fukushima – Uncanny Terrain

September 23, 2017June 13, 2019

Previewing Three Episodes in the Blue Fish Japanese Environmental Film Festival

Three episodes of the documentary series Uncanny Terrain will screen in a sneak preview, Nov. 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Blue Fish Japanese Environmental Documentary Film Festival at the Nightingale Cinema, 1084 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Chicago-based filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski will hold a Q&A after the screening.

Kajino and Koziarski traveled to Fukushima, Japan, shortly after the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, to live and work with farmers fighting to continue growing organic food on land contaminated by the fallout.

Screening are the episodes Defiance, Arising, and Renewal.

Defiance

84-year old Teruo Yasukawa is the only farmer growing rice in Minamisoma, Japan, where authorities imposed a growing ban over fears of contamination from the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 20 km away.

Arising

Seiji Sugeno fights to keep alive his village of Towa in the foothills of Fukushima, as farms fail amid fears of radioactive fallout and Sugeno worries for the health of his daughter Mizuho, who is poised to take over his farm.

Renewal

Born in the Tokyo suburbs, Akihiro Asami is one of the only farmers in the tiny mountain village of Wasetani, on the outskirts of Fukushima, where trace amounts of contamination from 2011’s nuclear meltdown compound existing issues with an aging population and struggling economy. Asami’s wife Harumi and two young daughters evacuated in the wake of the meltdown, but returned a year later, choosing the health risk over the alienation of living as an evacuee. They’re working to build a sustainable community with their neighbors, rooted in traditional farming and artisanal practices that utilize the area’s rich natural resources. In 2014, Akihiro runs for mayor of the surrounding city of Kitakata, calling for a complete transformation of the local economy based on the principles he practices as an organic farmer.

February 19, 2014February 19, 2014

Cinema Jam: “Uncanny Terrain: The Documentary About the Devastation of Fukushima and Japanese Farming”

eating boy

Marija Makeska interviews filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski in Cinema Jam:

Junko: “Just like most of the Japanese people, I was always afraid of radiation from our history of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The aftermath of the atomic bombs that we learned gave me nightmares for long time. The Fukushima Daiichi plant’s melt down gave me strong fear and lost hope in my own country till I found some farmer’s blogs. Some active framers were trying to decontaminate their contaminated land in Fukushima organically. I could not believe that they can do that and even they could keep farming without getting sick. But I wanted to believe that they can do this. Only way to find out is to go there and record how they do.”

January 22, 2014January 22, 2014

Ten Thousand Things: Still Praying for Tohoku

Asami campaign — Organic farmer and darkhorse mayoral candidate Asami Akihiro canvasses the mountain villages that ring Kitakata City.

Ten Thousand Things from Kyoto writes: “Uncanny Terrain follows mayoral candidacy of organic farmer in Fukushima.

Via filmmakers Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski, at work on Uncanny Terrain, a documentary exploring the lives of organic farmers in Fukushima in the aftermath of 3/11…”

January 11, 2014March 6, 2023

We return to Fukushima to cover farmer’s campaign for mayor

Akihiro Asami left his life as a city salaryman to raise his family on a self-sustaining organic farm in the mountains of Kitakata, on the western outskirts of Fukushima prefecture.

When the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted down in 2011, Akihiro’s wife Harumi evacuated with their two young daughters. Akihiro stayed behind to continue farming with the use of heavy machinery like the one on this full report. In the face of public fears of Fukushima food, some of Akihiro’s neighbors were unable to keep their farms going and moved away. Akihiro found his crops showed no detectible contamination from the fallout. He worked to hold his community together.

In 2012, Harumi and the girls moved back to Kitakata, accepting the risk of exposure over the pain and disruption of separation and displacement.

This month, Akihiro announced that would run for mayor of Kitakata on a platform of local economies and natural agriculture as an alternative to the unsustainable systems that spawned the nuclear disaster.

In January we return to Fukushima to capture Akihiro’s dark horse campaign, a hopeful protest by one Fukushima farmer for a better way to live.

Please help us to continue our journey, complete the film, and share the stories of Akihiro and his fellow Fukushima farmers with the world. We gratefully accept tax-deductible donations.

December 29, 2013

Junko and Ed on Chicago Public Radio’s World View

Uncanny Terrain directors Junko Kajino and Ed M. Koziarski talk with Alison Cuddy on Chicago Public Radio’s World View.

August 5, 2013August 6, 2013

Uncanny Terrain 2013 Photo Set 2

Yasukawa's kitten follows him everywhere
Seeds of Hope
Milo shows the 30,000 km he has bicycled on his "Holy Map of Japan"
On a clear day you could see the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 5 km down the coast.
One of many ships that remain where they were washed inland by the 2011 tsunami, in Minamisoma, Fukushima.
Women organic farmers of Fukushima (and friends)
Odaka-Jinjo temple is the original site of the centuries-old Nomaoi Horse Festival
Nomaoi Horse Festival
25-year-old Mizuho Sugeno of Seeds of Hope in Nihonmatsu
Most of this boy's friend leave Fukushima for summer vacation. This year his mother finally decided to let him go outside during vacation.

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013

“Still ‘Praying for Japan’ — ‘Uncanny Terrain’ explores impact of 3/11 on Fukushima family farmers, animals, soil, & nuclear evacuees”

Ten Thousand Things From Kyoto:

“This film is a must for all who are continuing to ‘pray for Japan’ — for all who support the safety of Japanese people and animals, the recovery of Tohoku, and the survival of traditional Japanese rural culture.”

Fukushima 2013

Seiji Sugeno at the Fukushima Organic Farmers' Network's café Orgando in Tokyo
Asami Girls at Yamato Farmers Market
The Asamis' kitten. No Rice No Life
The Asamis at the Yamato Farmers Market
Hiroshi Hasegawa's horses are part of his plan for an off-the-grid farm in Yamato.
Umbrella left behind by prior residents of Hiroshi Hasegawa's 150-year-old house.
Yamato Farmers Market
This is Serbian bicyclist Milosav Grujicic's third summer working on Seiji Sugeno's ‪organic‬ farm.
Koichi Nemoto has one of the only operating farms in mostly-abandoned Odaka, 12 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
86-year-old Teruo Yasukawa has planted his third rice crop since the nuclear disaster, in Minami-Soma where most cultivation is banned, but he hasn't been able to fully attend to his fields since fainting in the spring.
Teruo Yasukawa and his kitten.

Trailer

March 8, 2013March 8, 2013

Fukushima Year Three: Renewal

As we mark the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, we present the new trailer for our in-progress documentary Uncanny Terrain, following the organic farmers of Fukushima fighting for the right to cultivate their contaminated land and preserve their traditional communities.

We plan to return to Fukushima this spring to capture where the farmers are two years later, as they continue their efforts to rebuild their lives and restore their farms.

Please help us cover the cost of making this trip and completing the film, by making a tax-deductible donation.