2020-1-31
The following is from Yoshiko Sakurai’s regular column, published in the issue of Shukan Shincho released yesterday under the title “Let Us All Watch the Film Fukushima 50.”
This essay, too, proves that she is a national treasure as defined by Saicho.
Over the weekend, the world premiere of Fukushima 50, a film depicting the nuclear accident in Fukushima, was held at the Tokyo International Forum in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
It depicts how those on the ground fought to protect Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Ichi-F), which was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake described as a once-in-a-thousand-years event and the massive tsunami that followed.
It is a record of the battle in which elite employees from TEPCO headquarters and locally hired staff united in spirit and risked their lives to fulfill their mission of protecting the nuclear power station and to safeguard their hometowns and Japan.
The spacious venue was crowded with members of the media, and every seat was filled, with applications exceeding the available places two hundredfold.
Before the screening, violinist Ryu Goto and other musicians performed the theme music, accompanied by a full orchestra.
I sensed the depth of the commitment of Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, the driving force behind the film’s production, who had invited the internationally renowned Goto.
Ryusho Kadota, the author of the original book, quietly murmured, “This has become something extraordinary…”
In The Man Who Faced the Abyss of Death: Masao Yoshida and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Kadokawa Bunko), Kadota faithfully reconstructed the thoughts and actions of the men and women of Ichi-F and their families.
An enormous nuclear power station was on the verge of breaking free of human control and running wild.
To stop it from doing so, those on the ground came together as one.
At the ultimate moment, both Masao Yoshida, the superintendent of Ichi-F, and Toshio Izaki, the head of the main control room, pictured the faces of those who would die alongside them.
They proudly chose to sacrifice themselves for others and acted accordingly.
That is precisely why the world paid tribute to the fifty people who remained on site to the very end, calling them the “Fukushima Fifty.”
It was this spirit of the Japanese people that Kadota portrayed.
When the film began after Goto’s performance and greetings from the actors, including the leading actors Koichi Sato and Ken Watanabe, I experienced an unexpected physical reaction.
It happened when the earthquake scene suddenly appeared at the very beginning.
My body physically moved.
My chest felt tight.
Without realizing it, I had clenched my fists tightly.
I certainly felt tremendous shaking in Tokyo at the time, but it must have been nothing like the shock experienced by people in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and places close to the epicenter.
And yet, here was this physical reaction.
How, then, would people from the affected areas receive this film?
“Sincere and Admirable Japanese People”
Yumiko Nishimoto, of Hirono Town in Fukushima Prefecture, with whom I have remained in contact ever since March 11, spoke to me.
She was forced to evacuate with nothing but herself, but afterward she was among the first to return home and work to rebuild her hometown.
“This year marks the beginning of the tenth year since the disaster, but even now, when the afternoon of March 11 comes around, I find myself back on March 11, 2011.
A hundred-inch television toppled over, and small plates flew through the air.
When I rushed outside, roof tiles from the neighboring house came flying toward me.
Sand was whipped up by the strong wind, and a gray storm raged.
All I could do was lie flat on the ground.
Those scenes come back to me.
That is why, ever since then, I have stayed at home on March 11 without going anywhere.
I am still too frightened to see this film.”
Even so, Nishimoto hopes that the film will show the facts faithfully.
“What each of us knows and has experienced is limited.
I hope it will be a work that brings together those experiences, testimonies, and thoughts, and leaves a record of what we did, including both the good and the bad.”
Viewed from this perspective, the “culpability” of the Democratic Party of Japan administration of the time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, and others stands out all over again.
Kadota, meanwhile, says:
“The film was made apart from positions for or against nuclear power and apart from political standpoints.
What I truly want people to know is just how sincere and admirable the Japanese people on the ground were.
What motivated them was their love for their families and hometowns, together with their sense of mission and pride in their work.
How bravely those locally hired, so-called nameless people fulfilled their responsibilities alongside the superintendent from TEPCO headquarters.
No one has the right to discuss this accident without knowing that.”
The world hailed the Fukushima Fifty, who fought bravely, as heroes.
The Asahi Shimbun, however, accused them of having “fled in violation of orders.”
As is well known, that accusation was entirely false.
But Prime Minister Kan was worse.
In the film, Shiro Sano played the prime minister, a foolish man who, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, showed no consideration whatsoever for the circumstances on the ground and, overestimating his own abilities, imposed one unreasonable demand after another.
How crucial the timing of his visit to the site was to bringing the nuclear power station under control.
The events before and after his visit are depicted with the precise hours and minutes recorded, and this will remain forever both as a record and as a memory in people’s hearts.
The Tenth Year Since the Great Earthquake Disaster
In creating the work, Kadota and the others took care not to make support for or opposition to nuclear power, or criticism of politics, its focus, but the facts eloquently speak of the culpability of those involved, including Kan and Edano.
Nishimoto emphasized:
“What I feel keenly as a Fukushima resident is just how much the policies of Kan, Edano, and the others have left our lives in limbo, even now.
Those in the Democratic Party of Japan administration were people who understood neither nuclear power stations, nor how to respond to the accident, nor the subsequent reconstruction measures.
If that was the case, they had to learn.
And yet they did not even learn.”
Nishimoto’s harsh criticism is also directed at the Liberal Democratic Party.
This is because, despite being in a position where it should clearly explain and set out what it wants Japan’s nuclear power policy to be from now on, as part of dealing with the aftermath of the Democratic Party of Japan administration, it has not done so.
Preview screenings of Fukushima 50 began in Fukushima.
Many local people saw it.
The Fukushima Minyu reporter who appears in the film is now a prefectural assembly member.
Nishimoto spoke with the former reporter who had become a prefectural assembly member, his family, and friends who had attended the preview screenings.
“They all said that, as far as they knew, the facts were accurate.”
This year, as the tenth year since the great earthquake disaster begins, Nishimoto hopes to become a little stronger.
Until now, she has shut herself away at home on March 11, but she says that, starting this year, she wants to be able to spend that afternoon as she would any other.
And she has finally felt ready to go and see the film.
I cried as I watched it.
The man to my left and the man to my right were crying, too.
It was because we had been allowed to encounter the spirit of admirable Japanese people.
The Fukushima Fifty did not flee, as the Asahi claimed.
Nor did they try to flee, as Kan accused them of doing.
They were people who fought admirably.
This film exists so that the world may understand that.
Kadokawa said happily:
“Screenings have been confirmed in seventy-three countries around the world.”
I want many people around the world to see it.
Before that, it was a film I wanted many Japanese people to see.
One more thing: it would also be worthwhile to read the original book, The Man Who Faced the Abyss of Death.