Borrowing this Earth, our island home

Shortly after 'A2-B-C' was screened in Taiwan in October (INFO), I was extremely honoured to receive the following e-mail from Dr. Jen-Ping Chen, National Taiwan University Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at National Taiwan University (NTU) and the current director of the Global Change Research Center (GCRC) at NTU, in which he asked to screen 'A2-B-C':

As a leading academic organization based in NTU, the GCRC supports cutting-edge environment-related researches and education, and promotes latest green-friendly information to the Taiwan society. One of our regular activities is to play environment-related movies or documentaries in NTU during the academic semester. After each movie or documentary, we also invite experts to lead discussion on the film subject to generate awareness in environmental and ecological issues among students and faculty members.

As you may have known, the nuclear energy issue has raised great concerns not only in Japan but also in other part of the world. Surly Taiwan is no exception.

After explaining that the 'A2-B-C' would also be screening in the GCAA Festival in Taipei in November (INFO), I humbly accepted Dr. Chen's subsequent invitation to visit National Taiwan University, the oldest and most comprehensive university in Taiwan, to speak with the students directly.

The screening took place this evening in Shih-Liang Hall, located in the Center for the Advancement of Science Education (MAP) and was preceded by a delicious buffet of traditional Taiwanese foods and sweet tea.   

The post-screening discussion was led by Dr. Shiuh-Shen Chien, associate professor in the Department of Geography, and while speaking with Dr. Chien prior to the event,  we discovered that we had both been studying in the UK at the same time several years ago.

In addition to questions taken directly from the audience made up of students and the greater campus community, those in attendance could also write down their questions and submit them to an usher.

Did you meet any difficulties from the government while filming this work?  Has there been any response from the Japanese government since this film has been shown?

Um, none of which I have any proof...

At this time, I also asked the GCAA's festival coordinator Mr. Shr-Tzung Tsai, who had accompanied me along with other GCAA members to the university, to explain their position on the threatened cancellation of yesterday's screening of 'A2-B-C' (INFO).

To close the session, Dr. Chien asked the final question:  As someone who has lived, worked and studied in several countries, do you have any advice for the students?

I told the students that in my life I have experienced many problems, and then I asked them, "Of all of the obstacles I have encountered in my life, which do you think has been the biggest one I have had to face?"

The answer?  The biggest obstacle I have ever had to face in my life has been me.  How many years have I spent blaming others for my problems, never accepting any of the blame myself, only to realize later that the cause had been me all along: I had not made enough effort, did not have enough confidence, did not listen to the advice for which I had asked, and the list goes on...

"Don't be your own worst enemy.  Get out of your own way, and you will succeed."

After the Q&A, I was honoured to receive a gift to commemorate my visit to National Taiwan University from Dr. Chen and Dr. Chien, and then we all gathered for a group photo.

These are the best and brightest students in Taiwan, and it is this generation from which we adults are borrowing this Earth, our island home.

Young people of Taiwan, you are the ones who must decide what is the right nuclear policy for your country as you move forward, for it is you and your children who must live with the consequences.

Again?

‘A2-B-C’ is being screened four times over the two sessions of the Green Citizen's Action Alliance (GCAA)-sponsored events being held in Taipei in November and December (INFO), and while today was the second of those, no one was sure it was actually to happen.

On Thursday, two nights before I left for Taiwan while I was in Fukushima screening ‘A2-B-C’ for the first time (INFO), I received an e-mail from festival coordinator, Shr-Tzung Tsai, in which he said that I needed to sign the release forms and e-mail them to him that evening or the Taiwanese government may cancel the screenings of ‘A2-B-C’.  My heart sank; in all of my travels and being away from a printer/ scanner for so much of the last three months, I had completely forgotten to send the signed forms to the festival.

