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Mayor of Fukushima city in restricted area appeals to world over plight
Kyodo News ^ | April 1, 2011

Posted on 04/01/2011 7:53:54 AM PDT by SteveH

The mayor of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, a city subject to a government directive for its residents to stay indoors to avoid radioactive fallout from a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has begun appealing to the world over the ''injustice'' of such an instruction.

Speaking in a roughly 11-minute English-subtitled video posted on the video-sharing site Youtube on March 24, Katsunobu Sakurai said the government's directive has made life extremely difficult for local residents.

''Even volunteers and those delivering relief supplies have no choice but to enter (the city) at their own risk,'' said a grim-looking Sakurai, wearing the same sort of protective clothing worn by workers in charge of disaster relief and other emergencies. ''Residents are being forced into starvation.''

The city of Minamisoma is located within a 20-30-kilometer radius of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which is leaking amounts of radioactive material into the air, soil and sea.

While the government has issued a directive for people who live within a 20-km radius of the plant to evacuate, those inside the ring have largely been left to themselves, many of them leaving on their own due to severe disruptions to their daily lives.

Kenichiro Nakata, a Minamisoma resident who made the video, said he wants the world to know that inhumane conditions exist in Japan. ''Residents affected by the disaster don't even know whether they should stay or evacuate,'' he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at english.kyodonews.jp ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bwr; fukushima; japan; nuclearenergy; radiation; tepco; tsunami
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The Japan earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis might be considered to be revealing the most functional and least functional aspects of the Japanese social fabric.

The yen price on FX might be considered as a convenient indicator of economic success or failure.

1 posted on 04/01/2011 7:53:59 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: TigerLikesRooster

ping


2 posted on 04/01/2011 7:54:56 AM PDT by SteveH (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.)
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To: SteveH

The article seems to suggest that government advised people inside the ring to leave but people have to do it on their own. No organized evacuation operation, complete with transportation and new shelters for them. This is troubling if true.


3 posted on 04/01/2011 8:01:51 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

What a nightmare.


4 posted on 04/01/2011 8:03:30 AM PDT by mowowie
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To: SteveH

I remember stuff like this after the Kobe quake some years ago. For all you hear about the organization and modernity of Japanese society, you really see some things sorely lacking. These people should be checked out and/or evacuated from the area. What kind of instruction is that to say to simply “stay indoors”? For how long?


5 posted on 04/01/2011 8:03:43 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (The most dangerous place on the face of the earth is between a liberal and their money.)
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To: mowowie

Could the US have done more? I am curious what the Bush Administration’s response would have been versus Obama’s.

Of course no matter what Bush did, the MSM would have criticized him, but I am pretty confident that it would have been more than what the Obama Administration has done.


6 posted on 04/01/2011 8:04:54 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SteveH

Thankfully it is the safest form of energy.
Otherwise this would be really bad.


7 posted on 04/01/2011 8:07:54 AM PDT by Flavius (A)
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To: SteveH

I thought Minamisoma was wiped out by the tsunami.


8 posted on 04/01/2011 8:11:48 AM PDT by cll (I am the warrant and the sanction)
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To: Flavius

I hate those kind of comments.
Flying is the safest form of transportation.
How many people have died flying on airliners.
Thousands.

Life has RISK. Sometimes bad things happen.
It took a 9.0 to cause this!
Yes it sucks, but so do rolling blackouts that cripple economies and also can cause deaths.


9 posted on 04/01/2011 8:14:00 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares ( Refusing to kneel before the "messiah".)
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To: dfwgator

“Of course no matter what Bush did, the MSM would have criticized him, but I am pretty confident that it would have been more than what the Obama Administration has done.”

I’m not defending Obama, but want to make sure that you recognize the huge effort the US military is making in Japan right now. We have 19 warships, 150 aircraft and 20,000 military personnel there, all in humanitarian support roles. Can we afford to do more?


10 posted on 04/01/2011 8:20:54 AM PDT by Hawk720
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To: dfwgator
this was a major international disaster with generationaly implications as well as possibly world-wide in its harm....

and yet the response in this country has been ho-hum......slow on the Red Cross appeal...slow on our prez speaking seriously about it...ship, he's off playing golf THAT day!.......

11 posted on 04/01/2011 8:23:21 AM PDT by cherry
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To: Flavius

What Ash said.


12 posted on 04/01/2011 8:23:36 AM PDT by agooga (Struggling every day to be worthy of their sacrifice.)
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To: Names Ash Housewares

Yep. Even greeny approved windmills kill people.


13 posted on 04/01/2011 8:26:20 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: cherry
and yet the response in this country has been ho-hum......slow on the Red Cross appeal...slow on our prez speaking seriously about it...ship, he's off playing golf THAT day!.......

And bombing a country that's no threat to us.

14 posted on 04/01/2011 8:27:12 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SteveH

I saw somewhere where they were needing Americans to go over to help in that area. Not sure if they were referring to those with nuclear knowledge but if so... I know a few right here that have quite a lot of knowledge they could share with the Japanese.

In fact, I’m sure the Japanese people will be relieved to hear that the crisis is really “not even close to a Three Mile Island” and has been over-hyped from the beginning.


15 posted on 04/01/2011 8:27:28 AM PDT by tsowellfan (http://www.cafenetamerica.com)
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To: tsowellfan

“In fact, I’m sure the Japanese people will be relieved to hear that the crisis is really “not even close to a Three Mile Island” and has been over-hyped from the beginning.”

Ahh, yes. All the so called experts on free republic telling everyone this was not a big deal.


16 posted on 04/01/2011 8:50:32 AM PDT by CSI007
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To: SteveH

http://radiation.monkut.webfactional.com/shower/tracker/city/6/

The current level in the city is about 2 micro (one one-millionth) Grays per hour. A flight from New York to Tokyo is about 200 micro Grays.

People need to get outside start getting their lives back on track.


17 posted on 04/01/2011 8:52:46 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: dfwgator
Comparing Japan to Haiti is apples to oranges, or so it seems.

Where is Sean Penn?

18 posted on 04/01/2011 8:53:39 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: CSI007

I actually put credit in them and brushed the whole crisis off. I actually feel bad now as I guess I would have prayed for those folks more than I did not knowing that it really was very serious.

Well, the buck stops at me for listening to the wrong people.


19 posted on 04/01/2011 8:55:02 AM PDT by tsowellfan (http://www.cafenetamerica.com)
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To: Flavius

OPen the main breaker to your home then, obviously you have no use for dangerous electricity at all.


20 posted on 04/01/2011 9:12:25 AM PDT by RoadGumby (For God so loved the world)
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