Fukushima Integrated Social Welfare Project

Every time I come to Nakoso, I learn something new from Rev. Sumiyoshi about what he's been studying in the Bible or the things he heard from God. It always amazes me to see how wide his vision gets each time we discuss God's work of reconciliation in the world, and how consistently Rev. Sumiyoshi's actions of obedience lead him to places where he had not imagined going but where he encounters the Holy Spirit at work among people. He and I have shared many deep concerns from God each time I come to Nakoso and have deepened our friendship through these life-giving conversations. We have talked about how his commitment for community service came from the Korean martyrs during the Japanese colonization in Korea, and about God's big vision for restoring the land and so on. This is a friendship we both know God is building beyond language barriers and beyond geographic distance because of our common vision and common passion for holistic restoration of the land and people in Fukushima. And that vision comes from Jeremiah 29:7:

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." 

A year ago when Jonathan, my husband, and I came to visit Nakoso, Rev. Sumiyoshi showed us the books he was studying and the new vision he was developing.  Rev. Sumoyoshi was about to start an innovative pastoral & mission training network for the post-disaster East Japan among the grassroots pastors working closely in communities of disaster recovery. Jonathan's visit, as a theologian, was a timely addition to our ever deepening friendship.   

Translation: Public Welfare and Christianity

Sumiyoshi's holistic vision for Fukushima (version: 2014)

As Rev. Sumiyoshi started sharing about his latest reflections on mission and evangelical theology he drew the above diagrams on the white board to talk about the gap between soul-saving focused, narrowly defined mission and the needs of Fukushima's restoration, from the land, to economy, society, family and workplace, etc. After Jonathan and I returned to Vancouver, little did we realize how much we have been shaped by that conversation in our own life, in our work and teaching.

So twelve months later I came to Nakoso with Ken and Shihoko, but without Jonathan. Midori told us that when she called him back in January to plan for our visit, Rev. Sumiyoshi was very excited to hear about my plan to visit him in Nakoso during this trip with my new friends from Vancouver, though he had no idea about the kind of ministry Ken and Shihoko were involved in Vancouver. This time Rev. Sumiyoshi, again, drew diagrams on the white board to share with us the new plans God has given him:  

Fukushima, Happy Island: Fukushima Integrated Social Welfare project. 

Sumiyoshi's ever deepening vision for restoration of Fukushima (version: 2015)

 He started with the same diagrams he shared with me and Jonathan a year ago but this time the diagrams became a bit more complex and had advanced meaning with them. From the books he had read and the ministries he has been leading, he is now developing a comprehensive project plan called, "Fukushima, Happy Island." In this project, he has built stronger theological foundations for local church-centered  mission in all spheres of society for Fukushima: agriculture (most important one in Fukushima), health, education, family, welfare, workplace, and so on. He now has potential ministry partners joining from Korea and also a landowner who is considering donating a plot of land for this experiment.

After Rev. Sumiyoshi finished sharing his new plan for land restoration and community building, he asked Ken for feedback because he heard Ken was a horticulturalist.

Ken is a fluent Japanese speaker with much experience in agriculture both in Japan and Canada. He shared his insights on what ordinary people can do to restore the land by changing everyday lifestyle to live a more ecologically conscious lifestyle and what people in Fukushima might be able to do. He spoke from his experience of working in community gardens and working with grassroots organizations, not as an ivory tower expert.

Ken explaining how to restore topsoil with green manure.

Shihoko, Ken and Sumiyoshi

After sharing these important reflections, Shihoko and Ken also shared about their ministry in Vancouver: New Eden Ministry, which was birthed in Vancouver among a Japanese multicultural congregation after seeing the devastation of the triple disaster in Fukushima in 2011. This is a ministry in Vancouver where Jonathan and I volunteered last summer (see the story of their harvest celebration last October, click here).

They were all awestruck to discover how similar their visions for holistic discipleship and missions in their local communities were, whether it is Fukushima or Vancouver.

Blessed Generation - Young people of Fukushima

Now I am back to Vancouver after my two week long trip to Japan. Every time I go, God catches my attention for certain things right in that moment in that place, but there are other things that I need to brew for some time before I can get them out of my head. Especially having the long weekend over Easter was helpful for me to reflect on many things that Fukushima teaches us about faith and about life in Christ when the worldly outlook doesn't seem to be promising any hope.

The biggest difference this time for me was that we've seen changes in Fukushima, FOUR years after the disaster. Though these changes were hard realities of life in Fukushima that few people can understand watching from outside -- things like removing top soil everywhere or endless walls of black bags of radiation contaminated soil along the shore-line. We were able to drive along the coast near the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, just around 1 KM from the plant,  and saw radiation clean-up workers in full protective gear walking in and out of houses in the 20 KM restricted zone because many of these areas are now open for clean-up before making it possible for residents to return.

