Voices / Viewpoint

Japan, one year later

A native of a land hit hard by an earthquake and tsunami talks about life after a nuclear catastrophe

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What about next year?

This is but a very small example of what’s happening in Japan. As you can imagine, the situation is a lot worse in Fukushima.

* * *

It’s said that 100,000 people are displaced in Fukushima. While some of them are temporarily living in other towns within Fukushima, an estimated 60,000 people left, including many women with small children whose husbands chose to stay for work.

That means they maintain two households. The family is united maybe two weekends a month. As the separation prolongs, stress and fatigue mount.

What’s worse, in many cases these women are considered voluntary evacuees, with not much support from the government. They are constantly pressured from their husbands, their in-laws, or their friends to return home.

A huge gap is created between people who remain and people who leave. Mothers who have left want to protect their children, but they feel guilty for breaking the unity of the community and family. They feel guilty for stigmatizing their own hometowns. They feel guilty for being perceived that they have the financial means to relocate on their own, even thought that’s not always the case.

Some mothers chose to stay, and they, too, struggle with a different kind of guilt — a guilt that they are putting their children at risk. They suffer now, and they will probably suffer for the rest of their lives.

There are many cities and towns outside of the evacuation zones, where radiation levels are several times higher than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “dose limit for individual members of public.”

Among those cities is Fukushima City, the capital of Fukushima prefecture whose population exceeds 280,000.

So is Nihonmatsu City, the sister city of Hanover, N.H.

And so is Koriyama City, hometown of Keiko Kokubun, a Salisbury, Vt. resident who returned recently for the first time since the disaster. Her initial emails to me upon arrival revealed so much conflict within herself.

Keiko, who has been one of the most steadfast voices against nuclear power over the past six months, found herself overwhelmed by the social pressure to keep quiet about her fear of radiation and the anger she feels towards the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Keiko eventually she posted some of her observations around the anniversary on her blog.

* * *

Most people in Japan would agree that the government has been trying to cover up the facts and downplay the seriousness of what’s going on at the Fukushima Daiichi.

However, some choose to cling to the more optimistic evaluation of the radiation levels in the air, soil, water, or food. Even some people from the most contaminated areas hold out hopes of returning to their homes soon — say, within two years.

These rosy views go hand in hand with the government’s and TEPCO’s desire to get out of the responsibility.

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Topic: COMM-0144.opin.view.chiho

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Andy Dawson (Crowthorne Berks Uk) says...

In many ways, the key here is in your remark:"If you believe as I do that any amount of radioactivity in one’s body, especially in children’s, is unnatural and therefore unacceptable, you would understand how serious this is."It's simply not the case that "radioactivity in the body" is unnatural - each and every one of us is radioactive to a degree - indeed, for those of us who are married and prefer a double bed, one of the more significant causes of exposure is the radiation we Read More

In many ways, the key here is in your remark:

"If you believe as I do that any amount of radioactivity in one’s body, especially in children’s, is unnatural and therefore unacceptable, you would understand how serious this is."

It's simply not the case that "radioactivity in the body" is unnatural - each and every one of us is radioactive to a degree - indeed, for those of us who are married and prefer a double bed, one of the more significant causes of exposure is the radiation we receive from lying next to our spouses/partners!

On that basis, it's simply not possible to say whether or not any given amount of radioactivity adds signficantly to our exposures, without seeing the actual numbers concerned. To give an example, each and every one of us will have araound 4,000-5,000 "Bequerels" of radioactive potassium in our bodies (assuming we're of around average size). A Bequerel (bq) measures how many radioactive disintegrations are happening per second, and hence tells us how much energy is being deposited in our cells from that decay.

It's also the case that the equipment available to detect radioactivity is fantastically sensitive - equipment that can detect fractions of a bequerel is far from uncommon - and indeed, most of the figures I've seen for children exposed from Fukushima are of the order of 20-30Bq/litre - which suggests whole body burdens of a few percent of the radio-potassium burden.

Nor are we - including children - especially sensitive to anything but very high doses of radiation. To give a measure, Here in England, we've the county of Cornwall. Cornwall is mostly made of old, granitic rocks, and these rocks contain various radioisotopes. The decay of these leads to releases of radon gas. The average background radiation in Cornwall is about 8-10 "milliSieverts" per year. That in London and the Home Counties is perhaps 1/4 of that. There are "hotspots" in Cornwall ranging up to 5-10 times the average for the area - any of you who've visited Dartmoor have possibly exposed yourself to some of the highest of these!

And yet despite that huge differential, the rates for cancer and other rates of diseases with known links to radiation in Cornwall are certainly no higher, and arguably significantly lower than they are for the rest of the UK.

The big thing that this article points to is the psychological damatge that's being caused by excessive hyping of radiation-related fears. And I'm afraid this article is yet another example of that!

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26th March 2012 10:53am

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