{"id":70609,"date":"2016-03-07T13:34:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T13:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=70609"},"modified":"2016-03-07T13:34:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T13:34:14","slug":"no-bliss-in-this-ignorance-the-great-fukushima-nuclear-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/03\/no-bliss-in-this-ignorance-the-great-fukushima-nuclear-cover-up\/","title":{"rendered":"No Bliss in This Ignorance: The Great Fukushima Nuclear Cover-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Japanese were kept in the dark from the start of the Fukushima disaster about high radiation levels and their dangers to health, writes Linda Pentz Gunter. In order to proclaim the Fukushima area ‘safe’, the Government increased exposure limits to twenty times the international norm. Soon, many Fukushima refugees will be forced to return home to endure damaging levels of radiation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IAEA<\/a>

IAEA fact-finding team leader Mike Weightman visits the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on 27 May 2011 to assess tsunami damage. Photo: Greg Webb \/ IAEA Imagebank via Flickr (CC BY-SA).<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Feb 2016 – <\/em>Dr. Tetsunari Iida is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) in Japan.\u00a0As such, one might have expected a recent presentation he gave in the UK within the hallowed halls of the House of Commons, to have focused on Japan\u2019s capacity to replace the electricity once generated by its now mainly shuttered nuclear power plants, with renewable energy.<\/p>\n

But Dr lida\u2019s passionate polemic was not about the power of the sun, but the power of propaganda. March 11, 2011 might have been the day the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. But it was also the\u00a0beginning of the Great Japan Cover-Up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the ISEP website, Iida extols the coming of the Fourth Revolution, following on from those in agriculture, industry and IT.\u00a0\u201cThis fourth revolution will be an energy revolution, a green industrial revolution, and a decentralized network revolution\u201d, he\u00a0writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in person, Iida was most interested in conveying the extent to which the Japanese people were lied to before, during and after the devastating nuclear disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi, precipitated on that same fateful day and by the\u00a0deadly duo of earthquake and tsunami<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShinzo Abe says \u2018everything is under control’\u201d, said Iida,\u00a0speaking at an event<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Nuclear Free Local Authorities, Green Cross, and Nuclear Consulting Group in late January. It was headlined by the former Japan Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, who was at the helm when the triple disasters struck.\u00a0\u201cYes \u2013 under the control of the media!\u201d<\/p>\n

A trial for Tepco like post-war Tokyo Trials<\/strong><\/p>\n

The media may have played the willing government handmaiden in reassuring the public with falsehoods, but in July 2012, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission concluded that the disaster was really no accident but\u00a0\u201cman-made<\/a>\u201c. It came about, the researchers said, as a result of\u00a0\u201ccollusion\u201d\u00a0between the government, regulators and the nuclear industry, in this case, Tepco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be a Tepco trial like the post-war Tokyo Trials\u201d, Iida said, referring to the post World War II war crimes trial in which 28 Japanese were tried, seven of whom were subsequently executed by hanging.<\/p>\n

Hope for such accountability \u2013 without advocating hanging \u2013\u00a0is fleeting at best<\/a>. In 2011, while addressing a conference in Berlin hosted by the Heinrich B\u00f6ll Foundation, I suggested the Tepco officials should be sent to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, (a body the US still conveniently refuses to recognize) to answer for what clearly amounts to crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The remark caused a bit of a stir and earnest questions about the mechanism by which Tepco could be brought there. Needless to say, nothing of the kind ever happened, or is likely to.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Abe\u2019s\u00a0government\u2019s preferred tactic<\/a>\u00a0is to go full out to restart reactors and move everybody back home as soon as possible, as if nothing serious had happened. Just scoop off a little topsoil, cart it away somewhere else and, Abracadabra!\u00a0Everything is clean and safe again<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Normalizing radiation, a policy and now a practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course radiological decontamination is not that easy. Nor is it reliable. It is more like\u00a0\u201cpushing contamination from one spot to the next\u201d, as independent nuclear expert, Mycle Schneider\u00a0describes it<\/a>. And\u00a0radiation does not remain obediently in one place<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mountains and forests that cannot even be vaguely decontaminated, will serve as a permanent source of new contamination, each rainfall washing out radiation and bringing it down from the mountains to the flat lands\u201d, Schneider\u00a0explained<\/a>. Birds move around. Animals eat and excrete radioactive plant life.\u00a0Radiation gets swept out to sea<\/a>. It is a cycle with no end.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, efforts are underway to repopulate stricken areas, particularly in Fukushima Prefecture. It\u2019s a policy, and now a practice, of \u2018normalizing\u2019 radiation standards, to tell people that everything is alright, when clearly, there is no medical or scientific evidence to support this. And it was an approach already firmly and institutionally in place, even on March 11, 2011 as the Fukushima disaster first struck and much of the decision-making was left to individual judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told that evacuating poses a greater risk than radiation,\u201d\u00a0recalls<\/a>\u00a0Hasegawa Kenji, a farmer from Iitate, a village situated 45 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Featured in the Vice documentary\u00a0\u2018Alone In The Zone<\/a>\u2018, Hasegawa\u00a0criticized<\/a>Iitate\u2019s mayor for making what he called a terrible mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when the scientists told the mayor that Iitate was dangerous, he ignored them all. He brought in experts from around the country who preached about how safe it was here. They said we had nothing to worry about. They kept telling us that. Eventually the villagers fell for it and began to relax. And the mayor rejected the idea of evacuating even more. That\u2019s why nobody left, even though the radiation levels were so high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nuclear industry did not tell the public the truth<\/strong><\/p>\n

