Hiroshi Hoshi and Leo Hoshi
Hiroshi Hoshi doesn't care what the Japanese government says about staying away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. He keeps going back to the radioactive zone … to rescue animals. That means dodging roadblocks and police patrols.
Hiroshi and his team of family members are less well-known than some of the other humane groups that have been working to save animals since the earthquake and tsunami back in March 2011. But you can find them on their website and on Facebook.
In June 2011, Hiroshi Hoshi made headlines for the first time when he defied radio active fallout to pluck animals from Fukushima dead zone.
The Australian wrote:
A SELF-DESCRIBED "animal rescue guerilla" has made a daring raid to the centre of Japan's nuclear crisis to pluck to safety two dogs seen wandering around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
In recent months, Hiroshi Hoshi has made a series of trips to the radioactive dead zone around the plant to rescue distressed and abandoned pets while dodging roadblocks and police patrols.
He has come across countless animal corpses, dogs that had become cannibals and even an ostrich strolling the streets of a village within the 20km perimeter around the plant.
But perhaps the most amazing was the discovery via a camera trained permanently on the Fukushima Daiichi plant of the pair of Japanese Shiba dogs prowling around the highly radioactive plant more than three months after the beginning of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.
In the footage, the two biscuit-coloured dogs stand out clearly against the grey backdrop of wrecked reactor buildings and tangled metal, and they were spotted by supporters of Mr Hoshi, who were monitoring the internet feed of the camera.
"We knew those dogs would die eventually if they were left alone," Mr Hoshi, 55, who runs an car parts distribution business, tells The Australian. "I thought, 'If we can get there and possibly save them, why not?'."
On June 5, he and several sympathisers donned protective suits and skirted police roadblocks in their car and drove right into the plant to where the camera is based. Before long, they had found the dogs, whisked them into their car and got them back to safety.
"For the past three months they have had such a tough time," Mr Hoshi says. "When we got them, they weren't even able to urinate or eat any kind of hard food. So we called up an emergency medical centre in Yokohama and they checked and treated them and then we took them to our home."
The dogs wore radiation dosimeters for a few days, which showed they had been exposed to significant amounts of radiation, but they were given a clean bill of health. Mr Hoshi believes their owner left them a lot of food when they evacuated and that might have kept them alive and indoors, away from the fallout. When the food ran out, he believes they took to prowling the plant's grounds for sustenance.
The two dogs are probably brothers, which may explain why they appeared to have stuck together during their ordeal.
In recent months, Hiroshi Hoshi has made a series of trips to the radioactive dead zone around the plant to rescue distressed and abandoned pets while dodging roadblocks and police patrols.
He has come across countless animal corpses, dogs that had become cannibals and even an ostrich strolling the streets of a village within the 20km perimeter around the plant.
But perhaps the most amazing was the discovery via a camera trained permanently on the Fukushima Daiichi plant of the pair of Japanese Shiba dogs prowling around the highly radioactive plant more than three months after the beginning of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.
In the footage, the two biscuit-coloured dogs stand out clearly against the grey backdrop of wrecked reactor buildings and tangled metal, and they were spotted by supporters of Mr Hoshi, who were monitoring the internet feed of the camera.
"We knew those dogs would die eventually if they were left alone," Mr Hoshi, 55, who runs an car parts distribution business, tells The Australian. "I thought, 'If we can get there and possibly save them, why not?'."
On June 5, he and several sympathisers donned protective suits and skirted police roadblocks in their car and drove right into the plant to where the camera is based. Before long, they had found the dogs, whisked them into their car and got them back to safety.
"For the past three months they have had such a tough time," Mr Hoshi says. "When we got them, they weren't even able to urinate or eat any kind of hard food. So we called up an emergency medical centre in Yokohama and they checked and treated them and then we took them to our home."
The dogs wore radiation dosimeters for a few days, which showed they had been exposed to significant amounts of radiation, but they were given a clean bill of health. Mr Hoshi believes their owner left them a lot of food when they evacuated and that might have kept them alive and indoors, away from the fallout. When the food ran out, he believes they took to prowling the plant's grounds for sustenance.
