Global Voices » Scilla Alecci

Sing Out from Japan

Scilla Alecci — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:11:31 +0000

Musicians from the earthquake-hit areas united and gave life to a project called Sing Out From Japan [en,ja]. They have released two songs so far: Let's go home/lawblow and One love/I shall walk looking up, which are both cover versions of popular songs. The videos were shot in the regions devastated by the magnitude 9.0 tremor and tsunami.

Japan: A Revealing Blog by a Fukushima Robot Operator

Scilla Alecci — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:44:24 +0000

Blogger Erico Guizzo at IEEE Spectrum's robotics blog reported that “an anonymous worker at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility.” The blog was called “Say Whatever I Want, Do Whatever I Want” (Iitai Hohdai, Yaritai Hohdai 言いたい放題、やりたい放題) and after it became popular among the netizens it was eventually deleted.
Guizzo managed to make a copy of it and translated some of the posts.

Japan: How to Unplug Your Life and Save Electricity

Scilla Alecci — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:33:27 +0000

This page is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

People in Japan have been unplugging their lives as electricity saving measures have been implemented to cope with power shortages.

At present only 19 out of 54 nuclear reactors at power plants are operating and the government has been urging citizens - particularly those living in Eastern Japan - to reduce energy consumption in order to avoid power shortages resulting from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

According to a survey by research company Macromill [ja], 70 percent of the Japanese interviewed have changed their lifestyle in the last few months. The respondents were young people in their 20s from eight different prefectures and most of them said they had begun to spend more time at home, turn off the lights and unplug their electrical appliances when not in use.

Save Electricity, Switch Off, by Bevelle. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The effectiveness of the power saving measures is still a subject of hot debate in the country but many have taken this opportunity to change their power consuming life style.

Roco lives in Kobe, in Western Japan, and said her family had changed their habits [jp] even though that part of Japan hasn’t been directly affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident:

我が家は、もう常識になってしまったエアコンの設定温度28℃に！
家族はできるだけ１部屋にかたまって動かすエアコンは1台に！
を心がける事と、就寝時間を１時間早めて朝の時間を有効利用しています。
電力消費需要のピーク時午後２時くらい〜はPCやTVなど
電気製品の使用を控えるのも有効な対策になるんですよね。

In my family now it’s become normal to set the aircon temperature at 28℃!
We have also been trying to gather together in one room as much as we can so as to use only one cooler!
These are some of the things we've been paying attention to, besides going to bed one hour earlier and using the morning more effectively.
It is also good to avoid the use of electrical appliances such as PC or TV around 2 p.m. when the power demand reaches its peak.

“Setsuden” (an abbreviation for 'saving electricity') has become an everyday word and in some cases also a trend.
Setsuden recipes, for instance, have become popular on the internet as people have been spreading the word on what’s the best way to eat well without using too much energy.

Shirousagi posted some suggestions [jp] on her blog:

節電レシピとしては冷ややっこや納豆、佃煮、
梅干し、海苔、漬物、缶づめ、ハム、かまぼこなど
電気だけでなくガスも使わずささっと手早く
食べられるものを多く使うようにしています。

加熱するものがあるとどうしても室温が上がり
暑くなるので火を加えず美味しく頂けるものが
あると節電だけでなく涼しく過ごせ良いなと
思います。

お刺身などもそのままお料理せずに食べられて
節電メニューの代表的なものかもしれません。

For my setsuden recipes, I have been using a lot of ingredients such as tofu, food boiled in soy, pickled umeboshi (preserved plums), seaweeds, pickles, canned foods, ham, minced fish etc., because there is no need to use electricity or gas and they can be eaten quickly.
If you use food that has to be cooked, the room temperature will rise inevitably and you'll feel hot so eating fresh food helps save electricity and remain cool.
One perfect example of setsuden menu is sashimi because you can eat [the raw fish] as it is without cooking it.

Power saving trends started before summer, when home centers and electrical appliance shops put on sale a variety of goods with the aim of facilitating a low power consuming life.