"People are very discouraged about living in Fukushima. They hear everywhere people saying, 'Fukushima is becoming a big trash box!'"

Radiation contaminated topsoil in black bags after being removed from the field.

When we met with Rev. Sanga and his wife, Toyomi, at Grace Garden Chapel in Koriyama, this was one of the few things they told us about how local people were feeling about Fukushima and about themselves. The stigma of Fukushima is rising as the challenges of living with the radiation do not seem to decrease.

Grace Garden Chapel started serving their neighborhoods just weeks after the disaster, especially when the largest evacuation shelter was established just minutes from their church building. This church consistently focused on helping families and children, the most vulnerable members of community after disaster, working at the evacuee shelters to assisting families to move to temporary housing units, and then helping some of the evacuees to relocate to their "new" permanent homes.

Shihoko and Ken from Vancouver listening to Rev. Sanga and Toyomi

Consistent Direction: Fukushima's future starts with families and young people. 

Four years after the disaster, the world outside Fukushima has forgotten what happened.  The rest of Japan seems to be too embarrassed to talk about Fukushima. In this context, Rev. Sanga and his church have consistently been taking steps to build the future within Fukushima and from Fukushima. They are hoping to start a new alternative school for children in Fukushima called "Fukushima Future School." When Shihoko, Ken and I met with them, they showed us the brochure of the upcoming event they were planning for young people in Fukushima called, "Blessed Generation."

In Japanese kanji, Fukushima (福島) means "the Land of Blessing," so it is perfectly fitting to call young people of Fukushima, the blessed generation. They are not a people of "trash boxes."

One example of such a blessed, courageous young person in Fukushima is Simmy. I met her just a few months after the disaster when she was working as a volunteer in Iwaki. She recently moved to Naraha town located within the 20 KM area form the Fukushima Daichi plant when a Christian businesswoman opened a convenience store and wanted to hire several Christians to work in the area. The business owner called Simmy because they became friends when this business owner was living at an evacuee shelter right after the disaster.

Simmy is one of the seven Christian employees in this convenient store serving nearly 1500 customers daily, most of whom are temporary workers from the Daichi plant and other radiation clean-up sites. Simmy moved from Osaka to Fukushima soon after the disaster because she felt  a call from God to serve among the suffering people of Fukushima. Many volunteers didn't stay long in Fukushima, but Simmy still feels called to be there. She now has a dream of starting a community farm in Fukushima using hydroponic methods so the contaminated soil won't be used as the growing medium. Her smile and strong faith are big signs of God's blessing on the next generation in Fukushima.

Giant seawall isn't the solution for everything

 

It all seems logical to build the great long wall of embankment along the coast of the Tohoku area, the three prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima) facing the Pacific Ocean to protect them from any potential tsunamis in the future. As we visited the village after village along the coast, all we could see was construction after construction.

(To compare the changes below - check this post I wrote on August 31, 2012 in the same place).

the black line on the bottom is the old seawall, and the white one is the addition

Perhaps children may feel safer playing outside when the wall is so high that they do not see the ocean. However, Japanese life depends so much on fish and the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on Fukushima's fishery and on the lives of fishermen has not yet been brought into the spotlight yet because the radiation on the land - vegetation and agriculture - has been on the forefront of everyone's mind.

When Simmy, our friend from Iwaki who has now moved to Naraha town, first brought us to a fish drying facility, I couldn't believe what I saw with my own eyes: people handling fish less than 20 KM away from the Fukushima Daichi where over 300 tons of radio-contaminated water is leaking to the ground water and to the ocean.

Employees working with fish from Hokkaido

Dried fish products

Kazawa san lost everything to the tsunami. He had a thriving business of a fish product shop until the day of tsunami. When he felt the shaking, he instinctively knew that a massive tsunami was on the way. He immediately called all of his employees and drove them to the mountain for evacuation without a second thought. Neighbors who hesitated for seconds ended up being swallowed by the giant wave. That day, he thought he lost everything.

Photos of tsunami-destroyed fish shop on Kazawa san's cell phone

Some time after he returned to his shop and factory and decided to put behind him his life as a victim. He started volunteering at a local evacuation center. Around the same time, he started receiving young university student volunteers from the neighboring prefecture to help. He had lost his business and could not imagine re-starting his fishing or fish product business in Fukushima. He had nothing to go back to. He thought there was nothing much for these young folks to help with, but he didn't want to disappoint these energetic young students. So he started his fish shop again, but this time he started bringing fish from Hokkaido where the fish industry has not been affected by radiation. He invested over 50 million yen to set up a whole new shop with brand new equipment to start this new business even though he knew it is much harder to recover the fish industry than agriculture in Fukushima. The loss he incurred in one fiscal year is already 8 million yen last year. But because of the young people who wanted to help, because of the new hope rising in him, he couldn't just leave the industry for good.

