Coping in the Shadow of a Nuclear Disaster
By Derek Yamashita
A UCSB Global Studies student’s experiences in a children’s home in the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis.
One of the most memorable parts of my yearlong study abroad in Japan was my volunteer work with the children of Fukushima Aiikuen, a children’s home affected by the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.
On March 11, 2011, a massive 9.0 earthquake occurred off of the northern coast of Japan, the result of which unleashed a tsunami that wreaked havoc on the coastal cities in the region. This included the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant that was battered with a barrage of waves over 30 feet tall. These waves shattered its concrete walls and disabled the plant’s cooling system causing a nuclear meltdown that rained radioactive contaminates over Fukushima Prefecture.
In response to this, the Japanese government established a 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the plant. Fukushima Aiikuen, the largest and oldest children’s home in Fukushima does not lie within this zone but was afflicted with hazardous levels of radiation due to its location on a hill that faces the ruined nuclear plant.
Doug Erber, president of the Japan America Society of Southern California (JASSC) described the tense situation in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Erber said that “Kids under 5 couldn’t even go outside and the older children were only allowed to be outside for the time it took to go to and from school.” Even after extensive decontamination efforts, many of the playgrounds on the home were still inaccessible and time spent outside was heavily restricted, he noted.
In response to this sudden restriction of outside activity, JASSC directed funds to provide these children with musical instruments, tumbling mats, tea ceremony sets, and various other supplies to keep them active indoors. Erber also noted that Fukushima Aiikuen immediately began to record the radiation readings for every meal, time spent outdoors, and contamination levels around the home. These records will be crucial if these children ever need to seek recompensation from the Tokyo Electric Power Company which owns the ruined nuclear plant.
Michael Clemmons, Director of Partnerships at Tokyo Living Dreams, a non-profit created to support Japanese children’s homes reiterated that the dangers these children face comes not only from the nuclear disaster, but also from the disadvantages they face living in a children’s home. Clemmons stated, “Although the children are well looked after on an individual basis, the fine skills training to allow them to be competitive in a work environment starting with an interview is a challenge.”
Clemmons added that a result of these shortcomings is that children who move on from Fukushima Aiikuen often face trouble finding employment and integrating into Japanese society. This issue further complicates the uncertain future that these children face.
Blood Runs Deep
Despite these threats and challenges, the children of Fukushima Aiikuen cannot be adopted into a family or moved to another children’s home free from radioactive contamination due to complex custody issues.
Japan is a very traditional society and family bloodlines are valued highly as a cornerstone of Japanese society. These relationships are recorded in the “koseki” or family registration that certifies the identity and family relationships of individuals and serve as the basis for many law related matters. As a result, orphaned children are traditionally adopted by their relatives and it is uncommon for children to end up in children homes.
Even though Japan has a population of over 127 million, fewer than 30,000 children live in children’s homes like Fukushima Aiikuen. Many Japanese people are not even aware that children’s homes exist in Japan, Erber explained.
The children at homes like Fukushima Aiikuen are the exception and have been extracted from their families by the government for reasons ranging from domestic violence, to severe neglect. However, these children still remain on their parent’s family registry and cannot be moved to another home or adopted away without the explicit will of their parents.
My First Encounter with Fukushima Aiikuen
My first experience with Fukushima Aiikuen started the night I saw the black tsunami waves engulf entire cities on live television on March 11 2011. I started a T-shirt fundraiser and raised over $11,000 in donations that I directed towards JASSC’s 2011 Japan Relief Fund. These funds were given to Fukushima Aiikuen to help with the various projects JASSC and Tokyo Living Dreams had for the home.
I was later offered an internship under JASSC and helped to administer an exchange program that brought eight children from Fukushima Aiikuen to California for a two-week stay. Erber stated that this program is a way for some of the children of Fukushima Aiikuen to live away from the worries of radiation and to have the opportunity to see the larger world outside of Fukushima, an international experience typically unimaginable for foster children in Japan.
Erber added, “For many of these children, this was the first time in their lives where they were able to have a family experience free from being sexually abused, physically abused, or neglected.” He told me how on the first night, two of the girls sat down for dinner and began to break down in tears… it was later learned they had never experienced a “family dinner.” The children my family and I hosted also moved us by the gratitude they expressed for being able to be a part of our family for those two weeks.
