Tuesday, April 26, 2011
26/04 余録：第二次世界大戦で一時は苦境に立った英国を勝利へと導いた首相…
第二次世界大戦で一時は苦境に立った英国を勝利へと導いた首相チャーチルが、戦争終結を目前にして総選挙に敗北した時だ。おりから開催中のポツダム会談では、野党党首アトリーに全権を引き渡して帰国するはめになってしまった▲「これは変装した祝福なのかもしれませんわ」。こうなぐさめた妻にチャーチルは返した。「いまのところ実に効果的に変装しているようだ」。非常時に国民を救った歴史的指導者からも戦勝の栄光を奪い去り、失意のどん底に追い込んでしまうのだから選挙は怖い▲逆に言えば英国民は見事に非常時の指導者を使いこなし、役目がすめばさっさと使い捨てたのである。さてこちらは震災と原発災害という未曽有の非常時のさなかである。そこでの危機対処にあたっている政権与党の地方選挙での退潮をどう読み取ればいいのだろう▲菅政権には厳しい国民の評価をうかがわせる統一地方選の結果だった。だが首相は「震災への対応では政府を挙げてやるべきことはやってきている」と震災対策の失敗が敗因との見方に反論した。もう少し国民の不信に正面から向きあってはどうかといいたくもなる▲ただ今は、誰も収拾への最善策を描けぬ非常事態の真っただ中だ。そこで被災地支援や原発災害収束のすべての結果責任を負う首相である。この責任者を何の先の見通しもなく引きずり降ろせという声を与党内から聞くようでは、日本政治の無責任に世界があきれる▲まさか首相は自らをチャーチルになぞらえてはいまい。ただしかるべき審判を国民が安心して下せるよう、危機克服を果たすのが非常時の首相の仕事である。毎日新聞 2011年4月26日 東京朝刊
24/04 余録：湯川秀樹博士と司馬遼太郎さんが某日…
湯川秀樹博士と司馬遼太郎さんが某日、京都の料亭で歓談した。その時、博士はおかみをつかまえ、“一見（いちげん）さんお断り”のしきたりについて「あれはなぜですか」と問うたそうだ▲ノーベル賞学者の御下問におかみはこう答えた。魚屋も酒屋もみなツケで、翌月請求書が回ってくる。それまで金額が分からず、現金払いで帰るお客さんに勘定ができないから……。明快な説明に「湯川さんは、世にもうれしげだった」と司馬さんは書いている▲いやそれだけが理由ではあるまい。生粋の京都人を自任していた梅棹忠夫さんは「京都は観光都市ではない」が持論で、観光化は「たいていの場合、文化の破壊である」と半世紀も前に喝破。一見さんは何をするか分からず、「お断りしたほうが安全だ」と料亭の本音を代弁していた▲福島第１原発事故のあおりで外国人観光客が潮が引くように日本から離れている。影響は西日本の京都や奈良にも及び、ホテルや旅館が苦慮している。とんだ風評被害で、早急な支援が必要だが、一方で移り気な外国人頼りの「観光立国」の危うさもあらわになった▲日本文学研究者で、コロンビア大名誉教授のドナルド・キーンさん（８８）が日本永住を決意したという。「外資系の会社が社員を日本から呼び戻したり、野球の外国人選手が辞めたり、『危ない』と言われたりしているが、そういうときにこそ、私の日本に対する信念を見せる意味がある」とＮＨＫインタビューで語っていた▲胸が熱くなった。一見さんも誠意をもってもてなすことはもちろんだが、こんな良質なごひいきを大切にすることこそ日本の心意気だ。
毎日新聞 2011年4月24日 東京朝刊
毎日新聞 2011年4月24日 東京朝刊
26/04 Public split on nuclear energy, but long-time warning deserves serious debate
In this March 20, 2011 aerial file photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by Air Photo Service, the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture. From top to bottom: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. (AP Photo/Air Photo Service)
I wrote that Chubu Electric Power Co. should shut down its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in my column on April 18. With no sign that such a thing was about to happen, however, I'd been feeling the need to issue another wake-up call. I then stumbled upon the opportunity to learn a few things from Katsuto Uchihashi, an economic expert who has long been blowing the whistle on nuclear energy.
A former Kobe Shimbun economics reporter who has been a freelance journalist for the past 44 years, 78-year-old Uchihashi has a reputation for his razor-sharp critique of Japan's misplaced sense of confidence as an economic and technological power, and the alienation spawned by contemporary capitalism. He is virtually a regular on the NHK current affairs TV program, "Close-up Gendai," having been on the show more often than any other commentator.
In 1984, five years after the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S., Uchihashi published the book "Nihon enerugi senso no genba" (At the scene of the Japanese energy war), based on a series he'd written in the weekly magazine Shukan Gendai. There is no record available on how widely the book was read, but it was published again in paperback under the title "Genpatsu e no keisho" (A warning on nuclear power) in 1986, soon after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. It sold 53,000 copies.
