Stop Abe Government Repression at August 6th Hiroshima Action by Fukushima Evacuees

Stop Abe Government Repression
The August 6th Hiroshima Action by the Evacuees from Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on the 73rd Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing and the Police Unlawful Oppression against us

https://danatsu86.hatenablog.jp/entry/2018/08/10/065424

The August 6th Hiroshima Action by the Evacuees from Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on the 73rd Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing and the Police Unlawful Oppression against us

On August 7, 2018
‘Go West Come West’ Association of Nuclear Evacuees from the Tohoku and Kanto Areas in Japan

[1] The Handout Distributed to Visitors and Citizens Coming for the Anniversary Day

Tokyo as well as Fukushima Is NOT Radiologically Safe. The Government of Japan Is Making Tokyo Olympics “Radiating Fields” of Athletes and Visitors
We are “Go West Come West,” an organization of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and their supporters. On the 73rd anniversary of the United States atomic bombing, we would like to send greetings of solidarity to all visitors to Hiroshima: ●Hiroshima is NOT a story of the past

Even the Japanese government’s underestimated data shows that the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster released 168 times the cesium 137 discharged by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which entailed about 168 times the fallout at Hiroshima. Prime-minister Shinzo Abe declared that “with regard to health-related problems (of the Fukushima accident), I (Abe) will state in the most emphatic and unequivocal terms that there have been no problems until now, nor are there any at present, nor will there be in the future.” This claim is tantamount to saying that Hiroshima atomic bombing caused no human health problems. It is totally groundless and false!

●Fukushima nuclear disaster is NOT over
The disaster is still unfolding. High doses of radioactive materials are still leaking from the tops and the bottoms of the reactor buildings every moment of every day. Air, water, soil, ocean and food, all essentials for human life, are still severely contaminated by radiation due to this disaster. It is not only Fukushima that is contaminated but also the eastern part of Japan as a whole, including Tokyo. Recently four key figures among the authorities in charge of Fukushima’s reconstruction died relatively young: a former Reconstruction minister, a former Reconstruction Vice-Minister and a former Environment Parliamentary Secretary, and the incumbent Mayor of Namie, Fukushimaprefecture. Now it is time that we faced the truth.

●What is the Japanese government doing – Cover-up.
The Japanese government, the plant operator (TEPCO) and the mainstream mass-media are using all their power to cover up the true picture of the disaster. They do not want to take any responsibility for it, or to pay any compensation regarding the huge health damage that has been done to the residents.
●Gov. returning evacuees to areas with four times the contamination level of the 'radiological control area'
Any area in nuclear facilities or hospitals etc. where radiation levels can exceed 1.3 milli-sieverts(mSv) in 3 month period (5.2 mSv/year) or 40,000bq/m2 is designated as a ‘radiological control area.’ Access to those areas is strictly controlled. Children are banned from entering and eating or drinking there are prohibited. But the Japanese government is now spurring people to return and live in areas with levels as high as 20mSv/y!
●Gov. denying any real health damage induced by the Fukushima disaster
According to the Fukushima Prefectural government, 209 children have been diagnosed with child thyroid cancer. Normally, without irradiation, the incidence is about one in a million per year. But the Japanese government has denied the relationship with irradiation. Radiological exposure, especially internal irradiation, can cause not only cancer or leukemia but also many forms of cell deaths or cell damage in important human organs including blood vessels, heart muscles and brain nerve cells. A sharp increase in cardiac infarctions, heart failures, sudden deaths, strokes, and Alzheimer diseases have been reported since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Many evacuees have seen some of their family members, friends, relatives, acquaintances falling victim to these catastrophic failures and the number of reported cases is still increasing.
●Gov. showcasing Tokyo Olympics 2020 to build up a safe image of Fukushima
The Japanese government is trying to cover up by using the “Olympics”. Tokyo is spending a large amount of money to propagate a new “radiation-safety” myth both domestically and internationally in order to make people believe that Fukushima is now totally safe.
●Gov. planning to make athletes and visitors eat Fukushima produce
The government is also setting up the Olympics catering program based on the wide use of Fukushima produce for both athletes and visitors from abroad (Yomiuri Shimbun, July 24. 2018). Some games are planned to be held at grounds or facilities located in highly contaminated areas of Fukushima and other prefectures (especially baseball and softball). This will also pose a severe risk to athletes and spectators through inhaling insoluble radioactive particles floating in the air.

