Japan's Strict Building Codes Saved Lives

1

ARTIGOS DO NEW YORK TIMES SOBRE O TSUNAMI DO JAPAtildeO 2011

March 11 2011

Japanrsquos Strict Building Codes Saved Lives By JAMES GLANZ and NORIMITSU ONISHI

Hidden inside the skeletons of high-rise towers extra steel bracing giant rubber pads and embedded

hydraulic shock absorbers make modern Japanese buildings among the sturdiest in the world during a

major earthquake And all along the Japanese coast tsunami warning signs towering seawalls and well-

marked escape routes offer some protection from walls of water

These precautions along with earthquake and tsunami drills that are routine for every Japanese citizen

show why Japan is the best-prepared country in the world for the twin disasters of earthquake and tsunami

mdash practices that undoubtedly saved lives though the final death toll is unknown

In Japan where earthquakes are far more common than they are in the United States the building codes

have long been much more stringent on specific matters like how much a building may sway during a

quake

After the Kobe earthquake in 1995 which killed about 6000 people and injured 26000 Japan also put

enormous resources into new research on protecting structures as well as retrofitting the countryrsquos older

and more vulnerable structures Japan has spent billions of dollars developing the most advanced

technology against earthquakes and tsunamis

Japan has gone much further than the United States in outfitting new buildings with advanced devices

called base isolation pads and energy dissipation units to dampen the groundrsquos shaking during an

earthquake

The isolation devices are essentially giant rubber-and-steel pads that are installed at the very bottom of the

excavation for a building which then simply sits on top of the pads The dissipation units are built into a

buildingrsquos structural skeleton They are hydraulic cylinders that elongate and contract as the building

sways sapping the motion of energy

Of course nothing is entirely foolproof Structural engineers monitoring the events from a distance

cautioned that the death toll was likely to rise as more information became available Dr Jack Moehle a

structural engineer at the University of California Berkeley said that video of the disaster seemed to show

that some older buildings had indeed collapsed

The country that gave the world the word tsunami especially in the 1980s and 1990s built concrete

seawalls in many communities some as high as 40 feet which amounted to its first line of defense against

the water In some coastal towns in the event of an earthquake networks of sensors are set up to set off

2

alarms in individual residences and automatically shut down floodgates to prevent waves from surging

upriver

Critics of the seawalls say they are eyesores and bad for the environment The seawalls they say can instill

a false sense of security among coastal residents and discourage them from participating in regular

evacuation drills Moreover by literally cutting residentsrsquo visibility of the ocean the seawalls reduce their

ability to understand the sea by observing wave patterns critics say

Waves from Fridayrsquos tsunami spilled over some seawalls in the affected areas ldquoThe tsunami roared over

embankments in Sendai city washing cars houses and farm equipment inland before reversing directions

and carrying them out to seardquo according to a statement by a Japanese engineer Kit Miyamoto circulated

by the American Society of Civil Engineers ldquoFlames shot from some of the houses probably because of

burst gas pipesrdquo

But Japanrsquos ldquomassive public education programrdquo could in the end have saved the most lives said Rich

Eisner a retired tsunami preparedness expert who was attending a conference on the topic at the National

Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg Md on Friday

In one town Ofunato which was struck by a major tsunami in 1960 dozens of signs in Japanese and

English mark escape routes and emergency sirens are tested three times a day Mr Eisner said

Initial reports from Ofunato on Friday suggested that hundreds of homes had been swept away the death

toll was not yet known But Matthew Francis of URS Corporation and a member of the civil engineering

societyrsquos tsunami subcommittee said that education may have been the critical factor

ldquoFor a trained population a matter of 5 or 10 minutes is all you may need to get to high groundrdquo Mr

Francis said

That would be in contrast to the much less experienced Southeast Asians many of whom died in the 2004

Indian Ocean tsunami because they lingered near the coast Reports in the Japanese news media indicate

that people originally listed as missing in remote areas have been turning up in schools and community

centers suggesting that tsunami education and evacuation drills were indeed effective

Unlike Haiti where shoddy construction vastly increased the death toll last year or China where failure to

follow construction codes worsened the death toll in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake Japan

enforces some of the worldrsquos most stringent building codes Japanese buildings tend to be much stiffer and

stouter than similar structures in earthquake-prone areas in California as well said Mr Moehle the

Berkeley engineer Japanrsquos building code allows for roughly half as much sway back and forth at the top of

a high rise during a major quake

3

The difference Mr Moehle said comes about because the United States standard is focused on preventing

collapse while in Japan mdash with many more earthquakes mdash the goal is to prevent any major damage to the

buildings because of the swaying

New apartment and office developments in Japan flaunt their seismic resistance as a marketing technique

a fact that has accelerated the use of the latest technologies said Ronald O Hamburger a structural

engineer in the civil engineering society and Simpson Gumpertz amp Heger a San Francisco engineering

firm

ldquoYou can increase the rents by providing a sort of warranty mdash lsquoIf you locate here yoursquoll be safersquo rdquo Mr

Hamburger said

Although many older buildings in Japan have been retrofitted with new bracing since the Kobe quake

there are many rural residences of older construction that are made of very light wood that would be highly

vulnerable to damage The fate of many of those residences is still unknown

Mr Miyamoto the Japanese engineer described a nation in chaos as the quake also damaged or disabled

many elements of the transportation system He said that he and his family were on a train near the

Ikebukuro station when the earthquake struck Writing at 130 am he said that ldquowe are still not far from

where the train stoppedrdquo

ldquoJapan Railway actually closed down the stations and sent out all commuters into the cold nightrdquo he said

ldquoThey announced that they are concerned about structural safety Continuous aftershocks make me feel

like car sickness as my family and I walk on the train tracksrdquo

James Glanz reported from New York and Norimitsu Onishi from Jakarta Indonesia

March 13 2011

For Neighbor of Stricken Nuclear Plant Second Thoughts About a Centerpiece By MICHAEL WINES

para KORIYAMA Japan mdash When the earthquake and tsunami struck Friday Kumiko Fukaya ignored the

evacuation order that afternoon and instead gathered up her teenage son and daughter her mother and

her older sister Afraid to sleep in the house they spent the night in her blue 2010 Toyota hatchback

para When loudspeakers throughout the town blared another call for evacuation at 730 am Saturday mdash this

time citing problems at nuclear reactors just a few miles from her home mdash she was skeptical

para ldquoI didnrsquot think it was a big dealrdquo said Ms Fukaya 48 ldquoI thought lsquoMaybe I should stayrsquo rdquo

4

para One of the crippled plants the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is 12 miles north of Ms

Fukayarsquos hometown Tomioka The other troubled plant Daini is just three miles to the south

para By 8 am Ms Fukaya said Tomiokarsquos narrow streets were jammed with cars in orderly retreat She

loaded her family into the Toyota spent an hour hunting for gasoline went to a school for a radiation

check and then drove 37 miles west arriving at Koriyama Kita Technical High School where about 70

refugees were gathered in a makeshift evacuation center in the gymnasium

para Now Ms Fukaya says she was lulled into a sense of false complacency by the absence of past problems at

the nuclear complex

para ldquoThe entire town was enriched by Tokyo Powerrdquo she said ldquoI thought they picked a safe and secure

location So instead of opposing the nuclear plant I felt more security

para ldquoNow I realize itrsquos a scary thing But if the town recovers without the nuclear plant the town has nothing

special If based on this experience they build a stronger and safer facility I may returnrdquo

para If she is allowed to

para ldquoTherersquos no informationrdquo Ms Fukaya said ldquoNobody knows It could be years It could be monthsrdquo

para Yamada Koichi 49 who teaches English at the school was helping the refugees A burly man with a

broad smile and a shock of graying hair he bantered cheerily about the townrsquos donations describing who

had given blankets and space heaters He noted wryly that earthquake or no earthquake anxious parents

were demanding that he finish the high school entrance exams he was grading when the temblor struck

para ldquoThere is a saying in Japanrdquo Mr Koichi said ldquoIf you think you can do it then you can do itrdquo

para Then he was asked about his family

para ldquoI am from Miyakogi villagerdquo he said a seaside hamlet north of the Daiichi reactor Although he lives in

Koriyama with his wife and daughter his 80-year-old father and 76-year-old mother live in his childhood

home about a mile from the beach

para Mr Koichi has heard nothing from them since the earthquake It is too dangerous he said to go back and

look for them

para ldquoMaybe my home is gonerdquo he said His face crumpled and he covered his eyes with his hand ldquoWe have

no information because the mobile service is not good We donrsquot know whether they are alive or deadrdquo

March 13 2011

5

Second Explosion at Reactor as Technicians Try to Contain Damage By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L WALD

para TOKYO mdash A second explosion rocked a troubled nuclear power plant Monday blowing the roof off a

containment building but not harming the reactor Japanese nuclear officials announced on public

television

para The explosion underscores the difficulties Japanese authorities are having in bringing several stricken

reactors under control three days after a massive earthquake and a tsunami hit Japanrsquos northeast coast and

shut down the electricity that runs the crucial cooling systems for reactors

para Operators fear that if they cannot establish control despite increasingly desperate measures to do so the

reactors could experience full meltdowns which would release catastrophic amounts of radiation

para It was unclear if radiation was released by the explosion but a similar explosion at another reactor at the

plant over the weekend did release radioactive material

para Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed thick smoke rising from the building

para Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the release of large amounts of radiation was unlikely But

traces of radiation could be released into the atmosphere and 600 people who remained within a 12 mile

radius have been ordered to take cover indoors he said

para The countryrsquos nuclear power watchdog said readings taken soon after the explosion showed no big change

in radiation levels around the plant or any damage to the containment vessel which protects the

radioactive material in the reactor

para ldquoI have received reports that the containment vessel is soundrdquo Mr Edano said ldquoI understand that there

is little possibility that radioactive materials are being released in large amountsrdquo

para In screenings higher-than-normal levels of radiation have been detected from 22 people evacuated from

near the plant the nuclear safety watchdog said but it is not clear if the doses they received were

dangerous

para Technicians had been scrambling most of Sunday to fix a mechanical failure that left the reactor far more

vulnerable to explosions

para The two reactors where the explosions occurred are both presumed to have already suffered partial

meltdowns mdash a dangerous situation that if unchecked could lead to a full meltdown

para The reactors are both at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station where another reactor is also

having difficulties

6

para The Fukushima Daiichi plant and the Fukushima Daini power station about 10 miles away have been

under a state of emergency

para On Monday morning Tokyo Electric which runs both plants said it had restored the cooling systems at

two of three reactors experiencing problems at Daini That would leave a total of four reactors at the two

plants with pumping difficulties

para ldquoIrsquom not aware that wersquove ever had more than one reactor troubled at a timerdquo said Frank N von Hippel a

physicist and professor at Princeton explaining the difficulties faced by the Japanese

para ldquoThe whole country was focused on Three Mile Islandrdquo he said referring to the Pennsylvania nuclear

plant accident in 1979 ldquoHere you have Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese regulators focusing on

multiple plants at the same timerdquoldquo

para In what was perhaps the clearest sign of the rising anxiety over the nuclear crisis both the United States

Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Russian authorities issued statements on Sunday trying to allay

fears saying they did not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach their territory

para Late Sunday night the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Japan had added a third

plant Onagawa to the list of those under a state of emergency because a low level of radioactive materials

had been detected outside its walls But on Monday morning it quoted Japanese authorities as saying that

the radioactivity levels at the Onagawa plant had returned to normal levels and that there appeared to be

no leak there

para ldquoThe increased level may have been due to a release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear power plantrdquo the agency said The Onagawa and Daiichi plants are 75 miles apart The operator of

the Onagawa plant Tohoku Electric Power said that levels of radiation there were twice the allowed level

but that they did not pose health risks

para Soon after that announcement Kyodo News reported that a plant about 75 miles north of Tokyo was

having at least some cooling system problems But a plant spokesman later said a backup pump was

working

para The government was testing people who lived near the Daiichi plant with local officials saying that about

170 residents had probably been exposed The government earlier said that three workers had radiation

illness but Tokyo Electric said Monday that only one worker was ill

para The problems at Fukushima Daiichi appeared to be the most serious involving a nuclear plant since the

Chernobyl disaster A partial meltdown can occur when radioactive fuel rods which normally are covered

in water remain partially uncovered for too long The more the fuel is exposed the closer the reactor

comes to a full meltdown

7

para Technicians are essentially fighting for time while heat generation in the fuel gradually declines trying to

keep the rods covered despite a breakdown in the normal cooling system which runs off the electrical grid

Since that was knocked out in the earthquake and diesel generators later failed mdash possibly because of the

tsunami mdash the operators have used a makeshift system for keeping cool water on the fuel rods

para Now they pump in new water let it boil and then vent it to the atmosphere releasing some radioactive

material But they are having difficulty even with that and have sometimes allowed the water levels to drop

too low exposing the fuel to steam and air with resulting fuel damage

para On Sunday Japanese nuclear officials said operators at the plant had suffered a setback trying to bring

one of the reactors under control when a valve malfunction stopped the flow of water and left fuel rods

partially uncovered The delay raised pressure at the reactor

para At a late-night news conference officials at Tokyo Electric Power said that the valve had been fixed but

that water levels had not yet begun rising

paraHiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo and Matthew L Wald from Washington Michael Wines

contributed reporting from Koriyama Japan and Ellen Barry from Moscow

March 13 2011

Residents Who Escaped Return to See What if Anything Is Left of Their Lives By MARTIN FACKLER

NATORI Japan mdash One couple rode out the tsunami on top of an irrigation tower crammed in with three

other people A man had to abandon his car in a field and run for it Another couple simply got lucky

riding out the torrents in their house one of the few in a swath of destruction that inexplicably held

together

They began streaming back to this stricken rice farming town on Monday morning long lines of people

returning to see what if anything was left of their lives after the waves came They walked slowly gazing in

bewilderment at a scene that they could only struggle to comprehend

Officials said the death toll in Fridayrsquos tsunami was certain to exceed 10000 But even that seemed

conservative mdash a leading Japanese daily reported Monday that 20000 people in two small coastal towns

were missing

Many returning here Monday were in tears One couple said between sobs that they were trying to find

their elderly mother whom they had been forced to leave behind There were many older people in the

area residents said and many of them were trapped in their houses

8

Until last week Natorirsquos farmers had tilled fields of rice in the summer and in the winter vegetables in

neat white rows of plastic greenhouses fields that most of the world saw inundated on Friday by a wall of

water mud cars and wooden debris

The devastation extends miles inland so much so that even some evacuation centers were reportedly

engulfed In satellite images Natori and nearby Yuriage just south of the battered city of Sendai seem to

have been swept away without a trace as if a giant razor had shaved the earth clean