In the subsequent 20-year period, however, during which society's focus turned to stopping global warming and hopes for a nuclear-industry revival -- dubbed "the nuclear renaissance" -- Uchihashi's efforts were all but forgotten.
Then last week, just over a month after the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan crippled a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, a partially reprinted edition of the book, renamed "Nihon no genpatsu, doko de machigaetanoka" (Where did Japanese nuclear energy policy go wrong?), was released. Starting with coverage of the crisis in Fukushima and closing with the argument that the nation is headed to ruin if things continue to go on as they have, the book has the ring of a prophetic text.
This March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE shows damaged Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (AP Photo/AIR PHOTO SERVICE )
Uchihashi says that the "safety myth" of nuclear energy that the Japanese public has been fed for years has no basis. The pros and cons of nuclear energy have never been put up to nationwide public debate via the Diet or the media. The issue has been governed by an economic structure whose purpose is the relentless pursuit of profit, and the very parties who should be challenging questionable claims -- including academics and the media -- are knee deep in this web of interests and profit. It is this reality, Uchihashi declares, that was exposed by the March 11 disaster.
The public is divided on whether nuclear power plants should be preserved and expanded, or scaled back and abolished. According to a Mainichi public opinion poll published in the April 18 morning issue, 40 percent of respondents said that the nation's dependence on nuclear power was unavoidable, while 41 percent said the number of nuclear power plants should cut back, and 13 percent said such plants should be abolished altogether. According to an Asahi Shimbun poll published on the same day, which asked respondents what they think should be done with nuclear power plants, 5 percent said that their numbers should increase, 51 percent said the current number should be maintained, 30 percent said they should be scaled back, and 11 percent said they should be eliminated entirely.
Japan has been split in two, into a Japan whose people seek continued economic growth and prosperity grounded in nuclear dependence, and another Japan whose people are convinced of the need to depart from that model once and for all.
It is the government's role to bridge that divide and coordinate diverging views, but it lacks the knowledge and wisdom needed for a debate that cuts to the crux of national policy. Understandably, the government is currently overwhelmed by the pressing task of bringing the Fukushima plant under control and rebuilding the country's quake- and tsunami-ravaged northeast, but that doesn't mean we can ignore the possibility that another massive earthquake will hit Japan, in the Tokyo metropolitan area or the Tokai region. Plus, is there any guarantee that such a temblor will be a magnitude-7 or thereabouts, as the Central Disaster Prevention Council has predicted?
In the final pages of "Genpatsu e no keisho," Uchihashi quotes a war historian's analysis of the reason for Japan's defeat in World War II.
"It originated in the bad habit -- unique to the Japanese government -- of lending its ears only to favorable information while ignoring the bad, but it also exposed the flaws of the Japanese decision-making process in which people gather but do not debate, debate but do not decide ... It takes a long time to make a decision, but once one is reached, it is not easily changed. Japan went about war -- which by nature entails constantly changing circumstances -- in this way, the worst way possible, and found itself lagging behind time and time again, which ultimately led to its demise ..."
In this photo from a footage of a live camera released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), black smoke billows from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant in Okumamachi, northeastern Japan, on March 22, 2011. (AP)
Today, there are 54 nuclear reactors in Japan, accounting for 30 percent of the country's total energy supply. Is the government's plan to boost the nation's dependence on nuclear energy to 50 percent by adding 14 more reactors by 2030 a sound one? Let us hope for some bold debate. (By Takao Yamada, Expert Senior Writer)
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 26, 2011
風知草：「原発への警鐘」再び＝山田孝男
先週、浜岡原発を止めてもらいたいと書いたが、止まる気配はない。あらためて警鐘を鳴らさなければならない。そう考えていた折、３０年来、原発への警鐘を打ち鳴らし続けてきた経済評論家、内橋克人（かつと）（７８）の話を聞く機会を得た。
神戸新聞の経済記者からフリーに転じて４４年。モノづくりの現場を歩いた豊富な取材経験に基づき、経済技術大国・日本の過信と、現代資本主義の人間疎外を鋭く問う評論活動に定評がある。ＮＨＫテレビ「クローズアップ現代」で登場回数最多の常連解説者と言ったほうが通りがいいだろうか。
