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Participants in a nationwide walking pilgrimage protesting Japan’s dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean make their way to the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Sept. 7. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Participants in a nationwide walking pilgrimage protesting Japan’s dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean departed from Seoul Station on Thursday and marched to the Japanese Embassy in the Korean capital.

Participants in a nationwide walking pilgrimage protesting Japan’s dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean stop outside the former Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Sept. 7 where they hold a prayer meeting. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

The group, comprising various Christian groups including the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Association of Korean Churches Opposing Ocean Dumping of Radioactive Fukushima Wastewater, the Ecology Community Movement Center, kicked off its pilgrimage on July 17 in Busan and marched its way through Gwangju, Daegu, North and South Jeolla provinces, South Chungcheong Province, Daejeon, Gangwon, central Gyeonggi and Seoul. In all corners of the nation, participants prayed that the integrity of creation be upheld.

Outside the former Japanese Embassy in Seoul, the group held a prayer meeting during which they cried out, “The sea is not your dumping grounds but life itself! Save our seas!”

Participants in a nationwide walking pilgrimage protesting Japan’s dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean walk past the Statue of Peace in Seoul on Sept. 7. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Participants in a nationwide walking pilgrimage protesting Japan’s dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean make their way to the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Sept. 7. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

By Kang Chang-kwang, senior staff writer

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