Katsutaka Idogawa, the mayor of a town close to the
disabled nuclear reactor Fukushima says the
Japanese government is lying, and that children are at particular risk; here’s
what one source had to say:
“They believe
what the government says, while in reality radiation is still there. This is
killing children. They die of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroiditis…
Lots of kids are extremely exhausted after school; others are simply unable to
attend PE classes. But the authorities still hide the truth from us, and I don’t
know why. Don’t they have children of their own? It hurts so much to know they
can’t protect our children.
“They say
Fukushima Prefecture is safe, and that’s why nobody’s working to evacuate
children, move them elsewhere. We’re not even allowed to discuss this.”
In fact,
Idogawa was concerned about the safety of the plant even before the tsunami
hit:
“I asked
them about potential accidents at a nuclear power plant, pretending I didn’t
know anything about it, and it turned out they were unable to answer many of my
questions,” he said. “Frankly, that’s when it first crossed my mind that their
management didn’t have a contingency plan. It was then that I realized the
facility could be dangerous.”
And if
Idogawa doesn’t trust the government, well, doesn’t he have good reason to?
Because according to the video below, it’s now known that there was 100% core
meltdown of three reactors. Oh, and the radiation released was equivalent to
that of Chernobyl.
But what was the official announcement, hours after the tsunami? That
everything was fine, that all the reactors had been shut down, no problem, no
worries!
Idogawa
trusted his gut, not his government, and so the next day he gave the order: get
the hell out. But did anybody in the government tell him to do that? Nope!
In fact,
the government was lying to the people, even as the company
that ran the plant was lying to the government. Here’s
a quote from The New York Times:
In the
darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know
the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the
possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in
public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday.
In fact,
the calls to evacuate Tokyo have not stopped: here’s
a headline from 14 February 2014:
Japan
Physician: Parents should evacuate children from Tokyo; Danger from Fukushima
radiation — “The threat has seemed to be spreading” — “I’ve seen a lot of
patients badly affected”
Nor
was it just physicians speaking out; here’s
a recent New York Times article:
In
the chaotic, fearful weeks after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, in March
2011, researchers struggled to measure the radioactive fallout unleashed on the
public. Michio Aoyama’s initial findings were more startling than most. As a
senior scientist at the Japanese government’s Meteorological Research
Institute, he said levels of radioactive cesium 137 in the surface water of the
Pacific Ocean could be 10,000 times as high as contamination after Chernobyl,
the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Ok—so now
what’s happening? Here’s
Sunday’s New York Times:
Ever
since they were forced to evacuate during the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear plant three years ago, Kim Eunja and her husband have refused to return
to their hilltop home amid the majestic mountains of this rural village for
fear of radiation.
But
now they say they may have no choice. After a nearly $250 million radiation
cleanup here, the central government this month declared Miyakoji the first
community within a 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant to be reopened to
residents. The decision will bring an end to the monthly stipends from the
plant’s operator that have allowed Ms. Kim to relocate to an apartment in a
city an hour away.
Think the
situation can’t get worse? Well, ponder this New York Times headline:
Unskilled
and Destitute Are Hiring Targets for Fukushima Cleanup
Given that
large amounts of radioactive water is spilling into the Pacific Ocean, isn’t it
time we faced facts? This is not an issue for a local company, not an issue for
one country, it’s a world issue.
And
somehow, somebody has got to take charge of it, globally….
And if that wasn't depressing enough…
