When I joined Goteborg-Guldhedens library in October 1972, I could have hardly imagined that during the following 40 years, I would be travelling world doing anthropological field research and writing about my cross-cultural encounters (*under different names). Among my most humbling field experiences, were the encounters with the youngest survivors of the 2011 Nuclear Tsunami I had met during my volunteering work in Fukushima. Many of the children lost their parents in the earthquake. The others were marked by nuclear radiation for life. In 2012 the Japanese families still continue struggling with the traumatic images of the Fukushima tragedy.
Hitomi Abe, an 18 years old young art student whose father is a native of Fukushima, shared with me her worries and hopes. "I want to use my painting brush to help the orphaned Fukushima Children to keep their dreams alive. I want them to know that they are not alone, and would never be. I turned my paintings into postcards that I continue sharing with people living far away from Japan. For each card I received a donation of 50 cent, and until now I had sent over three hundred dollars to the Fund for Fukushima Orphans. These symbolic donations show that people around the world still care about them."
The trauma of Fukushima has affected Hitomi's painting style. Her once realistic depictions of nature and human surrounding evolved into deformed, abstract forms. One may almost feel a hidden fear in her latest series "Four seasons after Nuclear Tsunami (Fyra arstider efter Nuclear Tsunami)". The fear she tries to cover with her dream about a nuclear free spring.
Hitomi's 74 year old Grandmother Non-chan's artistic contributions to her granddaughter's Fukushima Orphans Charity focus on the cheerful memories of the traditional Japanese girls' festival, Hinamatsuri. Grandmother Non-chan believes that she can bring back health and happiness to orphaned families by re-creating the paper figures of Lucky Festival Dolls (Hinaningyo). Grandmother Non-chan's Lucky Dolls are handmade of a traditionally crafted and colorfully patterned wrapping paper. For centuries, these Lucky Dolls symbolized arrival of spring and hope for the future happiness of the families blessed with the female offspring.
Hitomi and her grandmother hope that their little artifacts exhibited in the Guldhedens library may help us to remember Fukshima orphans who lost their families during the nuclear tsunami.
© 2012 Joseph Polack*