Kayo Miura said she was upstairs at her house when the earthquake struck knocking her off her feet She

turned on the radio and heard a tsunami alert but she had heard those before and nothing had come of

them After all she thought the house was almost two miles from the beach

About 20 to 30 minutes later she said she saw a line of cars on her field ldquoWhy are those cars parked in the

fieldrdquo she wondered Then she saw them moving heard screams about a tsunami coming and froze Her

husband Ken ran upstairs just as the waves hit Inexplicably in an area where virtually every house was

destroyed theirs held together

Others told harrowing tales of escape When Naoko Takahashi 60 and her husband Hiromichi 64 saw a

jumble of cars and burning fuel bearing down on them they ran as fast as they could but the menacing

wall kept gaining Not sure what to do they caught sight of an irrigation tower that was 12 to 15 feet high

and scrambled up just in time joining two others in riding out the flood

ldquoThe only reason we made it were some earthen walls that slowed the water just enoughrdquo Mr Takahashi

said ldquoThey gave us a few secondsrdquo

They made their way home after dark they said wading through water that was up to their armpits while

fires burned all around The next day some soldiers came and took them to a shelter

As they got home Ms Takahashi turned to her husband and said ldquoLook therersquos our house What is that

boatrdquo Indeed there was a fishing boat sitting in a rice paddy to the side of their house

The gloom was occasionally pierced by a ray of humor of the gallows sort Ko Miura 56 a wholesaler said

he tried to drive home after the quake But he was driving parallel to the wave so he was forced to abandon

his car and run He just managed to get to a highway overpass before the waters swept by When he looked

up he said he saw his car float by

The immediate future for Natori and its residents is undoubtedly grim Rescue workers have been

hampered by quake-damaged roads and debris enormous traffic jams and fuel shortages After a spell of

relatively mild weather temperatures were dropping and snow was in the forecast

And even as people picked through what little was left in the rubble the fires continued to burn

9

March 13 2011

Seawalls Offered Little Protection Against Tsunamirsquos Crushing Waves By NORIMITSU ONISHI

JAKARTA Indonesia mdash At least 40 percent of Japanrsquos 22000-mile coastline is lined with concrete

seawalls breakwaters or other structures meant to protect the country against high waves typhoons or

even tsunamis They are as much a part of Japanrsquos coastal scenery as beaches or fishing boats especially in

areas where the government estimates the possibility of a major earthquake occurring in the next three

decades at more than 90 percent like the northern stretch that was devastated by Fridayrsquos earthquake and

tsunami

Along with developing quake-resistant buildings the coastal infrastructure represents postwar Japanrsquos

major initiative against earthquakes and tsunamis But while experts have praised Japanrsquos rigorous

building codes and quake-resistant buildings for limiting the number of casualties from Fridayrsquos

earthquake the devastation in coastal areas and a final death toll predicted to exceed 10000 could push

Japan to redesign its seawalls mdash or reconsider its heavy reliance on them altogether

The risks of dependence on seawalls were most evident in the crisis at the Daiichi and Daini nuclear power

plants both located along the coast close to the earthquake zone The tsunami that followed the quake

washed over walls that were supposed to protect the plants disabling the diesel generators crucial to

maintaining power for the reactorsrsquo cooling systems during shutdown

Cooling system malfunctions caused overheating and partial fuel meltdowns at two reactors at the Daiichi

plant becoming Japanrsquos worst nuclear accident

Peter Yanev one of the worldrsquos best-known consultants on designing nuclear plants to withstand

earthquakes said the seawalls at the Japanese plants probably could not handle tsunami waves of the

height that struck them And the diesel generators were situated in a low spot on the assumption that the

walls were high enough to protect against any likely tsunami

That turned out to be a fatal miscalculation The tsunami walls either should have been built higher or the

generators should have been placed on higher ground to withstand potential flooding he said Increasing

the height of tsunami walls he said is the obvious answer in the immediate term

ldquoThe cost is peanuts compared to what is happeningrdquo Mr Yanev said

Some critics have long argued that the construction of seawalls was a mistaken hubristic effort to control

nature as well as the kind of wasteful public works project that successive Japanese governments used to

10

reward politically connected companies in flush times and to try to kick-start a stagnant economy

Supporters though have said the seawalls increased the odds of survival in a quake-prone country where

a mountainous interior has historically pushed people to live along its coastline

A fuller picture of how seawalls protected or failed to protect areas beyond the nuclear plants will not

emerge for at least a few more days But reports from affected areas indicate that waves simply washed

over seawalls some of which collapsed Even in the two cities with seawalls built specifically to withstand

tsunamis Ofunato and Kamaishi the tsunami crashed over before moving a few miles inland carrying

houses and cars with it

In Kamaishi 14-foot waves surmounted the seawall mdash the worldrsquos largest erected a few years ago in the

cityrsquos harbor at a depth of 209 feet a length of 12 miles and a cost of $15 billion mdash and eventually

submerged the city center

ldquoThis is going to force us to rethink our strategyrdquo said Yoshiaki Kawata a specialist on disaster

management at Kansai University in Osaka and the director of a disaster prevention center in Kobe ldquoThis

kind of hardware just isnrsquot effectiverdquo

Mr Kawata said that antitsunami seawalls were ldquocostly public works projectsrdquo that Japan could no longer

afford ldquoThe seawalls did reduce the force of the tsunami but it was so big that it didnrsquot translate into a

reduction in damagerdquo he said adding that resources would be better spent on increasing evacuation

education and drills

Gerald Galloway a research professor of engineering at the University of Maryland said one problem with

physical defenses protecting vulnerable areas was that they could create a sense of complacency ldquoThere are

challenges in telling people they are saferdquo when the risks remain he said

Whatever humans build nature has a way of overcoming it Mr Galloway noted that New Orleans is

getting a substantial upgrade of its hurricane protection system but he said ldquoIf all the new levees were in

and we had a Katrina times two a lot of people are going to still get wetrdquo Similarly he said some of the

floodwalls in Japan which can be almost 40 feet high but vary from place to place were simply too low for

the wave

ldquoIf a little bit dribbles over the top you get a little wet insiderdquo he said ldquoIf itrsquos a massive amount then you

get buildings washed awayrdquo

Some Japanese experts said the seawalls may have played a useful role in this crisis

ldquoThis time almost everybody tried to flee but many didnrsquot succeed in fleeingrdquo said Shigeo Takahashi a

researcher at the Asia-Pacific Center for Coastal Disaster Research in Yokosuka ldquoBut because of the

11

seawalls which slowed the arrival of waves even just by a little a lot of people who would not have

otherwise survived probably did Just one or two minutes makes a differencerdquo

As of Sunday the Japanese authorities confirmed 1300 casualties but expected that the final toll would

exceed 10000 with almost all the deaths resulting directly from the tsunami

But it remains far from clear whether even such an elevated toll will damp Japanrsquos embrace of seawalls

whose construction over the years has fueled heavy investment in Japanrsquos public works especially in rural

areas with weak economies but dependable votes If private companies spearheaded the development of

quake-resistant buildings the seawalls are the products of the same Japanese governments that built

networks of unnecessary roads and bridges throughout the country especially in the 1980s and 1990s

The construction of seawalls continued in the last decade and at least two massive antitsunami seawalls

are under construction One in Kuji a city in Iwate Prefecture that was damaged in Fridayrsquos tsunami was

scheduled to be completed soon

Massive antitsunami seawalls tend to be located in harbors and number around a dozen nationwide Mr

Kawata said But smaller seawalls often reaching as high as 40 feet and other structures extend along

more than 40 percent of the nationrsquos coastline according to figures from the Ministry of Land

Infrastructure Transport and Tourism

The seawalls are typically built along the shoreline of inhabited areas They tend to restrict access to the

shore and block the view of the sea from inland often casting shadows on houses built along the shore

Environmentalists and tourism officials have described them as eyesores fishermen have also been among

their fiercest critics complaining that they need to see the sea from their homes

Critics have said that the seawalls reduce coastal residentsrsquo understanding of the sea and their ability to

determine when to flee by looking for clues in changing wave patterns

The height of seawalls varies according to the predictions of the highest waves in a region Critics say that

no matter how high the seawalls are raised there will eventually be a higher wave Indeed the waves from

Fridayrsquos tsunami far exceeded predictions for Japanrsquos northern region

Seawalls also tend to be built in areas that have suffered tsunamis But because seawalls cannot be

constructed along all of a communityrsquos shoreline they tend to be clustered along stretches that have been

directly hit leaving other areas exposed

ldquoThe perverse thing about tsunamis is that when they come againrdquo Mr Kawata said ldquothey usually donrsquot

come at the same place they did beforerdquo

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong and John Schwartz from New York

12

March 13 2011


TOKYO mdash A second explosion rocked a troubled nuclear power plant Monday blowing the roof off a


television

The explosion underscores the difficulties Japanese authorities are having in bringing several stricken



Operators fear that if they cannot establish control despite increasingly desperate measures to do so the


It was unclear if radiation was released by the explosion but a similar explosion at another reactor at the


Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed thick smoke rising from the building

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the release of large amounts of radiation was unlikely But



The countryrsquos nuclear power watchdog said readings taken soon after the explosion showed no big change



ldquoI have received reports that the containment vessel is soundrdquo Mr Edano said ldquoI understand that there is

little possibility that radioactive materials are being released in large amountsrdquo

In screenings higher-than-normal levels of radiation have been detected from 22 people evacuated from


dangerous

Technicians had been scrambling most of Sunday to fix a mechanical failure that left the reactor far more


The two reactors where the explosions occurred are both presumed to have already suffered partial


13

The reactors are both at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station where another reactor is also

having difficulties

The Fukushima Daiichi plant and the Fukushima Daini power station about 10 miles away have been


On Monday morning Tokyo Electric which runs both plants said it had restored the cooling systems at



ldquoIrsquom not aware that wersquove ever had more than one reactor troubled at a timerdquo said Frank N von Hippel a


ldquoThe whole country was focused on Three Mile Islandrdquo he said referring to the Pennsylvania nuclear plant

accident in 1979 ldquoHere you have Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese regulators focusing on multiple

plants at the same timerdquoldquo

In what was perhaps the clearest sign of the rising anxiety over the nuclear crisis both the United States



Late Sunday night the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Japan had added a third




no leak there

ldquoThe increased level may have been due to a release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi




Soon after that announcement Kyodo News reported that a plant about 75 miles north of Tokyo was


working

The government was testing people who lived near the Daiichi plant with local officials saying that about



The problems at Fukushima Daiichi appeared to be the most serious involving a nuclear plant since the


14



Technicians are essentially fighting for time while heat generation in the fuel gradually declines trying to




Now they pump in new water let it boil and then vent it to the atmosphere releasing some radioactive



On Sunday Japanese nuclear officials said operators at the plant had suffered a setback trying to bring one

of the reactors under control when a valve malfunction stopped the flow of water and left fuel rods partially

uncovered The delay raised pressure at the reactor

At a late-night news conference officials at Tokyo Electric Power said that the valve had been fixed but


Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo and Matthew L Wald from Washington Michael Wines


March 13 2011

Disruptions of Power and Water Threaten Japanrsquos Economy By STEVE LOHR

para As the humanitarian and nuclear crises in Japan escalated after the devastating earthquake and tsunami

the impact on the countryrsquos economy appeared to be spreading as well

para While the nationrsquos industrial clusters in the south and west seemed to be spared the worst the crisis at

damaged nuclear plants north of Tokyo was threatening to cause an energy squeeze that could set back all

sectors of Japanrsquos economy

para To help bring electricity back to the devastated areas utilities across Japan are cutting back and sharing

power imposing rolling blackouts that will affect factories stores and homes throughout the nation The

emergency effort is expected to last up to two weeks but could take longer

para ldquoThe big question is whether this will seriously affect Japanrsquos ability to produce goods for any extended

period of timerdquo said Edward Yardeni an independent economist and investment strategist

15

para The bleak outlook prompted a 62 percent plunge in the Nikkei 225 stock index in Tokyo on Monday as

companies from Sony to Fujitsu to Toyota scaled back operations

The Bank of Japan in an effort to preempt a further deterioration in the economy eased monetary policy

on Monday by expanding an asset buying program

lsquolsquoThe damage of the earthquake has been geographically widespread and thus for the time being

production is likely to decline and there is also concern that the sentiment of firms and households might

deterioratersquorsquo the central bank said in a statement

To try to stabilize the markets and prop up the economy the central bank earlier Monday poured money

into the financial system

para Assembly plants for Japanrsquos big three automakers mdash Toyota Honda and Nissan mdash were closed on Sunday

and planned to remain closed on Monday Toyota said that its factories would be closed at least through

Wednesday

Automakers said some plants experienced damage that was not extensive but damage to suppliers and to

the nationrsquos transport system and infrastructure was expected to affect their ability to make and move their

products

para Japanrsquos economic outlook already problematic is now even more uncertain economists and analysts

say because the dimensions of the disaster remain unclear especially at the damaged nuclear plants

para ldquoThe Japanese economy threatens to suffer another bout of recessionrdquo said Mark Zandi chief economist

of Moodyrsquos Analytics

para Economic activity in Japan contracted in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the country was overtaken by

China as the worldrsquos second-largest economy after the United States Activity may well shrink for the first

half of this year Mr Zandi said though he predicted that the rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the

quake would help provide a rebound in the second half

para Rebuilding costs that could run in the tens of billions of dollars may require Japan to make tough

decisions about government spending economists say Its ratio of government debt to the economyrsquos

annual output is already at 200 percent the highest among industrialized nations and far higher than in

the United States for example So reconstruction economists say may make cuts in government spending

elsewhere a necessity

para The yen is expected to strengthen against the dollar as Japanese investors bring money back from

overseas to shore up their savings and provide money for the rebuilding campaign Those financial flows

16

back into Japan will drive up demand for the yen increasing its value After the Kobe earthquake in 1995

the yen rose about 20 percent against the dollar over a few months

para One ripple effect could be a reduction in demand for United States Treasury bonds adding pressure to

American interest rates according Byron R Wien vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners The

Japanese have been large buyers of United States bonds but Mr Wien said ldquothey are going to be using

their money to rebuild so they will be smaller buyers of our debt securitiesrdquo

para If energy curbs and infrastructure damage hinder production in a significant way it could harm Japanese

companies and affect consumers abroad Japanese automakers have shifted much of their manufacturing

overseas in recent years But some popular models are still made in Japan for export including fuel-

efficient cars like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Fit Disruptions in exports could hurt sales at a time

when rising gasoline prices have increased demand for those cars in the United States

para Japan is also a crucial global supplier of electronic goods and parts used in an array of industrial and

consumer goods The country produces an estimated 40 percent of the lightweight chips used to store data

in smartphones and tablet computers and it is also a leading maker of liquid crystal displays used in

consumer electronics products

para Most high-tech goods these days are produced through carefully orchestrated procurement and

manufacturing networks that combine parts from around the globe often shipped on tight daily

production schedules Even temporary shortages can drive up prices sharply for a while

para The daily spot market for certain kinds of semiconductor chips will most likely feel the impact soonest

ldquoThere will be a lot of nervousnessrdquo said Jim Handy an analyst at Objective Analysis a semiconductor

research firm ldquoThis may cause phenomenal shortages in the spot marketrdquo

para Companies with chips that have gone only part way through the manufacturing process would most likely

have to backtrack a step and rework those chips when the power returns Doing so could add a day or two

to the time required to finish a batch of chips

para ldquoYoursquore going to have productivity lossesrdquo Mr Handy said

para Klaus Rinnen managing vice president at Gartner a technology research company said a colleague in

