Thursday, September 8, 2011

UK's Daily Mail: Eerie Echoes of Chernobyl in Fukushima

Daily Mail, which has always had excellent photos of Japan's triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami, and nuke accident, has a collection of photographs of Fuktaba-machi, Fukushima and Pripyat, Chernobyl, side by side.

From Daily Mail (9/4/2011):

Haunting images taken in a town close to Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been released showing a community frozen in time.

The new set of photographs, taken in the town of Futaba 12 miles from the Fukushima plant, bear grim similarities to those taken in Pripyat, two miles from the Chernobyl power plant.

Children's play areas lie deserted, lonely dogs wander through empty streets, shoes and personal keepsakes are left hastily abandoned in the two towns, both the scenes of hasty evacuations after explosions at the nearby nuclear power stations.


For more photos, go to the Daily Mail page.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It could be coming to a swathe of well populated countryside near you,in the nations where this paper is active i surpose the most likely candidate is the Torness,Sellafield,Hartlepool triangle.
The propsed nuclear waste dump in Cumbria and anywhere along the proposed new railway feeding high level nuclear insustry wastes from the continent.

And the big fool said to push on..

Anonymous said...

From the comment section:

"Awful and unnecessary comparison: the situation here has NOTHING to do with what happened in Chernobyl and this only adds to the wrong image and the general misinformation that international media continues to create about our case. Better focus on the victims and try to get positive help, don't you think? As a foreigner now in Japan for 8 years and very close to the happenings, I am highly frustrated with the reports, speculation, misinterpretations and unnecessary fears created by intl. press. Horrible. Disappointing. Negative. Misinformed (starting with the title: people were evacuated, most did NOT want to leave the area. They did not "flee")…"

- Adriana, Saitama, Japan, 07/9/2011 01:14

Anonymous said...

What sort of comment is that from "Adriana Saitama Japan"? Of course it had nothing to do with Chernobyl - the evacuation in Japan was caused by a Japanese run US nuclear power plant(s) blowing up, whereas the evacuation in Ukraine was caused by a Russian nuclear power plant blowing up. Did the people of Pripyat flee? No, they were bused out never to return. Was Chernobyl allowed to smolder in the open air for months and months? The misinformation is actually the pretense that somehow nothing bad happened and its all good now. The damage is done and still being done - will these people always have their head in the sand? Or only when the health damage becomes more evident will they stop being apologists? Do the factory workers of Minamata still blame the fishermen? That is something which is acually horrible, disappointing, negative and misinformed. Not the well founded fear that ingesting radioactive substances will kill you.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

People did flee in towns like Futaba and Okuma. I've seen the video footage of inside the hospital in Futaba, in that photo. Video was taken by two independent photo journalists on March 13, one day after the explosion. It's not the orderly "evacuation" that they had.

People also fled in panic after Reactor 3 exploded. They heard the explosion, but was told that was nothing to worry about. Many did not believe, and ran.

I guess Adriana in Saitama wanted to believe and hope, just like the rest of the Japanese. It's funny how non-Japanese residents in Japan become more "Japanese" than the Japanese and adamantly repeat what the authorities have told them. Like "international media misinform".

Anonymous said...

The reaction of foreigners is indeed interesting. First, people leaving the country were labelled "flyjin" and accused of letting down the Japanese in dire times. They did "not deserve" to be here anyway and would not be missed. Meanwhile, those role model, "better-than-thou" foreigners claimed that the cohesion of their communities hinged on their staying in place. Even if they had children themselves, it was more important to be "more Japanese than a Japanese" and stay put.

Nowadays it is impossible to talk to anyone about it. Those who are still around will say it is not a problem (because, surprise, life goes on as before, "normal"), those who have gone of course disagreed so it is pointless to ask either about their view on the situation.

Anonymous said...

@Adriana

What exactly do you think happened in Chernobyl? I suppose you think three puppy mills exploded in Japan and everything is coming up roses and happy puppies.

Not unlike Chernobyl the Japanese have officially classified Fukushima as a level 7 disaster on the INES. The victims of the Chernobyl disaster were eventually evacuated in a haphazard manner not unlike the Fukushima region is today. Not unlike Chernobyl there are hotspots and vast areas of food contamination with lackluster response from the officials in charge. Not unlike Chernobyl there will be a massive but inadequate clean up effort who's cost will be passed on to the ratepayer/taxpayer maybe the world. Not unlike Chernobyl the IAEA and their lackeys at the WHO are looking to corner the market on regional health studies while discouraging independent research on the subject.

