Many
workers are engaged in decontamination and decommission work in Fukushima. Someone’s
got to do the job, but we can’t help feeling that the tasks are limitless. What
goes through the minds of the workers?
On Feb. 11, I had a chance to hear IKEDA
Minoru (see photo), 62, who went to work at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant
after he retired a post office. Ikeda, who was delivering mail in Tokyo on
March 11, was so shocked at the enormous tremor that he had never experienced
before in his life and the devastation at the Fukushima plant.
“I had a comfortable life in Tokyo up til
then,” Ikeda spoke at the event organized by “The Reality of Daunting Task at
Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.” “I wanted to see with my own eyes what is
really going on in Fukushima.”
As he retired in 2013, he chose not to seek
re-hire after retirement but to go to Fukushima to do something related to the
nuclear plant. Although it was difficult for people over 60 to land a job, he
was able to find one at the second-tier subcontractor for decontamination work.
(By HORIKIRI Satomi)
除 染や福島第一原発の収束に携わる幾多の労働者たち。誰かがやらなければならない作業でありながら、果てしないという印象がぬぐえない。どんな思いでその作
業をしているのか。2月11日、さいたま市で「福島原発作業の真実」という講演会が行われた。主催は「原発問題を考える埼玉の会」。郵便局を退職したあ
と、除染そして福島第一原発構内の作業員として働いた、池田実さん（62歳・写真）の話をきいた。池田さんは３・１１のその時、東京都内で郵便配達をして
いた。はじめて経験する大きな揺れと、その後に起こった福島原発の事故に、ものすごいショックをうける。「今まで東京でぬくぬくと生きてきた。福島で何が 起こっているかみてみたい」と2013年の定年を機に、再雇用の道を選ばずに福島へ。60歳を過ぎての採用は難しかったが、除染作業の二次下請け会社に就
職することができた。（堀切さとみ） 続き
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