Peter Blakely

FACING FUKUSHIMA

Shortly after the March 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami I began to cover what I believed to be the Biggest disaster of that day that took the lives of more than 26000 people, I have been Using a wooden 8x10 view camera to document the ongoing Nuclear crisis. My intent is to show the scale of the disaster and its effect on Japans communities. This Story does not end at the border of Fukushima or even Japans national Borders.This is a story we are all a part of regardless of where we live. Everyone of us lives in the shadow of Nuclear Power. With thousands of people evacuated from the 20KM zone around the Fukushima Reactors the true cost of this disaster is only just beginning to be understood, most of japan is still in denial, local governments do not have the resources to carry out the thousands of test requested every day. All across Japan contaminated food had entered the food chain even exported to countries on the otherside of the world.

Greed and Government are to blame We who live in the developed world have been consuming beyond our ability to replenish and nuclear power once touted as “to cheap to meter” has becoming one of the most costly and destructive forms energy created to fuel our consumption, it all has to stop, Fukushima is Just the beginning,

WE ARE ALL FACING FUKUSHIMA

A ongoing project to document the effects of Fukushima

nuclear disaster

  
  
     
  
stream used for iragation divides un-planted rice fields
   
  
     
  
   
Volunteer Security Patrol visit an Abandoned House in IItate Village about 40KM from Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plant, Iitate is in a zone outside the Nuclear Evacuation Zone which received extremely high levels of Radioactive contamination after the explosions and fire at the Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plants.
  
     
  
   
Volunteer Security Patrol visit Mrs. Sampei Shigeko (72) farmer who has not evacuated in order to take care of her last remaining cow IItate Village about 40KM from Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plant, Iitate is in a zone outside the Nuclear Evacuation Zone which received extremely high levels of Radioactive contamination after the explosions at the Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plants.
   
Mrs. Sampei Shigeko (72) Sees her last remaining cow evacuated, She does not want to leave her farm to live in a refugee center . IItate Village about 40KM from Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plant, Iitate is in a zone outside the Nuclear Evacuation Zone which received extremely high levels of Radioactive contamination after the explosions at the Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plants.
     
  
Radiation levels display Outside the town offices in IItate, brolken after one of the frequent after schocks it is usaly reading 3-4 mili severts per hr. in the air- readings as high as 50 mili severts per hr have been recorderd in the parking lot nearby.
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
Katsuzo Shoji's (75) his family has worked this Iitate Farm land for more then 6 generations Like the rest of the town's population he is being forced to evacuate. uncertain when he will be able to return to work his farm he was able to rent some land to continue working outside of the heavily contaminated Iitate village. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, about 40km away. Outside the 20km government exclusion zone, the village’s mountainous topography funneled radiation spewing from its burning reactors trapping it in Iitate and other towns outside the zone poisoning crops , water and livestock. he has been told he must destroy his crops and his six prized Iitate beef cows must be killed.
   
Taking soil samples from a rice field contaminated with Cesium and other radioactive Isotopes to see if the Cesium can be removed by chemical processing. Katsuzo Shoji's (75) his family has worked this Iitate Farm land for more then 6 generations Like the rest of the town's population he is being forced to evacuate. uncertain when he will be able to return to work his farm he was able to rent some land to continue working outside of the heavily contaminated Iitate village. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, about 40km away. Outside the 20km government exclusion zone, the village’s mountainous topography funneled radiation spewing from its burning reactors trapping it in Iitate and other towns outside the zone poisoning crops , water and livestock. he has been told he must destroy his crops and his six prized Iitate beef cows must be killed.
     
  
Katsuzo Shoji's Farm Katsuzo Shoji (75) On the Land he rented on the neighboring town of Date growing only one crop of cabbages, On his Iitate Farm he would grow many vegetable crops and rice. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is about 40km away. Outside the 20km government exclusion zone, the village’s mountainous topography funneled radiation spewing from its burning reactors trapping it in Iitate and other towns outside the zone poisoning crops , water and livestock. he has been told he must destroy his crops and his six prized Iitate beef cows must be killed.
   
Mrs. Sampei Shigeko (72) Has tea in her living room Althouh she has evacuated she continues to return every day to her Farm and house to feed her cats and dog.
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
High tension electric transmition lines downed by the March 2011 Tsunami 25 KM north of Fukushima Diachi Nuclear Power plant.