The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| From tsunami-wrecked town to winter Games Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:57 PM PDT The 18-year-old's move to the big stage comes just three winters after she took up cross-country skiing, clutching a single pole in her right hand. She skied six kilometres and fired off 10 rifle shots to finish 13th in the woman's short standing biathlon on Saturday in her Paralympic debut on Russia's Black Sea coast. Tomorrow, three years to the day after monster waves ravaged Japan's northeast coast, Abe will tune up on the eve of another battle – the third of six cross-country and biathlon races which she has determinedly signed up for in Sochi. "I will try to ski in a way that gives energy to people back home as I feel them cheering me on," Abe told a send-off rally before leaving her home prefecture of Iwate in early February. Her high school headmaster Hiroshi Kikuchi praised his student, saying he hoped she could "show we have not been defeated by the disaster". Abe hails from the fishing town of Yamada, which lost more than 800 residents and several thousand homes, including her own, in the 2011 disaster. On March 11 that year, a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake unleashed a towering tsunami that smashed into the Japanese coast. More than 18,000 people were killed, and damage caused to the Fukushima nuclear plant sparked the worst atomic accident in a generation. Abe's efforts are the latest example of the immense role sport has played in the healing process for the region, as top Japanese athletes both encouraged victims and took inspiration from their struggle. At the Sochi Olympics, Japan's 19-year-old sensation Yuzuru Hanyu, who hails from the tsunami-hit city of Sendai, won the men's figure skating gold medal – Japan's only title of the Games, which also made him the first Japanese man to win an Olympic figure skating gold and the youngest Olympic men's champion in 66 years. Abe is the only disaster victim among Japan's 20 Paralympians in Sochi, and her ambitions are modest – for now. "I'm aiming to finish in the top eight," she has told Japanese media. "I want to aim much, much higher later on and would like to go to the Paralympics four years from now and again in eight years." Despite suffering permanent nerve damage in her left arm during birth, Abe was able to take up volleyball and played on her junior high school team. When she saw television coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics, she was awed by cross-country skiers who were able to compete with the use of just one arm. "I can do it too," she thought to herself, and contacted the head of Japan's national Paralympic ski team, Hideki Arai. Her leg muscles steeled by years on the volleyball court, Abe was invited to take part in Arai's training camp just a few months before the disaster – which struck Japan on her last day of junior high school. While she and six the family members she lived with survived – including elderly grandparents – they lost their home, situated just one kilometre from the Pacific shoreline. Three years on, they still live in housing units hastily constructed for tsunami refugees. Abe herself left the family to attend a high school known for cultivating competitive skiers in the city of Morioka, about 70 kilometres inland. She trains with able-bodied athletes and belongs to a private skiing team, coached by Arai, which is renowned for its disabled competitors. Abe sealed her path to the Paralympics by finishing seventh in the 15-kilometre cross-country standing race at the world championships for the disabled last year. The athlete, who is due to start university in Tokyo next month, has said that if not for the disaster, she might have become a serious competitive skier much later in life. "The tough experience of the disaster may be one reason why she never says die," said team head Arai. "She gives it all she has, right to the end." – AFP, March 10, 2014. |
| The children of Japan’s Fukushima battle an invisible enemy Posted: 09 Mar 2014 05:33 PM PDT Though the strict safety limits for outdoor activity set after multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in 2011 have now been eased, parental worries and ingrained habit mean many children still stay inside. And the impact is now starting to show, with children experiencing falling strength, lack of coordination, some can not even ride a bicycle, and emotional issues like shorter tempers, officials and educators say. "There are children who are very fearful. They ask before they eat anything, 'does this have radiation in it?' and we have to tell them it's okay to eat," said Mitsuhiro Hiraguri, director of the Emporium Kindergarten in Koriyama, some 55km west of the Fukushima nuclear plant. "But some really, really want to play outside. They say they want to play in the sandbox and make mud pies. We have to tell them no, I'm sorry. Play in the sandbox inside instead." Following the 2011 quake and tsunami, a series of explosions and meltdowns caused the world's worst nuclear accident for 25 years, spewing radiation over a swathe of Fukushima, an agricultural area long known for its rice, beef and peaches. A 30km radius around the plant was declared a no-go zone, forcing some 160,000 people from homes where some had lived for generations. Other areas, where the radiation was not so critically high, took steps such as replacing the earth in parks and school playgrounds, decontaminating public spaces like sidewalks, and limiting children's outdoor play time. In Koriyama, the city recommended shortly after the disaster that children up to two years old not spend more than 15 minutes outside each day. Those aged 3 to 5 should limit their outdoor time to 30 minutes or less. These limits were lifted last October, but many kindergartens and nursery schools continue to adhere to the limits, in line with the wishes of worried parents. One mother at an indoor Koriyama playground was overheard telling her child: "Try to avoid touching the outside air." Even three-year-olds know the word "radiation". Though thyroid cancer in children was linked to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, the United Nations said last May that cancer rates were not expected to rise after Fukushima. Radiation levels around the Emporium Kindergarten in Koriyama were now down around 0.12-0.14 microsieverts per hour, from 3.1 to 3.7 right after the quake, said Hiraguri. This works out to be lower than Japan's safety level of 1,000 microsieverts a year, but levels can vary widely and at random, keeping many parents nervous about any outdoor play. "I try to keep from going out and from opening the window," said 34-year-old Ayumi Kaneta, who has three sons. "I buy food from areas away from Fukushima. This is our normal life now." But this lack of outdoor play is having a detrimental affect on Koriyama's children, both physical and mentally. "Compared to before the disaster, you can certainly see a fall in the results of physical strength and ability tests – things like grip strength, running and throwing balls," said Toshiaki Yabe, an official with the Koriyama city government. An annual survey by the Fukushima prefecture Board of Education found that children in Fukushima weighed more than the national average in virtually every age group. Five year olds were roughly 500gms heavier, while the weight difference grew to 1kg for six-year-old boys. Boys of 11 were nearly 3kg heavier. Hiraguri said that stress was showing up in an increase of scuffles, arguments and even sudden nosebleeds among the children, as well as more subtle effects. "There's a lot more children who aren't all that alert in their response to things. They aren't motivated to do anything," he said. Koriyama has removed decontaminated earth in public places, sometimes more than once, and work to replace all playground equipment in public parks should finish soon. Yabe, at Koriyama city hall, said parental attitudes towards the risk of radiation may be slowly shifting. "These days, instead of hearing from parents that they're worried about radiation, we're hearing that they're more worried because their kids don't get outside," he said. But Hiraguri said things are still hard. "I do sometimes wonder if it's really all right to keep children in Fukushima. But there are those who can't leave, and I feel strongly that I must do all I can for them." – Reuters, March 10, 2014. |
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