The two dogs are probably brothers, which may explain why they appeared to have stuck together during their ordeal.
Chie Hoffman, a dog lover who lives near Yokohama and learnt of the dogs' rescue through Facebook, has agreed to give the animals a foster home. "When they came to my house about two weeks ago, they were scared to death and so nervous," she says.
"We could see their ribs sticking out and they wouldn't go out or drink water. I decided to keep them and about three days later they started to eat and drink and now they are doing very well."
Ms Hoffman, who owns a further three dogs and three cats, tells The Australian she has grown to like the two Fukushima dogs a lot, but has resisted the urge to name them for now in case their owner recognises them and decides they want them back.
Such happy endings are rare for the tens of thousands of animals abandoned in the dead zone around the Fukushima plant.
Some 80,000 people have been forced to flee the evacuation zone, and in many cases they have left behind pets, which are now dying of thirst or starvation. About 5800 licensed dogs are believed to be in the evacuation zone, plus thousands of unregistered animals and cats, along with beef and dairy cattle, pigs and a handful of exotic animals, such as the ostrich.
The Japanese government has been slammed for failing to allow owners back to their homes within the evacuation zone frequently enough to care for their pets. The government has also failed to implement a program to kill doomed livestock humanely.
Animals are being left to die, something that spurred Mr Hoshi, who has no background in activism, to take on his rescue role.
"We were talking about this issue as a family after we saw news reports about it and my son, Leo, said: 'I can't ignore this - I've got to go feed them'," he says.
"So the three of us, Leo and my wife and I, decided to go together."
Since April, Mr Hoshi and his supporters have made a series of raids into the radioactive zone, plucking dogs and cats to safety.
He has found dogs dead on leashes and in cages, and has determined from carcasses and wounds on live dogs that some have turned to killing and eating each other to stay alive.
Mr Hoshi is furious about the indifference of authorities and has challenged police to arrest him after several of his clandestine raids so he can draw more attention to his complaints in court.
"We could see their ribs sticking out and they wouldn't go out or drink water. I decided to keep them and about three days later they started to eat and drink and now they are doing very well."
Ms Hoffman, who owns a further three dogs and three cats, tells The Australian she has grown to like the two Fukushima dogs a lot, but has resisted the urge to name them for now in case their owner recognises them and decides they want them back.
Such happy endings are rare for the tens of thousands of animals abandoned in the dead zone around the Fukushima plant.
Some 80,000 people have been forced to flee the evacuation zone, and in many cases they have left behind pets, which are now dying of thirst or starvation. About 5800 licensed dogs are believed to be in the evacuation zone, plus thousands of unregistered animals and cats, along with beef and dairy cattle, pigs and a handful of exotic animals, such as the ostrich.
The Japanese government has been slammed for failing to allow owners back to their homes within the evacuation zone frequently enough to care for their pets. The government has also failed to implement a program to kill doomed livestock humanely.
Animals are being left to die, something that spurred Mr Hoshi, who has no background in activism, to take on his rescue role.
"We were talking about this issue as a family after we saw news reports about it and my son, Leo, said: 'I can't ignore this - I've got to go feed them'," he says.
"So the three of us, Leo and my wife and I, decided to go together."
Since April, Mr Hoshi and his supporters have made a series of raids into the radioactive zone, plucking dogs and cats to safety.
He has found dogs dead on leashes and in cages, and has determined from carcasses and wounds on live dogs that some have turned to killing and eating each other to stay alive.
Mr Hoshi is furious about the indifference of authorities and has challenged police to arrest him after several of his clandestine raids so he can draw more attention to his complaints in court.
Since then, the Hoshi's have actively rescued over 200 animals on their own with very limited monetary resource
Hiroshi Hoshi and Leo Hoshi
arrested for"allegedly" breaking laws
On Jan 28, 2013, Mr. Hiroshi Hoshi and his son Mr. Reo Hoshi, the Hoshi family, were visited by police officers and asked to go along voluntarily to be questioned from their house to Musashino Police station. Then, they were transferred to Futaba Police station in Fukushima prefecture.
