Message from Alex in Tokyo, America could take a lesson from Japan

Leakspinner passes on an email message from the Frenchman Alex in Tokyo, aside from having to deal with the radiation the Japanese people are being well taken care of by the government. Which is the way is should be, all this propaganda against the government and socialism is nonsense. When people are provided with an education, decent housing,  medical care and a job you have a far more productive society with people who are actually happy with their life circumstance. Corporations are using the Republican party and the conservative right to turn American’s against government with the false appeal of privatizing the U.S. into a third world country.

Where is the housing for all the homeless tornado and flood victims?  Financial support for the BP oil victims who lost their livelihoods and medical cards for people who are getting sick from toxic chemicals in the oil and the Corexit? No, a tax break to a corporation or for the wealthy is more important, while people who want to destroy government are asking for money and your vote to run for public government offices?! The hypocrisy is endless.

Images Of Devastation In Japan A Month After The Earthquake

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-japan-post-earthquake-2011-4#-1

Over one month after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami the link above leading to the photo gallery tells the tale of courage, strength and determination to overcome this crippling disaster. Under  extremely challenging circumstances, the Japanese people reflect an air of dignity, courtesy and enormous  inner strength many Americans could take example from.

Fishing Halted in Japan’s Ibaraki After Radioactive Water Contaminates Sea

By Aya Takada – Apr 6, 2011

Fishermen in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan’s fifth-largest seafood producer, halted operations after tainted fish were detected south of Fukushima, where radioactive water from a stricken nuclear plant contaminated the sea.

About 96 percent of fishing off the coast of Ibaraki was suspended after sand lance contaminated with higher-than- acceptable levels of cesium were discovered yesterday, said Tomoki Mashiko, assistant director at the fishing policy division of the prefectural government. Fishing in Ibaraki had been suspended since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, restarted as early as March 28, and then suspended again today.

Sushi restaurants and hotels, including Shangri-La Asia’s luxury chain, dropped Japanese seafood from their menus because of radiation fears. Japan exported 565,295 metric tons of marine products worth 195 billion yen ($2.3 billion) last year. A fishing industry group in Fukushima asked Tokyo Electric Power Co. to stop dumping toxic water into the sea as the operator of the damaged nuclear plant struggles to stem radiation leakage.

“The action may be undermining the whole fishing industry in Japan,” Ikuhiro Hattori, chairman for the National Federation of Fisheries Co-Operative Associations, told a vice trade minister today, referring to Tepco dumping water.

Fishermen Compensation

The detection of tainted sand lance dealt a blow to Ibaraki fishermen who were recovering from the natural disaster and were resuming operations, Mashiko said. The prefecture produced 191,010 tons of fish worth 20 billion yen ($234 million) in 2008, representing 3.4 percent of Japan’s output, government data show.

Fishermen from Ibaraki’s southern port of Hasaki weren’t allowed to ship their products to a market in neighboring Chiba prefecture, Mashiko said.

“We expect Tokyo Electric to treat fishermen in the same way as it prepares to compensate farmers for their lost sales because of radioactive contamination,” Mashiko said in an interview today. The prefecture will increase monitoring of marine products for radioactivity and decide which area and what type of fish are safe for commercial operations, he said.

Japan has restricted vegetable and raw-milk shipments from Fukushima and nearby prefectures after discovering contaminated products through random testing.

Tepco, owner of the nuclear plant hit by Japan’s biggest quake on record, slumped as much as 19 percent to a record low today. The utility may make a preliminary compensation payment of 1 million yen ($12,000) to each household near its crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant, Kyodo News reported.

Shifting Demand

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-04-06/fishing-halted-in-japan-s-ibaraki-after-radioactive-water-contaminates-sea.html

Latest news Fukushima 2011 Japan and the victims of nuclear power plant catastrophe. 04-04-2011

ABC News coverage on the continuing nuclear crisis in Japan, along with the heart wrenching struggle the thousands of survivors are enduring in the aftermath.

Loyal Dog Won’t Leave Injured Friend Behind – HELP JAPAN’S LOST & INJURED TSUNAMI PETS

You don’t have to speak Japanese to understand the sympathetic tones of the two men observing these dogs who are also disaster victims — and one loyal dog refusing to leave his hurt friend’s side. There is so much we don’t understand about the emotional lives of animals. But we know they can suffer tremendously, and we know they care for each other.
We wish all the people and animals of Japan heartfelt concern during this incomprehensibly difficult time. We know that the people of Japan will respond like these two friends, never abandoning each other in this time of need. Ganbatte kudasai! (“Don’t give up!”) — Global Animal

[ UPDATE: According to a facebook entry, a resident of Japan, Kenn Sakurai, is reporting that both dogs were found alive in Mito, Ibaraki. And thanks to the efforts of Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support, the two dogs are currently in the care of a local shelter.]

