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Multimedia artwork by artist and Fukushima evacuee Shozo Endo that integrates
the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor accident site with the Hiroshima atomic bomb peace memorial.

After Fukushima: The Art of Hope

The March 11th meeting of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security
(NGOCDPS) was held exactly three years after the earthquake and tsunami that
devastated eastern Japan. Marking the anniversary, former NGOCDPS president Hiro
Sakurai shared the artwork and story of his friend, Shozo Endo, a Fukushima evacuee
driven by loss to create art from materials at hand, becoming a source of inspiration to
those around him.

After the disaster, Shozo Endo and his family were evacuated from their home in
Tomioka, a city near the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Reactor. Daini is about seven miles
from the Daiichi Reactor, the site where severe tsunami damage triggered a nuclear
disaster.

Losing access to his home and his job as a chef, Shozo and his wife Keiko were
relocated to the Big Palette Fukushima facility in Koriyama. Evacuees there lived in
cramped quarters, with whole families residing within the confines of a small cardboard
cubicle.

To some, the cardboard walls may have been a bleak reminder of what they had lost,
but to Shozo, they were a vast canvas of possibility. Using paints, markers, and origami
creations, he decorated the walls of his makeshift home - transforming the dull surfaces
with blooming flowers, smiling faces, and fanciful creatures in a riotous display of color.
The whimsical art delighted passersby, and soon Shozos art wall became a popular
attraction for center residents.

Shozos indomitable spirit and his determination to make something good from tragic
circumstances drove him to build on the positivity. He started a small gallery of
cardboard art adjacent to his cubicle, giving pieces away to any who admired them.
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Soon he also had a small cadre of art students of all ages, who seemed to recover hope
when they sat down at the craft table.

In May 2014, Hiro interviewed his friend Shozo about his life and art today, three
years after the nuclear disaster that changed everything.

(Pictured left: Artist and Fukushima evacuee Shozo
Endo (center), his wife Keiko, his brother, and
NGOCDPS member Hiro Sakurai.)

You and your family were evacuated from
your home in Tomioka before the earthquake
and tsunami. Have you been able to return to
your house since then? If not, do you think
youll ever be able to return?

I have returned about ten times (after the
government allowed the evacuees to visit
their homes within a 24-hour period).

I understand you were relocated to the Big Palette Fukushima facility in Koriyama in 2011. Where
are you and your family living now?

Since I dont think I will be able to return to Tomioka-machi, I decided to do my best in Koriyama
where I am living in temporary housing. I moved here 3 months after the Great East Japan
Earthquake. At the end of June it will be exactly three years.

How have your lives changed, three years after the disaster?

Rather than change, I am living with a forward-looking attitude, since I believe there is no other
way to live. However, circumstances are not changing. There are many people who are having a
difficult time, and I feel the gap between my situation and myself. It is normal for people to have
such feelings. I think in a normal society most people cannot recover.

The way the local Koriyama people look at us as disaster victims is different. Regarding the
compensation (from the government), those with a high standard of living tend to sympathize with
us, but there are quite a number of others who coolly comment on how nice it must be to receive
money. Quite often such situations can really bring down my heart. Although its hard, I try to let
such comments go in one ear and out the other so I dont get affected too much.

You were working as a high-end chef prior to
Fukushima. Have you been able to find a job in your
field?

I couldnt find one, so I now work at a florist. I found
the job while at the evacuation site and started
working once I moved to temporary housing. I dont
feel I have to necessarily return to my work as a
chefI find I am fully doing what I want to now in my
current job.

In the evacuation center, you turned to art as a way
to lift your spirits and those of others around you.
What made you turn to art? How did you come to use cardboard as a canvas?

Cardboard served many purposes at the center. I laid it out on the cold floors, and used it as
walls or to set food on. The area where I slept in the evacuation site was along the hallway where
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it was very cold, so I put up a cardboard wallbut people told me that it was in the way. Then I
thought that maybe if I created art there they would stop complaining. But what happened instead
was that they were happy to see it. This is how my cardboard art expanded.

Is cardboard easy to access? Is it still easy to find?

There was plenty of it since aid materials were all brought in cardboard boxes, so I took
advantage of it. Now I use the leftover cardboard boxes from the flower shop or I get them when I
go shopping.

At the center, you started teaching students your art process, which included cardboard, origami
paper, paints and colored markers. Tell me how that changed your life and theirs.

I started teaching cardboard art because an acquaintance
asked me to. It wasnt something just with childrenI was
making small things with whoever was around. After
leaving the evacuation site I taught the elderly and
disabled people to help with their rehabilitation. Making
cardboard art served as a way to care for that individuals
heart.

Later, those who were supporting these people joined in
and started to participate. In fact, they were in
psychologically and emotionally worse conditions and I felt
that the art was also helping them. Among the elderly and
disabled participants were evacuees and local Koriyama
people.

Weve seen a beautiful example of art the 3-D
sunflowers made from cardboard. What are some other
themes of your pieces?


Recently, I created a piece incorporating the Fukushima nuclear plant accident and the Hiroshima
atomic bomb peace memorial. The very first piece I made of a peony also left a very strong
impression on me, and another one of my wife. I have an emotional attachment to each and
every one of my pieces.

How long does it take to complete your artwork?

It takes me about two hours to complete a small work but a detailed piece will take about one
week to finish.

Is there anything your students have created that is particularly meaningful to you?

For the elderly and disabled I prepared all materials and the subject matter for their work
beforehand. I brought a gerbera flower for them to look at while they created their pieces. Even
with the same subject, the color and shape that each individual chose was unique. That is most
unforgettable for me.

Are you still creating and teaching art? If so, where?

I am no longer teaching but I still continue to create art and display them in various places. It was
just confirmed that next month I will be displaying my work at the entryway of an elementary
school in Osaka (in western part of Japan).

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Up to now, Ive had my work shown at department stores, concert halls and event venues. Also, it
is periodically on display at local banks. For the full month of May this year, my work is on display
at a community center in Koriyama.

Do you feel any differently about nuclear energy
after your experience?

What is created by human beings destroys
human beings. Such things cannot be counted on
to be used for peaceful purposes. As victims of
the earthquake we cannot return to our homes
even after 3 years, and yet the government is
attempting to restart the nuclear power plants.
That behavior makes me indignant.

What would you like the global community to know about Fukushima or the life of those of you
who have been displaced from their homes due to the tragedy?

I would like more press coverage of the disaster areas. We are not allowed to enter the restricted
areas, and neither are the media, so it is not covered in the news. I would like more of the real
truth to be communicated to the world. I want the news to report on what the world has not yet
seenthat in reality we have a city with no one living in it.

What does your art mean to you?

It is what connects peoples hearts. It gives courage and energy. It makes you positive. I try to
connect peoples hearts through my cardboard art.


LINKS:

UN Special Rapporteur Anand Grover on Fukushima (June 2013)
Many Fukushima evacuees reluctant to return home in former no-entry zone
Survey: Half of Fukushima evacuee households split up; distress rife in families