Realizing that I hadn't understood the importance of the documents, I quickly sent them with a profuse apology.  Shr-Tzung wrote back and said not to worry, that it wasn't my fault and that there was something else going on that he would explain when we saw each other in person.  Wondering if the festival was really going to be able to show it or if the authorities were going to prevent the screening of 'A2-B-C', I flew to Taiwan.

This afternoon, before the scheduled screening of ‘A2-B-C’ (INFO), I was invited to give an hour-long seminar about my work in Fukushima, which was attended by more than fifty young people.  I think it is important to mention how young the audience members of the film festival are: over the ten day festival, more than 20,000 people, mostly university students, are expected to attend the event.

In Japan, the faces of the anti-nuke movement are decidedly those who in Japanese are referred to as “aunties” and “uncles”, but here at the GCAA event in Taiwan, I was more often than not the oldest person in the room.

What GCAA lacks in financial resources, they have ten-fold in energetic, engaged young members, something of which I can imagine that many better-funded organizations would be jealous.

After the seminar, I was interviewed by UDN TV (PHOTO and VIDEO below).  During the interview, I caught out of the corner of my eye people beginning to line up in the hall outside of the venue.  When I asked what they were lining up for, I was shocked to hear that it was to see ‘A2-B-C’.

Having people interested enough in my work to actually come out of their home to see it is humbling in and of itself, but to have them line up to do so is something that left me in disbelief, and I wondered what the crowd would do if the authorities did, in fact, show up to stop the screening.

The venue was a wonderful space in which to hold the festival with its large areas for exhibitions and booths, but there was one problem for the organizers to overcome; if just a single screen was set up in the long, narrow room lined with columns, guests in the back would be seated so far away from the screen that they would have trouble reading the Chinese subtitles.  The solution was ingenious:  connect two projectors to a single computer in the middle of room that would project films onto two screens set up at either end of the space at the same time.  Even at a maximum capacity of 160 people, having the crowd split into two groups of 80 provided a comfortable (and legible) viewing experience for everyone.

After complimenting the festival curator for his ingenuity, I asked him how he came up with such a brilliant idea.  He humbly replied, “I don't know, I just wanted to make sure the guests could read the subtitles.” 

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

I must also express my gratitude to the Taiwan Ethnographic Film Festival, which screened ‘A2-B-C’ in October (INFO) and generously worked with GCAA to grant permission for the Chinese-subtitled version of the film that they created to be screened during this festival.

Having had the experience of screening one of my films at a festival where there were fewer audience members in attendance than theatre staff,  I cannot express enough how much of an honour it was to be present for a standing-room only crowd in a space with 180 seats! 

GCAA Secretary General Shu-HsinTsui, explained to the audience that a complaint about their activities had been filed with the government by "a member of the public" and that as a result, an investigation into the festival had been launched, during which it was discovered that they didn't have on file my signed release forms.  She explained that while a law requiring the release forms is technically on the books, it is outdated and not followed by small film festivals nor has it been actively enforced... until now.  Secretary General Tsui stated that she felt the government was selectively enforcing the outdated law in an attempt to silence the anti-nuclear and inconvenient voice of the GCAA.

Unwilling to bow to even the hint of pressure from the government and although it was right in the middle of the festival, the Secretary General suddenly declared all film screenings to be free, thereby altering the event's classification and the paperwork that would be required filing.  In a demonstration of further protest, she said that the GCAA had issued a formal statement to the press on Saturday declaring their disobedience of the law and their refusal to submit the required documents, to great applause from the gathered youth.

For the record, the Taiwanese authorities did not swoop in to stop the screening of 'A2-B-C', and to be completely honest, I was slightly disappointed (insert wry smile *here*).

For the post-screening Q&A, the audience members watching the film from the screen at the back of the space were invited to join us at the front, and they all gathered around for a discussion both about what is happening in Fukushima and what the implications are for Taiwan’s nuclear future.  Both Japan and Taiwan share some geological similarities and both are prone to earthquakes.  But while the nuclear reactors in Fukushima are located 220km from Tokyo, nearly a third of the entire population of Taiwan lives within 80km of its nuclear power plants in Taipei.

