
To help to hold the world in balance.”
Hopi Elder
Poem: “The No-Go Land” [applicable to Chernobyl and Fukushima]
It was like happening
On the Mary Celeste,
Entering a sometime home
Of a sometime town
With a table still
Laid for breakfast
And not a soul to be
Seen since the wind
Blew all the arrows
Of the weathervanes
That way and invaders
Whisked everyone away.
Unmade beds hold
The mould of
Sleepers and a framed
Unknown woman cradles
A babushka–wrapped child
And smiles into space.
An open book lies
Face down on a stand
Waiting for a hand to
Turn it right side up
And children to be lulled
Again to never never land. Greg Delaney
FUKUSHIMA (haiku)
Left my plums
to fall and rot -
Fukushima . Chris D Aechtner
NO MORE FUKUSHIMAS
All day long the window rattled.
Then, in the evening, sleet fell.
The freshly bloomed Cornelian cherry blossom will open once again in the wet snow.
The weather report says to rest easy, that the westerlies are blowing toward Japan.
I push the button and turn it off.
No more Fukushima.
And when the rays of spring come again,
After the days of the arrogant man alone return to humility,
I hope those long beams of spring sun
Linger long in your garden.
I hope that you once again raise the tilted stone lantern,
And that even on the alpine plants you planted last year,
The spring flowers bloom.
No more Fukushima!
Do Jong-hwan (written for Yuko Tsushima)
MUTANT RADIOACTIVE BUTTERFLIES NEAR FUKUSHIMA
Cho Cho San, a geisha's fan
opening like a primrose
mutant radioactive butterflies
a plague on sacred Japan
Ray Bradbury warned us
not to step off the time travel path
lest we catch a butterfly
and destroy the world
Now it has happened in Fukushima
The Butterfly Effect
gruesome nuclear creatures
tearing through cherry blossoms
as they flutter helpless to the ground,
silk tears, forever lost. Pam Malone
3.11 2014 - San Francisco, CA Report
It’s been three years since the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Some of us participated in the silent vigil held by the members of Fukushima Response Bay Area. We dedicated 20 minutes for the victims in Fukushima. The sun was very bright.
We all headed towards the Consulate General of San Francisco after the vigil. This is our 20th monthly rally against nukes. We called for an action across the US to have an action simultaneously at consulates and an embassy. The result was a coordinated action at 10 consulates and one embassy. Prior to this action, Ms. Hayakawa, the consul at San Francisco, who walks down to the pedestrian road to meet with us told us via phone that she would not come down this time, and it was an order from Tokyo to any embassy and consul across the US. She also says that he cannot make an appointment to receive our letter, and she could only receive our petition letters via snail mail. At 2:15pm, we still attempted to ask at the ground floor security that our representative would like to get in with our photo id. Security promptly called the consulate, and told us that somebody will come down so we could wait for him at the lobby. 15 of us lined up and waited, but then after 45 minutes, nobody came down to see us. We called the consul directly, then we were forwarded to his voice mail. We left a message that we will wait, keep our gathering, and would wait for his phone call.
No phone call after half an hour. Why did she say that she was going to come down or send somebody in the first place? Did she mean anything?
We are not terrorists, but just wanting to hand some petition letters. Why weren’t we allowed to enter, and be told to wait so she will meet…which was a lie or just sheer rudeness. Herresponse lacks honesty.
But this is what Japanese government does to its citizens all the time. When they smell something, they just cover it up. This doesn’t mean that our anger has no place to go. We must be angry, and we shall not be silence. We need to raise our voice and say it is wrong.
Fukushima victims are the survivors of this Japanese government and nuclear industry. It is a matter of life, but our government does not see and cannot even determine any connection between children with thyroid cancer and this ongoing nuclear accident. This is injustice. We could only fight.
After 30 minutes of demo, we tried die-in action for the first time. Please see the video.
There were 80 people who joined us. Thank you for all who joined. Thank you for all who supported us from afar. Thank you. There were poems, music, die-in, and march…a variety of action gave our gathering such a power. No Nukes! No Restart! Save all the children!
