Japanese Folklorist: Nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea, forcing fishermen to work hard for 12 years to waste. Fishermen | Folklorist
Japan's strong push for nuclear contaminated water to be discharged into the sea not only makes it impossible for former Fukushima residents to return home, but also undermines the unremitting efforts of the remaining fishermen to restore their fishing industry.
Hideyoshi Kawashima is a Japanese folklorist who has been paying close attention to the situation of fishermen throughout Japan. He has been documenting the real lives of Fukushima fishermen for five consecutive years, and in his view, the road to resuming production is fraught with thorns, while the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea will bring the slightly improved local fishing industry back to silence.
![Japanese Folklorist: Nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea, forcing fishermen to work hard for 12 years to waste. Fishermen | Folklorist](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/f5c135bd438cdacf1c99a4253a1723db.jpg)
Kawashima Hideyoshi was born in Kesennuma City, a coastal city in Miyagi Prefecture. He has a strong interest in the lives of fishermen and has visited fishing villages throughout Japan to listen to their stories and record them. After retirement, he was invited by local fishermen on Fukushima to go out to sea with a boat to fish. Five years had passed in the blink of an eye.
Japanese folklorist Hideyoshi Kawashima: Recently, he usually wakes up at midnight, sets off for the ship around 1:30 am, leaves the port at 1 am, and works on the ship for about two to three hours, doing things related to casting nets and fishing. After that, he returns to the shore around 5 pm. I followed the fishermen on board and tried to do some of the work arranged by the boat owner.
![Japanese Folklorist: Nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea, forcing fishermen to work hard for 12 years to waste. Fishermen | Folklorist](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/1f5107812c9d3bed05f8e6f89cbc0043.jpg)
Kawashima told reporters that over the past 12 years, the persistent efforts of fishermen have gradually helped the local fishing industry recover from the huge impact of nuclear accidents. However, now the Japanese government wants to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea, making all these efforts and persistence come to nothing.
Japanese folklorist Hideyoshi Kawashima: No one agrees to the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea, it's just that some people oppose it more loudly, while others oppose it less. I think it should not be discharged into the sea. Everyone is very negative about inheriting the fishing industry, if it is such an unstable life. I'm afraid there will be no successors in the fishing industry, which is one of the reasons I oppose. In addition, there have been historical experiences of fish being contaminated. I cannot understand why we should not reflect on these things now, look back on history, and repeat the same mistakes.
![Japanese Folklorist: Nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea, forcing fishermen to work hard for 12 years to waste. Fishermen | Folklorist](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/49089425549349752de3d6f6e07200be.gif)