A young man asked me a question that came directly from the film itself.  After referencing the scene where I asked a group of young children in Fukushima how this was all going to end, he asked me, “how will this end?”

After a moment to think, I told the story of a man who saw the film in the Ukraine, the home of Chernobyl, when it was screened there a few weeks ago.  The man had come to me after the screening, his eyes in disbelief, shaking his head, and simply whispered, “Again?” 

He could not understand how the world could have allowed another nuclear tragedy like this to happen.  Again. 

“I do not know how all of this is going to end,” I told the audience in Taipei.  “But may the people of Fukushima never have to shake their heads and utter in disbelief the word ‘again?’ ".

Breaking Bread

Arriving in Taiwan this afternoon, I was met by festival staff member and translator Aiya at the airport.  Her smile and excitement for the festival was contagious, and we hit the ground running heading straight for the festival after checking in to the hotel.

The Green Citizen's Action Alliance (GCAA), which sponsors the No Nuke's Film Festival ('A2-B-C' screening info HERE), is currently working to raise awareness about nuclear issues amid a strong debate in Taiwan regarding its current nuclear policy.

The trailer for this year's festival includes several clips from 'A2-B-C':

The festival is being held in a refurbished tobacco factory, which is a listed historical building that was built by the Japanese during the occupation of Taiwan and is now located in a cultural park.

In addition to the film festival, GCAA is sponsoring many nuclear-related events this week, including a market and photo exhibitions from Global Hibakusha and the heart-breaking work of Ota Yasusuke, who documents the animals left behind in the Fukushima no-go zone (pictured below, blog HERE).

After posing outside the festival venue in front of the Golden Horse (from Taipei's more well-known film festival), some of the GCAA staff treated the visiting artists to a delicious traditional "Taiwanese hotpot" dinner.

The more film festivals I have the honour of attending, the more it is solidified for me that they aren't merely about watching films.  If that was all this was about, everyone could just stay home and watch the films on DVDs.  This is about meeting, communicating, debating, interacting, breaking bread together, and trying to make this world a better place to live in one step at a time.

Raising hands, voices

Overwhelming.

On Thursday evening, ‘A2-B-C’ (WEBSITE) was screened for the first time in Fukushima, for an all-invited audience of the participants in the film, along with their extended families, friends, and a handful of journalists.  For the first time ‘A2-B-C’ would be screened in Fukushima, and it was so important to be able to share the film with the families on a big screen in a proper cinema.  This screening was realized through the generosity of film distributor @Entertainment (photo with staff, directly below) and through the support of Tohoku University and of Forum Fukushima Cinema’s managing director, Mr. Abe Yasuhiro (photo, second below).

Following the screening, I had prepared a surprise: a 12-minute collection of the video messages from people around the world who had felt moved to offer words of support to the families affected by this disaster after seeing the film in one of the many festivals in which it has been screened. 

Since returning from Raindance Berlin just two days earlier (INFO), the editing of this special program came down to the wire, and the first time that any of the staff involved in the event saw it was when it was screened in front of the packed cinema.

The reaction was intense and the sounds of crying echoed throughout the theatre as the words of support from people around the world were heard:

“You are not wrong to worry about your children.”

“You are in our hearts.”

“You have not been forgotten.”

It was an immense honour to present to the families these messages with which I had been entrusted, and later they told me how much the messages had meant to them, how knowing that there are people in the world who are thinking of them had given them strength.

The mothers had a surprise for me as well.  Mrs. Shima presented me with a pair of handsome cufflinks from the mothers, and then Mrs. Sugano spoke about what the experience of taking part in the film had meant to her and her family, and how she had put her faith in me and allowed me into their lives at a time when she no longer trusted the media.  I was completely over-whelmed.

