Publicity:

The nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima earlier this year shocked the world, but they shocked the Japanese people even more. For years they’ve been earnestly reassured by their governments and the energy companies that atomic power was safe, clean and cheap.

Industry drove a well-oiled marketing machine, backed by buckets of government cash. A largely compliant, unquestioning media toed the line. For heavily industrialised, gadget and appliance obsessed, energy-hungry Japan, nuclear was the future.

Opponents were savaged and consigned to the fringe.

Then the earth shook, tsunamis hurtled onto the coast sweeping away communities, seriously damaging a huge seaside power plant thought indestructible and - suddenly - Japan was in the grip of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

With the radiation clouds and plumes came a dramatic shift in opinion as confidence in the nuclear industry crashed.

She’d never want it this way but it was nevertheless vindication for people like Atsuko Ogasawara. Many in her fishing community had decided to take compensation payments and buyouts from a power company busily establishing a nuclear plant on the town’s outskirts. The Ogasawaras weren’t among them.

First Atsuko’s mother refused to take the company’s ever escalating offers of cash for her small wooden home. Then when she died, Atsuko continued the resistance. Hers is the last home standing - all but enveloped by the power plant - but she’s not giving in. And her stand is inspiring others across Japan mobilising against the construction of nuclear power plants.

North Asia Correspondent Mark Willacy - who’s spent much of this year reporting on the quake, tsunami and the consequential Fukushima incident, travels to meet Atsuko Ogasawara and on to other anti-nuclear stand-offs across Japan where the resistance has been inspired by her tenacity and emboldened by the deepening national concern about industry and government guarantees about safety.

Along the way Willacy finds himself suiting-up and heading into what many believe to be the world’s most dangerous nuclear plant – Hamaoka – which sits on several major active fault lines. The area is due for what some expect to be a magnitude 8 earthquake. “If ever there was going to be another Fukushima disaster” Willacy notes, “ it’s likely it would happen here”.

Oma marine festival

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00:00

WILLACY: In a country infatuated with fish, this is one of Japan’s most famous tuna towns.

00:17

Tuna at market

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00:24

WILLACY: These colossal bullet-shaped creatures once made the little village of Oma rich – single specimens selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

00:29

Onlookers with J-Power fans

But look around in the crowd at today’s marine festival and waving back at you is Oma’s future and it’s not tuna… it’s nuclear.

00:44

Sea lapping at coast

Together with the Japanese Government, the J-Power electric company has dug deep to persuade this windswept community to let it build a nuclear reactor on the outskirts of town. 

00:56

Nuclear reactor building site

When it’s finished, it’ll be the 55^th reactor in Japan, which has few fossil fuels and depends on nuclear for a quarter of its energy.

01:08

Local fishermen got a hundred and thirty thousand dollars each for agreeing to have it here. 

01:19

Atsuko looking towards reactor

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “A person’s life is not about money.

01:28

Atsuko

I will not sell.  I have no intention to sell.  It’s not about money”.

01:32

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01:40

Atsuko walks with Willacy to cottage

WILLACY:  Atsuko Ogasawara is one of the few who hasn’t given in.  Oma’s new reactor is just 250 m from her cottage. 

01:18

ATSUKO OGASAWARA: “When the fences and barbed wire went up I felt really overwhelmed.  It’s like being in a cage.  It’s oppressive.  I felt depressed and felt I wasn’t being treated like a human being”.

02:02

Nuclear reactor building site

WILLACY:  Like her mother before her, she’s stubbornly refused to make way for it, so the nuclear company J-Power is simply building the plant around her.

02:23

Entrance to Atsuko’s property

This is the only way into her property, a narrow track fenced in by J-Power.  Everyone who visits is watched by a company security guard.

02:34

Atsuko walks with Willacy to cottage

This is the single-room wooden shack on the property she inherited.  Of the 176 landholders around here, her mother was the only one who refused to take the nuclear company’s mountains of money.

02:49

Atsuko

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “My mother said it was two and a half million dollars but my mother didn’t care about the money.  So she told the company she wouldn’t sell whether it was two and a half or twelve million dollars”.

03:05

Atsuko and Willacy enter cottage

WILLACY:  She says with its incredible offer spurned, the company turned nasty.

03:19

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “They stalked my mother all the time. 

03:25

She drove a car and they always followed – or they walked behind her wherever she went.  They also sent gangsters to try to persuade her to sell. 

03:28

Then there were threatening letters and the town mayor and officials came every day to pressure her. 

