Japanese activists visit uranium area

Posted by Alastair Lee Bitsóí | Apr 30, 2015 | Community |

CHURCH ROCK, N.M.

Uranium miner-turned activist Larry King gestures with his hands to demonstrate how large the 1979 uranium spilled was to the Japan Congress Against A-and H-Bombs group on Friday. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)

While Larry King, a former uranium miner-turned activist, recounted the 1979 Church Rock uranium spill through a megaphone last week, Japanese anti-nuclear activists listened intently.

Japanese interpreter Yasuhisa Iwakawa, yellow jacket, translates Tadako Kawazoe’s, left, recount of how the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during WWII, has been affecting its citizens during their visit on Friday in Church Rock, N.M. Iwakawa and Kawazoe are with the Japan Congress Against A-and H-Bombs anti-uranium group. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)

King, who stood at the front of a charter bus that hauled 28 Japanese touring the region, told of how he worked at the United Nuclear Corporation’s uranium mill and mine sites in Church Rock.

“This uranium spill was the largest in the U.S.,” King said, explaining that being employed at the UNC site is the reason he suffers from lingering respiratory issues.

The story of King, and others like Edith Hood, who worked at the Kerr-McGee mine, were translated by interpreter Tamayama Tomoyo, who helped uranium activists like Katsumi Furitsu understand the plight of people living in and around these abandoned uranium mine and mill sites in the U.S.
Furitsu, an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics at Hyogo College of Medicine in Japan, was among 28 Japanese who visited the Church Rock region on April 24.