10 Elementary Schools in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo Are Sending Kids to "Winter School" to Ski in Fukushima Prefecture

Information obtained from the Togetter log from concerned residents and local representatives in Edogawa-ku, situated in the eastern Tokyo where the radiation levels are much higher than the rest of Tokyo.

It's clearly not enough for the Edogawa municipal government and the Board of Education there to have exposed children since March last year to elevated radiation levels and have done next to nothing to mitigate the situation:

(From a local representative) I've been asking the Board of Education again and again to reconsider the "winter school" in Fukushima Prefecture for the elementary school children in Edogawa, but all they say is "If we cancel, that will fan the baseless rumors", "It's up to the school principals to decide".

However, the schools say, "It was the Edogawa-ku government who decided and booked the facilities in fall last year. We didn't have any say."

A principal of one of the schools says, "It is the decision by the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the Edogawa municipal government that it is safe, so I will abide by their decision."

He also says, "The Edogawa government instructed us not do anything [regarding the winter school] until after the end of August last year. In fall, there was no alternative left because everywhere else [outside Fukushima] had been booked already."

Food that will be served in the "winter school" in Fukushima: Fukushima produce that's sold in the market there. Milk is from Fukushima. The grocer there says "They are safe because they are sold in the market."

From the looks of it, the principals at these schools do have a decision-making power, but they do not exercise it for the fear of getting into trouble with the Board of Education. The Board of Education sits pretty because technically it is the decision by the individual school, even though it, along with the Edogawa government, strongly "suggests" what to do.

The air radiation levels in the area where the pupils will be sent vary from 0.06 microsievert/hr to 0.33 microsievert/hr, according to one of the tweets.

Net net, no one will be ever responsible.

Well, for Edogawa-ku, absolutely nothing happened on March 11, 2011 and ever since.

There you go. As long as you have captive consumers like elementary school pupils, you have no problem selling contaminated food (school lunches) and operating tourist outfits in the contaminated areas (summer schools, winter schools). You don't even need to launch a pricey promotional campaign.

Even the Imperial Japanese government toward the end of the World War II tried to save the future soldiers and factory workers and evacuated elementary school children from the heavily bombarded cities. But now, they are sending these small "soldiers" in the potential harm's way to conquer radiation, all to help Fukushima Prefecture's "recovery" and "reconstruction".

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