"After all, I needed a new hope. I wanted to give hope to young people. They wanted to help and they are the next generation of our society. I didn't want them to be disappointed. We were helping one another."

Recovering the ability to "give hope" is most important after disaster.

 The university students kept coming. Some graduated and moved on with life but new students joined the team. Kazawa san continues to receive these students so their relationship of giving help and receiving hope continues.

Kazawa san's dried fish shop

The last station - Tatsuta

Today Midori and I went to meet a friend who recently moved to Naraha town, a town that is located within 20 KM of the Fukushima Daiichi. This small town was closed for over 3 years due to the high level of radiation but recently opened after the clean-up. So the railway tracks were all reconnected only recently. For the first time after the disaster 4 years ago, we took the train going north of Iwaki city.

Now that radiation clean-up activities have been going on for a little over a year, the restricted area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi has shrunk from the original 20KM zone to 5-10 KM radius depending on the level of radiation in each local areas. "Clean-up is complete" means some of the areas are now slowly starting to receive returning farmers, businesses, and other life in general. However, many residents still are not willing to return partly due to the fear of radiation, but more humanly speaking, because they will lose their TEPCO compensation once they return to their original residence. This nuclear disaster and its messy aftermath is a mind boggling reality that anyone outside this prefecture would have a hard time understanding.

We started our journey from Nakoso and the changes I see on this trip compared to my past trips are some of the signs of hope in the midst of the ongoing grief.

Railway workers at Nakoso Station

Newly installed solar panels at Yumoto Station after reopening

Green! Planting began!

Tatsuta Station: The northernmost station of East JR line. 

North-bound railway track toward Tomioka

Overpass is closed but there is a bridge to cross to the platform. 

 Beyond Tatsuta station, all areas are still closed up to the north of Fukushima Daiichi and the railway won't open again for indefinite time as we saw what happened to Tomioka station.

A lonely Cherry blossom in the empty town of Tatsuta

Radiation clean-up workers (light blue uniform) going back to their dormitory.  

Tomioka Station, all are gone and nothing happened.

JR Tomioka Station after the tsunami (Source: Wikipedia)

Every time I come to Fukushima the most heartbreaking reality I find is that little has happened in Fukushima. Japanese people boast of their bullet train and the country-wide complex webs of railway transportation systems. They have the world's most sophisticated technology and disaster preparedness  in all levels of society. But the nuclear crisis stopped everything in Fukushima. The disaster crippled the country's most efficient transportation system. When we were driving from Minami Soma (north of Daichi plant) to Iwaki (south of Daichi plant), we stopped at Tomioka station, located 10 KM south from the Daichi plant, the station used to be just a couple hundred meters from the coast.
Because this station was located within the 20 KM zone public entrance was restricted for three years. But after the radiation clean-up, this area recently opened up. When we arrived here last Thursday, we were shocked to discover the complete open view of the ocean, and no sign of a train station. Only the long lines of soil bags block the view of ocean in front of a memorial stone and flowers.

 

Geiger Counter 

Parking lot entrance

While the damaged train station has been completely demolished, the town of Tomioka left untouched since the day of the disaster. 

 

The reality and uncertainty of the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daichi changed everything. The fact that Japanese have had to live with potential natural disasters like earthquake and tsunami has never slowed down the economy or the lifestyle of the people in this country. In fact, disaster preparedness is something they boast about. But the Fukushima nuclear crisis changed everything because even the disaster recovery couldn't even begin in many places in this land.

Inability to recover what was lost is a greater shock than the tsunami and earthquake. 

We have undone the 500 year's of God's work in creation

I am back in Fukushima, again with friends, very special friends. My new friends, Shihoko and Ken Warren from Vancouver joined me and Midori this time. I have been increasingly sensing that this new chapter of my life in Vancouver might be about connecting Vancouver to Fukushima, to learn from the people of Fukushima, their suffering, their quiet, hard labour of recovering what's been lost since the 311 triple disaster.

Today was our day of a long road trip from Koriyama to visit Haramachi Bible Church in Minami Soma and to drive southward on the recently reconnected highway no.6 to Iwaki. We were able to see the cooling towers of the Fukushima Daiichi just from one or two kilometers away while driving.

Our journey: blue line starting at the center of the map, up to the coast and then down along the coast.  

As we were driving we couldn't help but sigh at the scene after another of the rows of giant black bags of radio-contaimnated top soil removed from the land. The government decided to tackle the radio contamination on soil by removing the top 5 cm of soil and store them in deserted towns near the
Fukushima Daiichi plant where no long-term recovery is possible.

