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This is the moment we face our biggest fears.
Right now, the images of our destroyed cites has struck our imaginations and myths, and broken them into pieces completely.
The moment of the 3/11 Japanese Earthquake was a history changing event for all of us. Because of the M9 earthquake, highest Tsunami wave which overwhelmed 10 meter high dikes and the unimaginable catastrophe of the Fukusima Daiichi Nuke Plant, we Japanese are just stranded, choked and soaked with fears.
We, Japanese citizens, were hand in hand with experts and academics and have been appealing to the government and to the electric companies for over 20 years that there are huge dangers connected with the nuclear electric plants. They must stop operation immediately. We have been promoting the anti-Nuke movement even before the 3/11 Earthquake, then all of a sudden the worst case scenario became reality in front of our very own eyes. The Earthquake and Tsunami revealed the pure fabrication which the electric companies had been telling us, that nuclear plants are completely safe.
Therefore, with this revelation we see who the real victims are; the damaged and paralyzed victims of the incident, and the citizens who have strongly opposed nuclear power. We also see who the perpetrators are; the electric companies, who put profit before safety, and the government, who sit back and let them do it.
However, we can not be brought to a standstill in the midst of this unprecedented catastrophe; we must go into the actual social transformation process rather than just appealing or shouting the slogans. Those who faced the truth should change their behavior. We begin to think how we can set up our co-working relationship and how we can join with those people who are struggling to build the alternative societies and to make their communities self-reliant in Japan and in all the Asian countries.
We, ATJ/APLA have both been working with the people in Asia for the realization of the self -sustainable way of life and establishing the people-oriented economy in the villages, towns and cities. We would like to declare that we will go forward to set up a strong linkage among these people to establish the life and societies without nuclear electric plants from now on.
We, ATJ/APLA, have been connecting Japanese people such as consumer cooperative members, farmers, civil society group members, academics, Christian group members to the Asian rural communities and its people, and vice-versa.Consolidated these working networks, in 2009 in Seoul, Korea, a new social funding system called “Asian people’s Fund for Mutual Benefit (APF)” was established.
In APF, Japanese and Korean consumers co-op members donated money to build this fund’s capital then affiliated Asian NGOs and people’s organizations from the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, East Timor, Papua and Palestine are the primary borrowers for starting their respective social enterprise or businesses in their communities. However after this devastating 3/11 earthquake, those members of APF need to rekindle the splits of “mutual benefit” to strengthen our solidarity and to use our cooperative power in the fight for the “No Nuke Society ” , not only in Asia but also in other regions as well.
Right after the 3/11 disaster, we got two inquiries from our Philippine network.
One is asking us to find out Pilipino migrant worker’s information in those affected areas in Japan. Another was proposing to send banana from Negros Philippines to Japan as an emergency relief good for the victims in Tohoku.
In short those inquiries are proposal to;
(1) Put up an Information Center for the migrant workers from Asia to Japan who may meet the disaster here.
(2) Set up the relief goods or donation receiving and distributing system from Asian countries to Japan.
We, ATJ/APLA in Japan, will set up a web system based on the APF network which will serve for these (1) and (2) purposes effectively and this will also be a first step toward the realization of “Nuclear plant-Free Society” in Asia.
Those who are affiliated to the APF and those who are concerned to the nuclear disaster in Japan, let us be unite and go forward for the Nuke-fee World!!
We need your strong support!!