Nuclear energy in China

     China uses nuclear energy and less than 5% of the energy they produce among the nation is nuclear energy.
     As we all know, due to the economy growth, the role of nuclear power is getting more and more important for China. Right now, they have 14 power plants working and 25 under construction.
     After 3.11, the State Council announced that they will conduct the safety checks for all the power plants, but there was no sense of stopping those plants in the future. Rather, they are planning to put more and more money on nuclear energy.

     What Chinese people are thinking about using nuclear energy must have been a spot to look at. It seems that most of the scientists and economists are trying to convince civilians that what they have as nuclear energy is much much safer than the one in Fukushima. And it also seems that people are easily convinced by this, and willing to have nuclear energy as an energy source.
     Here are some videos I found on YouTube about the nuclear energy in China.

One of the thousands of traumatic stories from 3.11

The article is from the book "The Japan Times Special Report 3.11 -A Chronicle of events following the Great East Japan Earthquake-."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

      "Unclaimed albums" 

     In Natori, there is a gymnasium of an elementary school that are filled with pictures and albums whose owners are still unknown. A person who found her elementary school  yearbook expresses "It's just a way for people to keep their memories."

     They were first left where they were found, but later brought to this place by Self-Defense Force troops. Then many volunteers started to clean those photos and albums, because they were all muddy and some were ripped away. One of the volunteers is actually looking for her, and her family photos here. Her house got destroyed by the tsunami, and daughter is not found. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Some say looking back does not make you move forward. However, I think looking through past memories, I think we can clear our thoughts and minds. Then, later, move on, gradually. As the Trauma and disaster describes, traumatic events are dangerous, overwhelming, and sudden. This sudden change happened on 3.11 require people to take time in order to accept the reality. And in  order to accept the reality, they need to have the confidence what they have had done before. Photos can help...I'm hoping and wishing.

     

Difference between saving energy and electricity

     I have learned on how our planet needs our effort for saving the energy for the first time in my life, at the age of eleven or twelve in a class called "総合の時間"（the time for the whole knowledge---I might be translating this incorrectly...）. That was the beginning that also the whole society was in consideration on saving energy. Recycle, Eco, global warming and etc became popular terms. And as a kid in elementally school, I was using those words, not exactly knowing what they mean, when writing a small piece of paper, and a research.
    It has been about ten years now. The attitude of people and firms toward the environment did not really change during this time. People who are very serious about the environmental and energy issue scream for saving the energy, but many companies have been ignoring those claims, stating that they do some activities for the environment instead of sacrificing their business. Other people who are not so active on the issue, including me, sometimes tried to save energy, discuss the issues brought up in a conversation, and just "think" about them, not really taking any specific actions.
     I think this was the common behavior in Japanese society until 3.11 happened. Now many companies pay attention on how much energy they are using daily, and struggle to prevent using extra energy, even for a small amount. It seems that if a firm does not take action to save electricity immediately, the firm will be in a big trouble...as a moral issue.
    Looking all the commercials and advertisements on the trains, I feel that many companies understand what to do in this situation. Before 3.11, they did not really know what is expected to save energy and environment. It was too broad area to work on and therefore many consumers did not realize what to expect for them either, while saving electricity is more specific and thanks for the technology improvement, now it is easy to see how much electricity they are actually using.

Nihon jin ron

I found an interview based article in the magazine "SWAK," published on April 28th, 2011.
http://www.magazine-data.com/women-magazine/swak.html

The person who is interviewed is Yanai Michihiko, who is from Fukushima and a creative designer.
http://public-image.org/interview/2008/05/07/michihiko-yanai.html

At the last two pages, he talks about young generation in Japan, the generation that is said, in general, to be very inactive and ingoing. However, he has a different insight in them. He has been thinking that the young generation in Japan pursuit the real reason to exist, have the will to help others, make others happy, and want to stay strong as themselves...He thinks that young generation in Japan right now poses those aspects many times more than his generation had. Therefore, according to the interview, many actions taken by young generation in Japan, such as going up to North, join volunteering, holding charity event were NOT surprising for him at all.

He also talks about how creators' thoughts have changed after 3.11, and he compares the feeling which he also strongly affected by when 9.11 happened.

Global Media

Author: Shunsuke Kimura

Newspaper: Asahi Shinbun

First published on April 24th in Japanese, in Japan

     The article mainly report what TEPCO has reported in 2006 at the international conference. It has reported that there is 10% of chance that the unexpectedly big tsunami comes to Fukushima nuclear power plant #1 within 50 years.

     "So, TEPCO has actually estimated the possibility of getting hurt by tsunami, but did nothing for it?"

     That would be the reaction of most people. However this article does not take a side of readers, TEPCO, nor the government at the beginning. It seems to be a real "report," stating things as the report from TEPCO in 2006 does and explaining it in an understandable way. 

     However in the last part, it introduces how those possibilities are estimated generally and leaves comment on how TEPCO did compared to the general idea. Also at last, the writer leaves a critical impression, reporting that TEPCO has been wounding up together within a company right now and not letting information public.

