Invisible and Insidious, by William T. Vollmann

F or the past three years my dosimeter had sat silently on a narrow shelf just inside the door of a house in Tokyo, upticking its final digit every twenty-four hours by one or two, the increase never failing — for radiation is the ruthless companion of time.

在过去的三年里，我的剂量计静静地放在东京一所房子门内的狭窄架子上，每二十四小时将其最后一位数字增加一到两个，这种增加从未停止过——因为辐射是时间无情的伴侣。

Wherever we are, radiation finds and damages us, at best imperceptibly.

无论我们身在何处，辐射都会发现并损害我们，最多是在不知不觉中。

During those three years, my American neighbors had lost sight of the accident at Fukushima.

在那三年里，我的美国邻居已经忘记了福岛事故。

In March 2011, a tsunami had killed hundreds, or thousands; yes, they remembered that.

2011 年 3 月，一场海啸造成数百人或数千人死亡；是的，他们记得这一点。

Several also recollected the earthquake that caused it, but as for the hydrogen explosion and containment breach at Nuclear Plant No. 1, that must have been fixed by now — for its effluents no longer shone forth from our national news.

一些人还回忆起引发这次地震的地震，但至于一号核电站的氢气爆炸和安全壳破坏，现在肯定已经修复了——因为它的废水不再出现在我们的国家新闻中。

Meanwhile, my dosimeter increased its figure, one or two digits per day, more or less as it would have in San Francisco — well, a trifle more, actually.

与此同时，我的剂量计的数字增加了，每天增加一到两位数，或多或少与旧金山的情况相同——嗯，实际上多了一点。

And in Tokyo, as in San Francisco, people went about their business, except on Friday nights, when the stretch between the Kasumigaseki and Kokkai-Gijido-mae subway stations — half a dozen blocks of sidewalk, which commenced at an antinuclear tent that had already been on this spot for more than 900 days and ended at the prime minister’s lair — became a dim and feeble carnival of pamphleteers and Fukushima refugees peddling handicrafts.

在东京，就像在旧金山一样，人们都在忙自己的事，除了周五晚上，那时霞关地铁站和国海机关堂前地铁站之间的一段人行道——六块街区的人行道，始于一个已经在这个地方呆了 900 多天的反核帐篷，止于首相的巢穴——变成了一场昏暗而无力的狂欢节。兜售手工艺品的小册子出版商和福岛难民。

“Iwaki-shi, Fukushima, 2011,” by Katsumi Omori, from the series Everything Happens for the First Time © The artist.

——福岛县磐城市，2011 年——大森克己，出自《一切都第一次发生》系列 © 艺术家。

Courtesy MEM, Tokyo

由东京 MEM 提供

One Friday evening, the refugees’ half of the sidewalk was demarcated by police barriers, and a line of officers slouched at ease in the street, some with yellow bullhorns hanging from their necks.

一个周五晚上，难民们的人行道上有一半被警察设置了路障，一排警察悠闲地站在街上，有些人脖子上挂着黄色的扩音器。

At the very end of the street, where the National Diet glowed white and strange behind other buildings, a policeman set up a microphone, then deployed a small video camera in the direction of the muscular young people in drums against fascists jackets who now, at six-thirty sharp, began chanting: “We don’t need nuclear energy!

在街道的尽头，国会大厦在其他建筑物后面发出奇怪的白光，一名警察架起了麦克风，然后对着身着法西斯夹克的肌肉发达的年轻人的方向部署了一个小型摄像机，现在六点三十分，他们开始高喊：“我们不需要核能！”

Stop nuclear power plants!

停止核电站！

Stop them, stop them, stop them!

阻止他们，阻止他们，阻止他们！

No restart!

没有重启！

No restart!” The police assumed a stiffer stance; the drumming and chanting were almost uncomfortably loud.

不能重启！——警方采取了更强硬的立场；击鼓声和口号声几乎令人不舒服。

Commuters hurried past along the open space between the police and the protesters, staring straight ahead, covering their ears.

通勤者沿着警察和抗议者之间的空地匆匆经过，目视前方，捂住耳朵。

Finally, a fellow in a shabby sweater appeared, and murmured along with the chants as he rounded the corner.

终于，一个穿着破旧毛衣的家伙出现了，他转过拐角时，随着口号低声说道。

He was the only one who seemed to sympathize; few others reacted at all.

他是唯一一个似乎表示同情的人。其他人几乎没有什么反应。

But now the drummers were banging away as if for their very lives, swaying like dancers, raising clenched fists, looking endlessly determined.

但现在，鼓手们仿佛在拼命敲击，像舞者一样摇摆，举起紧握的拳头，看上去无比坚定。

I was astounded to see that listless scattering of the half-seen become a close-packed, disciplined crowd.

我惊讶地发现，那些无精打采、零散分散的人变成了拥挤、纪律严明的人群。

There must have been 300 or more.

肯定有300个或更多。

They chanted and raised their hand-lettered placards.

他们高呼口号并举起手写标语牌。

It was the last night of February 2014.

那是 2014 年 2 月的最后一个晚上。

Perhaps after another three years of Fridays they will still be congregating to express their dissent, which after what happened at Plant No. 1 must be considered pure sanity itself.

也许再过三年的周五，他们仍然会聚集在一起表达他们的异议，在一号工厂发生的事情之后，这本身就必须被认为是纯粹的理智。

All the same, they were hurried past, overlooked, and left to chant in darkness while my dosimeter accrued another digit.

尽管如此，他们还是匆匆经过，被忽视了，然后在黑暗中吟唱，而我的剂量计又增加了一个数字。

Another uptick, another gray hair — so what?

又一个上升，又一个白发——那又怎样？

With radiation, as with time, from moment to moment there may indeed be nothing to worry about.

对于辐射，就像对于时间一样，时时刻刻可能确实没有什么可担心的。

I was happy to see that dosimeter again.

我很高兴再次看到那个剂量计。

By the time I returned to Japan my interpreter had recalibrated it from millirems to millisieverts, the latter her country’s more customary unit of poisonousness.

当我回到日本时，我的翻译已将其从毫雷姆重新校准为毫西弗，后者是她的国家更习惯的毒性单位。

Why not?

为什么不呢？

The thing was hers now; I had given it to her because she had to live here and I didn’t.

现在这东西是她的了；我把它给了她，因为她必须住在这里，而我却不能。

It was the best I could do for her.

这是我能为她做的最好的事情了。

To be sure, I had come to deplore its inability to detect anything but gamma rays, since plutonium emits alpha particles, and strontium emits beta particles (which present a danger if strontium is inhaled or swallowed); by July of 2013 these and certain other radioactive substances had been detected in a monitoring well at Plant No. 1.

可以肯定的是，我对它除了伽马射线之外无法探测到任何东西感到遗憾，因为钚发射α粒子，而锶发射β粒子（如果吸入或吞咽锶会带来危险）；到 2013 年 7 月，这些物质和某些其他放射性物质已在一号厂的监测井中检测到。

(The concentration of cesium was a hundred times greater than the legal maximum.

（铯的浓度比法定最高浓度高一百倍。

But why be a pessimist?

但为什么要成为悲观主义者呢？

That well was a good six meters away from the ocean.) At least the dosimeter could keep itself occupied measuring gamma-ray emitters such as cesium-134 and cesium-137, which in that same joyful July kept making news.

那口井距离海洋足足有六米远。）至少剂量计可以一直忙于测量铯 134 和铯 137 等伽马射线发射体，在那个同样欢乐的 7 月，它们不断成为新闻。

One Wednesday the Japan Times reported that the isotopes were “both about 90 times the levels found Friday.”

周三，《日本时报》报道称，同位素含量“均为周五发现水平的约 90 倍”。

Meanwhile, the JDC Corporation, a construction company, discharged 340 tons of radioactive water into the Iizaka River — but not to worry: it happened, said the Japan Times, “during government-sponsored decontamination work.” (Well, we all make mistakes.

与此同时，建筑公司 JDC Corporation 向饭坂河排放了 340 吨放射性水，但不用担心：据《日本时报》报道，这件事发生在政府资助的去污工作期间。（嗯，我们都会犯错误。

You see, the company had not been aware that water from the river would be used for agricultural purposes.) Ten days later, said the same newspaper, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, which is the nuclear utility that operates the damaged plant, “now admits radioactive water entering the sea at Fukushima No. 1 . . .

你看，该公司并没有意识到河里的水将用于农业目的。）十天后，同一份报纸称，东京电力公司（Tokyo Electric Power Company，简称 TEPCO）——运营受损核电站的核公用事业公司——现在承认放射性水进入了福岛第一核电站的海洋。

fueling fears that marine life is being poisoned.” The dangerous hydrogen isotope tritium had already been detected in the ocean back in June, and the amount was climbing.

加剧了人们对海洋生物正在中毒的担忧。——早在 6 月份就已经在海洋中检测到了危险的氢同位素氚，而且数量正在攀升。

But TEPCO would fix things, no doubt.

但毫无疑问，东京电力会解决问题。

A crumbling building in Odaka, inside the original twenty-kilometer exclusion zone surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 2011 © Donald Weber/VII

小高市一座摇摇欲坠的建筑，位于福岛第一核电站周围原来二十公里的禁区内，2011 年 © Donald Weber/VII

In August 2013, the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority, which thus far had treated the leak as a level 1 “anomaly,” recategorized it at level 3, a “serious accident.” Meanwhile, the Japan Times was calling the situation “alarming” and speaking of trillions of becquerels of radioactivity, which is to say, “about 100 times more than what TEPCO had been allowing to enter the sea each year before the crisis.” A year later TEPCO estimated that tritium emitting 20 to 40 trillion becquerels of radiation per liter may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean since May 2011.

2013 年 8 月，日本核管理机构此前将这次泄漏视为 1 级“异常”，随后将其重新归类为 3 级，即“严重事故”。与此同时，《日本时报》称这种情况“令人震惊”，并谈到了数万亿贝克勒尔的放射性，也就是说， “比危机前东京电力公司每年允许进入海洋的量大约多出 100 倍。”一年后，东京电力公司估计，自 2011 年 5 月以来，每升释放出 20 至 40 万亿贝克勒尔辐射的氚可能已流入太平洋。

To prevent No. 1 from exploding again, and maybe melting down, TEPCO cooled the reactor with water and more water, which then went into holding tanks, which, like all human aspirations, eventually leaked.

