by New Teacher’s Association member (Japan)
On September 8th, our NTA members and some of The Others students went out to attend a conference on the nuke issues in Japan (entitled in “Living aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident - what is our obligation”). Our purpose was to meet this distinguished scholar, prof. Koide Hiroaki, in person. We’ve been contacting him ever since the Great East Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011.
Prof. Koide is an associate professor at Kyoto University of Research Reactor Institute in Osaka. The reason why we give him a hearty respect is because he is a courageous scholar whose policy in life is “Not being crushed by power”. Today, nobody doubts that he is a genuine scholar in nuclear power field with more than 40 years of research career but the government and many people in academia do not give him a title in “professor”. The reason is simple. He’s been raising a strong voice against the Japanese national policy of nuclear power program over the last four decades.
Prof. Koide is an associate professor at Kyoto University of Research Reactor Institute in Osaka. The reason why we give him a hearty respect is because he is a courageous scholar whose policy in life is “Not being crushed by power”. Today, nobody doubts that he is a genuine scholar in nuclear power field with more than 40 years of research career but the government and many people in academia do not give him a title in “professor”. The reason is simple. He’s been raising a strong voice against the Japanese national policy of nuclear power program over the last four decades.
In the conference, he heavily criticized the Japanese government as well as the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) saying, “all the contaminated foods in Japan should be delivered to the cafeterias in the Diet Building and TEPCO and consumed by their officials. It’s because humans are creatures that do not understand until they are themselves trampled over. ”
More than 40 years have passed since 1966, when the first nuclear reactor was put into operation, and there are at present 50 reactors in existence in Japan. Prof. Koide never stop fighting against Japan’s nuclear power policy. After the conference, we could talk to him and he said “what I can do in such deadly circumstances is really limited, but I can entrust this task to the young like you guys.” The Others students will hold a cultural exhibition entitled in “Fukushima’s tears are ours too: one year after the Fukushima’s catastrophe” from November 3 to 6 at Nanzan University. In addition, prof. Koide will give us a lecture for our One Way cultural forum in January 2013.
＜Audio Reference＞ *Prof. Koide gave a lecture at University of Chicago in May 5th 2012 when all the Japanese reactors were shut down in operation (May 5th is a national holiday of “Children’s Day”).
see also:
http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/atomicage/symposium-top/japanese/
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