Resettlers OK'd to Move Into Japanese Town Evacuated After Nuclear Plant Meltdown

The Wired Word for the Week of June 26, 2016

In the News

The Japanese town of Naraha is now open for repopulation. That's news only because it is the first of the communities in that country's nuclear exclusion zone to be declared ready for resettlement. (All restrictions were removed last September, but a report in the current issue of The New Republic has brought the reopening into the news now.)

Naraha, along with many other towns in northern Japan, was evacuated following a 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex -- caused by a massive tsunami.

On March 11, 2011, the east coast of Japan was hit with a tsunami that in some areas was as high as 133 feet, triggered by the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to hit Japan. Some 19,000 people died in the catastrophe. In the Fukushima prefecture (an administrative area) in northern Japan, the coastline area was hit with waves as high as 46 feet, where three nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex were affected, causing a major meltdown, releasing various types of radioactive material. Levels were high enough that an evacuation of all people within 12.5 miles of the site was ordered -- forcing the evacuation of thousands of people -- and residents within 18.5 miles were required to stay indoors. At various times, radionuclide levels above regulatory limits were found in many areas of Japan. Sensitive detectors in many parts of the world were able to detect fission products released in the accident.

In a country with lots of land like the Ukraine, where the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in 1986, evacuated towns have been left empty, but in densely populated Japan, this has not been deemed an option, and so a massive cleanup program has been undertaken, with the town of Naraha being the first in the nuclear exclusion zone to be declared fit for repopulation.

The decontamination efforts included cutting down trees, power-washing streets and removing two inches of topsoil in a 65-foot radius around buildings. While many observers believe the efforts are not enough, radiation measurements in the town are now at low levels and considered not to be a threat to humans.

The skepticism is evident in the fact that only about a 16th of the population has returned, and they are mostly seniors, some saying that their remaining lifetime wouldn't be that long in any case. Some 53 percent of evacuees are undecided about returning, but very few people middle age and younger have come back, and almost no one with children.

In some other towns, where only partial evacuation was ordered at the time of the meltdown and where those orders have since been lifted, about half of the former residents have returned. But Naraha is the first fully evacuated town to be reopened.

Whether more will come back to Naraha remains to be seen, but for the moment, the Japanese government and the town of Naraha have made a start at reclaiming the land for human habitation.

More on this story can be found at these links:

The Ghosts of Fukushima. New Republic 
Safe at Last? View From Naraha -- The First Fukushima Community Declared Fit for Humans. The Guardian 
Japan's Nuclear Refugees Face Bleak Return Five Years After Fukushima. Reuters 

The Big Questions

1. We said in the introduction that those three words -- making a beginning -- are the secret to most of what gets accomplished in life, in our communities, in the church, in our faith.  In other words, as the adage states, every journey begins with the first step. Do you agree? Why or why not?

2. What is waiting for a start in your life? In your community? In your church? Is there anything about which you wonder if it could be God giving you a nudge? Are there real or self-constructed barriers that keep you from making a new start in the areas of your life where you desire change? What would have to happen for the barriers to come down?

3. If you are feeling a nudge toward making a start at some new thing, how might you test the idea to see whether it should be pursued? How is faith connected to making a beginning?

4. Who or what are the discouragers, opponents or distractions that try to prevent your starting? What weight should be given to their objections? Who or what are the encouragers, proponents or attractions that may -- wrongly -- encourage your starting? What weight should be given to these?

5. How much data should be gathered or planning should happen before making a start? Is there a point where just pushing ahead and trying something is preferable to gathering more information or doing more planning? Why?

6. Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, says that people do not change until the pain of changing is less than the pain of remaining the same. To what extent is this true or untrue in your life? What pain prevents you from moving forward in your faith path? In your life?

Confronting the News With Scripture and HopeHere are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Ezra 3:8 
In the second year after their arrival ... Zerubbabel ... and Jeshua ... made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work on the house of the LORD. (For context, read 3:1-13.)

This is from the time after the Jews who had been in exile in Babylon had been permitted to return to their homeland in Judah. There in Jerusalem, they found the temple destroyed, and so they set up a makeshift altar to worship God.

Eventually, however, they decided that the temple should be rebuilt. There were massive hurdles to be overcomes, including stiff resistance from hostile groups around them. Nonetheless, as the verse above states, they "made a beginning" at the project, which was eventually completed.