Blogger Bota started changing his lifestyle in May [jp] when he first acquired his first setsuden devices:

１）電気契約量を４０Ａ⇒３０Ａに変更して、電気使用量の上限を強制的に下げた。
２）電気消費量の多いダウンライトとクリプトン球を使用した照明器具の使用をやめて、使用頻度の高いリビングは蛍光灯に切り替えた。（ＬＥＤはまだ高いのであきらめた）

1) I changed the contract with the electric company to a lower limit of 30 Amperes instead of 40, in effect lowering the amount of electricity I can use.
2) I stopped using lights that use high electrical consumption bulbs such as down lights and krypton bulbs. (LED lights are still too expensive so I gave up on them)

[…]

③東京電力「電気のシェイプアップカルテ」に申し込んで、月次で電気使用量を点検
④真夏に備えて緑のカーテンを準備
今年は節電対策としてゴーヤやアサガオを栽培する家庭が多いようで、どこのホームセンターでも売り切れだ。

3) I applied for the Tokyo Electric Company's “electricity shape up chart” so I can check the electricity consumption month by month.
4) As I prepared for summer heat, I set up a curtain made of greens.
This year many families have started to grow bitter melon or the flower of Morning Glory as a measure [to provide shade], so now there are none left in the shopping centers.

Goya (bitter melon) curtain, by Hidetsugu Tonomura. CC BY-NC 2.0

①７月度の節電の取り組み　ＬＥＤ化以外はほとんど節電の余地がなくなってきたが、７月９日の梅雨明け以来、急に日差しが強まってきたため、窓に断熱シートを貼って室温の上昇を抑えることにした。ただしこのシートによる断熱効果がいかほどのものかは分からない。

1) In July I was able to replace the light bulbs with LED but after the rainy season was over and the sun has become stronger I decided to use the heat insulating sheet because of the rising temperatures. However I am still not sure about the sheet’s effectiveness.

Heat insulating sheet, by YTO. CC BY 2.0

Whilst doubt remains whether these small changes in power consuming habits may actually make a real difference, people like @coachsuki are proud that their efforts have proved successful.

@coachsuki 電気使用量のお知らせがきた～！今月分は昨年と比べ31％減少してますって＼(^o^)／家中の電球を変えたのと冷風機使用と冷蔵庫カーテンの結果だな♩ちゃんと節電出来てるわ(o^^o)

I got the report on my electricity consumption! This month I have used 31% less than the same period last year ＼(^o^)／ Probably it depends on the fact that I've changed the light bulbs at home, also that I now use fans and a ‘fridge curtain‘ ♩ so I have really been able to save electricity! (o^^o)

This page is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

Japan: “Plutonium is safe,” they say

Scilla Alecci — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:47:02 +0000

Youtube user tokyobrowntabby has translated into English the video clips of three Japanese nuclear researchers who claimed safety for plutonium in a TV show.
A blogger at EX-SKF - who nicknamed the researchers the “Three Plutonium Brothers” - posted the transcript [en] of their speeches.

Walking through Japan

Scilla Alecci — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:40:12 +0000

On August 1st Thomas Köhler started a mission: to walk trough three of the major Japanese islands, from Hokkaido to Kyushu.
Köhler - who works as a manager at a tour operator - came up with the project after the March 11 disaster, when the number of visitors to Japan began to decrease. “In order to regain trust and confidence, I am determined to go ahead with my project, “Walking through Japan”, and find and communicate positive signals throughout my journey through Japan,” he wrote on the first day of his adventure.
He has been documenting his journey in English, German and Japanese at Walking Through Japan.

Japan: A Nuclear Gypsy’s Tale

Scilla Alecci — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:23:37 +0000

Before the Fukushima accident brought to light the parlous state of the Japanese nuclear industry, for years temporary workers have jumped in and out of remunerative short-term jobs at the power plants ignoring the risk of their profession.

