Newsletter of the “NSKK No-Nuke Project” — Part II of the “Let’s Walk Together” Project,the Anglican-Episcopal Church in Japan’s efforts to “walk together” with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011
http://www.nskk.org/province/genpatsugroup/english (Linked to the Provincial Office’s website)
Fukushima – still our home
Rev. Kenzo Koshiyama, Member, Steering Committee of the “Project on Nuclear Power and Radiation” (commonly known as the “NSKK No-Nuke Project”)
Time flies. Three years have passed, since the devastation by the earthquake of March 2011. Many are turning their eyes to the coming Tokyo Olympics, the consumption tax hike, trends of economy, etc. – deserting the gigantic load of Fukushima. On March 11th this year, I read six newspapers, including both nationwide and local, to see how they report on the three years following the devastation. To my unpleasant surprise, those papers carried words like “rebuilding, hope, vigor” and so on. Face the plain tragedy – in reality, some 57,000 people are still away from their homes and living in the confinement of temporary houses that are so small that it is hard to take a deep breath. None of the papers I read covered this obvious, deplorable reality.
They chant “recovery, rebuilding,” yet what do these slogans stand for? As time passes by, they create an illusion that “the ordinary” has come back to the victims. Now, I keep my residences in Iwaki and Koriyama, both in Fukushima Prefecture, and some people often greet me, saying, “Iwaki is just like the way it used to be before the quake. Good!” I just don’t know how to respond. Similar greetings meet me in Koriyama too. True, what eyes see is a townscape which makes you believe nothing ever happened. Yet the truth is, radioactivity has no smell, no color, and causes no immediate pain. Our senses do not catch it, yet it is certainly there.
Three years ago, March 12th through 14th, Fukushima I had three hydrogen explosions, which drastically disrupted the living of Fukushima residents. Not just their individual lives were broken, but they were torn apart from each other. This fission in human relationships is deep and still there. There still remain some conflicts between those who (were able to) evacuate and those who did not (were not able to do so), and this “fission” is beyond any words. The deeper a relationship used to be, the tougher it is to restore it, once it is torn apart.
After all those three years, I do not think we will ever find an answer to the question: “which was right, to evacuate or not?” Also, after the three years, I have an impression that staying in the heavily contaminated areas has produced only meaningless results. Still, time is passing by in a quite ordinary manner, as if nothing ever had happened. Yet behind people’s greetings in this “ordinariness,” I do sense some emotional turbulence. They built up their mutual relationship over many, many years. Then, the reactors’ explosions broke down this precious relationship – this is an experience I had with my own senses, and this agony will never leave me.
In spite of all that, we humans have to live in relationships. Countless tragedies have been and still are kept under the cover of clouds of darkness. I do believe we are a tragic animal. Recently, decontamination work began around my church. Most of the workers cover their faces with a mask, and their true faces under the mask, if you look at them closely, mostly show adolescence. Some were removing sludge out of the roadside ditches with only work gloves of cotton on their hands. Now, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican-Episcopal Church in Japan, “NSKK” hereafter) has some regulations about exposure to radioactivity. These were adopted three years ago, as part of our efforts of “Let’s Walk Together!” Project Part I.” According to such a regulation, no woman 30 years in age or younger, and no man 40 years in age or younger, should be allowed to be engaged in volunteer activities in a highly radioactive area for long. We had heated arguments over this. “There still are kindergartners and their young nurses living in Iwaki and Koriyama.” “Should we keep the church people and volunteers alone safer??” “The heart of the teachings of Lord Jesus is to lie down one’s own life for friends. This is a time when our faith is put to a test.” — These arguments are still ringing in my head.
I also heard a voice saying, “It is a slow murder to raise children in Koriyama.” We had a blazing controversy over whether or not to close our kindergarten. Back then, Prof. Y of Nagasaki University proposed that the upper limit of “safe exposure” should be lifted to 20 mSv, and the national government agreed. This seriously affected our controversy. Today, I try not to talk about it. Over the last three years, almost a half of the children we had left us. By now, however, we have replaced the kindergarten yard’s natural grass with artificial grass, in addition to all the safety measures all of us have taken. Those efforts have paid off, and this year we have a “regular” number of new children entering the kindergarten. We did not close the kindergarten, and we have had this result – yet this is a “result.” We went all out in deciding how to keep our children’s lives safe. Still, we have yet to see for sure whether our decision (not to close) was right or wrong. Honestly, I cannot claim in the least that all our strife to overcome hardships has resulted in the peace we currently have. We still need much more time to settle things. Also, we are indeterminate over how to respond to all the help and encouragement we receive from churches nationwide.
