YouTube Added: 12.01.2012
MP Seiichiro Murakami:
If Japan was attacked by nuclear weapons, the government would immediately tell it to the public, wouldn’t it?
This accident is nearly as serious as that.
…
You’re still off the mark. Let me tell you this.
I have a friend whose wife works for a French company in Japan.
I heard from him that as early as March 13 through 15, Embassy of France told its staff to escape to Kansai or the areas further west.
The Embassy also instructed French companies’ employees to do the same.
In addition, as written in this material, the U.S. government wanted American citizens living within 80km radius of the nuclear plant to evacuate out.
But if U.S. Embassy had given such an direction, all the citizens in Japan might have fled to Nagoya or Osaka, leaving Tokyo, and a panic would have ensued.
So they decided not to do it, simply because they didn’t want to spoil the amicable relationship with Japan.
Let me ask you straight. Why didn’t Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary know about the grave situation when the U.S. and France knew it?
Description:
This video clip is part of the questions and answers at the Lower House’s Budget Committee on November 8, 2011.
The questioner is Mr. Seiichiro Murakami, MP, LDP, and the answerer is Mr. Yukio Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. He was Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time of the Fukushima-1 nuclear plant accident.
In the early days of the accident, Edano repeated the phrase “There is no immediate effect on health” at his press conferences, which successfully gave a false impression to the public that the accident is not a big deal and the radiation is not dangerous.
For more on this, please go to: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/11/yukio-edano-rewriting-history-i-said-no.html
Original video: http://youtu.be/ftG5epYmd2U
Translation by Ex-SKF blog & tokyobrowntabby and captioning by tokyobrowntabby.
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