Takeshi Kawakami (川上武志) was one of the so-called ‘nuclear gypsies’ and just like many other colleagues of his, for about 30 years he made a livelihood working at the different nuclear plants of the country for short periods. For years he earned money helping repair or replace malfunctioning parts of nuclear reactors and carrying out dangerous operations, with a high-risk of radiation exposure.

In his blog, Kawakami denounced the corruption and collusion between the government and the nuclear industry, focusing his coverage on the Hamaoka nuclear power plant. This power plant was recently shut down at the request of the Japanese government for remedial work after it was deemed dangerous to continue operating in light of its position on one of the major seismic faults lines in the Japanese archipelago.

In the post partly translated here, he tells of his experiences as a temporary worker when he worked for the first time inside a steam generator at the Genkai nuclear power plant in southern Japan.

Hamaoka nuclear power plant, by Hiroaki Sakuma. CC BY-SA license.

The following post was originally published on December 26th, 2010 and translated with the author's consent:

I worked at Hamaoka nuclear plant for a little over 5 years, but it was not the only time I’d worked at a power plant. Before Hamaoka, I spent my 30s working at a nearby nuclear plant for about 10 years in the 1980’s. At that time, I did not work at just one site but was moving from one plant to another to do regular maintenance work. Recently, that kind of people are called “Nuclear gypsies” with a bit of contempt and in that period I was living as one of those.

Two years after I began the wandering life of a gypsy, I entered for the first time the ~~core~~ container of a steam generator. At the time I was working at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Saga Prefecture. [Editor's note: In brief, there is a containment building within the plant. This houses the core and the steam generator.] ~~The core is the part of the reactor where uranium fuel undergoes nuclear fission. It generates heat which is then passed to~~ The steam generator ~~which~~ produces the steam to power the turbines which turn the generators elsewhere in the plant . The level of radioactivity in the containment building is very high compared to elsewhere [in the plant]. My job involved entering [the generator] and installing a robot monitor that would enable examination of whether there was any damage in the steam generator.

Actually what happened on the day was that another person replaced me and entered the steam generator to install the robot. After the installation was completed, there was a problem in that the robot wouldn’t respond and thus could not be operated from outside. There are many small holes in the walls of the central part of the steam generator and the six (I believe there were six) ‘legs’ of a robot, operated via a remote control, should be able to survey it through those holes. The employees in charge of supervising the installation concluded that there had been a problem in properly positioning the robot’s legs.

If the ‘legs’ are not completely inserted and the robot is left in that position, it could fall down at any time. If that happens, it spells the loss of a precision machine that's said to be worth several hundred million yen. That’s why I was sent in to enter the generator, on very short notice, to replace the robot back to its correct operating position before that happened. I started putting on the gear to enter the housing at a spot near the steam generator. Two workers helped me put it on. I was already wearing two layers of work clothes, and on top of those, I put on Tyvek protective gear made of paper and vinyl, and an airline respirator. Plus, I wrapped a lot of vinyl tape around my neck, my wrists and my ankles, to block even the slightest opening.

Once I finished putting on the protective gear — which honestly looks like an astronaut suit — I headed toward the housing. When I arrived at the area near the housing, two workers were waiting. They were employees of a company called the Japanese Society for Non-Destructive Inspection [JSNDI] and, to my surprise, despite the area being highly radioactive, they were wearing nothing but plain working clothes. They weren’t even wearing masks. The person who appeared to be in charge invited me over and, after a look at my eyes inside the mask, nodded his head a few times. I guess just looking into my eyes he was able to determine that I’d be able to handle working in the core.

He and I went to the steam generator together. That was the first time I saw the generator with my own eyes. It was I guess a spherical or oval shape, maybe 3 meters in diameter (I might not be remembering the size correctly), and was located at a position higher than the grating we were standing on. The base of the steam generator more or less reached my shoulder, at slightly less than 1.5m. At the bottom, there was a manhole. The manhole was open, and I immediately realized I would have to climb up into it.