Japan near Tokyo told him that he was scheduled for rolling blackouts twice a day However shutting off

power to chip manufacturers twice a day would be impossible to manage he said because fluctuations in

power create defects and high losses

para Water is also an important component of the chip-making process Mr Handy said and any cut in water

supplies or an increase in contaminated water would hurt production

17

para In the end only large important customers may end up getting their chip orders Mr Handy said Even

those will most likely receive less than their contracts stipulate

para Sonyrsquos six factories in the region affected by the earthquake were all damaged and the company said it

had no clear idea when they would reopen All the facilities have halted operations

para The destruction was most severe at a plant in Miyagi Prefecture that makes Blu-ray discs and magnetic

tapes The tsunami flooded the first floor and the surrounding area forcing nearly 1150 workers and 110

neighbors to seek safety upstairs On Saturday Sony chartered a helicopter to deliver supplies to those

trapped

para By Sunday afternoon all but 20 had left the plant to check on their families and homes

para Freescale Semiconductorrsquos plant in Sendai which makes chips for the automotive and consumer

electronics industries was also shut down All employees were safely evacuated the company said

para The overall effect on the technology market Mr Handy said would be serious

para ldquoIt looks like itrsquos going to be pretty awful mdash the electricity the water the railroads mdash there could be plants

that shut downrdquo he said ldquoAll those things are going to cause problems Just pile all that together and itrsquos

all badrdquo

para In the global energy market there are already signs of a reaction to Japanrsquos troubles with the expectation

the country will turn to liquefied natural gas to replace electricity output lost at the damaged nuclear

plants Two tankers at sea carrying liquefied natural gas from Russia have been diverted to Japan

according to industry reports

para ldquoLiquefied natural gas will be the default fuel to replace the electricity generation Japan has lostrdquo said

Daniel Yergin chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates ldquoLiquefied natural gas tankers will

be diverted to Japan the market that needs it the most and desperately sordquo

para Nick Bunkley and Verne G Kopytoff contributed reporting

March 15 2011

Certainties of Modern Life Upended in Japan By KEN BELSON

TOKYO mdash Japan a country lulled by the reassuring rhythms of order and predictability has been jolted by

earthquake tsunami and nuclear crisis into an unsettling new reality lack of control

In a nation where you can set your watch by a trainrsquos arrival and a conductor apologizes for even a one-

minute delay rolling blackouts have forced commuters to leave early so they will not be stranded when the

18

trains stop running Some stores have been stripped bare of essentials like rice and milk leading the prime

minister to publicly call for calm All the while aftershocks small and large rattle windows and fray nerves

While workers struggle to avert nuclear meltdowns at stricken power plants 170 miles to the north

residents of Tokyo are wondering whether to trust the governmentrsquos assurances that they are out of harmrsquos

way

The string of disasters has revived the notion mdash dormant since Tokyo rose from the firebombed

devastation of World War II mdash that this city is living on borrowed time Many people are staying inside to

avoid radiation that the wind might blow in their direction Others are weighing whether to leave

But most Japanese are trying to uphold the ethic that they are taught from childhood to do their best

persevere and suppress their own feelings for the sake of the group

ldquoIrsquove been checking the news on the Internet and I really donrsquot know who to believe because first they say

itrsquos OK and then things get worserdquo said Shinya Tokiwa who lives in Yokohama and works for Fujitsu the

giant electronics maker in Tokyorsquos Shiodome district ldquoI canrsquot go anywhere because I have to work my

hardest for my customersrdquo

Those customers more than 200 miles south of the earthquakersquos epicenter are still grappling with its

effects The computerized systems that Fujitsu sells to banks have crashed under the strain of so many

people trying to send money to relatives and friends in stricken areas

That has kept Mr Tokiwa busy with repairs and unable to make any sales calls Just meeting a customer or

colleague has become a chore with trains and subways not running on schedule

The Japanese are bracing for further losses The confirmed death toll was 3676 on Tuesday with 7558

people reported missing but those numbers may well be understated and bodies continued to wash

ashore

A brief ray of hope pierced the gloom on Tuesday when two people were rescued from collapsed buildings

where they had been trapped for more than 90 hours One of them was a 92-year-old man who was found

alive in Ishinomaki City the other a 70-year-old woman who was pulled from the wreckage of her home in

Iwate Prefecture

In northern Japanrsquos disaster zone an estimated 440000 people were living in makeshift shelters or

evacuation centers officials said Bitterly cold and windy weather compounded the misery as survivors

endured shortages of food fuel and water

Rescue teams from 13 nations some assisted by dogs continued to search for survivors and more nations

were preparing to send teams Helicopters shuttled back and forth part of a mobilization of some 100000

19

troops the largest in Japan since World War II to assist in the rescue and relief work A no-flight zone was

imposed around the stricken nuclear plants

Japanrsquos neighbors watched the crisis anxiously with urgent meetings among Chinese officials about how to

respond should radioactive fallout reach their shores South Korea and Singapore both said they would

step up inspections of food imported from Japan

The Japanese are no strangers to catastrophe mdash earthquakes typhoons mudslides and other natural

disasters routinely batter this archipelago which is smaller in land area than California but is home to

nearly four times as many people

Japan is also the only nation to have suffered an atomic attack But by now most Japanese have only read

about the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs in 1945 or have made the pilgrimage to

Hiroshima to hang origami cranes and shudder at its museumrsquos graphic displays

Many of the most recent natural disasters including the earthquake in Kobe in 1995 occurred far from the

capital The last major earthquake to hit Tokyo was in 1923

So for most Japanese these hardships are entirely new

ldquoIrsquom a little scaredrdquo Yuko Ota 38 an office worker said as she stood in a long line at Meguro Station in

central Tokyo for a ticket to Osaka her hometown

ldquoMy company told me to go back now because they think the disaster will have an impact in Tokyo and the

earlier we go the betterrdquo she said ldquoSo for one week to begin with the whole company is either staying

home or going away Irsquom lucky because I can go be with my parentsrdquo

Some foreign embassies have suggested that their citizens head south away from Fukushima Prefecture mdash

which is near the epicenter and home to the worst of the crippled reactors mdash or leave the country

directives that have led to a rush of departures this week at Narita Airport Tokyorsquos main international

gateway (The United States Embassy has not advised Americans to leave but it is warning against

departing for Japan)

A number of foreign airlines have suspended flights to Tokyo and have shifted operations to cities farther

south and some expatriates left on Tuesday

Ben Applegate 27 an American freelance translator editor and tour guide said he and his girlfriend

Winnie Chang 28 of Taiwan left Tokyo to stay with a family he knew in the ancient capital Kyoto

ldquoI realize that everything is probably going to be finerdquo he said but the forecast of another major quake

which has since been revised and the nuclear accidents were strong incentives to leave ldquoPlus our families

20

were calling once every couple of hoursrdquo he said ldquoSo we thought everyone would feel better if we went to

Kyotordquo

For many Japanese the options were more limited and excruciating Even those with second homes or

family and friends in safer locations are torn between their deep-rooted loyalty to their families and their

employers and their fears that worse is in store

Experts predicated that despite Japanrsquos ethos of ldquogamanrdquo or endurance signs of trauma would surface

particularly among those who saw relatives washed away by the tsunami

ldquoIn the tsunami they could see people dying right in front of themrdquo said Susumu Hirakawa a clinical

psychologist in Tokyo who specializes in post-traumatic stress and has been advising Japanrsquos Coast Guard

He said the people of northeast Japan have a reputation as patient reserved and stoic but ldquonow there are

too many hardships and struggles for themrdquo

One taxi driver taking passengers through the largely deserted streets of downtown Tokyo on Tuesday

compared the rising uneasiness to the shortages during the OPEC-led oil embargo nearly 40 years ago

when a spike in prices led the Japanese to stockpile essentials like rice and toilet paper

It has not helped that government officials and executives at the Tokyo Electric Power Company which

runs the nuclear power plants in Fukushima have offered conflicting reports and often declined to answer

hypothetical questions or discuss worst-case scenarios

ldquoIrsquom not sure if what theyrsquore saying is true or not and that makes me nervousrdquo said Tetsu Ichiura a life

insurance salesman in Tokyo ldquoI want to know why they wonrsquot provide the answersrdquo

Like many Japanese Mr Ichiura is transfixed by the bad news At home he keeps his television tuned to

NHK the national broadcaster Even his 7-year-old daughter Hana has sensed that something unusual is

happening prompted partly by the recurrent aftershocks She cried he said before going to bed the other

night

ldquoShe understands that this is seriousrdquo

Reporting was contributed by Mark McDonald and David Jolly from Tokyo Sharon LaFraniere and Li

Bibo from Beijing Su-Hyun Lee from Seoul South Korea and Kevin Drew from Hong Kong

March 15 2011

Disastersrsquo Costs to Fall on Japanrsquos Government By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

21

Apart from an expected $35 billion in insurance claims from last weekrsquos earthquake the financial losses in

Japan will probably fall most heavily on the Japanese government once it tallies the damage from the

tsunami and the nuclear disaster

Japanese insurance companies global insurers and reinsurers hedge funds and other investors in

catastrophe bonds are all expected to bear a portion of the losses that seem likely to exceed $100 billion

Total damage from the 1995 earthquake in Kobe Japan was estimated at $100 billion according to the

Insurance Information Institute but only about $3 billion of that was covered by insurance

The greatest uncertainty surrounds contamination from the nuclear accident prompted by the earthquake

and tsunami

Operators of nuclear plants in Japan are required to buy liability insurance through the Japan Atomic

Energy Insurance Pool an industry group But they are required to buy coverage of only about $22 billion

for liabilities and the pool does not sell the utilities coverage for earthquake damage or business

interruptions suggesting it will again be up to the Japanese government to bear the brunt of those costs

The stocks of some United States life and health insurers with operations in Japan sank on Tuesday as

investors responded to Prime Minister Naoto Kanrsquos warnings that the risk of radiation exposure had

worsened

The biggest loser was Aflac which sells a popular line of cancer insurance in Japan as well as other life and

health coverage Its stock fell 92 percent when the American markets opened Tuesday before regaining

somewhat and closing at $5089 down 558 percent from Mondayrsquos closing price of $5390 About 75

percent of Aflacrsquos revenue came from Japan last year

ldquoThe market is looking at everything thatrsquos exposed to Japan and wersquore part of thatrdquo said an Aflac

spokeswoman Laura Kane She said the company was not expecting a flood of claims and had not changed

its financial projections because of the trouble in Japan

Shares of Hartford Financial Services fell 455 percent on Tuesday The shares of MetLife and Prudential

Financial which acquired Japanese life insurance when they bought subsidiaries of the American

International Group fell about 3 percent and 2 percent respectively

Business insurers that operate globally like ACE Chartis Allianz and Zurich have a relatively small

toehold in Japan and therefore small exposure

About 90 percent of the property and casualty business in Japan is written by three big domestic insurance

groups the MSampAD Insurance Group the Tokio Marine Group and the NKSJ Group

The Japanese insurers jointly own a reinsurer the Japan Earthquake Reinsurance Company which in turn

is backstopped by the Japanese government

22

ldquoA meaningful portion of the losses will flow to the global reinsurance industryrdquo said Kenji Kawada senior

analyst for Moodyrsquos Japan KK He cited Munich Re Swiss Re Scor Hannover Re Berkshire Hathaway

PartnerRe and Everest Re as the largest reinsurers and therefore the likeliest to suffer

Moodyrsquos said ratings for all of the major reinsurers were stable and many reinsurance analysts said they

saw one bright spot in the disaster prices for reinsurance have been declining for several years and while

the earthquake will hurt the results of companies for one quarter it might spur new demand and higher

prices

Reinsurance contracts are often renewed in April and Keefe Bruyette amp Woods issued a report on Tuesday

suggesting that losses from the earthquakes in Japan and recently New Zealand would lead to firmer

prices on California earthquake and Florida hurricane insurance

The big global reinsurers had packaged some Japanese earthquake risks into a type of security known as

catastrophe bonds or cat bonds Cat bonds are sold to syndicates of institutional investors that expect a

high return on the understanding that they will lose some or all of their principal if the covered disaster

occurs

Cat bonds are set off only by events that are specified in great detail in advance Moodyrsquos said it had

identified four rated bonds linked to some form of earthquake coverage in Japan

The initial estimate by AIR Worldwide of insured losses from the earthquake was very narrow Issued on

Sunday that estimate of $15 billion to $35 billion included only damage caused by the earthquake and the

subsequent fires not the tsunami landslides or nuclear accidents

An AIR Worldwide spokesman Kevin Long said on Tuesday that the company had already counted about

$24 billion worth of insured commercial and residential properties within two miles of the coast in the

affected areas

As the company works on financial models of all the disasters the value of some of those properties will be

added he said The company expects to revise its estimate early next week

The initial estimate included the cost of physical damage to houses and their contents farms and

commercial property as well as insured business-interruption losses

The companyrsquos estimates will never include a multitude of losses that are not insured cars swept away

damaged property buckled roads and weakened bridges and something called ldquodemand surgerdquo mdash the

spike in materials prices and labor costs that often comes with large-scale rebuilding after a catastrophe

The uninsured losses may turn out to be the greatest losses of all

23

Until now the most destructive earthquake in terms of property damage was the one that struck

Northridge Calif in January 1994 when insurers paid out $153 billion or $225 billion in todayrsquos dollars

Sixty-one people died

The quake with the biggest death toll struck just after Christmas in 2004 off the western coast of Indonesia

which also set off a gigantic wave About 220000 people died in that tsunami by far the most since the

Insurance Information Institute began tracking earthquake statistics in 1980

ldquoWhat makes todayrsquos natural disaster so extraordinary is that four of the five costliest earthquakes and

tsunamis in the past 30 years have occurred within the past 13 monthsrdquo said Robert Hartwig president of

the institute citing two big quakes in New Zealand and one in Chile along with the disaster in Japan

March 19 2011

lsquoToo Latersquo for Some Tsunami Victims to Rebuild in Japan By MICHAEL WINES

KESENNUMA Japan mdash A week after the tsunami obliterated most of this northern Japanese cityrsquos

seafront and not a little of its inland the first handful of shopkeepers and their employees were outdoors

shoveling mud and hauling wreckage from their businesses signs of rebirth after this regionrsquos worst

catastrophe in memory

Kunio Imakawa a 75-year-old barber was not among them

Mr Imakawa and his wife Shizuko lost his three-chair barber shop their second-floor apartment and all

their belongings in the tsunami Rebuilding would mean starting from scratch And he said that simple

math calculated in yen and in years showed it was not worth the effort

ldquoYoung people would think lsquoMaybe therersquos another wayrsquo rdquo he said last week as he sprawled with 1600

other refugees in a chilly local sports arena ldquoBut Irsquom too old My legs have problems

ldquoItrsquos too late to start overrdquo

And as this rural corner of northeastern Japan tries to start over his spent resilience is a telling indicator

of the difficulties ahead Well before disaster struck this region was an economic and social laggard

leaching people and money to Japanrsquos rich urban south sustained mdash even as opportunity moved elsewhere

mdash by government largess and an unspoken alliance with the nuclear-power industry

