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)
Fukui District Court’s rulling blocks restart of Oi Nuclear Power Plant
— A report from friendship with citizens of Fukui —
Rev. Satoshi Kobayashi, Rector, Fukui Holy Trinity Church, and Acting Rector, Tsuruga Christ Church
May 21st, 2014 saw the Fukui District Court issuing an epochal ruling that the Kansai Electric Power Company must not restart Units 3 and 4 of its Oi nuclear Power Plant.
The verdict opposes nuclear power, against all the arguments made by pro-nukes, standing upon the fundamental personal rights. The court ruling declares, without hesitation, what many of us, churches and their people, have been wishing so badly to tell the world. The verdict is even impressing and moving, to many of us.
I had an opportunity to listen directly to Attorney Kasahara, the secretary general of the plaintiff attorneys, about significance of this court ruling. The attorney summarized this significance in two points. First, the court decision admitted limitation to what humans can do and judged against their arrogance. It made clear arrogance of humans, who claim to control what they cannot. Attorney Kasahara also prepared a Turkish translation of the verdict and sent it to the people of Turkey, a country to which Japan’s pro-nuke establishment is trying to export a nuclear plant. To complement the translation, the attorney added his message that humans must be humble before God. Though many humans wrongly believe they are capable of anything without God, they are in fact only arrogant and their capabilities are limited, his message appealed. The second point the court ruling made was that this earth should be a place safe to all the creatures. In both of these two points, many of us, humans, have been arrogant and greedy.
Also note that the neighborhood of this District Court, Fukui Prefecture, is mainly rural, where political conservatives enjoy overwhelming support. (Translator’s note: Tsuruga, a major city of Fukui, is located some 120km [75 miles] NNE of central Osaka. Also, many pro-nukes are found among conservative politicians in Japan.) In a neighborhood like this, I believe this court verdict was won by those anti-nuke citizens that have steadily been carrying on anti-nuke protests there over some decades as well as those outside the Prefecture who worked together with them. Now, let me conclude this report with a quote from what Attorney Kasahara said: “This verdict is partly ascribable to the quality of the judges involved in it. Yet what probably affected it more, either directly or indirectly, was that they listened carefully to the oral opinion statements made by plaintiffs at the oral pleadings and read attentively opinions from many different citizens other than the plaintiffs. In this sense, the verdict was a victory won by not just the plaintiffs but many other citizens as well.”
Two years ago, I handed the General Synod of the Anglican/Episcopal Church in Japan’s resolution in 2012, “For a World without Nuclear power Plants,” to Attorney Kasahara. Thus, our church’s slow progress (towards a nuke-free world) has been and is part of the greater collaborations of and among many more citizens. This is a fact I would like to keep in my mind, as well as in the minds of many of you.
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 “NSKK No-Nuket ProjectThis 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 |
Message from the Support Team
Rev. Kenzo Koshiyama, Executive Member, the Project on Nuclear Power and Radiation (the “No-Nuke Project”)
A year has already passed since the No-Nuke Project opened its Koriyama (Fukushima) office in September 2013, to kick off Part II of the “Let’s Walk Together!” Project. This has been a hectic year for all the office people, carrying out numerous events and jobs, with many thanks to encouragements and help from many of you — the “refresh programs” for children and their families living in areas affected by the Fukushima I meltdown, in which they had a good time in Takashima, Nagasaki Prefecture, Gujo Hachiman, Gifu Prefecture, and Kiyosato, Yamanashi Prefecture (to be reported on in our next issue); assistances to summer festivals of kindergartens in Fukushima Prefecture; a lecture on radiation; refresh programs for kindergarten teachers; “hokkori (comfy) cafes” in temporary housings accommodating refugees from Tomioka and Okuma Towns; activities to let the general public listen directly to people living in temporary housings (report and speech meetings held at many different places nationwide); coordination of and guides to those visiting the areas hit hard by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011; spreading words from Fukushima to the whole world; and many more.<br>
If you visit Koriyama, Fukushima, today, you will see sceneries just peaceful – enticing you to believe nothing ever happened there. Each of the residents in the city, however, has very different feelings and they seldom tell their true thoughts and wishes. I suppose here it is easier to live keeping one’s true feelings hidden. Now, this year again, we held a family outing to Takashima, Nagasaki, just as we did last year. We had a great number of applications! Takashima is a distant island from here, Koriyama – a six to eight hours’ flight. Why on earth did such numerous people want to visit such an island far away? One of the participants described the reason quite well: “The farther away we go, the more we are set free from all the traumas of radiation.” (In spite of their fear of the high radiation here, many are trying to face the reality that they are currently living in Koriyama and will have to do so in the years to come.)