この人は米スリーマイル島原発事故（７９年）後の８４年、週刊現代の連載ルポをベースに講談社から「日本エネルギー戦争の現場」を出版した。どのくらい読まれたか記録がないが、旧ソ連のチェルノブイリ原発事故（８６年）直後に「原発への警鐘」と改題して文庫化。これは５万３０００部売れた。
やがて地球温暖化防止と原発ルネサンスの２０年が訪れ、労作は忘れられる。が、３・１１を経て先週、一部復刻版「日本の原発、どこで間違えたのか」（朝日新聞出版）が出た。福島第１原発ルポに始まり、このままでは亡国に至ると結ぶ原著には予言書の趣がある。
内橋はこう言っている。原発安全神話には根拠がない。原発推進の是非が国会やメディアを通じ、文字通り国民的議論に付されたためしがない。あくなき利益追求という経済構造に支配されているのが実態だ。その危うさを問うべき学者も、メディアも、利益構造の中に埋没している。その現実が、地震と津波であらわになったというのが内橋の確信である。
原発は維持拡大か、縮小廃止か。世論は割れている。毎日新聞の調査（１８日朝刊）では「原発依存は、やむを得ない」が４０％。「原発は減らすべきだ」が４１％で「全廃すべきだ」は１３％だった。「原発は今後どうしたらよいか」と聞いた朝日新聞の調査（同）では、「増やす」５％、「現状程度」５１％、「減らす」３０％、「やめる」１１％という分布になった。
日本は二つの領域に分断された。引き続き原発依存型の経済成長と繁栄を求める人々の日本と、今度という今度はそこから脱却しなければならないと考える人々の日本に。
この亀裂を埋め、まとめるのは政府の役割のはずだが、国策の根幹に斬り込む議論を寡聞にして知らない。福島の制御と三陸の復興に忙殺されているのは分かるが、首都圏や東海地方に第２撃の巨大地震が来ないと言えるか。来てもマグニチュード７程度という中央防災会議の想定内と言えるか。
内橋は、「原発への警鐘」の終盤で、第二次大戦の敗因を分析した戦争史家の文章から以下を引用している。
「有利な情報に耳を傾け、不利な情報は無視する（日本政府固有の）悪癖に由来するが、日本的な意思決定方式の欠陥を暴露したものであろう。会して議せず、議して決せず……。意思決定が遅く、一度決定すると容易に変更できない。変化の激しい戦争には最悪の方式で、常に手遅れを繰り返し、ついに命取りになった……」
日本には現在、５４基の原発があり、総電力供給量の３割を賄っている。２０３０年までに１４基増やし、原発依存率を５割にあげるという政府のエネルギー基本計画は妥当か。大胆な議論に期待する。（敬称略）（毎週月曜日掲載）
英訳毎日新聞 2011年4月25日 東京朝刊
25/04 How did Japan's nuclear industry become so arrogant? (E-J)
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials hold a press conference on March 21 on the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. (Mainichi)
What has stood out at the countless press conferences by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) of Japan that I've attended in covering the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, is the rampant use of cliches such as "unanticipated state of affairs" and "unprecedented natural disaster."
The excuses made by the organizations involved go to show that so-called nuclear power experts have no intention to self reflect or admit their shortcomings. It was this self-righteousness -- evidenced over the years in the industry's suppression of unfavorable warnings and criticisms, as well as in their imposition of the claim that the safety of nuclear energy was self evident -- that lay down the groundwork for the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
At press conferences, TEPCO officials repeatedly express their "deep apologies" for the trouble caused to the Japanese people. However, as soon as reporters' questions turn to the actual safety of nuclear power stations -- about which they had long boasted a multilayered safety system referred to as "defense in depth" -- they begin to act coolly. Their speech may feign civility, but they never admit to any wrongdoing and merely keep insisting the righteousness of their own claims. When particularly unflattering questions are posed to them, some TEPCO executives glower at the reporters who dared to ask and give only a brusque response.
Video footage of these press conferences, accessible via television broadcasts and the Internet, combined with disappointment with the government for its mishandling of the disaster, has fed the public's skepticism about the reliability and honesty of industry and political leaders.
Between 2002 and 2005, I was posted to the Fukui Prefecture city of Tsuruga, which hosts 15 nuclear reactors along Wakasa Bay. The area is dubbed Genpatsu Ginza (Nuclear Ginza) -- after the upscale Tokyo shopping district that is home to many shops and department stores -- for the its abundance of nuclear power plants, and a lot of the bureau's important reporting has concerned the nuclear power plants.
The many nuclear power engineers and researchers I met while based in Tsuruga did not leave a good impression on me. They generally did not provide sufficient answers to questions that could put them and nuclear energy in a negative light, and were arrogant enough to turn a deaf ear to any criticism that may be aimed at them.
In this March 20, 2011 aerial file photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by Air Photo Service, the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture. From top to bottom: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. (AP Photo/Air Photo Service)
When the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court handed down a ruling in January 2003 nullifying permission that had previously been given for the construction of the prototype Monju fast breeder reactor (FBR), electrical power companies and researchers involved in the power industry were up in arms. At a debate about the court ruling, a university professor who was a proponent of nuclear energy employed his knowledge of specialized terminology to talk down an opposition-party Diet member. Later on, I witnessed the professor and some cronies smirk in the corner of the room as they muttered, "Take that, you amateurs."