The JSNDI employee in charge put his arm around me and together we approached the manhole. We looked over the edge and peered in. Inside was dark, and the air was dense and stagnant. It felt as though something sinister was living inside. My expression glazed over. A slight sensation of dread came over me. As I approached the manhole, I noticed a ringing in my ears and felt reluctant to go in. When I looked inside, I saw that the robot was attached to the wall indicated by the [JSNDI] employee. It was not properly attached, which is why I had been sent in. The atmosphere inside was ghastly and I had to desperately fight off the urge to flee. I might not have wanted to enter, but I was in no position to refuse.

The robot was square-shaped, 40 cm on each side and 20 cm deep. It was called a ‘spider robot’. The JSNDI employee put his face at the edge of the manhole, a third of his face peering in, and diligently explained what I had to do. There was little awareness at the time of the dangers to workers of radiation exposure, but even so I was concerned about the bold act of the employee, who looked inside the housing with me.

He continued looking inside, unfazed, and I remember wondering why he wasn’t scared. I was almost completely covered while he wasn’t even wearing a mask. […]

After receiving a very detailed explanation of the work that I was to do inside, it was time. I crouched beneath the manhole next to a stepping ladder that had been brought in, and the JSNDI employee gave me a deep nod. I stood up, climbed the ladder, and pushed my upper body through the manhole. In that second, something grabbed at my head and squeezed hard. A pounding in my ear started right away. Battling fear, I placed my hands around the rim of the manhole and used the momentum to launched my whole body inside. The pounding sound got bigger.

One worker said that right after he entered a nuclear reactor he heard a noise like a moving crab. “zawa,zawa,zawa…” He said that he could still hear this noise after he finished the work. Even after the inspection work, when he went back home, he couldn’t forget that noise. The man ended up having a nervous breakdown. A writer who heard this story spoke to this man and wrote a mystery novel based on that experience. The title of the book is “The crab of the nuclear reactor”. It was published in 1981 and was very popular among us.

In my case, I never heard such a crab-like noise but I had the feeling that my head was being tightly constricted and deep in my ears I heard very high-tempo echoes like a sutra “gan, gan, gan”. When I entered the steam generator I stood up all of a sudden and my helmet hit the ceiling. So I had to bend my neck and hold both the arms of the robot in the darkish room. “OK” I screamed. So the robot was unlocked and its feet jumped out of the hole. The entire robot was not as heavy as I had thought. After I matched its feet position in the holes I gave them another OK sign and so it was positioned in the hole. In the dark, when I verified that all the feet had entered into the holes I gave them another OK and jumped out of the manhole. […]

[Once outside,] I was almost in shock but looked at the alarm meter and saw that it had recorded a value equal to 180, when the maximum it can record is 200. In only 15 seconds, I was exposed to an unbelievably high level of radiation, 180 millirem. At that time the unit ‘millirem' was used while now it’s different. Now everybody uses sievert. That time I was in charge of an inspection work that lasted about 1 month. After that I worked in another nuclear reactor but even on the second time I couldn’t get through the fear and experienced the same creepy noise.

Thanks to Tomoko Tsuchiya and Chris Salzberg for helping with this article.

U.S.A., Japan: The US Declares War On The Japanese Mafia

Scilla Alecci — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:01:12 +0000

Investigative journalist Jake Adelstein reported [en] that US President Obama has officially declared war on the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, as it represents an “extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” Japansubculture.com also published the text of the actual executive order.

Japan: On Fake Glasses

Scilla Alecci — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:13:33 +0000

Marxy at Neojaponisme gives an interesting insight [en] on the “lens-less frame” trend spreading in Japan.

Japan: Indie Music Rocks the Nukes

Scilla Alecci — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:35:28 +0000

This page is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

With a spreading nuclear crisis and related issues such as radiation fears, new energy policies on the horizon and an uncertain future for the operating reactors, Japanese netizens have started a revival of music videos with a clear anti-nuclear message.

Below is a ‘hit parade’ of the biggest successes [with English subtitles] whose genres go from reggae, to folk, to rock music. Here too is a complete list [ja] of the most popular anti-nuclear Japanese songs of all time.

