Hundreds of people rallied in a Tokyo park on Saturday, demanding an end to atomic power nearly two years after the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in northeastern Japan. (March 9)
SHOTLIST:
SOURCE - RESTRICTION
Location - Date
1. Wide pan of anti-nuclear protesters gathering
2. More of gathering
3. Couple carrying anti-nuke sign
4. Close up of sign reading (English) "What do you do in case of a nuclear accident"
5. More of sign reading (English) "No nukes"
6. Tilt up from banner reading (Japanese) "No nuclear" to the people holding it
7. Activists on podium
8. Audience listening
9. Banners with anti-nuclear slogans
10. Various of the rally, protesters chanting
11. A passerby taking photo
12. Wide of rally
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of people rallied in a Tokyo park on Saturday, demanding an end to atomic power, and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, northeastern Japan.
Gathering on a weekend ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11 quake and tsunami that sent Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into multiple meltdowns, demonstrators said they would never forget the world's worst nuclear catastrophe, and expressed alarm over the government's eagerness to restart reactors.
Only two of this nation's 50 working reactors are back online, partly because of continuous protests like Saturday's, the first time such demonstrations have popped up in this nation since the 1960s movement against the Vietnam War.
People have thronged Tokyo parks on national holidays, and outside the Parliament building every Friday evening, drawing people previously unseen at political rallies, such as commuter "salarymen" and housewives.
Two years later, 160,000 people have left their homes around the plant, entire sections of nearby communities are still ghost-towns, and fears grow about cancer and other sicknesses the spewing radiation might bring.
But the new prime minister elected late last year, Shinzo Abe, hailing from a conservative party that fostered the pro-nuclear policies of modernising Japan, wants to restart the reactors, maybe even build new ones.
"The nuclear accident became the chance to unveil so many hidden issues many Japanese weren't aware of," said protester Kazuyuki Tokune on Saturday.
Another big Tokyo rally was planned for Sunday.
A concert on Saturday evening features Oscar and Grammy-winning musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of the most vocal opponents of nuclear power.
Commemorative services will be held throughout the nation on Monday.
The quake and tsunami killed nearly 19,000 people.
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