In the lobby after the screening, I was able to offer my personal gratitude to each of the people who appeared in the film, and to ask them for their continued trust as I continue the work to which I am called.

The next day, the screenings of ‘A2-B-C’ in Tohoku continued, with two showings sponsored by Tohoku University in Sendai, the epicenter of the 2011 earthquake.  The screenings, arranged by Tohoku University Professor Sakata Kuniko, were attended both by local members of the public and people who had evacuated to Sendai from Fukushima.

Each of the screenings was followed by a “talk session”.  During the first one, I was honoured to join panelist and Baptist Minister Rev. Hanae Igata, who offered her reaction to the film as well contextualized some of the issues raised in it by speaking about her own experiences with volunteer group Tohoku HELP.  Also on the panel led by Professor Sakata was Mr. Shigeki Ota, a representative of the Miyagi network to protect children from radioactivity and the Marumori and Mountain Farm & miso studio SOYA.

While many of the questions raised by the audience during the two sessions were interesting and relevant, I must admit that I have often been surprised by some of the clearly unrelated comments offered by people at screenings in Japan.  It is as if they have prepared ahead of time questions relating to a personal agenda that they are determined to ask after the screening whether they are relevant or not.  Are these people actually watching the film or are they just rehearsing their question over and over in their heads for 71 minutes?

During the de-briefing with the event staff later that night, I mentioned my confusion at the seemingly disproportionately unrelated things people say during the Q&A’s following domestic screenings.

“In Japan”, I was told by one young mother and event volunteer, “normal people are too worried about what others will think of them to ask a question.”  She then explained that anyone in Japan who quickly raises their hand when you ask if there are any questions is, by nature, “different” and that this accounts for why many of their comments can sometimes be so “individual”.

The people who truly engage with what they are experiencing are too afraid to speak up and the ones controlling the conversation have their own agenda.  Perhaps there are some parallels here to the problems that this country’s government is facing post-Fukushima.

May more of the people like the mothers of ‘A2-B-C’, those with the good questions and many of the answers, have the strength and the courage to start raising their hands, their voices.  And may the ones who have been speaking until now have the awareness to listen.  Amen.

Stepping Down

Being able to share the story of the families of Fukushima with film festival audiences all over the world has been an immense honour.  But an even greater honour has been to be invited to speak at universities, colleges and schools and having the opportunity to share what is happening in Fukushima with the younger generation, the leaders of tomorrow.

After arriving in Berlin last night, I went directly from the airport to the Free University of Berlin, where Raindance Berlin had arranged for an educational screening of 'A2-B-C' in the Department of Japanese Studies (event info HERE).

The beautiful thatch-roofed train station near the Free University of Berlin.

It was a wonderful turnout, and in addition to students from the university, there were also members of the public and the Japanese expat community.  During the post-screening discussion, questions ranged from why more people were not able to evacuate to where families went to for information when they didn't believe the official line.  When the discussion turned to what the thyroid cysts and nodules mean and to the recently discovered cases of thyroid cancer in Fukushima, I was extremely honoured to be able to introduce IPPNW board member, pediatrician and friend Dr. Alex Rosen (author of THIS article about Fukushima and many others; IPPNW International WEBSITE).

Dr. Rosen's calm, informed and easy-to-understand explanation about the medical issues that are discussed in the film helped to contextualize the issues the mothers raise, and I believe his contribution made the discussion one of the most valuable 'A2-B-C' post-screening discussions that have been held.

The screening of 'A2-B-C' in the 1st Raindance Berlin is tonight! (INFO)

On Wednesday, the day before I left Tokyo for Berlin, I was invited to give two talks, one at the Tama Art University in Tokyo (WEBSITE) and the other at the American School in Japan (WEBSITE).   

After the screening of 'A2-B-C' for the students at Tama Art University, there was a post-screening discussion, led by film critic and university professor Ken Okubo (PHOTO below), to whom I extremely grateful for much support and encouragement since the jury he served on at the World Premier of 'A2-B-C' awarded the film in June (INFO).