Several years ago, a regional television broadcaster that featured a researcher critical of nuclear energy in a documentary drew strong protest from a local utility firm, which argued that the show was based on a misunderstanding of nuclear energy. Although the program did not directly criticize the utility firm, the broadcaster was unable to ignore the claims of the company, one of its major sponsors. It was made to promise to dispatch reporters to nuclear power plants on a regular basis.
An executive at the power company whom I interviewed about the case said, "An understanding of how safe nuclear power stations are was lacking. What we wanted was repentance (from the broadcaster)." TEPCO officials that I've recently been observing at press conferences remind me of that pompous power company executive.
So how did the industry become what it is now?
Tetsunari Iida, a former nuclear engineer who currently heads the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, says that the industry is dominated by a closely-knit nuclear establishment. Those who graduate from universities and graduate from schools with degrees in nuclear power engineering go on to work at power companies, energy-related manufacturers, or municipalities that host nuclear power stations. Everything comes down to personal networks, and who the graduating students go on to work for is largely influenced by the connections and interests of the students' professors. Regardless of whether the employers are public or private organizations, the newly inducted engineers are raised to become full-fledged members of the nuclear establishment.
Accidents involving nuclear power plants are widely covered by the press, and are subject to intense criticism from citizens' groups. Because the nuclear establishment takes on a victim mentality when subjected to such pressure, it one-sidedly labels criticism from opponents as "opinions of mere laypersons," further reinforcing its self-righteous opinion of itself as the experts.
Nuclear safety regulation in Japan is ostensibly covered under a "double-check" system, but in practice, the system has not functioned sufficiently. Since both those in a position to be checked and those in a position to do the checking come from the same establishment, they are motivated to take action that will protect their common interests. As for NISA, there's a fundamental structural problem in that it is but an arm of METI, the government ministry in charge of promoting nuclear power generation.
In this photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), gray smoke rises from Unit 3 of the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Monday, March 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
A comparison of the agencies overseeing nuclear energy in Japan and the U.S., respectively, is also telling. While the U.S. agency is called the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), its Japanese counterpart is called the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). The conclusion we can reach from this is that by focusing so much on promoting the "safety" of nuclear energy, "regulation" and "supervision" have been left on the back burner.
The ongoing disaster in Fukushima has finally built momentum behind a discussion to split NISA from METI. There is no question that such a measure is necessary, but mere reshuffling cannot change the fundamental nature of those involved.
We are guilty of having relegated -- up until now -- the issue of nuclear energy as a world away, and a field best left to "experts" in the nuclear establishment. But the still unfolding crisis has made us painfully aware how closely linked nuclear energy is to our lives, from concerns over radiation exposure to power shortages. We no longer have the choice to remain apathetic. (By Kosuke Hino, Osaka City News Department)
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 25, 2011
記者の目：「原子力ムラ」の閉鎖的体質＝日野行介（大阪社会部）
◇事故の背景に、批判拒む傲慢さ
東京電力福島第１原発の事故の取材応援で、東電や経済産業省原子力安全・保安院、内閣府原子力安全委員会の記者会見に何度も出席した。そこで強く疑問に感じたのは、「想定外の事態」や「未曽有の天災」という決まり文句を盾に、決して非を認めようとしない専門家たちの無反省ぶりだ。これまで不都合な警告や批判を封じ込め、「安全」を自明のものとして押し付けてきた業界の独善的体質が今回の事故の背景にあると思える。
◇言葉は丁寧だが決して非認めず
「大変なご心配をおかけして申し訳ありません」。東電の記者会見は必ずと言っていいほど謝罪の言葉が出る。だが、「多重防護」を誇ってきたはずの原発の安全性自体に疑問が及ぶと、会見する幹部の態度は途端に硬くなる。言葉は丁寧だが、非は決して認めず、自分たちの言い分だけを強調する。都合の悪い質問には、記者をにらみつけながら木で鼻をくくったような対応をする幹部もいる。
こうした会見の模様はテレビやインターネット動画でそのまま報道され、政府の対応への不信とも相まって、国民は「本当に大丈夫なのか」「うそをついているのではないか」と疑念を募らせている。
私は０２年から３年間、若狭湾に原発１５基が林立する福井県敦賀市に勤務した。「原発銀座」と称される地域で、取材の最重要テーマが原発だった。
