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'The Break Room' shows a clock perpetually stopped at 6:30. Photographer Olena Sullivan finds it a great time capsule image of the ghost city of Pripyat. (Olena Serbyn-Sullivan/Photolena)
OTTAWA—History tells us about abandoned cities that were once prosperous, such as the fabled Babylon, Homer’s Troy (remains of which were discovered in the 19th century), and, of course, Pompeii.
New sites of abandoned cities continue to be discovered. The Peruvian Machu Picchu is fairly well known to travelers, but there is also the sacred city of Caral-Supe, an even older site in Peru, unexplored until 2000 when it was proven to have been built between 3000 and 2100 B.C. Caral-Supe is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Some dead cities, such as a group of 700 abandoned settlements in northwest Syria between Aleppo and Hama, date back to the 5th century B.C., but archaeologists are not sure whether they were actually cities or simply rural villages. They were “lost” because trade routes changed.
This is definitely not the case with Chernobyl and Fukushima. According to Toronto-based photographer Olena Sullivan, “There are several differences between these two disasters in not only underlying circumstances, but also in local government and world response.” Sullivan thinks that the differences, which made Chernobyl a desolate wasteland, will contribute to eventually making the situation in Japan “liveable.”
Photographs Sullivan took of the irradiated Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl and the ghost city of Pripyat in 2009 help commemorate the 25th anniversary of that horrific event, which took place in April, 1986. An exhibition of those photos, called “Chornobyl Remembered,” opened at the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, on April 12 and is on view until the end of June. The Ukrainian spelling of Chernobyl is used.
Fukushima is a city as well as the site of the infamous nuclear plant. It is known for its peach blossoms, the official flower of the city, and its official bird, the great tit. Now the question is not only how long birds, farm animals, and yes, people living in the 18.6-mile zone around the latest nuclear disaster will fare in the short-term, but also how long they will survive.
One huge difference between the disasters in Russia and Japan is that Chernobyl exploded, while the four reactors at Fukushima shut down. Those living in the five cities, eight towns, and three villages in Fukushima Prefecture, however, take little comfort in that fact.
Sullivan’s web page tells us that when the Chernobyl reactor, which was just 4.3 miles from the city of Pripyat, exploded, it took three days for the Soviet government to make any effort to evacuate the city. Eventually, 1,100 buses evacuated some 50,000 residents who were never able to return. The reaction from the Japanese government, however, has been totally different. It acted immediately and didn’t try to cover up the events.
Sullivan is hopeful that with the world’s scientists ready to help, and the Japanese government willing to let them, the engineers and scientists at Fukushima will make Japan safe.
Yukio Edano, the Japanese government’s leading spokesperson for the nuclear crisis and the radiation leaks, said recently about the decision to raise the crisis level from five to seven, “The change in the level reminds us the accident is very big. I apologize to the residents of the area, the people of Japan, and the international community.”
Sullivan’s photographs may also be seen at the Bezpala Brown Gallery, 17 Church Street, Toronto, in “Volatile Particles. 25 Years after Chernobyl—with Mathew Merrett.”
The two artists explore “man’s impact on the environment and nature’s resilience. The photographs blend images of normality (the ghosts of the past) superimposed on post-Chernobyl devastation and infestation (the present-day stark reality amid the afterlife of the Exclusion Zone),” according to a notice about the exhibition in Toronto by Bezpala Brown Gallery.
Susan Hallett is an award-winning writer and editor who has written for The Beaver, The Globe and Mail, and Doctor’s Review, among many other publications. E-mail: hallett_susan@hotmail.com
