Nuclear power is not mentioned in the children's picture book "Hikari no Ryu" (The dragon of light), but there's no mistaking the ominous message of a happy tale turned tragic by an unanticipated quirk of nature.
Nuclear power is not mentioned in the children's picture book "Hikari no Ryu" (The dragon of light), but there's no mistaking the ominous message of a happy tale turned tragic by an unanticipated quirk of nature.
The book, which features a dragon as a metaphor for nuclear power, provokes readers to ponder the prickly issue of nuclear power generation in the aftermath of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011.
“The issue of nuclear power tends to divide the public,” said Miyuki Ono, a freelance writer who put together "Hikari no Ryu." “I am hoping that the book will become a catharsis for children and parents to contemplate what went wrong with nuclear power, rather than debating the pros and cons of the issue.”
The book, published by Ehonjuku Publishing Co. in Tokyo, revolves around a dragon that was brought to one of the kingdom’s villages.
When the dragon gobbles a special stone, it emits the light of seven colors. The illumination brightens the night, keeps villagers warm in winter and sets a factory in motion.
“This dragon is the god,” the king declares.
The village flourishes.
Subsequently, state ministers and merchants keep forcing the dragon to consume more stones, although it appears to be causing it great pain.
One day, lightning strikes the dragon’s stable, rupturing the beast’s swollen belly. Toxins flow from its injured stomach, engulfing the village and forcing villagers to flee to another village.
One of the evacuees, a boy, asks the question: “What went wrong?”
Is it the king’s fault? Or the state ministers’? Or the merchants’? Or all the villagers who wanted to have a source of light?
Ono, 29, usually writes travel and interview pieces.
But she decided to publish a picture book on nuclear power generation as she feared that following the Fukushima disaster, many parents are anxious about the issue of nuclear power and feel that their knowledge of the question is limited.
So, Ono launched an online fund-raising campaign in March 2012 to fund the project.
She raised about 700,000 yen ($5,932) from 203 people, more than the target of 430,000 yen.
She also turned to the Internet to enlist staff members for the project. Kyoko Hidaka, an illustrator, did the drawings.
Ono interviewed a wide range of people, including evacuees, scientists and engineers in the nuclear industry, in working on the plot.
Listening to them made her realize the enormity of the question she was trying to tackle in a picture book.
“It turned out to be more complicated and larger than I had thought,” she said. “I was at a loss.”
After thinking long and hard about it, she decided not to provide an answer to the boy’s question: “What went wrong?”
“It seemed dangerous to pin the blame just on certain people,” Ono said.
The picture book was completed in March. The online version, with background music, was released in July at a cost of 800 yen, while a print version was put out in December, priced at 1,404 yen.
Born in the capital, Ono has been a user of electricity generated at the beleaguered plant, which was operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., a utility that serves the Tokyo metropolitan area.
“Many people have begun to feel uncomfortable discussing the nuclear issue because it is contentious,” she said. “But I am going to continue to pay close attention to the nuclear issue as a Tokyo resident who has benefited from electricity generated in Fukushima.”
Ono will donate part of the proceeds from sales of the picture book to the Great East Japan Earthquake Recovery Initiatives Foundation, an entity tasked with supporting the rebuilding of the Tohoku region.
For more information about the picture book, call Ehonjuku Publishing at 03-5269-2891.