From Asahi Shinbun (newspaper) Digital: Madarame is resigning end of March

"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.” -Mahatma Gandhi

This is a translation of news from Asahi Shinbun (newspaper) Digital posted on 3/12/2012 where Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission states he has the intention of resigning his position at the end of March.

内閣府の原子力安全委員会の班目（まだらめ）春樹委員長は１２日、「精神的にも少しやや限界かなと思っている。どこかで区切りをつけたい」と述べ、４月１日に予定される原子力規制庁の発足が遅れた場合でも、３月末で退任する意向を明らかにした。

Chairman of the Nuclear safety Comission, Haruki Madarame stated on the 12th that "I think I am reaching my mental limit. I would like to put things to an end at some point,"  he said, even if the launching of the planned Atomic Energy Regulation Agency on the April 1st is delayed, he clarified that he was intending to resign at the end of March.

　野田政権は、３月末に原子力安全委を廃止して、原発の安全規制を担う「原子力規制庁」を環境省内に新設することをめざしている。しかし、年度内の法案成立は難しい状況で、４月以降も原子力安全委が存続する可能性が高い。

The Noda administration is aiming to abolish the Nuclear safety Commission at the end of March and newly establish the Atomic Energy Regulation Agency within the Ministry of Environment. However, the passing of this law within this fiscal year will be very difficult, and there is a very high possibility that the Nuclear safety Commission will continue to exist after April.

　班目氏は１２日の会見で、原発の耐震指針などの見直しの作業が３月末で終わる点も挙げて退任する考えを説明。一方で、「委員の人事は国会の同意が必要で重いもの」として、今後、ほかの委員らと相談したうえで決めるという。

At the interview on the 12th, Madarame explained his resignation by pointing out  that the review of the nuclear power plant guidelines for resistance to earthquakes will be finished at the end of March. On the one hand, "Committee members' human resource changes require congress's approval and are serious," and I will decide after I discuss with other committee members.

According to Wikipedia, Madarame became an assistant professor of the atomic energy engineering research institution from August of 1989. I assume he has been involved with the nuclear industry as a staunch nuclear power supporter since then. It has been only a year since the accident. It must be very convenient for him, after over 20 years of helping Japan get into this situation (and benefiting monetarily in the process), to simply be able to say that he would, "like to put things to an end at some point." There are many, many of us who would like to say the same thing but cannot. Everyday we continue to have to deal with the mess he helped create, and watch with dread at the leaning reactor building four, knowing that we are on the edge of things getting much, much worse.

There are people in Fukushima who have lost everything due to this accident. They are still in the middle of this tragedy and will continue to suffer for the foreseeable future with minimal government support. I have a difficult time imagining how Madarame's "mental limit" could come anywhere close to their's. All the years he tricked rural towns to accept nuclear plants with empty promises of safe, cheap energy and all the jobs that would follow . . . in the end, his risk when something went wrong was nothing compared to the risk faced by those he tricked.

It reminds me from a line from a pop-culture film, "with great power comes great responsibility." People from the nuclear industry like Madarame have not risen up to assume the great responsibility that came with nuclear power. That industry failed the Japanese people. His leaving now just adds on to that failure to assume a responsibility equal to the power they received over all those years. However, perhaps such a power is too much for any one person (or group of people) to bear, and Japan should have understood that before trusting charlatans like Madarame.

If you would like to read the original Japanese news article, here is the URL:
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0312/TKY201203120543.html

Numayu Blog is back

Numayu's blog appears to be back now. However, I will not feel fully relieved until I see her on another documentary or news footage.

The address is the same as before:
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kmasa924/4029007.html

Sign the Fukushima Declaration

For those people who can use your Japanese address, please sign and support us!! We got to ACT now!!


親愛なる日本の友人たちへ 

福島県知事は原子力に頼らず再生可能エネルギーを推進することを誓う、歴史的な「ふくしま宣言」を発信しました。私たちは迅速に行動を起こし、その他すべての都道府県もこのすばらしい先例に倣うよう働きかけることができます。 

史上最悪の災害に打ちひしがれた日本を、原子力に頼らず再生可能なエネルギーで発電するクリーンエネルギー社会へと導き、他国の模範とするチャンスがあります。各都道府県の脱原発社会を支持する声がどれだけ強いものか示すことにより、それぞれの知事に「ふくしま宣言」と同じ公約を誓い、原子力に脅かされることのない国にしていくよう働きかけていくことができます。 