Meanwhile, our lecture on radiation focused on what those residents could do in their everyday life to minimize radiation hazards. We invited as the lecturer Mr. Masaharu Kawada, who worked hard for medical aids and farm restorations to Chernobyl victims, for 25 years after the nuclear disaster. Mainly targeted at the parents of the children of St. Paul’s Kindergarten, the lecture meeting was held on June 30th this year. Mr. Kawada explained issues about radiation in a very friendly manner, and covered many issues related to the audience’s day-by-day living. (foods, water, how to send days, recommendation of “refreshing,” etc.) The lecture lasted for four hours, including a lunch break. After the whole lecture, many of the mothers attending showed a moving smile. This success gave us a feeling that we needed to hold more lectures or opportunities of learning. We, therefore, held another lecture on August 26th, titled “Why not talk about your worries over radiation – let’s talk about living, foods, clothes, and environment, to help your family stay healthy.” The invited lecturer is Ms. Michie Kanno, a nurse working for The Association To Help Chernobyl, Chubu-District, Japan.
How is Fukushima today ?
Mieko Nishimagi, member, Fukushima St. Stephen’s Church
(As of the writing of this report) three years and four months have passed since the devastative earthquake and tsunami. Fukushima still has a gigantic heap of problems, which are growing ever more complex. The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant’s meltdown is far from over. The contaminated water has been and is growing larger and larger in volume, creating one problem after another. TEPCO is taking one ad hoc measure after another, to respond to them. No verification work of the meltdown has been conducted. Many of those people forced to evacuate still hope to return to their hometowns someday or are always worrying over whether or not to return. I know of some evacuees that gave up on returning and found a house in the cities of Iwaki and Fukushima. Also, many living in temporary housings are lost over what to do. .Early this July, I asked a certain couple, my acquaintances, to show me around a little town of Namie and their former house. Namie was hit hard by fallouts from the meltdown, and the couple is now living in the City of Fukushima. To enter this town called Namie, you still need permission as a resident there. Its main railroad station, “JR Namie Station,” served as many as some 5,000 passengers each day. Now, this station that once thrived has weed growing out of cracks in its concrete. The grocery store before it remains as it was right after the 2011 disaster. Tress of the season stood and hydrangeas were in full blossom adorned uninhabited houses, and — . This ghost town, which once accommodated some 20,000 residents, presented to me some astonishing scenes once I walked into the town.
The town’s coastal Ukedo District showed me how the disaster has stopped time there – debris and boats, cars, etc. washed away by the tsunami still remain there, as they were right after March 2011. While inside the City of Fukushima “decontamination” work is in progress in many places, the whole Fukushima Prefecture has as many as some 50,000 “temporary storages” of removed radioactive soil, dust, etc., including some yards of private houses. This means we have a serious issue of “interim storage facilities” of such contaminated soil. Though the Japanese government says it will buy up those candidate lands, their owners are reluctant to sell their lands inherited from their ancestors. Yet another serious concern is that no “final disposal site” is determined. This implies what stat out as “interim” can end up as “permanent.” Still, the government is pushing its plan to build such “interims.” Today, I hear that the media do not cover much of the meltdown and its hazards in Tokyo and the regions west of it. Occasionally, I question myself: “Aren’t we, residents in Fukushima, creating some factors that let people forget about the meltdown? With too many grave problems around us, we are tired of thinking about them, maybe. We try not to see them in our everyday life —.” Yet then, I reshape my mind – we, Fukushima residents that experienced that “doomsday,” have to keep spreading information on what is happening, for the sake of our children and their children. (As of July 15th, 2014, in Fukushima Prefecture, the number of deaths ascribable to causes related to the meltdown, 1,732, exceeds that of deaths directly ascribable to the earthquake and tsunami, 1,603, by more than a hundred.)
