August 6, 2011, Tokyo
Junichi Mishiba
Executive Director, Friends of the Earth Japan
August 6 and August 9 commemorate the 66th Peace Memorial Day of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. We express heartfelt condolences for the victims who died in
radiation, heat ray, and hellish flames 66 years ago, and those who died of
radiation exposure afterwards. We also express our sincere solidarity with
the people who are still suffering and fighting radiation-caused illnesses.
This year, however, we have to give our serious thoughts to the grave
situation the people in Fukushima are exposed at the risk of radiation
poisoning due to the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Radioactive materials still
continue polluting our ocean, atmosphere, and ground, driving the people who
lived in the surrounding area of the nuclear plant away far from their
hometowns. A lot of people who live in the polluted area in Fukushima and
neighboring area are exposed to high radiation dosages every day without
sufficient measures taken for their protection.
We the Japanese people have promoted nuclear power generation and the
nuclear fuel cycle use as "peaceful’h use knowing risks posed by radiation.
Even though it was clear to many of us that nuclear power generation was
expensive, had high risk and had potentially enormous negative environmental
impacts, huge funds have been invested in the repeated propaganda
re-assuming "Nuclear power is safe and clean." They weren’ft telling the
truth. Many troubles, accidents, and the plant-workers’f health issues
surfaced one after another, were deliberately understated and the policy to
promote nuclear power continued.
However, this accident in Fukushima has revealed that nuclear power has gone
totally out of our control. It was the government and the industry that
craved for nuclear power and we citizens allowed that policy. We owe the
future generation the grave responsibility.
We make our resolution on this Peace Memorial Day in 2011, to stand up and
face the grave threats of nuclear power and radiation as a country that has
experienced devastating radiation exposures and the worst nuclear plant
accident in the world’fs history. We again appeal to our government that the
suffering of Fukushima is not in any way underestimated, and that all the
available measures are taken to protect people and the environment. We work
for a drastic reform of social structure and the way we use energy.
Moreover, we share the reality we’fve learned with international community
and work to prevent proliferation of the utilization of nuclear energy.
We citizens must change the policy NOW and the whole society. Our childrens’f
future depends upon our choice today. Let us our voices heard and make our
own future by ourselves.
>Statement on Peace Memorial Day (PDF)