Thanks for sharing, Hiroko. Is there somebody who has taken over the duties of Mr. Ise?
Fukushima is personal to me. I still lived in Hyogo at the time, but as a journalist specializing in earthquakes I rushed to the disaster area. Just as I drove into Fukushima Prefecture on the day after the tsunami, a Saturday, the first news came on the radio of the explosion at Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant.
Unfortunately, I had not considered this eventuality and was not prepared for it. No special clothing, no Geiger counters, nothing to protect myself. I got stuck in heavy traffic and it took most of the day to put enough kilometers between the reactor and myself.
For the next six weeks I stayed in the disaster area without a single break. Mostly near the epicenter in Sendai, but I also drove along the coast all the way to Aomori, reporting on the aftermath at pretty much every village and town that I passed through.
From May I repeatedly visited Tohoku for shorter visits. Sometime in August I went back to Fukushima to enter the closed off zone and report from there.
I discovered that contaminated cattle had been sold, and was still being sold, for consumption. Mostly via circuitous routes to auctions in Kyushu, so that the origin of the cows would be unclear. As a Japan Correspondent I reported on this in the news media in the Netherlands, but Japanese news media did not mention it at all until many months later when an official announcement was made by the government. By that time all the meat had been consumed…
Kjeld Duits: Man of Courage - and Truth. It's no wonder no-one really properly trusts politicians and their minder/spokespeople. Your account is illuminating! Thank-you.
Thankfully, there are lots of people in the government trying to do the right thing, as well.
I am always deeply impressed by how hard the great majority of people in local government work after a disaster to get things back in order and help all those who have lost everything. Even when they themselves are victims.
I especially saw this up close in the small town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture after 3/11. The mayor lost his wife, a spokesperson his child, and so on, and yet there they were giving it their all, 24/7. Day after day after day.
KD: You are absolutely right about the dedication and probity of local government civil servants. I recall the horror I felt at the images of the tsunami engulfing the town and the valley beyond - that surge of dark water - and people scrambling up the hillside on the southern side. My wife and I lived many years in Japan - she around 10 in total (but back-and-forth to Australia caring for her agèd mother - me over 16 years - my first two as an official exchange teacher from NSW - then back again later independently, teaching and endeavouring to do my best in learning the language - and everything else about Japan - history, culture - and travelling the country as opportunities came up - most of which I drove - all bar Aomori-ken and Hokkaidō - though we did once travel by Russian cruise ship from Yokohama to Nakhodka via the straits between those two parts of Japan - sighting both sides from the vessel - including Tappi-Misaki on the southern side. The closest I was to Rikuzentakata was Hanamaki-city back in 2000 I think when on a road-trip into Tōhoku - where I was - once in Iwate-ken - making a kind of pilgrimage to sites associated with MIYAZAWA Kenji - a paedagogical hero of sorts to me. In fact at the school where he taught the students were rehearsing the famous Shishi Odori! Celebrated by Miyazawa Kenji in verse. An Australia playwright/novelist/translator (US-born - Russian, Japanese etc polylingual) Roger Pulvers did translations of that poem giving it its Tōhoku-ben dialectal twist into "upper class British English", into Ozarks "backwoods" twang and into Aussie English (Strine - Australian). And an artist friend in Ube HORI Ken - had his huge painting of a beautiful "shidare-zakura" hanging in a local Hanamaki Temple - which I visited, too. Back to the dedication of local government people - I had something to do with such people in Ube - across a range of administration sectors - marvellous men and women. (And one woman - as a Councillor - dedicated to the issues of "barrier-free" access for those in wheel chairs, etc.) Jim
The Fukushima Earthquake/Tsunami took place less than two years after I returned to Australia in late May, 2009. It was a shock. Later I learned that a NichiDai fellow student of one of my former university students in western Japan and his family were swept away in the tsunami. In 2005/2006 I was made an honorary parishioner of a Shrine in Yamaguchi-ken - in a city about 50 km east of Shimonoseki. The priest who offered me such was a friend - you are probably the only foreigner in Japan who is the member of a Shintō parish - he told me. In fact he wanted to begin training me as a priest - though I never had the time to do so given my teaching schedule. My mate had studied at the Shintō University in Mie-ken and he and his wife became good friends. We shared a deep interest in the mid-19th century teacher and revolutionary from Hagi in Yamaguchi-ken - YOSHIDA Shōin (1830-1859). I saw Shintōism in relatively simplistic terms as a response to the seasons - prayers and ceremonies for planting (as in the Taue Odori) and rites at the start of the fishing season - and then it's about thanks-giving - for the harvest, for the catch for the bounties of life itself and human relations. I saw it over the five years before I left Japan - so many Shinto ceremonies and operations. No written scriptures (though I do have a book of Shintō prayers translated into English). And so many reasons for celebrations (also called parties)... After my return to Australia in mid-2009 - every two or three years I had invitations back to Japan and each time I caught up with my friends at their Shrine - the beating heart of their central city Shrine. And usually I spent a couple of days with him and some key Shrine people - and with visits to other Shrines and their priests - also friends - in Hagi or Shimonoseki or Hōfu. And then during the Covid era - I suddenly had a message from one of the Shrine "elders" - he had passed away. Cancer. Several years my junior. I was shocked... Over the following year I wrote a memory sketch - padded out with significant moments and people in my life during my final five years in Japan - sending digital copies to his widow and her son who had inherited his position - and to other mutual friends who could explain my intent to memorialise my/our friend. A truly unforgettable friend.
