Message from Kamihara
To the People of the World:
My name is Shou Kamihara. I'm a ghost writer in Japan. Or
should I say, I used to be one. Like the kind Ewan McGregor portrayed in the
2010 movie "Ghost Writer." Essentially I write books for academics, famous
authors, actors and actresses and so on, all the while hiding in the shadows as
a "ghost." But ever since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March
11, 2011, I felt I couldn't be just a ghost anymore. That's because when I
tried to put the events of 3.11 into a book, especially the accident that
occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, I couldn't get anyone to
give me their cooperation. For a long time - 30 or 40 years - the electric
companies have given out large donations and provided sponsorships. This has
created an environment in which academics, authors, and entertainers who
received money or want to receive money can't say anything against those
companies.
Still, I felt there was a need to write about what happened
in Japan, at Fukushima, and the panic that gripped Tokyo. If nobody else is
going to write about it, it's up to me. I can't be a ghost. I decided to show
myself and publish this book.
I began writing this book in September of the same year as
the nuclear accident, 2011, and finally put my pen down in March 2012. Then I
immediately put it out for publication at my own expense. I was getting pretty
far along in talks with some major domestic publishers. The editing departments
supported my efforts and seemed willing to publish. But the people in sales
were the exact opposite.
"We can't publish a book like you wrote, about someone
who fled Tokyo because they were afraid of the radiation. If we put a book like
that out, it would anger our sponsors, and we might lose our income from them.
The risk for loss from our sponsors leaving is greater than the possible
profits we could make off of the book. We can't publish a book about this sort
of thing."
The sponsors they mentioned were mainly those places like
real estate agencies, travel agencies, hotels, rail companies, and Disneyland,
which have their main bases of operation in the Tokyo area. Of course, all of
these companies are in business with their chips on Tokyo, so naturally they'd
want to avoid writing a book about Tokyo's nuclear contamination.
I was turned down in the same way by a number of different
publishing companies. I was on friendly terms with all of these places, having
done business with all of them for more than 10 years. Their decisions caused
me to become depressed. But I truly felt that a book needed to be published
about the disaster on 3.11 and the Fukushima accident, a book that told the
truth without twisting anything. The Japanese mass media - television as well
as newspapers - hadn't told the people anything.
"There is no need for immediate evacuation."
"There is no immediate threat to human health." "There is no
risk to one's health from eating vegetables or meat contaminated by
radiation." "We need to send the contaminated rubble from the
disaster site to (garbage) incinerators all over the country to be burned. This
is the kizuna, the bond, of the Japanese people."
This response of defending the electric companies and
dismissing the issue of their responsibility, underestimating the health risks
of nuclear radiation, and not caring about whether the citizenry is exposed to
radiation or not - in other words, doing nothing to protect the people - has
continued in Japan to this day a year and a half later. The elderly, infants,
pregnant women and so on are being thrown under the bus so that the electric
companies can survive and the politicians can gather votes. As proof that this
is the prevailing attitude, despite the fact that in these 18 months four or
five workers cleaning up the Fukushima plant have suddenly died, they insist
that there is no connection to radiation and there hasn't even been a police
investigation.
Precisely because Japan is in this state, I couldn't afford
to give up on publishing this book.
Therefore, this book was published at my own expense,
meaning I covered all the charges and fees associated with getting it out. This
way no one would be able to complain about anything. But the financial burden
was considerable, and I can't afford to hold promotions to sell this book to
the world like that which a typical author or publisher would. So I advertised
over Twitter and spread news about it through word of mouth.
So somehow I finally got this book published, but there are
still those in Japanese society who brand those worried about radiation
contamination as "abnormal" or "crazy." Aside from those
people who use the Internet to get their information from specialists overseas
or inspect data from the Chernobyl disaster, most people have no source of
information apart from Japanese TV and newspapers.
I want to ask the people all around the world who read this
book to raise your voices to Japan. Please tell Japan that you want them to
protect the elderly, children, and pregnant mothers. As long as there no
movement from outside Japan, Japanese people will almost certainly continue to
pretend they don't notice the radiation and go on with their lives. Please tell
the people of Japan that you wish they'd move west of Tokyo, or even overseas
if possible.
I'm thinking that I'd like to make the first part of this
book (the prologue) open to the public for free. It's perfectly fine if you'd
like to post the entire chapter on your blog, or use quotes to introduce the
book over the Internet. Anyway, I'd like for what's happening in Japan, in
Tokyo, to be as widely known as possible. I would be happy to see the
newspapers, the TV and radio stations, and the publishing companies of the
world take notice of this book, and I hope this information spreads all over
the globe. Maybe that will lead to a change of heart in the Japanese
administration, and they'll begin to place priority on protecting the lives and
health of the citizenry. I would be overjoyed if all those people without power
or voice who are worried about radiation exposure could move to a place where
they don't have to worry anymore.
I don't speak anything but Japanese, so I had this book
translated by Mr. White, who was introduced to me by a mutual friend. Though we
didn't know anything about each other, he was able to sympathize with the
contents of the book and the work moved along smoothly. I'm very thankful for
that.
September 13, 2012
On the veranda of our new home in Kure, Hiroshima
Shou Kamihara
Note from Kamiyama
We are looking for media-related persons who will help us
introduce this book to the rest of the world.
We look forward to hearing from anyone who might be
interested in introducing the first part of this book ( the prologue) or
selected parts of it to their readers/viewers/subscribers, or to the general
public as a whole. Any TV, radio, magazines, or newspapers would be most welcome.
We are also looking for a publisher that would be interested
in publishing this book overseas.
Please contact us at the following e-mail address:
toiawase@genpatsu-hikkoshi.info
Here as well is our official website:
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