为了防止 1 号核电站再次爆炸，甚至可能熔化，东京电力用水和更多的水冷却反应堆，然后将水放入储存罐中，就像所有人类的愿望一样，最终泄漏。

By September 2013, South Korea had banned the importation of fish from eight Japanese prefectures.

到 2013 年 9 月，韩国已禁止从日本八个都道府县进口鱼类。

And in February 2014, when I began my second visit to the hot zone, the cesium concentration in one sampling well was more than twice as high as the record set the summer before.

2014 年 2 月，当我开始第二次访问热区时，一个采样井中的铯浓度比前一年夏天创下的记录高出两倍多。

A day after that was reported, the cesium figure had again more than doubled.

报道称一天后，铯的含量再次增加了一倍多。

As for strontium levels, TEPCO confessed that it had somehow underreported those; they were five and a half times worse than had been previously stated.

至于锶含量，东京电力承认，它以某种方式少报了这些含量；它们比之前所说的还要糟糕五倍半。

Three hundred tons of radioactive water were now entering the ocean every day.

现在每天有三百吨放射性​​水进入海洋。

(A spokesperson for TEPCO says that the situation has since improved: compared with the period before August 2013, levels of strontium-90 have been reduced by about one third, and levels of cesium-137 by one tenth.)

（东电发言人表示，此后情况有所改善：与 2013 年 8 月之前相比，锶 90 的含量减少了约三分之一，铯 137 的含量减少了十分之一。）

Meanwhile, there were still 150,000 nuclear refugees.

与此同时，仍有15万名核难民。

Many remained on the hook for the mortgages on their abandoned homes.

许多人仍然背负着废弃房屋的抵押贷款。

Another hilarious little anecdote: Many poor souls had toiled for TEPCO in the hideous environs of No. 1, and some had been exposed to a dose of more than a hundred millisieverts of radiation.

另一个搞笑的小轶事：许多可怜的人在一号的可怕环境中为东京电力辛勤工作，其中一些人受到了超过一百毫西弗的辐射。

A maximum of one millisievert per year for ordinary citizens is the general standard prescribed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

国际辐射防护委员会规定的一般标准是普通公民每年的最高辐射剂量为一毫西弗。

According to The First Responder’s Guide to Radiation Incidents, first responders should content themselves with fifty millisieverts per incident, for although radiation sickness manifests itself at twenty times that dose, cancer might well show up after lower exposures.

根据《急救人员辐射事故指南》，急救人员应满足每次事故 50 毫西弗的剂量，因为虽然辐射病在该剂量的 20 倍时就会出现，但在较低剂量的照射后很可能会出现癌症。

But the tale had a happy ending: The workers would be allowed to undergo annual ultrasonic thyroid examinations free of charge.

但这个故事有一个美好的结局：工人们将被允许每年免费接受甲状腺超声检查。

TEPCO projected the total cost of the disaster at 978 billion yen, or 8.4 billion U.S. dollars.

东京电力公司预计此次灾难的总损失为 9,780 亿日元，即 84 亿美元。

Nevertheless, as the Japanese government kept advising in the aftermath of the disaster, there was “no immediate danger.” And important plans were being drawn up to save the world.

然而，正如日本政府在灾难发生后不断建议的那样，“没有立即的危险”。并且正在制定拯救世界的重要计划。

The idea was to build an electric-powered “wall of ice” around Plant No. 1 by inserting over 1,700 pipes ninety-eight feet underground for nearly a mile.

这个想法是通过在地下 98 英尺处插入 1,700 多根管道，长达近一英里，在 1 号工厂周围建造一座电动“冰墙”。

Coolant flowing through them at -22 degrees Fahrenheit would then freeze the groundwater in the surrounding soil.

-22 华氏度的冷却剂流过它们会冻结周围土壤中的地下水。

Many doubted, however, that it would be possible to maintain the wall in a place where summer temperatures can top 100 degrees.

然而，许多人怀疑是否有可能在夏季气温高达 100 度的地方维持这堵墙。

In June 2013, only weeks after construction began, the company met new troubles freezing contaminated water for disposal.

2013 年 6 月，施工开始仅几周后，该公司在冷冻受污染的水进行处理方面遇到了新的麻烦。

“We have yet to form the ice stopper,” it admitted, “because we can’t make the temperature low enough to freeze water.” In July, TEPCO announced that it was adding more pipes.

“我们还没有形成冰塞，”它承认，“因为我们无法使温度低到足以使水结冰。”7月份，东京电力宣布将增加更多管道。

The project would cost only 32 billion yen, and with any luck there wouldn’t be another tsunami in the area until the radioactivity subsided.

该项目仅耗资 320 亿日元，如果幸运的话，在放射性平息之前该地区不会再发生海啸。

How long might that be?

那可能要多长时间？

Take tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years.

以氚为例，它的半衰期为 12.3 年。

Only after ten half-lives will radiation levels fall to what some realists consider an approximation of pre-contamination.

只有在十个半衰期之后，辐射水平才会降至一些现实主义者认为的污染前的近似值。

If the reactors somehow stopped polluting the ocean tomorrow, it would still be well over a century before their tritium became harmless.

如果反应堆明天以某种方式停止污染海洋，那么距离它们的氚变得无害还需要一个多世纪的时间。

And tritium is one of the shorter-lived poisons in question.

氚是所讨论的寿命较短的毒物之一。

To be sure, dilution works miracles.

可以肯定的是，稀释会创造奇迹。

And on that bright side, Yamazaki Hisataka, a founder of an NGO called No Nukes Plaza, told me that “the radiation has traveled through the Pacific.

好的一面是，“无核武器广场”非政府组织的创始人山崎久隆告诉我，“辐射已经穿越了太平洋”。

As a result, it has reached the waters off of the American West Coast.

结果，它已经到达了美国西海岸附近的海域。

Unless we stop it now, it’s going to get worse and worse.” When I asked whether the ice wall was practical, he laughed.

除非我们现在阻止它，否则情况会变得越来越糟。”当我问冰墙是否实用时，他笑了。

“No,” he said.

“不，”他说。

“Concrete or some permanent barrier would be better.” Did I mention that Japan’s reactor-studded islands are entering one of their cyclical periods of earthquake activity?

“混凝土或某种永久性屏障会更好。”我有没有提到日本布满反应堆的岛屿正在进入地震活动的周期性周期之一？

This is why TEPCO’s wall of ice resembled the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, in which it is possible to wall off time with something permeable only to the brave.

这就是为什么东京电力的冰墙类似于睡美人的童话故事，其中可以用只有勇敢者才能穿透的东西来隔离时间。

W hen it comes to Japan, arithmetic is now one of my favorite distractions.

说到日本，算术现在是我最喜欢的消遣之一。

One sievert is the equivalent of a thousand chest X-rays.

1 西弗相当于 1000 次胸部 X 光检查。

A millisievert, the recommended maximum annual dose, is, of course, a thousandth of a sievert; a microsievert a millionth.

当然，推荐的最大年剂量一毫西弗是千分之一西弗；百万分之一微西弗。

American first responders are recommended not to exceed 250 millisieverts when saving human lives, but we know surprisingly little about the perils of extended subacute radiation exposure.

建议美国急救人员在拯救生命时不要超过 250 毫西弗，但令人惊讶的是，我们对长期亚急性辐射暴露的危险知之甚少。

The so-called linear hypothesis would have it that the multiple of any given dose is the multiple of the danger.

所谓的线性假设认为任何给定剂量的倍数就是危险的倍数。

For instance: Radiation sickness may begin to appear after a dose of one sievert, but the situation described by this statistic is a rapidly delivered dose, such as a nearby H-bomb detonation or a brief foray to the reactor at No. 1.

例如：放射病可能在服用一西弗特的剂量后开始出现，但该统计数据描述的情况是快速传递的剂量，例如附近的氢弹爆炸或短暂袭击一号反应堆。

Fifty millisieverts a year delivered over twenty years, which works out to the same total dose of one sievert, may or may not cause perceptible harm; no one seems sure.

二十年来，每年释放 50 毫西弗，相当于 1 西弗的总剂量，可能会也可能不会造成明显的伤害；似乎没有人确定。

Reactor No. 1 exploded at 3:36 on the afternoon of March 12, 2011, when its exposed fuel rods reacted with the air’s hydrogen.

2011 年 3 月 12 日下午 3 点 36 分，1 号反应堆爆炸，其裸露的燃料棒与空气中的氢气发生反应。

The authorities quickly drew two rings centered on No. 1.

当局很快以1号为中心画了两个环。

The forty-kilometer radius demarcated the voluntary-evacuation zone.

四十公里半径划定了自愿疏散区。

The twenty-kilometer radius marked the restricted, or forbidden, zone.

二十公里的半径标志着禁区。

As the work of decontamination advanced and wind patterns became better known, the circles were replaced by areas of irregular shape.

随着净化工作的进展和风型的了解越来越多，圆圈被不规则形状的区域所取代。

Once I decided to base my explorations near the forty-kilometer mark, the most convenient place looked like a midsize city called Iwaki.

当我决定将探索基地设在四十公里附近时，最方便的地方看起来像是一个叫做磐城的中型城市。

Here the radiation had achieved its maximum at four o’clock on the morning of March 15, 2011: 23.72 microsieverts per hour, or about 600 times Tokyo’s average normal background exposure.

这里的辐射在 2011 年 3 月 15 日凌晨四点达到最大值：每小时 23.72 微西弗，大约是东京平均正常背景辐射的 600 倍。

Iwaki’s municipal authorities distributed iodine tablets to residents under forty years old and to pregnant women.

磐城市政府向四十岁以下的居民和孕妇分发了碘片。

For the others, as always, there was “no immediate danger.” During my stay in Iwaki, three years later, the dosimeter almost invariably registered its daily microsievert, which is to say, about 0.042 microsieverts each hour.

对于其他人来说，一如既往，“没有立即的危险”。三年后，我在磐城逗留期间，剂量计几乎总是记录其每日微西弗，也就是说，每小时约 0.042 微西弗。

Reader, what might this mean to you?

读者，这对你来说意味着什么？

Later that year, when I could afford to buy a scintillation meter, I measured the following good old American values:

那年晚些时候，当我有能力购买闪烁计时，我测量了以下美国古老的价值观：

0.12 microsievert /hr: Average San Francisco reading, June 13, 2014

0.12 微西弗/小时：旧金山平均读数，2014 年 6 月 13 日

0.18 microsievert /hr: Volume II of 1880 census, Boone-Madison Public Library, West Virginia, June 21, 2014

0.18 微西弗/小时：1880 年人口普查第二卷，布恩-麦迪逊公共图书馆，西弗吉尼亚州，2014 年 6 月 21 日

0.30 microsievert /hr: Marble countertop in my room at the Embassy Suites, Charleston, West Virginia, June 22, 2014

0.30 微西弗/小时：我在西弗吉尼亚州查尔斯顿大使馆套房酒店房间的大理石台面，2014 年 6 月 22 日

0.48 microsievert /hr: Ten Commandments granite tablet in front of courthouse, Pineville, West Virginia, June 23, 2014

0.48 微西弗/小时：西弗吉尼亚州派恩维尔法院前的十诫花岗岩碑，2014 年 6 月 23 日

2.46 microsievert /hr: Airborne, 36,000 feet, thirty minutes out of Washington Dulles, June 30, 2014

2.46 微西弗/小时：2014 年 6 月 30 日，距华盛顿杜勒斯国际机场 36,000 英尺，飞行 30 分钟

After disembarking from the train in Iwaki one chilly afternoon, I asked the girl at the tourist-information office which local restaurants she would recommend.

一个寒冷的下午，在磐城下了火车后，我问旅游信息办公室的女孩她会推荐哪些当地餐馆。

She replied that the town had always been proud of its seafood, but that because of the nuclear accident the fish now had to be imported.

她回答说，该镇一直以其海鲜为荣，但由于核事故，鱼现在必须进口。

“Minami Soma-shi, Fukushima, 2011,” from Everything Happens for the First Time © Katsumi Omori.

“福岛县南相马市，2011 年”，选自《一切都第一次》© Katsumi Omori。

Courtesy MEM, Tokyo

由东京 MEM 提供

On one of the maps she gave me, I saw that the international port was a few kilometers south.

在她给我的一张地图上，我看到国际港口在南边几公里处。

Several beaches lay east, and Route 6 followed the shoreline north toward the reactors.

东部有几个海滩，6 号公路沿着海岸线向北通向反应堆。

That was the road I would take for my trips to Tomioka, a town partly within the forbidden zone.

这就是我去富冈旅行时要走的路，富冈是一个部分位于禁区之内的小镇。

In Iwaki, the hotels were nearly always full.

在磐城，酒店几乎总是客满。

One of them smelled of cigarette smoke and was only for decontamination workers.

其中一间有烟味，仅供净化工作人员使用。

I asked the receptionist at another why she was so busy.

我问另一个接待员为什么她这么忙。

She laughed and said, “TEPCO!” Decontamination was a booming business, all right.

她笑着说：“东京电力！” 净化是一项蓬勃发展的业务，这没错。

In the Iwaki port, which I had expected to find deserted, a dozen sailors in blue coveralls and white hard hats were unwinding a fishing net, planning to travel two hours southward, where the fish were still considered safe; the smaller boats rocked empty on the water.

在我原以为会发现荒无人烟的磐城港，十几个穿着蓝色工作服、戴着白色安全帽的水手正在解开渔网，计划向南行驶两个小时，那里的鱼仍然被认为是安全的；小一些的船空荡荡地在水面上晃动。

A patrol-boat captain told me that fishing for personal consumption was not restricted, and that fish were tested for radiation once a week.

一位巡逻艇船长告诉我，用于个人消费的捕鱼不受限制，并且每周对鱼进行一次辐射检测。

In the meantime, the fishermen, along with so many others in the city, were surviving on what he called “guaranteed money from TEPCO.”

与此同时，渔民和城里的许多其他人都靠他所谓的“东京电力的保证金”生存。

I motored up the coast in a taxi.

我乘坐出租车沿着海岸行驶。

It was a lovely morning, and the pastel sea was very still.

这是一个美好的早晨，柔和的大海非常平静。

The tsunami-destroyed homes had been deconstructed into foundations, concrete squares upgrown with grass.

被海啸摧毁的房屋被拆成了地基、长满青草的混凝土广场。

What I remembered from my visit in 2011 was the black stinking filthiness of everything that the tidal wave had reached.

2011年的那次访问给我留下的印象是，海啸所到之处，到处都是黑色、恶臭、肮脏的东西。

Surely Iwaki’s affected coastline must have been similarly slimed, but these pits looked merely mellow — historic, like archaeological sites.

当然，磐城受影响的海岸线肯定也同样被削弱了，但这些坑看起来只是温和的——历史悠久，就像考古遗址一样。

Soon the taxi reached a gleaming skeleton of half-built apartments for people who had lost their homes in the disaster; later I would see many of the temporary barracks-like buildings, all of them still and raw, where nuclear refugees were housed.

很快，出租车就到达了一座闪闪发光的半建公寓骨架，这些公寓是为在灾难中失去家园的人们而建的。后来我会看到许多像军营一样的临时建筑，所有这些建筑都还没有完工，是收容核难民的地方。

Clockwise from top left: Chikara Nipachi, photographed at age sixty-one, a construction worker helping with the cleanup in Minamisoma; Toki Kamata, seventy-eight, a volunteer worker helping to clear the soil and grass from abandoned residences in Minamisoma; Yasutei Yamada, seventy-two, the founder of the Fukushima Daiichi “Suicide Brigade” Volunteers.

从左上角顺时针方向：Chikara Nipachi，61 岁，一名建筑工人，在南相马帮忙清理； Toki Kamata，78 岁，一名志愿者，帮助清理南相马市废弃住宅中的土壤和草地；山田康亭，七十二岁，福岛第一核电站“自杀队”志愿者创始人。

Yamada’s organization coordinates retired engineers and other specialists to help in the cleanup of the destroyed nuclear facility; Tsunaka Iga, seventy-six, another volunteer working in Minamisoma.

山田的组织协调退休工程师和其他专家，帮助清理被毁坏的核设施；伊贺纲中（Tsunaka Iga），七十六岁，是另一位在南相马市工作的志愿者。

All photographs © 2011 Massimo Mastrorillo and Donald Weber/VII

所有照片 © 2011 Massimo Mastrorillo 和 Donald Weber/VII

Eventually I arrived at the Northern Iwaki Rubbish Disposal Center, whose monument is its own big smokestack.

最终我到达了北磐城垃圾处理中心，它的纪念碑就是它自己的大烟囱。

That is how I first came to see the disgusting black bags of Fukushima: down a forty-five-degree slope, behind a large wall with a radiation-caution sign, a close-packed crowd of those bags stood five deep and I don’t know how many wide.

这就是我第一次看到福岛令人作呕的黑色袋子的情况：沿着四十五度的斜坡，在一堵贴有辐射警告标志的大墙后面，这些袋子密密麻麻地站着，有五深，我不知道有多少宽。

I strode slowly toward the edge of the grass, where the slope began.

我慢慢地大步走向草地边缘，也就是斜坡的起点。

That was close enough, I thought.

我想，这已经足够接近了。

The dosimeter did not turn over a new digit.

剂量计没有转出新的数字。

“This is debris they burned in Iwaki, not fallout,” my taxi driver told me.

“这是他们在盘城燃烧的残​​骸，而不是放射性尘埃，”我的出租车司机告诉我。

“They don’t know where to put it.” Several times during our excursion he said that the bags we saw contained ash from the decontamination of Iwaki.

“他们不知道把它放在哪里。”在我们旅行期间，他多次说我们看到的袋子里装有磐城净化后的灰烬。

In this he was mistaken; the city did not burn radioactive matter.

在这一点上他错了。该市没有燃烧放射性物质。

But in saying that they did not know where to put the debris he uttered a truth.

但当他说他们不知道把碎片放在哪里时，他说了实话。

By the time I departed Fukushima I hardly noticed the bags unless many happened to be together.

当我离开福岛时，我几乎没有注意到这些行李，除非很多行李碰巧在一起。

The closer to No. 1 one drew, the more there were.

越接近第一名的人就越多。

I n spite of the reminders that No. 1 was not far away, Iwaki strove to present itself as safe, and maybe it was, given the innocuous dosimeter readings.

尽管有人提醒人们，一号就在不远处，磐城还是努力表现出自己是安全的，考虑到剂量计读数无害，也许确实如此。

Contrary claims were considered to be “harmful rumors.” “Even after one week from the earthquake,” according to an official city report, “harmful rumors on the nuclear problems kept blocking the distribution of goods to Iwaki.” In other words, during that first week some fuel and grocery trucks refrained from making deliveries to the city for fear of contamination.

相反的说法被认为是“有害的谣言”。“根据市政府的一份官方报告，即使地震发生一周后，“有关核问题的有害谣言仍然阻碍了向磐城的货物配送。”换句话说，在第一周，一些燃料和杂货卡车因担心污染而没有向该市运送货物。

The same document told me that “harmful rumors due to the accidents at nuclear power stations degraded the status of Iwaki local products tremendously.

同一份文件告诉我，“核电站事故造成的有害谣言极大地降低了磐城当地产品的地位。”

To regain its reputation, Iwaki City has participated in more than fifty events held in Tokyo metropolitan area.” Thanks to such efforts, Iwaki had nearly defeated the harmful rumors.

为了恢复声誉，磐城市参加了在东京都地区举办的五十多次活动。通过这些努力，磐城几乎击败了有害的谣言。

Most people’s fears seemed to have been repressed, interred behind a wall of ice as effective as TEPCO’s.

大多数人的恐惧似乎都被压抑了，被埋藏在与东京电力一样有效的冰墙后面。

Consider my first taxi driver, who was round-faced and patient, and smiled often, wrinkling up his cheeks.

想想我的第一个出租车司机，他长着圆脸，很有耐心，经常微笑，脸颊上布满皱纹。

Although his hair was still black, he had entered middle age.

虽然头发还乌黑，但他已经步入中年了。

I asked what he thought when he heard the radiation warnings after the tsunami.

我问他听到海啸后的辐射警告时有何感想。

“Even in Iwaki most people tried to flee, but I didn’t mind.

——即使在磐城，大多数人也试图逃离，但我并不介意。

I have an elderly person at home, so I couldn’t leave, anyhow!” When I asked if anyone was to blame for what happened, he told me that it was “just bad luck.” In general, he explained, he felt cheerful and hopeful because the taxi business was now thriving thanks to the nuclear-power situation.

我家里有一位老人，所以我无论如何都不能离开！当我问是否有人应该为所发生的事情负责时，他告诉我这只是运气不好。他解释说，总的来说，他感到高兴和充满希望，因为由于核电形势，出租车行业现在正在蓬勃发展。

“Those who work for TEPCO use taxis.

– 在东京电力工作的人使用出租车。

If I were a fisherman I would be suffering a lot, but that’s not the case for me!”

如果我是一名渔民，我会受很多苦，但对我来说却不是这样！”

Bags of radioactive waste collected during decontamination work, Iitate, April 2013 © Yuki Iwanami

去污工作中收集的一袋袋放射性废物，饭馆，2013 年 4 月 © Yuki Iwanami

My driver the next day had almost as merry an outlook.

第二天我的司机的前景几乎同样愉快。

He was a bald and active old man who wore a paper mask over his mouth, as do many Japanese when they have colds or wish to protect themselves from germs.

他是一位秃头、活跃的老人，嘴上戴着纸口罩，就像许多日本人在感冒或希望保护自己免受细菌感染时所做的那样。

I asked him to describe the disaster, and he very practically replied: “In the beginning we were busy.

我请他描述一下这场灾难，他非常务实地回答道：“一开始我们很忙。”

Now that the bus services have recovered, it’s quieter for taxis.” On occasion he had entered the prohibited area with Red Cross passengers.

现在公交车服务已经恢复，出租车也安静多了。有时，他会和红十字会的乘客一起进入禁区。

When I asked about the radiation, he replied: “Since it’s not close to here, it has no reality.

当我问起辐射时，他回答说：“因为离这里不近，所以它不真实。”

If someone around here got cancer, I might feel something, but it’s invisible, so I don’t feel anything.” A third driver, asked the same question, said: “There’s nothing to do but trust them.”

如果这里有人得了癌症，我可能会感觉到一些东西，但它是看不见的，所以我感觉不到任何东西。”第三位司机问了同样的问题，他说：“除了相信他们，别无他法。”

I kept asking people in Iwaki how safe they felt; most of their replies were calm and bland.

我不断地询问磐城市的人们，他们感觉安全吗？他们的大部分回答都是平静而平淡的。

But it did strike me as funny that no doctor I asked would agree to meet me.

但令我感到有趣的是，我询问的医生都没有同意与我见面。

And it did disconcert me to read in the newspaper that the Fukushima Prefecture Dental Association would now, with family consent, examine the extracted teeth of children aged five to fifteen, first checking for cesium-137 and then, if that was found, for strontium-90.

令我感到不安的是，我在报纸上读到，福岛县牙科协会现在将在家人同意的情况下，检查 5 至 15 岁儿童拔出的牙齿，首先检查是否含有铯 137，如果发现的话，则检查是否含有锶 90。

Of course, a test is not a result.

当然，测试并不是结果。

Maybe there would be no cesium in anybody’s teeth.

也许任何人的牙齿中都不含有铯。

One young man, a recent graduate of the local university, told me that when it came to eating local food, he didn’t “think twice” about it.

一位刚刚从当地大学毕业的年轻人告诉我，当谈到吃当地食物时，他并没有“三思而后行”。

“When you go to a sushi restaurant, do you wonder where the fish came from?” I asked.

“当你去寿司店时，你想知道鱼是从哪里来的吗？”我问。

Then there was Kuwahara Akiyo, a weary-looking woman with blue eye shadow and tiny sparkly earrings.

然后是桑原秋代，她是一位面带疲倦的女人，涂着蓝色眼影，戴着闪闪发光的小耳环。

She was a part-time employee of the Tomioka Life Recovery Support Center.

她是富冈生命康复支援中心的兼职职员。

She told me that she was only allowed to return to her home in Tomioka once a month.

她告诉我，她每个月只能回一次富冈的家。

Of Tomioka, which I would visit several times, she told me: “There are animals: mice and rats.

关于我曾多次访问的富冈，她告诉我：“那里有动物：老鼠和老鼠。

Also, the pigs interbred with wild boar.

此外，猪还与野猪杂交。

The authorities are trying to kill them because they damage the houses, and poop inside and bite the pillars.

当局正试图杀死它们，因为它们会损坏房屋、在里面拉屎并咬柱子。

They don’t know humans, so they are fearless.

它们不认识人类，所以无所畏惧。

Sometimes you can see them on the street.

有时你可以在街上看到他们。

And there are so many rats!

而且还有这么多老鼠！

Wherever we go there, they give us some chemicals to kill the rats.”

无论我们去哪里，他们都会给我们一些化学物质来杀死老鼠。”

Officials from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and journalists at a decontamination site in Odaka, inside the original twenty-kilometer exclusion zone, January 2012 © Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos

2012 年 1 月，日本原子能机构的官员和记者在小高市的一个净化现场，位于最初的 20 公里禁区内 © Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos

I asked Kuwahara what she thought about when she envisioned radiation.

我问桑原，当她想象辐射时，她的想法是什么。

“Invisible,” she said, smiling, “and that is the cause of the anxiety.

“看不见，”她微笑着说，“这就是焦虑的原因。”

You don’t feel any pain or itching; it just comes into your body.”

您不会感到任何疼痛或瘙痒；它只是进入你的身体。”

“Natural radiation also exists,” she explained, “and if it is natural, it must be all right.

“自然辐射也存在，”她解释道，“如果它是自然的，那就一定没问题。”

I think it’s safe to live in Iwaki.

我认为住在磐城很安全。

There are nuclear plants all over the world.

世界各地都有核电站。

You can’t flee anywhere.”

你无法逃到任何地方。”

“My husband’s work is related to nuclear plants.

– 我丈夫的工作与核电站有关。

Until the accident we were told that it was totally safe.

直到事故发生之前，我们被告知这是完全安全的。

Nuclear plants we cannot live without.” Then she said: “This was a man-made thing, but we made something so evil, so fearful, so dangerous.”

没有核电站我们就无法生存。”然后她说：“这是人造的东西，但我们制造了如此邪恶、如此可怕、如此危险的东西。”

Hamamatsu Koichi, an Iwaki farmer with cropped gray hair, told me that on the urban farm he ran with his wife, an area of six hundred tsubo, about half an acre, they raised cucumbers, eggplants, broccoli, lettuce, napa cabbage for kimchi, and green onions, whose fresh smell and enticing jade color far excelled anything I had ever seen in an American supermarket.

留着白发的磐城农民滨松光一告诉我，他和妻子经营的都市农场，占地六百坪，约半英亩，种了黄瓜、茄子、西兰花、生菜、泡菜用的大白菜、大葱，其清新的气味和诱人的玉色远远胜过我在美国超市见过的任何东西。

He wore elastic wrist gaiters over the sleeves of his striped shirt, and his eyebrows rose and curved like caterpillars.

他的条纹衬衫袖子上套着松紧的护腕，眉毛像毛毛虫一样扬起、弯曲。

His industrious wife carefully trimmed and cleaned green onions during the interview, smiling and sometimes even sweetly laughing at my corny radiation jokes.

他勤劳的妻子在采访期间仔细地修剪和清洗大葱，对我讲的老生常谈的辐射笑话微笑着，有时甚至甜甜地大笑。

Local produce was still allowed, the couple told me, provided it tested well at the agricultural union.

这对夫妇告诉我，只要农业联盟测试良好，当地农产品仍然可以使用。

They did not eat the fish.

他们没有吃鱼。

For the first year after the accident, farmers from affected areas were not allowed to sell anything; in the second year, the radiation levels in their vegetables were lower, but they had to lower their prices too: people were afraid to buy the produce.

事故发生后的第一年，受影响地区的农民不得出售任何东西；第二年，他们的蔬菜辐射水平降低了，但他们也不得不降低价格：人们不敢购买农产品。

Now the radioactivity had declined.

现在放射性已经下降了。

Later, at the train station, I bought a kilogram of Iwaki tomatoes and sent them off to No Nukes Plaza in Tokyo for analysis.

后来，在火车站，我买了一公斤磐城西红柿，并将它们送到东京的无核广场进行分析。

They were fine.

他们很好。

“The TV news said it went even to Shizuoka and damaged their tea,” he told me, “so for sure this place must be contaminated.

“电视新闻说它甚至到达了静冈并损坏了他们的茶叶，”他告诉我，“所以可以肯定这个地方肯定受到了污染。”

But we have no place to go.”

但我们无处可去。”

“In ten years will you be able to go right up to Plant No. 1 if you wish?”

“如果你愿意的话，十年后你能直接升到第一工厂吗？”

Folding his hands across his apron, he said, “There may be some spots where you can never return.”

他双手交叉在围裙上，说道：“也许有些地方你再也回不来了。”

W est of Tomioka, at what was formerly the edge of the forbidden zone, lies Kawauchi Village.

富冈以西，原禁区边缘，有川内村。

I had been there shortly after the accident, when houseplants had just begun to wilt in front of the silent homes.

事故发生后不久，我就到了那里，当时寂静的房屋前的室内植物刚刚开始枯萎。

In 2013, the Japan Times reported that in Kawauchi the central government’s radiation targets had not been met: even after decontamination, almost half of the 1,061 houses in the “emergency evacuation advisory zone” were still receiving atmospheric radiation doses over one millisievert per year.

2013年，《日本时报》报道说，川内市中央政府的辐射目标尚未实现：即使在净化后，“紧急疏散咨询区”内的1,061栋房屋中，几乎一半的房屋每年仍受到超过一毫西弗的大气辐射剂量。

Suspicious villagers had performed their own gamma-ray surveys.

可疑的村民自己进行了伽马射线调查。

As the newspaper said: “Since the [environmental] ministry hasn’t explicitly promised to do such work again, municipalities are increasingly concerned about the future of the decontamination process.”

