Warns that Fukushima nuclear disaster is far from over

By Linda Pentz Gunter (with special thanks to Kurumi Sugita)

Yoko Shimozawa is a young Japanese mother who evacuated from Tokyo three years after the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, due to concerns for her young daughter’s health.

Despite a massive campaign of information suppression in Japan, Ms. Shimozawa decided to take to the streets to sound the warning against efforts to downplay and effectively “normalize” radiation exposure in Japan. The text below is an excerpt in English of what she had to say. The video of her speech is viewable on Facebook — she begins speaking in English 38 seconds in.

“I am standing here to tell you that the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is not over.

I evacuated to Kansai, three years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

Where do you think I evacuated from?

I evacuated from Tokyo. Do you know that Tokyo has serious radioactive contamination？

Tens of millions of people in East Japan live with radioactive contamination now.

I have a daughter who was 5 years old at the time of the accident.

She became very sick one year after the accident.

In fact, my daughter became so sick that she could not live a normal life at all.

However, when she stayed in a place where there was no radioactive contamination, my daughter became so well. But when we returned to Tokyo, my daughter became sick again.

We did not have the option to stay in Tokyo, we just fled from Tokyo and came here.

Living in East Japan means living with many radioactive materials, and it is not a place where people can live healthily.

We are calling for evacuation to West Japan. We are evacuees from eastern Japan.

Our existence will not be broadcasted on radio waves or published in newspapers. So, I am telling you about it now.

After the accident, we were told that radiation was not a problem, health damages would not occur. But it was not true.

Many of us have evacuated from East to West due to various health problems. Many people are getting sick today in East Japan. People are dying without noticing that it is due to radiation.

Many Japanese can not face this nuclear catastrophe. Please try to know what is going on in Japan now. We are telling the world that the nuclear disaster is far from being over.”