Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Based on an article from the January 17^th, 2016 edition of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper)
▼Click the image and read the caption.

On December 21^st, 2015, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment determined that it would not decontaminate the forest of Fukushima some 20m (22 yards) or more apart from the nearest residence or farm. By making this decision, the Ministry rejected repeated petitions from the Fukushima Prefectural Government and municipalities for a total decontamination of the Prefecture’s forest, ignoring their claim that the forest is an essential part of the livelihood of Fukushima’s people. Mr. Norio Akasaka, director of Fukushima Museum, published a document on this issue, questioning the national government’s attitude from the viewpoint of his field of expertise, ethnology.

* Excerpt from the document – “In the suburbs of Sendai, Miyagi Pref., I once heard the phrase, ‘the front farm and the forest behind.’ Even in a rice-growing village located on a field, each farming household had to have two things in addition to their rice fields –vegetable fields, and their homestead woodland, named ‘igune,’ to make their living. This igune was not just a wind-break forest. They carefully chose and planted many different species of trees. Some bore fruit. Some provided fuel. Some provided short bamboo. Other trees provided the wood required when rebuilding the house. In short, igune was little ‘satoyama,’ the forest that was part of the community, the forest that was the ‘forest behind.’ I heard over and over again that the decontamination work has cut down such igune.

This reminds me of a long essay titled ‘Watanabe-ke no Saijiki (Seasons of the Watanabes)’ by Ms. Kazu Watanabe, contained in the first issue of a local publication named ‘Aizu Gaku (Studies of Aizu).’ (Translator’s note: Aizu is a region in the western part of Fukushima.) It described all the wealth of the culinary culture of the small families living in a small village deep in Aizu. The village celebrates many annual events, beginning with the New Year, and each event has its own ceremonial meal, prepared by the head woman of the household. The meal’s ingredients are all collected from nature and ‘satoyama’ surrounding each household.

The nuclear power plant meltdown has seriously hurt Fukushima’s traditional culinary culture. Here, each family and district have developed their own culinary culture. Fukushima’s women have created their own recipes thanks to the blessed ingredients from the abundance of mountains, fields, rivers, and ocean. To them, their livelihood is not limited to the radius of 20m from their houses. All the mountains, fields, rivers, and ocean surrounding them are necessary for their livelihood. If their forest is not decontaminated, what kind of a living can they make, if and after they return to their hometowns? I can hear their voices saying, ‘Give us back our mountains, rivers, and ocean!’”

The lifestyles and culture that people have built up over millennia are now on the verge of extinction, thanks to the nuclear power plant (NPP) built only some four decades ago. A NPP destroys what people need to live as people. No decontamination or compensation can ever restore such lifestyles and culture once they are lost.

Many people have a cherished environment and culture which are native to them, that they grew up with. And this cherished culture-nature complex is often a part of their psyche. I believe we should not let the national government force the refugees to return to their hometowns, if such a return is a national policy that ignores people’s right to live as people.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Based on articles from the January 7^th, 2016 editions of the Asahi Shimbun, Fukushima Minpo, and Akahata newspapers)

On January 6^th, 2016, North Korea held an underground nuclear weapon test, and announced that the nation had accomplished its first successful test of a hydrogen bomb. This was North Korea’s fourth nuclear bomb test, following those of 2006, 2009, and 2013.

Using an atomic bomb as the detonator, a hydrogen bomb utilizes the extreme heat, high pressure, and radiation from the fission of the atomic bomb to start nuclear fusion, which creates deuterium and/or tritium. Such fusion emits tremendous energy, way beyond that of an atomic bomb.

Mr. Susumu Misaki, a member of the crew of “Daigo Fukuryu-maru,” a tuna fishing boat from Yaizu, Shizuoka, Japan, is a survivor from the Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb incident of 1954. He turns 88 years old this year. On March 1^st, 1954, the U.S. held a hydrogen bomb test at the atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The unlucky fishing boat was exposed to fallout from the bomb, which blew away the atoll. Though the boat was some 160km (100 miles) from the explosion, the fallout devastated the crew, 23 in number.

Says Mr. Misaki, “That’s how terrible a hydrogen bomb really is. It devastates to such a great extent.” Half a year after this exposure to radiation, the boat’s chief radio engineer, Mr. Aikichi Kuboyama, passed away at the age of 40. After the boat returned to the port of Yaizu, Mr. Misaki was hospitalized for a year and two months. Said he, “Hydrogen bombs today, I believe, are several times more destructive than they were back in 1954. If several such bombs hit Japan today, the nation might face its end. This thought frightens me.”

Another former crew member of the fishing boat, Mr. Hiroshi Kozuka (84), has a 56-year-old daughter-in-law who said, “The Bikini tragedy left unbearable burdens on my father-in-law, both mental and physical, which consumed most of his life after the disaster. I, as part of his family, find it unbearably tragic.” She went on to say tearfully, “We don’t want nuclear tests, for the sake of our children and their children. We don’t want a world where hydrogen bombs are used.”

