Preserve the pro-nuke signs?

June 8, 2015

Petitioners push to have pro-nuclear signs in evacuated town kept in place

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150608p2a00m0na011000c.html

A pro-nuclear power sign reading "Nuclear power -- energy for a bright future," is seen in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in February 2014. (Mainichi)

IWAKI, Fukushima -- A man whose slogan was adopted many years ago for a pro-nuclear sign in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, delivered a petition on June 8 signed by 6,502 people to have the signboard and others like it kept in place.

The signboards were put in place as part of a campaign to boost enthusiasm for the expansion of reactors at Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Yuji Onuma, now 39, was a sixth-grader at the time. His phrase, "Nuclear power -- energy for a bright future" was chosen in a public contest for the phrases and used on a sign, put up in 1988 along a national road. Three years later, another sign was put up in front of the town office. Each sign carried slogans on its front and back, for a total of four phrases espousing nuclear energy.

The town of Futaba is almost completely off-limits for habitation due to the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant. With town employees unable to perform maintenance on the signs, their metal parts have corroded and the town government was planning to remove them due to the danger of them falling.

Onuma and his wife began collecting signatures for the petition to keep the signs in place, getting signatures from people at anti-nuclear demonstrations around the country and even from abroad. They say that former Prime Minister Naoto Kan even signed the petition. Another supporter was a 90-year-old man who came up with one slogan carried on the sign in front of the town office, reading, "Nuclear energy -- a prosperous future and hometown development."

In March this year, the town assembly approved a budget draft to remove the signboards, after which their preservation would be considered. However, Futaba Mayor Shiro Izawa, after receiving the petition, indicated he would rethink the decision to remove the signs.

"I want to make an overall decision on whether the signs should be preserved in place or removed," he said.

Onuma says, "As an issue for all of Japan, we should leave those signs to show the mistakes of the past to the people of the future."