Hibakusha and Ogres – part1

Tokyo, September 30th

Done deal

Women and Children are back in Minami Soma. Their long, treacherous and stressful odyssey is now over. They have all been waiting for this wonderful moment. They can now return to a normal life and prosper in the new “Fukushima era “. A great victory for Fukushima ken and Minami Soma Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai. You may remember him as the man that was begging for help in the wake of the Fukushima triple disaster on youtube, that went viral in the matter of days. His beautiful city was part engulfed by the tsunami that wreak havoc on the North Eastern coastal area of Japan, on March 11th. Following the tragedy, 50 000 of 71 000 evacuated to various shelters across the prefecture, abandoning their livelihood, having to let their pets die of starvation, the land they owned for generations and the grave of their ancestors.

Fukushima is rich, lush and is gifted with an incredible scenery that is best described by Ruiko Muto, a native of Fukushima and a key member of Hairo Action Fukushima , in a speech given in Meiji park during a rally that gathered an unprecedented turn out of 60 000+ people on September 19th 2011.

“I want to tell you all that Fukushima is a very beautiful place. To the east, the Hamadori region gazes out across the deep blue Pacific Ocean. The Nakadori region is a treasure-house of fruits: peaches, pears and apples. Golden rice stalks droop their heads on the Aizu plain, around Lake Inawashiro and Mount Bandai, while the far side is framed by deep mountain ranges. This land, with its blue mountains and clear water, is our homeland” explains Ruiko.

In July, newly appointed Environment Minister and head of the Fukushima reconstruction, Goshi Hosono announced that, to the surprise of any person with common sense, temporary shelters would close and would proceed in returning evacuees safely to their livelihood (minus the pets, of course). Five municipalities are, from September 30th, officially back, including Minami Soma, parts of Naraha, Kawauchi, and Tamura; 53 000 people in all. To “sell it” to the evacuees, deceitful tactics, help from the Nuclear Lobby, false information, lies and local governmental corruption were used at will without remorse. All is safe; schools have been wiped clean of radiation, soil have been removed and all the food made in the prefecture poses ABSOLUTELY NO RISKS. Good to hear that!!! I am sure all those worried parents can relax now and look at their kids in the eyes when they tell them it is safe to eat local products. Parents are relieved to find their old jobs back and can prevail with their financial pressure to pay mortgages etc … Kids wear dosimeters to school. Nothing to worry about!

Good law abiding citizens tamed down by the sweet and comforting voice of Dr Shuinichi Yamashita (Dr 100 mSv/y) … you know, the sociopath that had the audacity to claim in front of dozens of credulous parents that “radiation has no effect on people who are smiling”. He knows; “because it was tested on animals.” To this day, I am still googling “smiling animals under radiation exposure” and cannot come up with anything. Can anyone help me ?

I hope “Damashita” (another nickname given to him by the residents of Fukushima) is right. Because in reality, these children might be indeed exposed to this “100 mSv/y”  in less than a year, since they have been exposed to incredible amounts of radiation in the 6 months post 3/11 and counting.

On with the experiment

Upon the decision of Goshi Hosono‘s to bring those innocent people back to the 30km to 20km evacuation zone is based solely on an economic stand. I call it “borderline human collateral or simply a radiation experiment on the people of Japan. A “study” on the 2 millions residents of the prefecture will be conducted over 30 years. What will they do in half that time, when they realize the grave mistake they’ve committed ? They will bury the data !

2 French NGOs, CRIIRAD and ACRO are studying 15 children in Fukushima since June 2011. Their studies resulted in a quick and simple diagnosis 2 months into it. One of their scientists declared while measuring radiation in one of the school in Fukushima city ;

“If I had my kids in this school, I would take them off right away. These are very dangerous levels”

Never mind that the soil in these five towns measure sky high levels of radiation. Given the actual measurements, this is an estimate, per year, of what the returning evacuees could be subject to;

According to the government, if the radiation level exceeds 3 microsieverts/hour, the annual cumulative radiation exposure may exceed 20 millisieverts. So as of now ;

