Campaign by walking with American citizens from the UN headquarters to the White House

This is already the 10th. The amount of nuclear wastewater exceeds 70,000 tons. Every time the Japanese government dumps it, our hearts ache greatly. We feel helpless when we see bad things happening but cannot stop them. It’s as if the state power is brainwashing us. It’s as if we are being trained to turn a blind eye to bad things happening.

Is there really no way to stop it? No. The answer already exists. It’s the US president. The Japanese government cannot do anything on its own that the US president does not permit. He is the only person to whom the Japanese prime minister bows his head. If the US president asks the Japanese prime minister to stop, the dumping can be stopped. Now, Trump can stop the dumping that Biden approved. How? It depends on American public opinion. Trump also has to go through the midterm elections in his second year in office. He is completely different from Biden, but it is still unknown whether he will be swayed by the nuclear mafia like Biden. That is why public opinion in the United States is important.

How can public opinion be formed? We cannot see the media as being on our side. We have no choice but to arouse the empathy of citizens through our actions. The ‘Salt March’ that Gandhi led to India’s independence a long time ago was also started by a small number of people, but gradually more people joined, and their will and strength gathered.

In Korea, too, we need to actively take direct action to gain public support, just as we did when residents of Samcheok repeatedly led the cancellation of the nuclear power plant project in the past twenty years, and when citizens in Busan blocked the extension of the lifespan of the aging Gori Unit 1 nuclear power plant eight years ago. In general, people are not easily persuaded by words alone. Only when we shout out with our actions and show that we are sweating will they take interest and think about the issue. By marching, we can gain the support of citizens, get citizens to join the march, and as the procession gets longer, citizens can pressure politicians. Their political promises are established through that pressure.

I drew it with a pencil. The UN has no power, but it has a cause. The march starts from the UN headquarters in Manhattan, where a rally was held last July. So how long will it take to go through New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and get to Washington DC? Roughly speaking, it is about 400 km. If we walk 20 km a day, it will take 20 days, but if we consider the section that we cannot physically march, it is about 50 km. If we slowly walk 15 to 20 km a day for about 350 km, it will take about 3 weeks to reach our final destination.

I want to call it as ‘GLOMA Between Fukushima and Chernobyl’. The date of the Fukushima accident is March 11 and Chernobyl is April 26, so let’s make the march between these two dates and set the march period as March 19-April 8, 2025. I’m drawing a draft of the 400km (approximately 350km walking distance) Stop Nuclear Wastewater Dumping World Citizens’ March from the UN Headquarters in New York to the White House in Washington DC with a pencil.

First, despite the Japanese government’s first nuclear wastewater dumping in August 2023 and the ocean dumping of a total of 70,000 tons over 10 occasions, neither the international civil society’s opposition movement nor international public opinion has been properly formed. There was a 1,600km Korea-Japan Citizens’ March in the summer of 2023 and a Korea-Japan Citizens’ March in Kyoto, Osaka, New York, LA, and DC in 2024, but a more serious opportunity is needed.

Second, the US states of Massachusetts and New York have clearly prohibited dumping even a small amount of contaminated cooling water, and while the Chinese government is banning the import of Japanese marine products, only the US federal government is still allowing dumping. The world’s citizens should continue to point out the problem and protest against this.

Third, since the Japanese Prime Minister and the US President have now been replaced, the world’s citizens’ demands need to be clearly stated once again.

When state power does bad things, the people should protest and correct them. We cannot help but stop this with action. Democracy is not something that can be achieved with words, but rather with actions.

This pencil drawing can create an opportunity for many American citizens to walk together and appeal to the protest march, which is about 400km from the UN to the White House, a densely populated area. Since it will be held for about 3 weeks, it can secure a time period where citizens from all over the United States and around the world can participate, and since the action unfolds on site, it is easy for the media such as video media to report on it, which is advantageous for forming public opinion.

It is convenient to make the starting and ending points of the daily march a train station. Although the United States usually does not have frequent trains, this course’s densely populated areas are different. This course has fairly frequent train traffic. Since the trains run according to the schedule, participants can participate and move in a planned manner. Those who bring cars can park near the train station, so it is easy to come back to retrieve their cars after the march.

If we draw the marching groups with a pencil, Koreans and Korean Americans, including myself who leads the entire march, are one group, American citizens from each region are one group, and international citizens who have immigrated or traveled from all over the world are another group. It would be a big task to recruit marchers in advance in each city on each date.

The cities in the middle of the march, such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, are the ones that are most anticipated.

In particular, Pennsylvania and its state capital, Philadelphia, have a long history in American history and are central regions that are also strategic points that influence US public opinion.

If the citizens of the region responding to our march as we pass through this place become known throughout the United States, it will have a great influence on forming public opinion in the United States.

I would like to draw a pencil drawing that the marching line will grow in size due to the great response of the citizens during the first half of the march from New York to New Jersey and Philadelphia. Just like the Busan citizens who marched to make the procession longer in 2016 when the Gori Unit 1 was shut down in Busan.

So on April 8, as we pass through the US Congress and the White House, I would like to receive a round of applause from the US Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and the US President, along with American citizens and global citizens.

So I want to bring down the Japanese government.

Editing: Guest Editor Lee Won-young leewysu@gmail.com

(Writer Lee Won-young is the director of the Korea Land Future Research Institute and the head of the Nuclear Power Plant Risk Public Information Center. He mainly carries out anti-nuclear power movement and movement to stop nuclear wastewater dumping through walking marches.)

Source; Hankyoreh:On 2024-11-22
https://www.hanion.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=33281

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Tags: environment, fukushima, japan, news, politics