Members of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace
Group paused during their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday evening (11
March 2015) to remember the ongoing suffering of the thousands of children and
families affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. On the fourth anniversary
of the meltdown of three of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear plant in Japan on 11 March 2011, they discussed the work of the ‘Strong
Children Japan’ project founded by Littleborough-born artist Geoff Read and
reiterated their call for a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power-plants.
On behalf of the group, Rae Street
said,
“The
stories of individual children
affected by the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi bring home very vividly
the
dangers posed to us all, our children and our grandchildren by nuclear
power
plants. It is chilling to remember that Heysham is only 42 miles from
Rochdale, especially when we know from viewing Geoff Read’s
blogs that in Japanese cities like Koriyama, which is about the same
distance west of Fukushima, levels of radiation were so high that
most parents and schools could not allow their children to play outside at all,
even though soil had been removed from many school grounds. In Koriyama, they
wear long sleeves and face masks when outside, and avoid the rain. Naoya aged 8 years who lives there and who
drew one of the pictures we looked at, said very poignantly "It’s
sad for me that there are nuclear plants near Koriyama.", while 6 year old
Hanako from Fukushima City drew a picture of the swing in the children’s playground which is
surrounded by a barrier to stop the children using it because of the
contamination. Hanako’s mother wrote “The earthquake on March 11
caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and high levels of radiation
have been leaking since then. We can still detect cesium in many areas
around Fukushima. We all have no idea how Fukushima children’s health will be
in the future.” 
For more information on
the ‘Strong Children Japan’ project, please see http://strongchildrenjapan.