     I also found a blog that might be talking about the same writer of this article. The blog writer states that the writer, Shunsuke Kimura is a person who writes articles that are 1. not only the direct information from press conference, 2. based on several kinds of information source, research, and analysis, taking several perspectives on the issue, and 3. not influenced by any companies or the government power, telling the truth.

http://geocities.yahoo.co.jp/gl/matiplanplan/view/20110330/1301461968

Relief effort experience#2:Students Donation Project

             I have got to know a group of students that stand on streets and ask people to donate some money for the Tohoku Relief a few days after 3.11 through my friend. Students are from several Universities in Kanto area.They donate money to Nicco http://www.kyoto-nicco.org/english/index.html. I decided to join it, with a hope that I can do something, and a bit of doubt if this project can succeed till it achieves its goal. My quick note on my experience on that day is here.

There are some pictures taken here too.

http://awishforjapan.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11336747

April 3^rd : First day

              It is my first day to join this group. It is freezing cold outside, though I wanted to wear a skirt for spring. I needed to give up anyway. I arrived at the Harajuku station on time, and waited there to see people in the project. I waited for about 10 minutes and nobody seemed to be a person in the group. I got worried. Did I misread the information? Wasn’t it at Harajuku today? I decided to send an e-mail to the leader. His response was really quick and frank. They were a bit late on that day, so I kept waiting at the station.

              About ten more minutes later, I found some people getting together and having conversation. They looked like students so I decided to ask if they are the member of the donation project. Yes, there they are! I introduced myself and they did the same thing to me. They all seemed nice and friendly.

              At 10:30 or so, we started to ask people on the street to donate some money for Tohoku Relief. The members were pretty organized and very accustomed with what they are doing. They introduce themselves as a group, what they do, why they do such activity, and how those donated money will be used in Tohoku area. People seem to notice our existence and some paid attention and donated some money, but a lot of people ignored us.

              I thought this is a normal reaction of people in society. Students collecting money shouting for help on the street for people in Tohoku. Especially a lot of people inform that there are many groups that use donated money for something else, something unrelated to Tohoku relief. It was quite hard situation for us that day in the donation money economy.

              As time goes, I started to think that this activity will be really tough as the time goes. People forget and find something else to do in order to help people in Tohoku. Street donation will be something that people will hardly pay attention some day. Charity events and other ways to contribute in economy or people in Tohoku will be more popular and main stream in society.

              This is my first impression on street donation on that day: a bit negative and frustrated reaction. It may be because of the cold weather, or my nervousness to see new people. 

Relief effort experience#1:Donation for Japan in United States, Florida, Gainesville

     I was an exchange student in US about 2 years ago. I missed my host family and friends up there very much, so I planed to go back to US and see my host family and have a small vacation during the spring break. 
    
     Then, 3.11 happened. 
     
     I had no idea for about a week if I CAN go to US, or I SHOULD NOT go, leaving my family in Japan, or perhaps I SHOULD go, due to the continuous aftershocks and the news on radiation. Everything was unpredictable around this time, and there was no direction to follow.  
     However as the time goes, I started to think that I can do something more productive if I go back to US, instead of staying home and being stuck watching TV, checking the news.
     I had several plans in my head, working for the relief effort for people in Tohoku. I told my idea to my host sister and my host mother, and some of my friends who are actively working on volunteering and relief effort. And they were willing to help me out.
     I asked my parents and grandparents for the permission to leave Japan in this complicated and tense situation. They said "It's all right. You should go there, maybe here is not a safe place anymore." This comment scared me a little, but everything was set on for the trip to US.
    
     One idea was to collect personal stories on 3.11 from my friends, posting on a website and raising awareness of people in US. I thought that what people hear and watch through media can be somewhat different from what is really happening in Japan. So I started working on my idea to make them come real. I asked my friends to send me an e-mail, writing about what happened on 3.11, what they did, and how they thought, and what they have on their mind right now. A lot of my friends replied to my message and several friends helped out to translate those messages in Japanese into English.

     Translating personal stories on the plane, 17 hours of flight was quite short. I got to the airport, felt the warmth and more relaxed, but also with a weird feeling on my mind. Many things happening in my home country, but I was out of the whole situation at that time. 

     Right after I got to Florida, Gainesville on 18th of March, I had a chance to hold a meeting who would like to help my plans. Here is a note from the brainstorming we had. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_200988049919500&view=doc&id=202349609783344

I used Facebook group page in order to share information, idea, and events. And we decided to donate collected money to American Red Cross, because we thought that is the safest and trustworthy place to out money.

   What we actually did from the list was strawberry jam making, art work making with kids at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School http://www.pky.ufl.edu/ and drawing people's name in Japanese calligraphy style at one the booths at a local festival. Addition, a lot of my friends who dance Argentine tango donated money to us, and American Red Cross. 

     Below are drawings of kids from P.K.Yonge, and how it was used on the day of the festival.

     

     For the long term, one of my friends and me set up a website named "A wish for Japan," as a place to share personal stories of my friends. http://awishforjapan.webs.com/ This website is currently not updated often. I think it was a good idea at the beginning, but lost its clear purpose and resource of information. I wonder what could have been better to make something for a long-term.

     As a whole, we gained $955 to donate. Of course, I was impressed by this amount of money, but that was not the only thing. I was very VERY impressed that I was having fun, doing relief effort in US. It may be because I was apart from the incidents, but I felt that a lot people in US have different idea on donation. In Japan, I feel that collecting donation is more about emotional thoughts and feelings behind, showing sad pictures and sad stories, and never having fun while doing the effort. It seems to me, being a devote or a sacrifice.
     I thank to all people who cooperated, and contribute their time and effort to the activities, and at the same time, still making a thought on idea of donation and/or volunteering in different country.