Food, Friends and Song with Silent Auction & Okonomiyaki Cook-off benefiting Hibakusha Stories RSVP kathleens@hibakushastories.org More info: Hibakusha Stories
On March 11, 2011 the earthquake and tsunami which occurred in Eastern Japan caused tremendous damage and resulted in numerous deaths. This earthquake also caused serious damage the TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, exacerbating the disaster. Due to the damage at the power plant, it has been estimated that the amount of radioactive materials released is over 168 times that which was released by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and has created serious contamination across a broad area of Eastern Japan. Due to the evacuation orders issued to the people living in the vicinity, people lost their land, farms, beloved animals, and livelihoods. Moreover, it caused serious risks to people rights to life, health, and livelihood, and put in particular danger expecting mothers, infants, children and the young -- those most vulnerable to harm from radiation.
The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the 2004 Academy Awards. The film is directed by Maryann DeLeo, with Adi Roche, the Irish founder of the the Chernobyl Children’s Project International .
It’s not only running against the grain, but also shattering my apathy. The film observes ongoing Ukrainian and Belarusian children’s burdens from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. I glimpse the dark water of Japan’s near future. Without this film, we couldn’t easily foresee the aftermath to the Fukushima crisis, or any other future nuclear tragedies. Wherever on Earth you are watching from, this film will let you touch the pain of children in distant places of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the Japanese children of a not so distant time.
All adults seriously need to look into a way to avoid this nuclear tragedy, because children and their children of any time don’t have any responsibility at all for their suffering from any nuclear malfunctions. It is ours, our generation’s responsibility to stop this negative chain of events. Watch this movie and unite. We should make our decision on nuclear power plants right now. There is no peaceful way to use nuclear Energy. (Kosaku Horiwaki)
It’s late for us to send out a holiday greeting this year. Somehow I couldn’t write a line up until recently. The earthquake in Tohoku, the nuclear power plant failure in Fukushima, and the flooding in Thailand have kept my mind for an unusually long period of time. It probably arises from a guilt feeling of mine, being faraway from my first home. Howbeit, NY is my home. I have not been able to physically be there for their needs and supports. What I have been doing was only to contemplate. Unfortunately and sadly, but confidently, I came up with a notion.
“What I can do for now is limited for I can only pool this feeling for a longer period of time. I ought to retain it as fresh as the way I felt on the day March 11th 2011, even though time waters down awareness day by day. I’ll wait for the coming moment and role until I am needed. On that occasion, I will exert my palpable determination.”
Until then, I silently pray for the people in those areas.
We wish you a warm and peaceful holiday season and coming 2012.
Summer Storm hit JFK, flying around for an hour above JFK, the sky was pretty cool to see fading light, the moment I confirmed the beautiful planet we live in.