After these three years, Fukushima is suffering from invincible fatigue. We find it hard to answer a question, “what do you want us to do?” Here, honestly, I was reluctant to describe to you some of the agonies I experienced. Still, I wanted you, readers, to know what tough realities many in Fukushima are living with today – or realities they are made to live with. I would appreciate it if you should feel their problems closer to you. I still find the phrase, “Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima,” alien to me, since we are still living here in Fukushima.
April 5th, 2014
Fr. Kenzo Koshiyama, Sts. Peter & Paul’s Church, Koriyama, and St. Timothy’s Church, Onahama (Fukushima)
To donate to us:
◆ Postal transfer account with Japan Post: 00120-0-78536
Account holder: Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK)
Please clearly state in the transfer slip “Donation to the Project on Nuclear Power and Radiation”
Or:
◆ Account Name；NIPPON SEI KO KAI
◆ Address;65 Yarai-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0805 JAPAN
◆ Account Number；4515547
◆ Bank Name；The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, LTD.
Branch Name；Iidabashi
◆ Bank Address; 3-7 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0825 JAPAN
| Steering Committee of the “Project on Nuclear Power and Radiation”This committee was set up to the working principles of the “Let’s Walk Together” Project and the 2012 Resolution “In search of a world free from nuclear plants” of NSKK. Steering committee members: Revd. Kiyoshi Nomura (Chair), Revd. Akira Iwaki, Revd. Kenzo Koshiyama, Revd. Tazuru Sasamori, Ms. Hiroko Miyawaki Secretary General: Ms. Kay Ikezumi2-9-23, Hayama, Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture Phone: +81-249-53-5987 Fax: 050-3411-7085 |
Implications of “going home”
Today, three years after the Fukushima I meltdown began, some complex emotional conflicts are arising in and among people in evacuation – thanks to the national government’s graded compensations and aids to evacuees. For instance, to Kawauchi Village, some 20km (12.5 miles) WSW of Fukushima I, its villagers returned already two years ago. Yet the village is divided by an arc 20km apart from the nuclear power plant (NPP). This border marks a great discrepancy in the compensations the national government is paying to the villagers, and this discrepancy has created a divide in their psychology as well. The area within 20km of the NPP is an evacuation area, where decontamination work was done to enable former residents to come home. Now, 30km apart from the NPP, it was formerly specified as an area of emergency evacuation preparation. Between these two areas, the compensations differ considerably. If you were a resident 30km apart from the NPP,
– The compensation for mental agonies, JPY100,000 per capita a month, was terminated in August 2012.
– The compensation for those unable to be employed was also terminated in December 2012.
– No compensation for the residents’ housing land, houses, and farms.
– Excluded from the JPY900,000 compensation from the government to those who returne3d home early
In short, residents 30km apart from the meltdown receive virtually no compensations. Even within a single district, a road, considered by the government to be a dividing line, can mark a discrepancy in compensations received by the residents on the two sides of the road. And such divisions are not limited to compensations alone. For instance, when the residents evacuated, they left some “wastes” – for instance, furniture – in their homes. Within 20km of the NPP, the government collects such “wastes” free of charge. However, outside the 20km area, if you want to dispose of a, for instance, a chest of drawers, you are asked to pay JPY1,120 for the waste processing. Also, the government has so far exempted the former areas of emergency evacuation preparation from the taxation of National Health Insurance premiums, Long-Term Care Insurance premiums, and patients’ share of medical expenses, or reduced the amounts of those payments by the citizens in such areas. Now, beginning this October, the government plans to disqualify some residents from those exemption or discounts. Thus, the government is intent on creating a division and discrepancy among the residents of the same areas. This threshold of 20km is nothing but a rough distinction in radioactivity doses. Compensations and aids, therefore, should not be classified by this threshold. The government should not create feelings of inequity among the residents of a same village or town.
