Radiation Exposure is Unequal

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(photo: Global2000 on flickr) (Originally published in Japanese for Gendai Shiso 現代思想, July 2012 Issue)   Doesn’t Radiation Discriminate? The Japanese Reggae musician, Rankin Taxi, has a song he has been singing for over twenty years: “You can’t see it, and you can’t smell it either.” Radiation is strong Radiation is powerful It doesn’t discriminate [...]

Voluntary Evacuation: A New Form of Struggle – A Conversation with Takako Shishido (1)

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(Photo: Takumi Sakamoto – Goldenrods grow tall in the abandoned rice fields in Fukushima.) 【日本語は下部に掲載。スクロールダウンしてお読みください。】 Voluntary Evacuation: A New Form of Struggle A Conversation with Takako Shishido by Todos Somos Japon (1) June 23, 2012, NYC Takako Shishido (TS) Ayumi Hirai (AH) Sabu Kohso (SK) Yuko Tonohira (YT) Yuko Tonohira: Today in New York we [...]

Challenging the Issues Around the Radiation-exposed Labor That Connects San’ya and Fukushima — Toward a Revival of the Underclass Workers’ Movement

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(Photo: Kenji Higuchi) (日本語の原文は下記に掲載ースクロールダウンしてお読みください。) 1. Day-workers in Yoseba2 and Radiation-exposed Laborers –-the Fukushima Nuclear Accident and Our Responsibility It was in 1986, the year of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, that I intervened in the day-workers’ support movement in San’ya Tokyo, after having seen and been influenced by the film: “Yama—Attack to Attack.3” From books and [...]

July 2012

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(Photo: TomoyukiTsuchiya) (日本語による原文は下記に掲載) We saw the advent of the ‘season of the movement’ in July 2012 – a rare experience in Japanese political history. Well over a million people participated in anti-nuke rallies and demonstrations throughout the country. Yet these waves do not stop and we are living in the unprecedented political process day by [...]

Hydrangea Revolution

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(日本語バージョンは下記に掲載) The “Hydrangea Revolution” has begun.  On June 22, 2012 — the 1908 Red Flag Incident when Japanese anarchists and socialists took to the streets and were arrested as well as the 1987 anti-U.S. military-base demo in Okinawa, in which 18,000 people gathered and protested around the Kadena Air Force Base, also occurred on June [...]

The Reconstruction Project and the US

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Photo: PACIFIC OCEAN (April 4, 2011) Japan Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa receives honors from Sailors upon his arrival aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). -via flickr (日本語による原文は下部に掲載) On February 10th 2012, in the eleventh month after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th 2011, the Reconstruction Agency of Japan would be [...]

What Arises from the Small Space

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(日本語による原文は下部に掲載) In the evening of January 27th 2012, the street was crowded around the tents built around the corner of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), located in Kasumigaseki, the financial district of Tokyo. It had been 139 days since its inception that the tent occupiers were ordered an eviction by METI. Bodies [...]

The Occupation and Glass Badges

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(日本語による原文は下記に掲載) Today, children in Fukushima are mandated to wear radiation dosimeters called ‘glass badges.’ Some of the regional governments also require pregnant women to wear them. They are a durable, modified version of film badges, one of three main types of radiation monitors: -alarm meters, film badges, and pocket dosimeters – all used by the [...]

The Refrain of “Bad Days Will End”

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 (日本語は下部に掲載) The dog days are over The dog days are done The horses are coming so you better run Run fast for your mother run fast for your father Run for your children for your sisters and brothers Leave all your love and your loving behind you Can’t carry it with you if you want [...]

Waiting for the Day

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Photo: Ilcommonz (日本語の原文下部に掲載) Now only two among fifty-four reactors are at work in Japan. That is, after eleven months have passed since the nuclear accident, most of the reactors (aside from those suffered the accident) have been stopped for periodical inspection. And none among them has resumed their operation so far. If this state continues, [...]