Pedestrians walk along an elevated walkway in the city center near the central train station in Sendai, Japan in June 2011. Photo by: Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor
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Making a difference
Older people taking the risk is much less damaging to our society than asking the younger generation following us to take it. - Nobuhiro Shiotani, retired scientist
Shiotani and an old friend, former plant engineer Yasuteru Yamada, founded the Skilled Veterans Corps (SVC) in April, less than a month after a tsunami overwhelmed the cooling system at Fukushima, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
By writing letters and e-mails, using Twitter, and sending out a call to action at various blogs, the two men have drawn more than 300 retired engineers and scientists, ranging in age from 60 to 78, into their group. All are offering to use their skills and experience to help cool the reactors following the partial meltdown at the heavily contaminated site.
To my surprise we’ve received quite a large number of favorable responses. They all say they think it’s their duty not to leave this negative heritage to younger generations.
Seven members of the veterans group worked at Fukushima during their active careers, he adds. “They feel like mothers who have lost their children.”
With their backgrounds as nuclear plant designers, electrical engineers, radiation regulators, and physicists, the retirees “could if they wish get a decent job at Fukushima, but they have chosen us,” says Shiotani.
They [retiree volunteers] want to work not for money, but for something fundamental and essential for society.
Rigid bureaucracy, the scope of devastation, and a lack of financing are hindering Japan’s comeback from the March earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Some citizens are taking recovery into their own hands.
On a recovery scale of zero to 10, some parts of Ishinomaki are at zero and some are at one,” says the city’s mayor, Hiroshi Kameyama. “Nowhere is better than that.
Sunflowers planted by local elemenary school children grow in the tsunami hit field in in Natori, in Miyagi prefecture, July 15. Japan has campaign to grow sunflowers to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March’s massive quake and tsunami. (Yoshikazu Tsuno)
PHOTO: Destroyed fishing equipment and boats is collected for recycling or incineration. There is an estimated 6 million tons of debris - only 10% has been collected after 2 months of work. (Melanie Stetson Freeman/CSMonitor Staff)
Rigid bureaucracy, the scope of devastation, and a lack of financing are hindering Japan’s comeback from the March earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Some citizens are taking recovery into their own hands. Peter Ford writes about the challenges of Japan’s tsunami recovery nearly five months after the disaster.
Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan - 17 June 2011 - Debris from the tsunami - including this mountain of bicycles - is collected and sorted for recycling or incineration.
There is an estimated 6 million tons of debris - only 10% has been collected after 2 months of work. Cleanup and reconstruction continues after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed coastal areas. 5,500 people from this city are confirmed dead or still missing.
Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor
