Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2020
Subject: Tokyo 2020 - The Radioactive Olympics - Newsletter December 2021



Dear supporters* of our campaign "Tokyo 2020 - The Radioactive Olympics",

the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the new timetable for the Olympic Games in Tokyo:

*        Start of Olympic torch relay: 25.03.21
*        First symbolic competitions in Fukushima City: 21-22.07.21
*        Olympic Games: 23.07.21 - 08.08.21
*        Paralympic Games: 24.08.21 - 05.09.21

Apart from the dates, unfortunately, little has changed - the plan is still to start the Olympic torch relay near the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and to pass through the contaminated exclusion zone. Also, the symbolic first competitions will continue to take place in Fukushima City and not in Tokyo according to the plans of the IOC.

According to all we know so far, the Japanese government and the Japanese nuclear industry are behind these decisions and they want to use the Olympic Games to repress the memory of the Fukushima nuclear disaster with beautiful pictures and cheering crowds in decontaminated areas. However, by postponing the games to 2021, they now fall exactly on the 10th anniversary of the multiple nuclear meltdowns.

We see it as our task to remember the many hundreds of thousands of people whose lives were directly affected by the nuclear disaster and who are exposed to lifelong increased risks of disease, as well as the thousands of people who have had to leave their contaminated homes and the hundreds of people who already have proven health consequences. The world should know their stories when they look to the Olympics in Japan next year.

To give our campaign a boost in the coming months, we are currently in the process of recruiting prominent Olympic athletes to give the campaign their faces and voices. For this purpose we designed a letter, which we have already sent to many famous sportsmen and sportswomen. The draft letter is attached and can be translated and used in other countries.

On February 27th, 2021, the German section of the IPPNW is organizing an international symposium entitled "10 years living with Fukushima" at the Berlin Urania and online. Here the most important scientific findings of the last ten years will be presented and discussed. The effects of the multiple Super-GAU on the environment and human health will be analyzed on the basis of published studies and demands for the coming years will be developed.
More information is available at:  https://www.fukushima-disaster.de

Also, it is not too late to sign our international petition "No Olympic competitions in radioactively contaminated regions":
https://www.openpetition.eu/petition/online/keine-olympischen-wettbewerbe-in-radioaktiv-kontaminierten-regionen

On our website http://www.radioactive-olympics.org/information-in-english you can find additional background information, which is updated regularly.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you.

With kind regards,

for the campaign team "Tokyo 2020 - The Radioactive Olymics",

Jörg Schmid
Alex Rosen
Paul-Marie Manière


HOME