By Paul Jeffrey<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published by <\/em>response magazine in 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As Japan continues to struggle with the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant, a group of youth who live close to the troubled plant escaped for two weeks to the United States, where they met Asian-American youth in a United Methodist summer camp in the mountains of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six youth were accompanied by the Rev. Hikari Kokai Chang, a regional missionary for United Methodist Women and executive director for the Wesley Foundation in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Chang said the kids simply needed a break from the stress of living close to what remains an extremely dangerous industrial disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPhysically they are still developing, so they need rest from that radioactivity, they need clean air and clean water. But they also mentally need to be away. Living in the Fukushima area they are constantly reminded of the radioactive pollution. It affects what they eat and drink, they have to buy special water. They have to search for vegetables from somewhere else. They are constantly living in the shadow of the disaster,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd if the kids aren\u2019t worried about it, their parents are constantly concerned about their children\u2019s health. People try to ignore it, saying they don\u2019t care much, but deep inside it\u2019s a constant worry. That\u2019s why I wanted these youth to spend a few days in a completely different place, somewhere where they can eat and drink what they want, experience new things, and forget for a few moments that they are Fukushima kids, and simply be who they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One Japanese boy said that by leaving the country, he gave his mother a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt home my mother spends a lot of effort to find safe food for me. She checks where the food is from, and tries to get rid of food that absorbs contamination easily, like mushrooms. While I\u2019m here in the U.S. she doesn\u2019t have to worry about that. So I\u2019m happy because it\u2019s giving her a rest,\u201d said Saitaro Otake, a 16-year old from Yugawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Fukushima residents say they\u2019ve been stigmatized and face rejection elsewhere. Cars with license plates from the troubled prefecture can be targets for rocks in other parts of the country. That\u2019s a heavy burden for teenagers already anxious about acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the Japanese youth had a trip to Korea cancelled, simply because of where they live. \u201cSome friends and I were going to Korea on a school trip, but it was cancelled because the Koreans regarded us as contaminated. They rejected us. I really wanted to go because I love K-pop [Korean pop music]. I was very sad,\u201d said Minori Hisada, an 18-year old from Aizuwakamatsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince the tragedy they are \u2018Fukushima kids,\u2019 and they\u2019ll forever be Fukushima kids. That label is stuck on them,\u201d said Ms. Chang. \u201cWherever they go, people will worry that they are contaminated. So their future is unknown. Some worry about whether it\u2019s safe for the girls to have babies. Or maybe they\u2019ll only be able to marry among themselves. We don\u2019t know. It\u2019s scary. They are constantly reminded that they are Fukushima people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey reached out to shake our hands\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Chang said the idea of taking a group of kids to the U.S. emerged as she and other church workers were reflecting on how to help the Fukushima survivors tell their story to a broader audience. She was particularly concerned for youth, given how Japanese society prioritizes the perspectives of older people. She contacted Asian-American United Methodists in the U.S. and was invited to the week-long summer camp for Asian-American youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with Terumi Kataoka, a Japanese Christian activist in Aizuwakamatsu, they recruited kids over the internet. Ms. Chang says Japanese youth are very busy with school work, even during their vacations, but they finally identified six \u201cbrave youth\u201d who wanted to go, and whose families agreed. The Wesley Foundation, using funds which originated with United Methodist Women, paid for the flights, and the kids\u2019 families paid the camp fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During visits to San Francisco and Los Angeles before and after the camp, the youth\u2013chaperoned by Ms. Chang and Ms. Kataoka\u2013stayed with Asian-American United Methodist families at night while visiting tourist attractions in the daytime. They went to Fisherman\u2019s Wharf, an Oakland A\u2019s baseball game, and visited Hollywood. They attended a community gathering at a Buddhist temple near San Francisco, and worshiped with Asian-American United Methodist congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Ms. Chang says she tried to prepare the youth for what they\u2019d experience in the U.S., the culture shock set in quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn their minds, American means caucasian, blond hair, blue eyes. We told them Americans aren\u2019t all white, and that they\u2019d meet many different kinds of people, including Asians who are American. When we got to the airport in San Francisco, the host families were there to pick us up, and although they looked like us they reached out to shake our hands. We bow in Japan, so the kids didn\u2019t know what to do. That was their first encounter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the camp, they were with kids the same age who share a lot of the same culture. Like kids everywhere they\u2019re on Facebook and know the same pop culture, and talk a lot about which boys or girls are really cute. Despite some language difficulties, they could really communicate well. And they even started hugging the other kids, something they\u2019d never do in Japan. And they were singing along and clapping with the songs during worship. These kids aren\u2019t Christians, but they\u2019ve seen Christians in Japan, who tend to be very square people, very polite and quiet. The youth came to the U.S. and, wow, they discovered that Christians are lots of fun and can be very silly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m pretty Americanized\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Viki Inoye, the camp director, the conversations at the camp were an opportunity for the Japanese youth \u201cto know that people here care about their situation . . .even when U.S. media coverage has disappeared.