Mothers and their young children celebrated the traditional July 7 Tanabata Festival outside the prime minister's office in Tokyo where they offered up prayers for a nuclear-free Japan.
Mothers and their young children celebrated the traditional July 7 Tanabata Festival outside the prime minister's office in Tokyo where they offered up prayers for a nuclear-free Japan.
Following the tradition, participants set up bamboo trees at the site of famous Friday night anti-nuclear demonstrations and hung hundreds of strips of paper containing wishes, called "tanzaku," on bamboo branches, praying for eradication of nuclear energy.
"No nuclear power for safer future for children," read one of the wishes.
Among the event organizers was Nonoko Kameyama, a 36-year-old photographer who has taken pictures of mothers and children who have been evacuated to Kyushu and other remote regions from Fukushima Prefecture, home of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. About 500 people attended the event.
Participants appealed for citizens to raise their voices in whatever community they belong and do whatever they can to eliminate nuclear power.