Koriyama is a vibrant city with a major Shinkansen station. As started our journey westward into the mountains, we noticed some homes were again filled with life, signs of life and work in the soil, which must show an act of will, tears and hard labour.

As we approached Itate village, we started seeing black bags everywhere as the houses looked more like haunted house with no signs of life.

Black bags on the ground contain radio-contaminated top soil. 

Rice field after removing the top soil

After our meeting with Rev. Ishiguro and his wife in Haramachi, we continued our journey, southbound on the highway no. 6. 

Highway no. 6 - The sign on the left side of the road says "Fukushima Daichi"  

Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant Sign 

View to the cooling towers at the Daichii Plant (behind the tree line). 

Radio-contaminated top soil bags being stored.

Close-up view of the bag storage in one of the deserted towns.

Ken, a professional horticulturalist, pays close attention to these matters of the land because of his passion for creation care. With a deep sigh, he said to us, "It takes 250 years to build an inch of top soil. We have undone what God has done in 500 years, just in a matter of hours and days."

It didn't dawn on me until Ken said it that our God chooses to work slowly and quietly at the groaning of the creation because of his love for his creation and in his patient work of reconciliation of all things to himself. God will heal the land when his own people called by Him repent and turn away from sinful ways.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:8-21) 

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)

When I think of those Christians I met in Fukushima, I can see this daunting reality with hope. To have that kind of hope demands faith. Dear God, please increase my faith. Amen.

Local Church: The Source of God's Beauty on Earth

“By the way, do you think your parents’ church might be willing to host a small exhibit for Fukushima art?” 

When Shihoko and I met at a coffee shop near my home in Vancouver in mid January to plan our trip to Fukushima, Japan, I asked this random question to her remembering her comment about her father --that he's an art lover and had been involved in gallery business. I thought it would be a wasted opportunity to not show such beautiful collection of work done by Christian artists to more Japanese before these would get packed and shipped to Vancouver. Shihoko's father immediately got excited about the idea of using the church building for a special occasion to stand in solidarity with the people of Fukushima. We then communicated to the lead artist of the group and got the initial assessment of feasibility. Just like that, we planned a weekend mini-exhibit for late March in Seibu Christ Church in Ichikawa. 

So I came to Japan again for this mini-exhibition in Ichikawa and to pay my "annual" visit to Fukushima for a week. The first day of the exhibit was a very quiet day but when the evening came, I began to understand God's providence in bringing the Fukushima exhibition to this church. I've never seen a local church that appreciates God's beautiful creation so much and in so many practical ways until I came to Seibu Christ Church. 

Mr. Ohtake, Shihoko's father, and four other members planted this church 35 years ago in this neighborhood of Ichikawa city and they began to meet at his home for nearly 30 years until they built the current building.  

All around the building you will see the beauty of God's creation in so many ways -- by flowers in the garden or a piece of art on the corner. This work of art is done for the service to the community.  

Three Magi's from the East

This piece of sculpture was done by a church member who has a very special visual perception and artistic gift because of his autism. When he has an image in mind, he creates this beautiful piece in about half an hour! 

Main Sanctuary Before Sunday Worship

Every Saturday night, Mr. Ohtake cleans the sanctuary and sets up the tables and chairs for the next morning. When I saw him finishing the set up and thought he left the building, but he turned the lights off and stood there for several minutes to pray in silence. In the church where the beauty of visual art is so highly appreciated, I felt the depth of silent prayer in that sanctuary where the Holy of the Holy is present in the darkness. I knew, that moment, I saw a man standing before the burning bush.

Sunday began with children and parents arriving early for the Sunday school. The small sanctuary started filling quickly for the worship and the room where the artworks were hanging filled with people joining for sunday worship.

Fukushima is still an hard subject to talk about in Japan if it is not completely forgotten in people's memory. But in the context of worship and prayers, the meaning of Fukushima starts illuminating the life which God intends for each of us to receive with joy, gratitude and hope even though it means we may not foresee what may come tomorrow.

This Sunday was a special Sunday as one of the members was being baptized, finally being adopted to this beautiful local congregation and being called a beloved daughter, bought by the precious blood of Jesus.

Ms. Etsko's testimony of her suffering for many years which finally led her to Christ and to joyful life in him, echoed beautifully in the light of the cross, with the golden map of Fukushima at the center, as if the people of Fukushima are deeply engraved in the heart of our suffering Christ.

I don't speak Japanese and do not understand a whole lot of things going on in the worship. But the mystery of God's presence becomes even more evident when my vocabulary loses its power but leaves only sensory trails of the light, sound, smell and touch of the people of God, his most precious creation.