The 20th Every 11th of Month No Nukes Rally in San Francisco, 3/11/2014
Chizu Hamada
Ustream 3.11 2014 SF
Video streaming by Ustream
* * * *
On March 11, 2014, on the third anniversary of the initial explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, No Nukes Action Committee in San Francisco organized a nation-wide action in 10 U.S. cities, among them Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most of these actions involved presenting a letter of concern directly to the consulate or embassy in these cities. At the same time, No Nukes Action, in collaboration with Fukushima Response Bay Area held a demonstration at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco followed by a die-in. During our previous 19 demonstrations, beginning in June of 2012 at the consulate, the consul had always been willing (and mostly very gracious) to meet us on the sidewalk in front of their offices, but on the third anniversary of the disaster, Consul Hayakawa categorically refused to meet with us or to accept delivery of our letter in person, advising the demonstration organizers that they could use “ordinary mail.” Perhaps, with the passage of the Secrets Preservation Act in December, 2013, and with our mass action involving 11 U.S. cities, the official consular offices have received orders from Tokyo. Perhaps it is safe to assume someone is running scared, a barometer that at last our concerns are being heard.
* * *
in san francisco, we had a magnificent day, we began at 2:30 with attempts to deliver our letter in person, eventually to be promised that the consul would in fact come down. but that never happened. we waited some 45 minutes. we held a rousing demonstration with chizu hamada taking charge. this diminutive japanese woman held her own throughout the rally. it's the first opportunity she had to really show her stuff, because somehow the gaijin managed to overshadow her, but she is a force unto herself. throughout the demonstration, it was live-streamed directly to japan. we read the letter we had composed for the occasion, with passouts for all present containing both the japanese and english versions. the press was in attendance, and the S.f. chronicle carried coverage today of our plans for a die-in which happened as scheduled, with a second team outlining bodies in chalk. we may have had as any as 50 people present, most of whom joined a march which hit market street, with our banners on display, and went as far as union square.
it was our most successful and dynamic rally, the 20th of our monthly appearances before the japanese consulate.
the consulate did confer with the police, who were there in very negligible numbers.
a good time was had by all.
cecile pineda
* * *
The text of the NoNukesAction Committee letter is below:
March 11, 2014, Day 1095 following the start of the global disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi
To: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Your Honor:
According to the Feb. 28, 2013 issue of the New York Times, your government announced that Japan’s nuclear plants are slated for re-start once “tougher” safety guidelines are put in place as recommended by the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority. Does the Nuclear Regulation Authority plan to issue tough guidelines to prevent the occurrence of earthquakes in the Japanese archipelago where the Philippine Sea Plate, the huge Pacific Plate, the North American Plate, and the Eurasian Plate all converge?
The Shimokita Peninsula where reprocessing plant Rokkasho is located is a most fragile formation which lay at the bottom of the sea as recently as 5,000 years ago, but Rokkasho was designed to withstand only 20% to 25% of the Tohoku quake’s magnitude. An explosion at Rokkasho would expose people within a 100-kilometer radius to levels of radiation ten to one hundred times the lethal level, meaning instant death. Does the Nuclear Regulation Authority have plans to bring radiation victims back to life? Do its plans make provision for the eventual sacrifice of Japan?
Mrs. Masako Mori describes the Secrets Preservation Law which passed December 7, 2013 as an effort to "protect the people's right to know.” But the law provides for up to ten years imprisonment for anyone who either inquires or reports anything about the status of your three meltdowns at Fukusima Daiichi, or what may be happening to the water table when the corium reaches it. It's an amazing law that can reveal the truth at the same time as concealing it! Does the Japanese government have plans to conceal from observation by satellites the plumes and explosions which result?
Your plans to forcefully repatriate evacuees to areas contaminated by 20 mSv within one year will save your government and TEPCO billions of yen. Does your government have plans to allocate those monies for the treatment of the thyroid cancers, and other malignancies resulting from the relocation of your old people, your women and men, and your own children to the contaminated area?
Sincerely,
Cecile Pineda
Author of Devil’s Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step
2550 Dana St. Berkeley, CA 94704
No Nukes Action Committee and S.F. Bay Area Residents
3.11 2014 - Los Angeles, CA Report
This is a summary of the report from LA by Isamu Kanno (No Nukes Asia Actions-Japan), an organizer based in LA.
This action was the fourth action in front of the Consulate general of Japan in LA. According to Isamu Kanno, an organizer based in LA says that there were more security personnel than ever, probably because it is a part of coordinated action, so the consulate was alerted. The security first chased Mr. Kanno from the bench where he was preparing his visual aids just half an hour earlier than the gathering. This never happened in LA. Another activist, David from Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR), suggested the possibility that increased security is meant for their purpose to surveil on activists. They made a plan to gather outside even if they were not allowed to enter the consulate.
