Fumikazu Nishitani, Part 1

Tragedy being repeated

Fumikazu Nishitani (center), after distributing food at a refugee camp in Kabul. (October 2010)

Fumikazu Nishitani

Born in 1960. He started working as a civil servant at Suita City Hall in Osaka in 1985. He enjoyed traveling, and his visit to Iraq brought him into contact with children who had come down with cancer apparently as a consequence of depleted uranium weapons. He founded 窶彝escue the Iraqi Children窶・in December 2003. At the end of 2004 he left his job at Suita City Hall and became a journalist covering conflict areas. He continues performing NGO work to deliver humanitarian aid while working as a journalist exposing war crimes. In 2006, he received the 窶弃eace & Cooperative Journalist Fund of Japan Award.窶・He lives in the city of Suita.

窶弩hat窶冱 this?窶・I was shocked at the sight of the tumor on the baby's back, the size of its head. The nerves in the infant's spine had become damaged, and it was now paralyzed from the waist down. The baby's cry, whether from pain or hunger, filled the small room.

This scene took place in the village of Waldiya, near the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, a one-hour drive from Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. In April 2003, amid the chaos unleashed by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, a group of burglars broke into the nuclear facility and tossed drums of uranium into the river.

In the wake of that incident, a number of sheep in the village were born with deformed spines. Children started suffering from numb limbs and the cause could not be determined.

At the time I was a civil servant working at Suita City Hall in Osaka. During my vacation, I traveled to Iraq and I visited a children's hospital in Baghdad that was filled with children who had cancer. The depleted uranium bombs used by the U.S. military there were lethal to the Iraqi children.

The hospital held such misery. One child had become blind due to a brain tumor; another was blinded by fragments from a cluster bomb; a third had a tumor as large as a softball on one thigh; and so on.

While I was in Iraq, gathering information, three Japanese people were kidnapped. Koizumi was the Japanese prime minister then, and he expressed irritation at this and said that they were responsible for their own fate. Public opinion in Japan took up this view and began bashing the abductees with the term 窶徘ersonal responsibility.窶・/p>

I was subject to criticism as well, hearing such things as: 窶廬f trouble befalls you, the city of Suita will be held responsible窶・ 窶廬f civil servants are taking two-week vacations, this means that the city government has more staff than it needs and cuts should be made to the number of workers窶・ and 窶弸ou're a civil servant so don't speak ill of the government.窶・I thought: 窶廬f I continue working as a civil servant and I go to Iraq again, this will stir up a lot of trouble. The Iraqi children are struggling to survive. There are millions of civil servants, but not many people that are able to go to Iraq.窶・And so I decided to quit my job.

At the end of 2004, I started working as a freelance journalist. I also became the head of the NGO 窶彝escue Iraqi Children窶・and I devoted myself to activities in Iraq. I felt anxious about supporting my family, but if I had continued working at city hall, I would have regretted it. I lost a monthly salary, but I was able to free up my days and gain valuable time.

Free from any constraints, I collected contributions in Japan and brought them to Iraq. While delivering medicine to a cancer hospital and providing blankets and food to people in refugee camps, I continued my journalism activities.

When Mr. Obama became president, I hoped that he would put an end to war. He did wind down the war in Iraq, but he intensified the war in Afghanistan, even after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Conflict should be resolved through dialogue.

I began going to Afghanistan, too. Depleted uranium weapons were used there as well, and children were caught in bombings and killed by mistake. In Japan, people make the appeal: 窶廛on't repeat the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.窶・But, in fact, the number of radiation sufferers is increasing. Bitterness against the U.S. military, who have destroyed villages in Afghanistan, results in the survivors turning to the Taliban.

A chain of bitterness. What on earth is the war on terrorism? Should Japan be taking part in this war? With such questions in my mind, I visit Afghanistan and Iraq several times a year.