ALESSIA CERANTOLA
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Audio and video
  • Media appearances
  • Contact

Action Mamas to the Rescue 

7/28/2011

1 Comment

 
Immagine
Published on 28 July, 2011. Author: Alessia Cerantola

IWAKI, Japan – When the screen starts lightning Kaori Suzuki turns the dosimeter towards her friends and announces the result of the latest measurements. The screen reads 0,171 microsieverts per hour, a level under control. Seated at a table with a cup of tea and dosimeters in one hand, a scattering of young to middle aged women takes notes of the data and compares them with the ones from previous days. Since May, these meetings have been happening more and more frequently with the goal of checking for radioactivity levels in Iwaki, a city 30 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It was some months after the reactor meltdown when mothers of Iwaki gathered together to measure by themselves the level of radioactivity. Worried by uncertain and doubtful information given by the government, they saved and collected 600 dollars to buy the first Geiger counter and measure the radiation level. The group now consists of 15 people and an increasing
number of amateurs, including fathers and grandmothers, who take part in activities and meetings. They call themselves “Action Mamas” and meet at restaurants and taverns, or at the local office of the Ishinomaki city’s daily newspaper Hibi Shimbun, whose reporters are known because they used flashlights and marker pens to write their stories on poster-size papers for six consecutive days after the disasters.

“The economy and our children’s health run on opposite tracks. We want to protect our children and our families, without leaving this place,” said Mrs. Suzuki. “Although we don’t live far from the 12-mile evacuation zone around the stricken
Fukushima nuclear reactor, the radiation level is not so high compared to Chiba Prefecture. But we can’t just be restricted to this data.”

They are not convinced by the government’s decision to raise the maximum limit of safe radiation exposure from one to 20 millisieverts per year, and the fact that this adult-sized dose has been extended also to children keeps causing debates among experts and citizens. Also, the new standard sets a maximum level of 200 becquerels per kilogram for milk and derivates, while rice and vegetables with up to 500 becquerels is considered safe for consumption.

“Inconceivable! It means that Japanese children can tolerate a higher level of radioactivity than other children around the world? We claim that people really understand the meaning of measurements and data and, if safe, we want to keep staying here and coexist with what is called the invisible enemy.”

With the help of some humanitarian associations, the Action Mamas are organizing summer outings for children in other green parts of Japan, and are also arranging meetings with radiation experts. Being aware that the situation that is still likely to deteriorate, they demand to local administrations to provide periodical blood and urine checkups. Also, groups of parents are sent to the nearby city of Fukushima to learn from technicians about how to protect against radiation and how to handle
complex instruments to measure food contamination. Thanks to donations they managed to buy the first of these instruments, worth 3 million yen (almost $40000).

Apart from the Action Mamas, other people in Iwaki choose to gather information by themselves and restart their business. The farmers of this Japan’s fourth-biggest rice producer region discuss whether to abandon planting rice and vegetables in tainted soil.

“Since the disaster at the Fukushima plant I’m not selling anything,” said Ryoko Namatane showing his 1.0 hectare rice and vegetable field. In May, Japanese authorities declared this area safe, but scared by news from the media, many people started buying at the supermarket instead of at family markets, carefully checking the place of origin. Farmers can’t determine how much cultivation can be eaten until the harvest. “I like that my nephews keep using my vegetables as they have done so far.
But, how can I make them eat a 495 becquerels cesium tainted carrot?”

Despite the fall out of the local tourism sector in March, some of Iwaki’s businessmen have decided to reinvest in the area. After the 3.11 and the 4.11 strong earthquakes, the tsunami and the Fukushima explosion, tourism was suddenly destroyed in a city with over 7.5 million visitors per year. But in October 2011 the leisure complex Resort Hawaiians is expected to open part of its spa and pools to the public. In June
the 2,050 cubic meters aquarium Acquamarine Fukushima, one of the most attractive facilities of the region, was reopened. “The number of visitors has roughly halved”, said the director Yoshitaka Abe. “But it is my intention to turn this place into a symbol of Iwaki’s renaissance”.
1 Comment
Edoardo Quiriconi
2/28/2015 01:39:15 am

Gentile Dr.ssa Cerantola,

Ho scoperto i suoi "pezzi" tramite il Suo blog sul "Fatto Quotidiano", e con piacere ho scoperto che porta avanti un blog, che mi sto davvero divertendo a rileggere, dagli articoli più vecchi (come può vedere dall'articolo che sto commentando...) ai più recenti. Le scrivo perché mi voglio vivamente complimentare con Lei per la sobrietà, la puntualità e la competenza in ciò che scrive, soprattutto su un argomento - il Giappone e l'Asia orientale - sul quale, data la diffusa ignoranza e disinteresse del pubblico italiano, se ne scrivono e se ne leggono di tutti i colori. Pur essendo laureato in giurisprudenza, anche io mi considero, nel mio piccolo, uno "yamatologo", nel senso che studio la lingua (non certamente al suo livello universitario, e sono in partenza per una full immersion linguistica a Tokyo della durata di 3 mesi), e ho letto decine di libri sul Giappone e la sua storia, di cui sono da anni appassionato. Proprio in virtù di ciò, i miei complimenti sono i più sinceri, e mi auguro di leggerLa con sempre maggiore frequenza: articoli e reportage come i Suoi sul Giappone sono un toccasana, nel "mare magnum" della (troppa) mala informazione. Per incidens, anche il mio sogno è quello di fare il giornalista occupandomi di quella regione del mondo, ma mi rendo conto (nonostante abbia già mosso qualche passo e sia riuscito a far pubblicare qualche mio scritto su qualche rivista e testata online) che in Italia è molto, molto dura!!! ^^. AugurandoLe la più proficua prosecuzione della Sua carriera, Le rinnovo i complimenti, e spero di continuare a leggerLa con sempre maggiore frequenza. Cordiali saluti.

Edoardo Quriconi

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    published by:

    Tweets by @aisselax

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    May 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    April 2011
    January 2011
    June 2010

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Audio and video
  • Media appearances
  • Contact