FUKUSHIMA--A choir that takes inspiration from the Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly has found fame in his native land with the release of a documentary featuring the members singing in the local language while images about the Fukushima nuclear disaster are shown.
FUKUSHIMA--A choir that takes inspiration from the Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly has found fame in his native land with the release of a documentary featuring the members singing in the local language while images about the Fukushima nuclear disaster are shown.
The hour-long documentary was produced by Hungary's state-run TV broadcaster and aired in the country last November.
One viewer said the film provided an insight into the way people affected by the nuclear catastrophe are struggling to move forward as the fourth anniversary of the March 11, 2011, accident approaches.
The Fukushima Kodaly Choir sings only Hungarian compositions in the documentary, which starts out with footage of tsunami-stricken Iwaki, a coastal city to the south of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, to the gentle tune of "Evening Song" by Kodaly.
The folk song is said to express the essence of the Hungarian soul, one laid bare by numerous conquests over the centuries that gave the country in central Europe a sense of isolation.
Kodaly (1882-1967) is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodaly Method, essentially a set of principles to follow in music education.
The film also features scenes of decontamination work as well as a member of the choir from Minami-Soma, a city along the coast and to the north of the plant, driving along a road piled high with radioactive soil from the cleanup operation. There is also footage of the sun setting, as viewed from makeshift housing where evacuees have been living since they fled from their communities.
In a close-up, one member of the choir describes the agonizing decision to flee even though the government had not formally issued an evacuation order.
“My relationship with many people I know has been severed,” the individual says. “I knew many people in our community. It is so frustrating (I had to leave).”
The choir was formed in 1987, mainly by members of a class taught by Miyako Furiya, a music instructor at Fukushima University back then.
The group performs Hungarian choral pieces as well as traditional folk songs from Japan and the Indonesian island of Bali.
After residents fled to makeshift evacuation centers following the nuclear crisis triggered by the earthquake and tsunami, the choir began visiting the shelters to offer encouragement.
One song that choir members suggested singing together was “Furusato” (My country home), a Japanese children’s song.
But few evacuees joined them in singing that song.
“We wanted to put everybody in better spirits by enjoying music through singing together,” Furiya said of the group’s aim. “But it was the one song, more than any other, that drove home to evacuees the loss of their hometown. We realized how thoughtless we were.”
Furiya was determined to convey the reality of Fukushima to a wider audience.
This led her to reach out to Hungarian friends about giving a concert in their country to communicate the suffering of people in Fukushima through songs. The concert went ahead in March 2012.
The first song the choir performed was the one whose title roughly translates as “What are words?” It was composed by Gyorgy Kurtag, who is Hungarian, based on a passage written by an aphasiac poet.
“We could not find right words to convey our suffering despite our determination to get people to understand what was going on in Fukushima Prefecture,” Furiya recalled in picking that particular song. “Our feeling of helplessness was what we wanted to share (with the audience).”
The concert led to the project to shoot the documentary.
At the end of the film, one of the Hungarian directors involved in the project asks about the significance of remaining in Fukushima Prefecture.
Hiroko Saito, a 53-year-old elementary school teacher who leads the choir, replies: “There is not one person who is not aware that Fukushima Prefecture is contaminated with radiation. People just try not to think about it. What we can do as members of society is not to forget Fukushima and raise children in a way that they can also relate to the distressed people beyond the prefecture.”
Saito added: “Since we experienced the agony of having to leave our hometown, we are now able to have a better understanding of how people are feeling in Hungary, even if it is a country far away from Japan.”