Now a week of calamity threatens to upend those compacts with unpredictable consequences

24

ldquoThe young people left these rural communities long ago for jobs in Sendai in Tokyo and in Osakardquo said

Daniel P Aldrich a Purdue University professor who is an expert not only on the regionrsquos economy but

also on the aftereffects of natural disasters like the tsunami

ldquoThese are declining areas With an exogenous shock like this I think itrsquos possible that a lot of these

communities will just fold up and disappearrdquo

Some have been hollowing out albeit slowly for a long time Japanrsquos population as a whole is shrinking

and graying but the Japanese prefectures hardest hit by the tsunami mdash Miyagi Fukushima and Iwate mdash

often outpace the national trends and their workersrsquo average incomes are shrinking as well

Kesennumarsquos home prefecture Miyagi claims one comparatively prosperous hotspot its capital Sendai a

million-person city that boasts some technology firms and a far younger population But even Sendai has

prospered at the expense of the surrounding countryside which is significantly poorer and older

Less than 19 percent of Sendai residents are older than 64 below the 22 percent national average In

contrast over-64 citizens officially make up nearly 27 percent of Kesennumarsquos population and city officials

say the total is closer to 30 percent

People mdash especially young people mdash are leaving for the same reason as migrants everywhere they see fewer

opportunities here than in Japanrsquos bigger flashier cities For centuries inland residents farmed and coastal

residents fished Over the years farming declined in importance and village fishermen have increasingly

been routed by huge and more efficient factory ships

ldquoItrsquos a declining industry That was so before the tsunamirdquo said Satsuki Takahashi a University of Tokyo

cultural anthropologist who has long studied the coastal villages in the tsunami area

Unable to compete but saddled with debt from purchases of boats and equipment many fishermen troll in

small boats near the coast catching just enough to pay their bills

ldquoItrsquos usually the case that the first son has to stay with the homerdquo Ms Takahashi said ldquoThose who can

leave town are the second and third sons or daughters Many of them dordquo

Like governments everywhere Tokyo has tried to manage the regionrsquos decline For pensioners mdash retired

fishermen and folks like Mr Imakawa who serve them mdash there is a generous tax break for people who

operate even marginal businesses from their homes Japanrsquos small towns are filled with first-floor shops

below second-floor apartments

For job-hungry workers Mr Aldrich says the government took another tack it promoted the construction

of nuclear power plants along the coast Two reactor complexes were built in Fukushima Prefecture one in

Miyagi near Sendai

25

ldquoTherersquos really no economic engine in these communitiesrdquo said Mr Aldrich whose 2010 book ldquoSite Fights

Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the Westrdquo details the governmentrsquos strategy for locating

reactors in struggling areas ldquoThese facilities bring $20 million or more to depopulating dying towns

Many people saw these power plants as economic lifelines at a time when their towns are dyingrdquo

And they were until an earthquake and tsunami changed the economic equation last week

Now at least one of the Fukushima complexes appears destined never to reopen Part of the prefecture

could remain off limits for years because of radiation The future of similar plants could be thrown into

doubt along with the jobs and supporting businesses that sprung up around the nuclear industry

At the same time the tsunami wiped out thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of homes many of

them owned by retirees who lack the spirit or money to rebuild And Mr Aldrich mdash also the author of a

long-term study of the societal impact of major disasters like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans mdash says the

dislocation caused by the tsunami threatens to permanently rend the social fabric that keeps many coastal

villages afloat in hard times

Whether disproportionately elderly coastal towns will be resilient enough to absorb such blows is an open

question Whether Japanrsquos central government already facing unprecedented debt can afford to take on a

colossal reconstruction of marginally economic areas is another And then there is a third question

whether in political terms it can afford not to

ldquoWe faced exactly the same question after Katrinardquo said John Campbell an expert on aging at the

University of Michigan and visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo ldquoThere was a big discussion about

whether we should rebuild the Ninth Ward since it was below sea level and so on In terms of economic

rationality it didnrsquot make any sense really But on the other hand itrsquos where these people lived and there

were emotional reasons to do it

ldquoThese villages may not have the same sentimental attachment Nonetheless therersquos an emotional

argument thatrsquos going to be made and I think it will be a potent onerdquo

Moshe Komata contributed research

wwwnytreprintscom for samples and additional information Order a reprint of this article now

May 15 2011

26

Before It Can Rebuild Japanese Town Must Survive By MARTIN FACKLER

OTSUCHI Japan mdash The crumpled cars have reddened with rust and spring rains and a warming sun have

left the ashes and mud hardened into an earthen plate of armor But Satoshi Watanabe still comes every

day to pick through the charred debris that was once his home searching for the remains of his 2-month-

old infant daughter

She was swept away by the tsunami that flattened much of this fishing town and killed his wife mother and

two other young daughters Once he finds the missing child Mr Watanabe said he will leave this town and

its painful memories for good

ldquoNo one wants to build here againrdquo said Mr Watanabe 42 who spoke in short sentences punctuated by

long sighs ldquoThis place is just too scaryrdquo

Two months after a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated coastal communities like this one remain far

from recovery and with many working-age people moving away they face the prospect that they could

simply wither away and ultimately perhaps even disappear

With neither homes nor jobs to lose and fearing another tsunami from the continuing aftershocks many

residents have already left Town officials now fear losing the bulk of working-age families leaving this

already graying town with an overwhelmingly elderly population that might lack the energy or the

incentive to undertake a lengthy reconstruction

And that poses another hurdle Experts have said that it will be years before the rebuilding is complete and

the number of jobs returns to anything like its former level mdash another reason many experts and

townspeople worry for working-age residents to flee

ldquoOtsuchi must move quickly in order to surviverdquo said Seiichi Mori a biologist at Gifu Keizai University

who is helping draw up recovery plans

As a stopgap measure Otsuchi announced in late April that it planned to hire 270 townspeople to remove

debris But with a lengthy reconstruction ahead many experts and townspeople fear an exodus of younger

residents who cannot wait years for a job

Town officials say they are trying to draw up plans that will entice younger residents to stay Most of the

ideas are coming from Tokyo and call for grand schemes to move coastal towns to higher ground by

constructing huge platforms or shearing off nearby mountaintops mdash the sorts of megaprojects that Japan

may no longer be able to afford

27

But town officials say they are overwhelmed by more immediate demands like relocating the 2247

residents who still sleep on the floors of school gymnasiums and other cramped refugee centers to longer-

term temporary housing or finding the 1044 who remain missing in this town which had 15239 residents

before the tsunami So far the bodies of 680 people have been found

Just cleaning up the mounds of debris left by the waves which towered as high as 50 feet and destroyed

more than half of Otsuchirsquos homes and buildings will very likely take a year The townrsquos administrative

functions were also crippled by the waves which gutted the town hall and killed the mayor and some 30

town employees

ldquoWe are far from reconstructionrdquo said Masaaki Tobai 66 the vice mayor who stepped in to lead the town

and who survived by scrambling to the town hallrsquos roof ldquoMedical services administration education

police fire retail stores hotels fishing cooperative farming cooperative industry jobs mdash all are gone all

washed awayrdquo

In other hard-hit areas particularly around the regionrsquos main city Sendai there are already signs of

recovery with the cleanup well under way and full bullet train service having resumed But more remote

communities like Otsuchi on the rugged coast further north are falling behind

While the shortages of food and drinking water of the first desperate weeks are over the town remains a

flattened landscape of shattered homes and crumpled vehicles where soldiers still pull a dozen bodies or

so from the wreckage every day

Restarting the local economy appears a distant prospect This coastal area of rural Iwate Prefecture has

long lagged behind the rest of Japan The average annual income in Otsuchi is 17 million yen around

$21000 about 60 percent of the national average In this fishing port most of the work was either on

fishing boats that worked local oyster scallop and seaweed farms or in canneries and seafood-processing

plants along the wharfs All were destroyed by the tsunami

Last month the townrsquos chamber of commerce surveyed local business owners Only half said they

definitely planned to rebuild their businesses in Otsuchi

The chamber however was able to survey only 114 business owners just a quarter of its membership

before the tsunami It is now based in a prefabricated hut on the sports field of a burned-out elementary

school and is still trying to locate about 300 other members

ldquoWe know we need to create jobsrdquo said Chieko Uchihama an official at the chamber ldquobut how do you do

that when you donrsquot even know who survivedrdquo

Another immediate task is the grim search for the remains of the people still classified as missing in

Otsuchi On a recent afternoon survivors combed through the wreckage in search of lost loved ones

28

One of them was Mr Watanabe

He and his family were home when the wave suddenly swept into the living room knocking him against

the ceiling before he could claw his way up to the second floor of the house which had begun to float away

from its foundation He managed to jump onto the passing roof of a concrete building but other family

members were not as lucky or strong

He quit his job at the townrsquos still functioning garbage incinerator so he could come every day to look for his

youngest daughter Mikoto He also wanted to find personal belongings like the red backpack he had

bought his oldest daughter Hinata 6 who had been excited about entering the first grade soon

He said he would eventually move inland to find new work and somehow start again

ldquoItrsquos too hard to stay hererdquo said Mr Watanabe who stared stoically at the wreckage of his house ldquoIf I see

where we used to shop on weekends I will rememberrdquo

Makiko Inoue contributed reporting

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction

Correction July 1 2011

An article on May 16 about an effort by residents of the Japanese fishing town of Otsuchi to rebuild after

the devastating earthquake and tsunami two months earlier misstated the academic specialty of Seiichi

Mori a Gifu Keizai University professor who was quoted as saying the town must ldquomove quickly in order

to surviverdquo He is a biologist not an economist This correction was delayed because an e-mail pointing

out the error went astray at The Times

httpwwwnytimescompackagesflashnewsgraphics20110311-japan-earthquake-map

March 19 2011

Deconstructing the Japanese Nuclear Plant Design By MATTHEW L WALD

Watching the helicopters try to drop desperately needed water through the wrecked tops of the Fukushima

Daiichi nuclear reactors to cool the spent fuel pools a television viewer might wonder why the waste was

up there in the first place

It turns out itrsquos an engineering chain of events a knee-bone-connected-to-the-thigh-bone chain of logic in

which each decision points right to what the next decision must be

In the case of that pool

29

In all American-designed reactors spent fuel must be taken out of the top but can never be exposed to the

air It must always remain under water

How to do that Flood the area over the reactor and move the fuel to a pool whose surface is at the top of

the flooded area

Thatrsquos the short (complicated) answer The longer answer begins much further back in time at the moment

when engineers considered the uses to which their design would be put

In this type of reactor the boiling-water variety itrsquos easier for an operator to regulate the output of power

Adjusting power output is very important for a utility with many reactors on its grid some of which must

be dialed back below maximum output That is the case more often in Japan than in America

Nuclear reactors use either pressurized water or steam produced by boiling water Boiling water has an

edge because water in liquid form encourages the nuclear reaction and steam discourages it So an

operator can control the power output by controlling the amount of steam between the fuel assemblies

Pressurized water reactors can have a spent fuel pool that is lower although it is outside the containment

entirely

Compared to pressurized water reactors the boiling water model has a weaker containment design (a

function of the way it dissipates heat) which is sure to be widely debated in coming weeks As is the

handling of spent fuel

One simple improvement in use now in most plants is to keep some spent fuel in ldquodry casksrdquo mdash steel

cylinders filled with inert gas sitting in small concrete silos These have no moving parts and are unlikely

to be bothered by earthquakes or tsunamis

March 20 2011

Crises in Japan Ripple Across the Global Economy By MICHAEL POWELL

In the wake of Japanrsquos cascading disasters signs of economic loss can be found in many corners of the

globe from Sendai on the battered Japanese coast to Paris to Marion Ark

Container ships sit in the Pacific or at docks in Japan wary of unloading tons of pork and steak because of

that nationrsquos fractured electric grid Any break in the ldquocold chainrdquo of refrigeration can spoil meat

LVMH Moeumlt Hennessy Louis Vuitton the luxury goods maker based in Paris shut more than 50 of its

stores in Tokyo and northern Japan And Volvo the Swedish carmaker was working with a 10-day supply

left of Japanese-built navigation and climate control systems

30

ldquoItrsquos hour-by-hour work to get a grip on the situationrdquo said Per-Ake Froberg chief spokesman for Volvo as

it girds for a production halt

The uncertain economic picture has mirrored the churning developments in Japan as it tries to recover

from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck it 10 days ago On Sunday even as workers made

some progress in stabilizing the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant the government

said there were new signs of radioactive contamination in some agricultural produce and livestock

Uncertainty hangs like a cloud over the future of the global and American economy Only weeks ago many

economists foresaw a quickening of the recovery Now tsunamis radioactive plumes Middle East

revolutions a new round of the European debt crisis and a still weakened United States economy could

derail a tenuous bounceback in the United States Europe and Japan

Some global ills like the spike in oil and food prices can be quantified But a clearer picture depends on

indicators yet to come like the March unemployment numbers and trade numbers

ldquoThe problem is not Japan alone mdash itrsquos that Japan reinforces all the negative repercussions and our own

weak recoveryrdquo said Stephen S Roach nonexecutive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and a professor at

Yale ldquoItrsquos difficult to know the tipping point for the global economy but there are difficult headwinds

nowrdquo

Only a few weeks ago economic forecasters suggested first-quarter growth in the United States would

exceed 4 percent and similar estimates edged toward 5 percent for global growth Those estimates now

seem in danger of being outdated

Morgan Stanleyrsquos tracking estimate for the United Statesrsquo growth in the first quarter has slipped in the last

month to 29 percent from 45 percent and that was before the troubles in Japan Goldman Sachs in a

report Friday suggested that global uncertainty might shave a half point off American gross domestic

product for 2011 which its economists view as a flesh wound rather than a dire blow

But other economists point to the uncertainty created by Reactors No 1 2 3 and 4 at the stricken power

station in Japan and say it adds to a sense of global foreboding

In Libya American missiles are flying and the oil wells stand silent Saudi troops have marched into

Bahrain across the Persian Gulf from Iran In Europe finance ministers warn that hundreds of banks still

carry billions of dollars in bad loans

A recent survey of prominent global economists by The International Economy magazine found that a

majority view it as likely that some combination of Greece Ireland and Portugal will default on debt and

force bond investors to take heavy losses Oil prices have risen nearly 11 percent this year Japan already is

31

the largest importer of liquefied natural gas and as it searches for energy to replace a fractured nuclear

grid analysts expect these prices to rise as well

Finally there is the United States an economic colossus burdened by a foreclosure crisis and the worst

long-term unemployment situation in nearly a century If Japanese companies and investors retrench

selling some Treasuries and investing fewer yen overseas the pain here could grow

Bernard Baumohl chief global economist with The Economic Outlook Group was until recently quite the

economic bull No more

ldquoThe uprisings the Persian Gulf Japan Itrsquos very likely that the global economic impact will be larger than

most people currently imaginerdquo Mr Baumohl said ldquoElectricity and gasoline prices will stay high and

consumers are nervous Guess what thatrsquos not an atmosphere conducive to corporations wanting to hire

workersrdquo

There are some more optimistic forecasts A report by the World Bank to be released Monday predicts that

growth in Japan and its East Asian neighbors would pick up in the second half of this year The countryrsquos

past experience the report said ldquosuggests an accelerated reconstruction effortrdquo that will limit the short-

term impact

Indeed some disruptions even in Japan could prove of short duration Nissan said on Sunday it would

reopen five of six plants in Japan this week and Toyota and Honda are also in various stages of resuming

production Analysts expect Japan to cobble together a workable energy grid in the next few weeks That

will allow dockworkers to unload those pallets of pork and steak not to mention bags of corn and soybean