●Gov. reusing decontamination waste in public works all over Japan
The government’s decontamination efforts have accumulated 22 million tons of heavily radio-contaminated ‘decontamination waste’ in mountains of flexible container bags. The government is now trying to reuse this contaminated soil in public works and spread the radio-contamination all over the country.
●Gov. planning to dump tritium-contaminated water to the ocean
TEPCO is about to release more than one million tons of the radioactive-tritium-contaminated water stored in the tanks on the premises of the defunct plant into the ocean. Tritium, radioisotope of hydrogen, is very hazardous to human health because it behaves as hydrogen and can invades any part of the body, affecting DNAs, genomes, proteins, enzymes, fat, and brain tissues. The amount of tritium to be disposed is estimated to be about 1~3 peta becquerels (1015Bq), almost 3 ~8 times what all the Japanese nuclear power plants released every year before the Fukushima disaster (0.38PBq). If this plan is implemented, serious radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean, fish and marine ecosystems, eventually air and rain, is inevitable.
●We must stand up against these dangerous Japanese government policies. Let’s fight back together!
Contact us: Website: https://www.gowest-comewest.net/
E-mail: gowest.comewest [at] gmail.com


[2] An Appeal by an Nuclear Evacuee from Tokyo and Mother of a Daughter and a Son in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on the Day of Atomic Bombing, August 6th, 2018

Yoko Shimozawa

Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mfWRMvbRxqwT862n6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/dyGuRaWAvvyVsk146

73 years ago today, many precious lives were instantly destroyed by the terrible blast and the heat from the atomic bomb. Did you know, however, that the atomic bomb has had another, lasting effects? It’s an invisible, quiet and lasting effects from the nuclear bombing, called “internal radiation exposure.”

7 years ago, Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant had an accident and the nuclear accident developed into a nuclear disaster. Today, we Japanese have to live with this invisible and quiet nuclear bombing.
It’s a kind of invisible violence that quietly invades human bodies.

I would like to talk about the violence called “the internal radiation exposure” as an evacuee from the terrible nuclear disaster.
I evacuated to Kansai three years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Where do you think I evacuated from? I evacuated from Tokyo. Do you know that Tokyo has serious radioactive contamination? Tens of millions of people in East Japan live with radioactive contamination now.

My daughter was 5 years old at the time of the accident. She was a cheerful and active girl. But after one year since the accident, her health conditions became bad and she was troubled by strange symptoms.
She told me, “Mommy, I feel so bad, I have no power, My hands hurt, my legs hurt, my body hurts!”

In fact, my daughter became so sick that she could not live a normal life at all.
At that time, I met a doctor who was working with the issue of radiation exposure in the metropolitan area. He said, if sick children are moved to the west away from contaminated eastern Japan, some of them might recover health.
According to his examinations after the accident, the number of white blood cells of children living in the metropolitan area was decreasing. And he added that neutrophils among white blood cells were particularly badly decreasing. And as we found out later, our two children also had the same condition. Today, the doctor is saying that for every ten children in Tokyo, nine of them have below the standard number of neutrophils. When I consulted the doctor about my daughter, he clearly stated that she was affected by the radiation exposure.

And he gave me advice to move my daughter to the western part of Japan.
In any case, I tried to move my sick daughter out of Tokyo. Whenever we stayed in a place where there was no radioactive contamination, she became very well. But when we returned to Tokyo, she became sick again. We did not have the option to stay in Tokyo any longer. We just fled from Tokyo and moved to Kansai.
Living in East Japan means living with many radioactive materials, and it is not a place where people can live in good health. So, as evacuees from eastern Japan, we are calling for evacuation to West Japan. Our existence here is not broadcasted on the radio nor published in newspapers. So, I am telling you about it here and now.
After the accident, we were told that radiation was not a problem and health damages would not occur. But it was not true. Many of us have evacuated from East to West due to various health problems. Many people are getting sick today in East Japan. People are dying without noticing that it is due to radiation. Many Japanese can not face this nuclear catastrophe.
Now my daughter is 12 years old. She's healthy and enjoys everyday life. She has good friends and says she wants to continue living here forever.
She is very afraid that more and more nuclear power plants now will get restarted and there may be another accident. If that happens, she will have to move away from here again. If another nuclear accident happens, she knows that she can not live in this country anymore.
And accidents are not the only ones that threaten her. It is a basic issue that after the accident, our government has not confined radioactive materials to one place.
On the contrary, our government has a policy of diluting toxic radioactive waste by mixing it with water, cement or other materials, and making it look harmless.
And the Japanese government now allows incineration of highly contaminated nuclear waste of up to 8000 Bq/kg, 80 times as high as before the Fukushima accident. It's all to reduce the enormous amount of nuclear waste. But as conscientious scientists say, we should never burn radioactive materials. It should never have been allowed.
We don’t seem to be able to stop this crazy, irresponsible way of our government.
I hope that my daughter can live in her beloved country where she was born and raised. What the Japanese government is doing can be called a nuclear assault. This political nuclear bomb is being dropped over us slowly and penetrating into our daily lives.
We can protect precious LIFE of not only humans but also the LIFE of all living creatures from internal radiation exposure. How? By containing radioactive waste in the locations where they were made and by keeping the waste under strict control. We humans can also evacuate from contaminated areas and relocate.