力を合わせれば、世論は聞き届けられます。「ふくしま宣言」への支持を表明する個人的な誓いにご署名お願いします。さらに同じ都道府県に住むお知り合いの方々にも転送してください！私たちの地図をご覧いただければ、各都道府県から何名の方が署名したかわかります。多くの方からのご署名を頂きましたら私たちはメディアにも大々的に取り上げるよう働きかけ、残る４６都道府県の知事にも未来の社会にとって極めて重要な福島県知事の立場を公言するよう訴えてまいります： 

http://www.avaaz.org/jp/fukushima_declaration_pledge_mf/?tta

世論によると、日本人の大多数が脱原発社会を支持しています。しかしこれまでのところ、断固たる行動で世論にこたえ公約を宣言したのは佐藤知事だけです。この危機的状況の中、日本は新の指導力を発揮できるリーダーを必要としていますが、それを実現できるのは世論の圧力のみです。個人的な誓いに署名し、佐藤知事のような勇気ある知事への支持を表明し、未だに判断をしぶる他の知事に圧力をかけましょう。 

どれだけ多くの人々が原発再稼働を中止するよう野田首相に訴えたでしょう。しかし首相は聞く耳を持たず、強力な原子力ロビー側についたのです。私たちが始めたこの取り組みを終わらせましょう。すべての都道府県において、どれだけ多くの人々が脱原発社会を支持しているのかはっきりと示すことができれば、各知事たちに「ふくしま宣言」に続くよう働きかけることができます。そしてついには野田首相が原子力の大害から私たちを解き放ち、再生可能なエネルギー革命に弾みをつけることができるのです。 

今すぐ個人的な誓いにご署名をお願いします。そして日本全国で私たちの訴えが耳をつんざかんばかりになるまで、メールやツイッター、その他ソーシャルネットワークも利用し広めてください： 

http://www.avaaz.org/jp/fukushima_declaration_pledge_mf/?tta

日本における市民の力は日に日に強さを増しています。私たちの訴えに応じるすべての知事やリーダーたちと共に、この国の新たな道を切り開いていくのです。希望を捨てず断固たる態度で、私たちと子孫のため、安全なエネルギー社会への転換、そして新たな民主主義の推進に臨みましょう。 

希望と決意を胸に 

ジェイミ、キア、アレックス、モーガン、ダリア、Avaazチーム一同 

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詳細情報：


中國新聞「ふくしま宣言、全世界へ　知事「再生エネ推進」」：
http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Sp201203120062.html 

信濃毎日新聞 「ふくしま宣言　誓いを全力で支えよう」：
http://www.shinmai.co.jp/news/20120313/KT120312ETI090004000.html 

ウォールストリートジャーナル日本版「震災から1年：経産省を占拠せよ」：
http://jp.wsj.com/Japan/node_406615 

朝日新聞 「将来的に「脱原発」賛成７４％　朝日新聞世論調査」:
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0613/TKY201106130401.html

AVAAZについて

Avaaz.orgは世界の人々の声や価値観が政策決定に反映されるよう世界規模でキャンペーンを行う非営利団体です（Avaazは様々な言語で「声」を意味します）。Avaazは政府や企業から一切資金援助を受けず、ロンドン、リオデジャネイロ、ニューヨーク、パリ、ワシントンDC、そしてジュネーブを拠点とするスタッフにより運営されています。 +1 888 922 8229 


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English:


Dear Friends Across Japan, 

Fukushima’s governor has just announced a historic declaration vowing to power his prefecture with renewables rather than nuclear power. If we act fast we can press all of our governors to follow this inspiring lead. 

From the ashes of one the world’s worst disasters, we have a chance to usher in a clean energy era for Japan and set an example for other countries. By showing how much support there is for a nuclear-free future in every prefecture, we can push other governors, one by one, to make the same public pledge, ridding our country of the nuclear menace. 

Together we can make public opinion count. Sign the personal pledge supporting the Fukushima Declaration, then send to others where you live! Our map will show how many people have signed from each prefecture, and once enough of us have pledged, we will create a media storm to push the remaining 46 governors to take this vital stand: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fukushima_declaration_pledge_mf/?tta

Public opinion polls show that the majority of Japanese support a nuclear-free future -- but so far only governor Sato has taken a public pledge to respond with decisive action. During this time of crisis Japan needs real leadership, but only public pressure can make this happen. Let’s support courageous governors like Governor Sato by signing a personal pledge, and use it to pressure those who are dragging their feet. 

So many of us have appealed to PM Noda to call off the nuclear restart, but he’s simply refusing to listen, instead siding with the powerful nuclear lobby. Let’s finish what we’ve started -- if we can clearly show how much support for a nuclear-free future there is in every prefecture, we can get our governors to follow -- and finally force Noda’s hand to free us of the nuclear curse and kick start a renewable energy revolution. 

