Director’s Statement
We want to tell you chagrins of cattle ranchers in Fukushima.
Director’s Statement
To be wealthy is just one of the ways of being happy!
The area around Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is steeped in rich Japanese culture. One example is a samurai festival called “Soma Nomaoi,” that has been run for over 1,000 years. Like the samurai, cattle ranchers don’t want to take lives for no reason. They feel grateful towards their cows, as they give their lives for us. But they don’t want to slaughter them just because the cows came to have no monetary value. Their contamination by radiation should be studied, making their lives valuable to science.
Ranchers who fight against the state, hang no-nukes flags, or try to guard contaminated land for their children… Ranchers who wish to make the exposed cows serve mankind’s purpose… Even the government, that tries to protect consumers, and the farmers that accepted the slaughter, each have good cause. Who, and what, is correct? I went to Fukushima to get an answer. As a result, neither the themes of the strongly political or of animal protection were enough: this grew into a documentary of the heart crying.
The meaning of existence for this movie is to ask a question to modern society, that tends to measure the whole of human life by affluence and economic growth. Nuclear plants were attracted to Fukushima prefecture because it didn’t have big industry. It generated employment, and the lives of the inhabitants were improved. But, how was it conclusively?… We want you to come to realize the absurdity of people all over the world believing that affluence equals happiness and who place economic growth above anything else. True happiness is another dimension.
Why did we make this film?
The government is actively trying to erase all signs of the Fukushima nuclear accident. The cost related to reconstruction of the nuclear accident already surpasses 240 billion dollars. It is said that it will take more 50 years to decommission the reactor, and nobody can calculate the real total cost. This will paid by tax. The government has stated that the cheapest way of generating electric energy is by nuclear power: an announcement of mindlessness.
A large part of the No-entry zone will be opened from April, 2017, although there still remains high levels of radiation. People that will actually return to their land are expected to number approximately 10% of all residents, mostly those who are over 60 years of age and feel they have little to lose. Despite government claims that conditions will be restored, almost nobody believes them. This national policy is simply a way to avoid paying any more compensation, with the opening of the Tokyo Olympics looming in 2020.
Exposed cows have come to be a symbol of the nuclear accident.
I believe that not slaughtering them, and using them to study exposure to radiation, is a much more viable way to proceed. The government however, doesn’t even want their DNA to exist.
That is why we want as many people as possible to watch this film, and to leave a record of what occurred.