03:39

Atsuko

It caused her physical problems and she was mentally stressed as well”.

03:50

Atsuko and Willacy look at photos of caught fish

WILLACY:  People in Oma used to look to the sea for survival. 

04:06

ATSUKO OGASAWARA: “That was about 200 kilos”.  This one was about 160… or 130 kilos”.

04:11

WILLACY:  Now the town depends on payouts from the nuclear industry. 

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “If it’s a fishing town it should prosper from fishing but they take subsidies, because people are weak. 

04:20

Atsuko

Taking easy money without working for it is like taking drugs”. 

04:32

Fence around nuclear reactor

WILLACY:  The operator of the Oma nuclear plant, J-Power, refused to speak or to respond to the allegations of harassment made by Atsuko Ogasawara. 

04:39

Marine festival boat race

04:50

It may be shy with the media, but in this town J-Power is an omnipresent force.  Everywhere you look at Oma’s annual marine festival, there are people sporting J-Power shirts and fans. 

04:54

J-Power stall at festival

There’s even a J-Power stall where kids can have fun generating their own electricity.

05:10

Oma harbour’s edge

It’s a tuna town with hardly any fish, supplies have been destroyed by foreign trawlers.  With many young people leaving for the city, local businessmen like Nariatsu Miyano see nuclear power as the town’s saviour.

05:17

Nariatsu

NARIATSU MIYANO:  “It’s been said we’ve received nearly 200 million dollars so far.  We can use that to pay for our labour costs for fire fighters and kindergarten teachers”.

05:34

Atsuko looking towards reactor

WILLACY:  For Atsuko Ogasawara, it’s an intensely personal issue.  She’s honouring a deathbed promise to her mother.  But for the nation as a whole, there’s also a powerful emotional connection to the nuclear debate. 

05:50

Floating lanterns at Hiroshima memorial

Music

06:08

WILLACY:  More than just about anyone on the planet, the Japanese know the destructive power of the atom.  Every year they come here, to the site of the world’s first atomic attack at Hiroshima, to remember the victims.  Each lantern represents a lost soul. 

06:11

Aerial. Fukushima

But now, there are new souls to pray for.

06:35

Fukushima

The meltdowns at Fukushima earlier this year are the world’s worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl a quarter a century ago.  They’re believed to have led to as much radioactive caesium oozing into the ocean, earth and atmosphere as nearly 200 Hiroshima bombs. 

06:40

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “There’s been a lot of cover-up regarding this contamination.

07:02

Hitomi

In order to avoid paying compensation they hide information – about the contamination of farm produce and food, for example”.

07:06

Cordoned reactor

WILLACY:  After decades of accepting the message that nuclear is safe, many Japanese are now not so sure and they’re questioning the way power companies operate.

07:16

Hitomi

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “I think the Japanese people need to reflect on how their areas can be bought and sold out by money.

07:29

Hitomi boards train

Nuclear power companies scatter their money around skilfully.  They do what they want and have great tactics”.

07:42

Hitomi on train

WILLACY:  Filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka is heading towards the heart of the latest disaster at Fukushima.  Once dismissed as an alarmist fringe dweller, her anti-nuclear films have now become essential viewing.  Her most recent work, produced just a year before the meltdowns, investigated how nuclear companies buy off and divide Japanese communities.

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “I feel very angry

07:53

as if my head is on fire, or as if it will blow off! 

08:22

Train pulls into station

Unless we provide accurate information to people who have no knowledge of radiation or radiation exposure, and support them to make their own decisions, nothing will change”.

08:31

Hitomi at Fukushima station

WILLACY:  Before Fukushima, Hitomi Kamanaka struggled to be heard,

08:47

Hitomi signs books

but tonight, just 60 kilometres from the smouldering plant, she’s treated like a hero.

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “The safety myth about nuclear power plants has been sunk deeply into people’s hearts – but because of the accident, that lie has been exposed.

08:52

Hitomi

And many people felt they had to watch my films because they wanted to know more”.

09:14

Projector/ Hitomi’s film

WILLACY:  For more than 20 years Hitomi Kamanaka has ranged far and wide making anti-nuclear films, investigating what happens to spent nuclear fuel and even travelling to Iraq after the first Gulf War to explore the impact of depleted uranium munitions on children there.

09:24

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “Children died in front of me and I couldn’t accept the fact that I was supporting a society that let children die from radiation exposure.  Where does the depleted uranium ammunition come from?  It was the rubbish of the nuclear power plant.

