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Hello, everyone. I would like to thank you for coming to Dr. Helen Caldicott’s lecture today. It is now March 2014, three full years since the occurrence of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. During this time, I have spent every day as if I were at war. As I look back, it’s as if the accident happened only a short time ago.

Yet, in spite of the fact that three years have passed, the accident has yet to be resolved.

Radioactive material from the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues to spew into the sky and into the sea. I hear that a lot of workers on the premises are not TEPCO employees but are instead subcontractors, and subcontractors of subcontractors even down to the eight, ninth and tenth level of subcontractors. Even though these workers receive less than a minimum wage, they must, in the midst of radioactivity, fight hard to resolve the accident.

Unfortunately, however, I continue to believe it will take many years, or decades, or even hundreds of years to resolve the accident.

And, outside of the plant’s premises, more than a hundred thousand people have been deprived of everything, including their ancestral homes and livelihoods, forced to lead the life of wanderers surrounded by radiation-contaminated lands. If Japan were a country under the rule of law, an area of around 14,000 square kilometers would be designated as an irradiated district that the general population was forbidden from entering.

Furthermore, the radioactive contamination is such that if the law were followed, the Tohoku region as well as the vast Kanto plain would have to be evacuated. Nevertheless, right now, many millions of people, including children and babies, have been left to live in these areas.

I think that saleried nuclear radiation specialists like myself and other adults have some choice in whether they are willing to live in a contaminated area. However, children bear no responsibility for having caused this accident and, moreover, are very sensitive to radiation exposure. Nevertheless they are still living in contaminated areas where they are being contaminated even more.

Thinking about this, one cannot help but be filled with regret. In asking what has been accomplished over the past three years, I cannot help feeling miserable in the face of our powerlessness.

However, since this situation is going to continue into the future, I think we must ask, "What can we do now?"

The thing I would like to do more than anything else is to minimize the children’s exposure to radiation just as much as possible. The best strategy to accomplish this is for children, including adults, to be evacuated from the contaminated areas.

However, we human beings have long lived on various pieces of land together with one another. Thus, when the word "evacuation" is used, it isn’t easy to put this into effect. And if were to be done, I think evacuees would be subjected to tremendous hardships.

As a matter of principle, TEPCO, having the responsibility for causing this accident, as well as the Japanese government, should move each community of people to a new area. As in the past, I intend to continue asking for this to be done.

But at the moment, the Liberal Democratic Party is once again governing Japan. Declaring that it will continue to promote nuclear power, the Japanese government has developed a strategy that says, "Let's forget about the accident at Fukushima.”

Given this, I think it is impossible to imagine that the Japanese government will give the people in each community the option to evacuate. This is truly regrettable, but I think that’s the situation at present.

The question thus becomes what can be done in this situation? The answer is that even if for only a limited period, the children should be evacuated.

If only for just one month in summer, or maybe one week in spring, the children should be moved to an area that has as little radioactive contamination as possible where they can play and get dirty.

I think we need to be able to tell the children that we have prepared an environment for them where it is fine to stretch out on the grass.

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There are at present many people in Japan who are doing this, and have done this up to now. There are also those who have extended a helping hand from abroad. All of them are united by their desire to move as many children as possible away from radioactivity and allow them to play as children. I share their desire.

But the truth is that this is still only a limited movement. This means that there are still many, including children, who will be forced to live in contaminated areas now and into the future. Further, it is important to recognize that in the contaminated areas there are especially highly contaminated areas here and there.

Even in areas that are not heavily contaminated there are places known as “hot spots” and “micro-spots” that are highly contaminated. This means, I think, that children must be playing in such places.

けれども、残念ながら、除染はできません。 --> At the present time in Japan, the word "decontamination" is being employed to create the illusion that "the environment is clean if it has been decontaminated." But, unfortunately, it cannot be decontaminated.

Radioactivity is the true identity of what we identify as being "dirty.” The nature of radioactivity is such that no matter what humans do it cannot be erased. Thus, decontamination simply can’t be done.

If children come in contact with radioactivity, the radioactivity will be transferred to them. Thus, I believe it is necessary for children to be transferred from such places.

In short, it is not a question of eliminating the radioactivity but, instead, of transferring it. For this reason I use the words “transfer contamination.” This means moving the radioactive contamination away from places where the children are. Even in places that are not heavily polluted, where people feel safe, there are “hot spots” and “micro-spots.” Thus I hope to see work being done to transfer the contamination.

The next important thing is food.

At the moment, the food in the Tohoku region and adjacent areas has been contaminated. However, the Japanese government has declared that if foodstuffs contain 100 becquerels of radiation or less per kilo, it is safe to eat. No regulations are placed on it, and the food is put into the distribution chain.

However, before the Fukushima accident, Japan was a country that had only 0.1 becquerels of radiation per kilogram of food.

So this is a case in which that 100 becquerels per one kilogram represents an increase in the level of contamination by one thousand times as compared to the time before the accident. The claim is made that this level of contamination is safe, and the contaminated foodstuffs are distributed to the market.

I think such a thing is unforgivable, especially when this contaminated food is fed to children. I want to make sure that the food given to children to eat, for example in school lunches, is thoroughly examined in order to ensure that it has the lowest possible level of contamination.

In order to accomplish this, the Japanese government should take action, but, unfortunately, it is acting in an irresponsible manner in its management of school lunches. Thus, I would like to see each local government take steps to protect the children.

Finally, I would like to offer a word of apology to young people.

Before the big accident happened, I lived with the hope of stopping nuclear power plants, but, unfortunately, I was unable to realize my wish.

Thus a large accident occurred, and radioactive contamination ended up spreading throughout Japan and all over the world. Because I don’t have the power to undo time, we have no choice but to live in this contaminated world. In my case, I imagine I’ll die in the next ten to twenty years, but for those young people who are now carving out a future life for themselves, I truly regret what has happened.

When all of you grow up and become adults, I think you will ask about the responsibility my generation bears for having been unable to prevent the accident at Fukushima.

We have no choice but to admit that this is what our generation did, Thus, first of all, I would like to apologize for this, while, at the same time, thinking what I can do about it for the rest of my life. When in the future I am asked by all of you how I lived, I want to be able to say that I did what I could.

Thank you, everyone.