okay, i have to admit that most of my exposure to japanese culture has been through watching anime. but watching the response to the devastating earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown events of 2011 has only reinforced the impression i’ve gotten of japanese society.
it seems as if they live without hope of having control of their own destiny, like they can pretend they are happy people living their lives for themselves…but there is always something (more likely someONE) lurking around the corner, something dark and menacing, ready to show them just how helpless and powerless they really are. what i love about anime is that the protagonists are often driven to be apart from the herd by their passion, special abilities or powers, or by circumstances.
at first, TEPCO’s response to their nuclear crisis was to put all of their resources into lobbying for prosecutorial immunity. and lots and lots of funding for operating the power facilities at fukushima and elsewhere.
as far as dealing with the nuclear incident(s), TEPCO has looked comically inept, flapping their arms and running around in circles, screaming that everything is under control. i’ll never forget watching a TEPCO spokesperson appearing live on japanese tv to reassure everyone that everything was under control and there was no danger of radiation leaking. as he spoke, one of the reactors being shown onscreen behind him exploded – the first of three that have blown up. of course, unaware of what was happening at the facility via a livestreaming camera , the official continued to talk about how there was nothing to worry about, until the newspeople interrupted to inform him of the explosion. he then continued to stay on point until they finally cut away to discuss the explosion. that pretty well sums up the way TEPCO has dealt with this disaster all along.
because of TEPCO’s ineptness at dealing with the greatest industrial accident in world history, people in japan quickly responded on their own initiative with citizens devising radiation monitoring devices and forming networks to share information. journalists and politicians who spoke out and published the findings of the citizens’ research began to kill themselves by tying plastic bags around their heads, often doing quite a bit of violence to themselves. this kept happening until the reports stopped – the same way mexican cartels murdered journalists who reported cartel activity until journalists had no choice but stop writing about it.
meanwhile, back at fukushima, the workers at the plant were desperately trying to contain damage in what was a hopeless cause from the beginning, and magnified exponentially by TEPCO’s obstinant refusal to give up and turn this over to some sort competent oversight.
at least they have admitted that there is no technology yet developed that could deal with this. they don’t even know how bad this is, because the areas most in need of investigation are far too radioactive for humans to approach, and machinery will melt.
the brave workers at fukushima daichi sacrificed themselves for the sake of their families and their fellow citizens. they were finally withdrawn for health reasons. however, they were so radioactive at the time, most decided they were a health risk to their families and loved ones, and volunteered to return to work.
more earthquakes brought more problems, and more workers were needed. how do you recruit people for a lethal job? the solution seems to have been to get the yakuza to kidnap homeless people and force them to work there. well, they have a choice – take the work, or get out. on foot, leave this facility and walk across the abandoned, radioactive wasteland of fukushima prefecture.
but even with all of this dystopian hell they are living through, the good people of japan are standing up to their government’s plan to militarize society by getting entangled in u.s. aggression abroad.
even humble, decent, good people can only tolerate so much before they start pushing back.
(fukushima diary has been providing very accurate information from the beginning, and the journalist behind it was in hiding for quite a while, if not still. he reported on the suicides of his fellow journalists and citizen-scientists, but i’d be suprised if those posts were still up.
as the crisis escalates, so do his skills, so be prepared – he’ll be throwing a lot of figures at you that require a lot of math to make sense out of – definitely more detail than a casual reader would want.)
– rlr
Tokyo: Ultra-Nationalist Demonstrators Overwhelmed by Anti-Racist Counter-Protest
A hard right, ultra-nationalist group known as the Zaitokukai (roughly translated as: “Citizens Against the Special Privileges of Koreans in Japan”) held a meeting of around 100 members in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district, with a demonstration march planned directly after.
Much to the surprise and chagrin of the Zaitokukai, however, they found themselves outnumbered three to one by a huge cluster of counter-protesters holding anti-racist signs and shouting down the right wingers as they marched. Taken together with the momentous J-League punishment of the Urawa Reds for racist fan behavior doled out last week, this clash falls just shy of marking a new trend in Japanese anti-racist sentiments, but it certainly points to an increased dialogue on the topic – possibly in light of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Professional photographer and TokyoDesu friend Kjeld Duits was there to photograph the events as they unfolded and has graciously given us permission to post them here:
(for reference, the side holding the rising sun flags are, unsurprisingly, the Zaitokukai.)
– from revolution news
Thousands brave rain to protest Abe’s plan to reinterpret Constitution
Allowing the government to exercise the right of collective self-defense represents destroying the foundation of constitutionalism and pacifism, concepts well displayed in the Constitution,” said Toshihiro Yamauchi, a professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University.
