With all the excitement over the death of Osama Bin Laden, the UN’s military intervention in Libya and other news related to the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, the Royal Wedding in Britain and the recent blow to any possibility of electoral reform to our antiquated democratic system, and of course, last weekend’s Nippon Connection, it seems that the ongoing situation in the north of Japan has well and truly slipped off the international news radar.
I’m not going to attempt to broach any of these other subjects above, but it dawned on me that I haven’t been posting any of Ian Thomas Ash’s latest videos from the area recently. Admittedly, his own updates have been fewer and further between recently, but in the absence of any other news coverage over here, they’re getting increasingly more interesting and relevant.
Here, then, are two of Ian’s recent updates. The first, in which he travels to the affected city of Ishishinomaki, is about a month old now, and we actually screened it at the Zipangu Fest charity fundraiser before the various animations by CALF. The second, just uploaded yesterday, sees Ian visiting the town of Minamisoma, first entering the evacuation zone 20-30 km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
There’s actually been a number of further videos posted by Ian over the past month, and the In the Radiation Zone: The Children of Minamisoma City video is being uploaded in further instalments, so I strongly recommend you visit Ian’s Youtube channel Documenting Ian if you want to take a look at some of the ones I’ve not put on this website. Ian has also been contributing a number of entries to his blog detailing what’s been going on behind the scenes while he’s been shooting his video bulletins.
Here seems a good time to mention, before we watch the videos, the amazing job done by the Nippon Connection team with their Help Japan! project, with a great party last Saturday and profits from the screenings earning a lot of money for the cause. Details about this in German can be found here.
And finally, if you want to make a donation to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund here in the UK, follow this link here.
Ishinomaki City, after the tsunami, 27 March 2011
In the Radiation Zone: The Children of Minamisoma City, Part 1, 5 May 2011
Posted at 15:31 on 06 May 2011
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