Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2012 > A Voice From Fukushima
Mainstream, VOL L, No 33, August 4, 2012
A Voice From Fukushima
Wednesday 8 August 2012, by
#socialtagsThe sixtyseventh anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing falls on August 6 this year. Seventeen months ago Fukushima happened in the wake of the tsunami that struck Japan. We remember the victims of those tragedies by publishing the following poem.
(A tribute to those who died in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima)
It was a dayLike any other, in March.I was inside the home,Doing laundry for the kids,When I sensed a tremor.I was quite used to earthquakes,So I ran outside,Taking each childBy the hand,Out, into the open land.But then a sound started.A haunting siren;A deafening noise,Suddenly, the heat was unbearableAnd I collapsed,I don’t know what happenedTo my children;I swore, I held themTo the last—steadfast.But the heat penetrated me,It burnt my insides out,It burnt skin, tissue and bone,Till I lay there fine-honed,Like a fish;Gasping,Gasping for water.Many of us perishedin this manslaughter.I am somewhereIn FukushimaBuried in the groundAnd I have found,My country is nowPhasing out nuclear plants.It’s a pityit didn’t do so earlier;I would have lovedTo be alive,But now that I have beenSinged by the fire ballAnd my dreamsHave been extinguishedAlong with my life;I hear they areEstablishing nuclear parksIn the country whereLord Buddha was born.From my headMy locks are shorn,From my jawMy teeth are torn,I lie buried in the groundBeneath the rubble.If you can hear my voiceAbove the din,Listen:Nuclear energy is anythingBut green,Believe me, the view from hereIs a sordid scene.Skeletons and carcasses amidst fuel rodsThat emit radioactivity for years,Oh! Do lend me your ears;We are turning the earthInto a necropolisTo light up the metropolis.This is a bloodless deathAccompanied by violence,Pay heed to my silence,Amidst the grave-yardRubble of Fukushima.May 2012Sagari Chhabra
[Sagari Chhabra is a writer, film-director and social activist]