Almost all media has been keeping silence or ignoring this incident by controlling press release even though this is against the Nuclear plants Disaster Countermeasure Act on Special Measure violation. Only Mainichi Newspaper introduced it briefly on their online news page but the contents were far from the truth.
Makoto Konishi has realeased a note "On Hoshi Family Arrest and Custody", published on the FB-page of The Hachiko Animal Federation - please click here to read it.
The Hachiko Animal Federation, who has started a petition, believes that they are being targeted and unjustly detained due to their animal rescue of Fukushima animals. The Hoshi family has actively rescued, cared for, vetted and adopted out over 200 animals left to die inside the nuclear zone by the Government of Japan.
Please read the petition letter below in English and Japanese, sign the petition and please share it with as many as you can!
Thank you!
To: Fukushima Japan, Chief Prosecutor Toru Sakai
Your Honorable Mr. Sakai:
On behalf of the Hachiko Animal Federation, Inc, a non-profit organization in the United States we humbly request that you release the Hoshi Family, Hiroshi and Leo on their own merit and without any bail.
The Hoshi's have actively rescued, cared for and placed animals in adoptive families for almost two years. Because of the unforeseen disasters in Japan, unfortunately, many of these animals were sadly left behind in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, or Nuclear Zone. It appears that there were no plans in place to deal with such drastic human circumstances and much less to include the animals that were people's household pets. The Hoshi's have actively rescued over 200 animals on their own with very limited monetary resources. The Hoshi Family is a humanitarian group and their sole mission has always been and remains one of altruism; to help reunite animals with their families or to find new families for animals in need.
The Hachiko Animal Federation was formed to honor your national treasure and our mascot, Hachiko, the loyal Akita dog. Our mission was and remains to assist animal shelters in Japan as well as animal rescue groups and volunteers who received little or no aid from the Japanese government. Our group will continue to assist Fukushima animals and animals around the world.
Your Honor, we ask that you take into account that the Hoshi's were saving animals lives and they would not have become involved if the Government of Japan had only rescued and shown mercy to its animals left inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone. We ask that you release Hoshi Hiroshi and Leo Hoshi as quickly as possible. For almost two years, the Hoshi Family has acquired a very large network of supporters in Japan, in the United States and internationally who are so grateful for all of the animals that they have been able to rescue, obtain medical treatment for, spay and neuter and, in the best case scenario, find homes for as well. These "happy endings" are something we all want. Surely, the Government of Japan would like this for the animals as well. We love Japan and hope that your great nation will rebuild and prosper. We would also like to tell our children and the world, that Japan did their best to help rescue animals and help the animal rescuers. We have asked the Ministry of Environment and the Fukushima Prefecture to rescue the surviving animals. To this day our request remains the same.
Your Honor, please take into account the fact that the Hoshi Family's goal was to save lives. They wanted nothing more then to end the suffering of the cats and dogs they encountered. Animal owners begged for them to go in to the Zone and try to save their animals. Once there, it was impossible for the Hoshi Family to leave without trying to help all of the animals that they saw. These volunteer animal rescuers are not criminals. They are humanitarians who love both people and animals and could not stand to see animals suffering. Please do all you can to release Hiroshi and Leo Hoshi as quickly as possible. Their families need them and so do their animals.
We cordially thank you.
The Hachiko Animal Federation
U.S.A.
