[Column] Before Fukushima Diary

I don’t know how I came here.
Sometimes I feel like I’m floating in the air. I honestly have no idea how I came here.

Before 311, I was just an ordinary salaryman in Yokohama. Working from 8 to 8, I was happy when I got fried chicken discounted at a supermarket on the way home.
After 311, I decided to leave there but still had no idea how it was going to be. Everything was still unrealistic.

and I find myself living in Romania. It’s Romania because one of my first readers is Romanian. I could have a lot of help from the person, if it was Romania. (and I like Romania now.)

I could recall every single moment since the day I left Japan. I can replay every moment like I’m seeing a movie. A movie -it’s an unrealistic thing.

All the things I have done are just unbelievable to me. There is a huge cliff that I could never jump to go back. but I don’t think I’d go back anyway.

Quitting my job, abandoned everything, got out of the country without even looking back. The only thing I could earn the living with was this PC and something in my skull.
Luckily, I was not untalented in what I’m doing. Somehow I’m still living.

Looking back my life, I was always the writer of Fukushima Diary since I was little. Maybe this is what I am supposed to be.
My graduation essay of elementary school was the very prototype of Fukushima Diary. It was a journal about the hidden abuse of the teachers (when we were 6 years old) and the rotten bureaucracy of the school. I was 13 when I wrote it.
After graduation of my uni, we worked at a major Japanese electric appliances company that everyone knows but it didn’t take me longer than a week to predict the company would fall.
Now, several years later, the company is almost going bankrupt as I thought.
I couldn’t tell my boss that I was going to quit because I thought the company was likely to go bankrupt. I told them my second and third reasons to quit. At that time, the company was in the best time ever. What they told me was, “You better think in the longterm.” Now that sounds funny.
A few days ago, I posted an article about the ground fissure of Mt. Fuji. About a half day later, TV Asahi reported it. They are sponsored by mega corporations, where I’m not.

Because I have no stakeholders. I can report quicker than mass media. Having nothing is my advantage.

Now I don’t need any entertainment. Forestalling the mass media is the biggest fun to me. However sadly, it’s all about bad news. Anyway, the world might need someone like me.

 

 

_____

Français :

[Édito] Avant le Fukushima Diary

 

Je ne sais pas comment j’en suis arrivé là.
J’ai parfois l’impression de flotter dans l’air. Je n’ai vraiment aucune idée de comment j’en suis arrivé là.

Avant le 11-3, j’étais simplement un salarié ordinaire de Yokohama. Travaillant de 8 à 8, j’étais heureux lorsque je trouvais des promotions de poulet frit au supermarché tout en rentrant à la maison.
Après le 11-3, j’ai décidé de partir mais je n’avais toujours aucune idée de ce que ça allait donner. Tout était tellement irréel.

et je me retrouve en train de vivre en Roumanie. C’est la Roumanie parce qu’un de mes premiers lecteurs est roumain. J’aurais pu obtenir beaucoup d’aide de lui, si ça avait été en Roumanie. (et j’aime la Roumaine à présent.)

Je peux me rappeler de chaque moment depuis le jour où j’ai quitté le Japon. Je peux en revoir chaque moment comme si je regardais un film. Un film – c’est une chose irréelle.

Toutes les choses que j’ai pu faire me semblent complètement incroyables. C’est une immense falaise que je ne pourrais jamais grimper si je voulais revenir en arrière mais je ne pense pas revenir en arrière de toute façon.

Démissionner, tout abandonner, quitter le pays sans même regarder en arrière. La seule chose que je peux faire pour gagner de quoi vivre est ce PC et quelque chose dans mon crane.
Par chance, je ne suis pas sans talent dans ce que je fais. D’une certaine façon, je vis toujours.

