Foreign Policy Blogs

after the quake

after the quake

(Fuji TV screen shot)

The death toll in Friday’s earthquake, now estimated to have measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, has now reached 687. Fuji TV is reporting that the number of dead and missing is 2800. There are now conflicting reports of a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) nuclear power plant. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the metal container encasing the reactor did not explode, while Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the explosion at the plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core. Aftershocks continue to tremor in Tokyo, and the media now fear another large quake will follow.

It is beyond the scope of this blog to report all the earthquake news, which is continuously being reported live on all the news networks. Rather, I would like to take a moment to turn away from the headlines and comment on the reaction to the earthquake here on the ground.

One thing I am watching for in the news is whether Japan makes the same bureaucratic mistakes in responding to this earthquake as it did in the aftermath of the 7.2-magnitude quake that devastated Kobe in 1995. In the 1995 quake, which killed more than 6400 people, two days passed before police and rescue workers were dispatched in adequate numbers to the disaster site. In fact, local yakuza mobsters were assisting in a concerted rescue effort before authorities. Rescue dogs that had been flown in specially from Switzerland to paw through rubble were quarantined at the airport for a week. Officers appointed to certain sectors of the city refused to come to the aid of victims trapped under rubble in another sector a few yards away.

So far the current response appears to be much more efficient. The quake seems to have shaken up the country’s bureaucrats. Politicians have placed aside their partisan bickering for the moment to work for the good of the public.

I am anxious as to whether a meltdown has already occurred in Fukushima. When the Monju plant near Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture, suffered a liquid sodium leak in 1995, officials from the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (Donen), which manages Japan’s nuclear-power program, reported the leakage of more than three tons as “minimal.” They then proceeded to cover-up the accident, rather than inform the public. In 1999, after employees at a plant in To kai, Ibaraki prefecture, dumped so much uranium into a settling basin that it reached critical mass and exploded into uncontrolled nuclear fission, firefighters called to the scene rushed in without protective suits. After they were all contaminated with radiation, no hospital in the vicinity could handle the victims. There was no neutron measurer in the entire city, even though Tokai had 15 nuclear facilities. By the time authorities took measures seven hours later, 4.5 millisieverts of neutrons had leaked per hour, four-and-a-half times the annual limit for safe exposure.

The current conflicting reports of the situation at the plants in Fukushima have disturbing parallels to the reactions to the disasters in Tsuraga and Tokai described above.

I am also watching for reports of criminal disorder in the disaster areas. Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, who is currently up for reelection (I was originally planning to write about him for Friday’s post–before the earthquake), once told a unit of the country’s Ground Self-Defense Forces to be prepared for rioting by foreigners in the event of a disaster, saying, “Atrocious crimes have been committed again and again by sangokujin and other foreigners. We can expect them to riot in the event of a disastrous earthquake.” Sangokujin is a pejorative for residents from the former Japanese colonies of Korea and Taiwan. So far reports of rampant crime in the aftermath of the quake have not materialized.

In fact, the public has been fairly orderly in the aftermath of the quake. Footage of lines for provisions shows victims waiting patiently to receive bottles of water. In emergency shelters, evacuees sit around quietly reading newspapers. I attribute this to the value that Japanese society places on harmony. This is one of the advantages of Japan’s collectivist society.

The full extent of the quake’s damage is still unknown, and I imagine it will be top news in Japan and the rest of the world for some time.

 

Author

Dustin Dye

Dustin Dye is the author of the YAKUZA DYNASTY series, available through the Amazon Kindle.

He lived in Okayama, Japan, where he taught English at a junior high school through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program for three years. He is a graduate from the University of Kansas, where he received a bachelor's degree in anthropology.

His interest in Japan began in elementary school after seeing Godzilla fight Ghidorah, the three-headed monster. But it wasn't until he discovered Akira Kurosawa's films through their spaghetti Western remakes that he truly became fascinated in the people and culture of Japan.

He lives in Kansas with his wife, daughter and guinea pig.

Visit him online at www.dustindye.net.
E-mail him: [email protected]