People of Rokkasho

Overview

At the beginning of the 1970s, in the village of Rokkasho situated at the base of the Shimokita peninsula, the prospect of sudden development and industrialization was raised. 10 years later it was decided that a giant petrochemical complex would be built, so the local people sold their land and left. Yet even now people continue to live in this "island on the mainland;" they continue to battle the forces of nature in this inhospitable climate that always leaves them with an insufficient harvest. In actuality, many of the old people who continue to work in agriculture or the fishing industry only settled here after World War II. The occurrence of both the "dollar shock" and the "oil shock" abruptly cut back the national development plans, ... Then, in 1984, almost as if it had been planned from the beginning, it was decided that a nuclear reprocessing facility would be built at Rokkasho. In consequence, the opposition movement quietly began to reform.