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At the Root of Their Lives, There Exists the Nuclear

Rokkasho Village (Rokkashomura) hosts a nuclear fuel cycle base. The heart of the base is its reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel, considered the most modern plutonium production plant in the world. Once the plant is in operation, Japan will be entering a new atomic era. Now we stand at a crossroads, compelling us to decide what we can do about energy.

I met children diagnosed with leukemia and other cancers in Iraq. The incidence of cancer is on the rise in the country since depleted uranium munitions were used in the Gulf Wars. However, there is not yet medical proof of the causal relationship between the diseases and the munitions. My preceding work "Hibakusha: At the End of the World" begins at the site where the children kept sickening and dying. Rokkashomura is my final destination, to meet today's "Hibakusha" who unwittingly absorbed radioactive materials into their bodies. Depleted uranium munitions are made of wastes from the nuclear industry, and are the byproduct of industrial use of atomic energy.

Living in Rokkashomura where nuclear wastes gather from all over the country is nothing but living day by day with the intrusive idea that there exists 'the nuclear' at the root of villagers' lives. Local people of Rokkashomura face the difficult challenge presented to all energy-consuming Japanese. I observed the lifestyles and lives of those local people. Japanese nuclear energy policy is unwavering and the industry is enormous. Even now, nuclear energy is spoken of as an ideal energy source. How we face such nuclear energy is almost like being asked how each individual should live. From daily lives based on people's own choices, our future will arise.