[Column] Burning water

7:30 AM. It was time to clean my turtles.
They are Chinese pond turtles, I bought them when I was 9 years old and we had been together for almost 20 years.
They make the water dirty, so I had to change it everyday.

That was my morning duty, but it changed after 311.

I used tap water for them, but I always felt bad. I knew tap water was also contaminated. but I couldn’t help it.
I was wearing goggles to have shower and washed my eyes with bottles water by the summer of 2011, otherwise I had serious pain on my eyes.
I don’t know if it had something to do with radiation, but I had no pain since I used the goggles.
but had no money to buy bottled water for the turtles.
Throwing the dirty water away in the toilet, I was always listening to the radio show that assistant professor. Koide from Kyoto university talked on.

He was trying to suggest all the food is contaminated, there is no technology to clean up Fukushima plants, but we must accept the fact.
I couldn’t accept it. No matter how much I thought, I had almost zero responsibility about that nuclear accident.
I put the little creatures back to the water. They were happily swimming.

After my work, I always went to a supermarket for food. but I didn’t have much choice.
Imported pasta, imported frozen vegetables, and chicken. Chicken was the only meat that they didn’t measured cesium at that time. Probably chicken was also contaminated, but what else to take protein from ?

To reduce water consumption, I cooked pasta by microwave every night. Of course it’s bottled water. but I knew it was bottled in Japan. Sometimes I imported canned fish from south east asia. but the fish might have been imported from Japan itself.

This was the only thing I could do to reduce my internal exposure. However, I had diarrhea.

To go to the toilet, I had to wake up early in the morning everyday. I tend to have constipation. Having diarrhea was not my reaction for the stress.

I saw sunflowers blooming in November. The owner of my apartment was growing tomatos, and they took them off in September. I saw the tomatos taken from the ground making new fruits in October. and those sunflowers and tomatos were huge. Azalea and gingkoes turned to be red-ish and withered.

However, everyone said it has nothing to do with radiation.
Every time I asked them why, they answered, “if it’s such a problem, massmedia must report it more.”
I think those people have some responsibility to an extent.

Even since before 311, obviously nuclear plants were the bigger risk for Japan than Kim Jong Il.
but none of the massmedia had warned it. It’s enough to abandon them all. They are the lens to make us see the skewed reality.
but anyway, I can’t blame them too much because I left those turtles at my friend’s place. and I didn’t tell her anything. She has been raising her two daughters by herself. I didn’t tell anything to those girls either.

When I visited them, the younger girl had persistent coughing like me and the older girl had fever. I couldn’t tell them anything because, otherwise they would have to evacuate too and my turtles would be left. I’m trying to feel better by thinking this is my debt to pay in the future, and I will definitely pay one day.

When I left Japan, I only had 70,000 JPY, but I didn’t even think it was a small sum of money. I always had small debt with credit card.
+70,000 JPY was almost the biggest sum of money I had ever had at that time.

How did I buy the flight ticket ?
That was because my host family in France raised donation for me. That was the biggest help.
It cost about 2,500 USD to come to France in total. I couldn’t afford it if there was no donation.

Since them, I had several peaks of donation amounts. These were always when someone raised donation for me where I didn’t really know.
I was very pleased, but I also felt bad. A lot of children are still remaning in Fukushima. They are the ones who should be saved.
I hope I’m converting the money into information to save them somehow.

There were several reasons for me to go out of Japan. Throwing the rope from the outside into the inside was one of the purposes that I came out. I’m still looking for the right rope to throw in.

 

 

_____

Italiano:

[Editoriale] Acqua che brucia

7:30 AM. Ora di pulire le mie tartarughe.
Sono tartarughe da stagno cinesi, le ho comprate quando avevo 9 anni e siamo stati insieme per quasi 20 anni.
Sporcano l’acqua, quindi la devo cambiare tutti i giorni.
Questo era il mio rito del mattino, ma è cambiato dopo l’11.03.

Per loro usavo l’acqua del rubinetto ma mi sentivo sempre male. Sapevo che l’acqua del rubinetto era contaminata ma non potevo farci niente.
Indossavo occhiali di protezione per fare la doccia e mi lavavo gli occhi con l’acqua in bottiglia dell’estate 2011, altrimenti mi facevano malissimo gli occhi
Non so se avesse qualcosa a che fare con le radiazioni, ma non ho più avuto male da quando ho iniziato a usare gli occhiali. Ma non avevo soldi per comprare acqua in bottiglia per le tartarughe.
Mentre buttavo l’acqua sporca nel water ascoltavo sempre il programma radiofonico in cui parlava il professor Koide dell’università di Kyoto.
Stava cercando di suggerire che tutto il cibo era contaminato e che non c’è una tecnologia per ripulire l’impianto di Fukushima, dovevamo accettarlo.
Io non potevo farlo. Non importa quanto ci pensassi su, io non avevo responsabilità dell’incidente nucleare.
Mettevo le piccole creature nell’acqua. Nuotavano felicemente.