取材で接した原子力の技術者・研究者たちの印象は決して芳しいものではない。都合の悪い問いにまともに答えず、批判的な意見に耳を貸さない尊大ぶりが印象に残った。
高速増殖原型炉「もんじゅ」（敦賀市）の設置許可を無効とした名古屋高裁金沢支部判決（０３年１月）の際には、電力会社や研究者が業界を挙げて判決を攻撃した。判決に関する討論会で、推進派の大学教授が専門用語を駆使して野党の国会議員をやり込めた後、会場の片隅で「素人のくせに」と仲間内で笑い合っているのを見た。
ある地方テレビ局が数年前、原子力に批判的な研究者をドキュメンタリー番組で取り上げたところ、地元電力会社が「原子力を理解していない」と猛烈に抗議した。番組はこの電力会社を直接批判する内容ではなかったが、テレビ局は広告主の抗議を無視できず、記者による定期的な原発見学を約束した。
この件について取材した私に、電力会社の役員は「（原発が）いかに安全か理解していない。『反省しろ』ということだ」と言い放った。その傲慢な態度は、今回の事故を巡る会見で見た東電幹部と重なり合う。
◇官民にまたがる狭い人脈社会
なぜ、こんな体質が醸成されるのだろうか。
原子力の技術者だった飯田哲也・環境エネルギー政策研究所長は、業界の実態を「原子力村（ムラ）」と名付けた。大学や大学院で原子力を学んだ学生は、電力会社やメーカーに就職したり、国や立地自治体の技官になる。就職先は担当教官の意向で決まることが多い人脈社会で、彼らは官民に分かれても「ムラ」の一員として育っていく。
原発関係の事故はメディアで大きく報じられる。市民団体などの批判にさらされることも多い。“被害者意識”から、彼らは批判を「素人の意見」だと一方的に決めつけ、独善的な専門家意識を強めていくのだろう。
原発の安全規制は、保安院と原子力安全委員会による「ダブルチェック」体制とされる。しかし現実には十分機能していない。チェックする方も、される方も、同じ「ムラ」の構成員なので、業界全体の利益を守ろうという意識が働く。保安院に至っては、原発を推進する経産省に属するという構造的問題を抱えている。
組織の名称にしても、米国は「原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）」なのに、日本の機関には「規制」ではなく「安全」が使われている。「原子力は安全」という宣伝を優先するあまり、規制や監視という視点が欠落していたとしか思えない。
今回の事故を受け、保安院を経産省から分離する組織改革がようやく検討される見通しとなった。必要なことだとは思うが、組織いじりだけでは専門家たちの体質を変えていくことはできない。
これまで私たちは原子力の問題を「専門家の世界だから」と、直視することを避け、「ムラ」に委ねすぎてきた。だが今回の事故で、放射能への不安から電力不足問題に至るまで、原子力が一人一人の生活に密接にかかわることが明白になった。もう無関心は許されない。
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ご意見をお寄せください。〒１００－８０５１毎日新聞「記者の目」係/kishanome@mainichi.co.jp
毎日新聞 2011年4月21日 東京朝刊
24/04 Japan pays the price for obsequious media
A security guard trying to wave the author away from the Fukushima plant.
One of the big issues that has emerged since the world shifted on its axis on March 11 is the different way that the Japanese and foreign media have covered the nuclear crisis.
Japan's newspapers and broadcasters have on the whole reported the crisis soberly, led by NHK's almost adjective-free reports.
That's a marked contrast to the sometimes hyperbolic, even hysterical reporting by some European and U.S. media organizations, some of which have hyped the radiation scare way out of proportion to the actual threat.
Unlike journalists parachuted in from abroad to briefly cover the disaster, most Tokyo-based foreign correspondents have tried to walk the line between these two extremes -- wary of sensationalism but also very critical of the sometimes obsequious, even restrained coverage by local journalists.
The broader point was made very clearly I think by one of my fellow correspondents, Leo Lewis, of The Times.
"Of course I am not defending exaggeration, but I would rather have a vigilant press whose worst failures are sensationalism than a passive, acquiescent press whose worst failure is complicity."
For Lewis and others, Japan's media was far too tame in its coverage of the nuclear issue before March 11. Who were the journalists questioning the logic of building 54 nuclear reactors in one of the world's most seismically unstable countries?
On the whole, the media here agreed with the government line that Japan's nuclear plants are safe. I remember a few years ago researching an article on the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture -- many seismologists predict another huge quake in the area -- and being astonished to find not a single newspaper article on this very important issue.
The people who are paying the price for this policy are those living within 30 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima reactors. On the last week in March, I decided to go and talk to them.
Obviously, this was a calculated risk: As I write, radiation from the plant has been detected in my home country of Ireland 9,500 kilometers away, so the contamination must be considerable. But I figured as long as I didn't stay near the plant for long, I'd be fine.
I was surprised to find some local people carrying Geiger counters. "The reading now is 56 millisieverts," said Onuki Masaru, who slowed and rolled down his window to warn me of the most dangerous area farther along the coast.
Among the places I visited was a city called Tamura, between 20-30 kilometers away from the crippled plant. There I found Matsumoto Hironobu and his son Makoto driving their pickup down the deserted main street.
"Almost everybody left after the earthquake," recalled Makoto. "We can't, because we have a sick old person inside our house who can't be moved. But there aren't many like us. It's difficult to know when they'll be back. I mean, who knows what will happen to the nuclear plant?" (By David McNeill, Contributing Writer)
(Mainichi Japan) April 24, 2011
23/04 Do non-scientific folk beliefs about disasters have something to teach?
