Wednesday, June 20, 2012

LDP "Shadow Foreign Minister: "Prime Minister's Office Refused to Accept Radiation Data from the US"


On June 18, 2012, Asahi Shinbun reported that:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the fax from the US showing the contamination map created from the actual data collected by Global Hawk drones via the US Embassy in Tokyo on March 18 and 20 last year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Asahi that it immediately forwarded the fax to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Ministry of Education. NISA and the Ministry of Education both sat on the data.


A Lower House Representative and "Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs" of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) describes the event a bit differently.

Itsunori Onodera, a Representative from Miyagi District 6, tweeted on June 18, 2012 as follows:

福島原発事故直接の米国データ公表しなかった件、事故直接、官邸が受け付けないので、何とかして欲しいと私の事務所にも米国大使館から要請があり、官邸につなぎました。ですが結局無視されてしまいました。あまりに無責任。

About the data from the US right after the Fukushima nuclear accident started, the US Embassy asked my office to do something because the Prime Minister's Official Residence wouldn't accept the data from them directly. So I liaised with the PM's Official Residence. However, in the end it was ignored. It is just too irresponsible.


Some of the people responding to his tweet are rather critical of him. They say, "So what did you do then? Did you speak out?"

Mr. Onodera, as with many people at that time - journalists, experts, politicians, bloggers - may have self-censored so as not to cause panic among the population. Or simply, the earthquake and tsunami damage seemed overwhelmingly bigger than the nuclear accident, even after 3 (visible) explosions. (What happened in Reactor 2 is still not known or disclosed.) It was when some people were saying "Let's go out, have fun and spend money so that the economy doesn't contract and deflation further sets in", as I read at that time on an online message board in Japan.

But the government officials at the Prime Minister's Official Residence knew full well what the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident meant, as Mr. Edano was on record suggesting the evacuation plan for wider areas in Kanto be considered. If what Mr. Onodera says is true, there's some explaining to do for Mr. Edano, Mr. Kaieda, and Mr. Kan.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The earthquake and tsunami damage seemed overwhelmingly bigger than the nuclear accident, even after 3 (visible) explosions."

The earthquake and the tsunami damage were overwhelmingly bigger than the nuclear accident, despite three visible hydrogen explosions. They killed many more people than Fukushima ever will.

Anonymous said...

/disagree + your mom & your dad.

Anonymous said...

These shits Edano , Kaieda and Kan should be fucking hung from the rafters in public....

Chibaguy said...

@安保丹, I do hope you are a parody of yourself. I clicked on your blog and wasted 5 minutes of my life. From your blog: "The first thing those people demonstrating in front of the Kantei in opposition to nuclear power should do is put together a summary of their argument that there will be enough power without nuclear energy. If there’s enough, then they have to show us where this power is hidden." You do not even know what they are protesting about. I now longer just doubt you do not have a clue about what you spew do this is concrete evidence that your either dropped out of school and never learned to critically think or you are a paid troll. If you are paid, keep on working.

In response just let me know how nuclear came about and why it was introduced to Japan along why the plants are on fault lines? Also, while you are at it, explain how the nuclear industry works in Japan and how that ties into their culture? Moreover, explain why you closed your mind and took out your brain and put it in a safety deposit box?

Honestly, you asked probably the stupiest questions one could ask.

Anonymous said...

anon 11:57, Commendable outrage good sir/madam, If I could I would vote you top comment.
Bravo! Encore!

Anonymous said...

Chibaguy: Japan hands who have read Ampotan's bog over the years came to the same conclusion as you. I suspect Ampotan is more than a paid troll, it is a cell of MOFA flunkies, trying to send Japan Inc's message to the world via a silly blog, and failing miserably!

Anonymous said...

Apart from political reasons for which one needs to know who in charge knew what and who did or did not act responsibly, it almost doesn't matter. For the use of nuclear energy, all comes down to this:

1. Nuclear energy is neither as safe, nor as cheap as the people in charge would like us to believe.

2. If something goes wrong at a NPP, the people in charge either don't know what to do or don't do it for whatever reason.

3. Even if nothing goes wrong, no one knows what to do with nuclear waste and no one can afford the decommissioning costs for all existing nuclear reactors.

Facit: High time to stop using the technology to eliminate dealing with points 1. and 2. and high time to start working on a solution for point 3. while finding other energy sources.

*mscharisma*

Anonymous said...

@Chibaguy, like you i have just wasted 3 minutes of my life looking at that dickhead Ampontans blog, i noticed the silly posting about the protestors outside Nodas place.... this guy is a paid up government blogger or some shit, probably a right winger or some other fool who is ill educated and a waste of space on this Earth... Ampontan. you arsehole

Anonymous said...

pan n'atom here
in Europe we have a 26 years experience of Tchernobyl. How gov. orgs and people acted, what a catastrophic event it was, what remains NOW... Although issues remain about the number and seriousness of casualties, we have learned a lot - may be not enough though.
Whatever dramatic the pictures - and casualties of the EQ & tsunami, after 4 days - 4 explosions, I found nobody here thinking it was not a 7+ nuke accident.
Tchernobyl kind of level, may-be much worse.
Info from Areva and other agencies never went to contradict this (non scientific) feeling...
People in the nuke business and gov. surely had that information.
But Japanese people in other industry businesses were amazed I could tell them " I knew from the very first 4 days it was a disaster ", believing in Japan mastering of technology.

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