Thursday, September 20, 2012

#Radioactive Japan: Government to Send Emperor and Empress to Fukushima to Observe Decontamination Work


It's clearly not enough for the power that be in Japan to have peaches grown in one of the more contaminated areas in Fukushima offered to the Imperial Family. Now the government will send the Emperor and the Empress to the areas in Fukushima to observe the decontamination work.

From Mainichi Shinbun (9/20/2012):

両陛下:除染活動を視察へ

Emperor and Empress to observe decontamination work

天皇、皇后両陛下が東京電力福島第1原発事故で汚染された土地の除染活動を視察するため、来月13日に福島県を訪れる方向であることが宮内庁関係者への取材で分かった。両陛下が除染活動を視察するのは初めて。宮内庁はスケジュールを検討している。

Our paper found out from the source in the Imperial Household Agency that the Emperor and the Empress intend to visit Fukushima Prefecture on October 13 in order to observe the work to decontaminate the areas contaminated by the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. It will be the first time for the Emperor and the Empress to observe the decontamination work. The Imperial Household Agency is currently scheduling the visit.

 関係者によると、両陛下の訪問は日帰りになる見通し。両陛下は昨年4〜5月、東日本大震災で甚大な被害を受けた宮城、岩手、福島県を相次いで訪問するなど被災者に心を寄せてきた。

According to the source, the visit will be a day trip. The Emperor and the Empress visited Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima in April and May last year, and expressed deep sympathy to the victims.

 今年3月の1周年追悼式では、天皇陛下がお言葉で「危険な区域に住む人々は住み慣れた、そして生活の場としていた地域から離れざるを得なくなりました。再びそこに安全に住むためには放射能の問題を克服しなければならないという困難な問題が起こっています」と原発事故に言及していた。

In the one-year anniversary ceremony this March, the Emperor referred to the nuclear accident by saying "People had to evacuate from areas made dangerous by the nuclear accident, where they had lived and worked for many years. In order for them to go back and live safely there, we have a difficult problem of radiation contamination to overcome."


The emperor was the only person among those who spoke in the ceremony who mentioned radiation, who talked to the deceased, and expressed genuine concern for the people who had to leave their homes because of the nuclear accident.

One response from a person supposedly living in Fukushima, on the Emperor's visit to the decon site:

"What's wrong with that?"

I briefly thought of replying, but I quickly dropped the thought.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It must be really hard to do these PR visits when the Emperor knows that the people who are really in power won’t allow him to speak his mind to a national audience. Too bad the royal family didn’t send the peaches back but I’m sure the news wouldn’t cover something like that either.

Anonymous said...

It must be really hard to do these PR visits when the Emperor knows that the people who are really in power won’t allow him to speak his mind to a national audience. Too bad the royal family didn’t send the peaches back but I’m sure the news wouldn’t cover something like that either.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the double post I only clicked once

Anonymous said...

he is so old he wouldnt be affected by internal emitters for another 20 years by which time he would be dead, the sad thing is the kids who are led into this shit... fucking hell

Anonymous said...

Internal emitters take much less than 20 yrs to affect you but anyways this is not the problem.
The problem is that the imperial couple allows itself to be used for nuclear propaganda. I wish the emperor expressed more clearly his sympathy to the victims; something like "it is very sad that you will never be able to go back to your homes" would have been more accurate.
He could also have commented on the medical experiments carried out in Japanese public schools where kids are force fed radioactive lunches.
He could also have apologized for Japanese evacuation standards being more lax than soviet ones (1 mSv/yr granted right to evacuation, 5 mSv/yr granted forced evacuation in Bielorussia; in Japan people are expected to return to places below 20 mSv/yr).
I appreciate the emperor words, they are surely bolder than Noda's, but I wish he could say a little more to protect the people of the nation he represents.

Reinaert Albrecht said...

If you had any idea how little power the emperor has in effect you wouldn't be wanting him to express his sympathy.

For me it was amazing that he was allowed to speak about it at all. I guess he must have had a real fight with the kunaichou about it before he was even allowed to put those references in his speech.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Reinaert, I totally agree with your assessment.

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