You Can't See It, And You Can't Smell It Either by Rankin & Dub Ainu Band.

The song spells out the dangers of nuclear power and was produced by Rankin Taxi who is considered one of the forefathers of hip-hop in Japan and the Dub Ainu Band, whose musicians belong to the Ainu minority.

Summertime Blues by RC Succession.

After the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, this song – first released in the mid-80s – now is considered prophetic. According to the Youtube user who subtitled the video, the song “was scheduled to be released by Toshiba EMI on 6th August 1988, but the release was suddenly canceled.” August 6th marks the anniversary of the dropping, on the city of Hiroshima, of the first atomic bomb.

Love Me Tender, by RC Succession.

This song also was apparently produced in the mid-80s, after the Chernobyl accident. RC Succession's frontleader, Kiyoshi Imawano (忌野清志郎), revised the original Elvis Presley song making the Japanese lyrics sound like the English words.

It Was a Lie All Along, by Kazuyoshi Saito (斉藤和義).

In this song the singer denounces the myth of safety that has accompanied nuclear power in Japan for over 40 years.
The lyrics of this song have already been translated by Global Voices and can be found here.

Let’s Join TEPCO , by anonymous.

This song is a revised version of the famous anti-war folk song Let's Join the Self-Defense Forces (Jieitai ni Hairou) performed by Takada Wataru in 1968.

As explained Paul at Tokyo Progressive - who is also the author of the translation below -, “the title, ‘Tōden ni hairō (東電に入ろう)' in Japanese, puns on “tōden ni hairo (倒電に廃炉),” which means ‘Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power company or Tōden) overthrow, nuclear decommissioning.'”

Among all of you people here
who wish to join Tōkyō Electric?
who wish to try your chance?
Tōden’s looking for men of ability.
[refrain]
I want to join Tōden, Tōden, Tōden
I want to join Tōden, it’s a place I adore,
the manliest of men all without exception
join Tōden and scatter like blossoms.

Those of you wishing to engage in atomic power
please come over to Tōden any time.
Uranium, Plutonium, we have everything
Just use subcontracting, and all’s fine.
[refrain]
Those of you who promote nuclear power generation
please gather beneath a nuclear reactor,
nothing immediately affects your health
fine if you shower and wash it away.
[refrain]
Nuclear power plants mean clean energy
Plutonium isn’t such a scary thing
it may emit radioactivity
but its half life is only four and twenty thousand years.
[refrain]
To support Japan’s energy
we must depend upon nuclear power,
some amount of radiation exposure can’t be helped
just drink povidone iodine and you’re all fine.
[refrain]
Collect all spent energy rods
and pack them away in drums, and we’re safe,
we’ll cool them in Rokkasho-mura’s pools
all you need is a mere 300 years of patience.
[refrain]
Water’s leaking but don’t make fuss
smoke is spewing but don’t panic
roofs blew away but we’re absolutely safe
anyway we’re cooling the unit with salt water.
[refrain]
It’s not that anything’s in imminent danger
let’s throw away both milk and vegetables,
government higherups are saying:
let’s use taxes to pay for the damages
[refrain]
Geiger counters all sold out
you have no need to own such things,
we’ll announce radiation values
believe and thou shalt be saved.

This page is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

Japan: A Fukushima Poet Tweets His Verses

Scilla Alecci — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:00:59 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

Since the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster, Ryoichi Wago (和合亮一), a poet from Fukushima city, has been experimenting with a new form of poetry to express his feelings about issues such as uncertainty of the future and fear of radiation that have been threatening his land and its inhabitants.

@wago2828's profile picture.

To make known his verses, he has chosen Twitter as an exceptional media.

Using the 140-character-long tweets, Wago concentrates his thoughts creating a stream of verses where it is difficult to point to the beginning or the end. Sometimes, the repetition of a same word or character may create a visual image [ja] that resembles the stylistic devices of Futuristic poetry.

Below is a collection of poetic tweets by @wago2828, wherein he describes his memories at the time when the earthquake struck and the following feelings of anxiety and hope.