Sign this personal pledge now -- and spread it through email, twitter and other social networks until our call becomes deafening across the whole country: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fukushima_declaration_pledge_mf/?tta

Citizen power in Japan is getting stronger by the week. With every leader who responds to our call, we are forging a new path for our country. Let’s remain firm in our hope and resolve and craft both a safe energy future and a renewed democracy for ourselves and our children. 

With hope and determination, 

Jamie, Kya, Alex, Morgan, Dalia and the whole Avaaz team 

The evacuation continues . . . slowly

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -Sir John Dalberg-Acton

One of my friends in Japan decided to move to the Southwest part of Japan with her child. However, her husband will have to remain at their place (Kanto area) where they bought their condo a couple of years ago. Like us, they also have to pay double the living expenses because they cannot sell their old, contaminated place. She said it took a year for them to decide. I do not blame them. While the government and mainstream media have been trying very hard to downplay the whole Fukushima issue for a year now, the citizens have had to decide what is best for them and their families even with limited information. They do this without any support from the government or TEPCO.

It is very frustrating that innocent, regular people are the ones ending up suffering the most and end up having to  make such difficult decisions, while those with direct conflicts of interests continue to stay in power, continue to lie, and continue to push an industry that has done more harm than good for Japan.

If we do not raise our voices, those people in power will continue to make decisions that prioritize their wallets over the safety of the public.

I am tired of the health of myself and my family being put in danger by those charged with ensuring its safety, and I am tired of being lied to. My ability to change things may be limited, but with everyone else's support, I know we can make our world a better place. However, to do so we must stop the money that is putting these type of criminals in power. That is why we must stop nuclear power. Without nuclear power, there are no more corrupt nuclear regulators and no more nuclear industry bought politicians. Certainly this will not fix the overall system, but it will lower the stakes of living with a broken one.

What Happened to Numayu'?

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." - Oscar Wilde


I was not able to view "Numayu's Blog" the other night which I have been sharing the posts of by translating her messages into English. An error message showed up as, "The blog you are searching for cannot be found. The blog has been deleted or the URL might be incorrect." The URL for Numayu's blog is below (although the error message will show up in Japanese):

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kmasa924

And then, today, I received the following message through a Facebook message:

はじめまして。
ぬまゆさんのブログですが、最後のメッセージは

＞追 悼 ・・・。 わたくしは、明日の朝早く、 南相馬市の 海へ行きます。 お花を手向けに ・・・。 みなさま、 これまで、ありがとうございました。 みなさまの ご健康を お祈りし...

以上の文章を何とか見つけることができました。

ブログは削除されたのでしょうね、残念ですが。
とりあえず、ご連絡いたします。

Nice to meet you.

Regarding Numayu's Blog, the last message was:

>Remembrance・・・Early tomorrow morning, I am going to the ocean in Minamisoma. To take flowers・・・Thank you very much for everything. I wish you all good health・・・

I was somehow able to find that message above.

I think the blog was closed down, unfortunately.

Just to let you know. 

At least in Japanese, that sounds ambiguous, at the least. It could be taken as if she was planning to commit suicide by throwing herself into the ocean. Consequently, there is a lot of concern for her well being right now.

Among the Japanese internet community, there is a very large range in people's opinions of Numayu, Emiko Numauchi.

Some people say that, 

• "Numayu is insane and just is wanting to get as much attention as possible." 
• "If she thinks her symptoms are from radiation then why doesn't she go to see a doctor to get checked? I think she is just faking it." 
• "She is lying, because I live in her neighborhood, but no one else is getting such symptoms."etc.

There are also people that support her and encourage her. They want her to keep doing what she was doing.

However, all of these comments were made anonymously. It is impossible to verify where they really are coming from or whether they contain any truth. I really cannot think of a reason to weight anonymous comments over the comments where the owner's identity is known. Surely if someone really wanted to vouch their area was perfectly safe, they could come out and let us know who they were in a similar manner that Numayu did (and without the personal risk that Numayu faced with her coming out . . .).

It sounded like she was getting very nasty comments on her blog day after day. It is probably safe to say that she had made many enemies and had exposed herself to being ostracized by her neighbors by revealing her identity, which makes her disappearance from the web even more concerning.  

I will continue to try to gather information on the situation and will post any updates here.

Here is another blog (Fukushima diary) that has posted about Numayu's blog being shut down:
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/numayus-blog-shut-down/

Someone has actually put up a mirror of her site using the RSS feed:
http://numayu.blog.fc2.com/

Then they fight you . . .

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi


After this blog url was released by KVUE Austin in connection to an interview they did with us, a pro-nuke comment was made on my "A reflection of purpose" post. I find such a comment made on that particular post to be insensitive and disrespectful to those currently struggling back in Japan, like my friend I spoke about in that post. 

