Hiroshima Semipalatinsk Project
May 13, 2014
Support for radiation victims in Kazakhstan
by Maiko Hanaoka, Junior Writer
The country of Kazakhstan is located on Russia’s southern border. From 1949 through 1989, during the Soviet era, more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site there. A local citizens’ group, the Hiroshima Semipalatinsk Project, provides medical assistance to radiation victims in Kazakhstan and organizes exchanges with them.
Set up in 1998, the project was inspired by an initiative under which community centers in the city lent their support to athletes from countries participating in the Asian Games held in Hiroshima in 1994. Every year the project provides support to Kazakhstan by donating medical supplies and accepting students from there. Last year the group sent leukemia medicine to Kazakhstan, and a student from that country is now attending Hiroshima Sanyo Jogakuen. Most of the group’s members are doctors or the children of survivors of the atomic bombing.
Chieko Kobatake, 62, deputy director of the group, said she was shocked to learn that many of the villagers living near the test site were unaware that they had been exposed to radiation over a long period of time and that doctors were pressured by the government to keep it quiet. Last summer, members of the group attended a memorial ceremony in a peace park outside the city of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk) and laid flowers there. Ms. Kobatake said, “I sensed the significance of what we have been doing over the years. It was very moving.”
Japan now possesses far more uranium and plutonium than was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there is no prescribed method for the disposal of nuclear waste produced at nuclear power plants. “Radiation can never be entirely eliminated, even after millions of years,” Ms. Kobatake said. “It’s important to speak up and call for an end to nuclear power generation.”
I learned that there are various radiation victims around the world, and many people are providing support to them. There is no telling when or where an earthquake will occur and cause an accident like the one that happened in Fukushima. So we must learn as much as we can about nuclear issues and convey our ideas to others.
(Originally published on May 12, 2014)
by Maiko Hanaoka, Junior Writer
The country of Kazakhstan is located on Russia’s southern border. From 1949 through 1989, during the Soviet era, more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site there. A local citizens’ group, the Hiroshima Semipalatinsk Project, provides medical assistance to radiation victims in Kazakhstan and organizes exchanges with them.
Set up in 1998, the project was inspired by an initiative under which community centers in the city lent their support to athletes from countries participating in the Asian Games held in Hiroshima in 1994. Every year the project provides support to Kazakhstan by donating medical supplies and accepting students from there. Last year the group sent leukemia medicine to Kazakhstan, and a student from that country is now attending Hiroshima Sanyo Jogakuen. Most of the group’s members are doctors or the children of survivors of the atomic bombing.
Chieko Kobatake, 62, deputy director of the group, said she was shocked to learn that many of the villagers living near the test site were unaware that they had been exposed to radiation over a long period of time and that doctors were pressured by the government to keep it quiet. Last summer, members of the group attended a memorial ceremony in a peace park outside the city of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk) and laid flowers there. Ms. Kobatake said, “I sensed the significance of what we have been doing over the years. It was very moving.”
Japan now possesses far more uranium and plutonium than was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there is no prescribed method for the disposal of nuclear waste produced at nuclear power plants. “Radiation can never be entirely eliminated, even after millions of years,” Ms. Kobatake said. “It’s important to speak up and call for an end to nuclear power generation.”
I learned that there are various radiation victims around the world, and many people are providing support to them. There is no telling when or where an earthquake will occur and cause an accident like the one that happened in Fukushima. So we must learn as much as we can about nuclear issues and convey our ideas to others.
(Originally published on May 12, 2014)
