Yoshioka's bulletin

February 28, 2012

Bulletin details Fukushima life

Motoshi Sakata / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120227004478.htm

In the hopes of narrowing the information gap between people living in and outside of Fukushima Prefecture, a Buddhist priest has begun publishing bulletins describing the hardships caused by the March 11 nuclear disaster suffered by residents living in the disaster-hit area.

Token Yoshioka, 64, heads the Entsuji temple in Fukushima. Since autumn, Yoshioka has been compiling and self-publishing a bulletin titled, "How things would have been if the nuclear accident had never happened."

The bulletin features firsthand accounts from victims of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident living in various parts of the country, as well as farmers in the prefecture suffering from negative perceptions of their agricultural produce both domestically and overseas.

After traveling to Tokyo to attend a relative's wedding in August last year, Yoshioka was aghast to hear an acquaintance tell him, "You shouldn't make fantastical remarks such as 'returning to our hometown'; there's no possibility for residents near the nuclear facility of returning home considering how polluted the area is."

The man went on to say: "Regarding compensation, you should be aware you'll need money from taxpayers. You have to give up on that kind of idea and should instead think about what you should do for the future."

In light of the celebratory event, Yoshioka managed to keep his cool. However, later that night, he could not sleep due his anger regarding the remarks.

During the wedding, he also overheard another guest say, "Because Fukushima residents were dependent on electricity supplied by the nuclear plant, they just simply have to put up with the accident."

In actuality, however, electricity generated from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant had been sent exclusively to the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Yoshioka said he was about to erupt in anger over people's indifference caused by ignorance about the actual situation.

Born and raised in the city of Fukushima, Yoshioka said, "We used to be proud of how clean the air we breathed and water we drank was, and how delicious the vegetables and fruits in our hometown were--all of which were irreplaceably precious."

The catastrophe, however, contaminated everything that he and his neighbors were proud of. Yoshioka said 39 of the 210 children in the kindergarten he operated were forced to leave their hometown. The remaining kindergartners are allowed outdoors for no more than two hours per week, he lamented.

"A sense that the deep suffering of nuclear accident victims might not be understood by people living outside the prefecture made up my mind about publishing the bulletin," Yoshioka said.

In one of the articles for the bulletin's inaugural issue, he wrote, "These days, our greetings in the morning and evenings start with exchanging information about radioactivity readings, and topics TV programs and newspapers cover are also mostly about the disaster. An increasing number of families with children have found it unavoidable to send their children to live outside the prefecture for their safety, making it so that parents must live separately from their children."

In another article, he wrote: "Many resorts and inns in the prefecture have been battered by sharp declines in the number of guests, while visitors to some fruit orchards have shrunk to one-tenth of numbers before the disaster, in spite of the fact that there is no [scientific] reason for the orchards to be subject to such aversion."

Comprising four A-4 size pages, the bulletin's inaugural issue was published on Nov. 15 with the primary aim of shedding light on the woes of citizens facing the menace of radioactive contamination and the sadness of local farmers affected by suspicions of radioactive pollution in their produce.

Yoshioka printed 4,000 copies of the first edition at his own expense, sending them to evacuees outside the prefecture and other acquaintances.

There was a lot of feedback, with one person replying "I'm now aware, for the first time, about the depth of sorrow people in Fukushima face and would like my neighbors to read your bulletin."

He also subsequently received a message from France suggesting the bulletin be translated into French. According to the message, details about the Fukushima disaster were not reported in the French media as France is keen to promote nuclear power generation. Yoshioka said the person who sent the message wanted to distribute the bulletin to friends.

The bimonthly bulletin's circulation increased to 12,000 copies when its second issue was published on Jan. 1.

The issue featured a kanji meaning "lie" to symbolize 2011. Explaining his reasoning behind that choice, Yoshioka wrote, "Because of the 'lie' that the nuclear power plant would be completely safe, Fukushima residents have become suspicious about all things."

The second issue also detailed the circumstances surrounding about 160,000 evacuees. In the afterword, he wrote that evacuees were "forced to start the New Year in a desolate manner as they were driven out of their hometowns. This would have never happened if the nuclear accident had not occurred."

With the first anniversary of the nuclear accident approaching, Yoshioka was busy preparing for the bulletin's third issue, which is scheduled for publication on Thursday.

One of the articles to be included in the issue tackles the delay in compensation payments from nuclear power plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.