Saturday, February 11, 2012

Anti-Nuclear Poster by Famous Japanese Illustrator Makoto Wada

The image is from www.stopnuclear.net.

This has caused a storm on Twitter and Twitter-related platforms in Japan, with many accusing the illustrator of "fanning the nuclear fears unnecessarily and of discrimination" against people in Fukushima. If you read Japanese, here's the togetter collection of such tweets.

I think it upsets many because Wada's poster is too real. A nuke plant in the background spewing radioactive fallout, and a mother and a child. Other posters are either abstract, or do not have human figures in the poster in a life-like setting.

I personally think it is a brilliant work, like Professor Hayakawa's map.

You can view over 200 posters at www.stopnuclear.net.

Makoto Wada's other works can be viewed here.

17 comments:

Maju said...

The only ones discriminating against Fukushimans are the Japanese authorities, who are forcing them to remain living ('living' is not the appropriate word, admittedly) in the nuclear equivalent of a slow gas chamber.

That is genocide! And what they say is like saying that for showing a picture of starving prisoners of Auschwitz, or for denouncing the gas chambers and the Holocaust, I'd be discriminating against Ashkenazi Jews.

Laughable would not it be so real and dramatic.

Anonymous said...

CUT TEPCO's FACE...DEEP.

bored_librarian said...

Reposted on facebook and twitter.

I think this image is very effective, for what my (untrained) opinion is worth.

Chibaguy said...

I think this poster is not at all fanning the flames. This is what ordinarily occurs near nuke plants. When it comes to Japan this is as conservative as one can get but I like the overall message.

If one was to paint a true picture of the nuclear industry they would have a figure screaming into a megaphone saying "run, but do not worry about health consequences" while the public just has question marks over their heads.


I am going to go one step further than Maju. The USA is the puppet master here and if the USA government actually thought of itself as nation that intervenes for the sake of good; well, that notion is out the door. As an citizen I acknowledge that they just sell wars.

As for the Japanese government, do they really need one? I mean who has been in charge of this? No one!

Maju said...

I see your point, Chibaguy, but I can't fully agree with it. You cannot deny that there is a person by the name Naoto Kan or by the name Yoshihiko Noda, successively Prime Ministers in this crisis and the individuals holding the prime responsibility of all it. Or Yukio Edano, persistent METI minister and apparently the "brains" of the Japanese government (assuming there is any intelligence, even if totally perverse to it). Etc. (I don't even know the names of most Japanese politicians anyhow, much less their deeds).

All these individuals are directly top responsible and they are responsible before the Japanese People and the Japanese People have the right (and the duty towards their loved ones and their children - and, if you believe on that, maybe towards their ancestors as well) to demand responsibility from these individuals and their cliques.

There are also a number of people leading TEPCO and a number of criminally responsible mayors, like that of Tokyo, etc. All those people are directly responsible towards the Japanese People.

Besides, you may also want to look for culprits in the USA military-industrial complex, GE, etc. but I have the feeling that by redirecting the anger towards Washington you are whitewashing the undeniable criminal guilt of the Japanese leaders.

Chibaguy said...

@Maju, I agree that all the individuals and institutions you mention are criminals and should be stationed at Daiichi. They lied to everyone and continue to lie. My point is that the Japanese government has been like this for centuries. It is not hard to fathom the same response today. I live among all these people and their attitude is completely apathy and just wanting to pretend nothing happened.

The point I was trying to make is simple; the USA government is complicit in the coverup. If they were not, maybe the citizens of Japan would wake up. WWII woke them up.

Anyway, I think we can agree that WW energy policies are against humanity and trying to place blame is meaningless as it happened decades before. The question is how do we get past this era as a race and think about the future.

Just know, I am angered because I am a citizen of the states and thought Obama would bring change. I am utterly disappointed.

Anonymous said...

11 months now.
At this point can it all be laid at the feet of the government?
The world looks the other way and so have a good portion of the people in Japan.
Dedication to community really shouldn't be demonstrated by bringing Fukushima snow to the kids in Okinawa.
Discrimination?
Ask the Hibakusha

more art
http://www.musashimixinq.com/2010/09/hibakusha/

Anonymous said...

Nuclear power plants always release radioactive substances, even when they are working perfectly. Always, even under the safest operating procedures. The facility in this poster doesn't look anything like the Fukushima plants that government and industry idiocy destroyed. Japan's coast is peppered with unnecessary nuclear plants so it's absurd to say this discriminates against the people of Fukushima. What it justifiably discriminates against is the criminally incompetent and obscenely avaricious Japanese nuclear power industry. The Japanese government is paying people to post comments that it approves of just as it fills "community" meetings with government agents to stifle dissent. By the way, www.stopnuclear.net is no longer working. Perhaps the Japanese government agents have shut down the site.

