Fukushima. Another dimension

Photos of the earthquake-hit regions of Japan and employees of the Fukushima I nuclear power plant (NPP) will stay on display at the Museum of History of Kyiv till the end of March. They were taken by Japanese photojournalist Kazuma Obara who arrived on the scene immediately after the accident. He focused not on the event itself but rather on people involved, the plant’s employees, as he took pictures of them at work as well as created their portraits.

“I want to draw your attention especially to photos showing the accident clean-up workers,” Obara said. “They are true heroes. Unfortunately, Japan has been unable to recognize just how important their contribution to the reconstruction of the country has been. It stays this way even now. About 7,000 workers are continuing the Fukushima I NPP clean-up effort. Some of them worked at the plant before the tragedy, while others came there after the accident. All of them are aware of their great responsibility and convinced that they must overcome the consequences of the tragedy as soon as possible. I would like to tell the story of one of those workers. Jin Watanabe lost his job because of the NPP accident, so he decided to join the clean-up effort. His daughter died in infancy and was buried in the present exclusion zone. Even as Watanabe’s family left, he decided to stay and work there.”

“I would really like to see more people coming to the exhibition and seeing these photos,” Counselor of the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine Hiromi Nakano said. “It has been four years since the Fukushima events happened. During this time, the Ukrainians provided strong support to individual Japanese and Japan as a whole. Today, I want to thank the Ukrainians yet again for it. I have discovered that Ukraine and Japan are similar as they have a common experience of nuclear accidents. Only countries that experienced such a tragedy as well can really sympathize with us. We have something to learn from each other.”

Anastasia Doroshyna, who visited the exhibition, has long been interested in Japanese culture and remembers clearly the day when she first learned of the terrible tragedy that befell the Japanese people. “We had a Japanese class on the day of the Fukushima I NPP accident. When we entered the classroom, the teacher simply stunned us with this news. I was shocked. The photos which are shown here today tell us unknown stories of this disaster.”

The photos will stay in Ukraine for another two months. The exhibition at the Museum of History of Kyiv will run until the end of March. Admission to the exhibition is free.

By the way, the photographer Obara used his time in Ukraine to start working on the exhibition dedicated to the Chornobyl disaster, to be held in cooperation with the Chornobyl Museum. In particular, the forthcoming exhibition will feature photos and stories of the accident clean-up workers who are now unjustly forgotten, according to Obara. The exhibition will be unveiled on the anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster.