– #Fukushima I Nuke Accident: Dairy Farmer Commits Suicide in Soma City, Fukushima (EX-SKF, June 13, 2011):
He left a note, which said “If only there was no nuke plant…”
The dairy farmer lived outside the evacuation zones (mandatory and planned). Part of his despair was that he wouldn’t get compensated for his loss and hardship by the government because he lived outside the government-ordered evacuation zones. He was probably, and sadly, right.
Soma City is about 43 kilometers from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
Yomiuri Shinbun (3:09AM JST 6/14/2011) reports:
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It was revealed on June 13 that a dairy farmer in his 50s had committed suicide, leaving a note saying “if only there was no nuke plant”. He had already killed his cows and given up on his dairy farming.
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According to people who knew him, the farmer’s body was found in the barn on June 11. He had written on the wall of the barn with a piece of white chalk, “I don’t feel like working any more,” and “for those of you still in dairy farming, don’t let the nuke plant get you down.”
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The farmer lived in the area where the shipment of raw milk was initially halted, and he was dumping all the milk he milked from his cows. By the beginning of June, he had disposed about 30 cows. He had succeeded his parents in dairy farming. His elder sister told the Yomiuri reporter that she was reluctant to talk about his brother’s death for the sake of his children, but she wanted to tell people about the nuke plant [and how it destroyed his brother].
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One of the fellow dairy farmers, a 51-year-old man, said “He kept saying there would be no compensation [from the government] because he was not in the evacuation zones.” A 53-year-old farmer who knew him said, “Every time I contacted him, he was distressed that he had lost everything, thanks to the nuke plant.”
I wonder how many “unrelated” deaths like this one haven’t been reported after the Cernobyl incident. Radiation alone can kill, but can mental distress and post-traumatic stress related to nuclear incidents be quantified as killing factors? This is a question enthusiastic nuclear power promoters, smart with numbers, never dare to ask.