“We’re all struggling with the realization we can never go back “home” to the way things were before. Maybe Ise’s work hints that the way forward is paved by individual effort, no matter how small and isolated, little beacons in the darkness.”
My husband’s father’s family is from Fukushima, too (although they hail from Aizu Wakamatsu). But it was this last paragraph that spoke volumes to me. What, after all, is community, if not those “individual efforts” that inspire and connect us, one to the next?
Beautiful reporting, informative, compassionate, and eloquently wrought.
This afternoon, the silence of our rural town was abruptly shattered by the piercing air raid siren commemorating the disaster. My wife and sat still, reflecting in ourselves about that moment now many years ago, but seemingly so close. After all, we now live within a tsunami risk zone here in southern Kyushu, and earthquakes are not unusual.
My wife comes from a 700 year family lineage of Shinto priests in a town not far away. Your piece was deeply evocative; a gift to read on this day.
I lived in Kyoto in my 20s; it changed me. This story deeply resonates, and reminds me/us that invisible forces change the world unexpectedly. In the US, we now face a cultural tsunami and vast destruction. This story gives me hope. Thank you.
You tell this story so delicately, I can imagine being there with Ise san. May his next life be beautiful. I was listening to Hiromi Uehara's "Green Tea Farm" just before reading this, and it somehow matched the mood, so I became emotional :-D
However, the government is exaggerating the danger from the fallout. If the area at Tsushima Inari Jinja is radiating at 1 µSv/h that’s less than 10x what the average natural background radiation is globally, and many spots in Brazil, India and Iran have natural levels over 10µSv/h. A fatal dose is 1 Sv, and living at the shrine this would take a million hours to accumulate, giving him 114 more years, but since he is already 94 he won’t ever hit that limit.
Thanks for sharing, Hiroko. Is there somebody who has taken over the duties of Mr. Ise?
Fukushima is personal to me. I still lived in Hyogo at the time, but as a journalist specializing in earthquakes I rushed to the disaster area. Just as I drove into Fukushima Prefecture on the day after the tsunami, a Saturday, the first news came on the radio of the explosion at Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant.
Unfortunately, I had not considered this eventuality and was not prepared for it. No special clothing, no Geiger counters, nothing to protect myself. I got stuck in heavy traffic and it took most of the day to put enough kilometers between the reactor and myself.
For the next six weeks I stayed in the disaster area without a single break. Mostly near the epicenter in Sendai, but I also drove along the coast all the way to Aomori, reporting on the aftermath at pretty much every village and town that I passed through.
From May I repeatedly visited Tohoku for shorter visits. Sometime in August I went back to Fukushima to enter the closed off zone and report from there.
I discovered that contaminated cattle had been sold, and was still being sold, for consumption. Mostly via circuitous routes to auctions in Kyushu, so that the origin of the cows would be unclear. As a Japan Correspondent I reported on this in the news media in the Netherlands, but Japanese news media did not mention it at all until many months later when an official announcement was made by the government. By that time all the meat had been consumed…
Kjeld Duits: Man of Courage - and Truth. It's no wonder no-one really properly trusts politicians and their minder/spokespeople. Your account is illuminating! Thank-you.
Thank you for your kind words, Jim.
Thankfully, there are lots of people in the government trying to do the right thing, as well.
I am always deeply impressed by how hard the great majority of people in local government work after a disaster to get things back in order and help all those who have lost everything. Even when they themselves are victims.
I especially saw this up close in the small town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture after 3/11. The mayor lost his wife, a spokesperson his child, and so on, and yet there they were giving it their all, 24/7. Day after day after day.