Then, on April 1st, 2014, for the first time with those eleven municipalities formerly specified as the caution zone, the evacuation order was lifted for the Miyakoji District, Tamura City. Some 3,000 citizens of 1,000 households have their citizen registrations with the Miyakoji District, which once was “Miyakoji Village.” The District had, as of the end of February 2014, 350 residents of 117 households, all of whom were in evacuation.
It seems that some of those residents were allowed to go home, including, among some others, those 90 people of 27 households, who were staying long in the District. Many of them were aged people. Still, many of the former residents, who were leading an ordinary life in the District over the last three generations, are “determined not to go back to Miyakoji,” being aware of what harm the radioactivity doses there can do. This fear is especially strong among those who are raising children up. In addition, the District today has much more inconvenience than before the evacuation in terms of shopping, medical services, etc., which makes many evacuees reluctant to going home. The national government, though it once tried to lift the evacuation order on November 1st, 2013, met with powerful oppositions from the very evacuees, who were concerned over radioactivity. Thus, the government withdrew the lift. The national government, which directly ran much of the decontamination work and finished it off last June, emphasizes that the annual accumulative dose is around the same level as in the other districts of Tamura, thus refusing to begin “two-dimensional” decontamination. In reality, however, the District today still has some places where the annual exposure exceeds 1 mSv (0.23 mSv an hour). Many residents are calling for additional decontamination, including that of some forest.
The national as well as some municipal governments are encouraging, loudly, evacuees to “go home,” claiming that it marks the first step of Tohoku’s rebuilding. Yet, while some evacuees welcome such a move, hoping to restore the local communities they once lived in, others are pointing out that “the different views of the lift of the evacuation order have resulted in new frictions among the evacuees” and worried that the sense of solidarity within such former communities is now lost. Thus, now it is crucial to offer sufficient help to both those going home and those not going home. Those who do not have decided not to, not out of some personal likes and dislikes, but out of serious concerns over radiation. In the coming two years or so, six other municipalities of Fukushima are to face the tough decision of whether or not to allow their citizens in evacuation to “go home.” In all, some 350,000 citizens are affected by this. Mayor Endoh of Kawauchi Village said, “What makes it so hard to restore the ordinary life? The invisible radiation and all the damages done by the meltdown are doing unmeasurable harm.” And it is certain that the citizens of Fukushima Prefecture feel the same way.(Mieko Nishimagi)
Sign of the Times – Column on Current Issues
“Die Fukushima Lüge”
Germanyh’s ZDF TV is producing a TV series titled “Die Fukushima Lüge” (“The Lie of Fukushima”). It director, Johannes Hano, has directly visited Futaba Town (in the very neighborhood of Fukushima I) and interviewed many relevant people, including, among others, the former Mayor Katsutaka Idokawa of Futaba, Associate Prof. Hiroaki Koide of the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, and Governor Izumida of Niigata Prefecture (which hosts the Kashiwazaki Kariwa NPP). Mr. Hano also obtained some relevant, hard-to-get documents. The TV series reveals, since long before the meltdown began, how the true color (dangers) of nuclear power has been concealed by some immense power by means of cover-ups, sophistry, threats, etc. (Part of the series went online in YouTube on March 1st, 2014.) The facts Japan’s mass media do not cover, we learn from a medium outside Japan. And one of the specific facts “Die Fukushima Lüge” has consistently been showing us is that the powerful “genshiryoku mura” (literally, “Nuclear Village”) has been forcing vulnerable people without such power into agonies, tragedies, and dangers of life, for decades now here in Japan. Here, “Nuclear Village” refers to the community of pro-nuclear power people and entities – power companies, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, businesses involved in nuclear power, NPP builders, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and other relevant Ministries and Agencies, university scholars in favor of nuclear technologies, mass media, magazines of the industry, and so on. Anyone can see this is some tremendous power. Christian churches cannot afford to ignore this grave issue. They have to stand up for the sake of our children, their children, and — who carry on God-given life.(Margaret)
Visits to South Korea’s NPPs
In the summer of 2013, a joint youth seminar between the Anglican Churches of South Korea and Japan met in Gyeongju, southern South Korea, for the first time after the two years of absence following the Great East Japan Earthquake and the meltdown of Fukushima I. The seminar’s slogan was “Let’s move beyond nuclear into a world of life.” There, the participants, in addition to enjoying mutual fellowship, learned about South Korea’s nuclear power situation and people’s movements to oppose it. I am no expert in nuclear power, and therefore all I can provide below is only fractional information. Still, to organize my memory from the seminar as well, allow me to describe below some of what I learned there.