During my yearlong study abroad in Tokyo I continued my involvement with Fukushima Aiikuen by traveling to the home with JASSC and reuniting with the children. We were given a tour of the entire home and met many of the other children living there. Additionally, we also experienced first hand many of the restrictions and dangers the children live under.
Each batch of food is tested and around the home there are stationary gigameters measuring the level of radiation in the area. The average exposure to radiation in these areas was a constant exposure of 0.2 microsieverts an hour, an average dental X-ray exposes one to a fraction of that radiation for the split second that it is turned on. The exposure in Fukushima however is constant.
Another danger lies in the physical properties of the radioactive contamination that can be washed off surfaces by rain and concentrate to dangerous levels. A few months prior to our visit, a pile of leaves in a rain ditch was found to have a reading of 33.0 microsieverts an hour, a highly hazardous level. There was even a puddle that peaked at 200 microsieverts an hour, which can be lethal. It was incomprehensible to me that a pile of leaves and a small puddle of water could threaten the life of a human being.
The Lives of These Children Could Not be Conveyed Through Words Alone
During this trip I saw a need for the heavily restricted lifestyle of these children to be documented in detail through photography. I felt the lives these children lived could simply not be conveyed through words alone.
I applied for and was awarded a grant from the UCSB Jeanie-Anderson Fund to carry out this project and returned to the home for an immersive four-day stay living right alongside the children of Fukushima Aiikuen. Here I was able to document both the struggles of the home, as well as how the children and staff were tackling these challenges.
As with my first visit to Fukushima Aiikuen, I was surprised by just how developed and comfortable the home was. This facility was spacious and modern with multiple homes and facilities for the children and staff.
Unlike traditional children’s homes, Fukushima Aiikuen has implemented a new family model of organization for its children that does not segregate them by age or gender. Instead, eight to ten children are split into individual homes each with their own dorm fathers and mothers and at least one present at the home at any given time.
Meals are not eaten in a central cafeteria, but are taken back to the individual homes where the family units sit at a table together to eat as a family. The house parents direct their children just as I would have expected from my own parents and I also observed that the children also behaved very much like siblings.
I had studied Japanese for three years at that point and was relieved to find that I could hold simple conversation with the children at the home. I spent much of my time at the home following the children around, helping them with their homework, and teaching them how to use my camera equipment. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the children at the home got along very well and had very good relationships with the staff.
I was especially shocked when I sat down with one of the families for dinner on my first night. Being without a family experience for seven months since the start of my year abroad, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia when I sat down next to the children and home parents enjoying a meal and conversation with them. I truly felt that I was in the company of a family and it was the first time I felt such a sensation since I sat down with my own family the night before I left them.
The staff at the home explained that they believe a family setting is necessary for the growth and support of children. Fukushima Aiikuen is at the forefront of this revolutionary new model that has shown remarkable benefits such as how the children of the home support each other in their daily lives and have individual parents to turn to for help.
I also saw great progress at the home in terms of decontamination. With the help of non-profits like JASSC and Tokyo Living Dreams, playgrounds such as those for the toddlers were completely restored and were in use during my time at the home. While following some of the kids around the home, I also learned that many smaller play areas were also decontaminated.
The staff however explained that there exists a lasting problem of radioactive hotspots on the home. The told me about the continued need to restrict outside playtime for the younger children and how they must regularly patrol the facility for high levels of contamination. This is a lasting threat that Fukushima Aiikuen continues to remain highly vigilant of.
These children live a life drastically more difficult from my own upbringing and live under a threat that I couldn’t even fully comprehend. The plight of their condition forced me to reflect deeply on how I live my own life and how I should interpret conflicts that I read and study about as a Global Studies major.
I am deeply grateful to the staff and children of Fukushima Aiikuen for allowing me into their home and for sharing their lives with me on such a personal level.
My work with Fukushima Aiikuen will not end here. The children and staff of this home have inspired me to continue my volunteer work for the recovering communities of Northern Japan and to continue my work with their home. This summer I plan to again host children from Fukushima Aiikuen during their exchange trip to Los Angeles and to help administer the program. I also hope to continue to write articles for Fukushima Aiikuen to share their story with the wider audience they deserve.
Update 11/2/2017: I am now living in Northern Japan and continuing to do volunteer work in the region. My focus has since shifted toward promoting this regions tourism industry and I remain in touch with Fukushima Aiikuen.
