Six Years after the Disaster

Some facts about Fukushima after six long years passed since March 11, 2011. 

Percentage of forest area in Fukshima: 70%

No. of towns affected by the mandatory evacuation order: 11

Total no. of evacuees in 2012: 164,865 

Total no of evacuees in March 2017: 79,446

The highest radiation recorded on March 10, 2017: Okuma town at 10.444 μSv/h

Total no. of population in Fukushima prefecture in 2011: 1,988,995

Total no. of population in Fukushima prefecture in 2017: 1,895,080

Total no. of workers for decommissioning in October 2016: 5920 

"Six" doesn't seem to be as a significant number" as some other numbers, like five or ten, or even seven, that mark passage of time better in our fragile memory. But this is what happens in ordinary Japanese life. The Japanese school year and fiscal year run from April to March. So mid to late March is a season of graduation, school break, job transfers, and relocations, and any other life changes associated with these big changes and passages of life. And there is the famous season of beautiful cherry blossoms. 

In the midst of these happy anticipations of life on a cold Friday afternoon six years ago, the earthquake hit and a massive tsunami followed. Children were still in school, high school and university graduations were going on, salarymen (as Japanese call their white-collar work-force) were exchanging their news about the next posts in faraway places, mothers were busy shopping for the weekend family outings.... Then panic and chaos began. A shock and trauma scarred their memories forever. It has never ended. 

Children who were born in 2011 go to elementary school this April. Children who finished elementary school that year have spent the hardest, darkest and most unimaginable forms of youth and teenage years in their middle and high schools. University students who graduated that year spent the rest of their twenties in this broken reality of Japan's super-power as the world's leading economy as they entered the job world. 

Future from Fukushima

Fukushima's future and its people are forever marked by the triple disaster and the ongoing struggle with the unresolved nuclear crisis. Collective memory is a powerful thing when building a new future. I've seen this logo, Future from Fukushima a couple years after the disaster, as a local movement among farmers and small businesses that started promoting revitalization of local economy in Fukushima. Today our team visited Comutan Fukushima, a brand-new exhibit hall that the Fukushima prefectural government opened recently as an information and learning centre about the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and the impact of radiation in human life and environment. We learned a great deal about Fukushima through our experience. 

Last six years my purpose of visiting Fukushima has been to listen to the stories of people and churches at the grassroots level which often get buried in the big headlines of media. I found it very helpful to be able to see the whole picture of Fukushima from a bird-eye view. Indeed a new future from Fukushima is rising!  

Deepening Friendships and Deepening Engagement

The artists who did the first exhibit in Fukushima three years ago (go to the story on the exhibit) continued their engagement with Fukushima in differfent ways. The nine artists went to the restricted areas surrounding Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in late 2013 and their experience mounted to an exhibit in Fukushima in March 2014 to commemorate the third anniversary of the triple disaster. After that, a group of friends got together in Vancouver and raised funds, prayers and other kinds of support to bring the exhibit to Vancouver (go to the story on the Vancouver ehxibit). In early 2016 some of these artists went to Fukushima again with addition of two new Japanese artists and a Canadian artist in March 2016. In their first visit to Fukushima three and a half years ago, they saw and grieved over the devastation, trauma and human tragedy of man-made disaster. Their work reflected their lament, but a sign of hope. 

This time the new exhibit in Tokyo showed their deepening experience as a group of artists: trying to understand what lies behind these man-made disasters, what is being done to recover the devastated soil and farms, how a small but resilient hope is found in various pockets of Fukushima. 

The artists visiting the areas stricken by tsunami (March 2016)

Learning from the radiation expert about the radiation clean-up work in Fukushima (March 2016)

Olive Garden: A nonprofit organization planting olive trees along the Fukushima shore line
by creating  jobs for the disabled (March 2016)

Six adults and three children from Vancouver visited the exhibit today. Last night was an opening event, which was a great success including some major media coverage (sadly, we missed it because we were just flying in to Tokyo at the same time.) Today, the exhibit began to fill steadily even during the day and got busier in the afternoon. 

Fukushima, even after six years, still continues to be a mind-boggling, immensely complex reality. It is a kind of conundrum to a nation that never took "no" for an answer. 

This exhibit, once again, is a communal art project which is honestly reflected by the people who care deeply and express boldly. As their experience grows deeper, their friendships grow richer. We are greatful for their vocation of artists. 

Here are some photos Jonathan took this afternoon. I wish many of the readers were able to come to Tokyo and experience this beautiful exhibit. 

No Greater Happiness Than a Visit with a Friend from a Faraway Place

In April 2011, I went to Fukushima, Japan, alone from Vancouver, Canada to line up at the immigration in Narita Airport where there were very few foreigners entering the country. Most foreigners had already left the country due to the safety alert coming from the uncertainty following the meltdown of the reactors in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.

Six years have passed and a lot has happened outside Fukushima. Most of the disaster recovery work has long been completed in Iwate and Miyagi since disaster recovery is one thing Japan has been known for her expertise and tenacity. But the situation in Fukushima is quite different. Year by year, we saw very little progress in Fukushima. Though the effect of the earthquake and tsunami was not as devastating as in the other two prefectures mentioned above, due to continued uncertainty around the nuclear plant and rising long term challenges associated with it, progress in Fukushima has been very slow.

Over the next few days six friends from Vancouver are visiting the local churches in Fukushima to learn from their stories of faithfulness, to encourage them that we stand alongside them, and to worship together in Christ. This is a huge answer to prayers. Last Sunday afternoon during the congregational worship at Church of All Nations, we were prayed for and sent out by the loving congregation. I am no longer a lone-ranger visiting Fukushima! In fact, a-dream-come-true kind of thing.

A long time ago a Chinese wise man, Confucious said in his famous writing, the Analects, that one of the three great joys in human life is friend’s visit:

有朋自遠方來、不亦樂乎

 It means, “Isn't it also great when friends visit from distant places?”

It has already been a great joy to the six of us that God chose us to send together. Six of us now all live in the Metro Vancouver, but we come from five different nations: Japan, Korea, Malaysia, USA and Canada. It is a truly global friendship. We go to offer ourselves and our prayers to friends in Fukushima.

Ministry of friendship and ministry of presence

Right from the first year of my work in Fukushima in 2011, I had a hunch that the key to sustainability in Fukushima will be relationships. The local churches which we witnessed to be effective in such a challenging context all had one common: People who are called by God to stay in Fukushima. To be present is to minister. To be friends is an end of mission, not a means to mission. This is only possible through

relationship that is bound by voluntary commitments rather than monetary, project-terms or contracts. We now offer ourselves to this voluntary commitment of being present in Fukushima from afar. It is a true joy to visit friends in a faraway place!