Chibaguy said...

@anon 4:35, for the most part the Japanese are dead set about changing any tradition. Thus, Fukushima sends Okinawa snow so they can be exposed to radionuclides. There are no adults here. This is absolutely the worst country to have a nuclear disaster due to protocols. I at least expected them to use their superiority in science discertain the facts but culture has won. People from Kansai need to take over. Maybe not much change but least we will have real opinions. At least the students there are refraining to go to the so-called elite universities in Tokyo.

robertb said...

Subtle and effective. Child held close my mother. Look of bewilderment on both their faces. When I look at the picture I see a country of people let down. I see a people lied to. I see despair and hopelessness. All of which could have been avoided. I'm over here in america. Radioactive fallout has been raining down on this country for the last year. My government isn't even talking about. Call they care about is that I continue to go to work and create income for them.

Anonymous said...

Ready yet?

March 11, 2012 14:46

Take it to the streets.
We have allowed this to happen.
We have to be the ones to stop it.

Anonymous said...

It is a good drawing but quite passive. Perhaps this resonates with the Japanese people. But, I would much prefer to see the mother, clutching her child in one hand, and a suitcase in the other, boarding a plane, bus or train and heading as far away from the radiation as humanly possible.

CaptD said...

We now are being ruled by those in Nuclear Denial*; instead of by Leaders that demand an end to the Trillion Dollar Eco-Disast­er RISK that Nuclear poses to mankind! The nuclear industry is fighting tooth and nail to maintain it's market share; yet NOW Solar (of all flavors) is far less costly to construct, faster to construct and carries with it N☢ Nuclear radioactiv­e baggage that can kill a Countries economy and or those living nearby!
Ask The Japanese!

*Nuclear Denial
http://is.­gd/XPjMd0
The illogical belief that Nature cannot destroy any land based nuclear reactor, any place anytime 24/7/365!

CaptD said...

+
What is wrong with this "Picture"?

1. Tepco is one the "GANGS" that runs Japan.
2. What is good for TEPCO is good for Japan.
3. The Japanese people MUST OBEY TEPCO for the "GOOD" of the Country.
4. The financial health of TEPCO is more important than the physical health,
... of the Japanese People and all their FUTURE children!
5. Only TEPCO knows what is best, all others must BOW to TEPCO's Rule.

CaptD said...

11 Months and counting!

The Japanese people and many of those of the rest of the World, wait in fear because of what TEPCO and the Japanese Gov't. are trying to make money instead of stopping this Eco-Disaster...

That is the bottom line and no amount of Nuclear Baloney (NB) type "reports or reviews or Nuclear theory" makes that any better.

Do any of US actually know what the situation is on the ground?

I sure don't, but I know that because TEPCO has lied, concealed data and played the Japanese People's SAFETY down, while trying to save TEPCO profits instead, we all have much to fear from THEM!

If someone told me 11 MONTHS ago that I would be sitting on the edge of my chair, and blogging to save the Japanese people from their Utility TEPCO & their Gov't. overseers I would have thought they were crazy!

This is a nuclear nightmare
... And N☢T just for the Japanese, but the Planet!

wicked dude of the north said...

Omg. Can't sleep. This is beyond tragic. We need to communicate however we can. Art may work. It may be slower but it will be ours, and it will be truth. It may be our only chance just to get info out and approach critical mass! Please let's all do our part. Graffiti. Zibes.movies. poems. Songs.rap.rap.more rap. Reggae. Sculpture. YouTube. Idk just do it every way possible. Let's breathe the truth just like bucky balls in the atmosphere. Be creative to hope to avoid destruction. Preaching to the converted, yes, but I can no longer be silent. I awake

wicked dude of the north said...

Omg. Can't sleep. This is beyond tragic. We need to communicate however we can. Art may work. It may be slower but it will be ours, and it will be truth. It may be our only chance just to get info out and approach critical mass! Please let's all do our part. Graffiti. Zibes.movies. poems. Songs.rap.rap.more rap. Reggae. Sculpture. YouTube. Idk just do it every way possible. Let's breathe the truth just like bucky balls in the atmosphere. Be creative to hope to avoid destruction. Preaching to the converted, yes, but I can no longer be silent. I awake

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