August 6, 2020. Seventy-five years ago, the cruellest and most horrifying event in Japanese history happened. The world’s first atomic bomb was dropped, and killed many precious lives in Hiroshima, in addition to more lives in Nagasaki, on the 9th.
I was watching the news of the atomic bomb’s incident like the usual this time of the year. –How can we live in a more peaceful world? I thought. At the same time, I was grateful to the world where the Third World War had not yet occurred despite 2020 being the year of chaos.
But for some reason, this year felt different from the usual year. Suddenly, the incidence of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, 9 years ago, came to my mind. The reason may be simply because the words “nuclear bomb” and “nuclear power plant” were similar. Then I thought about the pets and livestock that probably are still left alone in the radioactive site after all these years. – I’ve seen so many episodes of people who were affected by the disaster, but what about animals?
I was curious, so I searched up: “Fukushima; nuclear power plant; dog” and clicked on the first site that appeared.
It didn’t take more than a minute to find myself taking a deep breath with confusion and surprise after reading the article. Regrettably, I cannot post the pictures on here since all of them are forbidden to reprint without permission. However, there were endless lines of photos of starving, skeletonized dogs and cows. They most certainly look more realistic and tragic than any dead bodies in zombie movies you can name.
A number of dog bodies lying on the roadside, wearing dirty collars, loose on their emaciated necks. Were they looking for food or their owner? The wildflowers that were blooming around them seemed to be mourning their lonely deaths.
A dead dog was lying in a figure of trying to escape from the muddy chain, which attached so heavy on its bony body, right next to the tattered kennel labelled “Koro”. His final expression was buried and infested with countless maggots. His eyes were reflecting no light and I felt like he was glaring at me in sadness and enmity.
Another dog was also lying dead with its mouth wide open, perhaps because it passed away after barking and crying with all the energy it had left. It is also connected to a rusted chain. –It probably wanted to run away, it probably wanted to live, it probably wanted to find its beloved owner, but it couldn’t move any further because of the sturdy chain, keeping it in the living hell until the death finally comes.
No matter how desperate you move your legs, you never move an inch. No matter how loud you call for help, no one comes or even realizes.
How scary is that?
… I can’t even imagine. I couldn’t help but think that this picture was also strongly appealing something that I cannot put into words.
Unfortunately, this tragedy wasn’t only for pets but also livestock.
Some of their lives were not natural deaths due to starvation, but were taken by humans for human convenience; After the disaster, many of livestock were slaughtered for breaking into private houses in search of food for hunger.
With courage, I scroll further.
The next photo shows a dead cow buried in muddy manure, which I mistook for muddy water or cement at first glance. And a stunned cow, who has no choice but to sit next to the corpse. To be honest, I got goosebumps when I saw this photo – it is covered in their manure and just waiting for the time to die.
What were they thinking when they were about to die? I have no way to know the answer, but I can’t help thinking.
It is brutally ironic that manure is still excreted and end up burying itself and dies although there is nothing to eat. Did the cow resent humans for what we’ve done to them?
– Of course, after the disaster, there have been countless owners who wished to go to save their pets and livestock.
However, contrary to their earnest wishes, the government put a “no admittance” sign at the entrance to their whereabouts.
I don’t think that decision was wrong.
Even after 9 years, accumulated radiation remains, and I understand the reasons for them prioritising human life. It may have been the best choice for a national representative, and for the people that were irrelevant in this tragedy.
But, what I can’t forgive, is that there was no single public report on this.
After reading the article, I wondered why these pages of painful truths are not known to anyone at all. The same thing may not happen if it spreads even a little more. Sadly and embarrassingly, humans repeat history over and over again.
Why is that?
I think one of the reasons is that the failures are often kept secret and unknown. Hence, if we take each failure seriously and change it little by little, I believe we will not have to make the same mistake someday.
It may be important for us humans to reconsider the mistakes of the past in order to achieve the “bright future”, where coexistence with animals, not only pets, and for the future without a war.
And perhaps, it is our duty to live and pass on those appalling events to the next generation, and never forget them.
“In one corner of the barn full of manure, there was a skeletonized cow corpse. On the brown manure, a white mark was left on the lying cow.
When I squinted at what this white thing was, it was the ashes infested with a horde of maggots. Now I thought that only the remained bones were the proof that the cow was alive, but more than that, the “shadow” that left a white mark on the cow lying down was the one that strongly impressed what was happening here.
The “shadow”, though there was a difference between white and black, reminded me of a person who died after leaving the proof of his life as a black figure on the wall with the flash of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima (Human Shadow Etched in Stone).
A black shadow carved by artificial causes and a white shadow left by natural causes. What they both have in common is that humans have ordered lives, and as a result, the lives that are located at the bottom have become “shadows” instead of “lives”.
And, perhaps, humans also order these shadows. The black shadow is on the top, the white shadow is on the bottom, and so on.
Animals have no choice but to remain silent because they are not able to use human language. Humans seem to be free from all responsibilities just because they are not able to use the language of animals.
– Animal Club Ishinomaki http://a-c.sub.jp/fukushima.html