2,379 nuclear bomb tests were held, in many nations, during the half century beginning in 1945. The total energy from all those nuclear bombs amounts to more than 35,000 times that of the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima.

A nuclear weapon test often goes beyond the purely military or scientific sphere and plays a role in political propaganda. Especially, the former USSR and China often claimed that their tests were “unavoidable” and “agonizing choices” in order to resist “U.S. imperialism.” At the same time, such nuclear tests were often meant to show off the might of the countries that conducted them. The tests held by North Korea were no exception.

At the nuclear bomb test site of Semipalatinsk (ex-USSR), there were 456 tests in all during the four decades between 1949 and 1989. At a hydrogen bomb test on August 12^th, 1953, the relevant authorities forced some adult males from the surrounding area to stay in the zone contaminated with radioactivity, probably as a human experiment. Just as Agent Orange did in Vietnam, radioactivity in and around this site caused some birth defects. Some victims’ bodies are still preserved in formalin. After the site was shut down, a medical examination discovered that fallout at the site had given some 200,000 residents in the area direct health hazards. Especially notable is the fact that those victims showed high rates of many types of cancer. Also, the examination found a correlation between exposure to radiation and thyroid abnormalities.

In the world today, people are more loudly voicing their concerns over the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and are demanding that such weapons be abolished. The UN General Assembly, in the fall of 2015, adopted, with an overwhelming majority, resolutions calling for “a humane pledge to prohibit and abolish nuclear weapons,” recognizing “a moral duty to build a world free of nuclear weapons,” and calling for a study of the “effects of nuclear weapons on humans,” along with other resolutions. While the rest of the world is calling aloud for the abolishment of nuclear weapons, North Korea has conducted nuclear bomb tests over and over again, “showing off” that it “has nuclear weapons.” The country has been running right against humanity’s yearning for freedom from nuclear weapons. This must not be tolerated.

Fukushima is irretrievable. Its radiation-free beauty before the meltdown will never be restored. Right now, right here (Translator’s note: The author is a resident of Koriyama, Fukushima), invisible radiation is harming the bodies and minds of many people. In spite of this tragedy, Japan’s government is still trying to use nuclear energy, and is attempting to cover-up such tragedies. Still, there is only one right direction for humanity to follow. Each and every one of us should follow this direction, and spread the message that we seek for a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA

(Based on articles from the December 22^nd, 2015 editions of the Fukushima Minpo and Asahi Shimbun newspapers)

▲Click each image and read the caption.

Concerning decontamination of forests in Fukushima Prefecture contaminated by the meltdown of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has announced a new policy of not decontaminating any forest that is some 20m (22 yd.) or more from the nearest residence or farm. One reason for this decision was that no fallout of radioactive substances from such forests was detected that could affect the neighboring inhabited area. Yet another reason was that removal of fallen leaves in a forest could invite sediment runoff and other disasters.

Fukushima Prefecture is the third largest in area among all the 47 prefectures of Japan. Some 70% of the prefecture’s whole area is forest, which ranks No. 4 in forest area among the 47 – a vast amount of forest, indeed. Of the no-return areas in the prefecture, almost 80% is forest, whose total area extends to some 26,000 ha (64,220 acres). Ever since the forest was contaminated with radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, no forestry work has been conducted there. Thus, the forest has been abandoned and is being ruined – a major social issue.

In response to the new policy announced by the Ministry, forestry organizations of Fukushima are raising their voices, calling for more thorough protective measures for logging workers to keep them safe from radiation exposure.

In November 2014, the Secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority conducted a survey of air dose rates in the evacuated areas’ forests. The highest rate measured was 31 mSv per hour. An estimate made by the Fukushima Prefectural Government says the prefecture’s forests will have an average air dose rate of 2.6 mSv, a decade from now, with the maximum reaching 12 mSv, taking into consideration the natural decay of radioactive substances. For the evacuation directive to be lifted, the rate must come down to 3.8 mSv per hour or below. This estimate, therefore, implies that much of the prefecture’s contaminated forest will still be a no-go area ten years later. Those related to the Fukushima Federation of Forest Owners’ Co-operative Associations pointed out the necessity to “pay special attention to the mental health of those workers working in a contaminated forest.” Moreover, they said they were thinking of asking the national government and TEPCO to provide financial aid so that such workers can receive special allowances and/or higher hourly wages.

With respect to the many “shiitake” mushroom beds (raw wood on which the mushrooms grow) in Fukushima there are plans to resume the production of such wood. It is, therefore, an urgent task to reduce the radiation doses in bed wood forests. In many parts of these forests, such wood carries radioactive cesium above the threshold set by the Forestry Agency (50 becquerel per kg [2.2 lb.]) today. Fukushima used to enjoy the greatest shipment volume of such wood in the whole nation, yet its shipment volume in 2012 drastically dropped to only 6% of what it used to be before the meltdown. The Prefectural Government’s Forestry Promotion Section described its concerns, saying, “With no decontamination done, recovery of contaminated bed wood forests will slow down even more.”