@wago2828 和合亮一
私は3.11以降、震災にまつわる新聞や雑誌を集めて、少しずつ切り抜きをしているが、切り抜きをしても追いつかないのだ、紙とハサミとの間で、震災が繰り返されているから、冷たい汗。

Since 3.11, I’ve been collecting newspaper and magazine articles about the disaster. Little by little I cut out articles, but I can never catch up. Endless aftershocks between the paper and scissors. Cold sweat.

@wago2828 和合亮一
私は風呂に入ると、泣きながらお湯に浸かったあの日の夜を思い起こす。涙があふれてくるのだ。１０００年に一度の3.11よ、冷たい汗。

3.11 - once in a 1000 years. Cold sweat.
In the bath, memories of the night I soaked in the bath crying, come back to me. Tears well up.

@wago2828 和合亮一
１０００年に一度の3.11よ、冷たい汗。

3.11 - once in a 1000 years. Cold sweat.

wago2828
津波の後を眺めながら、相馬の浜を走っていた。船が陸に上がり横倒しになって、瓦礫が積み上がっているところから、恰幅のいい男性が、拳でぼろぼろとこぼれる涙を拭きながら歩いてきた…。

wago2828
何を失ったのか、流されてしまったのか、分からないけれど…、これまでたくさん人生を生きてきて、拳で拭わなくちゃならない悲しみを、今まで予想してきたことがあったのだろうか、そう思った。…　そう語り、ある日、Ａさんは泣いた。

wago2828
私は髪を洗う、私も泣くしかない。避難している人々は慌てずに落ち着いて、福島の山間を抜けて下さい…、そんなラジオ放送を聞きながら、お風呂に入ったっけ…、浴室はあれから一度も、窓を開けていない。

wago2828
水に浮かんだ畳の上に、ご老人が座っていた。消防団の人が、それを見つけて、ロープを投げた、必死の救出が始まったが、悲しくも水の上でしだいに彼は力を奪われていった…。

wago2828
彼は、「立派な、いわきを作ってくれ」と叫んで、手を離して、まもなく海に沈んでいった…、助けられなかった、消防団の人々はみな、悔しくて泣きじゃくった。…それを教えてくれながら、ある日、Ｏさんは泣いた。

wago2828
私は髪を洗う、私も泣くしかない。浴室はあれから一度も、窓を開けていない。

I was running along the shores of Soma, gazing at the aftermath of the tsunami. Among the overturned ship and and pile of rubble, a sternly built man walks, wiping the endless trail of tears spilling down his cheeks, with his fist…

I can’t imagine what he had lost, or what had been sweat away… In this long life of mine, had I ever imagined sorrow that must be wiped away with a fist… The thought crossed my mind. Mr. A cried, telling the story one day.

I wash my hair. For me too, all I can do is cry. All evacuees, please calmly evacuate from the mountains of Fukushima… I remember stepping into the bath as I heard that on the radio… Since then, I’ve never opened the bathroom window.

An old man sits on a floating tatami. The fire brigade desperately tries to rescue him and throws him a rope. Sadly, the water eventually overcomes his strength…

‘Make Iwaki great again…’ he cried out, as he let go of the rope and sank into the sea… The fire brigade sobbed uncontrollably from regret… O san cried, telling me the story one day

I wash my hair. For me too, all I can do is cry. Since then, I’ve never opened the bathroom window.

A person from Tomioka was allowed back home for 2 hours. In the house they had entered for the first time in a while, that person did something. Can you guess what that person was doing in the house? Asked O san

Just crying, for 2 hours…

And that person came back without anything from the house. O san comforted them by saying… ‘I went home to cry… just tell yourself that’s what you went home to do’.

I wash my back. For me too, all I can do is cry. Since then, I’ve never opened the bathroom window.

Soma City, after the tsunami, by Flickr user hee_san. CC license BY-NC 2.0.

