[ RadSafe ] Claim that Japan must not hold the Olympic Games due to Fukushima

[Roger Helbig]

This French anti-nuclear fanatic voices a common claim by the
anti-nukes that the Tokyo Olympics should be cancelled because in
their view the radiation level in Tokyo is too high.  Please, pass
this to your Japanese colleagues for their comment and awareness.

Roger Helbig

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: nuclear-news <comment-reply at wordpress.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 2:36 PM
Subject: [New post] nothing has been resolved at Fukushima, Japan must
not sponsor something like the Olympic Games
To: rwhelbig at gmail.com


dunrenard posted: " I strongly support “an honorable retreat from the
2020 Olympic Games" which is called for by former PM Hatoyama and a
former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata. Hatoyama
says, in an interview with the Japan Times, “In a situation in whic"
Respond to this post by replying above this line

New post on nuclear-news

nothing has been resolved at Fukushima, Japan must not sponsor
something like the Olympic Games

by dunrenard

I strongly support “an honorable retreat from the 2020 Olympic Games"
which is called for by former PM Hatoyama and a former Japanese
Ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata.
Hatoyama says, in an interview with the Japan Times, “In a situation
in which nothing has been resolved at ‪#‎Fukushima‬, Japan must not
sponsor something like the Olympic Games.”
Hatoyama also said “There are still many inhabitants of the Tohoku
region living in temporary housing. Moreover, the government has yet
to admit the truth about the accident despite its having been more
severe than Chernobyl. It is regrettable that the government has
failed in its duty to inform both the people of Japan and the world
about the true situation. The government even goes so far as to deny
the increased incidents of thyroid cancer in the Fukushima region are
connected to radiation releases from the multiple meltdowns.”
Hatoyama believes the government claimed the situation at nuclear
plant was “under control” in order to lure the 2020 Olympic Games to
Tokyo. “The government was successful in this ploy,” he says, “but
this was a complete lie. Far from having been under control then, it
is still not under control even now. This is a grave situation.”
He also shared interesting comments about Okinawa and the US base
issues in the following exclusive interview with the Japan Times.

Hatoyama dreams of a Japan anchored within a united Asia
“I wish to apologize to the Japanese people for having betrayed their
expectations,” says Yukio Hatoyama halfway through our interview,
lowering his head and bowing deeply.
Hatoyama, prime minister for nine months of the Democratic Party of
Japan’s three years in power between 2009 and 2012, is discussing the
reasons behind his resignation in June 2010 — specifically, his
failure to live up to his party’s promise to block the contentious
U.S. Marine Corps base construction now underway at Henoko in Okinawa.
Recently, the former DPJ leader has been in the news for other mea
culpas in Nanjing and Seoul — apologies made, he says, on behalf of
Japanese for colonial-era crimes in Asia. These unsanctioned trips
have incensed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has painted
Hatoyama as a charlatan and even a traitor for his foreign escapades.
For those having trouble placing Hatoyama among the three DPJ figures
who served as prime minister in that brief, heady period when power in
postwar Japan changed hands, he is the one who led the DPJ to that
historic victory. You know — the “alien.”
Hatoyama, now 68 and retired from politics, has never been able to
shake that nickname. Coined by the domestic media in 2001 during his
first stint as DPJ leader, the foreign press had a field day with
Hatoyama’s extraterrestrial appellation, rejoicing in the fact that
they finally had a Japanese leader who stood out from the crowd.
But what was it that made Hatoyama appear so otherworldly? True, his
saucer-like eyes did give him a vague resemblance to E.T., but his
nickname was not just the product of his looks and his manner; it also
owed much to his proposals — proposals that were and remain anathema
to Japan’s conservative establishment.
But how did Hatoyama, who came from a well-known, politically
conservative family, become a maverick? In an exclusive interview with
The Japan Times, Hatoyama discussed a range of issues, including
Okinawa, the relationship between the Fukushima No. 1 disaster and the
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and his proposal for the creation of an
“East Asian EU.” He began by explaining the circumstances that led him
to resign the prime minister’s post in 2010 after only nine months in
office.
“The DPJ, of which I was leader, proposed a revision of the Japan-U.S.
Status of Forces Agreement in our manifesto for the 2009 House of
Representatives election. We also proposed the realignment of the U.S.
military in Japan, including a review of the state of U.S. bases,” he
explains. “As for the relocation of the U.S. Marine base to Henoko, I
personally said that at the very least, it should be moved outside
(Okinawa) Prefecture. However, as soon as the DPJ took power,
bureaucrats close to the U.S. in the Foreign Ministry and Defense
Ministry moved to crush my proposal.”
In the end, Hatoyama’s idea went nowhere, and Henoko was confirmed as
the proposed site for the new base. Many Okinawans — and DPJ voters —
felt betrayed, and the party began to fear defeat in the Upper House
elections of July 2010. “So I decided to resign,” Hatoyama confesses.
“There was no excuse.”
During his time in office, Hatoyama also emphasized the need for a
less lopsided Japan-U.S. relationship.
“I thought that as prime minister, it was only natural for me to seek
an equal relationship with the United States. However, there are many
(Japanese) politicians and bureaucrats who believe that because Japan
is dependent on the U.S. in so many ways, it isn’t appropriate to seek
an equal relationship. Once again, my proposal ended in failure.”
This was the first time in the postwar period that a Japanese prime
minister had made such a demand. Hatoyama even dared suggest that
Japan’s security could be achieved without a permanent U.S. troop
presence. None of this was welcomed by those, on both sides of the
Pacific, long accustomed to Japan’s subservience to U.S. interests.
Hatoyama was born in 1947 and graduated from the University of Tokyo
before going to earn a Ph.D. in industrial engineering at Stanford.
Upon graduation, he initially pursued an academic career, but later
decided to run for the House of Representatives in 1986.
His lofty aim was to “restore sovereign power to the people, breaking
from a system dependent on the bureaucracy,” he says, and to
“transform Japan from a centralized state to one of regional and local
sovereignty, and from an insular island to an open maritime state.”
During his campaign, Hatoyama took advantage of his experience as a
researcher and garnered public attention with his unique appeal for “a
scientific approach to politics.” Following his election, he quickly
became a controversial figure for, among other things, revealing the
huge scale of political campaign funding the LDP was receiving from
business interests — even though he was a member of the party at the
time.
“I eventually left the Liberal Democratic Party because of repeated
incidents involving money and politics, such as the Recruit
insider-trading and corruption scandal of 1988 and Shin Kanemaru’s
huge tax evasion affair of 1992,” Hatoyama says. “Political reform was
urgently called for, but the LDP was unwilling to act.”
A messy political realignment soon followed, eventually leading to the
creation of the current iteration of the Democratic Party of Japan in
1998. Hatoyama went on to lead the party between 1999 and 2002, and
again from May 2009. The DPJ grew steadily until finally, in September
2009, it succeeded in ousting the scandal-tainted LDP.
Hatoyama became Japan’s 93rd prime minister, though he would not
remain so for long. Government bureaucrats, long accustomed to running
the country behind the scenes, acted quickly to undermine his
administration and hasten its demise.
Hatoyama says that Defense Ministry officials attempted to scuttle his
plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base outside of
Okinawa by claiming that any replacement facility must be located
within 65 miles (105 km) of the marines’ Northern Okinawa Training
Area. “The bureaucrats and ministers who should have been doing their
best to support me were in fact attempting to resolve the matter by
supporting the U.S.,” Hatoyama says.
The 65-mile requirement effectively precluded moving the base off the
main island of Okinawa, which is a convenient 70 miles long. Yet the
source of this apparent requirement remains elusive. Hatoyama says the
