On Tuesday, March 11 the Safe and Green Campaign invites you to join us to commemorate the beginning of a man-made permanent crisis for the entire planet: the meltdown of multiple nuclear reactors in Japan. From 6:30 – 8:30PM in the Brattleboro Food Coop Community Room, we will host “Voices of Fukushima 2014,” an evening of short documentaries on Fukushima followed by a discussion with Chiho Kaneko about her recent visit to the Fukushima region.
Last year the Safe and Green Campaign organized the first “Voices of Fukushima.” People in seven towns
around Vermont Yankee “adopted” their counterpart towns in Japan. In Brattleboro, we studied what life is like for the 21,000 residents evacuated from the town of Namie, five miles from the nuclear reactors.
Since that time, the number of former Namie residents who have died from suicide, stress, or poor living
conditions surpassed the number who died from the tsunami and earthquake in 2011. Thousands are living in densely packed, small prefabricated living units and will never go home again. Evacuees fear attention and resources will be taken away from decontaminating Fukushima to fund new construction for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Japan’s new Prime Minister is determined to restart Japan’s 50 idle nuclear reactors, which will drain trained workers and money from Fukushima.
This year we will show four short documentaries, 35 minutes in total: a three minute video on Namie, an update on reactors #3 and #4 in Japan by Arnie Gundersen, a video on radiaton and farmers, and a visit to “temporary” housing for refugees. Following the films, Chiho Kaneko will talk about her latest trip to Japan, including a visit with Chikako Nishiyama in Kawauchi. Last spring, inspired by the town of Greenfield’s adoption of Kawauchi as part of VOices of Fuushima, Chikako toured the US and shared her evacuation experience with us.
Please join us at the Coop on Tuesday at 6:30. The entrance to the Community Room is on Canal Street.
