Fukushima’s Long Uncertainty
Recovery from the aftermath of the third disaster of March 2011 is far from over.
Five years have passed. Aside from Chernobyl, Fukushima is the only nuclear disaster with a Level 7 rating.1 Doing justice to explaining the current and future needs in Fukushima in a short magazine article is a long shot, but here we go.
After the meltdown, I spent many months mobilizing care in the region. If I was to choose one word to summarize what I have seen since then, the word would be, unfortunately: neglect. Although personally I had far more previous connections to Miyagi than Fukushima, I noticed that the majority of disaster intervention effort was traversing Fukushima as quickly as possible to get further north. So now in Fukushima we have some regions and survivors that have been particularly neglected. Famous groups like Fukushima Daiichi Baptist, which evacuated from a stone’s throw away from the reactor, have received marvelous support. However, there are others that have not even had one visit.
One reason for the neglect has obviously been the safety issue. Everyone going to Fukushima must make their own decision regarding safety, but currently people are likely to get substantially more radiation on an international flight or CT scan than from a trip to this prefecture. However, in October last year the first official meltdown-linked cancer was diagnosed.2 Also a study by Okayama University of children from Fukushima shows them to have a 20-50 times higher chance of getting thyroid cancer than the national level, although it may be too early to draw conclusions.3
Fukushima survivors fall into three groups.
The Relocated
Currently there are 80,000 people displaced from the region around the reactor. These people have been forced to make their home elsewhere. Many have still not normalized their lives. The transition out of temporary housing has been slow. Four years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake only 10% remained in temporary housing, but for the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake 70% still remained. At the four year anniversary, 21% of all survivors in Tohoku who lost their homes said they were hard up financially (とても困っている). Thirty-five percent who had an existing chronic disease reported the illness getting worse. Many had developed new illnesses; particularly prevalent was high blood pressure, but also diabetes, mental illness, heart disease, and gastro-intestinal diseases.4
The Un-Evacuated
Radiation levels in Fukushima City itself (a “safe” destination for evacuees) was a concern and residents have continued to live with the uncertainty of danger. This has produced inordinate levels of stress. Radiation over the safe limit has been detected in milk, beef, fish, rice, natto, vegetables, seaweed, tea, and more. Nevertheless, the government did not begin actual safety testing until August 2011 and continued encouraging people nationwide to consume Fukushima products.5 It is hard to estimate the physical and emotional damage this has done. In a mothers’ support group, in Miharu, I recall a mother telling how her son had an emotional meltdown at school, sitting in a corner and pounding his head with his fists. Their home is 55 km from the reactor.
The Re-Settlers
During 2015 a couple of towns were “decontaminated” and cleared for return. Naraha, 15 km from the reactor, received the first complete overhaul and reopened in September 2015. On my visit there that month, I found few ready to return. An elderly couple moving back from Iwaki bemoaned their grandchildren wouldn’t be coming to visit if they lived there. The town is lonely, dark at night, and as rumor has it, unsafe for women.6
In these settings, many have continued to minister, but they are generally fatigued and often burned out. Too many pastors have been vigilant for too long and are in emotional or psychosomatic danger. During a visit this October, a pastor’s wife told me her husband was in need of mental health care.
Churches on the whole in Japan have an uphill struggle, but for churches in Fukushima, the travail is more intense. Many continue without enough assistance. Fukushima’s recovery is far from over. It is a very long task. When making plans to help, we must not think in terms of trips, but years, even decades. Can we begin to own up to the neglect? Can we be known for stepping up our commitment even when most others are leaving and forgetting?
1. “International Nuclear Event Scale,” accessed January 12, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale.
2. “Back to the Nuclear Zone,” The Economist, October 24, 2015.
3. “New report links thyroid cancer rise to Fukushima nuclear crisis” accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/07/national/science-health/new-report-links-thyroid-cancer-rise-fukushima-nuclear-crisis/#.VkvAo2zouUk.
4. 03-08-14 NHK TV Broadcastシリーズ東日本大震災 震災４年 被災者１万人の声
～復興はどこまで進んだのか～
5. “Radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster,” accessed Jan 12, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_effects_from_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster.
6. “Back to the Nuclear Zone,” The Economist.