Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster reminds me of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster that happened in March 11, 2011. It draws such a stark parallel that I can't even believe that these two nuclear disasters are more than 20 years apart.

In the book, the author talks about how people suffered from the radioactive material had to prove that they are sick in order to get medical benefits. For the Fukushima case, it was pretty much the same. In Korea, I was able to attend Green Film Festival in Seoul and watched this documentary movie about Fukushima nuclear disaster, by a famous Japanese director Shunji Iwai. This movie portrays the lives of the survivors who lost their homes due to the accident, and some parts of the movie were about how they had to try so hard to get medical benefits and funds by the government and they actually had to prove they are sicker than others. Not only that, in both cases, there were people who were willing to stabilize the reactors and help to do cleanup work. There were about 600,000 workers who did the cleanup work in Chernobyl, and there was the "Fukushima 50," a group of employees who volunteered to stabilize the reactors.

These ideas all terrified me so much. You have to prove that you're more damaged than others. Your pain has to be compensated while the pain of others is not; you don't even know the names of those workers who stayed behind to help rebuild the wounded city and the survivors. We only hear from the people in high positions who are in charge. We don't usually get the full accounting.  How did we come to this point where we have to say that somebody's pain is more legitimate than others? As for Fukushima 50, I heard that the reason why people call Fukushima 50 as Fukushima 50 is that we don't know the names of those 50 people who stayed near the plant, in order to stabilize the reactors. They remained on site, calculating radiation levels and assessing the damage, in order to prevent the further risk. I remember seeing some news on TV about these 50 people and how much they are exposed to the radiation. They were risking their lives for people who might not even know their names at all.

It really made me reflect on and think to myself a lot. How sad it is that they remained anonymous to us, how sad it is that some forms of injuries had to be made more visible than other forms of pain. We call the people who volunteered at the plant Fukushima 50. Is it because we don't know their names or is it because we didn't bother to know their names? There must be some behind stories that people in charge tried to cover up, but I think we are also responsible for this ignorance to some degree. We always say that we have to be aware of those international issues such as nuclear power, maybe didn't we put the blame on the government and people up there in the social status ladder and not do anything ourselves? Aren't we interested in these issues only on the surface? At least me- I got really skeptical of myself. By others I have largely been seen as a person who is very keen to these issues, who is interested in "saving the world," but am I really? How can I persuade even one person about the need to abolish all nuclear power plants even when I don't really feel how important it is to be aware of these issues in my daily life?




**If you want to know some factual information about these two disasters, check out these articles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13050228
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443324404577595221606754192.html