福島地方検察庁堺 徹 検事正様
アメリカ合衆国の非営利団体であるハチ公動物連盟を代表して、星広志及び星礼雄の無条件下での釈放を慎んでお願い申し上げます。
星親子は過去2年間、動物を救助し、面倒を見て里親を探す活動を精力的に展開してきました。東日本における想定外の大災害のために、これらの動物達は不幸にも警戒区域及び避難区域に置き去りにされてしまいました。人々の状況の改善のための計画の中に、家族の一員であるペットの件はほとんど含まれていませんでした。星親子は限られた資金の中から200を超える動物を独自に救助してまいりました。星ファミリーは人道的なグループであり、動物達をその家族と再会させる、又は動物達に新しい家族を見つけるという彼らの唯一の使命は一貫して利他主義に基づいたものであります。
ハチ公動物連盟は日本の国民に愛され続ける忠実な秋田犬のハチ公をマスコットにさせていただいてます。私たちの使命は政府の援助があまり受けられない日本の動物シェルターと動物救助団体又は個人を支援することです。我々のグループは福島の動物達を含め世界中の動物達を支援しております。
日本政府が警戒区域内に取り残された動物達を救出し、きちんと保護してさえいれば星親子がこのようなことに関与することはなかったであろうことを我々は検事正様にご考慮いただきたく存じ、星広志、及び星礼雄の早期釈放をお願い申し上げます。過去2年近くの間、星ファミリーは日本、アメリカ、その他の国際社会で多くの支援者を得ております。支援者達は動物達が星ファミリーによって救助され、医療ケアを受け、避妊去勢手術を施され、里親を見つけてもらったことに一様に深く感謝しております。このような「幸せな結末」は誰もが望むものであり、日本政府も動物達を幸せにしたいという想いを持っていると信じております。我々は日本を愛しており、日本の震災からの再建と繁栄を願っています。我々は「日本という国は動物のレスキューに全力を尽くし、そのボランティアの人々を援助している」と子供達や世界中に伝えることができるようにしたいと思っております。我々は環境省及び福島県に生き残っている動物達を救助する要請をしてきましたが、今日まで状況は変わっておりません。
星ファミリーの目的はただ動物の命を救うことであると検事正様にはご理解いただきたく存じます。彼らはそれ以上のことは望んでいませんでしたが、彼らが遭遇した犬や猫のために苦労をするという結果に陥っております。飼い主の方々は警戒区域内に行って動物達を救助してくれるように星ファミリーに懇願してきたのです。一旦警戒区域内に入ってしまえば、星ファミリーには出会った動物達を置いて来ることはできませんでした。このような動物救助ボランティアは犯罪者として扱われるべきではありません。星親子は人も動物も両方愛し、動物達が苦しんでいるのを見過ごせない人道主義者です。星広志及び礼雄の釈放のためにどうかお力をお貸しください。家族と動物達は彼らを必要としております。
心よりお礼申し上げます。
ハチ公動物連盟、U.S.A
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Your Honorable Mr. Sakai:
On behalf of the Hachiko Animal Federation, Inc, a non-profit organization in the United States we humbly request that you release the Hoshi Family, Hiroshi and Leo on their own merit and without any bail.
The Hoshi's have actively rescued, cared for and placed animals in adoptive families for almost two years. Because of the unforeseen disasters in Japan, unfortunately, many of these animals were sadly left behind in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, or Nuclear Zone. It appears that there were no plans in place to deal with such drastic human circumstances and much less to include the animals that were people's household pets. The Hoshi's have actively rescued over 200 animals on their own with very limited monetary resources. The Hoshi Family is a humanitarian group and their sole mission has always been and remains one of altruism; to help reunite animals with their families or to find new families for animals in need.
The Hachiko Animal Federation was formed to honor your national treasure and our mascot, Hachiko, the loyal Akita dog. Our mission was and remains to assist animal shelters in Japan as well as animal rescue groups and volunteers who received little or no aid from the Japanese government. Our group will continue to assist Fukushima animals and animals around the world.
Your Honor, we ask that you take into account that the Hoshi's were saving animals lives and they would not have become involved if the Government of Japan had only rescued and shown mercy to its animals left inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone. We ask that you release Hoshi Hiroshi and Leo Hoshi as quickly as possible. For almost two years, the Hoshi Family has acquired a very large network of supporters in Japan, in the United States and internationally who are so grateful for all of the animals that they have been able to rescue, obtain medical treatment for, spay and neuter and, in the best case scenario, find homes for as well. These "happy endings" are something we all want. Surely, the Government of Japan would like this for the animals as well. We love Japan and hope that your great nation will rebuild and prosper. We would also like to tell our children and the world, that Japan did their best to help rescue animals and help the animal rescuers. We have asked the Ministry of Environment and the Fukushima Prefecture to rescue the surviving animals. To this day our request remains the same.