Defense Ministry simply claimed that this figure was included in a
U.S. military document. “Whether or not this requirement was expressly
stated in the document remains unclear even now,” he notes.
But what about the U.S.? Were American officials also involved in the
attempt to derail Hatoyama’s base relocation plans? Apparently not,
Hatoyama says.
“No documents on the U.S. side support the claim of Defense Ministry
officials. Thus, it can be said their claim was groundless,” he
explains. “It’s possible it was just their way of forcing me to
abandon my proposal. However, when we consider the feelings of the
Okinawan people, there’s no way they would grant permission for the
base to be relocated within Okinawa.”
At this point in the interview, Hatoyama bowed and offered his apology.
Another blow to the fledgling DPJ administration came in December
2009, when it was revealed that Hatoyama had received some ¥1.2
billion in political donations that had been improperly reported. Most
of the money came from his mother, the wealthy heiress to the
Bridgestone empire, though ¥400 million of this was listed as coming
from fictitious donors — including some who were deceased.
While Hatoyama denied personal knowledge of the donations, he later
apologized to the nation for the scandal and promised to pay more than
¥600 million in gift taxes on donations made to him by his mother that
were first deemed as “loans.” Hatoyama recognizes the major impact
this issue had on his tenure as prime minister, admitting, “The
political donations I received from my mother were the second major
reason I had to resign.”
Prosecutors declined to bring charges against Hatoyama, citing
insufficient evidence of criminal activity. They did, however, indict
two of his former secretaries, resulting in a ¥300,000 fine for one
and a suspended sentence for the other. While no question of corporate
bribery or political favors was involved, the incident nevertheless
served to raise questions in the public’s mind about just how
different the DPJ was from the money-tainted politics of the
long-ruling LDP.
The media was unforgiving. After all, Hatoyama had already managed to
upset both the establishment media and their new-media competitors.
The former fought against his proposal to open up the prime minister’s
news conferences to journalists from outside the cozy “press club,”
and the latter were angry after he failed to follow through on that
pledge.
“When I became prime minister, I tried to abolish the press-club
system, which had become a vested interest for its members,” Hatoyama
explains. “However, I was subject to a fierce counterattack.”
One club-affiliated reporter told Hatoyama that the prime minister’s
press conferences were not something he was in charge of but, rather,
something the press club sponsored.
Although by March 11, 2011, Naoto Kan was prime minister, Hatoyama was
still a member of the House of Representatives, and the multiple
disasters — especially the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima No. 1 plant
— affected him deeply. In the December 2011 issue of the magazine
Nature, Hatoyama co-authored an article expressing his concerns about
both the radioactive and political fallout from the accident.
Titled “Nationalize the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant,” Hatoyama
first pointed out the need “to know precisely what happened (on March
11, 2011) and what is continuing to happen now.” He further argued
that only when all the evidence relating to the accident had been
gathered and made public “will the world be able to have faith in the
containment plan developed by Tepco or be able to judge how it should
be modified.”
Hatoyama and two fellow Diet members formed a committee to conduct an
independent investigation of the accident. The group reached two major
conclusions, outlined in the Nature article. First: “The Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant must be nationalized so that information
can be gathered openly. Even the most troubling facts should be
released to the public.” Second: “A special science council should be
created to help scientists from various disciplines work together on
the analyses. That should help to overcome the dangerous optimism of
some of the engineers who work within the nuclear industry.”
Although Hatoyama is no longer a Diet member, he has not lost interest
in this issue. Recently, he joined former Japanese Ambassador to
Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata in calling for “an honorable retreat from
the 2020 Olympic Games.” Echoing Murata, who was also present at the
interview, Hatoyama says, “In a situation in which nothing has been
resolved at Fukushima, Japan must not sponsor something like the
Olympic Games.”
Hatoyama elaborates: “There are still many inhabitants of the Tohoku
region living in temporary housing. Moreover, the government has yet
to admit the truth about the accident despite its having been more
severe than Chernobyl. It is regrettable that the government has
failed in its duty to inform both the people of Japan and the world
about the true situation. The government even goes so far as to deny
the increased incidents of thyroid cancer in the Fukushima region are
connected to radiation releases from the multiple meltdowns.”
Hatoyama believes the government claimed the situation at nuclear
plant was “under control” in order to lure the 2020 Olympic Games to
Tokyo. “The government was successful in this ploy,” he says, “but
this was a complete lie. Far from having been under control then, it
is still not under control even now. This is a grave situation.”
Hatoyama’s change of mind is significant because as prime minister in
October 2009 he had given a speech in Copenhagen in support of Tokyo’s
failed bid for the 2016 Games. At the time, he sought to promote a new
image of the Olympics centered on environmental protection, held in
harmony with nature and celebrating simplicity.
March 11, 2011, however, changed everything. Again, like Murata,
Hatoyama stresses that he is not opposed to the Olympics per se, but
asks: Why now, and why Tokyo — especially in the absence of any
pressing need to do so? Hatoyama nods in assent when Murata states:
“At this point there is no other solution than to stage an honorable
retreat from the games. Failure to do so will ultimately lead to a
disgraceful retreat, dishonoring our country. The time to act is now!”