The confusion surrounding evacuation was so profound that, as\u00a0Zhang\u00a0et al. noted<\/a>\u00a0in a September 11, 2014 study published in the\u00a0International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:\u00a0\u201cUnclear evacuation instructions caused numerous residents to flee to the northwestern zone where radiation levels were even higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

All par for the course, said Iida.\u00a0\u201cI must emphasize, the people in the nuclear industry did not tell the public the truth and keep us informed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next in the \u2018normalization\u2019 process came the decision to raise allowable radiation exposure standards to 20 millisieverts of radiation a year, up from the prior level of 2 mSv a year. The globally-accepted limit for radiation absorption is 1 mSv a year.<\/p>\n

This meant that children were potentially being exposed to the same levels of radiation that are permitted for adult nuclear power plant workers in Europe. Some officials even argued that zones where rates were as high as 100 mSv a year should be considered \u2018safe\u2019.\u00a0Writing on his blog,<\/a>\u00a0anti-pollution New Orleans-based attorney, Stuart Smith,\u00a0observed<\/a>\u00a0wryly:<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of taking corrective measures to protect its people, Japan has simply increased internationally recognized exposure limits. It seems that the priority \u2013 as we\u2019ve seen in so many other industrial disasters in so many other countries \u2013 is to protect industry and limit its liability rather than to ensure the long-term health and well being of the masses. Go figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great repatriation lie<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of this set the perfect stage for the Great Repatriation Lie.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s the big cover-up,\u201d\u00a0Iida told his Westminster audience.\u00a0\u201cPeople are being told it\u2019s quite safe to have a little [radiation] exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, at a recent\u00a0conferences of prefectural governors,<\/a>\u00a0young people in particular were urged to return to Fukushima.\u00a0\u201cIf you come to live with us in Fukushima and work there, that will facilitate its post-disaster reconstruction and help you lead a meaningful life\u201d,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori.<\/p>\n

Young people in Japan, however, appear not to be cooperating. Where evacuees are returning, the majority are senior citizens, who have less to lose\u00a0from a health perspective<\/a>and are more traditionally tied to the land and their ancestral burial grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to die where they were born and not in an unfamiliar place\u201d, said Yoshiko Aoki, an evacuee herself who now works with others, and who also spoke at the London conference.<\/p>\n

All of this impacts revenue from the inhabitants\u2019 tax which constitutes 24.3% of all local tax sources and is collected by both prefectures and municipalities. It is levied on both individuals and corporations but with the bulk of revenue coming from individuals.<\/p>\n

Senior citizens who have retired do not contribute to income tax, so the onus is on governors and mayors to lure as many working people as possible back to their towns and regions in order to effectively finance local public services.<\/p>\n

Radioactive areas are hardest hit economically<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late last year, the\u00a0Asahi Shimbun<\/a>\u00a0looked at tax revenues in the 42 municipalities affected by the triple 2011 disasters of earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima meltdowns.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the areas hardest hit by radiological contamination had suffered the biggest economic blows. Those areas free from radioactive fallout could simply rebuild after the tsunami and earthquake, and had consequently recovered economically, some even to better than pre-3\/11 levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other end of the scale, Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, marked the biggest decreasing rate \u2013 72.9 percent \u2013 in tax revenues for fiscal 2014\u201d, the\u00a0Asahi Shimbunreported<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cAll residents of the town near the crippled nuclear plant remain in evacuation. Although tax payments from companies increased from decontamination work and other public works projects, income taxes paid by residents and fixed asset taxes have declined.\u201d<\/p>\n

To return or not to return is the question of the hour \u2013 or it will be come March 2017, when the Abe government has announced\u00a0it will revoke many evacuation orders<\/a>. At that point, government compensation to evacuees would be lifted, putting them under financial pressure to return. Cue more confusion.<\/p>\n

People are confronted, said Iida, with\u00a0\u201ctwo extreme views, either that it\u2019s very dangerous or quite safe. So it\u2019s very difficult to decide which is the truth and it has been left up to individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those towns that could be declared \u2018safe\u2019 is Tomioka, Japan\u2019s Pripyat, formerly home to close to 16,000 people but now uninhabited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a human experiment, that\u2019s how we feel,\u201d\u00a0said Aoki in London, herself a former Tomioka resident.\u00a0\u201cThe Governor of Fukushima spoke about a safe Fukushima. We want it to become safe, but our thoughts and reality are not one and the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Observes Kyoto University professor of nuclear physics, Koide Hiroaki,\u00a0in the Vice film<\/a>, who has been outspoken for decades against the continued use of nuclear energy:<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you enter a radiation controlled area, you aren\u2019t supposed to drink water, let alone eat anything. The idea that somebody\u201d, he pauses,\u00a0\u201d \u2026 is living in a place like that is unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also on <\/em><\/strong>The Ecologist<\/strong>: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n