Fukushima Desolation Worst Since Nagasaki As Residents Flee

– Fukushima Desolation Worst Since Nagasaki as Residents Flee (Bloomberg, Sept. 27, 2011):

Beyond the police roadblocks that mark the no-go zone around Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, six-foot tall weeds invade rice paddies and vines gone wild strangle road signs along empty streets.

Takako Harada, 80, returned to an evacuated area of Iitate village to retrieve her car. Beside her house is an empty cattle pen, the 100 cows slaughtered on government order after radiation from the March 11 atomic disaster saturated the area, forcing 160,000 people to move away and leaving some places uninhabitable for two decades or more.

“Older folks want to return, but the young worry about radiation,” said Harada, whose family ran the farm for 40 years. “I want to farm, but will we be able to sell anything?”

What’s emerging in Japan six months since the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant is a radioactive zone bigger than that left by the 1945 atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While nature reclaims the 20 kilometer (12 mile) no-go zone, Fukushima’s $3.2 billion-a-year farm industry is being devastated and tourists that hiked the prefecture’s mountains and surfed off its beaches have all but vanished.

The March earthquake and tsunami that caused the nuclear crisis and left almost 20,000 people dead or missing may cost 17 trillion yen ($223 billion), hindering recovery of the world’s third-largest economy from two decades of stagnation.

Compensation Costs

A government panel investigating Tokyo Electric’s finances estimated the cost of compensation to people affected by the nuclear disaster will exceed 4 trillion yen, Kyodo News reported today, without saying how it got the information. The stock fell 6.2 percent to 243 yen, the lowest since June 13.

The bulk of radioactive contamination cuts a 5 kilometer to 10 kilometer-wide swath of land running as far as 30 kilometers northwest of the nuclear plant, surveys of radiation hotspots by Japan’s science ministry show. The government extended evacuations beyond the 20-kilometer zone in April to cover this corridor, which includes parts of Iitate village.

No formal evacuation zone was set up in Hiroshima after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, though as the city rebuilt relatively few people lived within 1 kilometer of the blast epicenter, according to the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum. Food shortages forced a partial evacuation of the city in the summer of 1946.

Chernobyl Explosion

On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl reactor hurled 180 metric tons of nuclear fuel into the atmosphere, creating the world’s first exclusion zone of 30 kilometers around a nuclear plant. A quarter of a century later, the zone is still classed as uninhabitable. About 300 residents have returned despite government restrictions.

The government last week said some restrictions may be lifted in outlying areas of the evacuation zone in Fukushima, which translates from Japanese as “Lucky Isle.” Residents seeking answers on which areas are safe complain of mixed messages.

“There are no simple solutions,” Timothy Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina, said. Deciding whether life should go on in radiation tainted areas is a “question of acceptable risks and trade offs.”

To Mousseau, one thing is clear.

‘Consequences’

“There will be consequences for some of the people who are exposed to levels that are being reported from the Fukushima prefecture,” Mousseau said by e-mail from Chernobyl, where he is studying radiation effects.

Japan abandoned any ambition to develop atomic weapons after the 1945 bombings. Two decades later, the nation embraced nuclear power to rebuild the economy after the war in the absence of domestic oil and gas supplies.

Tokyo Electric’s decision in the 1960s to name its atomic plant Fukushima Dai-Ichi has today associated a prefecture of about 2 million people that’s almost half the size of Belgium with radiation contamination. In contrast, Chernobyl is the name of a small town near the namesake plant in what today is Ukraine.

The entire prefecture has been stained because of the link, according to Governor Yuhei Sato.

“At Fukushima airport you don’t see Chinese and Korean visitors like before because of negative associations,” he said.

Stigmatized

The fear of radiation was prevalent after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and it stigmatized the survivors, known as hibakusha, or people exposed to radiation. Many hibakusha concealed their past for fear of discrimination that would prevent them finding work or marriage partners, according to the Japan Confederation of A-and H-bomb Sufferers Organization.

Some people believed A-bomb survivors could emit radiation and others feared radiation caused genetic mutations, said Evan Douple, Associate Chief of Research at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima.

An examination of more than 77,000 first-generation children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings found no evidence of mutations, he said.

While radiation readings are lower in Fukushima than Hiroshima, Abel Gonzales, the vice-chair of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, said similar prejudices may emerge.

“Stigma. I have the feeling that in Fukushima this will be a very big problem,” Gonzales said in a symposium held in Fukushima City on the six-month anniversary of the disaster.

Bullying

Some children that fled Fukushima are finding out what Gonzales means.