Hatoyama’s reservations about Japan’s future are not limited to either
Fukushima or the Olympics. Politically and militarily, Hatoyama
believes Japan is moving in an ever more dangerous direction.
“Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe’s recent passage of the collective
security bills has made it possible for America to call upon Japan to
participate in its wars,” he says. “However, the Constitution states
that Japan will never again wage war and, accordingly, rejects the
threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
He continues: “Given this, I deeply regret that the road to our
participation in war has been opened once again. It may be
presumptuous of me to say this now that I am no longer a politician,
but in light of the wrong direction our country is currently heading
in, I earnestly hope for an end to the Abe regime.”
Just as relations between Tokyo and Beijing were sinking to new lows
over historical and territorial issues, Hatoyama infuriated the Abe
government with his decision to visit Nanjing in January 2013. At the
Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, he bowed and offered a silent prayer,
later explaining, “As a Japanese, I feel responsible for the tragedy,
and I am here expressing my sincere apology.”
While in Nanjing, Hatoyama also urged the Japanese government to
acknowledge the dispute between the two countries concerning
sovereignty of the islands known the Senkakus in Japanese and Diaoyu
in China. “The Japanese government says there are no territorial
disputes, but if you look at history, there is a dispute,” he says.
Hatoyama’s comments led Japanese government officials to criticize him
for admitting the existence of a territorial dispute with China,
something they adamantly deny. The defense minister at the time went
so far as to use the word “traitor.”
“If his remarks have been politically used by China, I’m unhappy,”
said Itsunori Onodera. “At that moment, the word ‘traitor’ arose in my
mind.”
In March 2015, Hatoyama made another controversial trip, this time to
Crimea, where he expressed his belief that Japan should “normalize”
relations with Russia by lifting sanctions imposed after Moscow’s
annexation of the Ukrainian territory. Hatoyama defended the
referendum in the region as constitutional, stating, “Crimea wasn’t
annexed unilaterally under pressure from Russia. In fact, people
reached a conclusion based on their own strong will.”
Once again, Hatoyama’s remarks earned him the condemnation of the
Japanese government. “It’s unthinkable that such action and comments
came from a person who was once prime minister,” said Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Suga also described Hatoyama’s behavior as
“extremely imprudent.”
In August 2015, just prior to Prime Minister Abe’s statement
commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II,
Hatoyama visited the Seodaemun Prison History Hall in Seoul. He knelt
down in front of a memorial stone to apologize to Korean independence
activists jailed, tortured and executed during Japan’s colonial
control of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
“In the hope that no such mistake is made in the future, I regard, in
a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express
here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt
apology,” he said.
Though Hatoyama’s actions may seem quixotic or even deliberately
provocative to some, they are best understood through the prism of his
world view, which stands in stark contrast to one of the guiding
principles of modern Japan in the years following the Meiji
Restoration. Promoted by the famous Meiji educator Yukichi Fukuzawa,
this principle is known as Datsu-A Ron or the “Goodbye Asia doctrine.”
Fukuzawa maintained, “It is better for us to leave the ranks of Asian
nations and cast our lot with the civilized nations of the West.”
While not turning his back on the West, Hatoyama nevertheless seeks to
redirect Japan’s focus away from the U.S. and back to its geographical
location in Asia. He imagines a Japan at peace with its neighbors —
from Russia in the north to China and South Korea — and at ease with
its position on the edge of the continent.
With this dream in mind, Hatoyama created the East Asian Community
Research Institute in March 2013, with the ultimate goal of creating
something resembling an East Asian EU. With membership open to the
general public, the institute, through its educational arm, Sekai Yuai
Forum, holds lectures and other events to promote Hatoyama’s vision.
All of which brings us back to the issue of the U.S. military presence
on Okinawa. Hatoyama continues to be concerned about the struggle of
the Okinawan people against the construction of the new U.S. base at
Henoko. This led to a series of trips to Okinawa seeking a solution to
this intractable problem. As recently as November, Hatoyama visited
the island to encourage the anti-base demonstrators at Henoko.
Hatoyama envisions a future for Okinawa not as a “keystone of the
Pacific” for the U.S. military but as a “keystone of peace” for the
countries of Asia. He has called for the creation of an “East Asian
Community” headquartered in Okinawa and composed of the 10 members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South
Korea.
“It is important for the countries of East Asia to become
self-reliant, helping one another by developing win-win
relationships,” he explains. “Should, however, they engage in a
military arms race, it would only lead to a decline in deterrent
power.”
“If Europe can do it,” says Hatoyama, pointing to the continent’s
postwar integration, “there is no reason East Asia can’t.”
Source : Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/01/20/our-lives/hatoyama-dreams-japan-anchored-within-united-asia/#.VqFRnFLzN_k

Special credits to Mari Inoue & Libbe Halevy

dunrenard | January 21, 2016 at 10:36 pm | Tags: Contamination,
radiation, Tokyo Olympics | Categories: Fukushima 2016 | URL:
http://wp.me/phgse-lJz

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