@wago2828
風呂から上がると、また新聞を切り抜く。悲しい顔や頑張るという表情を切り、並べて貼っていく。切ることを止めれば、全ては止むのか。貼ることを止めれば、全ては虚実となるのか。冷たい汗。書斎は、あの日から一度も窓は開けたことがない。

I got out the bath, and started cutting out newspaper articles again. Sad faces, expressions saying they will keep trying, I cut it all out and lay them out. If I stop collecting, will it all become a dream? Cold sweat. Since that day, I’ve never opened my study room window.

wago2828
この震災は何を私たちに教えたいのか。教えたいものなぞ無いのなら、なおさら何を信じれば良いのか。

wago2828
ものみな全ての事象における意味などは、それらの事後に生ずるもの。ならば「事後」そのものの意味とは、何か。そこに意味はあるのか。

wago2828
ここまで人を痛めつける意味はあるのか。

wago2828
放射能が降っています。静かな夜です。

@wago2828 行き着くところは涙しか無い。

What is it that this disaster wants to teach us? If there's nothing it wants to teach us, then what should I believe in?

Meanings of an occurrence, appear afterwards. But what is the meaning of that post-occurrence period? Is there any meaning there?

Is there any meaning in making people suffer this much?

Radiation is falling from the sky. It’s a quiet night.

There is only one place I end up, in tears.

wago2828
魂を返せ、夢を返せ、福島を返せ、命を返せ、故郷を返せ、草いきれを返せ、村を返せ、詩を返せ、胡桃の木を返せ

wago2828
魂の木を想う、魂が転がる闇を想う、魂は夜を明かす、魂は言葉を呟く、魂を生きよ、魂を生きている、あなた

wago2828
あなた　大切なあなた　あなたの頬に　涙

wago2828
いつか　安らぎの　一筋となるように　祈ります

Give me back my soul, give me back my dream, give me back Fukushima, give back the lives lost, give back my hometown, give back that hot air rising from the grass, give back the town, give back the poem, give back the walnut tree

I think about the tree’s soul, I think about the darkness that soul is rolling around in, the soul passes the night, the soul mutters the word, live, the soul is alive, you…

You, my precious you, tears… on your cheek

I pray that one day, it will become a ray of hope

wago2828
共に信じる　ここに記す

wago2828
祈りとして　この言に託す

wago2828
明けない夜は無い

Believe together… I record herein

I place my prayers in these words…

Night is always followed by dawn

This post is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

Thank you very much to Rino Yamamoto for translating the tweets above.

Japan: Uncanny Terrain, a documentary on Fukushima farmers

Scilla Alecci — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:16:23 +0000

Filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski have been working on a documentary about the organic farmers of the Fukushima Prefecture. The film titled Uncanny Terrain will examine “the impact of the nuclear disaster on the farmers, their land, the food they produce, and their customers.”
At the homonymous blog it is possible to check out the work in progress, as it is constantly updated with photos and short videos.

Japan: Real Voices, Real Japan

Scilla Alecci — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:59:53 +0000

An Enligh-language website called Real Voices, Real Japan documents “the business environment and recovery in post-quake Japan.” Its purpose is to “keep foreign business communities up to date on the Japanese recovery and enables decision-making based on accurate, locally-sourced information.”

Japan: Original photos of Fukushima Daiichi

Scilla Alecci — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:07:48 +0000

Flickr user hige-darumaひげだるまattractive woman published photos of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant taken during a tour of the facilities in June 1999. Tepco employees' faces have been blurred but it is possible to see what's inside the plant.

Japan: Tokyo after the earthquake

Scilla Alecci — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:55:32 +0000

Photographer Francis Harrison published a photo essay [en] that portrays Tokyo in the first few weeks after the earthquake.

Japan: Video Haiku

Scilla Alecci — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:00:11 +0000

Vimeo user Stephen Niebauer presents a project called Video Haiku. A haiku is a short form of Japanese poetry that usually consists of three verses of 5,7 and 5 morae. “So, for this project, your video structure should be like this: 5 second shot, 7 second shot, 5 second shot.”