2025: Walking through Futaba-gun and Iwaki, Hamadori, Fukushima Prefecture - Participation report of the Walk for Life -

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

14 years have passed. I was 27 years old and now I am 41.

 

Since 2013, I have been walking in Fukushima every year around March. The coastal areas that were hit hard by the tsunami, and the shopping streets and residential areas that were turned into ghost towns due to high levels of radiation, have been demolished and new buildings have been built, making it impossible to remember the scenery as it was before. I cannot imagine the sense of loss for those who used to call this place their hometown.

On the other hand, the streetscape of my hometown, Koganei, where I lived until I was 18, is changing rapidly, and I often find myself thinking, "Huh? What was there before here?"

It makes me realize that human memories are fleeting.

For the past few years, the question "Why do I walk through Fukushima every year?" has been repeated in my head many times, with no answer. If I were to write down the reason, the only word that comes to mind is "responsibility," which may sound cliché.

Since some time after the disaster, when I come to Fukushima, I often see phrases like "Let's eliminate the damage caused by rumors" and "Fukushima is now safe." There is an atmosphere where people cannot openly express their "fear of radiation and radiation exposure." In the past, I was critical of this trend in Fukushima. However, as I visit every year, I have begun to change my mind.

I have come to think that there is a good reason why "safety and security" is emphasized in Fukushima.

This time, a friend from Korea joined us. She was worried about whether Fukushima is really safe. Another Korean friend also joined us for a few days, but was also worried about whether it was safe. Of course, it was about radiation. The number of foreign tourists visiting Fukushima Prefecture has not recovered well since the nuclear accident. In Japan, as time has passed, and due to the effects of safety campaigns ("Eat and Support") by politicians, government officials, and citizens, the number of people who are concerned about the radiation levels in Fukushima has decreased significantly. However, due to the information gap with Japan, information after the nuclear accident has not been updated overseas, and the image of "Fukushima and radiation" has been rekindled by the discharge of Alps treated water (radioactive tritium-contaminated water) into the ocean in 2023.

My Korean friends taught me this time that even though more people in Japan think that "Fukushima is safe now," there are still many people overseas who think that "Fukushima is dangerous." I realized that one of the reasons why safety and security have been emphasized in Fukushima is because of the way outsiders view Fukushima. "Fukushima is now safe, but it is still viewed with rose-colored glasses. In order to truly restore Fukushima, we need to eliminate the damage caused by rumors." I think this is one of the reasons why this psychology has arisen.

Some people think that "Fukushima is dangerous," and others think that "Fukushima is safe," cannot be an answer that everyone can agree on. It cannot be said that "Fukushima is dangerous due to radioactive contamination" is 100% wrong. The areas around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the mountainous areas that have not been decontaminated are places where you do not want to stay for a long time because the radiation dose is high, and I do not want to eat wild vegetables or some river fish without measuring them. Also, the frequency, possibility, and cumulative amount of radiation exposure differ between a short-term tourist visit and a long-term residence. Do not enter contaminated mountains or rivers. If you use a wood stove, the radiation will turn to ash and become concentrated, so you need to be careful when handling it.

Despite this, some people who moved to Futaba County had no prior knowledge of radioactive contamination and reused waste materials from contaminated houses or had BBQs with waste materials. Even if the dose is low, if you continue to consume food and drinks that have been exposed to radiation for a long period of time, it should increase the incidence of some diseases.

That is why the trend in Japan that "Fukushima is now safe" is getting stronger every year, but it can never be said that it is 100% safe. In the first place, even modern medicine does not clearly know what kind of disease will develop if you are exposed to a certain amount of radiation, especially in the case of low doses of radiation.

I think many Fukushima residents were forced to choose whether to live or not live in Fukushima. There were many different worries, contradictions, and decisions. Some people wanted to live but evacuated, some wanted to evacuate but continued to live, and some didn't care. It is a mistake to have a general image of "Fukushima people are like this".

Fukushima Prefecture, which has been slower to recover than Miyagi and Iwate due to the effects of radioactive contamination, is taking advantage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to lift the difficult-to-return zone designation and demolish houses. In Futaba Town and Okuma Town, where Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is located, migration from outside the prefecture is being actively promoted. If certain conditions are met, subsidies will be available for people who move to Futaba County. Both towns have created reconstruction areas within the towns with reduced radiation levels, and shops, houses, childcare facilities, etc. have already been built there. While most of the original residents have not returned, new residents are moving in. Many of them are village office employees or people who have come to work for Fukushima Daiichi.

In Okuma, one of the towns where the nuclear power plant is located, a reconstruction music event was held on March 15th under the guise of a school festival, but locals who lost family members in the disaster did not seem to be very happy about it. The reconstruction event, which is being carried out without taking into account the wishes of the local people who place importance on commemorating the victims around 3/11, seems to be well-intentioned, but it seems that not all of the original residents who lived there are happy.

When I talked to local people, I heard that they are grateful that the new immigrants are working hard toward the goal of rebuilding Okuma, but that they seem to be unable to communicate with the original residents, and the original residents are being left behind.

