From Minamata to Fukushima -- The Japanese Nuclear Crisis Isn't Over Yet

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lyric-hughes-hale/from-minamata-to-fukushim_b_1090478.html

Posted: 11/14/11 08:34 AM ET

For me, the saddest stories are about needless human suffering, suffering caused by greed, hate, or more maddeningly, the inability of responsible people to act responsively. Minamata is that kind of story, encapsulated in a single and truly iconic photograph, by W. Eugene Smith. You might remember it as well, a picture of a young woman deformed as a result of industrial mercury poisoning, being bathed by her mother, who regards her with beatific and transcending love.

For those too young to remember, a Japanese factory polluted the Bay of Minamata, which caused illness, death and deformity in a nearby fishing village. This continued for more than thirty years, while the cause was covered up by both the factory owners and local officials. Smith's photographs, which appeared in Life Magazine in the early 1970's, finally brought change. He had gone to Minamata to live for two years with his Japanese wife, and while he was there company thugs attacked him, permanently damaging the vision in one of his eyes. The very worst thing was that even though Tomoko Uemura's photograph brought relief, change and compensation to other victims, her family was ostracized and her father later regretted that he had allowed Smith to take the photo. She died in 1977, at the age of 21.

I have been thinking about Minamata, because something similar is happening in Japan today. We all know that radiation sickness is a slow-motion phenomenon, but in the aftermath of the 3/11 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disasters, we have lost interest in what is happening on the ground in Japan. We mustn't--the world community must stay involved.

This time, the consequences of the actions of public officials and a corporation, in this case TEPCO, (Tokyo Electric Power Company) will not be confined to a single village in Japan. Many Japanese do not believe what their government is telling them the truth about risks to their personal health. There are charges of Japanese government censorship and the withholding of critical information. Although traditional media does seem more controlled, information is available on the Internet, in citizen blogs, and also through non-profits that monitor the nuclear issue. Bands of citizens armed with Geiger counters and dosimeters are using mobile technology to provide readings that are published on the Web. Mothers in Fukushima share stories of their children's nosebleeds and unexplained illnesses, and their fears for the future. In spite of Japanese cultural biases, this time could be different, as a result of communications technologies that were not available 40 years ago.

Here are some of the important things that are being said on the Internet in Japan today, which you might not have heard yet:

[wtmusic]

1. Piggybacking Fukushima on Minimata is bullshit.

Minimata was um, mercury poisoning. I suppose because Fukushima doesn't have a heart-rending photograph to support the author's nuclear-phobia, she thought it was fair game to appropriate one from a completely unrelated issue.

Interesting to note that one of the largest sources of environmental mercury is burning coal. Nuclear energy prevents tons of mercury from entering the environment every year.

[Angry Dragon]

2. ................

:nuke:

[lbrtbell]

4. I'm impressed by your compassion for the victims

Do I really need to add the sarcasm emoticon?

I'll just add this one, instead. :puke:

[wtmusic]

6. And yours. for the 18,000 victims of the tsunami.

:puke: yourself.

[MoonRiver]

3. K&R!

The corruption in Japan needs to be blown wide open. They are once again going back to the South Ocean to kill whales for no other reason than to "save face" against their old nemesis Sea Shepherd. Meanwhile Japanese citizens are not getting the governmental aid they need so that the whaling mafia can grow richer on the backs of gentle sentient cetaceans and radiation contaminated people.
:mad:

[Rex]

5. Over? It is merely beginning.

We can only dream that it is over...