Video 1 - 'Learning from Fukushima - One Year on'
Video 2 - March 2011 B-Roll footage of Earthquake and Tsunami
Relevant Shotlists, Press Release and Opinion Piece are attached
From an early age, tiny Japanese children are taught to put cushions on their heads and burrow under their school desks in the event of an earthquake. Most coastal towns have clearly demarcated tsunami evacuation zones and early warnings saved thousands of lives last March when a tsunami swept through coastal towns in north-east Japan.
But what should people do in the event of a nuclear accident, what are the risks and what should be done if a worst-case scenario comes to pass? Triggered by the tsunami, the nuclear crisis in Fukushima must serve as a wake-up call, prompting greater action to prepare ourselves not just for natural disasters but for man-made ones too. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is committed to this goal and towards promoting more precise and comprehensive information for affected populations - especially in countries that have nuclear power plants.
People who have grown up near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, say the only safety instructions they can remember receiving in their youth was when a teacher told them to stand in the playground where they would be given pink pills to take.
This information vacuum and widespread ignorance is not simply confined to a question of preparedness. The Fukushima nuclear plant may now have reached a state of "cold shutdown." But that doesn't mean that ordinary people's anxieties about radiation levels in food, water and the ground have abated.