Water in the holy iron hearths at Okama Shrine in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, had a clarity normally unseen at around 8 a.m. on March 11, some seven hours before a massive earthquake hit northeastern Japan, the shrine's caretaker said.
Though not a scientifically-proven premonitory phenomenon, legend has it that changes in the water are a sign of an impending catastrophe.
"It was just a slight change from usual, but I thought it was strange," said 79-year-old Kazuko Nishimura, as she looked back on it.
Nishimura had taken a peek into the hearths as she accompanied shrine visitors that morning. She noticed then that the water in two of the four 800- to 1,000-year-old iron hearths, which was usually a muddy reddish brown from trash and rust, was clear. The water had turned black like ink before the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture, and vermillion before the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake, Nishimura said.
Meanwhile, on April 22, more than a month after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the water was once again murky.
Victims of the March 11 quake and tsunami have given various accounts of what they think may have been omens, though they admit they cannot confirm the links. Some in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, for example, said that crows disappeared a few days prior to the temblor, and pillars of light stretched into the sky beyond the cape the night before, while residents of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, said that they had had an abnormally large haul of octopus.
It's possible that the disaster victims are merely making interpretations based on a subconscious desire to link everything to the massive earthquake.
Considering the fact that "science" was unable to predict such an unprecedented disaster, however, there's no basis to outrightly dismiss such folk beliefs. Plus, keeping a habit of noticing even the slightest changes in our environment -- which those living in outlying islands may be particularly skilled at because of their general proximity to nature -- may even serve to better prepare us for unforeseen disasters. (By Tomohiko Kano, Morioka Bureau)
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 23, 2011
Though not a scientifically-proven premonitory phenomenon, legend has it that changes in the water are a sign of an impending catastrophe.
"It was just a slight change from usual, but I thought it was strange," said 79-year-old Kazuko Nishimura, as she looked back on it.
Nishimura had taken a peek into the hearths as she accompanied shrine visitors that morning. She noticed then that the water in two of the four 800- to 1,000-year-old iron hearths, which was usually a muddy reddish brown from trash and rust, was clear. The water had turned black like ink before the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture, and vermillion before the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake, Nishimura said.
Meanwhile, on April 22, more than a month after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the water was once again murky.
Victims of the March 11 quake and tsunami have given various accounts of what they think may have been omens, though they admit they cannot confirm the links. Some in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, for example, said that crows disappeared a few days prior to the temblor, and pillars of light stretched into the sky beyond the cape the night before, while residents of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, said that they had had an abnormally large haul of octopus.
It's possible that the disaster victims are merely making interpretations based on a subconscious desire to link everything to the massive earthquake.
Considering the fact that "science" was unable to predict such an unprecedented disaster, however, there's no basis to outrightly dismiss such folk beliefs. Plus, keeping a habit of noticing even the slightest changes in our environment -- which those living in outlying islands may be particularly skilled at because of their general proximity to nature -- may even serve to better prepare us for unforeseen disasters. (By Tomohiko Kano, Morioka Bureau)
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 23, 2011
沿岸南行記：津波被災地より 宮城県塩釜・２２日 「神釜の水」が変化
御釜神社にまつられている４台の神釜。奥の２台が震災前に澄んだ＝宮城県塩釜市で、狩野智彦撮影
普段の記事と同じように書くならば－－。＜東日本大震災約７時間前の３月１１日午前８時ごろ、宮城県塩釜市の御釜神社で、鉄製の「神釜」の水が普段と異なり澄んでいたことが分かった。水の変化は変事の前触れと伝えられ、住み込み管理人の西村和子さん（７９）は「わずかな変化だけど変だなと思った」と話している＞。むろん科学的根拠のある前兆現象ではない。
だが、拝観客の付き添いで当日朝、釜をのぞいた西村さんは証言する。１０００～８００年前製というフライパン状の釜４台のうち奥の２台で、いつもはゴミやさびで赤褐色に濁る水が澄んでいた、と。０４年の新潟中越地震前は墨色、０８年の岩手・宮城内陸地震前は朱色に変わったという。２２日は濁っていた。
数日前からカラスが消え、前夜に岬の先で光の柱が空に伸びた（宮城県南三陸町）▽タコが異常にとれた（岩手県久慈市）－－。「関連は分からない」が地震前の事だ、と各地で被災者に聞いた。何事も地震に結びつける心理が無意識に働いた可能性はある。
ただ、未曽有の震災を予知できなかった「科学」が、これらを否定できる理由もない。ささいな環境の変化にも目を配る気構えは、不測の災害への備えに通じる気もする。自然との距離が近い離島では、より変化に敏感かもしれない。【狩野智彦】
毎日新聞 2011年4月23日 東京朝刊
23/04 Letter from Burma: A Few Poems
Aung San Suu Kyi (Mainichi)
Earth, water, fire, air. All four elements combined to wreak havoc on Japan. The land rumbled and cracked; then the sea sent up a terrifyingly exaggerated Hokusai wave that crashed down pitilessly on the already devastated coastline; then came voracious fire; then air, the last of the deadly quartet, entered the fray with its lethal cargo of radioactivity. So much has been written on the earthquake-tsunami that ravaged Japan on March 11, synonyms and superlatives related to horror and destruction have been all but exhausted.
