Author Topic: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.  (Read 10194 times)

Skorj

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Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« on: July 23, 2011, 04:20:35 AM »
A small element of photography here, but a story to be told anyway. At least for a well-traveled Ricoh GR-1...


Many roads in are still broken from the earthquake, and likely to remain so for a few years.

Two filmwasters spent a few days in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima state) installing some radiation monitoring hardware, and donating some hand-held detection meters. While the national government has issued dosimeters to allow measuring cumulative absorption, spot metering and measuring stuff is outside of their immediate scope. Pity.


Abandoned village on Monday.

Errant radiation is not an issue across the whole state - which is really large - with levels outside a strict limit less than most places on earth. Two or three places in India and Iran have natural radiation many thousand times anything measured elsewhere, including close to the Dai-ichi Plant. While I've not measured India and Iran, I have recently measured Tokyo, international flights, Los Angeles, Chicago & Charlotte, and can verify this.

Sidebar: Measuring radiation is easy and accurate, measuring the risk of a car crash, pandemic 'flu, and similar less so.


Local farming communities have been deserted.

So, while there is a hard exclusion zone for habitation, those still resident close to the limits have a natural concern about on-going radiation limits. Particularly as not everyone has the luxury of moving away. We measured radiation levels in the exclusion zone less than that of an international flight, and levels outside the exclusion zone in excess of habitation limits (but still less that a pilot's ongoing absorption rate for example).


Abandoned bus, now really abandoned.


Stopping for an occasional photograph, we had to be wary of packs of stray dogs.

The biggest tragedy here is not the blind human consumption of energy, it is the broader impact on the daily lives of perhaps 100,000 people. While I've been to many deserted places, including the recent tsunami zone, the depressing nature of seeing kilometers of once well kept, and very beautiful country-side now abandoned is appalling.


Abandoned valley, with Dai-Ichi plant off to the right on the coast over those hills.

Whole villages, farms, valleys, schools, homes, & businesses have simply been left. The roads are patrolled by an imported contingent of police, but otherwise everything is empty. A real end of the world feeling. It is tempting to overstate the nuclear energy is dangerous story, or present our menial drive North as a position of bravado, but the real issue is for those that cannot go about their normal lives.

Not necessarily because of radiation (though that is obviously the immediate cause), but because of mis-management; mis-management of technology, mis-management of response, mis-management of information.


Roads under the control of Fukushima police.


Police patrol regularly.


Normal places, empty of human life.


An ubiquitous vending machine, and now off limits.


Abandoned school.


Local road.

To put this in context, we had no concerns about getting out & about on a rainy day, and walking around either in the exclusion zone, or in numerous hot-spots in the area - the radiation levels all the way up to the Dai-ichi plant fence (and likely well inside too) are nothing to be immediately concerned about.  



Normal photography service to be resumed shortly we hope, but the GR-1 makes a great camera to tuck in the pocket when you just need to still have a camera on you... Skj.


« Last Edit: July 24, 2011, 10:02:14 AM by Skorj »

Nick Moys

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2011, 09:27:44 AM »
Powerful stuff. The image of the abandoned school is particularly poignant, I think. Thanks for sharing. Nick

Jeff Warden

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2011, 03:58:19 PM »
Thanks for the report, Skorj.  The images are sad, but hopefully will improve soon.

All the best,

Jeff

Terry

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2011, 03:58:38 PM »
Nicely done and some wonderful eerie photos.  I'm reminded of the photography Elena Filatova did in the Chernobyl/Pripyat exclusion zone, though I prefer yours as photographs.   The sadness of this is almost overwhelming--as you say, the tragedy was in the mismanagement of the disaster (as it was in Ukraine).  I've been following the reports on NHK and it's abundantly evident--no matter how they try to spin the positive side--that it'll be decades before anything like a recovery comes to these areas.

Blaxton

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2011, 07:23:11 PM »
I do what I can to avoid mass media news but, like most of my countrymen, I am subjected to polarizing, sensational, advertising-driven reporting--Foxed, so to speak--every time I read a newspaper or tune in to a news program.  It possibly isn't much better in other countries, I don't know.  To see a simple account such as this, humbly presented (and with engaging photos), is refreshing and compelling.  I am doubly persuaded by your account of the urgency and sadness in Fukushima Prefecture.  Thanks for taking the trouble to make the trip, the photos, and the description.  Above all thanks for posting it here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/willblax/

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method. -- Herman Melville

gary m

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2011, 07:29:41 PM »
Very interesting for me. Currently I work at a supefund site in NJ as a radiation protection tech.  Good stuff Mark!

Mojave

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2011, 07:46:13 PM »
Great story. Disturbing pictures because the places dont look abandoned. Or like they should be abandoned. Im used to decay with abandonment shots and dont see any of that in most of these shots so I find it all very disturbing.
mojave

astrobeck

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2011, 04:43:01 AM »
Quite a story and the GR-1 is the perfect camera to document it like this.
I keep thinking the images look like something else is about to happen...like the people will come into view just in the edge of the frames or something.
Very unsettling to see these, but thanks for taking the time to make them and share them with us.

Were you approached by anyone, or did you see anyone else out documenting in any other ways?

thanks again.  This is truly great stuff!
becky

Skorj

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Re: Weekend in Fukushima-ken.
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2011, 10:14:27 AM »
--Foxed, so to speak--
As a response management professional, I can attest the time spent countering mis-information (we call it CNN Disease) is near ten times that of active engagement in the actual response. Pathetic when you think about it really.

Currently I work at a supefund site in NJ as a radiation protection tech.
We needed you a few weeks ago then Gary! We're still explaining to people the slight implications of a 20 times increase in background radiation on a logarithmic scale. Not to mention radiation types, and the simple facts of distance.

Disturbing pictures because the places dont look abandoned. Or like they should be abandoned.
This was the most disturbing part. Being able to pull the car up in the middle of a town, in the middle of the day, and not see another living person.

Were you approached by anyone, or did you see anyone else out documenting in any other ways?
Other than our hosts at the local ward office, and the police & local residents patrolling the roads & manning the cordons, we saw very few people. Certainly no one in normal living mode. Even some areas outside the hard exclusion zone (30km) have been abandoned, so there is no reason for anyone to be there. Those we did see gazed suspiciously at a Tokyo-registered car on their roads...

Thanks all for the comments and support. Skorj.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2011, 10:22:31 AM by Skorj »