There were 15 participants, most of them were English speakers. They started from one minute of silence dedicated to Fukushima, and passed around the request letter (pasted at the end of this log) both in Japanese and English. 10 participants made appointments to enter the library inside of the consul, and read the letter and delivered additional comments and concerns. Points raised by participants were: Japan's cover-ups, increase in thyroid cancer amongst children, pro-nukes school books in local Japanese schools in LA (promoting food culture in Japan, without mentioning radiation in it), food radiation standard in general, lack of transparency in politicians' agendas, irresponsible attitudes of officials.
Some local activists such as Libbe HaLevvy (Nuclear Hotseat) and Gary Hedrick, battling with shutting down San Onofre nuclear power plant, suggested that Consul Nakatani be educated with information available already on Fukushima. Consul Nakatani responded as usual, "I have my own opinions, but I do not see any point of expressing them right here." "What do you do with letters that we delivered?", "Can we expect any written response?" they asked. Mr. Nakatani said that he is going to forward letters to appropriate committees and our requests could impact Japan's policies, but concluded that we should not expect any written response. Next time, they hope to gather more people so they could walk to Little Tokyo.
If you are interested in the next actions in LA, contact Yushi Yamazaki at yushiyam@usc.edu (English) or Sam Kanno at isamukay@gmail.com (Japanese).
対日本領事館アクションは4回目ですが、今回は”全米の1大使館、17領事館への一斉アクション”が呼びかけられたせいか、領事館側の警備が大掛かりでした。
1時開始の30分前には、建物前のベンチで集会に向けて用意していた私も追い出されて、敷地をぐるりと青いフェンスで囲って、出入りを一箇所に絞り、屈強な男性たちがチェックを始めました。これまでに無かったことです。
警 備・公安関係についてはＮＣＲＲ(Ｎｉｋｋｅｉ ｆｏｒ Ｃｉｖｉｌ Ｒｉｇｈｔ ＆ Ｒｅｄｒｅｓｓ）の長い活動家であるＤａｖｉｄが、「集会参加者は 警備関係者と親しく話すな。彼らは情報収集が目的なのだから」「領事館に入館できない可能性もあるが、外で集会をやればいいのだから入館にこだわるな」 「入館にあたっての名前通報などは最小限に」などの注意を受けました。
1時が近づくにつれてアクション参加者が続々と集まって来ました。最終的にはまったく初めてお会いした方も含めて15人となりました。半分ほどが英語スピーカーの方です。
1 時15分より、Ｇｒａｎｄ Ａｖｅに面した階段状の場所で、1分間の黙祷からＤａｖｉｄとＹｕｓｈｉの司会で屋外での集会を始めました。初めに私が呼びか け人としての挨拶を日本語でさせてもらいましたが、その後発言された、ＭＩＫＩさん、ＭＯさん、ＧＡＲＹさん、ＬＩＢＢＹさんなどは皆さん英語での発言で した。会場では「日本政府と日本領事館への申し入れ書」の日本語版と英語版を配布しました。
2時過ぎに、10名が入館の手続きをとり、恒例となっている領事館内の図書室に場所を移しての申し入れ書の読み上げと参加者による補足の要望を伝える
Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇに臨みました。
