Nuclear and Energy

The environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE Japan), in cooperation with the NGO Peace Boat, have launched the next in their series of video testimonies of the current situation in Fukushima in various languages.

Nine years have passed since the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster, and the damage continues to be incurred. Although this disaster is still ongoing, efforts are made to render this invisible. FoE Japan has conducted video interviews with evacuees, dairy farmers, fishermen and other community members in order to make the ongoing impacts more known as part of the “Fukushima Mieruka Project.”

The next multilingual installment in this series includes an interview with a mother who has returned to live in Fukushima, after several years living in evacuation with her children in western Japan. These are being released simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean and German, adding to the original Japanese.

Soon after giving birth to her second child in 2011, this mother evacuated with her two young children to Kansai in western Japan. Yet, their life in evacuation was also full of struggles, including housing conditions and thoughtless comments from those around them. Five years after evacuating away from Fukushima, the family decided to move back. Upon returning, she was able to hear the voices of those mothers who had not been able to evacuate away from the disaster-affected region. She shared with us that “one mother who heard my story, said that until then she had been so jealous of those who had evacuated, and had been blaming herself. Yet she said to me, "evacuation was also very difficult, wasn't it." I felt it made sense a little more. When I think of her feelings even now, I really want to return that to her. The damage we incurred is the same for both of us, and we are both victims, so we should not be blaming each other for our actions. I came to hope that we can really recognise and understand each other.”

Please listen to this testimony, to hear the voices and ongoing dilemma of mothers in Fukushima (11mins 30 sec).

English　 https://youtu.be/e_cH_CnvtTY
French　 https://youtu.be/agI1d5GIfYs
Korean　 https://youtu.be/Ok1cLNtq5B4
Chinese (traditional) https://youtu.be/7oNXSW2hXeM
Chinese (simplified) https://youtu.be/HVdGonDB_9Q
German　 https://youtu.be/zFRRoqOrCyo
Spanish　 https://youtu.be/4ghaNY2OwWg

Japanese https://youtu.be/GYY16xcLA-s

“Mieruka Project” Homepage (Other testimonies): https://311mieruka.jp/info/en/category/testimonials/