Accordingly, I am deleting that comment from its current location and responding to the full comment (presented in its entirety, but broken out for easy response) in this post.

Here is my response:


First off let me say I am impressed with how most Japanese citizens overcome disaster both by nature and man.
We are most able to overcome those disasters from nature, and most bitter of the  cruel disasters caused by man (e.g. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and now Fukushima . . .). Furthermore, I find your comment inappropriate here as it is far too soon to even mention overcoming the ongoing Fukushima crisis. People are currently suffering from this disaster as I type this post.

In the US there're no deaths directly related to nuclear power plant radiation. 
Can you please supply the research done to support this statement? That seems like a very strong statement. For instance, I was unaware that we knew every cause for every occurrence of cancer in the U.S. and, which would be required in order to be able to state that no deaths have ever been caused by nuclear power related activities in the U.S. It is astounding if we are that technologically advanced to prove this statement you are making. Please provide evidence that your statement has, indeed, been proven.

In Japan two people died in the Tokaimura accident and no one died from radiation at Fukushi.
It is spelled  "Fukushima" (you might as well at least learn the proper name of the place you are about to misrepresent) and, again, to have a meaningful discussion, you need to provide actual sources supporting your statements or be more concise on exactly what you are trying to state. The current limitation on our ability to actually assess the impact of radioactive contamination does not mean no such impact exists. There was a time when the impacts of tobacco and asbestos were also not fully understood. That does not mean, even back then, that tobacco and asbestos were not hurting and killing people.

At Chernobyl the IAEA and WHO attributed 56 direct deaths and estimated that there may be 4,000 more cancer deaths among the approximately 600,000 highly exposed people. 
Implying that a WHO report about the impact of radiation is some how separate from the IAEA is misleading. Since 1959, the IAEA has been given authority over everything the WHO publishes about radiation health impacts. No other health related reports from the WHO require such oversight from a separate body. The IAEA was formed to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution  of atomic energy." There are studies that put the death toll at closer to a million, by a group of people whose mission happens NOT to be "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy." Guess which one I tend to trust more?

Japan did a wonderful job of rebuilding Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they are two very robust cities today. 
That is an interesting statement . . . I have a very close friend from Hiroshima. Let me ask her if she is thankful for the bombing so that Japan could rebuild it into a very robust city. And I suppose all that suffering that all those people went through was negligible because the overall city did not cease to exist. Those Japanese should just shut-up and take Fukushima like they did Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right? Furthermore, why not compare apples with apples? How robust do you consider the city of Prypiat to be these days?

Candles kill more than nuclear power plant radiation.
Again, this is my site, so I think I can set the standards for scientific fact. Proof please . . . Frivolous, unsupported statements will be treated as such here. "The sky is purple." See, anyone can make such statement, but it does little to advance public discourse on the matter, now does it?

Nuclear power has a very strong safety record, 
Really, I have yet had to evacuate due to any other power sources yet. Perhaps you could provide some credible supporting evidence that includes the ongoing Fukushima accident? And what a place to champion the safety of
nuclear power (especially considering where you had originally posted your comment). . . Do you champion the safety of air travel at the funerals of plane crash victims, as well? Do you think anyone in Japan believes such a statement when over 10% of their reactors have had catastrophic failure and now risk the very existence of its largest city?

what power source would you use to replace it? 
Hmm . . . after losing my home and livelihood, little over a year ago, I would have to say ANYTHING. Especially in earthquake prone areas like Japan. In fact, I have heard people impacted by Fukushima say that they would have been better off completely without electricity than with nuclear power. How is that for the "power source of the future" for you? And don't pretend nuclear power needs much replacing at a mere 13% world share. Yes, 60 years of effort and BILLIONS  invested in this technology, and most of the power it generates could be negated by just a little smarter use of electricity. If Japan (an already very power efficient nation) can go from over 30% to less than 1% nuclear in less than a year, I really think the rest of the world will have little issue.

Should the automobile be condemned because more than 40K are killed by them each year?
Hmm . . . how is an automobile different from a nuclear reactor . . .

• No one is claiming the automobile is completely safe (and in inappropriate forums).
• Individuals, themselves, do have some degree of control over automobile safety.
• Individuals have the choice whether or not to use an automobile.
• Automobiles do not blow-up when the power goes out.
• Automobiles do not cause large areas of land to become uninhabitable for thousands of years.
• Automobiles are usually not operated for 60 years at a time.
• Automobiles do not leave behind waste that must be safely stored for thousands of years.
• Automobiles do not require government subsidies to build (unless you are GM).
• Automobiles require liability insurance so that if you cause damages to someone else, that individual will be compensated.
• The automobile industry is extremely competitive which results in higher industry transparency and less regulator capture.