09:45

Hitomi

I realised I was connected to the killing of children in a faraway place”.

10:07

Hiroshima

WILLACY:  It made her question why Japanese were so accepting of nuclear power, especially given the atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She says past governments teamed up with power companies and a compliant media to push the nuclear option through.

10:15

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “Those messages were conveyed by popular talents or famous actors who were loved by the people – so the propaganda was very powerful and effective. 

10:32

Hitomi

There were stigmas attached to people who opposed nuclear power and people were scared so they kept quiet, like this… against people who opposed and stereotyped them”.

10:55

Hamaoka reactor

WILLACY:  And now she’s warning of another potential nuclear disaster that could even affect Tokyo.

11:14

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “If you ask me what is the most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world I’d have to say Hamaoka”. 

11:20

Hamaoka power plant

WILLACY:  “The nearly 40 year old Hamaoka nuclear plant, 200 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, sits on several major active fault lines, one of which is thought to be the focal area of an anticipated magnitude 8 plus earthquake. If ever there was going to be another Fukushima disaster, it would likely happen here”.

11:27

Kanji with Willacy inside power station

WILLACY: Kanji Nishida is the public face of the Hamaoka nuclear plant.  After the Fukushima disaster Hamaoka was ordered to be shut down, with fears it was not prepared for the big one, known here as the Great Tokai Quake.

11:50

KANJI NISHIDA:  ““Our nuclear power station has an 87% likelihood of being hit by the Tokai earthquake in the near future – and the Prime Minister has asked us to stop operations until counter measures are completed. 

12:09

Kanji

But as I told you before, we believe even now the plant is safe”.

12:24

Inside Hamaoka power plant

Hamaoka’s three functioning reactors are now in a state of cold shutdown, costing the company millions in lost revenue every day. 

12:28

KANJI NISHIDA:  “This is a spent fuel pool.  As you can see, there are white shining materials – one, two, three, four – and in seven lines.  They are new fuel rods”. 

12:40

Music

12:54

Ocean

WILLACY:  The operator of Hamaoka, the Chubu Electric Power Company, is planning to build an 18 metre high wall to keep out the worst-case tsunami.  The last earthquake here, 160 years ago, caused a large tsunami which hit along the coast right where the plant now stands.  With Hamaoka so close to greater Tokyo’s 35 million people, that sounds frightening.  However the company says it’s planned for the worst possible scenario.

13:01

Exterior. Hamaoka plant

KANJI NISHIDA:  “Luckily this region is only hit by a huge quake every 100 to 150 years. 

13:38

Kanji

So by studying those earthquakes we are preparing for bigger tremors and tsunamis than in past earthquakes that hit this area – and our preparations are sufficient”.

13:45

Willacy on tour of plant

WILLACY:  Just as we were given the all clear after our tour, the company is equally confident the Hamaoka reactors will eventually get the all clear to fire up again. 

14:01

Hitomi

HITOMI KAMANAKA:  “Japan’s whole society is being divided into two.  One believes the nuclear propaganda – the other doesn’t want to be deceived any more”. 

14:12

Fishing boat on water off Iwaishima

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14:24

WILLACY:  And nowhere is that divide more obvious than 1000 kilometres west of Hamaoka where two communities are pitted against each other over the issue.  It’s known as Japan’s Galapagos, a paradise brimming with bird and marine species, and for 30 years the people on the island of Iwaishima in Japan’s Inland Sea have been fighting to stop the construction of a nuclear power plant just across the water on the mainland. 

14:27

MASAAKI OKAMOTO:  “They will reclaim the sea.  Then they’re going to build on top of it.  That is a strange technique.

15:04

Masaaki on boat

I can foresee the reclaimed land sinking when an earthquake hits”.

15:12

Iwaishima harbour/ Masaaki on boat

WILLACY:  While other communities on the nearby peninsula have accepted the Chugoku Power Company’s money in return for allowing the plant to go ahead, Iwaishima islanders like fisherman Masaaki Okamoto have stood firm. They worry the proposed plant will poison the Inland Sea, along with it, a way of life that’s changed little in centuries.

15:20

MASAAKI OKAMOTO:  “The sea water temperature will also rise because the plant will discharge warm water.  They say it will be two to three degrees higher.  But if the sea temperature is raised just one degree the shrimp will be annihilated”. 