\u201d She said the Fukushima youth also learned about the history of the Japanese in the United States, including the painful stories of internment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelli Yamaguma, an 18-year old participant from Palo Alto, California, said she found a lot of commonality with the Japanese students. \u201cWe talked a lot about music, and discovered we have a lot of stuff in common. I think they\u2019re brave to come to camp, because I\u2019m nervous about going to camp and I know most of the people. Coming from another country and having English as your second language must be even scarier. It\u2019s amazing how well they connected with everyone,\u201d said Ms. Yamaguma, who admits that before the camp she knew nothing about the challenges the youth faced in Japan. \u201cI knew about the tsunami but nothing about the power plant explosion. Although my family is originally from there I don\u2019t know much about it. I\u2019m pretty Americanized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of the six Japanese youth are Christians, although one attends a mission school. Ms. Inoye, who serves as youth director at Wesley United Methodist Church in San Jose, California, says the camp afforded a good exposure to the Christian faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were introduced to a God that embraced them with open arms and gave them the opportunity to experience God’s spirit and grace firsthand. Expressions of faith through care, concern, worship, singing, fellowship and warm hugs allowed them to experience the love of Christ. Conveying a love for God and one another through our actions really has no language barriers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding the truth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Kataoka\u2019s husband is a pastor, and the church they serve in Aizuwakamatsu became a refuge following the explosion for people fleeing even more dangerous areas closer to the nuclear plant. People showed up at the church, she says, covered with coats and blankets in order to keep the radioactive fallout off their bodies. Ms. Kataoka eventually fled the area herself, taking her youngest child with her to Tokyo and then Nagoya. She admits it was a difficult decision to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany who fled felt they were throwing away the people they left behind. They felt guilty. When I left I felt like one of the disciples who left Jesus on the cross,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After two weeks, Ms. Kataoka went back home, and the church continued to function as a refuge for families fleeing the disaster. And it also served as a gathering space for community members asking hard questions about what had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn an emergency the government doesn\u2019t protect its people, it protects itself. Neither the government nor the power company told us the truth. So we had to find the truth by ourselves,\u201d Ms. Kataoka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The center served as a safe space to search for answers, and for exchanging information about the availability of safe food and water. Because the group believed that local physicians were in the pocket of the power company, it brought in a doctor from outside the region for periodic health visits. It purchased Geiger counters and trained local residents how to use them, particularly for screening food. It built and indoor play area, complete with sandbox, where children could play without worrying about falling radiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Ms. Kataoka, the center also supports activities that take children out of the area for short periods of time. \u201cAfter Chernobyl, I went to Belarus and saw programs to get kids to camps outside the fallout zone. They checked the radiation in their bodies when they arrived at the camp and when they left after three weeks of relaxation, good food and safe water. The levels of cesium in their bodies dropped by 20 percent in that short time. That\u2019s why there are many new camps for children being started in Japan, and why this opportunity to take the youth to the U.S. was such a blessing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Kataoka has long been active in advocating the preservation of article 9 of the Japanese constitution\u2013which outlaws war as a means of resolving international disputes involving the state\u2013in the face of attempts by some in Japan to abrogate it. She says the link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons is more evident after the disaster, and Japanese citizens, especially young people, are more skeptical of official versions of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI learned in the weeks after the accident that TEPCO [the plant owner] and the government were lying repeatedly to us. That helped me understand that the government wasn\u2019t telling us the truth about other things even before the disaster,\u201d said Namiko Saze, a 15-year old girl from Niigata who participated in the U.S. trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople can find what\u2019s really happening on the internet, but the government and TEPCO keep thinking they can cover up the truth. It\u2019s silly. People know what\u2019s going on, so it\u2019s almost comical that they continue trying to deceive us,\u201d said another trip participant, Takuma Yamaguchi, a 16-year old boy from Aizuwakamatsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rev. Paul Jeffrey is senior correspondent for response magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japanese youth travel to summer camp in California By Paul Jeffrey Published by response magazine in 2014. As Japan continues to struggle with the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant, a group of youth who live close to the troubled plant escaped for two weeks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4413"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4421,"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4413\/revisions\/4421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-12A-950x631.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-05A-950x633.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-19A-950x583.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-03A-950x633.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-26A-950x633.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kairosphotos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/usa-2013-jeffrey-asian-camp-15A-950x675.jpg\")