Your Honor, please take into account the fact that the Hoshi Family's goal was to save lives. They wanted nothing more then to end the suffering of the cats and dogs they encountered. Animal owners begged for them to go in to the Zone and try to save their animals. Once there, it was impossible for the Hoshi Family to leave without trying to help all of the animals that they saw. These volunteer animal rescuers are not criminals. They are humanitarians who love both people and animals and could not stand to see animals suffering. Please do all you can to release Hiroshi and Leo Hoshi as quickly as possible. Their families need them and so do their animals.
We cordially thank you.
The Hachiko Animal Federation
U.S.A.
福島地方検察庁堺 徹 検事正様
アメリカ合衆国の非営利団体であるハチ公動物連盟を代表して、星広志及び星礼雄の無条件下での釈放を慎んでお願い申し上げます。
星親子は過去2年間、動物を救助し、面倒を見て里親を探す活動を精力的に展開してきました。東日本における想定外の大災害のために、これらの動物達は不幸にも警戒区域及び避難区域に置き去りにされてしまいました。人々の状況の改善のための計画の中に、家族の一員であるペットの件はほとんど含まれていませんでした。星親子は限られた資金の中から200を超える動物を独自に救助してまいりました。星ファミリーは人道的なグループであり、動物達をその家族と再会させる、又は動物達に新しい家族を見つけるという彼らの唯一の使命は一貫して利他主義に基づいたものであります。
ハチ公動物連盟は日本の国民に愛され続ける忠実な秋田犬のハチ公をマスコットにさせていただいてます。私たちの使命は政府の援助があまり受けられない日本の動物シェルターと動物救助団体又は個人を支援することです。我々のグループは福島の動物達を含め世界中の動物達を支援しております。
日本政府が警戒区域内に取り残された動物達を救出し、きちんと保護してさえいれば星親子がこのようなことに関与することはなかったであろうことを我々は検事正様にご考慮いただきたく存じ、星広志、及び星礼雄の早期釈放をお願い申し上げます。過去2年近くの間、星ファミリーは日本、アメリカ、その他の国際社会で多くの支援者を得ております。支援者達は動物達が星ファミリーによって救助され、医療ケアを受け、避妊去勢手術を施され、里親を見つけてもらったことに一様に深く感謝しております。このような「幸せな結末」は誰もが望むものであり、日本政府も動物達を幸せにしたいという想いを持っていると信じております。我々は日本を愛しており、日本の震災からの再建と繁栄を願っています。我々は「日本という国は動物のレスキューに全力を尽くし、そのボランティアの人々を援助している」と子供達や世界中に伝えることができるようにしたいと思っております。我々は環境省及び福島県に生き残っている動物達を救助する要請をしてきましたが、今日まで状況は変わっておりません。
星ファミリーの目的はただ動物の命を救うことであると検事正様にはご理解いただきたく存じます。彼らはそれ以上のことは望んでいませんでしたが、彼らが遭遇した犬や猫のために苦労をするという結果に陥っております。飼い主の方々は警戒区域内に行って動物達を救助してくれるように星ファミリーに懇願してきたのです。一旦警戒区域内に入ってしまえば、星ファミリーには出会った動物達を置いて来ることはできませんでした。このような動物救助ボランティアは犯罪者として扱われるべきではありません。星親子は人も動物も両方愛し、動物達が苦しんでいるのを見過ごせない人道主義者です。星広志及び礼雄の釈放のためにどうかお力をお貸しください。家族と動物達は彼らを必要としております。
心よりお礼申し上げます。
ハチ公動物連盟、U.S.A
Sincerely,
[Your name]