Sign of the Times – Column on Current Issues
“Something more important than electric power”
Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture, hosts three facilities of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. – a reprocessing facility (fuel reprocessing, waste control, and MOX fuel production), and enrichment and burial facility (uranium enrichment), and another enrichment and burial one (burial of nuclear wastes). Another city named Mutsu in the same prefecture is home to the “Recyclable-Fuel Storage Center,” an interim storage facility of used nuclear fuels. Suppose you are living in the neighborhood of any of these facilities, and imagine how you would feel. Also, some 20km (12.5 miles) south of Rokkasho Village lies Misawa Airport, which is used by both private airliners and the US Air Force. The air force deploys F-16 fighters for real combat use and watches East Asia’s military situations. In 2007, some F-16s took off at this Misawa Base to fight the Iraq War. Some of those fighters are believed to have bombed military bases of Taliban, the anti-government armed forces in eastern Afghanistan. God created us, humans, to love each other. Now, we simply have to admit that we often behave more cruelly than animals do. The possibility of an aircraft hitting by accident or a terrorist attacking any of those nuclear fuel recycling facilities never leaves our mind. When it comes to nuclear power, some say it is a political issue and churches should not take either side (pro- or anti-). Still, before we talk about politics and church, we should keep in mind that it is a matter of life and death. What is at stake is God-given life. (Margaret)
Churches around the world call for abolishment of nuclear power and weapons
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an association of most protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Roman Catholic Church, though not an official member of the organization, always sends its observers and stays in close cooperation with the WCC. Now, from July 2nd through 8th, this year, the organization’s Central Committee met in Geneva, to adopt the “Statement towards a Nuclear-free World.” Earlier, at the 10th WCC Assembly that convened in November 2013 in Busan, South Korea, the discussion over nuclear power failed to conclude and asked the Central Committee to reach a conclusion on this issue. Thus, the July Central Committee adopted the Statement.
The Statement first points out that northeast Asia is the only region on our planet where nuclear weapons were actually used in war as well as a region hosting numerous nuclear power plants. Then, it describes its perception of the current reality as “The related technology of nuclear energy is a peculiarly hazardous form of development. The Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011 has demonstrated once more the threats it poses to people, community life and natural ecosystems. Tens of thousands of the people displaced by the disaster will never be allowed to go home.”
The Statement goes on to point out the following problems:
◆ Harm to health, ethics, and environment
“Military and civilian uses of nuclear technology both produce large quantities of poisonous materials that do not exist in nature and are among the world’s worst forms of environmental contamination.”
“Nuclear radiation is a poison that cannot be seen, smelled or tasted. Its health effects are severe and multi-generational.”
“The use of the term “safe” for the nuclear industry has proven to be unsupportable. Serious accidents that were judged to be highly unlikely have occurred repeatedly.”
◆ Decision agreed upon by the churches on nuclear energy
“The WCC Consultation on Nuclear Energy in 1989 noted that ‘Human actions often violate the integrity of creation and today endanger its very survival,’ and recommended three ethical principles for energy technologies which are valid in assessing nuclear energy today: (a) the responsibility to future generations to promote the “sustainability of creation”, (b) justice as enabling human survival and fulfilment; and (c) participation of people in energy choices which directly affect their lives.”
◆ Connection between “civil” and military uses of nuclear energy
“Nuclear power is the pathway to acquiring the equipment, materials and technology necessary for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Promoted as “atoms for peace” and “peaceful uses of nuclear energy”, the expansion of nuclear power has facilitated the spread of nuclear weapons. The civilian use of nuclear power can hide military intentions and tempt countries to reprocess plutonium from nuclear waste for use in nuclear weapons. ”
“Civilian and military nuclear facilities are potential targets for acts of terrorism or war. Radioactive material may be stolen or sold, and used with conventional explosives to make a ‘dirty’ bomb.”
◆ Exodus from nuclear energy as a pilgrimage of justice and peace
“God is a generous Creator, calling life into being from atoms and molecules and endowing creation with life in abundance. To split the atom into deadly, unnatural elements already gives cause for serious ethical and theological reflection. ”
Then, the Statement calls on churches of the world to:
1. Go deeper in their discussions, both ethical and theological, of uses of nuclear energy. This should include researches on, among other issues, what purposes these uses serve, what their actual costs are, who they bring profits to, what rights they violate, and what they do to environment and health.
2. Develop kinds of spirituality that are sensitive to environmental issues, in order to bring changes to lifestyles of individuals and communities.
among other recommendations.
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