A citizens group in Hiroshima has produced an anime that realistically portrays the harrowing experiences of Fukushima firefighters as they attempted to rescue victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
“Munen Namie-machi Shobodan Monogatari” (The vexing tale of volunteer firefighters of Namie) shows the struggle of firefighters whose rescue efforts were impeded by the crisis that unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
Hitohisa Takano, one of the volunteer firefighters portrayed in the film, said he joined the anime project so he would not forget the mortification he felt when he could not save a tsunami survivor in the Ukedo district, one of the hardest-hit areas in the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture.
After the magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami struck the coast of Tohoku on March 11, 2011, Takano headed to Ukedo to look for survivors.
Takano, now 54, said he heard a tapping sound emanating from a mountain of debris.
“I heard a groan, not words,” he said. “There was somebody there still alive.”
Takano hurried to the town hall to recruit his colleagues and secure heavy machinery to rescue the survivor.
But they could not return to the site that day because of the possibility of another tsunami striking the coast.
The rescue operation had to be put off until early the next morning.
But the next morning Takano was shocked when he was told the rescue operation had been scrapped because the entire town of Namie, with a population of 18,700, had to evacuate because of the developing crisis at the nearby plant.
“I could not save people I should have and had to flee,” Takano said. “I regret that. The culprit of all of this is the nuclear power plant.”
Five years after the onset of the nuclear disaster, Namie remains evacuated and resembles a ghost town.
“Munen Namie-machi Shobodan Monogatari” was organized and produced by Hiroshima’s Machimonogatri Seisaku Iinkai (The committee of producing a tale of a town).
Led by Hidenobu Fukumoto, the committee made the anime so that people throughout Japan could gain a better understanding about how people coped with the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in the immediate aftermath.
A preview of the nearly completed anime was shown in the prefectural capital of Fukushima in January to seek feedback from Namie evacuees before the completed version was cut.
Takano said he was baffled by several sequences toward the end.
They portrayed a series of events that took place after the nuclear crisis, which included the disposal of vegetables from the prefecture and the removal of a large sign touting nuclear energy as the engine for the future in Futaba, a town that co-hosts the crippled nuclear power plant with Okuma.
The clip that bothered Takano was that of a nuclear engineer in Tokyo on business who returned to Fukushima Prefecture soon after the accident occurred.
“I, and others, are responsible for this,” the engineer said in the film.
The scene was created based on an account of a resident of Okuma.
Takano said the scene goes too easy on Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator.
“Frankly speaking, they are our enemies,” he said at the preview event. “Such scenes are in conflict with the anime’s title.”
Fukumoto, however, said the anime should cover the circumstances of as many individuals as possible, including those who worked for TEPCO, as well as those who received compensation for the accident.
“It is meaningful for us to portray a realistic picture of the stricken people for a national audience now that people in Fukushima Prefecture have become estranged from one another,” Fukumoto said.
A man from Namie reminded those at the preview that his town is not simply a victim of the disaster.
“There are many families in Namie who worked in the nuclear industry,” he said.
In February, about 15 people, including Takano, gathered at a studio in Fukushima for dubbing the final version of the film.
After holding a moment of silence for the victims of the disaster, the recording started.
“In this scene, we called out, knowing that there were actually people out there,” Takano said, giving instructions to others to make the scene sound as realistic as possible. “So we should sound tense.”
Despite disagreements over some scenes, they all related to the lines: “We lost our hometown. We are suffering and perplexed at what happened to us in the disaster.”
The 54-minute film will be available on DVD to be loaned for viewing events nationwide.