Those municipalities affected by the meltdown, which contain vast forests and have many residents who are engaged in forestry, are worried that the Ministry’s decision will discourage evacuees from returning and will slow down such municipalities’ rebuilding.

We can easily imagine how hard it is, technically and financially, to decontaminate the vast forests of Fukushima. Still, I do believe the Ministry should spend more resources and time on research and development to find an effective and feasible solution. At the very least, we need to find a new solution, other than the current decontamination, to make the forest safer. It is impermissible to simply ignore these people who have been seriously affected by the meltdown.

Original Japanese written by  staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA 

(Based on articles from the December 25^th, 2015 editions of the Fukushima Minpo, Asahi Shimbun, and Akahata newspapers)

▲Click each image to enlarge. We are sorry we have yet to provide English summaries of the newspaper articles below.

On December 24^th, 2015, the Fukui District Court overturned its own provisional ruling of April 2015 （※） which prohibited the restart of Units 3 and 4 of the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), and gave a go-ahead to the restart, claiming that “the new regulatory safety standard and the examination results are reasonable and no specific danger is seen to the lives of neighborhood residents.”

[（※） Judge Hideaki Higuchi, who served the District Court then, in effect denounced the new safety standard, pointing out that there is a danger of ground motion beyond just the earthquake caused motion assumed by the Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. which could lead to a severe accident at the NPP. Thus, the Judge suspended the restart. In response to this, Kansai Electric filed an objection to the District Court.]

Also, the Court’s Chief Judge Hayashi on December 24^th overturned the provisional ruling, made by then Chief Judge Hideaki Higuchi, which suspended the restart of Units 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric’s Oi NPP (Ohi Town [pronounced “oh-e”], Fukui Pref.).

Takahama’s Units 3 and 4 passed the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s restart examinations in February 2015, following the Sendai NPP of Kagoshima Prefecture. Also, Fukui Prefecture’s Governor Nishikawa gave consent to the restart. Furthermore, the relevant local authorities have consented. Thus, the December rulings by the District Court now enable Kansai Electric to place nuclear fuel in Unit 3 and have it inspected, along with making other preparations for the restart. The power company plans to restart Unit 3 in January 2016. Meanwhile, many neighborhood residents are dissatisfied with the court rulings and plan to file an appeal to the Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court.

Kansai Electric has the greatest dependence on nuclear power among all the existing power companies in Japan. Prior to the meltdown of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi, almost 50% of Kansai Electric’s power came from NPPs. Since the nation’s electricity became temporarily free of nuclear power in September 2013, Kansai’s business has been in the red. The power company has raised its power rates twice since then. The company estimates that with both Units 3 and 4 at work at Takahama, its financial balance should improve by some 12 billion yen monthly. The power company plans to cut its rates to survive the coming deregulation of Japan’s power market that begins in April 2016.

Since the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, there have been many court appeals to prohibit NPP restarts all over the nation.

In Japan, there have been court cases over nuclear power since the early 1960s. Plaintiff citizens won at a District Court in the cases of “Monju”—a fast breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture—and Hokuriku Electric Power’s Shika NPP, in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Those District Court decisions, however, were all overturned by the Supreme Court or a High Court. Thus, judicial decisions that “no specific danger is recognized” have become commonplace.

Later, following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, there developed a movement to question NPPs’ safety with new anti-nuclear teams of attorneys formed nationwide. So far, some 30 provisional rulings and class actions have emerged, according to sources.

In May 2014, in one of those class actions, the Fukui District Court gave an order that Units 3 and 4 of the Oi NPP, Fukui Prefecture, must not be restarted. The same Chief Judge in April 2015 issued a decision that Units 3 and 4 of Takahama must not be restarted either. Almost a week later, however, the Kagoshima District Court turned down plaintiff residents’ petition for a provisional ruling to ban the restart of Units 1 and 2 of the Sendai NPP.

Ex-Judge Kazuo Kawasaki, who served the Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court as Chief Judge, issued a decision in 2003 that annulled the installation permission for the “Monju” fast breeder reactor (Fukui Pref.)  Said the ex-judge, “Watching the court decisions at Kagoshima District and Fukui District, I feel like courts are going back to the age when the nuclear safety myth was commonly believed.” He also said, “Learning lessons from the Fukushima disaster, I think judges need to consider not just technical aspects, but whether or not the majority of the people are convinced by court decisions about nuclear power as well.”

In the coming years, the courts of Japan are expected to give provisional rulings and decisions over NPP restarts, and many fear that the Fukui District’s decision might provide a bad model for other courts to follow.

Many courts here seem oblivious to the Fukushima tragedy. We must not allow nuclear power to hurt and victimize another person. Each and every one of us, therefore, needs to keep Fukushima firmly in his/her mind and communicate the consequences of the disaster to the coming generations.