Embedded Files
May We Leave our Beautiful Earth for Future Generations.
A message from the late Norio Hirai:
“I want you to know what a nuclear plant is.”
Do you think it will be all right for me to have a baby (in the future)?
(The site introduction)
After March 11, 2011, when the worst nuclear power plant accident occurred in Fukushima, Japan, among all the information circulated, we happened to find a message from Norio Hirai, which he had written 15 years ago.
Long before the Fukushima accident happened since 1966 for about 20 years, Mr. Norio Hirai had been working as a nuclear plant engineer, had constructed nuclear power plants and also had been a site supervisor. During the time, he witnessed the reality of a nuclear power plant as a professional and found it his duty and responsibility to leave the message to the world. After he retired, he continued giving lectures to the public until he died in 1997.
Long before the Fukushima accident happened since 1966 for about 20 years, Mr. Norio Hirai had been working as a nuclear plant engineer, had constructed nuclear power plants and also had been a site supervisor. During the time, he witnessed the reality of a nuclear power plant as a professional and found it his duty and responsibility to leave the message to the world. After he retired, he continued giving lectures to the public until he died in 1997.
In his message, he wrote about severe labor conditions at the site, lack of preparation for an emergency like a big earthquake, the collusive relationship with power companies, dangerous radiation levels at the site and in the vicinity, and its long-term influence on human health, particularly small children, the decommissioning work of a nuclear plant, high level radioactive waste, etc. He left the message 15 years before the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident occurred!
In his message, he wrote about severe labor conditions at the site, lack of preparation for an emergency like a big earthquake, the collusive relationship with power companies, dangerous radiation levels at the site and in the vicinity, and its long-term influence on human health, particularly small children, the decommissioning work of a nuclear plant, high level radioactive waste, etc. He left the message 15 years before the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident occurred!
We Japanese have experienced the Fukushima nuclear power accident and seem to have learned a little about the danger of a nuclear power plant and radioactivity …although a bit too late.
We assume there are many more people in the world who, as we were 15 years ago, are not informed of what a nuclear power plant is and, thus, cannot judge whether the building of a nuclear plant in their vicinity is really safe or not.
The bereaved family of the late Mr. Hirai entrusted the copyright of his message to the volunteer group called “PKO-hou, zassoku wo hiromeru kai." The group has been publishing a booklet of Hirai’s message and disseminating his words to the public, by literally ‘passing on’ the small booklet to as many people as possible for the past 16 years. We have obtained the English and the Korean translation of Hirai’s message (done by other volunteer groups) and also the permission to make this website to send out Norio Hirai’s message to more parts of the world via the Internet.
We hope that more and more people in the world will be able to receive Hirai Norio’s message in various languages. There are now three languages, available, here, in Japanese, English, Korean and Russian. We do hope that the world will never repeat a nuclear accident like Fukushima, anywhere on the earth.
Please pass around Hirai Norio's message all over the world.
(Introduction of Norio Hirai)
Mr. Hirai passed away in 1977 at the age of 59, of cancer. He had been a nuclear power plant engineer and a supervisor of nuclear power plants. After he retired from his work, he became the managing director of a nuclear power plant workers’ relief center (the center was closed without a successor), and was involved in lawsuits seeking to suspend three nuclear power plants as a special advisor and witness to the plaintiff. (PKO-hou, zassoku wo hiromeru kai. (2011). Mirai ni tsuzuku inochinotameni gempatsu wa iranai [We do not need nuclear plants for our lives to continue in the future], Vol.2, p.29.)
(About us)
We started a Mailing List to share information about the nuclear power accident and other related information after the accident in Fukushima, in April, 2011. It has now expanded to a group of about 40 people from friends to friends’ introduction. In our exchanges, we learned that the Japanese government is planning to export nuclear power plants to other countries even after the disaster. It is our duty and responsibility as well to share what we learned from the accident with people around the world. We have received the permission from “PKO-hou, zassoku wo hiromeru kai” to disseminate Hirai Norio’s message through the Internet. It is our humble wish to keep developing the site by including more languages so that Hirai’s message will be heard in every corner of the world.
（About the picture next to the title on the top) It is titled Fukushima no otometachihe, painted by Ageliertono, an artist living in Fukushima.
Copyright(C)2012 Ateliertono. All rights reserved.
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