初 めに私から申し入れ内容の核心として2点を確認しました。第一に、15センチの分厚い鋼鉄に囲われた原子炉と5センチの鋼鉄に覆われた格納容器に閉じ込め られているはずの核発電燃料とその廃棄物が、メルトダウンしてしまい(原発安全神話の崩壊)、生物界にむき出しのまま放置され、その発する即人命に関わる ほどの高放射線量ゆえに建屋に入ることもできず、あてずっぽうに水を注いで冷やしていることを「冷温停止状態」(野田前首相)と言ったり、「アンダーコン トロール」(安倍現首相)と言っているにすぎない。これが現実を直視できないウソだから、フクシマ原発構内では、地上に1000基もの高線量汚染水のタン クと燃料プールで水に遮蔽されただけの1300本余もの使用済み核燃料があり、地下には流れ込んだり、注がれたりの1日1000トンもの水が核燃料デブリ を冷やすと同時に汚染されて滞留したり、海に流出したりの状態にある。こんな危機一髪と膨大な環境汚染の状態にあることをどうして「収束している」といえ るのか。なぜ高等教育を受けたはずの役人の中枢の誰もがはっきりウソだと告発しようとしないのか? それこそこの米国の地の領事館の中からでたらめを告発 する声が出ることをも視野に入れて申し入れに来ている。孫崎さんや浅井基文さん、古賀さんなど、官僚を卒業してからではなく現役の今こそ上に直言していた だきたい。
2点目は、これまでなんども指摘してきた小児甲状腺がんの子どもの爆発的な増加の問題です。1年6ヶ月前に一人と発表された子どもの患者が2月の 発表では74人とされていることです。今後どれだけ増えるかわからないのが冷厳な現実です。フクシマでの子ども達のこの現実をなぜ「放射能汚染と関係な い」と言えるのかこんな誤魔化しの状態を何とかしたい一心で申し入れに来ている。
その後「申し入れ書」(請願書でもいいが)を読み上げ、補足として参加者の皆さんが各自発言しました。
ＭＩＫＩさん；子どもが日本語補習校に通っているが、文部省検定教科書を使っている。その宿題で美味しい日本食という問題が出されたが、食品の放 射能汚染の問題が一言もでてこない。フクシマ以前の食品では実質0.1ベクレル／ｋｇ以下だったものが1000倍の100ベクレル／ｋｇにまで規制値が緩 められてしまっている。お米の場合60～80ベクレルが平気で入っているそうだが、どうしてこうしたことが教えられないのか。
ＫＩＭＩＫＯさん；今でも6割、7割の人が原発反対なのだそうだが、なかなか行動として現わせない。私たちのようなのがごく少数に見えるが、選挙で当選したからといって当選者の何でもが支持されているわけではない。
ＹＵＫＩさん；上の意向に従わないと職を失うという問題もあろうが、ナチスを裁く裁判に於いて、膨大な数のユダヤ人を殺したアイヒマンが、決して 特殊で冷血な殺人鬼では無く、自分の任務範囲で行動をしていただけの平々凡々たる役人だったという指摘が(ハンナ・アーレントによって)された。組織の歯 車であってもひとりひとりの決断が問われる。
ＧＡＲＹさん；サンオノフレ原発で働いていた。多少の事故やなにかの不都合が起きても外部に決して漏れない体制が作られてしまっている。日本人にはフクシマで現在起きている事態を収束させることが出来る力が充分にあると思うのだが。科学的、文化的力が備わっているはずだ。
ＬＩＢＢＥさん；私のやっているＮｕｃｌｅａｒ Ｈｏｔｓｈｅｅｔというポッドキャストラジオで、小出さん、山本太郎さんなど原発に反対してきた方々の声が聞けますのでぜひ参考にして欲しい。
な どの発言がありました。さらに、こうした意見に対してナカタニ領事はどう考えるのかについては、「意見は無いわけではないがいまここで意見を述べることに 意味があるとは思わない」と、前回と同じ答えでした。また「私たちのこうした声はどう処理されるのか」「文書による解答はもらえるのか」との問いについて は、「しかるべき関係部署に送付する」「政策として反映される」「いちいち回答するという事にはならない」ということで終わってしまいました。
3時40分頃に終わり、野外集会をやった場所に戻るとグリーンピースＵＳＡの顧問でＷｅｂ『Ｅｃｏｗａｔｃｈ』の編集発行人ハーヴェイ・ワッサー マン氏が来ていました。残念ながら彼のスピーチを聞くことはできませんでしたが、お互い紹介しあって、集合写真を撮り、今後の予定を確認して解散になりま した。リトル東京までのマーチには少し人数が足りなかったです。
Petition to the Japanese Consulate
Today is the third anniversary of 3.11 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. We are still extremely concerned about the worsening condition of people’s health, food safety, and environmental contamination in the Tohoku region, the greater Tokyo region, and beyond. The severity of the accident and the dispersion (geographical reach) of the accident-derived radioactive contamination of our air, water, soil and habitat have been overwhelming and unheard of in the human history. The first, second, and third reactors at Fukushima Daiichi have been emitting 10 million Becquerel of radioactive contaminants per hour. There has been 100 tons of contaminated water leaks from the unstoppably increasing number of storage tanks. Furthermore, the nuclear fuel must have been and still be melting down deep in the underground of the power plant and causing underground water contamination, which has been streaming out into the Pacific Ocean.
