"The more the water, the higher the boat"
When meeting calamities or difficult situations it is not enough to simply say that one is not at all flustered
When meeting difficult situations
one should dash forward bravely and with joy
It is the crossing of a single barrier and is like the saying
"the more the water, the higher the boat".
from Hagakure
by Yamamoto Tsunemoto
That day I was out and was going back home
I was working here when it happened
I had a work meeting
I was at the second floor of the factory, just above here
11 March 2011 Japan, east coast
The Tōhoku earthquake hits at 14:46
Its magnitude is of 9.1
It causes aftershocks that are still being felt to this day
After an hour the first wave of the tsunami hits
Maximum height reached: 40.5 metres
561 kilometres of land are inundated
15,891 people are killed
2,584 are still missing
12 March, 05:00
A nuclear emergency is declared at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
3 explosions and the melting of the cores of 3 out of 6 reactors follow
The disaster is rated 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, the highest possible level
We visited Fukushima Prefecture six years from the disaster. To talk to those who came back and those who never left. These are their stories.
Kazue Morizono – Activist
I was with my husband
in that moment he couldn't move
Shigeru Yamasawa – Owner of Urashima Sushi
We all came out onto the square in front of the restaurant
the houses around us had all collapsed
At first it didn't seem like we needed to escape
but after the explosion
even the police started running away
Every day there were new tremors
and I was very worried
I didn't know when the next tremor would come
and I always kept myself ready to leave, at any moment
Even after we heard about the nuclear disaster
we didn't know what the problem was
no one thought they had to leave
Only after the police told us how dangerous it was
did we understand the gravity of what had happened
but we still thought we'd be able to come back
after three or four days
Fukushima seems like any other place, now
but the consequences of the disaster are still vivid in the memories of those who experienced it.
There was no immediate health alarm
so I would go out to collect water every day
The sixth day I went and was told that
the water was contaminated with iodine
so I couldn't get any
Tatsuhiro and Miwako Ono – Rice farmers
The problems emerged later
as we didn't know whether we could continue working the fields
Shigeru Ide – Chef at Soba Shubo Tenzan
The other big problem
was that there was no one left to continue working
I was on my own, it was hard
Nario Kadono – President Fukushima SOSO Reconstruction Corporation
Some would like to come back to Fukushima
but most people who lived here won't
Our company has a 76-year history
and before the shinsai we'd never run at a loss
[Shinsai means earthquake disaster. From shin, earthquake and sai, disaster]
I knew something was wrong
I think it was the 15th of March
I saw the sleet in my garden and thought
"now Kooriyama, my city, is finished"
The 28th of April suddenly I felt ill
my nose was bleeding, my head and eyes hurt, I felt fatigued, I had bruises all over my body
in a moment, everything became worse
Life changed drastically
until then not a day had gone by without there being work to do
before, we would take no more than a week's holiday in a year
Then I had to stop for 5 years
People are working hard to build something new out of the ashes of the disaster
with dignity, determination and ingenuity
Yuko Hirohata – Founder of the Odaka Platform newspaper
It's wrong to speak of people who come back home or move back
to everyone this means starting from scratch
so who moves here doesn't "return"
but comes because they've chosen to live in this city
Why is it that whilst radiation continues to be released
whilst we inhabitants continue to suffer
someone wants to start producing nuclear power again
Kiyoshige Sugiuchi – President Canola Flower Project
After the shinsai the entire area became radioactive
so everything that I'd cultivated up to then
couldn't be sold
but I reasoned that I couldn't let these fields go to ruin
so I started growing canola
Canola absorbs a lot from the soil
including radioactive molecules
so the first advantage is that the soil is cleaned out
also, when canola is made into oil
it loses traces of caesium
Shiitake mushrooms absorb caesium directly from trees
so we couldn't continue growing them
we decided to try with rice instead
Here there are valleys and hills
so it's hard to practice intensive agriculture
there are many small-scale farmers
and I saw the opportunity of working together
to practice subsistence organic agriculture
small in scale but high in quality
We don't use GMOs, chemical fertilisers or pesticides
in the fields
we follow the soil's natural cycle
which influences the impact that today's farming
will have on tomorrow's
After the accident
the market for buckwheat was at a low
and it was impossible to work here in Kawauchimura
so we thought
how we could make the most out of this grain
creating two types of beer
in one we put buckwheat flour directly into the bottle
for a second fermentation
which makes it tasty and aromatic
Masatoshi Muto – Secretary General of agricultural support NGO Yuukino Sato Towa
We gave farmers a set of guidelines
first, check the soil's values
second, half the use of pesticides
third, half the use of fertilisers too
fourth, make products traceable
fifth, cut nitrogen use
sixth, check radioactivity levels
People have said to me:
"Now Fukushima has a bad reputation
but in a few years' time there will be the Tokyo Olympics
and in 50 or 70 years thanks to our efforts
the infamous Fukushima will have another reputation
and will become famous for being the city of hope"
There are still some steps to take towards safety
but if this is the direction everyone has chosen
I think Fukushima will go back
to being the brilliant and prosperous region it was
before the shinsai
I don't know if all the people who left will come back
but if we're brave we'll pick ourselves up again
from now on, helping each other as we've always done
if there's trust and people support each other
I'll be here to serve even a single customer
In our collective imagination
Fukushima is synonymous with tragedy
but for its inhabitants
it must withhold the promise of a better future
because beyond anger and fear, there are people
brave individuals, families and communities
who have planted the seed of renewal
so that Fukushima continues to be their home
where they can blossom and flourish
a home to be proud of.
As they begin to rise again Chrysanthemums faintly smell, After the flooding rain
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