[ UPDATE: March 16, 2011 --CNN is reporting that both dogs received medical attention. The injured dog is currently at a veteranarian getting care and the loyal dog friend is at a shelter. In summary of the mens' conversation in Japanese: at first the two thought the injured dog was dead. They immediately called a vet for assistance for both dogs. The men say they wish they had brought food to give the dogs. We will continue to follow any updates on this story and the status of the injured dog who is reportedly still weak. - Global Animal]
How To Help & Donate To Japan’s Lost and Injured Pets:

http://www.globalanimal.org/2011/03/15/how-to-help-japan-pets/32243/
FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO HELP AND DONATE TO LOST AND INJURED PETS IN JAPAN, PLEASE VISIT GLOBALANIMAL.ORG.

EDITORS NOTE: While my heart goes out to all the suffering animals in Japan and I pray they receive food, shelter, medication and most of love during this crisis; I’m not affiliated with GlobalAnimal.org. If you wish to donate money to any organization always research the background to ensure the money goes towards aid.

Despite Radiation Discoveries, Some Progress Seen in Japan’s Nuclear Crisis

Mar 20, 2011

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Japanese officials reported progress Sunday in their battle to gain control over a leaking, tsunami-stricken nuclear complex, though the crisis was far from over, with the discovery of more radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water adding to public fears about contaminated food and drink.

The announcement by Japan’s Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.

This handout image, released by the Japanese Self Defense Ministry on Saturday, shows a fire engine dousing reactor number 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station on Friday.
“We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control,” Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Still, serious problems remained at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit’s reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after a monstrous earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 and left the plant unstable. As day broke Monday, Japan’s military resumed dousing of the complex’s troubled Unit 4.

The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. But the contamination spread to spinach in three other prefectures and to more vegetables – canola and chrysanthemum greens. Tokyo’s tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

The Health Ministry also advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there – about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk. But Taiwan seized a batch of fava beans from Japan found with faint – and legal – amounts of iodine and cesium.

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/20/japan-backs-off-venting-of-leaking-japan-reactor/

Sitting silent in their classroom, the 30 children whose parents have not come to collect them after tsunami swept away their town

Unbelievable stories of heartbreak and loss, the carnage is beyond our wildest imagination…

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:43 AM on 18th March 2011

• Reporters not allowed to speak to children to guard against false hope
• Ishinomaki confirms the huge number of its citizens missing
• North Eastern port town was hit by 20ft tsunami
• Fears that overall death toll has been terribly underestimated

Even amid the carnage and despair of Japan’s tsunami victims, the plight of the 30 children at Kama Elementary School is heartbreaking.

They sit quietly in the corner of a third-floor classroom where they have waited each day since the tsunami swept into the town of Ishinomaki for their parents to collect them. So far, no one has come and few at the school now believe they will.

Teachers think that some of the boys and girls, aged between eight and 12, know their fathers and mothers are among the missing and will never again turn up at the gates of the school on the eastern outskirts of the town, but they are saying nothing.

Desolate: An elderly woman stands on a flooded street near her destroyed house at Ishinomaki, northeastern Japan, where 10,000 people are missing 

Wholesale destruction: A few ruined houses are all that lies scattered amid the sludge of Ishinomaki

Instead, they wait patiently reading books or playing card games watched over by relatives and teachers, who prevent anyone from speaking to them.

Officials fear that even the sound of the door sliding back might raise false hope that a parent has come to collect them. Their silence is in marked contrast to other children playing in the corridors of the four-storey building, whose parents survived due to a complete fluke.

Sports teacher Masami Hoshi said: ‘The tsunami came just when the parents of the middle age group were starting to arrive to collect their children so we managed to get them inside and to safety.

‘The younger ones had left with their parents a little earlier. The ones who went to homes behind the school probably survived, the ones who went the other way probably didn’t.’

More…

• ‘We’re not afraid to die’: Extraordinary courage of the Fukushima Fifty as they return to stricken power plant to fight nuclear disaster
• Don’t give up! Japanese Emperor makes a rare TV appearance to urge his people on. But now they must face a new torture, the snow
• Japanese government was ‘warned’ nuclear plants could not withstand quake
• A very selfless British hero: This young teacher whose first thought when tsunami warning sounded was how he could save terrified pupils

The school, where children’s paintings still line the walls, has no running water, electricity or heating but is home to 657 people living among corridors and rooms filled by mud and debris. It is a mile from the sea wall that was meant to protect Ishinomaki.