Indeed, we have seen the destructive and dehumanizing power of nuclear technology inflicted upon numerous human beings in the history. From 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to 1954 nuclear testing by the U.S. at Bikini atoll of Marshall Islands, to 1986 Chernobyl, and to this unfathomable catastrophe of Fukushima. They all indicate that the nuclear technology can devastate the mother earth and threaten all the humanity that lives on this planet.
The atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed immediately 120 thousand and 70 thousand people respectively. The slow death from the lingering aftereffect of radiation has been estimated to 260 thousand people, which the U.S. occupation force and the subsequent Japanese government under U.S. cold war/nuclear regime have tried to cover up.
60 years ago from this past March 1st, the U.S. government had exploded a thermonuclear device on Bikini Atoll. The tested bomb, codenamed Bravo, sent a cloud of radioactive fallout across the northern atolls of the Marshall Islands (then part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands). The Republic of the Marshall Islands is now an independent country, but the people of this Micronesian nation still live with the health and environmental consequences of the nuclear weapons program. Bravo was just one of sixty-seven atmospheric nuclear tests on Bikini and Enewetak atolls between 1946 and 1958.
The 1984 Chernobyl accident had contributed to the collapse of Soviet Union, which designated the accident as a top secret and deployed 60 million military and police/firefighting personnel to contain it. As Mikhail Gorbachev has testified, Soviet Union could not deal with the explosively increasing health problem and corresponding increase of compensation for it and five years later the USSR itself collapsed. People of Ukraine and Belarus are still suffering from the long-lasting effect of radiation.
Importantly, however, Fukushima seems to signal a culmination of this nuclear crisis, which derived from the idea of the earth not as a source of life but as a resource to be exploited, the idea of prioritizing profits of major corporations over human life and environment, and the idea of rejecting to consider future generation and the well-being of those who have been rendered disproportionately vulnerable (women, working-class people, children, and so on.) As we stated above, history tells us that the nuclear technology and industry have done and are likely to do devastate mother earth and threaten all our lives and livelihood. The Japanese government has been intentionally ignoring the scale and severity of the accident and left many people in highly contaminated areas of Fukushima by tyrannically changing its law on the limit of radiation exposure, thereby avoiding governmental expense of large-scale evacuation. The unfolding calamity of Fukushima is way more serious than what the Japanese government has globally advertised through its “nuclear safety myth,” which is essentially a lie and cover-up.
Through the three petitions that we have submitted to the Japanese Consulate-general at Los Angeles (6/22/12, 2/22/13, 12/11/13), we demanded that Japanese government and TEPCO disclose accurate information and call for international support and that Japanese government should immediately evacuate Fukushiman people, especially children. As we expect based on the health statistics from Belarus, the number of children’s thyroid cancer has skyrocketed. The on-going prefectural medical check of Fukushiman children, which has examined 254,000 kids so far and 110,000 more to go, has revealed that 75 kids have thyroid cancer. That number will likely soar up in years to come and the condition in Fukushima is much worse than Belarus, which has had the most severe health damage after Chernobyl. Still 170,000 Fukushimans live in temporal evacuation facilities or live far away in other prefectures, experiencing family separation and psychological burden. The Japanese government has rejected the collective evacuation of Fukushiman children proposed because of them being more vulnerability to radiation.
The previous Japanese government administrations, have never adequately informed its citizens of the dangers of contamination. The decontamination projects, whose contracts the major general construction companies received, turned out far from effective. They even made some residents go back to the highly contaminated area where the radiation reaches higher than 20 mili-sievert (mSv) per year, which, according to Chernobyl evacuation criteria, requires immediate and mandatory evacuation. They have even withdrawn from monetarily supporting those who live in highly contaminated areas and want to voluntarily evacuate. What is worse is that the central government has spent millions of yen in the “persuasion policy,” which is to disseminate wrong ideas that sickness is not from radiation but from stress that people have because they worry too much. Despite the internationally accumulated scientific and medical evidences that show 1 mSv/year should be the limit of radiation exposure even for medical workers dealing with X-ray and nuclear power plant workers, Japanese government changed the limit to 20 mSv/yr. It is obvious that Tokyo government intends to advertise that the accident has been contained and it is safe to host Olympic in Tokyo in 2020. This is precisely an example of prioritizing profits of economic policy whose benefit will not trickle down to ordinary workers over people’s lives and safety.