The protest, held in an outdoor music venue, was organized by “Senso o Sasenai 1,000 nin Iinkai” (1,000 people committee to prevent war), which believes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts will undermine the basic principles of the Constitution.
“Exercising the right to collective self-defense means fighting wars together with the United States,” Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe, one of the founders of the committee, told the demonstrators. “We have to prevent Japan from standing at the forefront of wars along with the United States, which is engaging in warfare across the planet.”
Another member of the group, writer Keiko Ochiai, criticized Abe by making reference to his controversial “under control” remark.
During the selection process for the 2020 Summer Olympics last September, Abe assured the International Olympic Committee that leakage of radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was “under control.”
“I want to throw his words back at the prime minister,” Ochiai said. “ ‘We,’ who are determined to prevent the government from participating in a war, will control ‘you,’ who hope to engage in war.”
– from The Asahi Shimbun
here’s a link to a documentary about antinuclear activists in japanm
Street protests in Japan are considered a rather rare sight. The present protest culture in Japan seems to be not really well-established, compared to other countries. There is merely one exception: Shirōto no ran (‘Amateur’s Revolt’), a group of creative activists, who fight for more freedom in public space and an inventive Do It Yourself-culture in the alternative area of Kōenji, Tokyo.
The activists involved in Shirōto no ran organized the biggest demonstration in Japan since the 1970s, which took place on April 10th, just one month after the earthquake. This protest gathered more than 15.000 people demonstrating against nuclear power. Furthermore, the mobilization of those anti-nuclear protests brings up a lot more subjects of discussion, for instance the work- and living conditions in the nowadays capitalism and globalization.
The documentary Radioactivists wants to explore the Japanese protest culture under the effects of Fukushima and to illuminate the backgrounds of the current movements, protests and critical voices, which keep getting louder, not only in Japan.
RADIOACTIVISTS – Protest in Japan since Fukushima
KPFA reporter in Japan: I’ve learned over 800 people have disappeared from Fukushima plant – ‘May have been killed or died during work’ – ‘Gov’t actually in business with the Yakuza’
KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 3:00 in):
Steve Zeltzer, reporting from Japan: One of the things I learned in Osaka from the president of the day laborers is that many of the day laborers being brought into the plant, they’re not being registered and they’re disappearing. There were over 800 day laborers who have disappeared from contact by the union, which means they may have been killed or died during work.
KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 11, 2014 (at 4:00 in):
Zeltzer: The government now is in control of Tepco, which runs Fukushima plant, and they’ve allowed the use contract workers, through the Yakuza. So the government is actually in business with the Yakuza, allowing the Yakuza to bring in these workers, and we heard a report that many are not even being registered when they go into the plant so they’re not entitled to health care and also when they get sick and over-doses you can’t tell because they haven’t been registered, these are the contract workers at the plant. […] These workers are basically being used as cannon fodder. Some of them are not only day laborers but also immigrant workers who are being used as well to clean up the plant.
The Yakuza rule in Japan …
– Meet The Minimum-Wage Homeless Who Are ‘Cleaning Up’ Fukushima (For The Yakuza)
– Atomic Mafia: Yakuza ‘Cleans Up’ Fukushima, Neglects Basic Workers’ Rights
– Fukushima: The Yakuza Crime Syndicate & The Corrupt IAEA Nuclear Watch Dogs (Video)
– reposted from the infinite unkown
Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan
Documents Say Navy Knew
A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago.
If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy.
The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode.
In the midst of a snow storm, deck hands were enveloped in a warm cloud that came with a metallic taste. Sailors testify that the Reagan’s 5,500-member crew was told over the ship’s intercom to avoid drinking or bathing in desalinized water drawn from a radioactive sea. The huge carrier quickly ceased its humanitarian efforts and sailed 100 miles out to sea, where newly published internal Navy communications confirm it was still taking serious doses of radioactive fallout.
Scores of sailors from the Reagan and other ships stationed nearby now report a wide range of ailments reminiscent of those documented downwind from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific and Nevada, and at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. A similar metallic taste was described by pilots who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and by central Pennsylvanians downwind of Three Mile Island. Some parts of the atolls downwind from the South Pacific bomb tests remain uninhabitable six decades later.
Among the 81 plaintiffs in the federal class action are a sailor who was pregnant during the mission, and her “Baby A.G.,” born that October with multiple genetic mutations.
Officially, Tepco and the Navy say the dose levels were safe.
– excellent reporting from CounterPunch magazine
