Friday, March 16, 2012

One Municipality After Another Says YES to Disaster Debris Contaminated with Radioactive Materials

The likes of Mr. Blustein must be so happy to see the "kizuna" (it's actually the rope that ties down the cattle or domestic animals) restored at least among petty politicians and bureaucrats in cities, towns, and villages as far away as Okinawa and Hokkaido, even as the "selfish" and "irrational" residents who will have to pay taxes to have the debris burn in their midst are against it.

In anywhere else in the world, these debris would be considered "low-level radioactive waste" and would be strictly controlled.

The municipalities that suddenly "capitulated" this week, particularly on March 16 when Prime Minister Noda formally issued the request to accept the debris to municipalities who haven't said yes to the debris, are too numerous to list. Even the last true "opposition" since the March 11, 2011 disaster, Japanese Communist Party, sided with the majority demanding the municipal governments of Niigata City in Niigata Prefecture and Kiryu City in Gunma Prefecture to accept the disaster debris from Miyagi and Iwate.

Money really does speak. Hop on the bandwagon. Local politicians have the local waste management industry lobby to please.

Here are some of the latest "yes" to radioactive tsunami/earthquake debris:

Hokkaido:
Okushiri-cho (island off the coast of southwestern Hokkaido, in Japan Sea)

Okinawa:
Onna-son (in the middle of Okinawa Island, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Okinawa)

Niigata:
Niigata City (whose vice mayor is a career bureaucrat from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
(Niigata already has 4 other cities eagerly waiting for the debris, even though the governor of Niigata Prefecture is dead set against receiving the debris in Niigata.)

Gunma:
Kiryu City

Chiba:
Ichikawa City (right outside Tokyo)

Hiroshima:
Kure City (famous for really good oysters and lemon)
Hiroshima City

Mie:
Taki-cho (green tea, Matsuzaka beef)

Now what? I wonder what the residents of Japan are going to do now, if anything at all. They have protested, packed the "explanation" meetings which were nothing but a sham to keep up the appearance of "democracy", collected signatures to oppose acceptance and tried educating the fellow citizens and a few politicians who would listen. The politicians and bureaucrats and industry will just do it anyway.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to condone violence, but we need to see a "show of force". Nothing's going to change otherwise. Time will tick on and everything slowly become "normal". If and when there will be long term effects, it will be history and statistics. Maybe your child, maybe your neighbor's… it's a gamble.

Anonymous said...

Now is the time for concerned citizens in these communities to begin monitoring and measuring the effect of this burning on their local people. Very sensitive cesium urine tests by sympathetic local doctors, both before and after the burning can provide proof of increased radiation exposure. Shouldn't take long. If doctors in one of these early burners (like Shimoda) can find and demonstrate a clear increase in cesium levels within the population, then citizens in other communities might be better armed to stop the madness there. If you wait much longer though, it will be harder to prove the link between burning and increased cesium exposure locally. In any case, history will be very unkind to Noda and the various mayors who are perpetuating this scandal. The truth will come out, and they will be demonized or at least shown to be incredibly stupid and self-serving.

Darth3/11 said...

Good ideas, @2:20. If private citizens take readings now and after the burnings, and post them somewhere (like here) to reach a broader group. Also, Tweet them to that might bring pressure to end this.

Direct action such as bodily blocking the trucks and trains from transporting the debris might drum up publicity.

Just ideas. This whole story of capitulation and power and money is utterly depressing. What is happening to the Japan I love?

Anonymous said...

If the debris gets burned, no point in measuring radiation levels except for historical record.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if any of these city councils would change their minds if they knew a citizen's group was actually going to run before and after urine tests to prove contamination of local community resulted. Might scare the politicians to know that they will be caught and held accountable if their "science" turns out to be wrong.

Anonymous said...

It's so sad to see cities bow under pressure and accept the waste. My wife has called numerous times to the city office here in Miyazaki and so far they are against it. But it seems individual cities (or really just individuals who own the incinerators) can agree to take the waste without considering anyone else. I'd recommend everyone here in Japan to call your city office. It may be futile, but it is worth trying. You could also call the incinerators and threaten them in your best yakuza voice!

