‘Here and there in Fukushima’

Please click here to view this documentary from the homepage of Moving Image Archive, National Library of Scotland.

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As part of our activities on Fukushima

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In Okuma Town, Fukushima Prefecture, there is the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had several explosions in March 2011 as a result of the loss of electricity due to the tsunami. The Town Council’s former employees are now based at Sakashita Dam in the town, which survived the earthquake, as a base to prepare for a possible reconstruction of Okuma. Will former residents return to Okuma?

In Okuma there is an experimental paddy field to see what kind of agricultural activities would be possible, in cooperation with Fukushima University. The university didn’t have a specialist on nuclear science, let alone nuclear accident, at the time of the nuclear accident. Some Fukushima University scientists, however, measured radiation level in Fukushima Prefecture except the evacuation area, immediately after the accident, which played a role in changing the government evacuation plan. In 2014 the university established Institute of Environmental Activity (IER). IER has attracted researchers from Japan and the rest of the world, notably Ukraine.

Interviewed guests in order of appearance: Kencho Kawatsu, Kensei Sekiguchi, Hisatomo Suzuki, Makoto Matsueda, Hirofumi Tsukada, Miyuki Sasaki, Olena Pareniuk, Kenji Nanba, Mayuko Noda, Yoshitaka Tkagai, Fumiko Goto, Jennell Parson, Yusuke Suenaga, Hiroki Saito, Masahiro Endo and Satoshi Tachibana.

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Camera: Fumi Nakabachi
Editorial Adviser: Hajime Kobayashi
Music: the participants at Taiko Fun Workshops run by Japanese Matsuri for Glasgow (Brenda, Bryan, Caroline, Claire, Fumi, Katie, Kyoka, Laura, Mariko and Sabrina)
Directed and edited by: Yushin Toda
Produced by Fumi Nakabachi and Yushin Toda, Japan Desk Scotland
48 minutes
mostly in Japanese with English subtitles, and partly in English
©2015 Japan Desk Scotland

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This is the tenth documentary made as part of our Documentary Film Production, and the third documentary on Fukushima.

The documentary has been screened:

(1) on Wednesday 11 March 2015 at Wellington Church, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of a special Japan Matters event to mark the fourth anniversary of the East Japan Earthquake. This was co-organised by Japanese Matsuri for Glasgow and Japan Desk Scotland, with support from Wellington Church;

(2) on Friday 24 April 2015 at University of Strathclyde Chaplaincy Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of Japan@Strathclyde 2014/15;

(3) on Sunday 26 April 2015 at the Michi Biraki Festival run by Department of Japanese Language and Literature, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania;

(4) on Thursday 11 June 2015 at the Interfaith Room, University of Glasgow Chaplaincy, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of ‘Here and there (seven documentaries)’;

(5) on Tuesday 7 July 2015 at the Tuesday Seminar, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan;

(6) on Wednesday 17 February 2015 at University of Strathclyde Chaplaincy Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of Japan@Strathclyde 2015/16;

(7) on Sunday 11 August 2019 at Fukushima University Institute of Environmental Radioactivity as part of its Open Day; and

(8) on Tuesday 26 November 2019 at the International Study meeting held in the Interfaith Room, University of Glasgow Chaplaincy, Glasgow, Scotland.