Testimony of a mother who evacuated from Tokyo

Listen to her testimony (in English).
She evacuated from Tokyo to Kobe in west Japan to protect her daughter.
The contamination does not stop at the Fukushima department border. Tokyo is also contaminated.

Transcription (note 1):

I am standing here to tell you that the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is not over.
I evacuated to Kansai (note2), 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.

I have a daughter who was 5 years old at the time of the accident.
She became very sick one year after the accident.
In fact, my daughter became so sick that she could not live a normal life at all.
However, when she stayed in a place where there was no radioactive contamination, my daughter became so well. But when we returned to Tokyo, my daughter became sick again.
We did not have the option to stay in Tokyo, we just fled from Tokyo and came here.

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Newspaper changes an “annoying” photo

新聞が「迷惑な」写真を差し替え

Facts are disappearing from the media  報道から消えていくファクト

When we are outside of Fukushima, or of Japan, it is difficult for us to realize to what extent it has become difficult to speak of radio-contamination and the risk of exposure.

福島の、いや日本の外にいると放射能汚染や被ばくリスクについて語ることがどれだけ難しくなっているかがわかりません。

To illustrate this, we are reporting on the case of a photo replacement in the Mainichi Shimbun. This took place only in the Japanese edition. The original photo seems to have remained in the English edition.

その例を示すために、毎日新聞の写真差し替えの件をレポートしたいと思います。なお、写真差し替えは日本語版だけのようです。

On October 21, the Mainichi Shimbun reported the reopening of a part of the JR East line under the title: “JR East partially reopens line halted since 2011 nuclear disaster“. In this article, the Mainichi published a photo of a train leaving the newly opened Tomioka station. (If it is impossible to open the article, here is the web archive).

毎日新聞は10月21日付でJR常磐線富岡ー竜田間の再開を報じました。この中に富岡駅を出る電車の写真が掲載されています。(リンクが切れている時にはこちらのウェブアーカイブをごらんください。)

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New study says Minami-soma as safe as Western Japan cities – do they really expect us to believe this?

新しい調査によると、南相馬市は西日本の都市と同じくらい安全だそうです。こんな調査結果が信じられるでしょうか？

On September 5, 2017, Minami-soma city made a statement on the city’s radiation levels compared to 3 cities in West Japan, which has been reported in several newspapers. It’s important to comment on this study because the statement is intended to persuade the population to return to live there.

We are publishing comments on the articles below after having discussed with M. Ozawa of the citizen’s measurement group named the “Fukuichi Area Environmental Radiation Monitoring Project“. For English speaking readers, please refer to the article of Asahi Shimbun in English. For our arguments we refer to other articles published in other newspapers – Fukushima Minyu and Fukushima Minpo – which are only in Japanese.

2017年9月5日、南相馬市は同市と西日本の３市の外部被曝ばく線量を測定し、その結果について発表しました。いくつかの新聞が報道しています。この発表は住民帰還を促す意図を持っていますので、コメントすることが重要かと思われます。

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Olympic games in Fukushima: Is it safe?

福島でオリンピックゲーム。安全なのか？

Fukushima city is going to host Olympic baseball and softball games in 2020.
What is the level of radio-contamination there? This is the question on everybody’s mind, spectators and players from all over the world. Is it really safe?

2020年のオリンピックで硬式野球と軟式野球のゲームは福島市で開催することになっています。
この場所での放射線汚染のレベルはどれくらいなのでしょうか？世界中からやってくる選手や応援団、観客など、そこに行く予定の人たちにとって、この疑問は当然のことです。
この場所に行っても本当に安全なのだろうか？

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No human rights in terrifyingly contaminated Namie in Fukushima

想像を絶する汚染地帯の浪江町には人権は存在しないのでしょうか？

The evacuation orders of the most populated areas of Namie, Fukushima were lifted on March 31, 2017.
We are publishing the most recent soil surface density map of Namie created by a citizen’s measurement group named the “Fukuichi Area Environmental Radiation Monitoring Project“. Their members are mainly from Tokyo metropolitan region.

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Insoluble radioactive particles (part 3)

We are presenting here a transcription of an NHK TV documentary (note1) on insoluble radioactive particles found in Fukushima and in the Tokyo metropolitan region. This is the 3rd part of the 3 parts.
Here is the 1st part.
Here is the 2nd part.

6月6日に放映されたNHKクローズアップ現代「原発事故から６年　未知の放射性粒子に迫る」の書き起こしの英訳を投稿いたします。画像が多く、重くなりますので、３部に分けて投稿させていただきます。これは第3部です。
第１部はこちらです。
こちらが第２部です。

As you can see below, small insoluble radioactive particles are dispersed in the Tokyo metropolitan area. We believe that this represents serious health problems for the population in terms of internal irradiation, since the insoluble radioactive particles remain in the body for a long time. For anybody who would stay in this metropolitan area, further radioprotection against internal irradiation would be required.

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Insoluble radioactive particles (part 2)

We are presenting here a transcription of an NHK TV documentary (note1) on insoluble radioactive particles found in Fukushima and in the Tokyo metropolitan region. This is the 2nd part of the 3 parts.
Here is the 1st part.

6月6日に放映されたNHKクローズアップ現代「原発事故から６年　未知の放射性粒子に迫る」の書き起こしの英訳を投稿いたします。画像が多く、重くなりますので、３部に分けて投稿させていただきます。これは第２部です。
第一部はこちらです。

 

水に溶けない不溶性放射性粒子。
この性質が健康影響を考える際に大きな違いをもたらすといいます。
これまで、原発事故で放出された放射性セシウムは大気中のエアロゾルと呼ばれる水溶性の粒子に付着し運ばれていると考えられてきました。水に触れると粒子は溶けセシウムは拡散、薄くなります。呼吸によって肺に入った場合も同様で、水溶性のセシウムは体液に溶け全身に薄く広がります。その後、代謝活動によって徐々に排出され、成人の場合80日から100日ほどで半分に減ると考えられています。

Insoluble radioactive particles that do not dissolve in water.
This characteristic is supposed to make a big difference when considering health effects.
In the past, radioactive cesium emitted in the nuclear accident was thought to be carried away adhering to water-soluble particles called aerosols in the atmosphere. When it touches the water the particle melts and the cesium diffuses and gets diluted. The same is true when it is inhaled in the lungs; the water-soluble cesium melts into the body fluid and spreads thinly throughout the body. Then it is supposed to be discharged gradually by the metabolic activity, and decreases by half from 80 to 100 days in the case of adults.

 

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