正如该报所说：“由于[环境]部尚未明确承诺再次开展此类工作，各市政当局越来越担心净化过程的未来。”

A snowed-over tatami store, snow smooth and high across a little bridge over the river, snow heaped on a cemetery’s dark steles — such was the town now.

一家被雪覆盖的榻榻米店，河上一座小桥上的积雪光滑而高高，雪堆在墓地的黑色石碑上——这就是现在的小镇。

It was almost romantic.

这几乎是浪漫的。

It was also almost deserted, except for workers in the streets.

除了街上的工人外，这里几乎空无一人。

I did, however, find the Kawauchi Village Residence to Promote Young People’s Settlement.

不过，我确实找到了河内村促进青年定居住宅。

There was a path shoveled through the snow to the unlocked foyer, though no one was in.

雪中铲出了一条小路，通向未上锁的门厅，但里面空无一人。

Discarded persimmons whose radioactivity exceeded acceptable levels, Iitate, December 2012 © Yuki Iwanami

放射性超过可接受水平的废弃柿子，饭馆，2012 年 12 月 © Yuki Iwanami

Walking farther east on that street, which had been the dividing line between the restricted and voluntary-evacuation zones, I came to a house.

沿着这条曾经是限制区和自愿疏散区的分界线的街道向东走，我来到了一栋房子前。

Inside, a very small old woman was peering at me through a window.

在里面，一位身材矮小的老妇人透过窗户看着我。

When I rang the bell, she came to the door and pretended to be deaf.

当我按响门铃时，她来到门口装聋作哑。

Soon a middle-aged man with kind eyes, wearing a dark down jacket, came up behind her.

很快，一个目光慈祥，身穿深色羽绒服的中年男子，来到了她的身后。

He eventually invited me in.

他最终邀请我进去。

“That’s my mother,” he said of the woman I’d seen through the window.

“那是我的母亲，”他谈到我透过窗户看到的那个女人时说道。

“My parents live here.

– 我的父母住在这里。

They came back in November 2012.” He told me that about half the village was inhabited now, but most of the villagers who had returned only stayed four days a week; on the other days they returned to their temporary housing, in Koriyama or elsewhere.

他们于 2012 年 11 月回来。”他告诉我，现在大约一半的村庄有人居住，但大多数返回的村民每周只呆四天；其他日子里，他们回到郡山或其他地方的临时住所。

Only about 20 percent lived in Kawauchi full time.

只有大约 20% 的人全职居住在川内。

“Because she is elderly, it’s no use worrying about radiation.

——因为她年纪大了，担心辐射是没有用的。

Of course she feels lonely; that’s why I am visiting her.

她当然感到孤独；这就是我拜访她的原因。

The children will never come anymore.

孩子们再也不会来了。

The grandchildren won’t come.

孙子不会来。

That is the result of some fear information .

那是一些恐惧信息的结果。

”

Ø

It turned out that he used to work for TEPCO.

原来，他曾经在东京电力工作过。

“I was not directly involved in the nuclear power plant,” he told me.

“我没有直接参与核电站，”他告诉我。

“My work had to do with the buying and leasing of land for construction.

– 我的工作涉及购买和租赁建设用地。

Basically, my personal opinion is that given that original 1960s design, it was risky to choose this location at all.

基本上，我个人的观点是，考虑到 20 世纪 60 年代的原始设计，选择这个位置是有风险的。

The major problem with the emergency-power generator was that it was installed at sea level, not in the correct place.

应急发电机的主要问题是它安装在海平面上，而不是安装在正确的位置。

All the contract workers were saying so, including me.” (TEPCO says that their belief at the time was that this was the safest design.) As emerald-green tea was served by the old mother in her green kerchief and baggy quilted clothes, her son continued, “It’s good to gradually reduce the use of nuclear energy, but now it’s like our blood, our life.

所有的合同工都这么说，包括我。”（东京电力说，他们当时认为这是最安全的设计。）当老母亲戴着绿色头巾，穿着宽松的棉衣，端上翠绿茶时，她的儿子继续说道，“逐渐减少核能的使用是好事，但现在它就像我们的血液、我们的生命一样。”

All the nuclear plants are currently stopped.

目前所有核电站均已停止运行。

You cannot maintain this situation forever.” He spoke of radioactive mushrooms, honey, and wild boar.

你不能永远维持这种情况。”他谈到了放射性蘑菇、蜂蜜和野猪。

When I asked what Kawauchi would look like in the future, he laughed.

当我问川内未来会是什么样子时，他笑了。

“Probably it will eventually die out.

——也许它最终会消亡。

The families with young children won’t live here.” His family had been in Kawauchi for close to a hundred years.

有小孩的家庭不会住在这里。”他的家人在川内生活了近一百年。

In that small tatami room, with the old lady half-tucked under a blanket, I watched the clouds and dripping snow through the window and thought what a pleasant home it was.

在那间小小的榻榻米房间里，老太太半裹着毯子，我透过窗户看着云朵和滴雪，心想这是一个多么温馨的家啊。

I asked the old lady what she most liked about this place.

我问老太太她最喜欢这个地方的什么。

She smiled.

她笑了。

Her teeth were a lovely white.

她的牙齿洁白可爱。

She exclaimed: “The air is clean!” Perhaps it was, for during my hour and a half in Kawauchi my dosimeter did not accrue any more digits.

她惊呼：“空气很干净！”也许是的，因为在川内的一个半小时里，我的剂量计没有再显示任何数字。

K ida Shoichi, at the time a decontamination specialist in Iwaki’s Nuclear Hazard Countermeasures Division, told me that he considered his city not to be badly off, thanks to the winds; as he explained when we spoke in his office, from the TEPCO plant “the northwest direction is high in radiation, so Iwaki is low.” On his laptop, he showed me Iwaki’s 475 monitoring posts.

时任磐城市核危害对策部门的去污专家木田庄一告诉我，他认为由于风的缘故，他的城市情况还不错；正如我们在他的办公室交谈时他所解释的那样，从东京电力工厂来看，西北方向的辐射较高，因此磐城的辐射较低。他在笔记本电脑上向我展示了磐城的 475 个监测站。

Then he zoomed in: “Here is the city office where we are right now.

然后他放大：“这里是我们现在所在的市政府。

And here is the monitoring post.

这里是监控哨所。

It’s 11:05 a.m ., and we’re receiving 0.121 microsieverts per hour.” Clicking on Tomioka he said: “The highest is about three microsieverts per hour, so that’s only 24.8 times more than here.” He cut himself off: “No, here’s a place that measures four.

现在是上午 11 点 05 分，我们每小时接收到 0.121 微西弗。”他点击富冈说：“最高约为每小时 3 微西弗，所以只比这里多了 24.8 倍。”他打断了自己的话：“不，这里是”一个有四个尺寸的地方。

And here’s a five, so that’s forty-one times higher .

这是五，所以高了四十一倍。

.

。

.

。

” He next zoomed in on a monitoring site in Futaba Town, which was still in the prohibited zone: 13.61 microsieverts per hour.

— 接下来，他放大了双叶镇的一个监测点，那里仍然处于禁区：每小时 13.61 微西弗。

If those levels kept up, that unlucky part of Futaba would be 112 times more dangerous than Iwaki.

如果继续保持这样的水平，双叶那个不幸的部分将比磐城危险112倍。

“Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 2011,” from Everything Happens for the First Time © Katsumi Omori.

“东京涩谷区，2011 年”，选自《一切都第一次发生》 © Katsumi Omori。

Courtesy MEM, Tokyo

由东京 MEM 提供

I asked when he thought Plant No. 1 might be safe; he estimated that it might be 500 years.

我问他什么时候认为一号厂可能安全？他估计可能需要500年。

The next day, he telephoned me with a correction: In only 300 years, barring further accidents, the radiation will have decayed to a thousandth of its original strength!

第二天，他打电话给我纠正：只要300年，除非发生进一步的事故，辐射就会衰减到原来强度的千分之一！

When I got home, I asked Edwin Lyman, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, what he thought about 300 years as an estimate.

当我回到家时，我问忧思科学家联盟的埃德温·莱曼（Edwin Lyman），他对 300 年的估计有何看法。

“Well, there’s radioactive decay, plus transfer to soil; it will go deeper and deeper and get into the water and so forth.” He thought that natural decontamination would take hundreds of years at least.

– 嗯，有放射性衰变，再加上转移到土壤中；它会越来越深，进入水中等等。”他认为自然净化至少需要数百年的时间。

In Japan, the basic guideline for decontamination was to reduce radiation in an area to less than one millisievert per year.

在日本，净化的基本准则是将某个区域的辐射降低到每年一毫西弗以下。

Thirty percent of the reduction in cesium isotopes around Iwaki had already happened naturally, and Kida gave me some multicolored information sheets to prove it.

磐城周围铯同位素的减少有百分之三十是自然发生的，木田给了我一些彩色的信息表来证明这一点。

In November 2011, almost every part of the area had been yellow, meaning “decontamination required.” By December 2012, the yellow had melted into a crescent along the north and east, along with a few patches in the south.

2011 年 11 月，该地区几乎所有地方都变成了黄色，这意味着“需要净化”。到 2012 年 12 月，黄色已沿着北部和东部融化成新月形，南部也有一些斑块。

Wasn’t this good news?

这不是好消息吗？

Iwaki was becoming safe much more quickly than I would have expected.

磐城变得安全的速度比我预想的要快得多。

But I wondered what was happening to that cesium.

但我想知道那个铯发生了什么。

Did it sink deeper into the earth, as Lyman told me?

它是否像莱曼告诉我的那样沉入地下更深处？

Did it leach into storm drains and rivers?

它是否渗入雨水渠和河流？

I had read that it sometimes got concentrated in roots.

我读到它有时会集中在根部。

No doubt the radioactivity of the ground must vary just as the ground itself did, and presumably every square meter of Iwaki would need to be measured.

毫无疑问，地面的放射性一定会随着地面本身的变化而变化，大概磐城的每一平方米都需要测量。

(I did not yet have my scintillation meter, but on my next trip, that toy proved that small areas could vary insanely.

