On Sept. 6, Friends of the Coast hosted a potluck dinner and reception in Newcastle for the participants in the “Walk for Fukushima.”
A sizeable crowd attended the informational meeting, held in the conference room of Pat Shadis’ law office, featuring Mei Athearn and her husband Steve. The Athearns are on a quest to heighten awareness of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident and disaster resulting from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11.
Mie Athearn, a Rockland resident and native of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan is organizing and leading the walk. Athearn, a gracious and soft-spoken woman, said she was pleased to welcome so many people to the reception and share her concerns for her large family, including her 80-year-old mother who remains in Japan within 37 miles of the damaged reactor.
Athearn said she knew she had to do something to bring the true scope of the Fukushima disaster back into the public eye when she learned the Japanese Federal Radiation standards had been relaxed to allow children an exposure level equal to workers in a nuclear facility,
She made a decision to walk to the office of the Japanese Consulate in Boston, to raise awareness of the continuing exposure to high levels of radiation in Fukushima.
Steven and Mie Athearn quickly discovered supporters willing to join the walk, for at least part of the way, and began their journey at The Penobscot School in Rockland on Labor Day.
Buddhist nun Jun Yasuda (Jun- San) of the Grafton Peace Pagoda in New York will walk as far as Seabrook, N.H., in support of the Rockland woman’s effort. Jun-san is a small woman with a shaved head, wearing a simple robe and sandals.
At the event Tuesday evening, she quietly took her wooden bowl and canning jar drinking glass from the cloth bag she wears around her waist to enjoy the meal.
“She is so quiet, but she is showing us how to save resources without having to say a word,” said observer Martha Marston, who had stopped by to hear the presentation. The Vermont visitor, concerned about nuclear power in her own state in light of the recent flooding there, continued to say, “We should all take a lesson from that, how easy to save on waste and consumption. Just carry a bowl.”
“Jun-san saw that my legs were hurting me after our first day walk,” Mie Athearn said. “She rubbed them for me to make them feel better.”
Before her presentation, Athearn shared a photograph of the Cherry Blossom trees in Fukushima in a quiet moment. The two small figures of Steve and Mei Athearn stood holding hands, smiling under a tree laden with the famous blossoms.
In Japanese culture, Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) are an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life.
“It will never be the same, ” said Mei Athearn, showing signs of tears for the only time during the evening. “Cherry Blossom time will never be so joyous in our lives again.”
Athearn hopes to deliver a petition to the Japanese Consulate in Boston at the competition of the Walk for Fukushima. It calls on the Japanese government to pay more attention to the suffering caused by their inactions in the aftermath of the reactor failure and the widespread radioactive contamination across the surrounding area and to keep the plants shut down.
Mie and Steve Athearn and the walkers who have joined them will detour to visit the now-closed Maine Yankee Plant in Wiscasset on Sept. 7. Then they will walk on to Portland, and to Boston.
People wanting to lend a hand by offering overnight accommodations, daytime rest stops, organizing events along the way, or joining some portion of the walk themselves could contact Mie at mkathearn@mail.goo.ne.jp.
For more information call Steven Athearn at 593-7422.
(In the original text of this article, which appears in our Sept. 8 print edition, the name of the event organizer, Friends of the Coast, was incorrectly reported.
The Lincoln County News apologizes for the error.)