Fukushima schoolchildren were being bullied at their new school in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo for “carrying radiation,” the Sankei newspaper reported in April, citing complaints made to education authorities. An 11-year-old Fukushima boy was hospitalized in Niigata prefecture after being bullied at his new school, Kyodo News reported April 23.

Produce from Fukushima’s rich soil is also being shunned. Peaches, the prefecture’s biggest agricultural product after rice, have halved in price this year. Beef shipments from the prefecture were temporarily suspended and contamination concerns stopped the town of Minami Soma from planting rice, according to local authorities.

Fallow Land

Some land around the Fukushima reactors will lie fallow for two decades or more before radiation levels fall below Japan’s criteria for evacuation, the government said Aug. 26.

Radiation risks in the 20 kilometer zone forced the evacuation of about 8 percent, or 160,000, of some 2 million people who live in Fukushima. Almost 56,000 were sent to areas outside Fukushima, prefecture spokesman Masato Abe said by phone. More than 8,000 left on their own accord because of radiation fears, Abe said.

Inside the evacuation areas, levels of radiation higher than the government’s criteria for evacuation have been recorded at 89 of 210 monitoring posts. At 24 of the sites, the reading was higher than the level at which the International Atomic Energy Agency says increases the risk of cancer.

Japan Atomic Energy Institute researcher Toshimitsu Homma used Science Ministry data to compare the geographic scale of the contamination in Fukushima with Chernobyl.

He estimates the no-go zone in Fukushima will cover 132 square kilometers, surrounded by a permanent monitoring area of 264 square kilometers, assuming Japan follows the criteria set by the Soviet Union in 1986.

The two areas combined equal about half the size of the five boroughs that comprise New York City. In the case of Chernobyl, the two zones cover a land mass 25 times greater, according to Homma’s figures.

Intermittent Information

While scientists knew back in March that radiation contamination would create an uninhabitable zone in Fukushima, information to the public has come intermittently, said Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear physics scientist at Kyoto University.

“Many people in Fukushima have to face the reality that they cannot go back to their homes for decades,” Koide said.

Masaki Otsuka said it may be worse than that.

“I don’t think I can ever go back to my house, because it was just 4 kilometers from the Dai-Ichi reactors,” the 51-year- old pipe welder said in an interview at an evacuation center in Azuma, Fukushima city, where he has lived for six months.

People’s distrust of politicians and scientists, as well as conflicting commentary, makes it harder for residents to decide whether to stay or leave, said Michiaki Kai, a professor in environmental health science at Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Official Contradictions

Similar circumstances affected residents near Chernobyl and those close to the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in the U.S. in 1979.

“Contradiction in some official statements, and the appearance of non-scientifically based ‘expert’ voices, confused and added stress to the local populations in each case,” said Evelyn Bromet, distinguished professor in the department of psychiatry at Stony Brook State University of New York.

“Lies got told, contradictions got told. In the end it’s easier to believe nobody,” Bromet said in an interview, citing mental health studies she did on people in the areas.

What radiation hasn’t ruined, the earthquake and tsunami devastated. Fukushima prefecture welcomed 56 million domestic and overseas visitors in 2009, equal to 44 percent of Japan’s population.

Surfing Canceled

The coastal town of Minami Soma this year canceled its annual qualifying stage for the world surfing championship, part of a waterfront that lured 84,000 beachgoers in July and August last year, said Hiroshi Tadano, head of the town’s economic division. This year, nobody visited the beaches in the two months.

“Most of the beaches are destroyed,” Tadano said. “And of course, radiation played its part.”

The area’s biggest festival, Soma Noma Oi, a re-enactment of samurai battles, attracted 200,000 visitors last year. This year 37,000 came. Of the 300 horses typically used in the event, 100 were drowned in the tsunami and another 100 were evacuated due to radiation, Tajino said.

Minami Soma resident Miyaguchi, 54, lost his home and parents in the tsunami. He quit his job at Tokyo Electric, leaving him unemployed and housed in an evacuation center.

Still, he has no plans to move away. “Most people who wanted to move away have done so, but I can’t live in big cities like Tokyo,” he said, declining to give his first name.

The future of Fukushima is in the hands of residents like Miyaguchi and Harada who say they want to stay and work to reclaim their land from disaster.

A giant banner in the playground of the closed Haramachi elementary school in Minami Soma makes that a promise: “To all of you wherever you are, we say we won’t give up.”

