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Fukushima: The Aftermath

March 13th, 2014
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News from Berlin. Approximately thirty people have congregated at the Story of Berlin Museum. It is warm outside and the sun is shining. Nevertheless, the audience has gathered indoors at the Ku’damm Karree in Berlin to witness ‘Fukushima: The Aftermath’, an event commemorating the anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Japan three years ago.

Akira Ando, the organiser of the event, aims to raise awareness and express his concerns regarding the situation in Japan. Ando was born in Yokohama, which lies 200 kilometres further from Fukushima. After spending time in New York, he came to Berlin to further his career in music. His mother and brother still live in Yokohama, a fact which worries him greatly. In our interview with him, he highlights how dangerous the situation in and around Fukushima is with many areas still uninhabitable due to the radiation from the destroyed power plant. For him, the actions of politicians and policymakers in response to the crisis have not been enough. ‘Japan is the only country to have experienced so many nuclear disasters with the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and now Fukushima’, he claims. It is therefore incomprehensible for him why Japan does not strive towards a state without nuclear power.

His discontentment and desire to promote awareness has led to the event today. ‘Fukushima: The Aftermath’ involves 20 acts with more than 60 artists conducting shows ranging from jazz concerts, dance performances, poetry readings and films. Fittingly, the venue is located near an old nuclear bunker which aims to remind us of the prevalent dangers in Fukushima and nuclear power in general. As jazz keyboarder and ICD regular Darnell Stephen Summers stated before he began his music set: ‘Fukushima is not for dreamers/Fukushima is damn sure for real’.

Berlin Global

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