15:44

Sadao. Super:
Sadao Yamoto
Protest leader

SADAO YAMOTO: “The company had no choice but to admit that the sea water will be affected by the nuclear power plant.  So they tried to pay 22 million dollars to our island as compensation for fishing.  But if we accepted the money we would forfeit our right to protest.  So we refused the money”. 

16:00

Chugoku Power Company building site

WILLACY:  The Chugoku Power Company declined our requests for an interview, refusing to answer questions about safety fears or answer what amount to allegations of bribery.

16:37

Protest

We joined the islanders as they set off to the mainland to protest against the nuclear plant.  While construction at the site has been suspended, they want the government to scrap the project altogether.

15:54

Sadao to protest crowd

SADAO YAMOTO: “We have to protect our lives”. 

17:09

WILLACY:  For 30 years they’ve defied the national government, the nuclear power company and its fistful of dollars, and what happened in the tsunami has only made them stronger than ever. 

17:24

Moyoko

MOYOKO IWAMOTO:  “What the Chugoku Electric Power Company says is very irresponsible.  They are shameless.  I do not like them at all”. 

17:37

Sunrise over island

WILLACY: The final insult, the proposed site for the reactor is the very spot where the sun rises each morning over their island.

17:51

Iwaishima harbour

MASAAKI OKAMOTO:  “I want to say the Chugoku Electric Power Company “Please give up”.

18:00

Masaaki on boat

I will say to its president – “Please give up now, and let me enjoy my fishing”.”

18:09

Masaaki fishing

WILLACY:  Fisherman Okamoto, like most of the 500 residents here, has been fighting against the Chugoku Power Company for more than half his life.  Together with his fellow men of the sea, he won’t sell out his lifestyle for any amount of money.

18:19

MASAAKI OKAMOTO: “Assembly men in the past were bought off.   And many prominent persons were bought off.  We have not been bought off –

18:36

otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to continue our protest for 30 years”.

18:47

Atsuko’s cottage/Kazuo arrives

WILLACY:  Back up north in Oma, anti-nuclear holdout Atsuko Ogasawara welcomes another visitor.  Kazuo Miura has come all the way from Fukushima, 500 kilometres to the south, and as well as moral support, he’s offering something else.

KAZUO MIURA:  “I brought peaches from Fukushima. 

18:54

There might be some radiation in them”.

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “No, it’s all right, as I’m old.  Thank you very much”.

19:15

Kazo and Atsuko in cottage

WILLACY:  This little log bungalow has become a focal point for Japan’s anti-nuclear movement. As well as visitors, there’s a constant stream of calls and letters of support. 

19:24

KAZUO MIURA:  “Human beings are all about money.  But she has a heart that doesn’t flinch in front of money or threats”. 

19:38

Atsuko and Willacy walk. Atsuko shows diverted stream

WILLACY:  And she shows me what she says is the nuclear company’s latest act of harassment.

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “This stream comes down from the company’s land over there.

19:49

It’s been stopped so it won’t flow to this area”. 

WILLACY:  Living in the shadow of a nuclear power plant doesn’t stop her from enjoying her garden, but lack of water might.

20:00

Atsuko gardening

Nonetheless, this determined woman says there’s nothing the nuclear power company can do to force her from her cottage.

20:13

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “There’s the memory that my mother and I built it, so this house is filled with our feelings. 

20:21

Atsuko

I want to protect this house.  My mother risked her life to protect this land, while being ostracised, and I don’t know how hard that was”.

20:32

Buddhist festival

Music

20:51

Atsuko pays tribute to ancestors

WILLACY:  It’s the night of the dead, the Buddhist festival of Bon, and like her neighbours, Atsuko Ogasawara is paying tribute to her ancestors.  It’s a time of prayer and pyrotechnics and a chance to honour her beloved mother. 

21:01

Music

21:28

Atsuko

ATSUKO OGASAWARA:  “I worked hard together with my mother and I’ll respect her dying wishes and work hard as long as I live.  I’ll continue fighting”. 

21:41

Fireworks

WILLACY:  After Hiroshima, Nagasaki and now Fukushima, she’s far from alone in that fight.  However in a country that’s the world’s third biggest consumer of electricity, others feel there’s no choice but to accept nuclear power. What they want is an industry that spends less on buying off its opponents and more on rigorous and transparent safety controls. 

21:57

Music

22:27

Credits:

Reporter:  Mark Willacy

Editor:       Simon Brynjolffssen

Camera:    Jun Matsuzono

Producer: Yayoi Eguchi

22:33