Three years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster...Be considerate of Fukushima people and stop saying "No more Fukushima"

When I went to Kansai, Japan in recent years, if my friend Fujii was not away from home, we would always meet up.

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Fujii and I are both wandering psychiatrists. The difference is that as soon as he graduated from medical school, he plunged into the post-disaster psychological rehabilitation work after the Hanshin Earthquake (1995.1.17) and has stayed at his job ever since.

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In September last year (2013), I learned that Fujii was about to change his job. He was in Kansai in December, so of course he wanted to meet him.

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The place my friend is going to is Fukushima, which became the global focus due to the nuclear safety accident caused by the earthquake and tsunami after March 11, 2011. After nearly three years of irregular support, Fujii decided to leave his hometown of Kobe and devote his expertise to the recovery of the Fukushima disaster area.

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When colleagues meet, it is difficult to talk about majors. Fujii told me that nearly half of the manpower devoted to mental health work after the disaster came from other places. "I'm not a special case," said my friend, who is determined to stay as a permanent supervisor for front-line workers.

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My friend was very calm, but I kept nagging: Is the environment safe? Can the local water be drunk and the food eaten? Fujii patiently explained that Fukushima has a vast territory and there are huge differences between different places; even when the wind direction changes, the background radiation value also fluctuates. "It's a pity that the whole place has been so stigmatized," he said, shaking his head at Fukushima, which had a deep-rooted image of its richness in the past.

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Yes. I think of "No Nukes; No more Fukushima" (No more Fukushima), which has been the most common slogan in anti-nuclear activities in the past two years. Fukushima people must have felt a little pain in their hearts when they saw this. "No Nukes is enough," my friend thoughtfully appealed.

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Paradoxically, another test that lies before my friend is his specialty - the stigmatization of mental health care.

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The story begins with the "imperial turmoil" more than a hundred years ago. During the Meiji period, Souma Seiyin, the former lord of the Nakamura domain in the Soma area, was suspected of suffering from schizophrenia (schizophrenia, the name was changed by the Japanese Psychiatric Association in 2002). In 1879, he was first detained by his younger brother in his own home, and was later transferred to Tokyo. Madhouse (mental hospital). Seiyin's loyal retainer Nishikori Gokiyo refused to accept the offer and broke into the hospital in 1887 to kidnap the feudal lord. Unexpectedly, Sei-in's illness fluctuated, and Sei-in died of illness in 1892. The Souma family accused Nishikori of poisoning him the following year, but Nishikori counterattacked with false accusations. After years of turmoil, the incident was widely reported by the emerging media at the time, newspapers, which made it known throughout the country and also planted the seeds of serious prejudice among local residents against mental health care. Until the East Japan Earthquake, Soma City not only had no psychiatric hospital, but also had difficulty setting up psychiatric outpatient clinics in general hospitals, forcing patients to travel out of town for medical treatment.

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"After the earthquake, the psychiatric medical team worked very carefully and finally broke the century-old taboo in the local area and established outpatient services in the name of mental rehabilitation." The friend showed a happy expression.

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Looking back on the 921 earthquake in 1999, wasn’t it also an important milestone for Taiwan’s psychiatric/mental health work to enter the community? Before the earthquake, most people believed that psychiatrists only looked at "mental illness"; no matter how loudly the psychiatric and mental health workers spoke out, it would be difficult to break the stereotype. Unexpectedly, an earth-shaking event turned out to be an opportunity to break the stigma against mental illness. People across Taiwan have learned from personal experience that whether it is a force majeure natural disaster or daily accumulated stress, the brain may temporarily become dysfunctional and fall into states of anxiety, panic, or depression. Mental disorder is not divine punishment, nor is it heresy.

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After the 311 earthquake, I repeatedly wrote in emails to greet my friends in Japan, "When the situation stabilizes, I must go to Fukushima to enjoy cherry blossoms and soak in hot springs." Today, apart from following the example of my friends and practicing medicine locally, this is still the most powerful support I can think of.

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