Panel discussion following the screening of the two documentaries described below, in commemoration of the five year anniversary of the still on going nuclear disaster, and to acknowledge the plight of those Japanese parents and children who for complex reasons remain in their communities, their homes, aware of the radiation induced damage that both they and their children may experience as they try to protect their children but with out the support of the Japanese government that is unwilling to relocate them. Dr. Field introduces the speakers.
"Little Voices" contrasts Ukrainian families poisoned by Chernobyl and the natural health recovery techniques developed by Russian and Ukrainian doctors to help children rid their bodies of radiation. It happened that communities in Japan participated in the grass roots International program that hosted children in uncontaminated environments where play and special foods allowed recovery of their health and a significant reduction of their radioactive body burden.
"The Great East Japan Earthquake struck 5 years ago, on March 11, at 14:46:23 local time. The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster unleashed death and devastation on the region. Five years later, despite the drumbeat proclaiming the ties binding the nation ensuring reconstruction and rebirth, the injuries remain deep. In the case of the nuclear disaster, whose impact is global, nothing has been resolved."
"The government has set spring of 2017 as an end date with measures to encourage and pressure evacuees, voluntary and not, to return. The goal is to effect normalcy well before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We will observe the fifth anniversary by screening two films, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A. Nuclear Japan (2014), a critical scrutiny of nuclear power plants in Japan is a first film by antinuclear attorney Kawai Hiroyuki. Little Voices from Fukushima (2015) is a portrayal of mothers searching for ways to protect their children in Japan and of Belarusian mothers and children a quarter-century after the Chernobyl disaster by Kamanaka Hitomi, veteran documentarian of the impact of the nuclear age on human beings." (program)
Center for East Asian Studies Dr. Norma Field
Q & A off mic.
Program ends with a statement by a Japanese woman who wanted to share with us something of great cultural pride; a performance of a public junior high school orchestra from the Fukushima prefecture. A gift to the people of the world whose vision has been tainted by the radiation disaster that there is still great beauty, inspiration and humanity alive there. I was able to record only a tiny clip of the music and nothing of the poetry that expressed one child's will to overcome the crushing effects that the disaster has caused. I did not find the video of the group she shared with us but to understand what we saw look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVomIwows0g
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