Dopo il mio lavoro andavo sempre al supermercato per comprare del cibo, ma non avevo molta scelta. Pasta importata, Verdure surgelate importate e pollo. Il pollo era l’unica carne in cui non era stato misurato cesio a quei tempi. Probabilmente anche il pollo era contaminato ma da dove altro potevo prendere le proteine?
Per ridurre il consumo di acqua cucinavo pasta con il microonde tutte le notti. Ovviamente acqua in bottiglia. Tuttavia sapevo che era imbottigliata in Giappone. A volte prendevo del pesce in scatola del sud-est asiatico ma il pesce poteva essere stato importato dal Giappone.

Questa era l’unica cosa che potevo fare per ridurre la mi esposizione interna. In ogni caso, avevo la dissenteria.
Per andare in bagno dovevo alzarmi presto al mattino, ogni giorno. Io tendo a soffrire di stitichezza. Avere la dissenteria non era certo la mia reazione allo stress.
Vedevo i girasoli fiorire a Novembre. Il proprietario del mio appartamento coltivava pomodori e li hanno raccolti in Settembre. Ho visto i pomodori che crescevano a terra fare nuovi frutti ad Ottobre. E quei girasoli e pomodori erano giganteschi. Le Azalee e i Ginkos diventavano rossi e appassivano.

In ogni caso, tutti dicevano che non aveva niente a che fare con le radiazioni.
Ogni volta che chiedevo loro “perché” mi rispondevano “se fosse un problema del genere i massmedia lo riporterebbero di più”.
Penso che queste persone abbiano un certo numero di responsabilità.
Anche prima dell’ 11.03 ovviamente gli impianti nucleari erano per il Giappone un richio maggiore che Kim Jong Il. Ma nessuno dei massmedia ha avvertito. E’ abbastanza abbandonarli tutti. Sono le lenti che ci mostrano la realtà distorta.

Ma, comunque, non posso criticarli troppo perchè io ho lasciato quelle tartarughe a casa della mia amica. E non le ho detto niente. Sta crescendo due figlie da sola e io non ho detto niente nemmeno a quelle ragazze.
Quando sono andato a trovarle la figlia minore aveva una tosse continua come me e la maggiore aveva la febbre. Non ho potuto dire loro niente perchè, altrimenti, sarebbero evaquate anche loro e le mie tartarughe sarebbero state abbandonate. Mi fa sentire meglio pensare che il mio debito che dovrò pagare in futuro e sicuramente lo pagherò, un giorno.
Quando ho lasciato il Giappone avevo solo 70,000 Yen ma non ho pensato che fosse una piccola somma di denaro. Avevo sempre piccoli debiti con la carta di credito e +70,000 yen era quasi la somma più alta che avessi avuto a quei tempi.

Come ho comprato il biglietto aereo?
L’ho comprato grazie alla mia host family in Francia, che ha raccolto donazioni per me. E’ stato l’aiuto più grande.
Andare in Francia mi è costato circa 2500 dollari in totale. Non me lo sarei potuto permettere se non ci fosse stata una donazione.
Da allora ho ricevuto molti picchi di donazioni. Accadeva sempre quando qualcuno raccoglieva donazioni per me senza che lo sapessi.
Mi fa piacere ma mi sento male allo stesso tempo. Molti bambini sono ancora a Fukushima e sono loro che dovrebbero essere salvati.
Spero di convertire quei soldi in informazioni che un giorno li salveranno.

Me ne sono andato dal Giappone per molte ragioni. Gettare la corda dall’esterno all’interno era uno dei miei propositi. Sto ancora cercando la giusta corda da gettare.

_____

Français :

[Édito] Eau brûlante

 

7:30 du matin. C’était l’heure de nettoyer mes tortues.
Ce sont des tortues d’étang chinoises, je les avais achetées quand j’avais 9 ans et nous avons vécu ensemble pratiquement 20 ans.
Elles salissent l’eau, alors je devais leur changer tous les jours.

C’était mon devoir du matin mais ça a changé après le 11-3.

J’utilisais de l’eau du robinet pour elles mais je m’en sentais toujours mal. Je savais que l’eau du robinet était aussi contaminée mais je n’y pouvais rien. Je portais des lunettes (ndt: de natation) sous la douche et je me lavais les yeux avec de l’eau en bouteilles pendant l’été 2011, sinon j’avais très mal aux yeux.  Je ne sais pas si ça a quelque chose à voir avec la radioactivité mais je n’ai plus eu mal à partir du moment où j’ai mis ces lunettes. mais je n’avais pas l’argent pour acheter l’eau des tortues.