There is another set of superlatives that has also been much in evidence: those relating to the qualities that make Japanese people seem custom-designed to cope with disaster: being disciplined, duteous, resilient, stoic, sedulous. The world watched with compassion and admiration as the people of the devastated nation went about the business of putting back to rights their shattered homes and cities in the understated, matter-of-fact manner that has come to be seen as the Japanese way. In the end, the ultimate, the most powerful element is the human spirit. It serves to overcome whatever adversity any or all of the four physical elements might throw at man standing stubbornly, sometimes precariously, upright on two piffling legs.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Yet wears a precious jewel in its head.
Surely the jewel in the toad's head is the human spirit, adamantine and brilliant in its innumerable facets cut and polished by the vicissitudes of life.
A subdued echo of the fury of earth and sea unleashed on Japan the fateful day of the tsunami sounded in Burma a week later. An earthquake in the eastern part of the Shan plateau caused over a hundred deaths, brought down buildings and split the Union Highway along the centre with a deep, forked crack. Meanwhile, strong winds lashed the seas south of the Irrawaddy delta and swept away thousands of fragile bamboo rafts bearing men whose job was to tend large fish nets staked offshore. Most of the men were able to get back to land within a few days but as I write, about a thousand are still said to be missing.
Since the encounter with cyclone Nargis in 2008 the people of Burma have developed antennae highly sensitive to the natural disasters that seem to be occurring with greater frequency in all parts of the globe. Impulsive sympathy has matured into empathy born of personal experience. For many of us in Burma the struggle of the Japanese to rebuild their lives after the tsunami is a magnified image of our own efforts to help the people in our eastern hills and our southern delta get back to a state of normalcy after the relatively small, but nevertheless life changing, disasters that had befallen them.
It is the human spirit that moves minds and hearts and bridges geographical and cultural divides. As soon as we heard of the calamity that had struck Japan we wondered what we could do to make her people know how close we felt to them in their suffering, how much we wished to be of some assistance in such a time of trouble. Sadly, we were not in a position to offer material aid of any kind. We then recalled that in addition to the rock-hewn qualities that enable them to face the most harrowing challenges, the Japanese people possess a sensitivity to beauty and poetry that is the tender aspect of their strength. So we decided to put together a small collection of poems that would go some way towards expressing how much at one we feel with the Japanese people in their dark hour.
Among those who contributed to our slip of an anthology are writers and poets who have suffered much in the struggle to assert the primacy of the human spirit. There is Hanthawaddy U Win Tin, member of the Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy, who was a prisoner of conscience for twenty years, released only in 2008 when he was close to his seventy-ninth birthday. While still in jail he had written lines that roared out a challenge to those who had deprived him and others like him of their freedom: "Will the man crumble, or will the prison crumble?" Predictably, his poem for the Japanese people is equally vigorous. He writes of the "dragon tsunami, reincarnation of the Hiroshima bomb" and draws a comparison between the "hell of power" and the "hell of waves."
Three more of our poets have also served prison sentences for their political beliefs and activities. All of them view the challenges of the tsunami in terms of a combat between savagery (of nature as well as of man) and benevolence, a contest between travail and the human spirit. All, despite, or perhaps because of, the hardships they themselves have undergone stand firmly on the side of the triumph of the spirit. Nyein Thit writes:
It is the darker kind of darkness / That heralds the dawn, / Truth pulls itself up on this darkness. / Oh World. . . . / You too, grab this darkness bravely and haul yourself up.
Monywa Aung Shin contrasts the "black" Friday of the tsunami with the "white" of global compassion and lauds the fine sense of duty of the Japanese people. Phyapon Ni Lon U ends his poem on the tsunami with the simple assertion that the evil wrought by the pitiless wave cannot overwhelm the might of man.
We believe that Japan will vindicate our poets.
(By Aung San Suu Kyi)
Note: This letter should have been "Animal Talk (2)" but in the wake of the tsunami I see that ruminations on animals would not be appropriate at this juncture.
(Mainichi Japan) April 23, 2011
20/04 Pressure on to speed up construction of temporary housing for evacuees
A room of a temporary housing facility in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, is pictured on April 3. (Mainichi)
Over one month has already passed since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, yet people continue to live in shelters. Problems constructing temporary housing and slow progress in moving evacuees to public housing outside their hometowns are to blame for this situation.
Prolonged life in shelters, where privacy and sanitation problems are rampant, threatens the wellbeing of evacuated residents who are trying to stay healthy and maintain a decent standard of living. The government should demonstrate its resolve to prevent people from having to spend a long time in shelters, and exhaust every possible means to spur the construction of temporary housing.
