Voices Stopped the Rubble: A Record of the Abandonment of the Operation of the Industrial Waste Treatment Plant in Sendai City (August 1994)

Voices Stopped the Rubble: A Record of the Abandonment of the Operation of the Industrial Waste Treatment Plant in Sendai City (August 1994)

In the summer of that year, I learned of a small article in the corner of the newspaper that might change the fate of this town. It said that an industrial waste treatment plant would be built in the northern part of Sendai. No one had heard of it. There was no mention of it in the neighborhood association or in the circulars. It was as if we had never existed, and only the plan was being carried out by itself.

The land where we live is a quiet place surrounded by mountains and water. We use well water, grow vegetables in the fields, and our children play in the creek. These ordinary days could be destroyed by a single treatment plant. The thought of this made my heart flutter.

I got together with my neighbors and held a series of discussions. They collected signatures, brought petitions to the city council meetings, and raised questions at information meetings. At a briefing, he asked, "Who will take responsibility if the groundwater is contaminated?" Will there be daily dump trucks driving on our residential roads?" - but the contractors acted as if they were somewhere far away and only said, "It's safe" and "We have a permit.

I was scared. I was afraid that the water, the air, and my life would be destroyed. But what scared me even more was that if I kept quiet, they might take everything away from me.

A few months later, the contractor announced that the project would be cancelled for various reasons. In that moment, we may have won. But this is not the end. In this country, the quieter the town, the more dangerous it is, unless someone speaks up. That was the feeling I had that summer.