Japanrsquos appetite for American meat is considerable It consumes 30 percent of American pork exports

ldquoAmerican hog prices took a real fall here this weekrdquo said David Miller research director for the Iowa

Farm Bureau Federation ldquoBut supermarket shelves are pretty empty in Japan we could see a surge in

demand soonrdquo

The global economy remains an adaptive animal But the speed and efficiency of this adaptation is easily

overstated Japanese electronics auto adhesives and silicon-production facility require highly skilled labor

and cannot take root overnight in another southeast Asian nation

Nor is the speed of the global economy and its intricate interlacing necessarily a comfort General Motors

last week announced that it would suspend product at its 923-employee factory in Shreveport La which

manufactures Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon models because it has already run short of Japanese

made parts

32

The human face of this disaster presents its own challenge Many European and American companies in

Tokyo dealt last week with a double emergency They tried to cobble together supply chains even as they

evacuated native-born workers to southern Japan and repatriated foreign workers to their homelands

Volvo the Swedish automaker is the most reliant of the European car companies on Japanese parts mdash

seven of its suppliers are based in the region ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami including one on the

cusp of the radiation zone Volvo managers are trying to determine how many parts already were loaded on

ships

ldquoWe are preparing ourselves for a shortagerdquo Mr Froberg added ldquoIf we canrsquot build any cars we canrsquot sell

any carsrdquo

Travel now half way around the world to Marion Ark a city of 8900 just west of the Mississippi River As

officials in Japan try to stave off nuclear catastrophe the fate of a 10-inch round gear might seem

inconsequential But the gear manufactured in Japan and shipped to the Hino Motors Manufacturing

plant in Marion symbolizes the multitude of disruptions affecting supply chains

The plant employs 335 workers who assemble rear axles for the Tundra pick-up truck as well as rear

suspension parts for the Tacoma pick-up and Sequoia SUV The factory imports about 20 percent of its

parts from Japan Even its suppliers in the United States purchase parts from smaller suppliers based in

Japan Some of those are in Sendai the northern Japan city that was badly battered

Last Wednesday workers of forklifts zipped down the aisles of the 361000-square-foot factory ferrying

parts to the assembly lines Stacks of bright blue plastic crates stood on pallets labeled ldquoMade in Japanrdquo

Each crate held a ten-inch round gear and steel pinion that form an essential part of the Tundra rear axles

ldquoWe are monitoring everyday which suppliers actually have a problemrdquo said Shinichi Sato treasurer and

secretary of Hinorsquos United States operations

The company typically gets a shipment of gears from Japan every other day For now shipments continue

to arrive because many crates are stacked up in warehouses in Long Beach Calif where the components

are unloaded from Japan

No one knows how long the boxes will keep coming In Japan the Hino plant is undergoing three-hour

rolling blackouts Its suppliers draw power from the now-disabled nuclear plants And limited train service

means many employees cannot get to work

Managers in Marion talk about searching elsewhere for parts But thatrsquos not a long-term solution

ldquoSome parts are possible to get elsewhere but our parts are very important partsrdquo noted Mr Sato who

takes a quiet pride in the quality of the Japanese parts ldquoSo it is not easy to ask other suppliers to produce

themrdquo

33

Motoko Rich Liz Alderman and David Jolly contributed reporting

March 19 2011

Lessons for Japanrsquos Survivors The Psychology of Recovery By BENEDICT CAREY

JAPAN is in the middle of a catastrophe that transcends any talk of trauma and resilience the easy

language of armchair psychology There is no reintegrating with friends and social networks now scattered

or lost in the sea there is no easy rebuilding of communities washed away swallowed by the earth or

bathed in radiation from ruptured nuclear plants

Few can doubt that the country will eventually repair itself thatrsquos what people do none more so than the

Japanese But some scientists say that recovering from this disaster will be even more complicated

In dozens of studies around the world researchers have tracked survivorsrsquo behavior after disasters

including oil spills civil wars hurricanes and nuclear reactor meltdowns as well as combined natural-

technological crises like whatrsquos happening in Japan One clear trend stands out Mental distress tends to

linger longer after man-made disasters like an oil spill or radiation leak than after purely natural ones

like a hurricane

ldquoThink about itrdquo said J Steven Picou a sociologist at the University of South Alabama ldquoThe script for a

purely natural disaster is impact then rescue then inventory then recovery But with technical crises like

these nuclear leaks it can go quickly from impact to rescue mdash straight to blame and often for good reason

But it means that the story line is contested therersquos no clear-cut resolution you never have agreement on

what exactly happenedrdquo

He added ldquoTo move past a catastrophe people usually need to be able to tell themselves a clear story about

what happened And in this case the story is not so clearrdquo

One reason is that many people in Japan have begun to doubt the official version of events ldquoThe mistrust

of the government and Tepco was already there before the crisisrdquo said Susumu Hirakawa a psychologist at

Taisho University in Tokyo referring to the Tokyo Electric Power Company which owns the leaking

nuclear plant ldquoNow people are even angrier because of the inaccurate information theyrsquore gettingrdquo

A similar reaction unfolded in the wake of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine

Mismanagement of information creates consequences down the line said Adriana Petryna a professor of

anthropolgy at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book Life Exposed Biological Citizens

34

after Chernobyl And in my estimation this tragedy is starting to look a lot like Chernobyl which forced

the evacuation of thousands of people and contaminated millions of acres of forests and farmland

The only country ever hit by a nuclear attack Japan has a visceral appreciation of the uncertainties of

radiation exposure how it can spare some people in its wake and poison others silently causing disease

years later It is caught in the middle The story has a contested beginning and an uncertain ending

Compounding the problem Japanese psychologists say is that many of their countrymen will attempt to

manage their anger grief and anxiety alone In the older generations especially people tend to be very

reluctant to admit to mental and emotional problems even to friends theyrsquore far more likely to describe

physical symptoms like headaches or fatigue that arise from underlying depression or anxiety

ldquoItrsquos simply more socially acceptable to talk about these physical symptomsrdquo said Dr Anthony Ng a

psychiatrist at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda Md who consulted

in the aftermath of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe

Not that medicine can repair the deepest losses The quake tsunami and radiation have destroyed or

defiled what may be the islandsrsquo most precious commodity land dealing a psychological blow that for

many will be existentially disorienting

ldquoIn rural communities especially therersquos a very strong feeling that the land belongs to you and you belong

to itrdquo said Kai Erikson a sociologist at Yale who studied mining towns of the Buffalo Creek hollow in West

Virginia where more than a dozen towns were destroyed and at least 118 people killed when a dam burst in

1972 unleashing a wall of water as high as 30 feet that swept down the hollow ldquoAnd if you lose that yoursquore

not just dislocated physically but you start to lose a sense of who you arerdquo

There are some reasons for optimism

After purely natural disasters about 95 percent of those directly affected typically shake off disabling

feelings of sadness or grief in the first year experts say just eight months after Hurricane Ivan leveled

Orange Beach Ala in 2004 about three-quarters of people thought the town was back on track

researchers found And psychologists in Japan say they may get an unprecedented chance to reach out to

survivors as many of them gather in schools gyms and other places that have been set up as evacuation

shelters

Yet one-on-one therapy and crisis counseling efforts are not without their risks either ldquoWe have to be

careful that we donrsquot create a whole class of victims that we donrsquot put people into some diagnostic box that

makes them permanently dependentrdquo said Joshua Breslau a medical anthropologist and psychiatric

epidemiologist at the University of California Davis who worked in Japan during the Kobe quake

35

Once victimization becomes a part of a personrsquos identity the disaster story may never end Researchers led

by Dr Picou have regularly surveyed the residents of Cordova Alaska since the town was devastated by

the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 Even today about half of those in the community report feeling angry

frustrated or cheated by Exxon mdash and by the court system after drawn-out litigation

ldquoMore than 20 years laterrdquo Dr Picou said ldquoand many of those people still havenrsquot gotten over itrdquo

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Tokyo


Correction March 27 2011

Because of an editing error an article last Sunday about the prospects for Japanrsquos psychological

recovery from the series of recent disasters misattributed a quotation about the management of in-

formation during the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine in 1986 an issue for which Japanese

officials have also been criticized It was Adriana Petryna a professor in the anthropology department at

the University of Pennsylvania mdash not Susumu Hirakawa a psychologist at Taisho University in Tokyo mdash

who said ldquoMismanagement of information creates consequences down the linerdquo And a picture credit

misstated the name of the company that provided the photograph of recent destruction in Japan to

Reuters It is Kyodo News not Yomiuri

March 15 2011

In Remote Towns Survivors Tell of a Waversquos Power By MARTIN FACKLER and MICHAEL WINES

MINAMISANRIKU Japan mdash Jin Sato mayor of this quiet fishing port had just given a speech to the town

assembly on the need to strengthen tsunami preparation when the earthquake struck The tsunami came

just over a half-hour later far exceeding even their worst fears

He and other survivors described a wall of frothing brown water that tore through this town of more than

17000 so fast that few could escape Town officials say as many as 10000 people may have been

swallowed by the sea Even many of those who reached higher ground were not spared by waves that

survivors said reached more than 60 feet high

ldquoIt was a scene from hellrdquo Mr Sato 59 said his eyes red with tears ldquoIt was beyond anything that we could

have imaginedrdquo

Much of the destruction unleashed by the tsunami that struck Japanrsquos northeastern coast on Friday was

captured on television for all to see But the most lethal devastation took place in remote fishing

36

communities like this one where residents said steep mountains and deep inlets amplified the size of the

crushing wave unrecorded by television news helicopters or Internet videos

The only record now is the accounts of the survivors and as word of what happened here has begun to seep

out even disaster-struck Japan has found itself aghast

In this town and others nearby the tsunami created scenes of almost apocalyptic destruction Traumatized

survivors have been left to ponder that the living and the dead were separated by the mere caprice of a

ravenous fast-moving wall of water and sometimes split-second decisions

Yasumasa Miyakawa 70 who owned a laundry on the first floor of his home said he and his wife ran up a

hill when they heard the tsunami warnings Then Mr Miyakawa went back down because he forgot to turn

off his iron and was afraid it would catch fire

When he stepped back outside his shop he heard those on the hill above him yelling ldquoRunrdquo A wave was

barreling at him about a half-mile away in the bay he said He jumped in his car and by the time he could

turn the key and put it in gear the wave was almost upon him He said he sped out of town chased by the

wave rising in his rearview mirror

ldquoIt was like one of the ridiculous scenes from an action movie except it was realrdquo said Mr Miyakawa his

hands quivering ldquoI was going 70rdquo mdash kilometers per hour or about 45 miles per hour mdash ldquoand the wave was

gaining on me Thatrsquos how fast it wasrdquo

When he returned the next morning he found his home reduced to its foundations and heard faint cries

for help He followed them to a nearby apartment building where he found a woman shivering and wet in

the March cold and took her to a shelter ldquoThe wave killed manyrdquo he said ldquobut it spared a fewrdquo

Among them were the townrsquos children whose schools were located safely on a hilltop

In fact the children said they did not even notice the wave Ryusei Tsugawara a 13-year-old middle school

student said he figured something was amiss only when school ended and teachers would not let the

children go home Instead the children were kept at school until the next day when his parents and those

of some of the other children began to claim them

Some parents never showed and the unlucky children have been placed in care of friends and relatives

town officials said ldquoThe town is gone and Irsquom scared to stay hererdquo Ryusei said

A decision to gather on the roof of the town hall proved fateful for many Mr Sato the mayor said he and

other town employees rushed to watch the approaching wave from the roof which at three stories high and

a half-mile from the shore seemed safely out of harmrsquos way

37

Instead Mr Sato said the water roared up to the building and swept over its roof pinning him against a

steel railing with his head just above water He said that was the only reason he survived Of the 30 people

on the roof only 10 survived by clinging onto the railing or an antenna

After the waters receded Mr Sato and the other shivering survivors on the roof collected the splintered

boards and Styrofoam to build a fire The next morning they used some fishing rope to climb down About

7500 survivors have gathered in shelters on hilltops where they remain without electricity heat or

running water waiting for help from the outside

Town officials say about 10000 residents are missing though they are not sure exactly how many because

all the townrsquos records were destroyed by the wave One thousand bodies have been found so far according

to local news reports which town officials refused to confirm or deny Many more are believed to be inside

the debris or buried under the layer of brown mud that the tsunami left behind

Similarly in Kesennuma about 16 miles north of here officials say a six-mile inlet that nurtured the town

also proved its undoing channeling and compressing the tsunamirsquos power until at the end the wave

towered nearly 50 feet high

The scope of the destruction officials say far exceeded the worst-case models in expertsrsquo tsunami

projections The wave completely leveled fishing villages and residential enclaves up and down the sound

ravaged the townrsquos sewage treatment plant and destroyed more than 15 miles of shops and apartments on

its outskirts

It roared up a river and swamped the new retail district and it leapt over the harbor wall veered left and

razed whole blocks of the old city center flinging entire buildings 100 yards and more

By the latest count about 17000 were left stranded or more than one in five residents and there were 211

dead at a central morgue

There will be more for the sheer scope of the damage has even hobbled efforts to tally the dead and

missing Emergency officials say corpses stored at outlying community centers have yet to be accounted

for Teams of workers from Tokyo and elsewhere are just beginning to search many areas

But officials are not worrying about the death toll for now There is too much else to do

ldquoAlong the coast everything is gonerdquo said Komatsu Mikio the head of finance in Kesennuma ldquoIt was

entirely swept away Wersquore not prioritizing the body recovery We need to clear the roads get electricity

get running water Thatrsquos our main activity And as wersquore doing that wersquoll find the bodiesrdquo

March 24 2011

38

Japanese Town Mulls Future Without Whaling Industry By MARTIN FACKLER

AYUKAWAHAMA Japan mdash At first glance it seemed like just one more flattened building in a seaside

town where a tsunami had leveled hundreds of homes But survivors gathered at this one to stand and

brood

They came to what had been the headquarters of Ayukawa Whaling one of only a handful of companies left

in Japan that still hunted large whales Those who gathered on a chilly recent Thursday spoke as if the

companyrsquos destruction two weeks ago had robbed the town of its soul

ldquoThere is no Ayukawa without whalingrdquo said Hiroyuki Akimoto 27 a fisherman and an occasional

crewman on the whaling boats referring to the town by its popular shorthand

Japanrsquos tsunami seems to have succeeded mdash where years of boycotts protests and high-seas chases by

Western environmentalists had failed mdash in knocking out a pillar of the nationrsquos whaling industry

Ayukawahama was one of only four communities in Japan that defiantly carried on whaling and eating

whales as a part of the local culture even as the rest of the nation lost interest in whale meat

