*the song starts after 5:28 / 歌は5:28から
*videotaped in 06/08/2008 / ※2008年8月6日放送
Nataliya Gudziy, Ukrainian singer and Bandura player. A major theme of Natalka's work is the Chornobyl tragedy of 26th April, 1986, which she witnessed as a 6 years old children. Chornobyl has been a big part of her life ever since. Natalka's hometown was Prypiat, only 3.5km away from the plant, became one of the villages in the shadow of Chornobyl. Her father had worked in the power plant and stayed behind with orders to work on the clean-up. He has subsequently become ill. She has lived in Japan since 1999. She has become fluent in Japanese, and sings and writes songs in that language, as well as in her native Ukrainian. It almost has been 25 years since the tragedy of Chornobyl. Let's listen her voice, and rethink.
translation: Over 60 years ago on this day, August 6 a tragedy occurred in Hiroshima.
Like the tragedy that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the tragedy which struck in Chernobyl over 20 years ago is still not over.
The nuclear power plant at Chernobyl experienced a meltdown 22 years ago.
I was 6 years old at the time. Since my father worked at the plant, all of us family lived a mere 3.5 km from the plant.
The accident happened in the middle of the night so most people were unaware that anything serious had occurred.
For that reason, life went on as normal the following day.
Children went to school and mothers took their young children out to play outside the whole day.
As a result, they were exposed all day to invisible radiation.
We weren't informed of the accident until the next day.
We were told not to worry as it was not a serious accident, but that to be on the safe side, evacuate.
No need to take your suitcases, we were told, just evacuate the city for 3 days.
So we did as we were told and left the city without packing our bags.
Nonetheless, we didnt return in 3 days, a month, or 20 years.
The forests we children had played in every day as well as the houses full of memories were destroyed by the radiation and buried in the dirt.
Today nothing remains. What was once a vibrant city is now dead.
We didn't just lose our beautiful hometown in that horrific accident, but many people also died.
Many of my friends have died. Just kids at the time, many of us have grown up, married, and have kids of our own, some of whose health has been adversely affected.
Mankind has forgotten and is making the same mistakes over again.
Don't forget these tragedies. Don't make the same mistakes.
With this hope in mind, I will sing this lovely and meaningful song for you.
“Itsumo, nando-demo ("Always, No Matter How Many Times")”.
It’s calling out, somewhere deep within my chest
My heart always wants to dance and dream
The number of my sorrows is countless
But across them, surely I’ll be able to see you again
Every time mistakes repeat, people will
Understand the blue of the simply blue sky
I can see that the path continues endlessly
But my two hands can embrace the light
My calm chest at the time of farewell
My empty body makes me listen carefully
It’s strange to be alive, it’s strange to die
For flowers and wind and towns, everything’s the same
It’s calling out, somewhere deep within my chest
Always, no matter how many times, I’ll sketch my dream
Rather than talking all about the number of my sorrows
After the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 and the Chuetsu Earthquake 2004, when their evacuation lives became long terms,
Hyogo and Niigata Prefectural Police formed a team of female police officers named after flowers.
Their mission to visit as many shelters as possible to "listen the voice of earthquake victims".
Team Noji Chrysanthemum engaged in a picture‐story show and ventriloquism puppet shows,
"We cannot help anything, all we can do is listening and nodding what they say with tears" said in the report back then.
With a support of other prefectures, their team grew to 150 officers, visited 5,000 locations, 760,000people's stories and they "teared and encouraged by the locals who strived to live positively".
After the Tohoku Earthquake this March, there have been many police women coming from all over Japan to patrol each shelters. Their activity is wide and everything like "taking a walk with a local lady who has a difficulty on walking".
the tires of their patrol car wear out in a day because of its bad road environment, and the filter of air conditioner were blocked up from the dust of broken buildings.
We heard from Iwaki-cuty, Fukushima prefecture that their cherry blossom had bloomed this year for the first time, and its local school children in shelters started new term.
The scenery had dramatically changed, but there again a new spring season arriving in the area.
Noji Chrysanthemum flowers even in the sandy coastal road and Snow Camellia blooms after enduring under the heavy snow of winter.
The areas once swept away from Tsunami, where we could only stand aghast, would surely bloom.
living in London, loves yummies + beauties of the planet.
founder of Museum of Sake, an invisible museum which provides sake education & tasting experiences. ex-Zuma&Roka sake sommelier.
英国ロンドンZUMA&ROKAレストランのサケソムリエを経て、欧州での日本酒振興を目指したPR事業Museum of Sakeを展開中。
美味しくて綺麗なものが好き。
タイトルバナーの写真は、プクプクの醪ちゃんです。