When the tsunami struck, 160,000 people were living in the town, which is about 50 miles north-east of Sendai. So far 425 have been confirmed dead with another 1,693, including the parents of the 30 pupils, listed as missing.

The terrible toll of Japan’s double disaster became clearer as it emerged as many as 25,000 people could be dead after Ishinomaki officials confirmed that 10,000 of their citizens were missing.

The estimated 10,000 people missing in Ishinamaki is the same figure given as in the town of Minamisanriku, also in Miyagi state, which lost around half its population when it was razed to the ground by the 20 foot high wall of water.

Story continues, photo’s: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366898/Japan-tsunami-earthquake-30-children-sit-silent-classroom-parents-vanish.html#ixzz1H8mGWmUQ

‘We have been betrayed’: Mayor of town near stricken Japanese nuclear plant claims his people have been ‘abandoned’

By David Jones
Last updated at 2:07 AM on 18th March 2011

‘We’ve been left to die’: Minamisoma’s mayor Katsunobu Sakarai told the BBC his people felt alone and in danger

The voice on the phone was calm and dignified, as befitted a proud Japanese mayor, yet this somehow made his fury more forceful.

Hours after the tsunami struck, Katsunobu Sakurai told me, he had sought advice from the government on whether to evacuate the 71,000 people in his city, which is just 12 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

At first ministerial officials simply ignored his calls. When he did manage to speak to them, they assured him there was no cause for concern; a message he accepted and dutifully relayed.

He had toed the line because that is what Japan’s civic leaders invariably do. But yesterday, far too late, the mayor of Minamisoma finally realised that he had been deceived, at best, and perhaps even lied to.

‘Of course I am angry,’ he told me through an interpreter yesterday. ‘I was ignored and then badly misled, and as a result the people were abandoned here to die.

‘But I was the one who told them it was safe to stay, and now I have decided that I must be the last person to leave this city. I have been in my office since last Friday, and I won’t go until the last person has left safely.’

For a city mayor to voice such sentiments at a time when his countrymen are being urged to stand together in the face of Armageddon is tantamount to mutiny.

He may not be the last to turn on prime minister Naoto Kan and his government as their platitudes and misinformation test the admirable forbearance of the Japanese public to its limits.

Even as foreign embassies urged their subjects to flee the country and international experts warned that Japan faces the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the Tokyo cabinet blithely played down the crisis.

As a result, many people here no longer know who or what to believe. As they hunker down in their homes and wait, this heightens their anxiety.

Cut adrift: Local residents look at debris brought by the huge tsunami in Minamisoma, before the exclusion zone was brought in

 

Survivor: Hiromitsu Shinkawa, who is from Minamisoma, was found floating ten miles from shore on his house roof

 

Desperate plight: Although many buildings were left standing, the town has still been devastated by last Friday’s tsunami

Enlarge   Safe? This map shows cities within the evacuation zones surrounding Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant

Nowhere is there more terror than in Minamisoma, a tsunami-ravaged coastal city whose outskirts are within sight of the smoke clouds billowing eerily from the nuclear plant.

Story including stunning photo’s, continues here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367208/Japan-tsunami-earthquake-Mayor-claims-people-abandoned.html#

The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people

Saturday, Mar 19 2011

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 2:13 AM on 19th March 2011

• Officials admit they may have to bury reactors under concrete – as happened at Chernobyl
• Government says it was overwhelmed by the scale of twin disasters
• Japanese upgrade accident from level four to five – the same as Three Mile Island
• We will rebuild from scratch says Japanese prime minister
• Particles spewed from wrecked Fukushima power station arrive in California
• Military trucks tackle reactors with tons of water for second day

Overwhelmed: Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cries as he leaves after a press conference in Fukushima

The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears – as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted that the disaster was a level 5, which is classified as a crisis causing ‘several radiation deaths’ by the UN International Atomic Energy.

Officials said the rating was raised after they realised the full extent of the radiation leaking from the plant. They also said that 3 per cent of the fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima plant had been severely damaged, suggesting those reactor cores have partially melted down.

After Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cried as he left a conference to brief journalists on the situation at Fukushima, a senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.

He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: ‘The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans.

‘In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that information and provided it faster.’

Nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the crisis’ severity.

Conitnues here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html#

Tsunami and Earthquake Survivors Desperate Search for Loved Ones

Amidst a gruesome recovery scene of thousands who never had a chance,  an occasional stunned survivor is pulled from the wreckage while soldiers follow the cries of a baby buried in the rumble to uncover a 4 month old baby.