So central is whaling to the local identity that many here see the fate of the town and the industry as

inextricably linked

ldquoThis could be the final blow to whaling hererdquo said Makoto Takeda a 70-year-old retired whaler ldquoSo goes

whaling so goes the townrdquo

The damage was particularly heavy here because Ayukawahama sits on the tip of a peninsula that was the

closest land to the huge undersea earthquake 13 days ago The resulting tsunami tore through the tiny

fishing towns on the mountainous coastline reducing Ayukawahama to an expanse of splintered wood and

twisted cars Three out of four homes were destroyed forcing half of the townrsquos 1400 residents into

makeshift shelters

At the offices of Ayukawa Whaling only a light green harpoon gun mdash which once proudly decorated the

entrance mdash and an uprooted pine tree were left standing Across a parking lot stood the skeletal frame of

the factory where whale meat was processed A beached fishing boat and crumpled fire truck lay on the

raised platform where the whales were hoisted ashore to be butchered

The companyrsquos three boats which had been sucked out to sea washed up miles down the coast with

remarkably little damage But they remain grounded there

Ayukawa Whalingrsquos chairman Minoru Ito said he was in the office when the earthquake struck shattering

windows and toppling furniture He led the employees to higher ground

39

All 28 of them survived he said though he later had to lay them off He said he fully intended to rebuild

hopefully in time for an autumn hunt off the northern island of Hokkaido though he acknowledged the

recovery might take more time He said the most costly part would be getting the whaling ships back in the

water an undertaking that the company cannot afford without government help

Once the ships are ready he wants to hire back the employees However he admitted that the waves might

have scared some employees away from both whaling and Ayukawahama

ldquoIf we can fix the ships then wersquore back in businessrdquo said Mr Ito 74 whose father was also a whaler

ldquoThey should not be afraid because another tsunami like that wonrsquot come for another 100 yearsrdquo

Other residents were similarly undaunted Mr Akimoto the occasional whaler who came with a friend to

see the ruined company said the town needed to resume whaling as soon as possible to lift its spirits

He said the year would be a sad one because the town would miss the April hunting season during which

coastal whalers like Ayukawa Whaling are allowed to take 50 minke whales under Japanrsquos controversial

whaling program which is ostensibly for research

Ayukawahama and the other three whaling communities mdash among them Taiji made infamous by the

movie ldquoThe Coverdquo mdash hunt only in coastal waters Japanrsquos better-known whaling in the Antarctic is

conducted by the government

Mr Akimoto said April was usually the townrsquos most festive month especially when large whales were

brought ashore He said he would miss that feeling this year

Added his friend Tatsuya Sato 20 ldquoWe are so hungry that if they brought a whale ashore now the whole

town would rush down to eat itrdquo

Many older residents compared the food shortages created by the tsunami with the hard-tack years after

World War II when Japanrsquos whaling industry boomed as a provider of scarce protein

Those were the glory days of Ayukawahama when the population swelled to more than 10000 and

whaling crews swaggered down streets that bustled with crowds drawn by cabarets and movie theaters

Today Ayukawahama plays up its whaling history for tourists Smiling cartoon whales adorn shop fronts

and even manhole covers The town also built its own whaling museum which was gutted by the tsunami

While no one expects a return to Ayukawahamarsquos postwar golden era some wistfully hoped that whale

meat could once more come to the rescue

Seiko Taira said that food shortages here were particularly acute because the tsunami washed out roads

cutting off Ayukawahama for several days She said she had neglected to store her own food and was

40

reduced to feeding her four children and one grandchild a single cup of instant ramen noodles and a few

pieces of bread per day

Ms Taira 54 said she had grown so desperate that she scavenged the tsunami wreckage for food On

Thursday picking through the debris near the site of Ayukawa Whalingrsquos office her 17-year-old daughter

Yumi found a can of whale meat She proudly held up the prize to her mother

ldquoI wish we could eat whale meat every dayrdquo said Ms Taira who worked as caregiver for the elderly before

the wave hit ldquoBut the whalers are so old I think theyrsquoll just quit or retire after what happened

ldquoI think whaling is dead hererdquo she added

Shin Okada an official in the disaster-response office said the town had its hands full bringing in more

food and finding shelter for the homeless He said officials had not had time to think about steps to revive

the fishing and whaling industries

On a plaza in front of the whaling museum Shinobu Ankai struggled to remove the wheels from his

overturned car which had been deposited there by the tsunami He did not want them to be stolen by the

same people who drained the gas tank

Like many older men in town he is a retired whaler and he spoke of hunts that once ranged from Alaska to

the Antarctic However he said whaling was in a terminal decline even before the tsunami

ldquoThere was Sea Shepherd and now thisrdquo he said referring to the American environmental group which

has sought to block Japanrsquos whaling in the Antarctic ldquoWhaling is finishedrdquo


March 31 2011

In Japan Seawall Offered a False Sense of Security By NORIMITSU ONISHI

TARO Japan mdash So unshakable was this townrsquos faith in its sea wall and its ability to save residents from any

tsunami that some rushed toward it after a 90-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northeast

Japan on the afternoon of March 11

After all the sea wall was one of Japanrsquos tallest and longest called the nationrsquos ldquoGreat Wall of Chinardquo by the

government and news media Its inner wall was reinforced by an outer one and they stretched 15 miles

across the bay here The surface was so wide that high school students jogged on it townspeople strolled

on it and some rode their bicycles on it A local junior high school song even urged students ldquoLook up at

our sea wall The challenges of tsunamis are endlessrdquo

41

But within a few minutes on March 11 the tsunamirsquos waves tore through the outer wall before easily

surging over the 34-foot-high inner one sweeping away those who had climbed on its top and quickly

taking away most of the town of Taro

ldquoFor us the sea wall was a source of pride an asset something that we believed inrdquo said Eiko Araya 58

the principal of Taro No 3 Elementary School Like several other survivors Ms Araya was walking atop

the inner wall late Wednesday afternoon peering down at the ruins of Taro ldquoWe felt protected I believe

Thatrsquos why our feeling of loss is even greater nowrdquo

Tsunamis are an integral part of the history of Japanrsquos Sanriku region which includes this fishing town of

about 4400 People speak of tsunamis as if they were enemies that ldquotake awayrdquo the inhabitants here

Perhaps because the loss of life over the decades has been so great a local teaching called tendenko

unsentimentally exhorts people to head for higher ground immediately after an earthquake without

stopping to worry about anybody else

Sanriku is also home to some of the worldrsquos most elaborate anti-tsunami infrastructure including concrete

sea walls that transform seaside communities into garrisonlike towns with limited views of the ocean

About 50 miles south of here in the city of Kamaishi the worldrsquos deepest breakwater was completed two

years ago after three decades of construction at a cost of $15 billion

The recent tsunami damaged perhaps irreparably Kamaishirsquos breakwater as well as countless sea walls

and other facilities designed to shield communities against tsunamis Researchers are starting to assess

whether the sea walls and breakwaters minimized the force of the tsunami even as some experts are

already calling for a stop to more coastline engineering saying money should be spent instead on

education and evacuation drills

As Japan undertakes the monumental task of rebuilding areas of its northeast it will also face the hard

choice of whether to resurrect the expensive anti-tsunami infrastructure mdash much of which was built during

Japanrsquos economic ascendancy

Osamu Shimozawa a city official in Kamaishi said a decision not to rebuild would be tantamount to

ldquoabandoning rural Japanrdquo

ldquoWe have to provide a permanent feeling of security so that people will live hererdquo Mr Shimozawa said

Kamaishirsquos 207-foot deep breakwater mdash sections of which now lie broken in the harbor mdash blunted the force

of the tsunami according to preliminary investigations by independent civil engineers In Kamaishi 648

deaths have been confirmed while 630 people are still listed as missing

ldquoThe damage was limited compared to other placesrdquo said Shoichi Sasaki an official at the Ministry of

Landrsquos office in Kamaishi

42

It was an opinion shared by most people interviewed in Kamaishi many of whom had witnessed

construction crews erecting the breakwater from 1978 to 2009

Toru Yaura and his wife Junko both 60 were clearing the debris from the first floor of their home several

blocks from the water

ldquoWithout the breakwater the impact would probably have been greaterrdquo Mr Yaura said explaining that

the water rose up to his waist on the second floor of his two-story house

The Yauras who are staying at a shelter were initially trapped inside their home alone without electricity

the night after the tsunami mdash which also happened to be Mr Yaurarsquos 60th birthday

ldquoIt was a romantic birthday with candlesrdquo he said ldquoWe laughed the two of usrdquo

Here in Taro the number of dead was expected to rise above 100

Instead of protecting the townspeople the sea wall may have lulled them with a false sense of security said

Isamu Hashiba 66 who had driven here from a nearby district to attend a friendrsquos cremation

His wife Etsuko 55 said ldquoThere were people who were looking at the tsunami from the sea wall because

they felt saferdquo

The town began building the inner wall after a tsunami decimated Tarorsquos population in 1933 The wall was

reinforced and expanded in the 1960s

In the 1933 tsunami said Ms Araya the school principal her mother lost all her relatives except one

uncle at the age of 11 Her mother now 89 survived the most recent tsunami because she happened to be

at a day care center for the elderly

ldquoPeople say that those who live in Taro will encounter a tsunami twice in their livesrdquo Ms Araya said

ldquoThatrsquos the fate of people born in Tarordquo

Perhaps because it was their fate because they were used to rising from tsunamis every few generations

some of those walking on the sea wall were already thinking about the future

Ryuju Yamamoto 66 peered down trying to spot his house below but was more interested in talking

about the woman he was wooing A tatami-mat maker he pointed below to a spot where he had found his

dresser and tatami mat as well as a doll he had received as a wedding gift three decades ago His father had

forced him into an arranged marriage he said that lasted 40 days

ldquoI learned that she already had thisrdquo he said pointing to his thumb signifying a boyfriend ldquoAnd she

refused to break it offrdquo

43

Unexpectedly at a year-end party for dog owners last December Mr Yamamoto said he saw a woman he

had met while walking his dog The woman lived with her mother who Mr Yamamoto learned teaches

taishogoto a Japanese musical instrument So Mr Yamamoto was now taking lessons from the mother

regularly visiting their home which was unaffected by the tsunami

ldquoThatrsquos my strategyrdquo Mr Yamamoto said adding that he was making progress After learning that he was

now living in a shelter he said the mother had invited him to take a bath in their home

ldquoIrsquom going tomorrowrdquo he said

Kantaro Suzuki contributed reporting


March 26 2011

Japanese Rules for Nuclear Plants Relied on Old Science By NORIMITSU ONISHI and JAMES GLANZ

para TOKYO mdash In the country that gave the world the word tsunami the Japanese nuclear establishment

largely disregarded the potentially destructive force of the walls of water The word did not even appear in

government guidelines until 2006 decades after plants mdash including the Fukushima Daiichi facility that

firefighters are still struggling to get under control mdash began dotting the Japanese coastline

para The lack of attention may help explain how on an island nation surrounded by clashing tectonic plates

that commonly produce tsunamis the protections were so tragically minuscule compared with the nearly

46-foot tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima plant on March 11 Offshore breakwaters designed to

guard against typhoons but not tsunamis succumbed quickly as a first line of defense The wave grew three

times as tall as the bluff on which the plant had been built

para Japanese government and utility officials have repeatedly said that engineers could never have

anticipated the magnitude 90 earthquake mdash by far the largest in Japanese history mdash that caused the sea

bottom to shudder and generated the huge tsunami Even so seismologists and tsunami experts say that

according to readily available data an earthquake with a magnitude as low as 75 mdash almost garden variety

around the Pacific Rim mdash could have created a tsunami large enough to top the bluff at Fukushima

44

para After an advisory group issued nonbinding recommendations in 2002 Tokyo Electric Power Company

the plant owner and Japanrsquos biggest utility raised its maximum projected tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi to

between 177 and 187 feet mdash considerably higher than the 13-foot-high bluff Yet the company appeared to

respond only by raising the level of an electric pump near the coast by 8 inches presumably to protect it

from high water regulators said

para ldquoWe can only work on precedent and there was no precedentrdquo said Tsuneo Futami a former Tokyo

Electric nuclear engineer who was the director of Fukushima Daiichi in the late 1990s ldquoWhen I headed the

plant the thought of a tsunami never crossed my mindrdquo

para The intensity with which the earthquake shook the ground at Fukushima also exceeded the criteria used

in the plantrsquos design though by a less significant factor than the tsunami according to data Tokyo Electric

has given the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum a professional group Based on what is known now the

tsunami set off the nuclear crisis by flooding the backup generators needed to power the reactor cooling

system

para Japan is known for its technical expertise For decades though Japanese officialdom and even parts of

its engineering establishment clung to older scientific precepts for protecting nuclear plants relying

heavily on records of earthquakes and tsunamis and failing to make use of advances in seismology and risk

assessment since the 1970s

para For some experts the underestimate of the tsunami threat at Fukushima is frustratingly reminiscent of

the earthquake mdash this time with no tsunami mdash in July 2007 that struck Kashiwazaki a Tokyo Electric

nuclear plant on Japanrsquos western coast The ground at Kashiwazaki shook as much as two and a half times

the maximum intensity envisioned in the plantrsquos design prompting upgrades at the plant

para ldquoThey had years to prepare at that point after Kashiwazaki and I am seeing the same thing at

Fukushimardquo said Peter Yanev an expert in seismic risk assessment based in California who has studied

Fukushima for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department

para There is no doubt that when Fukushima was designed seismology and its intersection with the structural

engineering of nuclear power plants was in its infancy said Hiroyuki Aoyama 78 an expert on the quake

resistance of nuclear plants who has served on Japanese government panels Engineers employed a lot of

guesswork adopting a standard that structures inside nuclear plants should have three times the quake

resistance of general buildings

para ldquoThere was no basis in deciding on three timesrdquo said Mr Aoyama an emeritus professor of structural

engineering at the University of Tokyo ldquoThey were shooting from the hiprdquo he added making a sign of a

pistol with his right thumb and index finger ldquoThere was a vague targetrdquo

para Evolution of Designs

45

para When Japanese engineers began designing their first nuclear power plants more than four decades ago

they turned to the past for clues on how to protect their investment in the energy of the future Official

archives some centuries old contained information on how tsunamis had flooded coastal villages allowing

engineers to surmise their height

para So seawalls were erected higher than the highest tsunamis on record At Fukushima Daiichi Japanrsquos

fourth oldest nuclear plant officials at Tokyo Electric used a contemporary tsunami mdash a 105-foot-high

wave caused by a 95-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1960 mdash as a reference point The 13-foot-high cliff

on which the plant was built would serve as a natural seawall according to Masaru Kobayashi an expert on

quake resistance at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Japanrsquos nuclear regulator

para Eighteen-foot-high offshore breakwaters were built as part of the companyrsquos anti-tsunami strategy said

