A Tokyo cop tries to police a protest against
nuclear
power, June 14.
Chibanippo
Shimbun, Japan
For Japanese, Faded Nuclear Fears Return with
a Vengeance
"It's a painful fact of
history that 300,000 people died as a result of the U.S. nuclear bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that there are still survivors who suffer the
aftereffects. … However, with the passage of time, the fear and sense of
insecurity of a nuclear disaster once felt by Japanese seemed to have faded."
The loneliest job in the world: One of Japan's nuclear heroes sits in a rest area in the service building of the No.5 and No.6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Fukushima prefecture, May 19.
With the Fukushima accident unlikely to be resolved anytime
soon and the implementation of safety measures lagging behind, the Japanese
people continue to suffer great anxiety when it comes to radioactive fallout.
Media reporting mustn't fuel this anxiety or spread harmful rumors. Nonetheless,
the power of the media should be used forcefully to disseminate accurate
information in a timely manner and accelerate the development of detailed
safety measures. It is the fundamental responsibility of the state to protect
human lives - particularly those of children.
It's a painful fact of history that 300,000 people
died as a result of the U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the
end of the Pacific War, and that there are still survivors who suffer the
aftereffects. In the 1950s, when America, Britain, France and the USSR
repeatedly carried out nuclear tests, a campaign against nuclear testing gained
traction in Japan. However, with the passage of time, the fear and sense of
insecurity of a nuclear disaster once felt by the Japanese people seemed to have
faded.
As nuclear plants were built in rapid succession, a
movement "against nuclear power" emerged and then subsided, and
it is questionable whether the mass media or the population paid much attention
to nuclear plant development. The government promoted the plants by emphasizing
that they would be safe, low cost, and contribute to CO2 reduction - a policy that
continued without interruption until the present day. After the Fukushima
Daiichi accident, people were astonished to discover that there are 54 domestic
nuclear plants, making Japan the third most nuclear country in the world after
France.
Nuclear trade groups emphasized that “radiation need
not be feared as long as it is handled correctly and with the right know-how.” But
is this still enough to persuade the general public? And then there's the fact that not all agricultural and
marine products have to meet safety standards. In fact, the health effects of
radioactive materials have yet to be fully uncovered.
The most pressing issue now is clear - regardless of
party or administration. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident was partly a
result of human error, and will continue to be a source of radiation anxiety
for the Kanto and Koshinetsu regions. We must urgently implement measures to
stem the release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Radiation
check points should be added in neighboring areas to make thorough measurements
possible and make available accurate information to the public. Of course, we must
also hasten to establish an overall energy strategy. If we are to continue
using nuclear power, we must determine whether fundamental security measures
are possible - or whether like Germany, to aim for becoming a “non-nuclear”
state.
