Momoko
Fukuoka hopes to continue speaking with disaster-affected individuals as long
as her health permits. She wants to convey their messages to the rest of the
world, so she has been using Twitter to tweet out various thoughts and messages
from disaster-affected people. Here are a few of the messages that she has
shared on Twitter. Her Twitter handle is: もとシスター人生体験 (Note: her
Twitter page is Japanese language only)
March 7th:
As March 11th nears, I am
remined of a disaster-affected person in Fukushima who was unable to help
search for bodies right after the disaster due to radioactive contamination. The
true story I am about to share with you is a difficult one, but I want to share
the experiences of the disaster-affected people with as wide an audience as
possible in order to help others to understand their pain. “My grandchild drove
out together with a friend to Ukedo in Namie, to drop off a relative there.
After dropping off the relative, they went to the friend’s grandparents’ house.
The grandparents were out at the moment, so they went to go look for them. While
they were looking, the tsunami came in, swallowed them up and carried them
away. I wanted to join in the search for bodies of lost family and friends, but
I was unable, due to the fact that I had been exposed to radiation. When I was finally able to join, I found the
bodies of the friend and his grandfather. Their bodies were stuck to a fence
and dried out like mummies. The bodies were intact. They still haven’t found my
grandchild or the grandmother. It’s very sad.”
March 7th:
An 82-year-old man from Okuma town: “While
I was trying to get away, I could hear screams for help coming from people
clinging to trees. I will never forget the sound of their voices, no matter how
long I live. It makes me feel so guilty. I see them in my dreams, and I have a
hard time getting a good night’s sleep. There are still over 100 people from
Okuma, Futaba, Tomioka and the Hamadori coastal region whose bodies were never
found. That’s despite the fact that the police go out and search for bodies
every month on the 11th, which is the day of the month on which all
those people died. At first, a body could be identified as soon as it was
found. But, after 2 or 3 months you couldn’t really identify them. Oh, I just
don’t want think about it!”
March 7th:
There are many people in the
disaster-affected areas of Fukushima who are unable to visit family graves or
even inter remains of loved ones in the family burial site due to nuclear
contamination. This is a source of grief for many. So, since I am acquainted
with the head priest of Yochi-in Buddhist temple in Takanoyama, Wakayama
Prefecture, I asked him if he could conduct Buddhist memorial services every
year on O-bon for disaster-affected people who desire such a service for their
lost family members. (note: O-bon is a Japanese holiday dedicated to the
remembrance of deceased family members). Last year, two families participated,
with 64 different souls prayed for, going back several generations. When I
called the families to check on them, they said that all they had to do was
notify Yochi-in temple of the name, death date, and address of the deceased,
then the costs were paid to the temple either with donated money or out of
pocket. Then, Yochi-in temple prepared o-fuda charms for each soul, writing the
name, posthumous Buddhist name, and date of passing of each individual on the
charm. These charms were then sent to the home of each disaster-affected
family. “This made me feel so much better. It’s really a weight off of my
chest. I’m so thankful, I’m so thankful”, said one family member. Regardless of
religion, I think that funeral rites are an important matter for families, as
well as for the departed. I’m also
keeping those in Takanoyama up to date on the situation of the
disaster-affected people.
March 5th:
“I’m at a funeral right now”, “I went to
yet another funeral today”. I hear the word “funeral” mentioned so often when I
call the disaster-affected people that I sometimes find that I’m asking myself:
Wait, what? Didn’t that person just say they were at a funeral yesterday? “Even
the people at the funeral parlor said that there are more people dying in
Fukushima right now than they’d ever seen before.”, said one person. “My
friends just keep dying one after another. Even though we promised we would be
there for each other to help each other out.” “He died right after they finally
finished the new house.” “I don’t have any friends left anymore. I want to die
too.” Please take a moment to reflect on the sadness of these people. Perhaps
they have reached their physical limit after enduring these 7 long years of
suffering.
March 2nd:
I would like to tell you about a
67-year-old homemaker who recently returned alone to her home in Namie.
Up until now, she
had been living in a leased apartment. She was sometimes given the cold
shoulder because of being from Fukushima, and found herself unable to make
friends. She also had no word of the situation back home and lived a lonely
life while suffering from several illnesses. She is a wonderful person, and
this is what she has to say: “Everything is just so inconvenient out here. It’s
difficult to do anything. Wild boar roam around in my yard. It takes 40 minutes
to drive to the nearest store; there’s no shopping around here. Also, anytime I
go to the hospital it has to be for an overnight stay, as there are no local
hospitals. It’s really cold here too. The flowers and the aloe I got have all
died. Every aspect of day-to-day life is hard to accomplish out here. However,
at least I’m away from all the sarcasm and bullying. I don’t hear any of that
out here. I’m finally able to get a good night’s sleep. For 7 years I was
unable to sleep well, but I’m finally able to sleep again without having to
rely on sleeping pills. It’s like I’m a new person. Even though everything is
inconvenient and difficult, I think I should be able to overcome these
difficulties if I put my mind to it. I need to learn to get by eating what I
have on hand. But I’m so glad that I can sleep at night.” Since she’s only 67,
I think she should be able to hold in there. However, I worry about her as she
gets weaker with age. It gets harder to move around in your 70’s. I think that
the disaster-affected people will return to their homes now that the evacuation
order has been lifted. However, without the proper infrastructure in place to
facilitate the necessities of day-to-day life, isn’t this just sentencing many
elderly people to live out the rest of their lives in loneliness and ill-health,
having to live in areas with no people or access to health care? It just seems
so irresponsible for the government to wash their hands of this affair by
sending these people back to their homes and then calling it good.
March 1st:
A housewife in Okuma:
“There is nothing in Okuma. During the war, planes would take off from there.
After the war, they said that the people of the Kanto region (where Tokyo is
located) wanted an electric company, so 50 years ago they built a nuclear
reactor here despite the protests of the local people of Futaba county. In the
7 years since the explosion at the reactor, those of us forced to evacuate our
homes have had to move constantly from place to place. Some of us have had to
move 7 or 8 times. We’re still unable to settle down and we’re mentally and
physically exhausted. I’ve recently been afflicted by an illness of unknown
cause that has left me exhausted all the time. My friends keep dying one after
another. I too have lost the will to live and found myself thinking “I wish I
could just die!”. People around here have been saying “I just don’t want to go
on living.” For these 7 long years, we’ve had to try to hide the fact we were
from Fukushima in order to avoid cold looks and bitter comments, and we’re
tired of it. TEPCO used our land, then because of that we had to live in
constant fear because of the nuclear explosions. So, why, on top of that,
should people then treat us coldly once they hear that we are from Fukushima?
Why do we have to be separated from family and friends? I’ve been sick and depressed lately. It made
me very happy to get a phone call. It’s been such a long time.”