More:

– Radiation Leakage From Fukushima Nuclear Plant So High In August It Exceeded Monitoring Equipment’s Maximum Measuring Capacity

– Fukushima Evacuation-Ready Zone To Be Abolished On Sep. 30, 2011

– Radioactive Train In Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Over 10 Microsievert/Hour Inside Train (Video)

– 105,600 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium Found On Apartment Bldg Rooftop in Yokohama City

– BBC Fukushima Propaganda Debunked (Video)

– Japanese Government To Give Radioactive Canned Fish To Developing Countries For Free To Dispel Radiation ‘Rumor’ (NHK – Video)

– Thom Hartmann, RT: Fukushima A Dire Warning To The World – Japan (Video Exposing The Criminal Japanese Government)

– Fairewinds: Safety Problems In All (Mark I) Reactors Designed Like Fukushima – Introducing A Japanese Language Edition

– Prof. Chris Busby: Help Save Children Of Fukushima From Radiation! (Video Exposing The Evil Japanese Government)

– Japanese Government to Invite Foreigners Who Have Large Facebook and Twitter Followers to Tohoku So That They Can Tell Their Followers ‘Japan Is Safe’

– Japan’s Fukushima ‘Worst In History’ – Very Dangerous Hot Spots In Tokyo – Government Traitors Still Lying (Video)

– Tokyo: 60,000 Rally Against Nukes

– Japanese Government To Send Seafood, Goods Made in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate As AID To Developing Nations

– Radioactive Japan: 42,000 Bq/Kg Cesium In Dirt In Yokohama City

– Japan To Promote Use Of Potentially Radioactive Lumber With ‘Eco-Point’ Incentive

– Voluntary Radiation Decontamination In Japan: Shorts, Short-Sleeve T-Shirts, No Masks, Sneakers, With Small Kids (In Other Words, All The Things You Should Never Do)

– Japan: Area Of More Than 8,000 Square Km Accumulated Cesium-137 Levels Of 30,000 Bec/Sq Meter

– Huge Amounts Of Neptunium 239 Detected 60 Km From Fukushima!!!

– Japanese Government Trying To Stop Citizens From Taking Their Own Radiation Measurements (NHK ‘Sunday Debate’ Program)

– Prof. Chris Busby On Children Suffering Heart Attacks In Fukushima

– Geiger Counter Measures 0.378 Microsieverts In Tokyo Train Station 1 Meter Above Ground!!!

– Japan ‘Misstated’ Radiation … ‘And So Exposed People Unnecessarily’ (WSJ)

– Prof. Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University: ‘Massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again’ – Fukushima Reactor Core May Have Sunk Into The Ground – ‘We are now head to head with a situation that mankind has never faced before’

– Fukushima Nuclear Plant Back Into Recriticality

– Fukushima: Radioactive Release Into Sea Estimated Triple

– More Cover-Ups: TEPCO’s Extreme Blackout (Submits Almost Entirely Redacted Documents – Video)

– Former Japan PM Kan: TEPCO Wanted To Abandon Fukushima! … ‘NOBODY MIGHT LIVE IN TOKYO NOW’

– Mystery Flash At Fukushima Nuclear Plant (Video – Sep. 5, 2011)

– 4 Above Limit Radioactive Cesium Tea Products Reach Market

– TEPCO: Plutonium 238, 239, 240 Detected At Fukushima Playground, Considered To Be From Triple Meltdown

– 28,000 Becquerels/Kg Of Radioactive Cesium In Wild Mushrooms in Fukushima

– Tokyo University Soil Expert: ‘This Is A Disaster Affecting All Residents Of Japan’ – ‘In 5-10 Years Time Cancer Or Illness Will Show’

– Radioactive Fish Above Legal Limit Caught in River North Of Tokyo – ‘Survey Finds Radiation Over Wide Area in Japan’ (Wall Street Journal)

– Greenpeace: Fukushima Schools Unsafe For Children With Radiation Readings As Much As 70 Times Above Safety Limit

– Fukushima Released 76 TRILLION Bequerels Of Plutonium 239

– DOOMED: Japan Gov. To Allow All RADIOACTIVE Material To Be Burned And Buried

– Fukushima Soil Contamination Exceeds Chernobyl Dead Zone At 34 Locations In 6 Municipalities, In One Location The Contamination Level Is More Than 10 Times The Chernobyl Level

– Fukushima Cesium-137 Leaks ‘Equal 168 Hiroshimas’

Fukushima City should have been evacuated a long time ago:

– Prof. Chris Busby: Fukushima Like the TITANIC – The Japanese Government Is Completely Out Of Order And If It Continuous Its Course Of Action Then It Is A Criminal Organization – ‘I Am Too Frightened To Go Closer To Meltdowns Than 100 Km’ Because Of High Levels Of Radiation

– Japanese Government To Finally Admit Forced Indefinite Long-Term Depopulation Of Fukushima Communities

– Evacuate FUKUSHIMA: Japanese Journalist Takashi Hirose: ‘It’s Like Killing Our Own Children, I Cannot Allow It To Happen’ – Teachers Force School Children To Eat Food That Their Parents Told Them Not To Eat

– Prof. Chris Busby On HOT PARTICLES – ‘The Citizens Of Fukushima Are Living In An Area Which The Soviet Union Would Have Considered To Be An Exclusion Zone In Terms Of Radioactivity’!

– WAKE-UP CALL: Prof. Tatsuhiko Kodama of Tokyo University To Japan Government ‘Shaking With Anger’: ‘What Are You Doing?’ (Part 1, 2, 3)

– Kobe University Radiation Expert Prof. Tomoya Yamauchi On Fukushima City (290,000 People): ‘Evacuation Must Be Conducted As Soon As Possible’

– Alert: Greenpeace Radiation Measurements In Fukushima City: Hot Spots At 500-700 Times Normal!!! (Video)

– Fukushima City (Over 290,000 People) Is In Danger: Greenpeace Detects Cobalt-60 And High Radiation ‘Hot Spots’ – Children Should Be Evacuated Immediately

– Prof. Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University On The UGLY TRUTH About The Nuclear Disasters Of Chernobyl And Fukushima (Video)

– Fukushima Now Equal To 50 Plus Chernobyls & 3,000 Billion Lethal Doses Of Radiation

How about Tokyo?

– ‘Severely Contaminated Hotspots’ Found In Tokyo

– Prof. Chris Busby: ‘Very High Level Of Contamination Even As Far South As Tokyo. For Example, We Found One Sample In Tokyo That Had Levels Of Radioactivity Higher Than Levels Inside The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It’s A Very Serious Matter’

Here is what the Japanese and all the other elite puppet governments are really doing here:

– Independent Scientist Leuren Moret: Japan, US, Canadian Governments Complicit In Covering Up Fukushima Radiation – ‘We Are Facing Total Extermination And Genocide’ – ‘We Are On Our Own’ (Video & Article)

– Independent Scientist Leuren Moret: Nuclear Genocide Of Babies And Children In Japan, US, Canada Grows – Elitist Depopulation Agenda – Global Nuclear Holocaust

TREASON! GENOCIDE! RADIATION EXPERIMENTS!

Watch these Japanese officials just walk away from begging Fukushima citizens:

– This Is Outrageous: Japanese Government Killing Its Own People In Fukushima (Video)

The Japanese people are used as guinea pigs:

– Hiroshima To Fukushima, Finishing The Job: A Time For The Kill – ‘The Country Of Japan Is No More And The Land Is Permanently Uninhabitable’ (Veterans Today)

– Fukushima Radiation Alarms Doctors And Scientists – ‘We Have Begun To See Increased Nosebleeds, Stubborn Cases Of Diarrhoea, And Flu-Like Symptoms In Children’, Doctor Attributes Symptoms To Radiation Exposure

– Wall Street Journal: How the Japanese Government Failed Residents of Namie, Fukushima

– Japan’s Nuclear Agency Hides Children Radiation Results

– Guinea Pigs: Children In Fukushima To Be Given Regular Cancer Tests … Instead Of Necessary Evacuation!

– AND NOW: Japanese Government Sets 100 Millisieverts As New Lifetime Standard

– Fallout! (60 Minutes): Japan’s Recovery Won’t Be Measured In Years, But Centuries – Michio Kaku: These Humans Are Guinea Pigs!

– Radiation ‘Experiment’ In Japan Just Got Bigger, As Fukushima To Fit All Infants, Kindergarteners, School Children With Radiation Monitoring Badges:

… these are not “dosimeters” but “glass badges” that passively collect radiation information. It won’t help these children or their parents to avoid high-radiation areas and spots, it won’t tell them how much radiation they will have been exposed unless they are sent in to a company to interpret the data.

This is outrageous and it is called mind-control:

– Unbelievable: Former NHK Director And Economist: ‘Doesn’t The Kyoto City Government Know That Radioactive Materials Will Be Dissolved And Rendered Harmless Once They Get Burned?’

– AND NOW … Meet The 3 Japanese Scientists That Say: ‘Plutonium is Not That Dangerous’ (Video)

– How the Brainwashing Was Done in Fukushima: Government Twitter Propaganda Would Make Josef Goebbels Proud

– Post-Nuke Reconstruction Plan for Fukushima Prefecture: World-Class Radiation Medicine, Radiation Contamination Removal, Renewable Energy

– Not A Joke: Japan Government To Seek UNESCO Endorsement For Its Food To Promote Food Exports And To Restore Trust In The Safety Of Japanese Food

– Friggin’ Unbelievable: Fukushima Radiation Health Risk Advisor Prof. Dr. Yamashita Of Nagasaki University On Fukushima And Radiation (MUST-SEE!!!)

