{"id":6481,"date":"2013-11-02T17:27:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T21:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6481"},"modified":"2013-11-02T17:29:42","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T21:29:42","slug":"intervene-about-fukushima-japanese-senator-taro-yamamato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/intervene-about-fukushima-japanese-senator-taro-yamamato.html","title":{"rendered":"Intervene about Fukushima &#8211;Japanese Senator Taro Yamamato"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rLpUjClvYJE&#038;feature=youtube_gdata\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/rLpUjClvYJE\/mqdefault.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nMovie actor Taro Yamamoto,\r\nwho broke a taboo when he spoke out about Fukushima,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/anti-nuke-activist-taro-yamomato-wins-japanese-diet-seat.html\">\r\nand another when he was elected to the Japanese upper house in July<\/a>,\r\nyesterday broke an even bigger one when he personally presented a request\r\nto Emperor Akihito about the health effects of the disaster\r\nat nuclear Fukushima Dai-Ichi.\r\nSome reaction in Japan was negative, because the Emperor supposedly\r\nplays only a symbolic role.\r\nHowever, Yamamoto&#8217;s request worked very well as PR,\r\ngetting massive worldwide publicity.\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/WORLD_SUPPORT_FOR_TARO_YAMAMOTOS_REMITTING_HIS_LETTER_TO_JAPAN_EMPEROR\/?fbss\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none\" src=\"https:\/\/avaazdo.s3.amazonaws.com\/6eabaecad152e568b8f59d5f8506e5a2.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<p>\r\nHere is a\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/WORLD_SUPPORT_FOR_TARO_YAMAMOTOS_REMITTING_HIS_LETTER_TO_JAPAN_EMPEROR\/?fbss\">\r\npetition to the Japanese Diet<\/a> to support Taro Yamamoto&#8217;s action.\r\nLet&#8217;s not forget that Plant Hatch on the Altamaha River is the\r\nsame design as Fukushima.\r\n<p>\r\nHere&#8217;s video from\r\nEuronews, yesterday on YouTube,\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rLpUjClvYJE&#038;feature=youtube_gdata\">\r\nJapanese politician breaks taboo by giving letter to Emperor about Fukishima fears<\/a>,\r\n<\/p><!--more-->\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-size:80%\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rLpUjClvYJE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nThe Emperor himself already spoke out a year ago:\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nAs this earthquake and tsunami caused the nuclear power plant\r\naccident, those living in areas designated as the danger zone lost\r\ntheir homes and livelihoods and had to leave the places they used to\r\nlive. In order for them to live there again safely, we have to\r\novercome the problem of radioactive contamination, which is a\r\nformidable task.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2012\/03\/japan-in-uproar-over-censorship-of-emperors-anti-nuclear-speech\/255025\/\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:500px\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/static\/mt\/assets\/international\/emperor%20march26%20p.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<p>\r\nAs Michael McAteer put it in The Atlantic 26 March 2012,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2012\/03\/japan-in-uproar-over-censorship-of-emperors-anti-nuclear-speech\/255025\/\">\r\nJapan in Uproar Over Censorship of Emperor&#8217;s Anti-Nuclear Speech:\r\nWhy did Japanese TV channels cut Emperor Akihito&#8217;s address on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima crisis?<\/a>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nWhile this statement may seem more obvious than radical to\r\noutsiders, underneath the Imperial-grade Japanese understatement\r\nwere two ideas that have become quietly explosive. First, he seemed\r\nto suggest that the nuclear crisis is not over, a &#8220;formidable task&#8221;\r\nyet to be overcome. This noticeably contradicts the government&#8217;s\r\nofficial stance that Fukushima has achieved a cold shutdown and, for\r\nall practical purposes, the crisis is over. Second, it implies that\r\nit is not yet safe for people to return to areas stricken with high\r\nlevels of radiation, at least not before the &#8220;formidable task&#8221; is\r\n&#8220;overcome.&#8221; This, again, contradicts the government&#8217;s position that\r\nit is now safe for people to return to almost all areas and that\r\nneither Tokyo Electric Power Company nor the national government are\r\nobliged to assist in long term evacuations.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nIt&#8217;s impossible to say for sure whether the emperor intended to\r\nweigh in on two of the country&#8217;s most sensitive policy debates.\r\nEither way, his words have struck Japan&#8217;s national conversation with\r\na weight that could only be delivered by the emperor himself.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nThe Emperor&#8217;s words were so sensitive that,\r\nafter the initial telecast and the first transcripts,\r\nJapanese news completely failed to report\r\non that paragraph.\r\n<p>\r\nIt&#8217;s not as if the Emperor, unworldly though he is supposed to be\r\nin his position, does not know of what he speaks.\r\nHe is a biologist\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/need-to-know\/five-things\/emperor-akihito\/\">\r\nwith at least 38 peer-reviewed papers\r\nincluding some in Science and Nature<\/a>,\r\nand is a world expert on certain kinds of fish.\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/42104850\/ns\/world_news-asiapacific\/\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" src=\"http:\/\/media1.s-nbcnews.com\/j\/MSNBC\/Components\/Photo\/_new\/110316-emperor-hmed-240a.grid-5x2.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nAnd that wasn&#8217;t even the first time.\r\nVictoria Ward wrote for the Telegraph GMT 16 Mar 2011,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/asia\/japan\/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-in\/8385058\/Japans-Emperor-Akihito-expresses-deep-concern-over-Fukushima-nuclear-plant-crisis.html\">\r\nJapan&#8217;s Emperor Akihito expresses &#8216;deep concern&#8217; over Fukushima nuclear plant crisis:\r\nJapan\u2019s reclusive Emperor Akihito has made an unprecedented public address in which he expressed deep concern about the escalating nuclear crisis.<\/a>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nIn a rare televised appearance he described unfolding events at the\r\nstricken Fukushima nuclear power plant as\r\n&ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo; and acknowledged that the scale of the\r\ncrisis was &ldquo;unprecedented&rdquo;.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in\r\nhand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult\r\ntimes,&rdquo; the emperor said solemnly.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n&ldquo;The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we\r\ndo not know how many people have fallen victim.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;I pray for the safety of as many people as possible. People are\r\nbeing forced to evacuate in such severe conditions of bitter cold,\r\nwith shortages of water and fuel&#8230;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nPerhaps someone required to be above the political fray\r\ncan see with his scientific mind that Fukushima is an ongoing\r\ndisaster that Japan is not handling at all well.\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movie actor Taro Yamamoto, who broke a taboo when he spoke out about Fukushima, and another when he was elected to the Japanese upper house in July, yesterday broke an even bigger one when he personally presented a request to Emperor Akihito about the health effects of the disaster at nuclear Fukushima Dai-Ichi. Some reaction [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[104,22,73,3],"tags":[7201,6691,7202,8701,876,427,8702,12,8737,105,8712,8731,7200,8700],"class_list":["post-6481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear","category-politics","category-safety","category-transparency","tag-akihito","tag-diet","tag-emperor","tag-georgia","tag-health","tag-japan","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-nuclear","tag-plant-hatch","tag-politics","tag-safety","tag-toro-yamamato","tag-transparency"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Gx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6484,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6481\/revisions\/6484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}