1,000 US High School Students to Do Volunteer Cleanup, Tree-Planting in #Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Ibaraki and Observe Japan's Recovery

Following the footsteps of the students from Middle Tennessee State University, 1,000 high school students from across the United States will be volunteering in the disaster affected Tohoku, in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Ibaraki Prefectures. Activities will include clean-up and planting trees, according to the Japanese government foundation who invited them.

From Japan Times (6/10/2012):

1,000 U.S. high school students to start volunteer work in tsunami zones
Kyodo

Around 1,000 high school students and youths from the United States will visit the Tohoku region in three groups from Sunday to carry out volunteer work in four disaster-hit prefectures at the invitation of the Japan Foundation.

Each group will stay in the country for a fortnight and engage in various exchanges with locals in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, according to the foundation, which specializes in cultural exchanges.

Participants in the program will come from 40 schools across the United States, including areas affected by natural disasters in the past, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The last group will arrive in late July.

Some of the students are from the former schools of two young American teachers killed by the March 2011 tsunami — Taylor Anderson from Virginia and Montgomery Dickson from Alaska — who were teaching English at schools in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and Rikuzentakata in Iwate. Those students will visit both cities, which were devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

All those taking part will also visit Kobe to witness the city's recovery from the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

The above Japan Times article doesn't say much about the students' activities beyond "cultural exchanges", but the Foundation's press release does.

Kyodo News (Japanese) had a PR press release from the Japan Foundation, a government corporation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in April this year announcing the event. According to the PR release the project is called "Kizuna strengthening project". The high school students from all over the US will visit Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima, Ibaraki, and stay for 2 weeks and do volunteer works (cleaning, planting trees, etc.) and mix with local residents in various activities to experience how the recovery is taking place. The first batch of students will stay in the region from June 10 to 23, the second batch from July 1 to 14, and the third (and the last) one from July 8 and 21.

The Foundation and the ministry behind the Foundation are hoping that these young impressionable students will return to the US and start disseminating the positive, happy images of Japan's wonderful recovery from the earthquake and tsunami disaster of March 11, 2011 to "counter baseless rumors and further the understanding of the situation in Japan by the US citizens" (my translation, from their PR piece).

I almost forgot - this "Kizuna strengthening project" will invite the total 10,000 high school and college students from the US and Asia-Pacific region over 1 year period.

For your information, the original meaning of "kizuna" in Japanese is a "rope that ties down the legs of a horse so that it cannot escape". Some say it is to tie down a cow.

(H/T flyingcuttlefish for Japan Times article)

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Middle Tennessee State U. Students Now in #Fukushima, Will Volunteer in Minami Soma (not Soma) City

Remember those students, and a fierce supporter of them who came to this blog to defend them and trash us? They are now in Fukushima Prefecture. And according to the article below, instead of Soma City they will help clean up MINAMI Soma City where, according to Assemblyman Ooyama the "black dust (substance, bacteria, etc.)" exceeding 10 million becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium is found. Part of Minami Soma City was within 20-kilometer radius "no-entry" zone, another part "planned evacuation zone", another part "evacuation-ready zone", meaning it is rather close to the wrecked nuclear power plant.

According to Fukushima Minpo, a local newspaper in Fukushima, the students are learning exactly what the Fukushima prefectural government want them to learn so that they can disseminate "accurate" information about Fukushima to the world.

From Fukushima Minpo (6/7/2012; link added):

福島大が今年度からスタートした短期留学プログラムの第一弾として米国のミドルテネシー州立大の学生が来県し、被災地の現状に理解を深めている。

Students from Middle Tennessee State University in the US have arrived in Fukushima as part of the short-term study program started by Fukushima University this fiscal year. The students are cultivating a better understanding of the situation in the disaster-affected areas.

東京電力福島第一原発事故の現状理解を通して、本県の正確な情報を世界に伝えてもらおうと企画した。同大の学生１０人と教員２人が５日に来県した。

The program is intended to have [foreigners] disseminate accurate information about Fukushima Prefecture to the world through understanding of the situation of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. 10 students and 2 instructors from the University arrived in Fukushima on June 5.

６日は福島大で放射線防護セミナーに臨んだ。福島大うつくしまふくしま未来支援センターの大瀬健嗣特任助教が本県の放射線量の推移や避難区域などを紹介。学生らは「放射性物質の健康へのリスクは」「風評被害払拭（ふっしょく）への取り組みは」と質問していた。

They attended a radiation protection seminar at Fukushima University on June 6. Kenji Oose, specially appointed assistant professor at the Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization at Fukushima University, explained about the change in radiation levels in Fukushima Prefecture and the different evacuation zones. The students were asking questions such as "What are the health risks caused by radioactive materials?" and "What are the measures to eradicate baseless rumors?"

学生は１５日までの滞在期間中、南相馬市でのボランティア活動などを予定している。

During their stay till June 15, the students will do volunteer work in Minami Soma City.

Fukushima University's Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization happily tells us the abbreviation of its name is "FURE" - FU from FUkushima and FUture, RE from REgional and REvitalization. That is a bit unfortunate, for the English speakers might associate FU with something else entirely.

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Group of Students from Middle Tennessee State University to Go to #Fukushima as Disaster Recovery Cleanup Volunteers

From dnj.com (5/31/2012; emphasis is mine):

MURFREESBORO — A contingent of 10 students and two professors from Middle Tennessee State University will leave Nashville early Monday, June 4, to participate in the cleanup and rebuilding mission in Fukushima, Japan.

Three of the students are from Rutherford County: Bridgette Gleaves of Smyrna and Mark Wester and Justin Bingham, both of Murfreesboro.

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale created a tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people and left more than 3,000 missing on the main island of Honshu. In addition, ocean waves engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, sending three reactors into meltdown.

“MTSU has assessed the current situation and consulted with Fukushima University,” said David Schmidt, vice provost for international affairs. “At no time while engaged in program-related activities will students be in areas where the U.S. government recommends its citizens avoid travel.”

The triple catastrophe left behind an estimated 23 million tons of debris in the hardest-hit coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures alone. The Japanese government announced Feb. 21 that the country has cleaned up only five percent of the rubble more than a year later.

The MTSU students will hear presentations from Fukushima University students, work with other volunteers to clear debris and prepare meals in the Soma district. At the program’s conclusion, they will exchange observations with the Fukushima students.

Not only are the MTSU students intrigued by the opportunity to witness a national disaster firsthand, but they are compelled to help by persistent images of the damaged lives left behind.

“I remember a Japanese woman crying over her lost family member at a function I went to in Nashville,” says Preston Nalls, a mass-communication major from Franklin. “All I could do was just watch … as other Japanese comforted her. I didn’t know her, so although I felt compelled to say something, I just clenched my fist and grieved for her from afar,” he said in a press release.

“Sure, we are only going to Fukushima, but that will resonate all over Japan,” adds Justin Bingham, a liberal-studies major from Murfreesboro. “So, in a way, we 10 students are going to help an entire nation. That’s something worth smiling about,” he said in a press release.

Each student will pay a fee of $1,000 to cover all instruction fees, lodging and international airfare from Nashville to Japan. The group is slated to return June 15.

This education-abroad program is a joint effort of MTSU International Affairs and Fukushima University with support from the Japanese Ministry of Education. For more information, contact the MTSU Office of International Affairs at 615-904-8190 or Schmidt at david.schmidt@mtsu.edu.

"Sure, we are only going to Fukushima, but that will resonate all over Japan"... It may, but it may not be in the way he thinks.

(H/T Enformable)

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