Fuji TV's Sunday afternoon documentary series "The Non-Fiction" usually covers individuals over long periods of time. "The Old Man and Radiation," aired in two parts on Jan. 15 and 22, was about Toshihiko Kawamoto, an 80-year-old former carpenter who moved from Tokyo to the wilds of Fukushima Prefecture about 12 years ago. A video crew started visiting him in the spring of 2010 for the purpose of recording his self-sufficient existence during the course of a year. On the show's website, the producer says he was initially less interested in Kawamoto than in the passing of the seasons, which is just as well because Kawamoto was reluctant to talk about himself. The documentary would be observational, a view of a life lived in harmony with nature, and the fact that the subject was in his twilight years would add a bittersweet flavor to the production.
But as crew and subject got to know each other, Kawamoto's history came to the fore, and the tone of the coverage shifted from the impressionistic to the specific. Disillusioned by his experience as a teenage soldier in World War II, Kawamoto devoted his life to "working for people" rather than abstractions such as the Emperor, and spent the 1950s telling stories to children with the aid of illustrated filmstrips (gento). When he married, he started his own carpentry workshop, but never abandoned his philanthropic mission. After his children were grown, his wife left him, saying she could no longer remain with a "saint."
Kawamoto lives alone with his dog, and despite the everyday challenges — growing his own food, making do without indoor plumbing, collecting and chopping his own fuel — and despite the fact that several years ago someone from a so-called nonprofit organization took advantage of his charitable proclivities and disappeared with his life savings, he is happy with his life.