KD: You are absolutely right about the dedication and probity of local government civil servants. I recall the horror I felt at the images of the tsunami engulfing the town and the valley beyond - that surge of dark water - and people scrambling up the hillside on the southern side. My wife and I lived many years in Japan - she around 10 in total (but back-and-forth to Australia caring for her agèd mother - me over 16 years - my first two as an official exchange teacher from NSW - then back again later independently, teaching and endeavouring to do my best in learning the language - and everything else about Japan - history, culture - and travelling the country as opportunities came up - most of which I drove - all bar Aomori-ken and Hokkaidō - though we did once travel by Russian cruise ship from Yokohama to Nakhodka via the straits between those two parts of Japan - sighting both sides from the vessel - including Tappi-Misaki on the southern side. The closest I was to Rikuzentakata was Hanamaki-city back in 2000 I think when on a road-trip into Tōhoku - where I was - once in Iwate-ken - making a kind of pilgrimage to sites associated with MIYAZAWA Kenji - a paedagogical hero of sorts to me. In fact at the school where he taught the students were rehearsing the famous Shishi Odori! Celebrated by Miyazawa Kenji in verse. An Australia playwright/novelist/translator (US-born - Russian, Japanese etc polylingual) Roger Pulvers did translations of that poem giving it its Tōhoku-ben dialectal twist into "upper class British English", into Ozarks "backwoods" twang and into Aussie English (Strine - Australian). And an artist friend in Ube HORI Ken - had his huge painting of a beautiful "shidare-zakura" hanging in a local Hanamaki Temple - which I visited, too. Back to the dedication of local government people - I had something to do with such people in Ube - across a range of administration sectors - marvellous men and women. (And one woman - as a Councillor - dedicated to the issues of "barrier-free" access for those in wheel chairs, etc.) Jim
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your wonderful reminiscences, Jim. Thank you so much for sharing.
I had taking a ship from Japan to Russia on my bucket list. I guess the chances of that happening have been severely curtailed…
What an absolutely remarkable piece
Thank you for sharing it
The Fukushima Earthquake/Tsunami took place less than two years after I returned to Australia in late May, 2009. It was a shock. Later I learned that a NichiDai fellow student of one of my former university students in western Japan and his family were swept away in the tsunami. In 2005/2006 I was made an honorary parishioner of a Shrine in Yamaguchi-ken - in a city about 50 km east of Shimonoseki. The priest who offered me such was a friend - you are probably the only foreigner in Japan who is the member of a Shintō parish - he told me. In fact he wanted to begin training me as a priest - though I never had the time to do so given my teaching schedule. My mate had studied at the Shintō University in Mie-ken and he and his wife became good friends. We shared a deep interest in the mid-19th century teacher and revolutionary from Hagi in Yamaguchi-ken - YOSHIDA Shōin (1830-1859). I saw Shintōism in relatively simplistic terms as a response to the seasons - prayers and ceremonies for planting (as in the Taue Odori) and rites at the start of the fishing season - and then it's about thanks-giving - for the harvest, for the catch for the bounties of life itself and human relations. I saw it over the five years before I left Japan - so many Shinto ceremonies and operations. No written scriptures (though I do have a book of Shintō prayers translated into English). And so many reasons for celebrations (also called parties)... After my return to Australia in mid-2009 - every two or three years I had invitations back to Japan and each time I caught up with my friends at their Shrine - the beating heart of their central city Shrine. And usually I spent a couple of days with him and some key Shrine people - and with visits to other Shrines and their priests - also friends - in Hagi or Shimonoseki or Hōfu. And then during the Covid era - I suddenly had a message from one of the Shrine "elders" - he had passed away. Cancer. Several years my junior. I was shocked... Over the following year I wrote a memory sketch - padded out with significant moments and people in my life during my final five years in Japan - sending digital copies to his widow and her son who had inherited his position - and to other mutual friends who could explain my intent to memorialise my/our friend. A truly unforgettable friend.
J
“We’re all struggling with the realization we can never go back “home” to the way things were before. Maybe Ise’s work hints that the way forward is paved by individual effort, no matter how small and isolated, little beacons in the darkness.”
My husband’s father’s family is from Fukushima, too (although they hail from Aizu Wakamatsu). But it was this last paragraph that spoke volumes to me. What, after all, is community, if not those “individual efforts” that inspire and connect us, one to the next?
Beautiful reporting, informative, compassionate, and eloquently wrought.
This afternoon, the silence of our rural town was abruptly shattered by the piercing air raid siren commemorating the disaster. My wife and sat still, reflecting in ourselves about that moment now many years ago, but seemingly so close. After all, we now live within a tsunami risk zone here in southern Kyushu, and earthquakes are not unusual.
My wife comes from a 700 year family lineage of Shinto priests in a town not far away. Your piece was deeply evocative; a gift to read on this day.
I lived in Kyoto in my 20s; it changed me. This story deeply resonates, and reminds me/us that invisible forces change the world unexpectedly. In the US, we now face a cultural tsunami and vast destruction. This story gives me hope. Thank you.
You tell this story so delicately, I can imagine being there with Ise san. May his next life be beautiful. I was listening to Hiromi Uehara's "Green Tea Farm" just before reading this, and it somehow matched the mood, so I became emotional :-D
Thank you for your writing, Hiroko.
Thank you so much for this, what an amazing window into this tragedy.
Thanks for writing this, a good remembrance.
However, the government is exaggerating the danger from the fallout. If the area at Tsushima Inari Jinja is radiating at 1 µSv/h that’s less than 10x what the average natural background radiation is globally, and many spots in Brazil, India and Iran have natural levels over 10µSv/h. A fatal dose is 1 Sv, and living at the shrine this would take a million hours to accumulate, giving him 114 more years, but since he is already 94 he won’t ever hit that limit.
Those are averages. But there are spots that are much higher, often adjacent to the safe ones. It's quite "blotchy" in parts.