by Laura Kenyon / Greenpeace International / February 19, 2012 /
Nearly a year after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, it’s time to take a look at its legacy and take an opportunity to stand in solidarity with the people who continue to suffer the impacts. We’re calling for a nuclear free, renewable future and asking you to join us in sending messages of support and hope to Japan.
The silence and contamination left behind by the Fukushima disaster have been captured in the online photographic exhibit Shadowlands by photographer Robert Knoth. Robert’s haunting photographs of empty villages, deserted schoolyards, and abandoned farmlands not only act as a chilling reminder to us of the costs of nuclear energy, but an impetus to continue demanding a future free from nuclear risk. We also bring the stories of several people whose lives have been seriously disrupted, some of whom live with constant worry about how their children’s health has been affected by radiation.
“For me the exhibition is about the loss of beauty and loss of tradition. Both are kept in high regard in Japan. For around 2000 years the villages now evacuated have been inhabited. With great precision and care people have been adjusting themselves and the landscape into an almost perfect blend. You can see their respect for nature and their environment in the way they build and paint their houses, their gardens and the way the farmers are growing their crops or keep their cattle. Everything deeply rooted within their culture and nature itself. And carefully preserved for centuries. Fukushima made a dramatic impact into the lives and environment of the people living there.”– Quote from photographer Robert Knoth