In this case, making a beginning meant laying the foundation of the new temple. Obviously, finishing was also important, but finishing would not have been possible without first making a beginning.

Questions: Where do you need to take the first step, turn the first shovel full, sketch a quick plan, establish a beachhead ... get something moving? How will you do that? Did you find it easier to keep going on the project once you made a start? Were there setbacks that disheartened you more than before you started? Did you ever realize at some point that this was a direction for someone else rather than for you?

Haggai 1:2-4
Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD's house. Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? (For context, read 1:1-15.)

Although the returned exiles made a beginning on the new temple, the project eventually stalled until the prophets Haggai (see his words above) and Zechariah got the people moving again to finish what they had begun. The stalling of the project illustrates that in projects of our own, things can happen to derail us.

Once we start, the first thing that can put the brakes on the project -- and did, in fact, stall the temple project -- is the claim that no matter how hard we try, what we accomplish won't be as good as what somebody else could do. And that charge can come from our own lack of self-esteem or from others.

According to Ezra 3:12-13, while most of the people rejoiced that the work on the temple had begun, those old enough to remember the first temple, the one destroyed by the Babylonians, wept as they remembered the former temple. Perhaps some of them wept because they couldn't picture the new one as being as grand and ornate as the first one. If so, they would be the discouragers, saying, "It won’t be as good -- it won’t be good enough."

The second thing that can happen is outright opposition. In the case of this temple, the people who had occupied the land while the Jews were in exile interfered and even wrote to the Persian king with false charges against the builders. And sad to say, they were successful in delaying the completion of the temple for several years. Eventually, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, along with Haggai and Zechariah, got things going again, but it took time.

The third thing that can happen is that we get distracted or get our priorities mixed up. From Haggai's prophecy, we learn that once the opposition succeeded in stopping the work, Zerubbabel and the other builders turned their attention elsewhere, including to the improvement of their own homes. Thus when Haggai comes on the scene, he issues a stern call. He says to the builders, "Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house [the temple] lies in ruins?" Haggai succeeded in getting the builders back on task.

Starting is always a sign of hope. Making a beginning is a statement of belief in a good outcome. And when we sense God calling us to make a beginning, at whatever that may be, it's important not to let discouragers or opponents or distractions turn us away.

Questions: What good intentions or worthy projects have gotten stalled in your life? Which ones should be reactivated? Why? When have you found it difficult, because of unresolved issues in your life, to work on something you knew was important? Did you have to resolve these conflicts before you could go forward with the thing that needed doing? Did you bury these feelings even deeper?
When have personal priorities hindered your commitment to the house of God and the work God has for you to do? What should you do when that happens?

Joshua 3:15-16
Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off ... Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. (For context, read 3:7-17.)

When God directed the people of Israel to cross the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land, he made a way for them -- causing the Jordan to part and allowing them to cross on the riverbed. But God didn't just part the waters and say "Go ahead." Instead, the people were directed to follow the priests who were bearing the ark of the covenant. And the waters didn't part until the priests' feet touched them.

In other words, the people were asked to trust God and make a beginning.

In the biblical story, starting across the Jordan was an act of faith, In the business world, making a beginning is also a way to see what will work. The best seller from a few years ago, In Search of Excellence, points out that what differentiates successful from less successful businesses was that the ones who are doing best all have a willingness to experiment and try things out before projects are in completed form. In other words, they will take an idea that is not fully developed and roll it out. The motto of these successful companies could almost be "Do it, fix it, try it."

Some of the less profitable businesses, in contrast, spent months or years planning new projects or products, but delayed introducing them until every possible bug in them was eliminated. If you are talking about developing a space shuttle, then anticipating every conceivable problem is vitally important, but in other things, getting most of the job done is often enough to find out if it will fly.

TWW team member Stan Purdum tells of applying this in a church he pastored: "We had conceived the idea of developing aSunday evening program, called Youth Club, for 4th, 5th and 6th graders, to run concurrent with our youth group meetings. For two years, we had talked about doing it, but had delayed starting it while looking for leadership. Finally, using the do-it-fix-it-try-it philosophy, we just announced a starting date and began. What we quickly discovered was that there was not enough interest from the kids in that age group to sustain the program, and after a few weeks we discontinued it. That left us free to turn our attention and energy elsewhere. If we had tried to get all the pieces in place before starting the program, we could have gone on putting a lot more work into something that wasn't going to fly no matter what we did. Sometimes going with the unfinished business you've got leads to a kind of resolution anyway -- in this case, to let the matter go. What we did not let go of, however, was our concern for the spiritual development of children, and we put some more effort into ourSunday school, where we did have the kids present."