Jun Oshima a spokesman for Tokyo Electric But regulators said the breakwaters mdash mainly intended to

shelter boats mdash offered some resistance against typhoons but not tsunamis Mr Kobayashi said

para Over the decades preparedness against tsunamis never became a priority for Japanrsquos power companies

or nuclear regulators They were perhaps lulled experts said by the fact that no tsunami had struck a

nuclear plant until two weeks ago Even though tsunami simulations offered new ways to assess the risks of

tsunamis plant operators made few changes at their aging facilities and nuclear regulators did not press

them

para Engineers took a similar approach with earthquakes When it came to designing the Fukushima plant

official records dating from 1600 showed that the strongest earthquakes off the coast of present-day

Fukushima Prefecture had registered between magnitude 70 and 80 Mr Kobayashi said

para ldquoWe left it to the expertsrdquo said Masatoshi Toyoda a retired Tokyo Electric vice president who oversaw

the construction of the plant He added ldquothey researched old documents for information on how many

tombstones had toppled over and suchrdquo

para Eventually experts on government committees started pushing for tougher building codes and by 1981

guidelines included references to earthquakes but not to tsunamis according to the Nuclear and Industrial

Safety Agency That pressure grew exponentially after the devastating Kobe earthquake in 1995 said Kenji

Sumita who was deputy chairman of the governmentrsquos Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan in the late

1990s

para Mr Sumita said power companies which were focused on completing the construction of a dozen

reactors resisted adopting tougher standards and did not send representatives to meetings on the subject

at the Nuclear Safety Commission

para ldquoOthers sent people immediatelyrdquo Mr Sumita said referring to academics and construction industry

experts ldquoBut the power companies engaged in foot-dragging and didnrsquot comerdquo

46

para Meanwhile the sciences of seismology and risk assessment advanced around the world Although the

United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has come under severe criticism for not taking the adoption

of those new techniques far enough the agency did use many of them in new plant-by-plant reviews said

Greg S Hardy a structural engineer at Simpson Gumpertz amp Heger who specializes in nuclear plant design

and seismic risk

para For whatever reasons mdash whether cultural historical or simply financial mdash Japanese engineers working on

nuclear plants continued to predict what they believed were maximum earthquakes based on records

para Those methods however did not take into account serious uncertainties like faults that had not been

discovered or earthquakes that were gigantic but rare said Mr Hardy who visited Kashiwazaki after the

2007 quake as part of a study sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute

para ldquoThe Japanese fell behindrdquo Mr Hardy said ldquoOnce they made the proclamation that this was the

maximum earthquake they had a hard time re-evaluating that as new data came inrdquo

para The Japanese approach referred to in the field as ldquodeterministicrdquo mdash as opposed to ldquoprobabilisticrdquo or

taking unknowns into account mdash somehow stuck said Noboru Nakao a consultant who was a nuclear

engineer at Hitachi for 40 years and was president of Japanrsquos training center for operators of boiling-water

reactors

para ldquoJapanese safety rules generally are deterministic because probabilistic methods are too difficultrdquo Mr

Nakao said adding that ldquothe US has a lot more risk assessment methodsrdquo

para The science of tsunamis also advanced with far better measurements of their size vastly expanded

statistics as more occurred and computer calculations that help predict what kinds of tsunamis are

produced by earthquakes of various sizes Two independent draft research papers by leading tsunami

experts mdash Eric Geist of the United States Geological Survey and Costas Synolakis a professor of civil

engineering at the University of Southern California mdash indicate that earthquakes of a magnitude down to

about 75 can create tsunamis large enough to go over the 13-foot bluff protecting the Fukushima plant

para Mr Synolakis called Japanrsquos underestimation of the tsunami risk a ldquocascade of stupid errors that led to

the disasterrdquo and said that relevant data was virtually impossible to overlook by anyone in the field

para Underestimating Risks

para The first clear reference to tsunamis appeared in new standards for Japanrsquos nuclear plants issued in

2006

para ldquoThe 2006 guidelines referred to tsunamis as an accompanying phenomenon of earthquakes and urged

the power companies to think about thatrdquo said Mr Aoyama the structural engineering expert

47

para The risk had received some attention in 2002 when a government advisory group the Japan Society of

Civil Engineers published recommended tsunami guidelines for nuclear operators

para A study group at the society including professors and representatives from utilities like Tokyo Electric

scrutinized data from past tsunamis as well as fresh research on fault lines and local geography to come

up with the guidelines according to a member of the study group who spoke on condition of anonymity

citing the sensitivity of the situation

para The same group had recently been discussing revisions to those standards according to the member At

the grouprsquos last meeting held just over a week before the recent tsunami researchers debated the

usefulness of three-dimensional simulations to predict the potential damage of tsunamis on nuclear plants

according to minutes from those meetings ldquoWe took into account more than past datardquo the member said

ldquoWe tried to predict Our objective was to reduce uncertaintiesrdquo

para Perhaps the saddest observation by scientists outside Japan is that even through the narrow lens of

recorded tsunamis the potential for easily overtopping the anti-tsunami safeguards at Fukushima should

have been recognized In 1993 a magnitude 78 quake produced tsunamis with heights greater than 30 feet

off Japanrsquos western coast spreading wide devastation according to scientific studies and reports at the

time

para On the hard-hit island of Okushiri ldquomost of the populated areas worst hit by the tsunami were bounded

by tsunami wallsrdquo as high as 15 feet according to a report written by Mr Yanev That made the walls a foot

or two higher than Fukushimarsquos bluff

para But in a harbinger of what would happen 18 years later the walls on Okushiri Mr Yanev the expert in

seismic risk assessment wrote ldquomay have moderated the overall tsunami effects but were ineffective for

higher wavesrdquo

para And even the distant past was yielding new information that could have served as fresh warnings

para Two decades after Fukushima Daiichi came online researchers poring through old records estimated that

a quake known as Jogan had actually produced a tsunami that reached nearly one mile inland in an area

just north of the plant That tsunami struck in 869

para Norimitsu Onishi reported from Tokyo and James Glanz from New York Ken Belson and Hiroko

Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo

March 26 2011

UNrsquos Nuclear Chief Says Japan Is lsquoFar From the Endrsquo By WILLIAM J BROAD and DAVID JOLLY

48

para The worldrsquos chief nuclear inspector said Saturday that Japan was ldquostill far from the end of the accidentrdquo

that struck its Fukushima nuclear complex and continues to spew radiation into the atmosphere and the

sea and acknowledged that the authorities were still unsure about whether the reactor cores and spent fuel

were covered with the water needed to cool them and end the crisis

para The inspector Yukiya Amano the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency taking

care to say that he was not criticizing Japanrsquos response under extraordinary circumstances said ldquoMore

efforts should be done to put an end to the accidentrdquo

para More than two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami he cautioned that the nuclear

emergency could still go on for weeks if not months given the enormous damage to the plant

para His concerns were underscored on Sunday when officials in Japan announced higher levels of radiation

in pools of water at the facilityrsquos stricken reactors The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that water

seeping out of the crippled No 2 reactor into the adjacent turbine building contained levels of radioactive

iodine 134 that were about 10 million times the level normally found in water used inside nuclear power

plants The higher levels further suggested there was a leak from the reactorrsquos fuel rods mdash either from

damage to the piping or suppression chamber under the rods mdash or a breach in the pressure vessel that

houses the rods the agency said

para Tests also found increased levels of radioactive cesium a substance with a longer half-life it said

para ldquoBecause these substances originate from nuclear fission there is a high possibility they originate from

the reactorrdquo said Hidehiko Nishiyama the agencyrsquos deputy director-general at a news conference He said

that it was likely that radiation was leaking from the pipes or the suppression chamber and not directly

from the pressure vessel because water levels and pressure in the vessel were relatively stable

para He also said that radioactive iodine in seawater just outside the plant had risen to 1850 times the usual

level on Sunday up from 1250 on Saturday

para ldquoRadiation levels are increasing and measures need to be takenrdquo he said but added that he did not think

there was need to worry about high levels of radiation immediately escaping the plant

para Yukio Edano the chief cabinet secretary said he did not think the pressure vessel which cases the fuel

rods was broken at the No 2 reactor He said pressure levels inside the reactor remained higher than

atmospheric pressure suggesting that there was no breach

para ldquoI donrsquot think the container is breached but there is a possibility the water is coming from somewhere

inside the reactorrdquo he said ldquoWe want to find out as quickly as possible where the highly radioactive water

is leaking from and take measures to deal with itrdquo Mr Edano said on a live interview on the public

broadcaster NHK early Sunday

49

para On Saturday the Japanese government said that it could not predict when the nuclear complex would be

brought under control Mr Edano insisted that the situation at the damaged plant was not getting worse

but said that ldquothis is not the stage for predictionsrdquo about when the crisis would be over

para Mr Amano a former Japanese diplomat who took over the United Nations nuclear agency in late 2009

said in a telephone interview from Vienna that his biggest concern now centered on spent fuel rods sitting

in open cooling pools atop the reactor buildings

para He said he was still uncertain that the efforts to spray seawater into the pools mdash to keep the rods from

bursting into flames and releasing large amounts of radioactive material mdash had been successful If workers

fill the pools with water but leave the cooling systems unrepaired he said ldquoThe temperature will go uprdquo

raising the threat of new radioactive releases

para He said he was particularly concerned about the pool at Reactor No 4 which contains the entire core of a

reactor that was removed shortly before the disaster struck and is particularly radioactive ldquoBut the need

exists for all of themrdquo to be cooled he said

para He also said he was concerned about radioactivity in the environment

para The Japanese authorities have played down the news of the elevated levels of iodine in the seawater Mr

Nishiyama said Saturday that he expected the iodine to dilute rapidly minimizing the effect on wildlife

and pointed out that fishing had been suspended in the area after the earthquake and tsunami

para ldquoThere is unlikely to be any immediate effect on nearby residentsrdquo he said

para Mr Amano said that he believed that the Japanese authorities were not withholding information but

that his recent trip back to Japan had been intended to secure from Prime Minister Naoto Kan a

commitment to what he called ldquofull transparencyrdquo

para In recent days American and international officials have said that the statements from Japan asserting

that the nuclear cores and fuel ponds were covered with water were essentially inferences based on how

much seawater had been poured in and analysis of the radioactive steam emerging from the plant But they

expressed little confidence that many details were known about what was taking place inside the buildings

with instruments still knocked out

para ldquoThere are areas where we donrsquot have informationrdquo Mr Amano said ldquoWe donrsquot and the Japanese donrsquot

toordquo

para Workers at the plant began pumping in fresh water to reactors No 1 2 and 3 on Saturday after days of

spraying them with corrosive saltwater The United States military was aiding the effort sending two

barges carrying a total of 500000 gallons of fresh water from the Yokosuka naval base

50

para The workers also restored lighting to the central control room of the No 2 unit Tokyo Electric Power

said an incremental step in efforts to restart the cooling system there that shut down after the disaster

That leaves only the No 4 unit without lighting

para The National Police Agency said Saturday that the official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami

had reached 10418 with 17072 listed as missing The authorities have said that the final death toll will

surpass 18000 There are 244339 people in refugee centers around Japan the police said

para Damage to oil refineries across the country as well as to ports and roads has created a fuel shortage in

the disaster zone hampering relief efforts

para Joy Portella an aid worker with Mercy Corps a United States-based group said that fuel shortages

remained acute in the hardest-hit areas The group distributed about 500 gallons of kerosene in the town

of Kesennuma on Saturday she said

para The amount of radiation in Tokyorsquos water supply continued to diminish for a third day after a big scare on

Wednesday The cityrsquos waterworks bureau said samples showed no radiation in the water at one plant and

lower levels at two plants

para Until now Mr Amano the United Nations nuclear chief has tended to be more reassuring in his public

comments

para On Saturday his tone seemed to darken He stressed the emergency steps taken so far were only

stopgaps not solutions ldquoThis is a very serious accident by all standardsrdquo he said ldquoand it is not yet overrdquo

paraWilliam J Broad reported from New York and David Jolly from Tokyo Reporting was contributed by

David E Sanger from Palo Alto Calif Hiroko Tabuchi and Chika Ohshima from Tokyo and Kevin Drew

from Hong Kong

March 26 2011

Radiationrsquos Enduring Afterglow By GEORGE JOHNSON

Becquerels sieverts curies roentgens rads and rems For all the esoteric nomenclature scientists have

devised to parse the effects of nuclear emanations the unit they so often fall back on is the old-fashioned

chest X-ray

Early in the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan neighbors were informed with

absurd precision that the radioactivity in a liter of their drinking water had risen to the equivalent of

188th of a chest X-ray One day last week the air in Tokyo registered 0155 of a microsievert an hour mdash

another chest X-ray if you were confined for a month at that level Though stretched to the point of

51

meaninglessness the analogy is meant to soothe mdash balm for a spirit burdened by a century of living

uneasily with radiation

Measured by sheer fury the magnitude 90 earthquake that damaged the reactors was mightier than

millions of Hiroshima bombs It shoved the northeastern coast of Japan eastward and unleashed a tsunami

that wiped civilization from the coast But explosive power comes and goes in an instant It is something

the brain can process

With radiation the terror lies in the abstraction It kills incrementally mdash slowly diffusely invisibly

ldquoAfterheatrdquo Robert Socolow a Princeton University professor called it in an essay for the Bulletin of the

Atomic Scientists ldquothe fire that you canrsquot put outrdquo

Nuclear scientists speak in terms of half-life the time it takes for random disintegrations to reduce a

radioactive sample to half its size Then a quarter an eighth a 16th mdash whether measured in microseconds

or eons the mathematical progression never ends

When traces of radioactive iodine were found last week in the drinking water in Tokyo officials expressed

the danger in becquerels the number of nuclear disintegrations per second 210 per liter safe for adults

but high enough to warn that infants should not drink it As the government began distributing bottled

water the level fell significantly but not the fear As far away as California there was a run on fallout

detectors

As these hypothetical microthreats ate at the mind rescue workers were piling up real bodies mdash 10000 so

far mdash killed by crushing waves or their aftereffects deaths caused by gravity not nuclear forces These dead

will be tabulated mourned and eventually forgotten The toll will converge on a finite number

In Chernobyl the site of the worldrsquos previous big nuclear accident the counting continues like languid

ticks from a Geiger counter A United Nations study in 2005 concluded that about 50 people had been

killed by the meltdown but that 4000 would ultimately die from radiation-caused cancer mdash victims who do

not know who they are The most debilitating effect one investigator said has been ldquoa paralyzing fatalismrdquo

a malaise brought on by an alien presence that almost seems alive

Radiation before we had a hand in it was just another phenomenon Life evolved unknowingly in its

presence with rays from the sky and earth jostling chromosomes and helping to shuffle the genetic deck

When our brains evolved to the point where we could measure and summon the effect the first reaction

was not fear but fascination The discoverers were revered as heroes Then their names were converted into

mathematical units

Conrad Roumlentgen produced the first artificial X-rays in 1895 tantalizing the world with see-through images

of his wifersquos hand then Henri Becquerel found similar emissions coming unbidden from uranium

Isolating the first minuscule specks of radium Marie Curie the greatest of the pioneers (1 curie = 37

