気が付けばあれから半年がすぎた。福島県は地震と津波と放射能の大打撃をうけ、今現在、多くの人々が大きな不安を胸に抱えながら明日を信じ懸命に生きている。しかし半年たった今も、目に見えない放射能が、どこまで私たちの環境や身体を蝕んでいるのかわからないという不安は言葉に出さなくとも四六時中つきまとっているのである。
「このまま、ここに住んでいて良いのだろうか？」「この野菜、肉、お米…食べていいのだろうか？子供に食べさせても良いのだろうか？」
私の住んでいる地区は避難地区には指定されていない。しかし夏が過ぎもう秋だというのに夜になり街灯に集まってくる虫が一匹もいない。毎年、小さな虫や蛾などが誘蛾灯に誘われ集まりバチバチと音を立てている光景は今年は見られないのだ。小鳥もだいぶ姿を消した。また、県外に避難している母子もまた不安や戸惑いを隠せない。
きっと正しい判断をしているにもかかわらず、「戻るべきか？このまましばらく2重の生活を続けていくべきか？それともいっそ移住したほうが良いのか？」常に心の中で自問自答を繰り返す。
政府も東電も偉い学者もマスコミも、水も空気も食料も「基準内ですので大丈夫です」と言う。それならば、どうかこの地に引っ越してきて欲しい。原発の前で会議をし、親戚や家族を連れてきて、この地で採れた作物を一緒に食べ生活して欲しい。そうして、「安全です」と言って欲しい。
汚すのも壊すのも簡単であるが、失われたものを元に戻すのはかなり困難である。一日も早く、皆が安心して生活できる日が訪れることを子供の笑い声が聞こえる日常が戻ってくることを心から願っている。
My Thoughts Now – Six Months Passed since the Disaster
It has been half a year, come to think of it.
Fukushima still suffers from the massive scars inflicted by the earthquake, tsunami and radiation. Today, many people live one day at a time with both hopes for future and concerns weighing heavily on their shoulders.
Even after six months, the fear lingers in our hearts: We don’t know how much the invisible radiation is harming our health and environment. We may not put it in words, but it’s there with us, day and night.
“Is it unwise to continue to live here?”
“These vegetables, meat and rice…can we eat them? Is it all right to feed our children?”
The district that I live in is not designated as an evacuation zone. But even as autumn approaches, no bugs are seen around the street lamps at night. Tiny insects and moths come near the light trap and cause electric buzz at this time of the year, but not this year. Quite a number of small birds have also disappeared.
Mothers and children who evacuated from Fukushima cannot set aside their apprehension and bewilderment. Even though they probably made the right decision to evacuate, they constantly question themselves. “Should we go back or should we stay out here for awhile, or yet should we completely move out of Fukushima?”
The Japanese government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the highly-regarded scholars…they all say that the water, the air and the food are “safe because the radiation level does not exceed the standards.” If that is true, I’d like to ask them to please move and live in Fukushima. Please hold all your conferences in front of the nuclear power plant. Bring all your family members and relatives, too, and together live with us and eat the crops grown on this land.
Only then would I like them to
say that everything is safe. It is easy to pollute and to destroy, but it is very hard to restore what is already lost.
I just hope from the bottom of my heart that we can all live in peace and resume our routine lives filled with our children’s laughter any day now.
Chie Kokubun
Single Mothers’ Forum Fukushima
