Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of the most famous Japanese music composers and pianist. He formed Yellow Magic Orchestra from 1978 and won an Oscar in 1988 for best original score for the music in “The Last Emperor”. In 2009, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France’s Ministry of Culture for his musical contributions. In 2010, he received the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in Japan.
We had recently started a signature campaign recently in support of the people in Japan struggling against the nuclear re-start in Oi .
We have received a note of thanks and solidarity from Sakamoto Ryuichi, one of the best and most famous music composers in Japan. He has been actively involved in various projects to provide assistance to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Earlier on DiaNuke.org, we had re-published his essay on Fukushima and the struggle for a nuclear-free world: Our raised voice, our music is the way to move beyond Fukushima
We are grateful to our friend Ayako Oishi for communicating Indian people’s solidarity to Mr. Sakamoto, in response to which he has sent this message.
Please read below Ryuichi Sakamoto’s message to India, in English and Japanese:
親愛なるインドのみなさま,
まずはじめに、2011年3月11日起きた大災害に際し、
みなさまから大きなサポートをいただいたことに心から感謝を申し上げます。
ご記憶いただいていると思いますが、
東北地方に起きた大きな地震と津波が 、チェルノブイリ事故以来となる
人類史上最悪の原発事故を引き起こしました。
日本政府は2011年12月に事故の収束を宣言しましたが、
1年経ったいまでも、実際に福島原子力第一発電所からは放射能が漏れつづけています。
大変に悲しく心が痛みますが、日本には人が住むことのできない大地が出来てしまいました。
そしていまだに10万人もの人々が家を離れ避難を余儀なくされています。
今日は、原子力発電所と原子力全般についてわたしの考えをお伝えしたいと思います。
「アウシュヴィッツ以後、詩を書くことは野蛮である」とアドルノは言いました。
ぼくははこう言い替えたい、「フクシマのあとに声を発しないことは野蛮である」と。
日本は三度被爆しました。
ヒロシマ、ナガサキ、そしてフクシマ。
ヒロシマの原爆記念碑には
「安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは繰返しませぬから」と刻まれていますが、
私たちの国は原子力の平和利用という幻想によって、再び過ちを犯してしまいました。
これでは原爆によって亡くなった方たち、
その放射能によって発病し亡くなった何十万の人々に、
言い訳のしようがありません。
人類史上最悪の事故によって「原子力の平和利用」という夢から覚めた私たちに今できることは、
それが兵器であろうと発電のためであろうと、人類は核と共存できないことを世界に示すことです。
坂本龍一
（音楽家）
Dear Friends in India,
First of all, I would like to personally thank all of you for your sympathies and supports for victims of Japan’s 311 disaster.
As you may remember, the huge earthquake and tsunami that hit the northern Japan area caused the worst nuclear disaster in human history since the Chernobyl accident.
The Japanese government declared an end to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in December 2011. However, the fact is, the leakage of radioactive material from the Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Plant is on going even now, after a year has passed. It is extremely sad and painful to admit that in Japan, we now have land where no one will ever be able to live. At least 100,000 people remain displaced and not able to return their homes.
Today, I would like to share my opinion about nuclear power plants and nukes in general.
Adorno said “Writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”
I would like to revise it and say, “Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric.”
Japan has been irradiated 3 times: Hiroshima, Nagasaki then Fukushima.
Engraved on the memorial cenotaph in Hiroshima is an epitaph:
“Rest in Peace, for we shall not repeat the error,”
However, our country has committed the same error, guised by the hallucinatory proclamation to use nuclear energy peacefully.
No excuse can be made for those tens of thousands of people who were lost to the atomic bombing and the subsequent radiation poisoning.
Now that the worst accident in history has awoken us from our deluded slumber to “use nuclear energy peacefully,” the next step is to prove to the world that people and nukes cannot coexist, whether it is for weapons or electricity.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
(Composer/Musician)