– And Now: Japanese Doctor Says ‘Radiation Is Good For You’, ‘Like An Angel’s Smile (Even At 50 Millisieverts/Year)’

There are no safe levels of radiation:

– Prof. Karl Grossman: ‘Radiation Hormesis An Incredible Lie’

– Japanese Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situation: ‘I Just Cannot Feel Any Hope For Japan’s Future’

– AIOM (Italian Association of Medical Oncology) President Carmelo Iacono: ‘Nuclear Radiation Is The Most Carcinogenic Thing That Exists’

– IAEA Admits: There Is No Such Thing As ‘Safe’ Levels Of Radiation

– Prof. Chris Busby: ‘There’s No Doubt Fukushima Dwarfs Chernobyl’ – ‘There Has Been A Massive Cover-Up And That Cover-Up Is Still Going On (The Negative Health Effects Of Low-Dose Radiation From Fukushima!!!)

– Fairewinds’ Founder Maggie Gundersen Interviews Environmental Scientist Marco Kaltofen: Radiation In Food Is Going To Be A Nationwide Problem In The US!

– ‘Fukushima: Gross Miscarriage Of Radiation Science’ – Childrens Cancer Risk From Radiation Is 10 To 100 Times Higher For The Same Exposure To Adults

– Physicians For Social Responsibility Press Conference (04/26/2011): Chernobyl, Fukushima And Nuclear Power – Disturbing Facts!

– Dr. Helen Caldicott On The Japan Nuclear Disaster – The Truth MSM Won’t Tell You! (Video)

– Dr. Steven Wing And Chief Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen Discuss Global Radiation Exposure and Consequences: There Is No Safe Dose of Radiation

– UC Santa Cruz Nuclear Expert Daniel Hirsch: ‘Every Amount of Radiation Exposure Increases Your Risk of Cancer.’ ‘There Is No Safe Level of Radiation.’

– Dr. Helen Caldicott: How Nuclear Apologists Mislead The World Over Radiation

– Dr. Brian Moench: There Is No ‘Safe’ Exposure To Radiation

– Dr. Peter Karamoskos: Don’t Be Fooled By A Never-Ending Cabal Of Paid Industry Scientific ”Consultants’ – Radiation Is Bad And Causes Cancer

– Are There Safe Levels of Radiation? How Much Radiation Is Safe? (Must-read!!!!!)

Radiation exposure is increased by a factor of a trillion. Inhaling even the tiniest particle, that’s the danger.

Yo: So making comparisons with X-rays and CT scans has no meaning. Because you can breathe in radioactive material.

Hirose: That’s right. When it enters your body, there’s no telling where it will go. The biggest danger is women, especially pregnant women, and little children. Now they’re talking about iodine and cesium, but that’s only part of it, they’re not using the proper detection instruments. What they call monitoring means only measuring the amount of radiation in the air. Their instruments don’t eat. What they measure has no connection with the amount of radioactive material.

Dr. Helen Caldicott (Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility):

– The Propaganda From The Government And The Nuclear Industry About Low-Level Radiation Is Absolute Rubbish:

You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative … that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days.”

Bizarre:

– TEPCO Informed The Japanese Government JUST 4 DAYS BEFORE March 11 Earthquake That The Fukushima Nuke Plant Would Not Withstand A Tsunami With Waves Exceeding 10 Meters

Big Brother Japan:

– Japanese Government Approves Over $900,000 In Funds To Combat ‘Erroneous Information’ (=Truth) About Fukushima

– Big Brother Japan: Government Monitors Tweets And Blog Posts To ‘Track Down Inaccurate Information And To Provide Correct Ones Instead

Radiation is now everywhere:

– 27,000 Becquerels/Kg Found At Kindergarten Over 200 Miles From Fukushima Nuke Plant

– New Scientific Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, As Contamination Spreads In Japan And Worldwide

– High Level Radioactive Cesium In Manure From Radioactive Fukushima Cows, Pigs That Have Been Sold To Farmers All Over Japan

– 4,000 Potentially Radioactive Cows Shipped from One Farm in Namie-Machi, Fukushima

– Japan Government To Lift Ban On Sales And Shipment Of Radioactive Fukushima Beef

– Fukushima: 186,000 Becquerels Per Kg Radioactive Cesium in Aizu Wakamatsu City