You know, I probably could think of a million more reasons why cars are different than nuclear reactors, which probably just means your analogy is not very good. Why don't we just leave it at that.

Green energy doesn’t fair well at all when compared to nuclear
Again, either provide support for your statement or limit its scope. What do you mean by "fair well?" If you are in Texas with extended droughts, I would think solar would fair much better than a water hogging nuclear plant. How cheap is nuclear power when you have to pay for the water? Oh, if you are about to say "base loading," nuclear is a horrible base loading technology for renewable sources (like wind, which Texas gets more of its electricity from than nuclear), which require sources capable of a wide range of electrical output (like natural gas, another thing Texas is more abundant in than water). 

In conclusion, just because you think nuclear is superior compared to everything else and in all situations, does not make it so. In fact, NO technology is 100% appropriate EVERYWHERE, so your underlying argument seems more like theology than something that can actually be debated. 

However, I am all for open debate, so I do invite you to respond. However, there are going to be some ground rules.

First, please provide us an introduction of yourself. From the blog, you already know a lot about me, my husband, and son. You know our real names, what we look like, what city we live in, etc. . . I know nothing about you. That is not a very level playing field for a debate, now is it? If you want to continue with this discussion, please first provide relatively the same amount of information we have already provided you. Please include your reason for being interested in this matter and specifically why you are interested in the ongoing disaster in Fukushima.

You chose this very personal forum to start this debate and began it in a very inappropriate post (Exactly one year after 311: A reflection of purpose). Now is the time for you to unveil yourself so that we can discuss this fairly and openly. I hope you do have the courage to finish what you have started.

In fact, I invite the entire pro-nuke industry to come here to debate with me, on the condition that you do so openly and let us know the same level of information we have already let you know. I have nothing to hide. I care about this issue dearly because I have people I care very strongly for that are currently living in a perilous situation. I want to help them, and I think the nuclear industry is creating an economic incentive for the Japanese government to minimize the issue and not provide those people the level of protection they deserve.

Local Television Interview

We were interviewed by KVUE Austin, and shared our story about evacuating from our house in Japan. Here is the URL of the broadcast and associated online article:

http://www.kvue.com/home/A-UT-couple-living-in-Japan-a-year-ago-relives-the-difficult-decision-to-leave-142264355.html

We really do appreciate KVUE taking the time to help get our story out.

Exactly one year after 311: A reflection of purpose

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." -Julius Robert Oppenheimer  

When the winds shifted South, following Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant's 3rd reactor's violent explosion, we left our home in Japan with nothing but ourselves and broken dreams. It has been almost a year since then. Without ever going back to our precious community and home of friends and family.

I recently had the chance to chat with my friend in Japan in the middle of the night U.S. time. I really wanted to chat with her, but at the same time, I hesitated to send her a message at first. Inside me, I had feelings of guilt for evacuating Japan and leaving everyone behind. I often dreamt about family, friends, and neighbors in Japan blaming us for leaving them and excommunicating us.

In the back of my mind I was thinking, "what if my friend had feelings of betrayal and anger towards me?" I was scared, but I took the plunge and sent her a message.

It started with a regular conversation, but before very long, she sent me something like the following this, "Anyway, everything has changed since then. Last time you sent me an e-mail, I had something I wanted to tell you, but it's a little touchy issue, so I am sorry if you do not want to hear it right now." It was startling to read at first, and I assumed that this was my nightmares of rejection playing out into reality. It took a moment for me to think straight, but I decided that I would listen and accept whatever she wanted to tell me, even if it was that I had betrayed her.

She then told me that after the nuclear power plant accident, she became very nervous about nuclear power and radiation. She was confused what she should do, what she wanted to do, and really suffered both psychologically and physically, even to the point of becoming ill.

And, she had been reading my blog . . .

She continued, "You guys evacuated, but you did not finish there. You guys are still caring about Japan and the people living here. I am grateful for your strong hearts and feel like you guys saved me."

I could not help crying. She is the one currently living in a situation we fled from. I felt that her words had made all our sacrifices worth it. The house, my husband's Tokyo job, our entire life there . . . her words made it alright to lose that. Those were casualties in a war we were fighting, fighting for people like her. We had not left them behind. We had left to gather reinforcements. As long as she understood this, any hardship would be bearable. She was the one going through the greater hardship, and she knew we were doing what we could to help her. She knew that we had not abandoned her.