Questions: Where in your church might making a beginning help you determine where attention and energies might best be concentrated? Where in your life might making a beginning help resolve an important question? Where in your faith might that practice help? When is making a beginning a godly thing to do?
Are you (and/or your church) willing to accept what some might call failure as a good sign to direct your energies elsewhere? Does the possibility of failure freeze you from trying things out that might or might not work?
Comment on this: Tenacity and persistence (not giving up) is only a virtue sometimes; other times the same behavior is stupidity and stubbornness.

John 7:17Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. (For context, read 7:14-18.)

Jesus said this in response to some who were questioning his teaching. We might paraphrase his statement as "If you want to know whether my teaching is from God, begin practicing it." Make a beginning.

Questions: What from your experience confirms your faith in Christ? What events in your experience have caused you to doubt rather than confirm your faith? How have you dealt with this?

Genesis 1:1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ... (For context, read 1:1-5.)
Revelation 21:5-7And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. (For context, read 21:1-7.)

When we make a start at something we suspect God might be calling us to, we are doing a godlike thing. The Bible opens with God himself making a start: "In the beginning, God created ...." And in the book that closes the Bible, Revelation, a voice from the throne of God says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." This is the testimony of God who is the truth, the beginning, center and end of all creation. God the Alpha and God the Omega is a God who is present with us everywhere and at all times. When we begin what he calls us to, he is with us.

Questions: Revelation says all will be well for those who remain faithful. Is that enough for us to go forward in faith, regardless of the success or failure of a particular endeavor? As the Alpha and Omega God is present in all things -- including something that doesn't work -- have you been able to recognize God's presence in a false start or a rebirth after loss or sadness?

For Further Discussion

1. Are there parts of your church or family history that feel "radioactive"? Are there incidents in your church's past that have been traumatic enough that no one wants to "resettle" there?

2. Despite assurances that the area is safe (and we claim no scientific expertise in this matter) radioactivity is invisible. Perhaps even if it was safe, one would feel sick or even make oneself sick.  (In the Three Mile Island 2 accident, the only reported casualties were from people who were overcome by fear from the news reports.) The Bible tells us "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1) and that "... we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). How difficult is it for you (and your church) to go forward in faith when you can't see the result? Do you have conviction in things that are not seen? Do you find it easy or hard to walk by faith and not by sight? Would you be among those who returned to ancestral homes in the cleansed area or one of those who stayed in Babylon? What factors into your decision to start over or to remain where you are?

3. What do you think creates the trust relied upon by those in Japan who have returned home to start anew? What gives us faith and hope when we 'cannot go home again and have to start new elsewhere? What are the hidden dangers of staying in place. What are the hidden dangers of moving to greener pastures?

4. Referring to the people resettling Naraha, TWW team member Micah Holland said, "I remember being on a mission trip in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Katrina. I kept engaging the question, 'What does hope look like?' I think hope is one of the driving forces in moments like this. I saw hope in so many small ways through this trip and it was remarkable the joy in so many challenging moments.
             "I am also reminded of the text from Jesus in John 2:13-25, when Jesus says, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Referring to his body being resurrected, it is an enlightening perspective on the balance between places like the temple and our focus of faith in Jesus, in the being of Christ. I see this scripture challenging our worship of places. Might be an interesting way to engage this topic in the rebuilding. What does the rebuild actually mean? Where is meaning found in new buildings?"

5. Comment on this: Regarding making a beginning, we heard a woman in her 30s who was unhappy with her job, say, "What I should really do is go to college, but that means it will be four years before I can be in a new career." A friend said to her, "Yes, but think about where you'll be in four years if you don't go back to school." (On the other hand, after four years in college, and considering costs and loans, the payback is very dependent upon what actually is studied; a sociology major and a mechanical engineering major are likely to have extremely different returns on investment.)

Responding to the News

This is a good time to think about what project and ministry ideas have been proposed but not implemented in your church at present. What might you do to "make a beginning" at them?

Prayer

O Lord, help me to let nothing you call me to do die from lack of my beginning it. And where it is your will, help me to finish it as well. In Jesus' name. Amen.