But people can’t move out of the contaminated areas because central and local governments conceal the facts of contamination and victimization, killing many people just like powerful bombs do. That’s a kind of national war waged against its own people. We deeply deplore such war situation and want to stop it. That’s why I am here speaking to you.

Let us work together so we can recover our country and our earth in which our children can grow up in good health.

[3] An Emergency Statement on the Oppression at the Hands of the Local Police against the Fukushima Nuclear Evacuees’ Aug.6 Hiroshima Action

Hiroshima Police Unlawfully Arrested A Citizen to Silence Evacuees Appealing about Ongoing Fukushima Disaster. A Serious Threats to Human Right and Free Speech. Please share the following news and the our first statement of protest.
We demand that the Hiroshima police immediately release the arrested friend of the nuclear evacuees who participated in Aug.6 Hiroshima actions!

We, an organization of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and their supporters, attended various peace rallies and events held in Hiroshima on August 6th 2018, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of 1945 nuclear atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Survivors of Hiroshima atomic bombing and Fukushima nuclear evacuees are both victims of nuclear disaster and radiation. Our goal was to unite with Hiroshima and act together to end this ongoing disasters in the world.

There on the night of 6th, in front of the great number of people coming for these peace events from all over the world, we gave speeches in both Japanese and English. Our speech was for remembrance of those killed by the nuclear atomic bombing and the endless damage caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred in 2011.

A lot of Japanese and foreign tourists who visited Hiroshima for this anniversary stopped and listened to our speeches earnestly, taking our handouts explaining what the Fukushima nuclear disaster has caused : the real health damage of residents now spreading all over the eastern Japan; and the predicaments that evacuees are faced with even today. We were deeply moved by the amount of attentions and feedback we received from them. When one of the 2nd generation of atomic bomb victims gave a speech on how Hiroshima and Fukushima are connected with one straight line, radiation exposure, there was a round of applause from people including locals of Hiroshima. It became a great place of solidarity for sharing experiences and thoughts among those who were there with us.

However all things were changed when a suspicious passerby wearing military fashion, pointing his camera, started shouting complaints at us, and took photos of us, apparently aiming to disturb our speeches. We ignored him but when we were finishing it up and packing our stuff, he screamed saying, 'Someone just broke my camera' and called the local police even though we did not go near him or made any physical contact with him or whatsoever.

The local police officers rushed to us and blocked us from going anywhere. The officers 7

started to question us and we explained many times that we did nothing to him, it was totally a false accusation and we needed to go back because some of us got very sick from the summer heat. However, the police officers refused to let none of us go.
The officers were talking something with their supervisor by wireless telephone all the time. Then suddenly they said "The police have had an eyewitness who saw your member break that man's camera. So now take this person to the police station." We told them that none of us did such a thing, however the officers put handcuffs on one of our members, saying "You are under suspicion of escape!! You are under arrest!! Let you know the reason of arrest when you are brought to the police station." The police officers lifted that person's body violently and then threw into their police car and took our member to the main police station in Hiroshima. This is clearly illegal abduction and confinement by the police using a false accusation.

The police officers physically held us down, trying us not to approach to the suspicious camera man or 'eyewitness'. Witnessing a whole situation, some citizens there shouted to the police officers "how dare you doing such a thing on the memorial day for war dead!" and "How come? They have done nothing wrong!" The officers withdrew to the police station right after they made the arrest as if they themselves are fugitives.

The reason for this arrest was, we suspect, that the upper-level of police department judged our speeches and handouts politically and they ordered those police officers at the site to arrest our member.
This fact shows how the current Japanese administration is terrified of their biggest skeleton in the closet, the actual health damage due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, coming to light. They are also making desperate efforts to hamper the voices of Fukushima nuclear victims and the concerns and resentment against atomic bombings from spreading among people in Japan and around the world. So they use whatever means to stop those real pictures being known to the public, domestically and internationally.

It was late at night, we have not been able to send lawyers with our member still confined at the police station of Hiroshima. It will be notified by Aug 9th whether our member will be released or continue detained for ten more days. We need your help and cooperation for us to make every effort to realize an earlier release.

A participants in the peace memorial events in Hiroshima, who gives a speech against radiation exposure gets arrested by a completely false accusation. Such an unlawful illegal arrest shall not happen.
In order to protect or free speech and human right please focus the fight on against the police request for detention.


Please share this information with anyone you know. Any donation would help rescue our member. Contact us:
Website: https://www.gowest-comewest.net/

E-mail: gowest.comewest(at)gmail.com