Je jetais l’eau sale dans les toilettes, j’écoutais toujours l’émission de radio dans laquelle parlait le professeur assistant Koide de l’université de Kyoto. Il essayait de dire que toute la nourriture est contaminée, qu’il n’y a pas de technique capable de nettoyer la centrale de Fukushima mais que nous devions accepter ce fait. Je ne pouvais pas l’accepter. Peu importe ce que j’ai pu penser, je n’ai pratiquement aucune responsabilité de cet accident nucléaire.

J’ai remis les petites bêtes dans l’eau. Elles nageaient avec bonheur.

Après le travail, j’allais toujours au supermarché pour acheter à manger mais je n’avais pas beaucoup de choix. Pâtes importées, légumes congelés importés et poulet. Le poulet était la seule viande sur laquelle ils ne mesuraient pas le césium à ce moment-là. Le poulet était probablement contaminé mais quoi d’autre pour trouver des protéines ?

Pour réduire la consommation d’eau, je faisais cuire les pâtes au micro-ondes tous les soirs. De l’eau en bouteilles, bien sûr. mais je savais que ça avait été embouteillé au Japon. Parfois j’importais du poisson en boîte d’Asie du Sud-Est mais ce poisson aurait très bien pu avoir été importé lui-même du Japon. C’était la seule chose que je pouvais faire pour réduire mon exposition interne.

Toutefois, j’avais de la diarrhée. Pour aller aux toilettes, je devais me lever très tôt tous les jours. J’ai une tendance à la constipation. La diarrhée n’était pas ma réaction au stress.

J’ai vu des tournesols fleurir en novembre. Le propriétaire de mon appartement faisait pousser des tomates et il les a récoltées en septembre. J’ai vu les tomates ramassées au sol donner de nouveaux fruits en octobre. et ceux des tournesols et les tomates étaient énormes. Les azalées et les ginkgos devenaient rougeâtres et fanaient.

Toutefois, tout le monde disait que ça n’avait aucun rapport avec la radioactivité.
Chaque fois que je demandais pourquoi, ils répondaient “si c’était un tel problème, la presse en parlerait plus.”
Je pense que ces gens ont de la responsabilité dans une certaine mesure.

Même avant le 11-3 il était évident que les centrales nucléaires étaient un bien plus grand risque pour le Japon que le Kim Jong Il.
mais personne de la grande presse n’a mis en garde. C’est bien assez pour les abandonner tous. Ils sont les lunettes qui nous font voir la réalité de travers.

mais, de toute façon, je ne peux pas trop les blâmer parce que j’ai laissé ces tortues chez mon amie. et je ne lui ai rien dit du tout. Elle a élevé ses deux filles toute seule. Je n’ai rien dit du tout aux filles non plus.

Quand je suis allé les voir, la plus jeune des filles avait une toux persistante comme moi et la plus âgée avait de la fièvre. Je ne pouvais rien leur dire parce que sinon elles auraient évacué aussi et mes tortues auraient été abandonnées. J’essaye de me sentir mieux en pensant que c’est ma dette pour le futur et que je vais le payer de toute façon.

Lorsque j’ai quitté le Japon, je n’avais que 70 000 Yens mais je n’ai même pas pensé que c’était une petite somme. J’ai toujours eu de petits découverts sur ma carte de crédit.
+70 000 Yens était quasiment la plus grosse somme d’argent que j’avais jamais eue à l’époque.
Comment j’ai acheté mon billet ?
C’est parce que ma famille d’accueil en France a levé des dons pour moi. Ce fut la plus grande aide.
Il m’en a coûté environ 2 500 dollars US au total pour venir en France. Je n’en aurais pas eu les moyens sans les dons. Depuis ceux-là, j’ai eu quelques pics de dons. C’était toujours lorsque quelqu’un que je ne connaissais pas vraiment faisait un appel de dons. Ça me faisait très plaisir mais aussi me sentir mal. Beaucoup d’enfants restent encore à Fukushima. Ils sont ceux qu’il faudrait sauver. J’espère que d’une certaine façon je transforme maintenant cet argent en information pour les sauver.

J’avais plusieurs raisons de sortir du Japon. Lancer la corde de l’extérieur à l’intérieur a été un des objectifs qui me sont venus. Je cherche toujours la bonne corde à y envoyer.

  1. “I couldn’t tell them anything because, otherwise they would have to evacuate too and my turtles would be left”.

    How can you put human lives before turtle lives? What’s wrong with you?!

    1. Hi Maju
      I cant speak for lori
      maybe its missing something in the translation
      but I think I understand the turtles

      The same rationalization going on all over Japan today.

      There was nothing he could do ,
      not just for the turtles, but for all the people he really cares about
      including her and her daughters.

