New Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish has been compared to baseball legends and rock stars. But now he is being compared to cesium.
New Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish has been compared to baseball legends and rock stars. But now he is being compared to cesium.
"Cesium is Darvish, and potassium-40 is like when (our classmate) Shogo throws the ball,” an elementary school pupil said. “Cesium hurts more."
A classmate said, "They're both radioactive substances, but cesium is worse for your body."
Children at Koriyama Akagi Elementary School in Fukushima Prefecture are learning about radiation based on a picture book produced by one of the teachers.
Tomoyuki Bannai, 43, says his book, "Hoshasen ni Nanka, Makenai zo!" (We won't let radiation beat us!), is intended to teach children how to think on their own about radiation.
He asks his general studies class of fourth-graders at the school a number of questions about radiation, including the differences between cesium and potassium.
When he asks the pupils what they should do about radioactive substances in food, they reply that they would choose food with smaller amounts because radiation has more of an impact on children’s health.
The elementary school is located about 60 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The school’s contaminated topsoil was removed and the drainage ditches decontaminated at the end of last May. First-semester classes were held with the windows shut.
After the nuclear disaster started in March last year, Bannai, who majored in Earth science at university and developed a deep interest in radiation, turned his attention to the vulnerable junior high and high school students he saw walking about.
He felt that rather than making rules to protect children, it would be more important to teach them how to think for themselves. He posted a message on Twitter: "I want to make a textbook. Can anyone help?"
He soon received a response from illustrator Misato Yugi, 47, who publishes a series of drawings that depict invisible radiation as "red grains."
It took them two weeks after first meeting online to produce the book. Collaborating via e-mail, the two produced an A3-sized pamphlet called "Minna de Fusego Hoshasen" (Let's protect ourselves from radiation together).
In April, Bannai started to distribute the text to children and released it on the Internet. That led to talks with publisher TaroJiro Co., which published the book at the end of last year.
Bannai inserted topics of interest to children, such as whether radiation was contagious and where the radioactive substances go.
He asked Shinzo Kimura, an associate professor at Dokkyo Medical University, to be the editor.
The table of contents includes sections such as: "What are external and internal exposure?"; and "Why do we have to be careful about food?"
Bannai is using the picture book to complement supplementary reading materials on radiation that the education ministry created in October.
Children take away various impressions from the lessons and textbook.
"I've started watching the news because now I understand radiation from listening to Mr. Bannai," said one.
Another pupil said, "I talk to my mom about it in the bath and tell her stuff like what foods have lots of radioactive substances."
Nuclear experts have differing opinions about the health effects from long-term exposure to low levels of radiation.
But Bannai said his book is not intended to scare children nor reassure them.
"Just because you don't know doesn't mean you don't have to teach it,” he said. “Adults and children should think together and get the strength to confront reality."
The book includes his message to children: "Radiation is going to stay a part of our lives in the decades to come. That's why you need to know more about radiation than any other elementary school pupils in the world so you can create your own future."