（我还没有闪烁仪，但在我的下一次旅行中，那个玩具证明了小区域可能会发生疯狂的变化。

In Tomioka, one spot might be two microsieverts an hour, and another might be seven or twelve.

在富冈，一个地方每小时可能是两微西弗，另一个地方可能是七微西弗或十二微西弗。

Deeper into the red zone, of course, the numbers were much higher.) At any rate, the Iwaki municipal report explained that topsoil in schoolyards was being removed if it emitted more than 0.3 microsieverts per hour — which works out to 2.63 millisieverts per year.

当然，越深入红色区域，这个数字要高得多。）无论如何，磐城市报告解释说，如果校园表土每小时排放超过 0.3 微西弗，那么就会被清除——换算成每年 2.63 毫西弗。

D uring my visit, Kida promised me an excursion with a scintillation counter, and so the next day his deputy, Kanari Takahiro, came to collect me.

在我访问期间，木田答应我带着闪烁计数器进行游览，所以第二天他的副手金成隆宏来接我。

This young man might have been a little cynical, since he referred to nuclear-mitigation efforts as “casual countermeasures.” I liked him for that.

这个年轻人可能有点愤世嫉俗，因为他将核缓解努力称为“临时对策”。我因此喜欢他。

In Iwaki, “we have never felt the imminent desperate situation,” he said.

在磐城，“我们从未感受到迫在眉睫的绝望处境，”他说。

“In fact, my parents returned home in only two weeks.

——事实上，我的父母只用了两周就回到了家。

I myself couldn’t flee since I am a civil servant.”

我自己无法逃跑，因为我是一名公务员。”

“Around here, do people tell any jokes about radiation?” I asked.

“在这附近，人们会讲有关辐射的笑话吗？”我问道。

“The radiation level is not high enough to create any jokes.”

– 辐射水平还没有高到足以引发任何笑话。 –

“I don’t care.

——我不在乎。

Whatever fish, anywhere it comes from .

无论什么鱼，无论它来自哪里。

.

。

.

。

”

Ø

Kanari Takahiro’s scintillation meter.

Kanari Takahiro 的闪烁计。

Photograph by the author

作者照片

The scintillation counter (which is to say an Aloka TCS-172B gamma-survey meter) cost about a hundred thousand yen.

闪烁计数器（即Aloka TCS-172B伽马测量仪）的成本约为十万日元。

As the technical name implied, it measured only gamma waves, like my dosimeter.

正如技术名称所暗示的那样，它只测量伽马波，就像我的剂量计一样。

Kanari said that its operation was “not difficult.” The decontamination procedure he described was this: Measure radiation; scrape up surface soil and cut tree branches as needed; place the dirt and wood in a bag.

卡纳里说，其操作“并不困难”。他描述的净化程序是这样的：测量辐射；刮去表土并根据需要砍伐树枝；将泥土和木头放入袋子中。

In Iwaki we met a manager and a construction boss.

在磐城，我们遇到了一位经理和一位建筑老板。

They wore hard hats, work jackets with white belts, and baggy pants tucked into calf-length rubber boots.

他们戴着安全帽，穿着系着白色腰带的工作夹克，宽松的裤子塞进长及小腿的橡胶靴中。

When I asked whether it was a union job, they curtly replied that it was not.

当我问这是否是工会工作时，他们简短地回答说不是。

I told them they were heroes.

我告诉他们他们是英雄。

Reducing radioactivity by half, as they were doing, was better than nothing, and anyhow they were endangering themselves.

正如他们所做的那样，将放射性减少一半总比没有好，而且无论如何，他们都在危及自己。

The work was all paid for by the central government, they told me.

他们告诉我，这项工作的费用全部由中央政府支付。

They said the decontamination workers in Iwaki were exposed to about 4.5 microsieverts a day, which works out to 1.64 millisieverts a year, while the poor souls who were trying to ice away No. 1 were getting up to 40 millisieverts a year.

他们说，磐城的净化工作人员每天暴露在约 4.5 微西弗的环境中，相当于每年 1.64 毫西弗，而那些试图冰除 1 号的可怜人每年接触的压力高达 40 毫西弗。

The manager and the boss had to think about their own dose; though they both wore dosimeters, they never checked them.

经理和老板必须考虑自己的剂量；尽管他们都戴着剂量计，但他们从未检查过。

“The radiation level is so low here that we are not worried,” one said.

“这里的辐射水平非常低，我们并不担心，”一位人士说道。

An antinuclear demonstration in Iwaki, sponsored in part by a railway labor union.

磐城举行的反核示威活动由铁路工会部分赞助。

Photograph by the author

作者照片

I traveled with them to Hisanohama, about sixteen kilometers north of the Iwaki city center, where a traditional Japanese-style house was being decontaminated.

我和他们一起前往位于磐城市中心以北约十六公里的久之浜，那里正在对一栋传统的日式房屋进行净化处理。

I asked Kanari to test things.

我请 Kanari 进行测试。

In the yard, a bag of waste that a worker was filling emitted 0.3 microsieverts per hour.

在院子里，一名工人正在装填的一袋垃圾每小时排放出 0.3 微西弗。

Another bag registered 0.26.

另一包的得分为 0.26。

“We remove them and put them in temporary storage for three years,” the manager answered.

“我们将它们移走并临时存放三年，”经理回答道。

“Temporary storage” turned out to mean, for instance, those fields all around Iwaki with the black bags.

例如，“临时储存”原来指的是磐城周围那些装有黑色袋子的田地。

He smiled, laughed, shrugged.

他微笑着，大笑，耸耸肩。

Then he explained: “Unlike the United States, where there are rules, here we make up the rules.”

然后他解释道：“与美国不同，美国有规则，但我们在这里制定规则。”

I had Kanari test a potted houseplant: 0.14 microsieverts; the construction boss’s boot: 0.11; a dirt berm behind the house: 0.33; a rain channel in the sloping concrete driveway: a surprisingly low 0.16; the drainpipe: 0.49.

我让 Kanari 测试了盆栽室内植物：0.14 微西弗；建筑老板的靴子：0.11；房子后面的泥土护堤：0.33；倾斜混凝土车道上的雨道：出人意料的低 0.16；排水管：0.49。

That last reading was not so good; it meant 4.29 millisieverts per year.

上次读的不太好；这意味着每年 4.29 毫西弗。

I pointed to the pipe and asked him: “How can you decontaminate it?”

我指着管道问他：“你怎样才能净化它？”

“Structurally speaking, unless you break it, it’s rather difficult.

——从结构上来说，除非你打破它，否则这是相当困难的。

We must see what the property owner says.” The two decontamination men agreed that cesium generally went about five centimeters into the ground.

我们必须看看业主怎么说。”两名净化人员一致认为，铯通常会渗入地下约五厘米。

We measured two black bags side by side: 0.35 and 0.38 microsieverts.

我们并排测量了两个黑色袋子：0.35 和 0.38 微西弗。

Across the highway was a field of vegetables.

公路对面是一片蔬菜地。

I asked Kanari to read the crops for me, but he said: “The scintillation meter measures only the air, not the thing.” All the same, he did as I requested: 0.13 microsieverts away from the ground, 0.18 close to the ground, near a napa cabbage.

我请卡纳里为我解读农作物，但他说：“闪烁计只测量空气，而不是物体。”尽管如此，他还是按照我的要求做了：距地面 0.13 微西弗，靠近地面 0.18 微西弗，靠近大白菜。

Top: Fresh fish at the Iwaki fish market, 2011.

上图：磐城鱼市的新鲜鱼，2011 年。

None are from Japan © Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos.

没有一张来自日本 © Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos。

Bottom: An official radiation-measurement station near Iitate, 2012 © Andrea Bonisoli Alquati

下图：饭馆附近的官方辐射测量站，2012 年 © Andrea Bonisoli Alquati

We drove to a nearby town called Ohisa.

我们开车去了附近一个叫奥希萨的小镇。

There were some heavy blackish-green tarps decorated by a do not enter sign.

有一些厚重的黑绿色防水布，上面装饰着禁止进入的标志。

The air read 0.17 about two meters from the sign.

距离标志大约两米处的空气读数为 0.17。

This was about four times more radioactive than downtown Iwaki.

这里的放射性水平大约是磐城市中心的四倍。

There was a forest, but Kanari was reluctant to measure it, since the municipality’s only concern was to decontaminate places where people actually lived.

那里有一片森林，但卡纳里不愿意测量它，因为市政府唯一关心的是对人们实际居住的地方进行净化。

I finally coaxed him into a snowy bamboo grove behind a field at the edge of a mountain.

我终于把他哄到了山边田野后面的一片雪竹林里。

We all listened to the sounds of that lovely bamboo, which resembled birdsongs or windy hollow gurglings.

我们都听着那可爱的竹子的声音，那声音就像鸟鸣或风空的潺潺声。

The forest read 0.43 microsieverts per hour, nearly four times the goal of one millisievert per year.

森林读数为每小时 0.43 微西弗，几乎是每年 1 毫西弗目标的四倍。

(Kida of course had said that 0.5 microsieverts per hour would be acceptable to him, so he might not have minded this place.) If all went perfectly from here on out, it would take at least sixty years to get the radiation from cesium-137 in the forest to the target level.

（基田当然说过每小时0.5微西弗对他来说是可以接受的，所以他可能不会介意这个地方。）如果从现在开始一切顺利，至少需要六十年的时间才能使森林中铯137的辐射达到目标水平。

But the government would do nothing about this, since, as Kanari told me sadly, the forest is “endless.” Besides, he said, “This is not the place where people often go.”

但政府对此无能为力，因为正如卡纳里悲伤地告诉我的那样，森林是“无边无际的”。此外，他说，“这不是人们经常去的地方。”

As we came closer to the restricted zone, we began to see black bags; it was disgusting how they went on and on.

当我们接近禁区时，我们开始看到黑色的袋子；他们这样继续下去真是令人作呕。

“Temporary storage,” Kanari remarked.

“临时储存，”卡纳里说道。

“Once the intermediate disposal site is ready, they’ll move there.”

“一旦中间处置场准备就绪，他们就会搬到那里。”

“Well, we hope there will be such a place, but none of us wants it near us,” he replied.

“好吧，我们希望有这样一个地方，但我们谁都不希望它靠近我们，”他回答道。

We cruised up Highway 6 and came to Tomioka.