The visit to the American School in Japan, coordinated by ASIJ tutor and Fukushima volunteer Elicia Cousins, began by visiting the class of Ms. Kathleen Krauth, where the students, all seniors, have been learning about disasters in modern Japanese history.  On Saturday of this week, their study will culminate in an experience trip to Tohoku, the area so devastated by the March 11, 2011 disaster.

Some of the students at ASIJ are from abroad, some are Japanese who have returned after having lived abroad, and some have parents from different countries; but all of the students attending ASIJ have some kind of international experience.

While sharing clips of my work and talking about my experiences making films and living abroad, the students asked questions and guided the conversation to areas in which they were interested and were relevant to what they had been studying.  Their questions were fascinating, challenging, and probing.

The students were engaged and engaging, both questioning and in possession of answers, and if there is one single group of young people that represents our hope for the future, they are there in Ms. Krauth’s class.

Later in the afternoon, students and members of the greater ASIJ community gathered in the newly refurbished state-of-the-art theatre for a screening of ‘A2-B-C'.

Several mothers who had evacuated to Tokyo from Fukushima were in the audience, and during the post-screening discussion, they honoured us by sharing their impressions of the film and about their lives post-Fukushima.

A man about my age stood up to speak, and I stepped down from the podium where I had been standing and went to him with the microphone when I couldn’t hear what he had began to say.   “I work inside Fukushima Number One,” he said in English after taking the microphone.  He went on to tell us that his home had been just 3.5 kilometeres away from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.  Although he had evacuated his young family to Tokyo, he returns to the dangerous conditions at the damaged nuclear power plant each week to work in the clean-up effort.  “What else can we do to support our families?” he asked.  “The only men left working inside the plant haven’t finished school.  Anyone with a degree quit long ago.”

I was embarrassed.  We owe our lives to this man and to the others like him, and until moments earlier I had been standing on a stage before him speaking about the relatively little I know about the situation in Fukushima.

For the remainder of the discussion, I remained on the floor, as close to the audience as I could be.

=============================

November 26, 2013 UPDATE:  This article about my visit was published on the ASIJ website HERE.

Resistance

Writing another blog from Narita airport, I try to remember how many trips I have taken abroad in the past two months to share the story of the mothers and children of Fukushima with audiences all over the world.  I am so grateful to all of the film festivals who have given the mothers of Fukushima a platform for their voices to be heard.  This experience has changed my life, and I pray that it will, even if in just the smallest of ways, change the lives of the families who took part in the film and those that share in their struggle by watching it.

The third leg of the World Tour of 'A2-B-C' (WEBSITE) begins today.

It is an immense honour to have 'A2-B-C' invited to participate in the first edition of Berlin Raindance, where it is screening on Friday evening (INFO).  While I am in Berlin, I will be meeting the IPPNW doctors, who have been supporting so many of us with their data and research.  In March of this year, one of my photographs was published in an IPPNW journal HERE).  I am also deeply grateful for the invitation to present a lecture at the Free University of Berlin on Thursday.

This trip to Europe will be a fairly quick one, as I come home to Japan to attend screenings late next week of the film in Fukushima City (the first time 'A2-B-C' will be shown in Fukushima and which all the participants in it will attend) and in the city of Sendai (screening details HERE). 

Then on the weekend, I will be traveling to Taiwan for more screenings and university lectures (INFO).  When I return home to Japan in December, the domestic promotional tour will begin in earnest, with screenings in Kobe, Kyoto and Hiroshima (DETAILS).

Resistance

There has been a major setback, and it looks like the wonderful news that we were planning to share at the Fukushima Premier of the film next week will no longer be announced.  Yet I fear not, and I do not give up.  As one does not train with weight that is too light, I accept this resistance; no, I need this resistance, for it is this resistance that has driven me to push harder and to go further.