Some 140,000 people hit by the tsunami and nuclear crisis continue to live in shelters. With nothing more than cardboard barriers to separate families living in gymnasiums, it is impossible to retain privacy, putting strain on evacuees. Furthermore, there are many elderly people at shelters and deterioration in their living environments has aggravated their illnesses, in some cases resulting in death from pneumonia -- an issue of increasing concern.
The government says it plans to construct 70,000 temporary homes, adding the cost to the fiscal budget. But more than one month after the disaster, there has been little progress, with work on fewer than 9,000 homes started. One reason is that it has been difficult to find appropriate sites on high ground that evaded the March 11 disaster. Also hampering efforts is the scarcity of materials.
In this April 12, 2011 file photo, a man walks a path between spaces divided by corrugated boxes for each family at the evacuation center at the Big Palette Fukushima sports arena in Koriyama, Japan, a month after an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
House of Representatives member Tadayoshi Nagashima, who was mayor of Yamakoshi during the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake and oversaw evacuations in the village, has warned that life in shelters should not continue for more than two months. The current pace of temporary housing construction, with just 4,500 homes due to be completed by the first week of next month, is too slow. Government officials must be more aware that this is a battle against time.
The government must cooperate with local bodies and do all it can to secure land, including that in neighboring areas. Using public funds to lease private land is one option. To secure materials, it must also boost production and speed up imports.
After all this, if it is still impossible to construct temporary housing in time, then public housing and accommodation provided by other public bodies should be put to use as soon as possible. Officials must check once more to confirm that shelters are getting the information they need.
One reason people may have remained in shelters in spite of the poor living environment is that they fear their ties with their hometowns will be cut if they move somewhere else. It has been pointed out that people would be more willing to move to other dwellings if targets were set for them to later move into temporary housing in their hometowns -- even if that meant waiting six months. Local bodies should swiftly announce detailed schedules for the construction of temporary homes.
In principle, evacuees are supposed to obtain their own supplies after moving into temporary housing, and their time in temporary housing is limited to two years -- facts that have left them uncertain about their futures.
Workers construct temporary housing for people whose homes were destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the grounds of a school acting as a shelter in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, March 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
It is certain that it will take a long time to recover from the tsunami. The government should quickly review such principles.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 20, 2011
社説：避難所の長期化 仮設建設を真剣に急げ
東日本大震災で避難した被災者の避難所での生活がすでに１カ月以上を経過、長期化の様相をみせている。仮設住宅建設が難航する一方で、他の自治体の公営住宅などへの移転もなかなか進まないためだ。
プライバシーの維持や衛生上の問題も多い避難所での生活が長引くことは被災者の健康や生活水準を維持するうえで、大きな脅威となる。政府は長期化を防ぐ決意を明確にし、仮設住宅の建設促進などあらゆる手だてを講じるべきである。
津波や原発事故のため、被災者のうち約１４万人は今も避難先で暮らす。体育館などで段ボールを家族の「仕切り」とするような生活ではプライバシーも守られず、精神的につらい。高齢者が多いこともあり、生活環境の悪さから持病が悪化したり肺炎で亡くなるなど震災関連死と呼ばれるケースが深刻化している。
政府は７万戸の仮設住宅の建設を目標としており、上積みする方針。だが、震災から１カ月以上たっても着工は９０００戸に満たず、進捗（しんちょく）ははかばかしくない。被災を免れた高地などを探すため、適地がみつかりにくいためだ。資材が確保しにくいことも追い打ちをかけている。
新潟県中越地震の際に旧山古志村の住民避難に村長としてあたった経験を持つ長島忠美衆院議員は「避難所生活を２カ月以上続けさせてはならない」と指摘する。来月第１週までに仮設住宅約４５００戸完工という現在のペースは遅い。時間との闘いという要素をより強く、意識しなければならない。
政府は自治体と協力し、借り上げ費を公費負担しての民有地利用など、周辺自治体も含めての用地確保に手を尽くすべきだ。資材の調達も増産や輸入を急がねばならない。
それでも仮設の建設が間に合わない場合、他の自治体が提供する公営住宅や宿泊施設などへの２次避難をできるだけ活用すべきだ。避難所に情報が十分に伝わっているか、再点検する必要がある。
劣悪な環境でも住民が避難所を離れないのは、いったんほかの自治体に移れば故郷との結びつきが途絶えてしまう不安からだろう。たとえ半年後であっても、故郷の仮設住宅に戻れる目標がはっきりしていれば、２次避難は進むとの指摘もある。市町村別の詳しい建設スケジュールを早急に示すことが欠かせない。
仮設住宅に入居してからは物資の自力での調達が原則とされることや、通常の入居期間が２年であることが被災者の不安を生む要因にもなっている。今回の津波被災は復旧・復興にかなりの時間を要することは確実だ。こうした原則の見直しも早期に打ち出すべきである。
毎日新聞 2011年4月18日 東京朝刊
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