After receiving such a message from her, my resolve to do as much as it would take to decrease usage of worldwide nuclear power became stronger than ever. Her words would carry me through any challenges I would face. If closing down just one reactor made her suffering less in vain or reduced the Japanese government's incentive to minimize the ongoing disaster by just one less lie, I would use whatever energy left I had on that. I would raise awareness on the ongoing nightmare from Fukushima any way I could. I would be the nail that stuck out the most and would not fear the hammer.

When I was living in Japan, I always was worried about how other people thought of me. In part of me, there always was a feeling of wanting to be accepted and not being disliked by others. So, I was trying to meet people's expectation, not showing who I really was, and not saying what I really wanted to say. All my energy went into "fitting in."

However, after the Fukushima accident, my perspective on life changed drastically. It was a wake up call for me. I realized how precious normal, ordinary life was and that you could not assume you could have that life without fighting for it.

I started thinking that I did not want to live a life that I would regret later when I died. I wanted to show and share with others the things I felt or cared strongly about, and I wanted others to do the same thing for me. Quietly living your life and hoping not to be noticed would no longer be an option. To try to live quietly was to give the power to take all you cared about away to those wicked and power lustful enough to do so or risk doing so for their own selfish gain.

Accordingly, when it comes to nuclear energy, I strongly believe that we should discontinue using it until we know how to clean up radioactive contamination and actually deal with the waste (instead of trying to hide it away for longer than our civilization will probably last). No one should feel forced to live with radioactive contamination. I have a duty to spread the word to the people in the world so that no one will have to learn it the hard way like we did. I have the duty to speak out . . . with the strength of the voices of all those who want to speak out but are not in a position to. The silent thousand, millions . . . your voices will also be heard.

Thank you, my friend in Japan. I am glad we had the courage to talk to one another about the things that not many Japanese people can talk about to one another. I feel your suffering and will not let it go unavenged. And please, no matter what happens, do not give up hope. At times we find ourselves lost in a void we feel is too great to ever be found. But, just as our words filled a silence that at one time felt too expansive to fill, so will the void give way to hope.

Words can be powerful. My words saved you . . . your words saved me . . .

Fukushima Anniversary Events

We have been busy with local community events for the anniversary of the ongoing Fukushima disaster. I thought I would share some recordings we did with their transcripts here.

Here is my husband's recording:
http://dataharmonics.dyndns.org/ivan_stout20120306.wav

and transcript:
It is funny the things you remember the most when a chapter of your life closes that you can no longer return to. Such is our life in Japan:

• Cherry blossom picnics
• Hot summer festivals
• Chilly morning commutes
• The pride of my mother-in-law when she talked of the house her daughter and her daughter's husband had built for her and them and how young we had been to do such a thing.
• The crushing sad realization that we would have to leave everything behind, and the stoic resolve that we must do whatever it took to protect our 3-year-old son.

My wife and I met in the US as freshmen in college. We put each other through school while plotting to one day go back to Japan and build a house there where we could live with her mother who was living all by herself. After several years of hard work the day came for our journey to Japan. Life was harder in Japan. Working hours were longer, but we persevered and eventually built a house about an hour North of Tokyo. It took me years, but I finally found a position in Tokyo that leveraged my strengths and paid accordingly. It was at that time that my wife and I decided to have a child.

2011 started as a great year, the best we had had so far. I received a huge raise at work and payed off the separate loan we had for the land for our house, and my wife was preparing to go back to school. And then, suddenly, all that we had worked so hard for seemed insignificant to the cascading events of March 11th.

My boss and good friend called me on the morning of the 15th. We decided to work remotely from west Japan. We were a two-man team which accommodated such a decision. In less than two hours my wife and I decided what we would take with us. We have not been back to our house since then.

My wife's mother helped us get to west Japan by car, but felt obligated to return to the only home she had ever known the next day and has stayed there ever since. After 3 weeks of the news only getting worse, we decided to leave Japan after 7 years. I signed a transition agreement with my company. 

I remember the rest of 2011 as having to remind myself every time I woke up the events that had taken place. We had moved out of a house that no one was willing to buy, I had gone from a well paid employee with rising prospects to someone who was unemployed and thousands of miles away from his professional network. The peaks and valleys of 2011 seemed far too great for one little family to bear. 

However, in the beginning of 2012 I started a new job . . . a job I love. If 2011 was our year of loss, 2012 is our year of thankfulness and the beginning of our life long duty to let our story be known, as repayment for our good fortune and to all those loved ones we left behind.