Also, my wife said something about Yamagata burning the waste and its radiation levels shooting up 14x! Anyone else seen this story around??

More officials in Tohoku have also been coming forward and requesting that the debris remain there for processing. How can the gov't ignore the wishes of Tohoku after all that's happened? On one hand the gov't promotes Tohoku and Fukushima and tells citizens to support them...but the other hand doesn't want to provide the area with this money for waste processing and jobs that are so badly needed. This is all so depressing....

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 6:50PM, maybe your wife mixed up two different pieces of news, that Yamagata burning the debris (true) and the radioactive fallout in Yamagata City was 14 times more than that of Fukushima City in January or February (I forgot which).

It's not really cities bowing under pressure. They mostly pretend they bow under pressure on the surface and say they want to help the recovery - that's for consumption for the general public. In reality, they want debris badly, they want to burn it. http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/03/2-other-reasons-why-municipalities-in.html

Anonymous said...

Well after 16 years here this last year and all the actions of Tepco, govt, amakudari, earthquakes, the rising fascism I am seeing in party politics, the pension fiascos..
Just made me decide that this place doesn't offer me, my Japanese wife and daughter a hopeful life or a safe environment. I am leaving next month and it will be a large chunk of stress off my shoulders. Japan seems to have stopped evolving.

Anonymous said...

Democracy and "freedom" have always been illusions. People allow themselves to be manipulated because they want to believe that things like freedom are true. It's sad.

Anonymous said...

This is so tragic and sad. It's as if mankind has been inhabited by some evil force bent on destroying our species. All this monstrous evil without anyone lifting a finger to stop it. Tragic to put it mildly.

joe bassett said...

If the citizens hanged all the politicians you know all these nuke plants would be gone. The wars would end and we would grow hemp and get all the junk out of food and stop the manufacture of cigarettes and sodas.

mike holecheck said...

How many accidents, before they close these things? They know if they say evacuate Tokyo the world would say close them. If they say evacuate the whole island nuclear power is finished, because nobody would want to live within 300 moles of those things.

joe masturbator said...

All Japanese if they arem't leaving that island you have to wonder how smart they are. I mean when it's this bad you have to figure radiation fallout has reached the USA. We are 6,000 miles from Japan. So how could there be any hope for the island?

Anonymous said...

Here's How The Japanese People are going to be remembered:

"Yes, there was once a great and intelligent culture called Japan. They had a great history. But, they had a terrible memory. They couldn't remember that they had experienced a nuclear bomb hitting them, actually two bombs. So they went and built 54 nuclear power plant bombs and all on an earthquake-prone island. Such a forgetful people they were."

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 8:10PM, yes the Japanese will be remembered as dupes who were thoroughly conned by CIA and the US administration's propaganda "atoms for peace" - only Japan could do it, peaceful use of atomic energy, because it was the victim of atomic bombs.

Naive people, with incessant commercials and PR events by the largest newspaper and TV in Japan whose owner happened to be a CIA agent, believed it.

Anonymous said...

Here is something to think about...

Nuclear power is not like a piece of the Sun. No, it's more like creating a piece of Hell on Earth.

Think of it. Scattered around the Globe is the matter that brings pure evil and ultimate power to the hands that can assemble it!

Man decides, he has enough understanding to build and harness a searing piece of Hell. Unfortunately for Man, he creates an uncontrollable and deadly piece of pure, unconstrained Evil!

Man by his own hand, has managed to ensure that Satan's belief about Man, comes to fruition.

For the future of man, billions of years and 10,000's of generations will be damaged by the acts of the men of today who, created this eternal, vile, evil piece of Hell.

Nice work....scum suckers!

Anonymous said...

I really feel sorry for the Japanese people, they know what this waste will do, but these politicians (and quite a few of the general public) in power are so servile and have that feudal serf mentality, that when it finally becomes clear that japan has become uninhabitable, you will see a mass exodus from their homeland. How many countries would accept millions of Japanese with radioactive disaeses. So very sad

David McElroy said...

The Japanese have always had a meme about the "honorable suicide", as in hari kari or kamikaze. Perhaps this radioactive insanity stems from that, sharing in the nation's deadly perils as a gesture of acceptance and kinship.

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