It also seems that the town administration is not telling the new immigrants about the problem of radiation. Last year, a school called "Manabisha Yumenomori," which is attended by students aged 0 to 15 and is said to have been built at a cost of 5.7 billion yen, showed a national air dose monitoring post in the parking lot that indicated a radiation level of over 0.2 μSv. The original radiation dose in Fukushima Prefecture was less than 0.05μSv. There was a forest near the school, and a concerned parent measured it, and it was 1~2 μSv. When he told other parents about it, they said, "I didn't want to know."

40 trillion yen has been spent so far on the reconstruction budget for the East Japan Earthquake. According to people I met there, "It's not reconstruction or revival, it's development." Around Fukushima Daiichi, a sort of cutting-edge science and technology laboratory called F-REI, led by the national and prefectural governments, has been built.

It seemed to show us how the people who caused the nuclear accident that caused people to lose their habitable land are not exploring and researching the wrong way of life and ways of life in modern society, but rather trying to live without giving up on human desires, making full use of science and technology. There are probably many researchers who are working hard to contribute to humanity, but as long as we think of human and non-human life and the world as separate, I think we will repeat nuclear disasters and similar mistakes.

At the time of the nuclear accident, even scientists and experts thought, "East Japan may be over."

Now, 14 years later, both the government and the people are promoting and accepting the restart of nuclear power plants.

Taking advantage of the pure desire to "return home" and the desire to "do something for Fukushima," which people find difficult to criticize, the government and companies are reviving a place that everyone thought would no longer be livable, and this "miraculous revival drama" is moving forward despite people's concerns about whether it is really safe to live in such a radioactively contaminated place.

In the documentary film "Kakurekinishitan" made by Seki Hisao, there is a testimony that says, "I usually act like I don't care about radiation. (But) when I have a day off, I go to recuperate quietly without telling my neighbors. That's why I'm a 'Kakurekinishitan.'"

Ryoji Arizuka, a psychiatrist who appears in the film, also analyzes, "Japanese society criticizes people who argue for the meaning of what the government says and those who are not in the majority. They also suppress crying and expressing emotions as much as possible. They say that you shouldn't get upset. That's the beauty of Japan."

Tours of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant are open to the public, likely to help people get used to radiation. According to people who have participated, they were given a radiation measuring device, but they were nervous because they had to go through a long explanation when the high readings were shown. In the end, the cumulative radiation exposure exceeded 200 μSv. There may be debate as to whether this number is high or low, but I think it is high. It is important for people in the metropolitan area to see the sacrifice of their rich lives, but I think it will lead to misunderstandings if they face it within the story of the perpetrator, TEPCO.

I also heard a story about fraud by TEPCO. When TEPCO tour guide tried to appeal to the low radiation levels by holding a dosimeter close to the water from the Alps (tritium-contaminated water) and saying, "See, it's so low!", a person knowledgeable about radiation responded, "This dosimeter measures gamma rays emitted by radioactive cesium, etc., and tritium emits beta rays."

There are people who have decided to live in the area even though the radiation levels are much higher than they were before the accident. We can all imagine that they were anxious and scared at first. It must have taken a lot of studying to overcome their anxiety and fear. Radiation cannot be seen or felt, and you can only tell if it is there or not by looking at the numbers on a machine. I think they deepened their understanding with time, experience, knowledge and senses.

Having grown up in Tokyo, I feel nothing but sorry and saddened by the decision that the people living in Fukushima have reached after 14 years. At the same time, I admire the time they have spent, their experiences and their choices. I even feel envious of their dignified way of life.

The more you try to live a self-sufficient and careful life here, the more you measure the radiation levels in the soil, water, vegetables and rice, ash, bran and wood for firewood, so there may be conflicting feelings in your heart about deciding to live in a place that you yourself would not want to live in.

There are people here who have decided to accept the reality that our mass production and mass consumption society centered on Tokyo has brought about and live on. I don't want to worship them or make them into heroes, but the composition and contrast continue to disturb me.

Nuclear power, or nuclear energy, is different from thermal or hydroelectric power. It continues to emit huge amounts of energy, and if humans fail to control it, it goes out of control and has the power to destroy all life.

I grew up in the metropolitan area, which is a symbol of modern civilized society that relies on such power, and I carry original sin.

Since March 15, 2011, the accidents at four nuclear power plants have made many people living in Japan realize that the current society, which pursues convenience and comfort, may one day destroy the world we live in and make it uninhabitable.

Those who are prepared to live even if they eat radiation, a poison created by the development and convenience of humanity, will live with the sea and the earth, and their hearts will become clearer and clearer. On the other hand, we, the liberal democratic advanced citizens who eat money and spread poison in all directions, have no choice but to be corroded in both mind and body.

I met a nuclear power plant worker at a hot spring in Iwaki. "16,000 per day," he told me, even though I hadn't asked. He said he was checking the connections of the pipes for ocean discharge. When I told him why I came to Fukushima and was walking around, he said, "Fukushima was also making a killing from the nuclear power plant business." I thought I would walk around Fukushima again next year.