And so, I present our lessons learned the hard way:

• A technology you cannot clean-up the mess of is a technology you have not yet earned the right to use. Right now, nuclear power is such a technology.
• Never trust anyone who claims to know the future or believes the future obeys bell-curves.
• The future cannot be engineered. Black swans will happen. Build robust systems. Dismantle frail ones.
• Most people want to believe what is most convenient to believe and people in authority tend to tell only the convenient half-truths.
• It is not enough to work hard on your own life. Everything you have earned in your life can disappear, in some cases, in less than two hours. Be a good citizen and think about the unpleasant scenarios no one wants to think about.
• Right now, there are people too afraid to let their children outside to play and rightfully so. Clean air, land, and water are a right worth fighting for.
• No matter how justified you feel, you will always regret leaving people behind. The only cure for the guilt is to become an advocate for their cause. 
• No one should have to decide between financial ruin and the safety of their family.
• No one should have to leave behind loved ones without saying goodbye. 
• As hard as it is to convince people with strong beliefs, it is harder to convince people who simply don't care. Care about everything, but prioritize what is worth fighting for. 

Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to our story.


Here is my recording:
http://dataharmonics.dyndns.org/chiaki_kasahara20120306.wav

and transcript:
The following is a life changing lesson I have had to learn.

• When an earthquake occurs, they will tell you that they are looking into the nuclear plants but everything is alright. 
• When it is apparent that power has been lost to a nuclear plant, they will say it will be restored soon so there is nothing to worry about.
• When they are having trouble restoring power, they will say that no matter what happens, no radioactive contamination will ever occur.
• When there are explosions, they will say that they were simply hydrogen explosions and very little radioactive contamination will occur. They will say the wind is blowing the contamination away to the ocean.
• When the wind direction changes and monitoring stations start reporting high radiation levels, they will say there is no immediate risk to your body. They will make false comparisons like eating abanana or flying in an airplane. Just for precaution, though, they will tell you to stay inside and not put your laundry out to dry.
• And when people eventual get ill with cancer, they will say there is no proof that it is caused by their nuclear plant. 

They will deny and deny, until every last one of us is too ill to ask anymore questions.

The reason they continue to lie and deny is because Japan does not just use nuclear power, but it supplies the world with modern reactor cores. The longer they can deny and postpone the horrendous truth behind Fukushima, the more money the industry pulls in.

After Fukushima, a new hidden cost was added to nuclear power. This cost is in the form of the lies being told to those around Fukushima and will be borne over the decades by the deteriorating  health of regular people completely innocent of any wrong doing. People like the neighborhood children our son used to play with.

The only way to stop the lies and the damage being inflicted on the Japanese public is to stop the money going to nuclear power. Only then will Japan be able to move on and will the rest of the world will be able live with clear conscience.

Thank you for listening. I hope you can learn from my experience without having to go through this same scenario yourself.

The more we talk about our experience, the easier it is to talk about.

Here is the site it was posted on: www.NukeFreeTexas.org

From Nihon Keizai blog post: Time to build a museum?!

This is a translation of a part of a Nihon Keizai blog post posted on 1/4/2012 describing there are already requests to build a museum for the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, even though the worst ecological disaster in the history is still ongoing. Kind of like burying the patient while they are still on the operating table, I suppose  . . .

東京電力福島第１原子力発電所の事故から９カ月あまり。福島県内で事故に関する資料を集めた博物館の設立を求める声が出ている。原発事故の経緯や写真、住民避難の資料などを集めた博物館で、事故の教訓を風化させないようするのが狙いだ。

It has been 9 months since the Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant accident. In Fukushima, there are requests to build a museum which will collect all of the documents and data relating to the accident. This museum will also contain an account of the accident, pictures, and evacuee documents with the aim of not letting the lessons learned from the accident be forgotten.

博物館の設立に向けて動いているのは、福島大学を中心に構成するベラルーシ・ウクライナ福島調査団。調査団は2011年11月に旧ソ連のチェルノブイリ原子力発電所周辺に足を運び、地域住民による放射能対策や事故を起こした原発本体を視察した。その中でウクライナにあるチェルノブイリ博物館を訪れた。調査団のメンバーである桜の聖母短期大学（福島市）の二瓶由美子准教授は「原発事故の実態を詳しく知ることができる」と話す。

The people who are trying to build the museum are from the Belarus-Ukraine Fukushima research group which is mainly organized by Fukushima University. This research group visited the Chernobyl nuclear power plant area and observed the actual power plant and countermeasures for radiation done by people living in that area in November, 2011. At that time, they also visited the Chernobyl museum in the Ukraine. One of the members of the research group, Yumiko Hutakame who is an associate professor of Sakura no Seibo junior college said, "We can understand the true state of the nuclear power plant accident."