We, who envision nuclear free future, demand that the government and international community should establish and stipulate “People’s Right to Live Free from the Fear of Radioactive Contamination.” We also demand that the government should execute “Reparation/Redress” policies by covering all the cost of seriously needed evacuation in the contaminated area.
While we have an urgent need for evacuation, we also recognize many other problems of nuclear policy in Japan: 1. contaminated water leak; 2. dangerous process of containing and transporting used nuclear fuel; 3. food chain contamination; 4. new Secrecy Law and Cancer Registration Law; 5. attempts to export nuclear power plant. More than 1000 tanks storing contaminated water have been built, but leaks have been found as I mentioned before This leak not only streams into the Pacific Ocean but also has made the ground very unstable, on which TEPCO has been moving the nuclear fuel from the pool built in the upper floor of the four nuclear plants in Fukushima Daiichi. Nuclear fuel, which amounts to 100 times A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, are stored in those buildings which remain damaged from the earthquake. As a seismologist, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, who testified in Japanese Diet, pointed out, another large earthquake could devastate the fuel pools and bring about explosions that could “render a good portion of Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable”.
Food contamination is another, yet related, problem. In a country where seafood occupies a predominant part of the diet, radioactive Strontium can be taken in through fishbones, which eventually get stored in human bone and cause leukemia. The Japanese government has downplayed this problem too and has not monitored food contamination as comprehensively as they should. The new Secrecy law is likely to allow the government to intensify their media manipulation and to conceal more information on nuclear industry that is inconvenient for its continuation. The new Cancer Registration law can be used to hide the information on Fukushima-related cancer increase.
The class action lawsuit, the Nuclear Reactor Suppliers Lawsuit, that indicted plant makers for building what they had known as risky, highlights how the global nuclear industry is trying to profit from this devastating technology. When President Eisenhower advocated “Atoms for Peace” in order to restrain Soviet’s nuclear development and invited private companies to join nuclear energy projects, the federal government passed the Price-Anderson Act in 1957 to indemnify the nuclear industry against liability claims arising from nuclear accidents. When Japan introduced nuclear power plants, it institutionalized the same legal framework. As a result, General Electric, Hitachi, and Toshiba, who made the Fukushima plants, evaded their social responsibility, and they in tandem with Japanese government are even exporting nuclear power plants to Vietnam and Turkey. Through this lawsuit, we attempt to hold them accountable and responsible for the accident.
The implication for us Californians is also huge. Though 9000 kilometer away from Fukushima, there have mass deaths of sea creatures including seals and also contaminated kelp and tuna. The cities of Fairfax and Berkeley in Northern California have passed resolutions to demand that the U.S. federal government take initiative to monitor the radioactive contamination derived from Fukushima.
In conclusion, we again demand that the government and international community should establish and stipulate “People’s Right to Live Free from the Fear of Radioactive Contamination.” We also demand that the government should execute “Reparation/Redress” policies by covering all the cost of seriously needed evacuation in the contaminated area.
We petition based on the 16th article of Japanese Constitution, which dictates citizen’s right to petition and obligates the government to respond.
3/11/2014
No Nukes Asia Action
Sam Kanno, Yushi Yamazaki
March 11, 2014 - On the 3rd Anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster
We demand that the Japanese government and international community establish a framework;
“The People’s Right to Live Free from the Fear of Radioactive Contamination.”
We demand that the government award and honor “Reparation/Redress” for all victims which cover all costs of seriously needed evacuation in the contaminated areas.
Redress Now! Reparations Now! for the Fukushima Nuclear Diaster Victims
We demand that the manufacturers of the faulty nuclear reactors GE, Hitachi and Toshiba, take social responsibility for their part along with the Japanese govenment and issue Redress & Reparations.
Sam Kanno, Yushi Yamazaki
March 11, 2014 - On the 3rd Anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster
We demand that the Japanese government and international community establish a framework;
“The People’s Right to Live Free from the Fear of Radioactive Contamination.”
We demand that the government award and honor “Reparation/Redress” for all victims which cover all costs of seriously needed evacuation in the contaminated areas.
Redress Now! Reparations Now! for the Fukushima Nuclear Diaster Victims
We demand that the manufacturers of the faulty nuclear reactors GE, Hitachi and Toshiba, take social responsibility for their part along with the Japanese govenment and issue Redress & Reparations.
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