我们沿着6号高速公路行驶，来到了富冈。

I had to give Kanari directions.

我必须给卡纳里指路。

From his expression, it seemed he might have been having second thoughts.

从他的表情来看，他可能已经有了新的想法。

At the border of the exclusion zone was a checkpoint where the police stood watch over a double lane of traffic cones.

禁区边界有一个检查站，警察在那里监视着双车道的交通锥。

When I asked him to pull over near an abandoned pachinko parlor, he kept the engine running.

当我让他把车停在一家废弃的弹珠机店附近时，他让发动机继续运转。

Was he anxious, or did he simply wish to get back to work?

他是焦虑，还是只是想回去工作？

Right by the pachinko parlor his scintillation counter read 4.2 microsieverts per hour — about ten times the level of that mildly dangerous drainpipe in Hisanohama.

就在弹珠机店旁边，他的闪烁计数器显示每小时 4.2 微西弗——大约是久野浜那条稍微危险的排水管水位的十倍。

At a nearby house with yellow danger tape around it, the base of a drainpipe registered 22.1 microsieverts per hour.

附近一栋房子周围贴着黄色危险胶带，排水管底部的温度为每小时 22.1 微西弗。

The daily dose would be 530.4 microsieverts; the yearly dose, 193.6 millisieverts.

每日剂量为 530.4 微西弗；年剂量为 193.6 毫西弗。

A little perilous, I’d say.

我想说，有点危险。

The grassy field was a cool 7.5 microsieverts per hour — 65.7 millisieverts per year — while the main highway on which the decontamination trucks kept raising dust was only 3.72 per hour, which still comes to thirty-two times the recommended annual dose.

草地上的灰尘浓度为每小时 7.5 微西弗，即每年 65.7 毫西弗，而净化卡车不断扬尘的主要高速公路上的灰尘浓度仅为每小时 3.72 微西弗，仍然是建议年剂量的 32 倍。

After fifteen minutes, my dosimeter had gained its own microsievert, which it normally did only once a day, and Kanari wanted to get out of there.

十五分钟后，我的剂量计已经达到了自己的微西弗，通常每天只出现一次，卡纳里想离开那里。

So we sped back, to the place where we eat whatever is put in front of us.

于是我们飞快地返回，回到我们吃摆在我们面前的任何东西的地方。

F or me, Tomioka, whose pre-accident population had been between 10,000 and 16,000, resembled the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, in that each time I returned to it I felt less safe, because each time I knew more and saw more.

对我来说，富冈事故发生前的人口在 10,000 到 16,000 人之间，就像伊拉克的基尔库克市，每次我回到那里，我都感觉不那么安全，因为每次我都知道更多，看到更多。

There was plentiful vehicle traffic, to be sure — TEPCO workers, mostly, who queued up at the police checkpoint where the exclusion zone began, or dug with shovels, paused, then dragged picks and rakes across gravel, decontaminating.

可以肯定的是，这里有大量的车辆通行——大多数是东电工人，他们在禁区开始的警察检查站排队，或者用铲子挖掘，停下来，然后拖着镐和耙子穿过砾石，清除污染。

But the rest was quiet enough.

但其余的地方足够安静。

I often tasted metal in my mouth there; I don’t know why.

我经常在嘴里尝到金属的味道；我不知道为什么。

The first time I visited, days before my excursion with Kanari, I walked past closed garages, a shuttered sliding door, forsaken shells of buildings.

我第一次来访时，是在与卡纳里旅行的前几天，我走过关闭的车库、紧闭的推拉门、废弃的建筑外壳。

On one trip, I entered a garment store where some of the forms lay cast down.

有一次，我走进一家服装店，那里放下了一些表格。

The rest were still standing, eerie silhouettes of headless, legless, armless women; a vacuum cleaner had fallen over on its side.

其余的人仍然站着，都是无头、无腿、无臂的女人的怪异轮廓。一台吸尘器侧翻了。

All around were dead weeds, tall and half-frozen, outspreading lace-tipped finger stalks, projecting complex and lovely shadows on the white walls of silent houses whose curtains were neatly drawn.

周围都是枯死的杂草，高高的，半冻的，伸展着花边尖的指茎，在窗帘拉得整整齐齐的寂静房屋的白墙上投射出复杂而可爱的影子。

Grass rose up on the sides of the buildings, and golden weeds bent before crumpled blinds.

建筑物的两侧长满青草，金色的杂草在皱巴巴的百叶窗前弯曲。

Behind a fence, metal banged on metal.

栅栏后面，金属互相碰撞。

The banging went on and on like a telegraph.

敲击声像电报一样持续不断。

“Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Shore) 45,” by Lieko Shiga, from her series Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Shore), produced in the Miyagi prefecture before and after the earthquake and tsunami.

《螺旋海岸 45》，志贺理惠子的系列作品《螺旋海岸》，在地震和海啸前后在宫城县制作。

Shiga’s work will be on view next month as part of In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11, at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston.

志贺的作品将于下个月在波士顿美术博物馆展出，作为《觉醒：日本摄影师回应 3/11》的一部分。

Photograph © The artist, courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

照片©艺术家，由波士顿美术博物馆提供。

In the city center, the streetlights glowed even in the middle of the day, probably to deter theft, of which there was, apparently, a great deal.

在市中心，路灯甚至在中午也亮着，可能是为了防止盗窃，显然，盗窃现象很多。

Over the whole of Tomioka rang an amplified recorded voice, evidently a young woman’s, but distorted and metallic.

整个富冈都响起了放大的录音声音，显然是一位年轻女子的声音，但声音扭曲且带有金属感。

She reminded the workers not to spread radioactivity; they should dispose of their protective gear at the screening place on their way home.

她提醒工人们不要传播放射性；他们应该在回家途中在安检地点丢弃防护装备。

She said, “If you incinerate something or use incense, be careful not to start a fire,” and she warned the former inhabitants, crackling, “For temporary housing people, make sure to kill the breaker before you leave, and lock the door to prevent thieves.”

她说，“如果你焚烧东西或使用香，请小心不要引起火灾，”她警告以前的居民，声音噼啪作响，“对于临时住房的人来说，离开前一定要杀死断路器，并锁好门以防止小偷。”

The forbidden zone’s current boundary was marked by large, narrow signboards, which said, as rendered in my interpreter’s rather beautiful English:

禁区当前的边界上有又大又窄的标牌，用我的翻译相当漂亮的英语翻译，上面写着：

The signs were flanked by traffic cones, with knee-high metal railings behind, which were low enough that a scofflaw such as I might step over them to enter the forbidden zone.

标志两侧是交通锥，后面有齐膝高的金属栏杆，栏杆很低，像我这样的恶棍可能会跨过它们进入禁区。

That is what I did, I confess, but only for a moment or two on that occasion.

我承认，这就是我所做的，但那次只持续了一两分钟。

On that first visit I thought that Tomioka appeared only a little shabby — not really, as my interpreter opined, abandoned; weeds could have done much worse in three years.

第一次访问时，我认为富冈只是显得有点破旧——并不像我的翻译所说的那样，真的被遗弃了；三年内杂草的情况可能会更糟。

But after an hour I checked the dosimeter and saw that it had already registered another microsievert.

但一个小时后，我检查了剂量计，发现它已经记录了另一个微西弗。

Within a single hour I had received three times as much radiation as I had in the previous twenty-four hours.

在一个小时内，我受到的辐射量是之前二十四小时内的三倍。

The dosage in Tomioka, in other words, was potentially seventy-two times greater than in Iwaki.

换句话说，富冈的剂量可能是磐城的七十二倍。

I cannot tell you all that I wish to about the quiet horror of the place, much less of its sadness, but I ask you to imagine yourself looking at a certain weed-grown wooden residence with unswept snow on the front porch as the interpreter points and says: “This must have been a very nice house.

我无法告诉你关于这个地方安静的恐怖的一切，更不用说它的悲伤了，但我请你想象自己正在看着一座杂草丛生的木制住宅，前廊上有未扫过的积雪，同时翻译指着说：“这一定是一栋非常漂亮的房子。”

The owner must have been very proud.”

主人一定非常自豪。”

“I ’m not worried about any thieves,” Endo Kazuhiro said as we drove to his old house, “since my home is not gorgeous.” This former resident of Tomioka was now the head of a residents’ association in an Iwaki suburb.

当我们开车前往他的老房子时，远藤和宏说道：“我不担心小偷，因为我的家并不华丽。” 这位富冈市的前居民现在是磐城市郊区一个居民协会的负责人。

Both of his parents had been born in Iwaki.

他的父母都出生在磐城市。

About his house, he said: “I wish the thieves would clean it up!

谈到他的房子，他说：“我希望小偷能把它清理干净！”

I was born there.

我出生在那里。

I’m the fourth generation — more than a hundred years, almost two hundred.”

我是第四代——一百多年了，快两百年了。”

“I was there last year, in summer.

——去年夏天我去过那里。

I only went to visit my ancestors’ tombs.”

我只是去参观我祖先的坟墓。”

In his childhood, he said, the kids played kick the can and hide and seek.

他说，在他的童年时期，孩子们玩踢罐头和捉迷藏。

“We waded in the river.

——我们在河里涉水。

There were wild boars and foxes — also raccoons, although we didn’t see them so often.

这里有野猪和狐狸，还有浣熊，尽管我们不常看到它们。

Now most of the humans are gone, so the animals might be more rampant.”

现在大部分人类都消失了，所以动物可能会更加猖獗。”

He laughed.

他笑了。

“I don’t know.

——我不知道。

There are some abandoned pets .

还有一些被遗弃的宠物。

.

。

.

。

”

Ø

“Based on your experience in the field, is decontamination effective?”

“根据您的现场经验，净化有效吗？”

“Not at all!

——完全不是！

It’s the most wasteful, useless activity.”

这是最浪费、最无用的活动。”

“General contractors from Tokyo City and this prefecture.”

“来自东京市和本县的总承包商。”

“At this stage, I’m against it, because the response to the accident has been so poor.

——现阶段，我反对，因为对事故的反应非常糟糕。

If the government cares to restart any of these nuclear plants, they’d better do a much better job.”

