Author's experience with locals broadens view of Fukushima(被災地、無意識に差別 = 復興の道標・ゆがみの構図)

 
The last scene of picture book "Fukushima Kara Kita Ko Sotsugyo" depicts a girl named Maya beign welceomed by her classmates after returning to Fukushima Prefecture. = @Haruno Matsumoto(「ふくしまからきた子 そつぎょう」のラストシーン。避難先から帰った「まや」が同級生たちに迎えられる=絵・松本春野)

 "I can't open the book -- it's too painful for me."
 Picture book artist Haruno Matsumoto was startled when she heard this comment on her work from a reader in Fukushima Prefecture.
 The book was "Fukushima Kara Kita Ko" (A child from Fukushima), a picture book published by Iwasaki Publishing Co. in 2012. "What's wrong with my book?" a puzzled Matsumoto asked herself at the time.

 「つらくて、本が開けません」。絵本作家松本春野(31)=東京都=は、自作に寄せられた県民からの声にはっとした。2012(平成24)年に出版された「ふくしまからきた子」(岩崎書店)への感想だ。「何がいけなかったの?」。その時は分からなかった。

 Matsumoto is a granddaughter of Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974), a picture book artist known for her water-color illustrations of children.
 The 32-year-old artist, who lives in Tokyo, started to do research for a story in Fukushima Prefecture in summer 2011 after hearing that outdoor activities were limited for children in the prefecture due to the fear of radiation after the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in 2011.
  "I wanted to do something for them as a picture book artist," she said.

  松本は、子どもの水彩画で知られる絵本画家いわさきちひろ(本名松本知弘(ちひろ)、1918~74年)の孫だ。東京電力福島第1原発事故後、放射線の不安で本県の子どもが外遊びを制限されていると知った。「絵本作家としてできることをしたい」。その夏から県内で取材を始めた。

 The book is about a girl named Maya, who evacuated with her mother to Hiroshima from Fukushima Prefecture. "We couldn't swim in the swimming pool this summer," Maya says in the book. "And the annual athletic meet was not held."
 Matsumoto's book included an antinuclear message directed at children because she was skeptical that living in Fukushima was really safe, she said.

 「ふくしまからきた子」は、本県から広島市に「母子避難」した「まや」が「ことしのなつはプールにもはいれなかった うんどうかいもなくなった」と語る。子どもに向けた「反核」のメッセージも込めた。「本当に福島で暮らして大丈夫なのか」との思いがあった。

 After hearing criticisms of the work, Matsumoto continued to interview people in Fukushima Prefecture.She learned that school officials held frequent discussions after checking doses of radiation, and finally allowed children to swim in pools and play outside.

 作品に対する批判的な声を踏まえ、県内で取材を続けた。学校関係者が線量を測った上で議論を重ね、プールや外遊びの再開にこぎ着けていった経緯を知った。

 "Local people began questioning my concerns a long time ago and have been taking measures to overcome their problems," Matsumoto said. "Perhaps the reason I didn't know the reality was that I had been too self-centered. Without realizing, I was thinking, 'I'm the one who knows the truth.'"

 「私が疑問に思うことは全て、現地の人はとっくに疑い、対策を議論していた。そんな当然のことが分からなかったのは『真実を知っているのは自分の方』とのおごりが無意識にあったからかもしれない」

 Matsumoto realized that she was trying to characterize Fukushima as a disaster-affected area without understanding the actual circumstances surrounding the local people.

 個々の事情を理解せず、福島を被災地として象徴化しようとしていたことに気付いた。

 Smiles drawn in sequel book

  "Welcome back, Maya!" Maya's classmates tell her after she returns to Fukushima Prefecture in the sequel to Matsumoto's first book. The sequel -- "Fukushima Kara Kita Ko Sotsugyo " (A child from Fukushima: Graduation) -- ends with Maya being welcomed by smiling classmates after her return.
 The sequel was published in February last year.

  続編に描いた笑顔

  「まやちゃん、おかえり」。昨年2月、続編「ふくしまからきた子 そつぎょう」を出版した。まやが避難先から本県に戻り、同級生に迎えられるシーンで物語は終わる。はじけるような笑顔をちりばめた。

 In March last year, Matsumoto joined an antinuclear meeting, where she delivered a speech. "I believe we should learn more from the people of Fukushima," Matsumoto stressed in her speech.

  昨年3月には、東京で開かれた反原発運動の集会でスピーチに立った。「私たちはもっと、福島に暮らす人々の声から学ぶべきなのではないでしょうか」

 Around five years have passed since the accident at the nuclear power plant, triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. One stereotypical view from outside the prefecture -- "We feel sorry for children in Fukushima Prefecture as they are being made part of the government's nuclear safety campaign" -- has hurt the people in Fukushima Prefecture.

 原発事故から4年10カ月。「『政府の安全PR』に加担させられている、かわいそうな福島の子どもたち」などと単純化された外部からの視点が、県民を傷付けてきた。

 An October 2015 road-cleaning event organized by a nonprofit organization among citizens in the prefecture, some of whom were middle and high school students, drew about 1,000 angry criticisms, including one characterizing the event as "a murderous attempt" and another calling the organizers "traitors."
 The NPO Happy Road Net based in Hirono, Fukushima Prefecture, held the cleaning event along National Highway Route 6 with other organizations.
  However, when the NPO announced the event, it received phone calls, e-mails and faxes demanding the event be canceled. Some opponents showed up at the event with dosimeters and took pictures of children.

 脅迫まがいの事件も起きた。昨年10月、NPO法人ハッピーロードネット(広野町)などが企画し中高生も参加した国道6号の清掃活動。募集を始めた後に「殺人行為だ」「お前は国賊か」など清掃活動の中止を求める電話やメール、ファクスが団体に届き、その数は千件を超えた。活動に反対する人たちは清掃当日、現地にもやってきて、線量計を手に子どもたちの写真を撮っていった。

 During the event, adults cleaned an area where an evacuation order was still in place, as well as Naraha, where the order was recently lifted, while students cleaned mainly the routes to and from school in Hirono, where radiation doses are low.
 However, people who sent the angry comments did not even know the current radiation dose in Hirono.

 避難区域や昨年避難指示が解除されたばかりの楢葉町は大人が担当し、中高生は線量が低い広野町の通学路などを清掃したが、寄せられたメッセージは、広野の放射線量の現状すら理解していなかった。

 "Some people will not listen to what we say, but I felt it's important to keep telling ordinary people living outside Fukushima Prefecture how we are spending our daily lives," said Yumiko Nishimoto, 62, chief director of the NPO.

  「聞く耳を持たない人もいるだろうが、県外の一般の人たちに、私たちの日常の生活を伝えていくことが必要と感じた」。NPO理事長の西本由美子(62)は振り返る。

 Matsumoto said she heard from a homemaker in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, that an education campaign is under way in the prefecture to provide residents with appropriate knowledge about radiation and other problems so they can explain the facts when subjected to discrimination by people living outside the prefecture.

  将来、県外の人から差別的に見られた時、放射線の正しい知識などに基づいて説明できるような教育が県内で始まっていることを、松本は二本松市の主婦から聞いた。

 Matsumoto was shocked to hear that people not living in Fukushima Prefecture harbor unconscious feelings of discrimination. "Has this resulted from what we did after the accident at the nuclear power plant?" she asked.

( Translated by The Japan News )

 衝撃を受けた。県外の人が無意識に差別に加担する構図が頭に浮かんだ。「原発事故後、私たちがしてきたことの結果がこれなのか」(文中敬称略)

 【 2016年1月31日・本紙掲載 】