I don't know, the situation at Fukushima seems to have SOMETHING to do with what happened at Chernobyl but you're the nuclear expert.

BTW, as far as I'm concerned if you are evacuated you are fleeing it doesn't matter if you have the common sense to know you're in danger or not. "Flee evacuation zone" is a common term and according to Merriam-Webster flee can mean "to hurry toward a place of security".

a : to run away often from danger or evil : fly b : to hurry toward a place of security

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flee

Anonymous said...

Any one that can look at photos of Japanese children being wanded for radiation exposure and not have it tug at your heart simply has no heart.

Anonymous said...

wanded = checked

Anonymous said...

Actually the Daily Mail said that Fukushima emitted just 15% of the total emissions of Chernobyl number 4, even though THREE reactors melted down, melted through and, probably, melted out too.

That, alone, dwarfs Chernobyl by more than 3 times.

But there's more: the MOX fuel used in Fukushima Daiichi n.3 (at least) is much more radioactive than the one the russians used back in 86.

There's even more: thousands of spent fuel rods, of roughly 1,5m tall, were in storage pools. Putting it into context: a single cesium 137 pellet, used in chemotherapy, killed 11 people in Brazil. The decontamination effort resulted in almost 11000 tons of radioactive waste.

And Chernobyl wasn't beside the ocean.

But the japanese government letting children eat contaminated food is the worst part of it all.

And it is all caused by greed. It reminds me of "Ugetsu Monogatari", by the great Kenzo Mizoguchi.

Anonymous said...

(cr here)

If the psychopaths at the tops of the money/power piles of corporations and govts would allow the truth to be told in real time,
the INES scale would already have some bigger numbers on it: to show this impact in its true light...

(if They were at all inclined to be honest, there would also be many more 'documented' victims of Chernobyl, and, of TEPCO/Japan's ongoing 'fallout').

Too easy for truth to be censored
by those who deem (and fund) what gets called "offical" data
(and, when corporate psychopaths own all the 'mainstream' media).

Too easy everywhere to make bad news which will impact the society and economy into 'state secrets' - just for the profits/power of a very few.

Public becomes part of the problem
when they want to pretend reality-based common sense is 'fear-mongering',
and, want to blindly cling to the hope of the easier, "status quo" the unethical politicos and medicos and corporate thugs are all too willing to spin incredible lies about
(instead of listening to the few wiser fellow citizens; who only want to help us and future generations be safer).

This is getting downplayed and denied,
despite the long-term consequences,
(as all but the very youngest of us have seen done in so many other kinds of incidents before).

"Power corrupts".
What's the best way to fight this ?

Anonymous said...

adriana, saitama japan, how idiot you are? i dare you to move in fukushima live in there , move in there ,, enjoy the glowing atmosphere, the fuku beefs and veggies... it is safe there, right? as what you said misinformed????? hahahah!!!! wake up!!!! even children knows what is plutonium, cesium i wonder what you do in japan.....

Anonymous said...

"adriana, saitama japan, how idiot you are? i dare you to move in fukushima live in there , move in there ,, enjoy the glowing atmosphere, the fuku beefs and veggies... it is safe there, right? as what you said misinformed????? hahahah!!!! wake up!!!! even children knows what is plutonium, cesium i wonder what you do in japan....."

I don't think you have the right to call her an "idiot" if you don't try to put yourself in her shoes.

Imagine leaving your home country, working hard and suffering imense prejudice from a xenophobic society, working hard and trying to blend in, for EIGHT YEARS and, all of a sudden, some nuclear power plant blows up near you and you see that all that you've done means nothing now, that the country is slowly falling apart.

Grow up, kid.

Anonymous said...

adriana saitama i live migrate here for more than 35 years, what do you think i felt about these ha? don`t call me kid ... just used your common sense,,, and accept reality...

Anonymous said...

adriana saitama I`m very sorry for the word idiot ... just like you.. this country is so beautiful that i can`t imagine "these" are real...so really disappointing .... begging everyone to open their eyes, ears and mouth to see and tell the truth.. it is a 3 MELTDOWN nobody can`t fixed it even the most intelligent person in this world except pray for the miracle and next to is MELT THROUGH,,, possibly now happening

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