Director: Masako Sakata
Country: Japan 2014
Documentary, 90 minutes, language : French, Russian, English, Japanese with English subtitles
The world after WWII is largely defined as nuclear age. The nuclear energy has been sold as “peaceful” use of atoms, while in essence it is the same as nuclear weapons. The film visits the people and land damaged by pursuit of atomic power both as weapons as well as sources of energy around the world and questions the future of nuclear age.
When Fukushima nuclear plant accident happened, I resorted to a book titled 'Please Listen', a compilation of anti-nuclear newsletters by my mother who died 16 years ago.
Following in her footsteps, I started on a journey questioning nuclear age.
Through travels in France, Bikini Atoll, and Kazakhstan, I found scars of nuclear age deeply engraved even after 60 years, and thought this might be Fukushima 60 years from now.
We claim to have harnessed the power of the atom, but perhaps it is humankind that is under its control.
My journey in search of answers continues.
3 years after the accident, the situation in Fukushima remains dangerous, though it is mostly forgotten in the shade of “economic growth”. In its epilogue, the film shows newly revealed shuddering facts of the accident.
Born in Nagano prefecture, Japan.
During high school, spent one year attending Camden-Rockport High School, Me. U.S.A. as an AFS exchange student.
Upon return, entered Kyoto University and majored in Sociology, with special interest in cultural anthropology.
After having worked at a Tokyo based photo agency, later becoming president, started a career as documentary film maker.
First film “Agent Orange – a personal requiem” (2007) is a homage to Greg Davis, her husband who succumbed to the illness thought to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
She completed the sequel “Living the Silent Spring” in 2011, depicting the long lasting effects of defoliant both in Vietnam and U.S.A.
Both films received various awards both in Japan and Europe.
She is continuing to voice importance of environmental awareness through film, writing and talks.
2008 Agent Orange – a personal requiem
Moved to take up filmmaking after the death of her husband, an American veteran whose cancer was likely caused by exposure to the dioxin-contaminated herbicide during the Vietnam War, Masako Sakata gracefully weaves her husband's story—and her wrenching loss—with the ongoing impact of Agent Orange on Vietnamese families with disabled children.
2011 Living the Silent Spring
The burden of Agent Orange and the courage to face and bear the consequences.
Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring warned of the danger of widespread use of pesticides, helping to launch the environmental movement in the US. Around this same time, the US military began to spray defoliants in Vietnam.
Despite the unprecedented nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan is forging ahead with re-starting the nuclear power plants, as well as engaging in the renewed efforts to export nuclear plants overseas.
Why have we not learned from Fukushima that nuclear facilities can cause calamities that is beyond our control? We are responsible to leave the safe environment for future generations. We need to look back how we have come to where we are and how we can correct our paths.
Didier Anger Anit-nuclear activist, France
“Journey without End” is in fact a journey Japan has to face for a longtime, as a witness of damages by nuclear, civil and military, through La Hague and Bikini. I congratulate you for the quality of your work. It is informative as well as esthetic. La Hague is so beautiful. It is a shame that it is carrying such a festering wound on its back.
Bernard Laponche Nuclear Physicist
I am very impressed by its quality, both for the historical and human points of view. It is remarkable. I am convinced that it will provide a precious tool for the antinuclear movement but also a way to convince « neutral » or even pronuclear people faced with the reality.
Masako Sakata e-mail:
Phone: 81 90-7195-9977, 81-278-72-5573