如果政府愿意重启这些核电站，他们最好做得更好。”

Endo took me to his house.

远藤带我去了他家。

“But it’s overgrown now,” he warned, “not really presentable.” Over the snow-covered road, the brassy female voice roared about protective gear.

“但它现在杂草丛生，”他警告说，“不太像样。” 在积雪覆盖的道路上，低沉的女声咆哮着要求防护装备。

He showed me his garden, saying, “The bamboo grew!

他带我参观了他的花园，说道：“竹子长起来了！”

It’s a forest!

这是一片森林！

Three years ago there wasn’t any.” Within the dankness of his former home, rat droppings speckled shoes, boots, a fan, a vacuum cleaner, shelves, and chairs.

三年前，还没有。在他潮湿的故居里，鞋子、靴子、风扇、吸尘器、架子和椅子上都沾满了老鼠粪便。

Everything had been tipped and tilted by the earthquake into a waist-high jumble.

所有的东西都被地震倾倒了，变成了齐腰高的乱七八糟的东西。

He did not invite me in, and anyhow I saw no point in further trawling through that melancholy disorder, so I took a photograph or two, and then he closed the door.

他没有邀请我进去，无论如何，我认为没有必要进一步探究这种忧郁的混乱，所以我拍了一两张照片，然后他关上了门。

“When we were told to evacuate, everyone thought we could come back in a few days, so we didn’t take so many things.

——当我们被告知撤离时，每个人都认为我们几天后就能回来，所以我们没有带那么多东西。

Residents are allowed to visit for six hours, and only during the daytime.” The Endos had taken their bank book and family portraits.

居民只能在白天参观六个小时。——恩多夫妇拿走了他们的银行存折和全家福。

His wife had been back only once.

他的妻子只回来过一次。

As he put it, “she prefers not to see this.”

正如他所说，“她不想看到这一点。”

Endo was now sixty-two.

远藤现在六十二岁了。

The accident had occurred when he was sixty.

事故发生在他六十岁的时候。

“I wanted to be a subsistence rice farmer in my retirement,” he said.

“我想在退休后成为一名自给自足的稻农，”他说。

“Right here by the road, this was my field, three hundred tsubo .

——就在路边，这是我的田地，三百坪。

Elsewhere I had two other rice fields; one of them was near a pond.

在其他地方，我还有另外两块稻田；其中一个在池塘附近。

Well, that was my dream.

嗯，那是我的梦想。

The house is contaminated with radioactivity.

房子受到放射性污染。

Once the location for the waste site has been established, we will demolish the house.

一旦确定了垃圾场的位置，我们就会拆除房屋。

Owners are compensated in proportion to tsunami and earthquake damage.

业主将根据海啸和地震损失的比例获得补偿。

My house is less than half collapsed, so I must take care of the demolition myself.

我的房子倒塌了不到一半，所以我必须自己负责拆迁。

It would have been better if it had collapsed.”

如果能倒塌就更好了。”

There he stood with his cap tilted upward on his forehead, staring at the wisteria whose creepers aimed at him, bullwhips frozen mid-crack.

他站在那里，帽子向上倾斜在额头上，凝视着紫藤，藤蔓瞄准了他，长鞭冻在裂缝中。

I wondered whether he felt any impulse to fight them.

我想知道他是否有与他们战斗的冲动。

The amplified woman’s voice roared and echoed.

放大后的女人的声音咆哮而回响。

He looked at his house.

他看了看他的房子。

“Soon the wisteria will crush it,” he said, almost smiling.

“很快紫藤就会把它压碎，”他几乎微笑着说道。

O ne Sunday afternoon in Iwaki, an orator in dark clothes stood, raising his voice, fanning and chopping the air, leaning on the podium, waving, circling, nodding.

一个星期天的下午，在磐城，一位穿着深色衣服的演说家站在那里，提高了声音，扇动着空气，靠在讲台上，挥手，转圈，点头。

About 300 people listened to him in the auditorium of the sixth floor of a department-store tower (which also contained the Iwaki city library).

大约 300 人在百货大楼六楼的礼堂（磐城市图书馆也设在其中）聆听了他的演讲。

There were far more men than women.

男性远多于女性。

Few wore suits, for this event had been organized by a national railway union.

很少有人穿西装，因为这次活动是由国家铁路工会组织的。

There was loud applause, and a few listeners raised cameras over their heads to record each speech.

全场响起热烈的掌声，一些听众将摄像机举过头顶记录每一次演讲。

One man clambered up a small painter’s ladder for a better angle.

一名男子爬上一架小画家的梯子，以获得更好的角度。

A farmer from near Koriyama was speaking.

一位来自郡山附近的农民正在讲话。

“There is no place for Fukushima people to throw their anger against,” he said.

“福岛人民没有地方可以发泄愤怒，”他说。

“We feel the administration has abandoned us.

– 我们觉得政府已经抛弃了我们。

In my dairy farm I cannot feed my cows with my own grass.

在我的奶牛场，我不能用自己的草来喂养我的奶牛。

It is forbidden.

这是被禁止的。

The grass, the hay, and the compost are contaminated with cesium.

草、干草和堆肥都受到铯污染。

They are just sitting there.

他们只是坐在那里。

Finally the city of Iwaki claimed to clean them but just moved them from one place to another.

最后，磐城市声称要清理它们，但只是将它们从一个地方转移到另一个地方。

The cows are having more difficult births.”

奶牛的分娩更加困难。”

A lady in black said, “In the temporary housing where I used to live, in Namie, in two years, out of twenty residents, three died.” Another woman added, “Those who make the decisions are not affected by radiation because they live in Tokyo.”

一位黑衣女士说道：“在我曾经居住的浪江临时住房里，两年内，每 20 名居民中就有 3 人死亡。”另一位女士补充道，“那些做决定的人不会受到辐射的影响，因为他们住在东京。”

After the speeches, the protesters went out to the street for a parade.

演讲结束后，抗议者走上街头游行。

There were whistles, drums, chants, banners of pink and yellow and blue and crimson.

口哨声、鼓声、圣歌、粉红色、黄色、蓝色和深红色的横幅。

Some of the marchers were almost ecstatic as they banged their drums or raised their clenched fists; others shyly or listlessly touched their hands together.

一些游行者敲着鼓或举起紧握的拳头，几乎欣喜若狂；其他人则害羞或无精打采地把手放在一起。

A banner said: stop all nuclear power plants .

横幅上写着：停止所有核电站。

A banner said: 3-11 antinuclear fukushima action .

横幅上写着：3-11反核福岛行动。

There was a musical chant about poison rain and children being guinea pigs.

有一首关于毒雨和儿童当小白鼠的音乐颂歌。

I saw hardly any spectators.

我几乎没有看到任何观众。

In a travel agency, a young couple turned and frowned over their shoulders and through the glass.

一家旅行社里，一对年轻夫妇转过头，透过玻璃，皱起了眉头。

A restaurant proprietor stood unsmiling in his doorway.

一位餐馆老板面无表情地站在门口。

Three pretty women peered out of a second-story window.

三个漂亮女人从二楼的窗户往外看。

Two little girls were walking by; the younger wished to join the protest but the elder was against it.

两个小女孩走过来；弟弟想参加抗议，但哥哥反对。

A man was shouting: “You guys did it, you large corporations and TEPCO!

一个男人喊道：“是你们干的，你们这些大公司和东电！”

Why should we have to suffer?

我们为什么要受苦？

Solidarity, everyone!

大家团结一致！

Work together!” The sentiment was underscored by furious drumming.

共同努力！——激烈的鼓声凸显了这种情绪。

The marchers went to an unmarked TEPCO building and delivered demands to a man waiting on the sidewalk.

游行者前往一座没有标志的东京电力大楼，并向在人行道上等候的一名男子提出要求。

He bowed slightly when he received their document.

当他收到文件时，他微微鞠了一躬。

I felt a little sorry for him.

我为他感到有点遗憾。

Behind the glass doors, two other men in suits stood watching.

玻璃门后面，站着另外两个西装革履的男人。

M y visit to Tomioka with Endo was the least radioactive of the eight trips I have taken to that place; during our two hours there, the dosimeter registered only one additional microsievert.

我和远藤一起去富冈的旅行是我去过那个地方的八次旅行中放射性最小的一次。在我们在那里的两个小时内，剂量计仅记录了额外的一微西弗。

Over the course of our conversation, he remarked that what he missed most about Tomioka was the shrine at the mountain.

在我们的谈话中，他说他最怀念富冈的是山上的神社。

I asked whether we could stop by, and he kindly drove me there.

我问我们是否可以顺便过去，他好心地开车送我去那里。

The characters on the gate read hayama shrine .

大门上写着“叶山神社”。

Here, the young men of the town had climbed bearing torches during the festival to pray for a good harvest; if you saw the flames at the top of the mountain from your house, the harvest would be fruitful.

节日期间，镇上的年轻人都举着火把登高祈求丰收。如果你从家里看到山顶的火焰，那么收获就会丰收。

The festival took place every August 15.

该节日于每年8月15日举行。

Endo had carried the torch every year from age sixteen to forty.

从十六岁到四十岁，远藤每年都会传递火炬。

At the shrine, one of the two stone guardian dogs had fallen; not far from his cracked corpse rose the wide stone steps, across which a heavy branch had lately collapsed.

神社里，两只石头守护犬中的一只倒下了；距离他破碎的尸体不远，矗立着宽阔的石阶，石阶上最近有一根沉重的树枝倒塌了。

Together, we climbed up and looked at the forested hill above the shrine, the place of dead leaves and lovely tall pines.

我们一起爬上神社上方的森林山丘，那里有枯叶和可爱的高大松树。

We turned and looked down from the torus at the landscape.

我们转身从圆环上俯视风景。

Then, finally, we descended to the car and drove away, across that plain of black bags and brown grass, with crows flying up everywhere.

最后，我们下了车，开走了，穿过那片黑色袋子和棕色草地的平原，到处都是乌鸦飞翔。

Correction: The legend that accompanies the map of Fukushima misidentified the 2011 exclusion and voluntary evacuation zones.

更正：福岛地图附带的图例错误地识别了 2011 年的禁区和自愿疏散区。

A corrected legend appears above.

上面显示了更正的图例。