{"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>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rLpUjClvYJE&#038;feature=youtube_gdata\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/rLpUjClvYJE\/mqdefault.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nMovie actor Taro Yamamoto,<br \/>\nwho broke a taboo when he spoke out about Fukushima,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/anti-nuke-activist-taro-yamomato-wins-japanese-diet-seat.html\"><br \/>\nand another when he was elected to the Japanese upper house in July<\/a>,<br \/>\nyesterday broke an even bigger one when he personally presented a request<br \/>\nto Emperor Akihito about the health effects of the disaster<br \/>\nat nuclear Fukushima Dai-Ichi.<br \/>\nSome reaction in Japan was negative, because the Emperor supposedly<br \/>\nplays only a symbolic role.<br \/>\nHowever, Yamamoto&#8217;s request worked very well as PR,<br \/>\ngetting massive worldwide publicity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/WORLD_SUPPORT_FOR_TARO_YAMAMOTOS_REMITTING_HIS_LETTER_TO_JAPAN_EMPEROR\/?fbss\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none\" src=\"https:\/\/avaazdo.s3.amazonaws.com\/6eabaecad152e568b8f59d5f8506e5a2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nHere is a<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/WORLD_SUPPORT_FOR_TARO_YAMAMOTOS_REMITTING_HIS_LETTER_TO_JAPAN_EMPEROR\/?fbss\"><br \/>\npetition to the Japanese Diet<\/a> to support Taro Yamamoto&#8217;s action.<br \/>\nLet&#8217;s not forget that Plant Hatch on the Altamaha River is the<br \/>\nsame design as Fukushima.<\/p>\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s video from<br \/>\nEuronews, yesterday on YouTube,<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rLpUjClvYJE&#038;feature=youtube_gdata\"><br \/>\nJapanese politician breaks taboo by giving letter to Emperor about Fukishima fears<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-size:80%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rLpUjClvYJE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Emperor himself already spoke out a year ago:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nAs this earthquake and tsunami caused the nuclear power plant<br \/>\naccident, those living in areas designated as the danger zone lost<br \/>\ntheir homes and livelihoods and had to leave the places they used to<br \/>\nlive. In order for them to live there again safely, we have to<br \/>\novercome the problem of radioactive contamination, which is a<br \/>\nformidable task.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2012\/03\/japan-in-uproar-over-censorship-of-emperors-anti-nuclear-speech\/255025\/\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:500px\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/static\/mt\/assets\/international\/emperor%20march26%20p.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nAs Michael McAteer put it in The Atlantic 26 March 2012,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2012\/03\/japan-in-uproar-over-censorship-of-emperors-anti-nuclear-speech\/255025\/\"><br \/>\nJapan in Uproar Over Censorship of Emperor&#8217;s Anti-Nuclear Speech:<br \/>\nWhy did Japanese TV channels cut Emperor Akihito&#8217;s address on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima crisis?<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nWhile this statement may seem more obvious than radical to<br \/>\noutsiders, underneath the Imperial-grade Japanese understatement<br \/>\nwere two ideas that have become quietly explosive. First, he seemed<br \/>\nto suggest that the nuclear crisis is not over, a &#8220;formidable task&#8221;<br \/>\nyet to be overcome. This noticeably contradicts the government&#8217;s<br \/>\nofficial stance that Fukushima has achieved a cold shutdown and, for<br \/>\nall practical purposes, the crisis is over. Second, it implies that<br \/>\nit is not yet safe for people to return to areas stricken with high<br \/>\nlevels of radiation, at least not before the &#8220;formidable task&#8221; is<br \/>\n&#8220;overcome.&#8221; This, again, contradicts the government&#8217;s position that<br \/>\nit is now safe for people to return to almost all areas and that<br \/>\nneither Tokyo Electric Power Company nor the national government are<br \/>\nobliged to assist in long term evacuations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nIt&#8217;s impossible to say for sure whether the emperor intended to<br \/>\nweigh in on two of the country&#8217;s most sensitive policy debates.<br \/>\nEither way, his words have struck Japan&#8217;s national conversation with<br \/>\na weight that could only be delivered by the emperor himself.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nThe Emperor&#8217;s words were so sensitive that,<br \/>\nafter the initial telecast and the first transcripts,<br \/>\nJapanese news completely failed to report<br \/>\non that paragraph.<\/p>\n<p>\nIt&#8217;s not as if the Emperor, unworldly though he is supposed to be<br \/>\nin his position, does not know of what he speaks.<br \/>\nHe is a biologist<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/need-to-know\/five-things\/emperor-akihito\/\"><br \/>\nwith at least 38 peer-reviewed papers<br \/>\nincluding some in Science and Nature<\/a>,<br \/>\nand is a world expert on certain kinds of fish.<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/42104850\/ns\/world_news-asiapacific\/\"><br \/>\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><br \/>\nAnd that wasn&#8217;t even the first time.<br \/>\nVictoria Ward wrote for the Telegraph GMT 16 Mar 2011,<br \/>\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\"><br \/>\nJapan&#8217;s Emperor Akihito expresses &#8216;deep concern&#8217; over Fukushima nuclear plant crisis:<br \/>\nJapan\u2019s reclusive Emperor Akihito has made an unprecedented public address in which he expressed deep concern about the escalating nuclear crisis.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nIn a rare televised appearance he described unfolding events at the<br \/>\nstricken Fukushima nuclear power plant as<br \/>\n&ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo; and acknowledged that the scale of the<br \/>\ncrisis was &ldquo;unprecedented&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in<br \/>\nhand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult<br \/>\ntimes,&rdquo; the emperor said solemnly.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we<br \/>\ndo not know how many people have fallen victim.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I pray for the safety of as many people as possible. People are<br \/>\nbeing forced to evacuate in such severe conditions of bitter cold,<br \/>\nwith shortages of water and fuel&#8230;\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nPerhaps someone required to be above the political fray<br \/>\ncan see with his scientific mind that Fukushima is an ongoing<br \/>\ndisaster that Japan is not handling at all well.<\/p>\n<p>\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"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"],"_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}]}}