In August, I had to make a choice: to reach backwards in vain to to try get back something that had been taken away or to give in and go forward.  By "give in", it is not in the sense of "giving in to another person", no.  It is a "giving in" to a higher power, allowing one's self to be guided to a place one always knew was there but a place that one could not have gone to alone.

There is more resistance ahead, and I welcome it.  It was the resistance-filled summer that freed me in ways that made it possible for me to embark on this nearly three-month world tour.

We all have a choice when things fall apart: to stand there, frozen, asking "Why?  Why?  Why?" or to step over the mess and to give in to a higher power.  And as I write this, I realize something for the first time: the more I embrace the resistance, the more I am becoming it.

Do not give in to the resistance.  Become it.

Can you keep a secret?

The Japanese government’s recent proposal of the “Designated Secrets Bill”, under which journalists could face arrest and prosecution for divulging state secrets, has been cause for much concern among many of my colleagues.

In response to the bill, which is now under consideration by the Japanese Diet, the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan (FCCJ) president Lucy Birmingham wrote a statement of protest:

It is at the very heart of investigative journalism in open societies to uncover secrets and to inform the people about the activities of government. Such journalism is not a crime, but rather a crucial part of the checks and balances that go hand in hand with democracy.

The "Designated Secrets Bill" specifically warns journalists that they must not engage in "inappropriate methods" in conducting investigations of government policy. This appears to be a direct threat aimed at the media profession and is unacceptably open to wide interpretations in individual cases. Such vague language could be, in effect, a license for government officials to prosecute journalists almost as they please.

The full protest statement can be found here: ENGLISH/日本語

Yesterday, I attended a press conference at the FCCJ during which several prominent politicians voiced their opposition to the proposed “Designated Secrets Bill”  (press release HERE).

When Social Democratic Party member Mizuho Fukushima asked lawmakers in the ruling party to explain the definition of “secret”, the reply she received alarmed her.  “What is considered secret,” she was told, “is secret”.

“But information,” Fukushima insisted to the crowd of journalists attending the press conference, “is the currency of democracy.”

Mr Sohei Nihi, of the Japanese Communist Party, expressed his concern that people could be arrested and prosecuted for revealing something they did not realize was considered a state secret.  He suggested that with such vague wording in the bill regarding what is considered a secret, the government could use it to control information it deemed to be unflattering.

When expressing his concern about the bill, Mr. Ryo Shuhama of the People’s Life Party suggested that if the government yields too much discretionary power then there is the danger that human rights may be violated.

However, it was perhaps the youngest and newest politician in attendance, Independent lawmaker Taro Yamamoto, whose words were most anticipated.

Yamamoto wondered why a bill such as this is even necessary when information that the public has a right to know is already being tightly controlled.  As an example, he explained that he recently discovered that the equivalent of nearly 25 million USD, 5 million USD of which had been earmarked for reconstruction efforts after the March 11, 2011, disaster, was used for “exploratory research” into how to promote the sale of Japan’s nuclear technology to Vietnam.  In the public’s interest, Yamamoto requested the relevant papers which he brought to the press conference.  The files were redacted to the point that they were nearly entirely black (PHOTO below).

“Why is the government insisting on expanding its power to crack down?” he asked.  “On the surface, they are saying this is about national security (relating to tensions in Asia), but in reality this is going to lead to the oppression of rights and the freedom of expression.”

Almost seeming to directly address the camera crews from all the major networks that were filming the press conference, Yamamoto expressed his disbelief at the lack of media coverage the proposed bill has received despite his traveling up and down the country from Hokkaido to Okinawa to speak out against it.  “By not providing coverage of this bill,” Yamamoto said, “the media is putting a noose around its own neck.”

“(The passing of this bill) will lead to the ability for the government to crackdown on anything”, Yamamoto predicted.  “We are on a path to recreating a fascist state.”