En regardant mon passé, j’ai toujours été le rédacteur du Fukushima Diary depuis que je suis tout petit. C’est sans doute ce que je suis supposé être.
Ma rédaction à l’examen de l’école élémentaire était le tout premier prototype du Fukushima Diary. C’était un journal sur les abus cachés des enseignants (quand on avait 6 ans) et sur la bureaucratie pourrie de l’école. J’avais 13 ans quand je l’ai écrit.
Après mon diplôme à l’université, j’ai travaillé chez un major des appareils électriques que tout le monde connaît mais il ne m’a pas fallu plus d’une semaine pour prédire que la société allait s’écrouler.
Aujourd’hui, plusieurs années après, la société est pratiquement au dépôt de bilan comme je l’avais vu venir.
Je ne pouvais pas dire à mon patron que c’est pour ça que je démissionnais. Je leur ai donnée mes deuxième et troisième raisons pour le faire. A l’époque, la société était à son apogée. Ce qu’ils m’ont répondu c’est “Vous feriez mieux de penser au long terme.” Aujourd’hui ça fait rire.

Il y a quelques jours, j’ai publié un article sur la fissure au sol du Mt. Fuji. Environ une demie-journée plus tard, Asahi TV l’a rapporté. Ils sont sponsorisés par des méga-corporations alors que je ne le suis pas.
Je peux informer plus vite que la grande presse parce que je ne dépend de personne. Mon avantage est de ne rien avoir.

A présent, je n’ai pas besoin de distractions. Anticiper sur la grande presse est mon plus grand amusement. Toutefois et malheureusement, c’est toujours pour des mauvaises nouvelles. De toute façon le monde pourrait bien avoir besoin de quelqu’un comme moi.

  1. Yes, the world need you. Even if you work with sad news, hopefully you can see happiness in life. Happiness and tragic live side by side

  2. I agree with Ann – YES – you have touched so many of us with your vision, courage, compassion and fierce allegiance to the truth, you have inspired everyone I have been working with since the day I discovered FD – you showed us the way to care about Fukushima: to “break media black out” (was almost 2 years ago that I posted a room for evacuation on your site… arigato merci thank you mitayuke oyasin SAIKADO HANTAI

  3. The world needs courageous people telling sad truths that officials prefer to deny.
    You have discovered that “less is more” = big lesson for life.
    Since the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, I am publishing precious information, advice, recommendations, predictions, but with apparently NO result given lack of comments on http://attentiondanger.over-blog.com, but given the immense security risk for humanity, I will carry on to hopefully be of some help to those who will believe in the publications…
    Go on doing what you seem to be destined for, Iori !

  4. YES! The world needs you. Thank you for your hard work. In my country we have a saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Wrong! This will kill you whether you know about it or not. I’d rather know about it. I’ve been an anti-nuclear activist for around 40 years. It has been intensely frustrating to see our warnings ignored. I haven’t stopped though. Even though we appear to be losing in a big way we must continue the fight. Carry on.

  5. Hi Iori,

    Where in Romania are you? I have been following your reports for long, just because, as you have mentioned many times, the media today, everywhere not only in Japan, but mostly in Japan in this particular case, does not serve the people by informing them on the reality of the matter so that they should be able to make their own decisions about themselves and their safety and lives, but it is just a tool of the government(s) for keeping control over the majority of the people. I was particularly interested in your reports because I used to be a fan of Japanese culture and used to have contact with many Japanese events abroad – particularly in Romania, where I am originally from.
    I hope you continue your coverage about finding out the truth – the real levels of radiation – in the Fukushima story.
    All the best,

    Leo

  6. Indeed, you were prepared for this role! Thank you for sharing about your school experience. I must keep telling you that you are one of my personal heroes! I first heard of you back when your blog was called ‘24,000 years’ and I added a line of yours to my file Inspirational Quotes:

    “Even if you pick all the flowers, you can’t stop spring coming.”

    So profound.

    We are all in this together. Crises of this scale force new human connections like nothing else can. We run to the internet, we find information, we weep together and often we take action together. As the cellphone and the internet take hold in more places, the web of connected people grows exponentionally each day. The old big-business /big-gov’t crony-ism is ending in our lifetimes, because every single threat to planetary life and human peace can be known and called-out in a matter of hours. There won’t be the dark secrets like TEPCO and the Japanese gov’t, the FDA and Monsanto, the banking and oil-industry elites have relied on in the past to have their way. Millions of people will see them for who they are, for the first time in history. That is where we stand. Your role has been immensely important and I hope you are seeing it.

  7. “There is something you are to do which no one else can do”.
    — Florence Shinn, The Game of Life

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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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