日本の学校授業では原子力発電所の問題について十分教えられていなかった。ところが原発事故で最も被害を受けたのは、放射線の影響が出やすいとされる子どもたち。特に低レベル放射線量の発がんリスクは未解明な点が多い。福島県の子どもたちは自ら知識を身につけてリスクを理解し居住する「覚悟」が求められる。 

The issues with nuclear power were not taught enough in Japanese schools. However, the most impacted by the nuclear power plant accident were children who are the most vulnerable to radiation. Especially, the risk of cancer cased by low level radiation is yet to be fully understood. They are requesting that the children in Fukushima attain the knowledge and understand the risk in order to be able to deal with living there.

How about instead of trying to build a museum, let's make sure all the children in Fukushima are evacuated from the areas which are measuring high levels of radiation? These children have nothing to do with this accident so why do THEY have to DEAL with living there!? They don't need to be educated, they need to be evacuated! 


Children are a precious treasure of any society and more "the future" than nuclear power will ever be, irregardless what nuclear proponents say. This is why we need to protect them. A society that cannot protect their own children will have no future. 


Plus, isn't it too early to talk about building a museum when this disaster is more threatening than ever? Dr. Koide (a nuclear engineering professor at Kyoto University, and one of the few REAL specialists left that has not sold out to politics) has recently stated that if the fuel pool in reactor building were to collapse, Tokyo would need to be evacuated (implying permanently. . .). It will take years to remove the fuel (if that . . . we can assume the technology to do so does not yet exist if they have not done so in a year . . .). The building has already been extremely damaged and is leaning over. There are many, many earthquakes happening in the area since 3/11. Museum building seems premature at this point, and who would visit it if building 4 collapses? 


If you would like to read the original Japanese blog post, here is the URL:
http://www.nikkei.com/news/topic/article/g=96958A9C93819490E3EBE2E3818DE3EBE3E0E0E2E3E3E2E2E2E2E2E2;q=9694E2E1E2E4E0E2E3E3E4E6EAE2;p=9694E2E1E2E4E0E2E3E3E4E6E5E5;n=9694E2E1E2E4E0E2E3E3E4E6E5E6;o=9694E2E1E2E4E0E2E3E3E4E6E5E7

From Twitter @yoockin: Yellow powder still remains in Tokyo

I saw an article on Fukushima Diary that there was a Twitter post by yoockin asking about yellow powder found near the gutter of the balcony in her child’s school.

【教えてください】昨年3月に騒ぎになった、”黄色い粉”を信頼できる計測器で測った方はいませんか？実は子供の学校の教室のベランダ排水溝付近に、いまだに残っているようなのです。都内私立です。

[Please tell me] Has anyone checked THE yellow powder, which was seen in March last year ? Near the gutter of the balcony in my child’s school, there is still yellow powder. A private school in Tokyo.

Does anyone know what this yellow powder might be? I also remember seeing this powder on the balcony of our house in Japan (North of Tokyo in Ibaraki) just before we evacuated on March 15th, 2011. After 1 year after the accident, how could this still remain in Tokyo? Many people said it was just pollen, but would pollen stay there a full year later?

Meeting with Editorial Board Member at Dallas Morning News

This Monday, my husband, my son and I joined a meeting with the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board members with members from the SEED Coalition, which is working very hard on environmental issues here in Texas. They are also against nuclear energy, and they believe that nukes should not be considered as a power source option .

At the meeting, we had an opportunity to share our experience of evacuating from our home in Japan, leaving everything behind. We also shared our strong belief that the risks we are taking for using nuclear energy is enormous and far greater than what we can actually handle once something goes wrong. Especially when less than 10% of energy is coming from nuclear here in Texas (Japan was at 30% and is now at less than 1%).

We emphasized that it does not make sense to use so much water when Texas is in the middle of the worst drought ever in known history. Plus, there is constant sunshine here, unlike Seattle or other places in the world (not that nuclear makes sense in those regions, it just makes less sense in ours . . .).

We tried to explain and express how dangerous it is to use nuclear energy as much as we could to the Editorial Board members. I told them that we had learned it the hard way and hope that no one else has to go through the same experience.

Finally, we said that the reason we thought that the Japanese government is trying to present a view that minimizes the ongoing danger is that Japan has a monopoly in modern nuclear reactor vessels. This is an incredible economic incentive to minimize the ongoing events at Fukushima so that the Japanese nuclear industry can continue to sell to countries like Vietnam. This makes use of nuclear energy unethical, literally fueling the lies that the Japanese government tells its own people much like how "blood diamonds" fuel atrocities in Africa.

I hope that the Editorial Board members takes this issue and spread the word throughout Texas. I do not want to see another Fukushima disaster anywhere else in the world. I also do not want there to be any economic incentive for Japan to continue put residents around Fukushima in harm's way. Those residents include the friends and family we left behind, and we will do what ever we can to help ensure that they are safe once again.