Minami Soma City: 0.2 to 5.2 millisieverts

Tamura City: 0.2 to 4.0 microSievert /h
Kawauchi-mura: 0.2 to 4.7 microSievert /h
Hirono-machi: 0.3 to 1.8 microSievert /h
Naraha-machi: 0.6 to 1.6 microSievert /h

So, it is safe to assume that each of these 5 municipalities may have annual cumulative radiation levels of:

Minami Soma City: 0.88 to 48.18 millisieverts
Tamura City: 1.75 to 35.04 millisieverts
Kawauchi-mura: 1.75 to 41.17 millisieverts
Hirono-machi: 2.63 to 15.77 millisieverts
Naraha-machi: 5.26 to 14.02 millisieverts

add Internal exposure (including food) + what they already were exposed to, since 3/11

Never mind that the schools have very high readings (see the upcoming Evacuate Fukushima video part2). Well, most of the schools have been “decontaminated” by parents and teachers, and children in some cases …. armed with pressure jets and soap !!! As if these brave efforts would actually remove plutonium, Strontium etc …

Never mind that it is logically IMPOSSIBLE to decontaminate five municipalities in their entirety. Even if some schools are declared relatively safe, once the children return home, they will be dodging an invisible but very real danger, everyday.

Never mind that contaminated soil have been removed, but in most parts, simply buried in the very same schoolyards the children now have the satisfaction to play in. Or sometimes, it is fenced off in a dark corner of the playground or even simply covered with blue bashes, “secured” to the floor with giant rocks. The government cannot dispose of it yet … it is radioactive waste.

Never mind that the still very unstable reactors only 20km away now, keep on spewing enormous quantities of radiation in the atmosphere and with capricious winds, keep on redepositing radiation on areas they spent days cleaning. Strong aftershocks have been recorded by the dozens since the start of September, furthermore increasing the danger  and risks of another accident at the Daiichi nuclear Power Plant.

Never mind that these children will be, once again, subject to discrimination and harassment directed at the kids that will want to play safe and restrain from eating and drinking contaminated products from their own prefecture. And you know they will serve them Cesium 137 for lunch, as they have done it so far. Anyway, no choice since vicious teachers force radioactive food down their throat.

Never mind that kids themselves begged the house of representatives in Tokyo to evacuate them, their friends and their parents, away from this nightmare. A desperate call for help that was never answered.

Never mind the acute stress that these children are going through. It is an adult world, after all. They KNOW what is going on and the danger they risk. They are not stupid. They hear it from the adults.  They hear it everyday, from their parents at the dinner table, from their friends at school, from the TV, from the restrictions imposed on them as to not play outside for more than 2 hours or always wear masks. A constant state of fear that they will have to endure everyday.

Goshi Hosono and the rest of his incompetent, careless, greedy, corrupt, selfish and ignorant Diet members are not thinking about the citizens. Fukushushima must be revived … at all costs … even if it is human costs. They do not want to admit that there is no safe level in radiation exposure. At first I believed they did not know … but given the “uncomfortable” close ties to IAEA and all parties involved, they known exactly what they are doing. And it is all about money!

Ruiko added with a sad, tired and desperate tone in her voice;

“During the past half year, the following things have become clear:

The truth of the situation is being hidden

The country is not protecting its citizens

The accident is still not over

The inhabitants of Fukushima prefecture are being made the subjects of a nuclear experiment

A huge volume of radioactive waste remains

Despite the enormous price that we have already paid, there are powers that are intent on driving nuclear power production forward

We have been discarded

We heave deep sighs of exhaustion and overwhelming sadness. But the words that spill from our mouths are “Don’t you dare treat us like fools!”, “Don’t snatch away our lives!”

Radiation, invisible to the eye, descended on this landscape, and we too became “HIBAKUSHA”.”

“Hibakusha” are the victims of the atomic bombings of 1945.  The use of this term for the victims of the nuclear accident last March makes this one of the most emotionally and politically charged sentences of the speech. The moral position of the hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is unassailable; no Japanese politician would dare be seen to belittle their suffering. Placing the victims of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident in the same category, however, emphasises that the lack of action by the government and TEPCO is just as inexcusable.

To be continued in “Hibakusha And Ogres – part 2”

Special thanks to Emma Parker for her spot-on translation of Ruiko Muto san’s speech.

by Nelson – Live from LALALAND