      People remain in areas today they should not be in,
      and most of them know that there just maybe a risk
      . They know it may harm their children

      And like lori and his friend, theres nothing they can do about it.
      So they look for some sanity in the maddness. Something to feel good about
      at least the tutles would be taken care of, the irony

      lori couldnt afford to leave japan,
      and im guessing neither could this family

      would it help his friends situation if lori was to stay in japan
      no

      it wasnt a choice between turtles and people
      lori could save neither at the time.

      your judgement seems a little misdirected
      please direct it at those responsible for the choices
      not at the victims

  2. @ Melu What’s wrong with you?! Don’t judge what you can’t possibly understand. Don’t blame a traumatized person for being traumatized! Not one person on this planet can possibly grasp what Lori has gone through, but Lori. Unless you walk in his shoes, don’t judge! Instead why don’t you redirect your anger towards the `powers that be’ for not doing the right thing, by letting not only Japan in on the truth of 311 but the entire world! We are ALL affected by this planetary disaster, it’s high time it became transparent! And by the way, I suggest what was wrong with him (Lori) was the fear based trauma, ptsd, and the fact that his trusted governmental establishment was/is allowing it’s citizens die just to save face!

  3. Dear Iori ,

    You must get a quality Radiation Meter and start posting every day the measuraments ( make sure to add high resolution pics to back up your readings ) .
    Contact a University for sponsorship or the Green Party/Peace , etc. OR organize a $$ Drive here ( post the Receipt after buying the high-quality meter ) .

    But for now do what Madame Courie did , buy a 4 x 5 black&white photographic paper ( or ask a Photo Studio to donate it ) and ( while it is sealed in a thin water-proof package ) deep it into the water or wrap it around a food item , then develope it and see if it has Blacked ( exposure time should be over 5 minutes , experiment ) .
    Also , once developed , look with a magnifying glass for Black Spots indicating Strong radionucleotides / particles .

    BTW , those radioactive particles also destroy the CCD/CMOS pixels in any video/camera …

    See the Health advice on the web site that I gave you ( ViaHealth ) .

    When you’ll see the turtles start bumbping like ‘ blind ‘ against the edges of the water bowl you’ll know their eyes were affected …

    1. That’s a neat trick regarding the “poor man’s radiation detector” using photographic paper,etc.! I just decided to scrape together the funds to add a high-quality radiation monitor to mount in place at home & constantly connected to the radiation network map,and another remote unit incorporated with my Jeep SUV’s laptop already tying together & controlling my ham radio equipment so I can take readings & log them when conditions warrant vigilance(?)…There’s eleven commercial mega-nuclear power plants closer to my location than I’d like here on Chicago’s SW side and it’s one of the few things “I” can do about the issue to possibly help others not only with their inability to grasp the concept that dangerous levels of toxic materials released from industrial accidents doesn’t stay confined to the site of the release event(s)-in fact has/will continue to be found globally in the case of contaminants that can be traced back to Fukushima,including short-lived byproducts of recent criticalities that shouldn’t still be present if TEPCO was being forthright about the true status there??!!

  4. Hello dear writer-friend!

    While asking “where to take protein from” im going to suggest reading the “China-Studies” which compares like a thousand studies about what is most healthy to eat. It clearly points out, a vegan diet to be the best, healthy choice.

    Just wanted to make that clear.

    Thank You!

    Love Peace
    Ingo

    1. I am vegan as well and get most of my protein from beans and legumes. While trying to research safe food in Japan I found that most products containing organic soy, such as tofu, soymilk, and miso, and even those containing non-organic soy, such as the soymilk they use at Tully’s around the country, are made from imported soy beans from Mexico (mostly non-organic) and Canada (organic). Not sure if this helps anyone but was interesting to find out.

  5. “I couldn’t tell them anything because, otherwise they would have to evacuate too and my turtles would be left”

    I know since months ago that Iori is mentally unstable, but reading this sentence confirms it is not because he left Japan, he already needed psychological treatment before leaving Japan. That woman, with friends like Iori, has no need of enemies.

Comments are closed.

About this site

This website updates the latest news about the Fukushima nuclear plant and also archives the past news from 2011. Because it's always updated and added live, articles, categories and the tags are not necessarily fitted in the latest format.
I am the writer of this website. About page remains in 2014. This is because my memory about 311 was clearer than now, 2023, and I think it can have a historical value. Now I'm living in Romania with 3 cats as an independent data scientist.
Actually, nothing has progressed in the plant since 2011. We still don't even know what is going on inside. They must keep cooling the crippled reactors by water, but additionally groundwater keeps flowing into the reactor buildings from the broken parts. This is why highly contaminated water is always produced more than it can circulate. Tepco is planning to officially discharge this water to the Pacific but Tritium is still remaining in it. They dilute this with seawater so that it is legally safe, but scientifically the same amount of radioactive tritium is contained. They say it is safe to discharge, but none of them have drunk it.

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