Gyeongju, the place I visited this time, is commonly known as a historical city, which used to host the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla. In spite of all its historical elegance, the city is also the home to a NPP. The city and its surroundings, in southern South Korea facing Tonghae (Japan Sea), accommodate two of the nation’s oldest NPPs – Kori and Wolseong. Note, especially, that the Kori NPP lies within 30km of Busan, the second largest city of the nation. A serious accident at the NPP can bring unmeasurable damages to the city. The whole coastal zone covering Kori and Wolseong can be called a “nuclear corridor” – the zone accommodates twelve nuclear reactors in all, the world’s highest reactor density. This Kori NPP has often been a source of accidents and treated as a serious problem by many Koreans. In one recent example of such an accident, in 2007, during a regular checkup, a reactor lost all its external power. To aggravate the matter, this incident was concealed for a month. Both South Korea and Japan have their respective “nuclear mafia-like” communities, like that of Japan’s “Nuclear Village,” that make money out of nuclear business. The Korean counterpart of this “Village,” consisting of members in both the public and private sectors, did numerous wrongdoings, according to reports. Amid protests against the concealed incident, in 2008 the government decided to extend the operational period of the oldest reactor of the nation to 2017. This reactor began its commercial operation in April 1978.
Among South Korea’s reactors are, in addition to PWRs (pressurized water reactors) that are used in Japan as well, some outdated CANDU reactors from Canada. Those old reactors have some safety problems when they cool down, and require considerable safety equipment to fill in cooling water, supply external power in case of emergency, and so on. Due to some physical restrictions, however, those CANDUs have been in operation without some of the safety equipment required.
Yet another major issue, shared by Japan, is where to bury radioactive wastes. Building work was scheduled to begin in Gyeongju of a nuclear waste disposal facility in 2010. After the soil fragility was discovered, however, under the site, the work was postponed. In case a major accident hits this facility someday, a massive quantity of radioactive substances can flow into the sea to bring deadly damages not just to South Korea but to neighboring countries as well.
Many of the things that have taken place or can do so someday in South Korea have already come true in Fukushima. In spite of all the tragedies that we witnessed, however, the South Korean government, against the worldwide trend to reduce nuclear power, is pushing forward its policy to build up more NPPs. Working against this, the nation’s anti-nuke movements, which have been around since long before the Fukushima I meltdown under the slogan of “脱核” (getting over nukes), have expanded. One example of this is the formation of an alliance named “Joint Actions for a Nuclear-Free World.” Also, some Christians there have launched “the Christian Solidarity for a Nuclear-Free World,” which is taking actions against nuclear power from the stand point of “protecting life.” Furthermore, mayors of 45 municipalities in South Korea issued a joint “脱核宣言 (No Nuclear Declaration).” Those moves witness that the grass-root movements against NPPs, which have caused numerous accidents, are certainly spreading. Still, compared to the people of Japan, the only country of the world that has experienced the atomic bombs and now the Fukushima I meltdown, South Korea’s citizens are divided over their stance on NPPs. Many are still in favor of them. The plain fact today is that nuclear power is more than just a simple product of science. It is actually against the Divine Will to let humans prosper, against God’s teachings. It can even lead the human race to its extinction.
South Korea and Japan share the same sea. The two peoples have been living on the blessings from the sea of life. They both should learn what nuclear power truly is and strive to get over nuclear energy while turning to new sources of energy for a sustainable future. They should start off such efforts, in close collaboration with the world’s concerned peoples.
(Mr. Rintaro Ukita, Kyoto Diocese, NSKK)
Contact:NSKK No-Nuke Project
Let us Walk Together Project Part II
NSKK Support for Victims of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake
Kohriyama St.Peter & St. Paul Church
2-9-23, Hayama, Kohriyama City
Fukushima Prefecture
Japan
Tel: 81-24-953-5987 http://nskk.org/province/genpatsugroup
ikezumi-nyc.chubu@nskk.org
genpatsugroup@gmail.com