Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on August 20, 2011 at 11:37am

Thank you for sharing your story.  I'm sorry for what you are living though.  I have a cousin who also lives in Kyoto.  I had wondered what the conditions were like for him, but he's a distant relative (emotionally.  actually we are very closely related) who doesn't speak to the family often.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on August 20, 2011 at 4:37pm

Thank you for this perspective.

Permalink Reply by Simone Rosa on August 22, 2011 at 11:19pm

In a crisis such as the nuclear disaster, what has happened to the "honor system" we've always heard Japan lives, and dies, by?  How can these people consider the cover-up of poisoning thousands of the country's own citizens to fit in with the honorable behavior code by which they all supposedly live?

Permalink Reply by Nerdlass on August 23, 2011 at 1:49am

That doesn't seem to be very up to date... I'll post a reply including radiation levels for my prefecture, which is closer to Fukushima than Kyoto.

Permalink Reply by Carl Pastor on August 23, 2011 at 3:12am

the problem is the radiation data is primarily published by the government, and no one believes them any more.

re the "honor system", well when i came here in the '60s it was largely fine everyone had a job, everyone was guaranteed employment. but even then. the government and industry was killing people and getting offg scot free.  people in minamata had died and been poisoned by mercury and people in other areas were dying of cadmium poisoning (Itai Itai byo or it hurts it hurts sickness. these kinds of things have increased. and from 1990 no ones job is safe except for the beurocrats. with the collapse of lifelong employment, it seems the honor system is now, you give us your money, any you may have and we spend it.  in fairness the government sort of tries, but it seems to fail miserably.  now i think most people are simply resigned. 

 

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on August 23, 2011 at 4:06pm

According to Christopher Busby the radiation spewing from Fukushima dwarfs that from Chernobyl. Huge Quantities of Radiation are Still Being Released from Fukushima Thanks to  Scott Bidstrup fro this link. I read elsewhere that the radioactive sulfur resulting from seawater interacting with the damaged reactors collects in testes. If we're getting trace amounts in California, surely there's higher levels in Japan.

Permalink Reply by Carl Pastor on August 23, 2011 at 9:53pm

yes, wife and i are not fisheaters, but what you say is true. youed think all fish would be tested, but it seems thats not happening. meanwhile most japanese go on eating locally caught fish.  however, right off the coast there is the oyashio, japan's gulf stream, which flows north off japan, then south of the alutians and carrys water direct to the west coast of america. i'm still not going to eat fish, and i dont recommend it to any japanese

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on August 23, 2011 at 10:50pm

You have cause for concern, Carl. Fukushima fish radiation excessive, Greenpeace says

However, it's not likely a secure fish identification system will become established. It's way too easy for fish from the wrong areas to find their way into a monitored supply chain. In Genetic Markers Show Something Fishy With Certified Chilean Sea Bas..., for example, we learn that of "Certified Chilean Sea Bass" sold in the US, 8% aren't even Sea Bass, and 15 to 33% aren't Chilean.

Permalink Reply by Carl Pastor on August 24, 2011 at 11:39am

yep yep

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on August 24, 2011 at 2:35pm

In Japan Plans Major Boost of Radiation Monitoring, we learn that

One specialist told lawmakers in July that the amount of radioactive material released from the Fukushima plant is about 30 times greater than the quanity produced by the U.S. atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, the Japan Times reported. [emphasis mine]

"It means a signficantly large amount of radioactive material was released compared with the atomic bomb," according to University of Tokyo systems biological and medicine professor Tatsuhiko Kodama (Jun Hongo, Japan Times, Aug. 24).

I find it disturbing verging on the surreal that Japan responds to increased radiation by raising the "government's cap on maximum yearly contact with radioactive contaminants." As the country gets higher and higher doses, more and more hot spots, will they raise the acceptable risk again and again? *shudder* But if it happened here when it happens here, that's exactly what our government would will do too.