90 year old survivor of Nagasaki atomic bombing reflects on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe

A Mainichi reporter interviews a Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor about his own personal story, as well as his reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi first annual commemoration:

"I met Jinei Shimabukuro on March 11, exactly one year after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. At 2:46 p.m., the moment the earthquake hit, Shimabukuro stood, faced north, and said a silent prayer.

Afterwards, video of the ruined Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant flowed across the TV screen.

"That's the result of always putting economic prosperity first," Shimabukuro says. "We don't need to be rich," he adds, his tone growing stronger as the TV program detailed the plights of people forced from their homes by the nuclear disaster. "The most important thing is to live in safety and peace. Japan ought to have learned that from the war."

Later, with dusk creeping over the sugarcane field, Shimabukuro stands in front of the memorial to the war dead. There, before the stark epitaph, he asks that the world start on the road to nuclear abolition -- especially now in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, when everyone has been reminded of the terrifying power of the atom."