52

gigabecquerels) marveled that its eerie blue glow ldquolooked like faint fairy lightsrdquo She was seeing the optical

equivalent of a sonic boom mdash contrails of photons produced by speeding particles Eager to see this new

world for themselves people purchased small brass eyepieces called spinthariscopes named for the Greek

word for spark Mounted inside was a bit of radium bombarding a scintillating screen Hold it to your eye

and behold the tiny explosions Spinthariscopes sat on parlor shelves next to stereoscopic postcard viewers

and kaleidoscopes items in a cabinet of curiosities

Radiation was even supposed to be good for you Vacationers soaked in radium hot springs Magazines

carried advertisements for radium suppositories radium toothpaste and radium bread mdash quack products

ranging from useless to harmful As late as the 1950s customers could peer inside their own feet through

shoe store X-ray machines the scientific way to ensure a perfect fit

As more bona fide uses led to a medical revolution mdash X-rays for medical imaging radium for killing rapidly

dividing cancer cells mdash hints of danger gradually accumulated In the 1920s women who had painted glow-

in-the-dark radium watch dials began to sicken and die Around the same time scientists experimenting

with fruit flies showed that radiation causes genetic mutations mdash red eyes turned to white

With Hiroshima Nagasaki and above-ground testing everything nuclear began to take on a more sinister

air But the threat still seemed distant and surreal As mothers worried about strontium-90 from fallout

insinuating its way into their childrenrsquos bones they were reading ldquoAtomic Bunnyrdquo comic books and sending

in cereal box tops for the Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb Ring a cheap plastic spinthariscope that promised a

glimpse of ldquogenuine atoms split to smithereensrdquo

For all the dread evoked by the stockpiling of nuclear weapons it was the 1979 accident at Three Mile

Island that marked an abrupt turn Just days earlier ldquoThe China Syndromerdquo had its cinematic release The

ldquobackup systems to backup systems to backup systemsrdquo Jack Lemmon boasted about to Jane Fonda

crumpled on the screen adding to the anxiety over what was happening outside In the end the partial

meltdown was contained and the damage was mostly economic A postmortem by the American Nuclear

Society reported that the average dose to people living within 10 miles of the accident was 08 of a chest X-

ray But the name Three Mile Island never lost its afterglow

In the meantime Chernobyl has become a tourist destination Visitors board a bus in Kiev and cross the

border of the ldquozone of estrangementrdquo Avoiding the remaining hot spots they see the ghost city of Pripyat

and the ruined reactor They can feed catfish swimming in a reactor cooling pond and none of them have

three eyes

They might also see a resurgence of wildlife moose roe deer Russian wild boar foxes river otter and

rabbits American ecologists who conducted a study of the area in the late 1990s concluded that for all the

harm caused by fallout the biggest impact from humans has been positive their decision to pack up and

53

leave ldquoNorthern Ukraine is the cleanest part of the nationrdquo an official of Ukrainersquos Academy of Sciences

said at the time ldquoIt has only radiationrdquo

Only radiation That is small consolation for the evacuees in Japan and the workers still dousing the

reactors with hoses as though fighting a fire that could be put out

George Johnson a former reporter and editor at The Times is author of The Ten Most Beautiful

Experiments He is writing a book about cancer


Correction April 10 2011

An article on March 27 about the history and dangers of radiation misstated the given name of the man

who discovered the X-ray and a correction in this space last Sunday rendered his surname incorrectly

He was Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

APRIL 8 2011 548 PM

Limits to lsquoDisaster Memoryrsquo Even Etched in Stone

By ANDREW C REVKIN

I encourage you to read ldquoTsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from

ancestorsrdquo a haunting and fascinating Associated Press story by Jay Alabaster describing centuries-old stone tablets warning of coastal

tsunami risk that dot the Japanese coast ravaged by the great earthquake and resulting waves on March 11th

This is an example of how ldquodisaster memoryrdquo conveyed from generation to generation can mdash at least for a time mdash limit losses from

inevitable but rare calamities The inscription inscribed on one stone (pictured at right) was quoted in the article

High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendantshellip Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis Do not build any homes

below this point

In some parts of the world tsunami warnings have been passed down

through oral traditions That is the case on Simeulue Island in Indonesia which was struck by the extraordinary Indian Ocean

tsunami on Dec 26 2004 Earthquake analysts concluded that longstanding warnings about the importance of running to high ground

at the first shudder of an earthquake dating from the 19th century played a substantial role in limiting losses to 7 deaths out of 80000

residents

54

In Japan there was evidence of great tsunamis on portions of the

coast but the most recent was in 1933 One Japanese expert in the wire story interestingly enough noted how such messages lose their

influence over time

Earlier generations also left warnings in place names calling one town

ldquoOctopus Groundsrdquo for the sea life washed up by tsunamis and naming temples after the powerful waves said Fumihiko Imamura a professor

in disaster planning at Tohoku University in Sendai a tsunami-hit city

ldquoIt takes about three generations for people to forget Those that

experience the disaster themselves pass it to their children and their grandchildren but then the memory fadesrdquo he said

Given the number of other crowded spots around the world from the Pacific Northwest to the Caribbean to other parts of Indonesia sit atop

long-slumbering faults known to generate big tsunamis hopefully the message from northeastern Japan will not fade

Addendum California Watch a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting has published On Shaky Ground a detailed and sweeping

report pointing to longstanding lapses by the state agency responsible for keeping schools safe in earthquakes

Could this be Professor Imamurarsquos ldquothree generationsrdquo rule in action

The Field Act the law that the investigative series asserts is being laxly

enforced was written after the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 wrecked 70 schools around Los Angeles (after school hours) prompting a mob

to try to lynch the cityrsquos school building inspector

Thatrsquos just about three generations ago

The really bad news here is that California is the best case because the state experiences just enough moderate earthquake activity to keep

people attuned to the risk Further up the coast and in places like Salt Lake City Utah there is substantial risk but little recent history of

calamity mdash and thus no disaster memory

APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM

lsquoDisaster Memoryrsquo and the Flooding of Fukushima

By ANDREW C REVKIN

55

250 pm | Updated below with astounding video from

Kesennuma Japan | Over the weekend I mused on a question thatrsquos bothered me since I

read Roger Bilhamrsquos report on the great earthquake and tsunami of March 11 Given the history of devastating tsunamis not far away how

could it have taken until 2006 for the word ldquotsunamirdquo to show up in government guidelines related to the Fukushima nuclear complex

(For instance in 1933 a tsunami more than 90 feet high erased coastal villages along part of the same stretch of Honshu coast devastated on

March 11)

Lack of attention to tsunami risk appears to have played a role in how

the disaster unfolded elsewhere as described in this report from Taro Japan Herersquos the relevant line from Bilham whorsquos been voicing

concerns about under-appreciated risk from great but rare earthquakes in crowding seismic hot zones around the world

In hindsight it appears impossible to believe that nuclear power stations were located on a shoreline without recognizing the

engineering difficulties attending prolonged immersion by a large tsunami In 1896 a 33-meter high tsunami drowned the Sanriku

coastline 200 kilometers to the north of Fukushima A 23-meter wave surged on the same coast in 1933 and in 1993a 30-meters wave swept

over Okushira Island

One clue to the lack of concern might simply be the roughly 40-year

period of relative seismic calm (in terms of a lack of great quakes in populous places) from the 1960s into the 2000s as shown in the chart

above from Bilhamrsquos report (And note the remote locations of nearly all the great earthquakes from the middle of the 20th century mdash Alaska

southern Chile far eastern Russia)

The second half of the 20th century saw much of the vast global

industrialization boom that has created the infrastructure modern societies now depend on including seaside nuclear plants

A central point in the chorus of warnings from Bilham and other earthquake researchers is that the developing world (particularly the

industrializing giants India and China) is more than replicating a similar build-out of cities in seismic danger zones

There and in earthquake zones in industrial powers (California and the Pacific Northwest for instance) could it be that the lack of adequate

consideration of whatrsquos possible may simply be because the brunt of

56

humanityrsquos growth spurt has happened between eras when these zones

have had enormous jolts

Revisit ldquoThe Future of Calamityrdquo and ldquoDisaster Hot Spots on a

Crowding Planetrdquo for more on this issue And make sure to review my post describing a fascinating parable about ldquodisaster memoryrdquo revealed

through archeological work in the Aleutian Islands

Herersquos the kicker from that piece which focused on the importance of

incorporating the wisdom of elders (or science and history on longer scales) in how we plan for the worst

As Irsquove said here before it now seems in some ways that scientists are like societyrsquos elders with awareness of past disasters absorbed from

years of studying mega-droughts recorded in tree rings or coastal destruction etched in layers of sediment or great earthquakes recorded

in displaced stream beds

They warn of inevitable hard knocks to come even as ever more people

crowd into harmrsquos way whether in the instant pop-up shanty towns of cities sitting on unstable faults or the spreading sprawl of the

Southwest where megadrought may have been the norm and 20th-century moisture the anomaly

The question remains Is anybody listening

Postscript I agree with some other commentators that the video

below is the most unnervingly powerful depiction of the destructive power of Japanrsquos tsunami It was shot from a rooftop in Keseenuma

where a long bay clearly amplified the height and reach of the great inrushing waves

57

April 11 2011

Japan Nuclear Disaster Put on Par With Chernobyl By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER

TOKYO mdash Japan has decided to raise its assessment of the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear power plant to the worst rating on an international scale putting the disaster on par with the 1986

Chernobyl explosion the Japanese nuclear regulatory agency said on Tuesday

The decision to raise the alert level to 7 from 5 on the scale amounts to an admission that the accident at

the nuclear facility brought on by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is likely to have substantial and

long-lasting consequences for health and for the environment Some in the nuclear industry have been

saying for weeks that the accident released large amounts of radiation but Japanese officials had played

down this possibility

The new estimates by Japanese authorities suggest that the total amount of radioactive materials released

so far is equal to about 10 percent of that released in the Chernobyl accident said Hidehiko Nishiyama

deputy director general of Japanrsquos nuclear regulator the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency

Mr Nishiyama stressed that unlike at Chernobyl where the reactor itself exploded and fire fanned the

release of radioactive material the containments at the four troubled reactors at Fukushima remained

intact over all

But at a separate news conference an official from the plantrsquos operator Tokyo Electric and Power said

ldquoThe radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that it could eventually exceed

Chernobylrdquo

58

On the International Nuclear Event Scale a Level 7 nuclear accident involves ldquowidespread health and

environmental effectsrdquo and the ldquoexternal release of a significant fraction of the reactor core inventoryrdquo The

scale which was developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and countries that use nuclear

energy leaves it to the nuclear agency of the country where the accident occurs to calculate a rating based

on complicated criteria

Japanrsquos previous rating of 5 placed the Fukushima accident at the same level as the Three Mile Island

accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 Level 7 has been applied only to the disaster at Chernobyl in the former

Soviet Union

ldquoThis is an admission by the Japanese government that the amount of radiation released into the

environment has reached a new order of magnituderdquo said Tetsuo Iguchi a professor in the department of

quantum engineering at Nagoya University ldquoThe fact that we have now confirmed the worldrsquos second-ever

level 7 accident will have huge consequences for the global nuclear industry It shows that current safety

standards are woefully inadequaterdquo

Mr Nishiyama said ldquotens of thousands of terabecquerelsrdquo of radiation per hour have been released from

the plant (The measurement refers to how much radioactive material was emitted not the dose absorbed

by living things) The scale of the radiation leak has since dropped to under one terabecquerel per hour the

Kyodo news agency said citing government officials

The announcement came as Japan was preparing to urge more residents around the crippled nuclear plant

to evacuate because of concerns over long-term exposure to radiation

Also on Monday tens of thousands of people bowed their heads in silence at 246 pm exactly one month

since the 90-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami brought widespread destruction to Japanrsquos

northeast coast

The mourning was punctuated by another strong aftershock near Japanrsquos Pacific coast which briefly set off

a tsunami warning killed a 16-year-old girl and knocked out cooling at the severely damaged Fukushima

Daiichi power station for almost an hour underscoring the vulnerability of the plantrsquos reactors to

continuing seismic activity

On Tuesday morning there was another strong aftershock which shook Tokyo

The authorities have already ordered people living within a 12-mile radius of the plant to evacuate and

recommended that people remain indoors or avoid an area within a radius of 18 miles

59

The governmentrsquos decision to expand the zone came in response to radiation readings that would be

worrisome over months in certain communities beyond those areas underscoring how difficult it has been

to predict the ways radiation spreads from the damaged plant

Unlike the previous definitions of the areas to be evacuated this time the government designated specific

communities that should be evacuated instead of a radius expressed in miles

The radiation has not spread evenly from the reactors but instead has been directed to some areas and not

others by weather patterns and the terrain Iitate one of the communities told on Monday to prepare for

evacuation lies well beyond the 18-mile radius but the winds over the last month have tended to blow

northwest from the Fukushima plant toward Iitate which may explain why high readings were detected

there

Yukio Edano the governmentrsquos chief cabinet secretary said that the government would order Iitate and

four other towns to prepare to evacuate

Officials are concerned that people in these communities are being exposed to radiation equivalent to at

least 20 millisieverts a year he said which could be harmful to human health over the long term

Evacuation orders will come within a month for Katsurao Namie Iitate and parts of Minamisoma and

Kawamata Mr Edano said

People in five other areas may also be told to evacuate if the conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant

grow worse Mr Edano said Those areas are Hirono Naraha Kawauchi Tamura and other sections of

Minamisoma

ldquoThis measure is not an order for you to evacuate or take actions immediatelyrdquo he said ldquoWe arrived at this

decision by taking into account the risks of remaining in the area in the long termrdquo He appealed for calm

and said that the chance of a large-scale radiation leak from the Fukushima Daiichi plant had in fact

decreased

Mr Edano also said that pregnant women children and hospital patients should stay out of the area within

19 miles of the reactors and that schools in that zone would remain closed

Until now the Japanese government had refused to expand the evacuation zone despite urging from the

International Atomic Energy Agency The United States and Australia have advised their citizens to stay at

least 50 miles away from the plant

The international agency which is based in Vienna said Sunday that its team measured radiation on

Saturday of 04 to 37 microsieverts per hour at distances of 20 to 40 miles from the damaged plant mdash well

outside the initial evacuation zone At that rate of accumulation it would take 225 days to 57 years to

60

reach the Japanese governmentrsquos threshold level for evacuations radiation accumulating at a rate of at

least 20 millisieverts per year

In other words only the areas with the highest readings would qualify for the new evacuation ordered by

the government

Masataka Shimizu the president of Tokyo Electric visited the tsunami-stricken area on Monday for the

first time since the crisis began He called on the governor of Fukushima Prefecture Yuhei Sato but was

refused a meeting He left his business card instead

Moshe Komata and Kantaro Suzuki contributed reporting

May 16 2011

Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers By NORIMITSU ONISHI and MARTIN FACKLER

OMAEZAKI Japan mdash The nuclear power plant lawyers argued could not withstand the kind of major

earthquake that new seismic research now suggested was likely

If such a quake struck electrical power could fail along with backup generators crippling the cooling

system the lawyers predicted The reactors would then suffer a meltdown and start spewing radiation into

the air and sea Tens of thousands in the area would be forced to flee

Although the predictions sound eerily like the sequence of events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following

the March 11 earthquake and tsunami the lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago to shut down another

plant long considered the most dangerous in Japan mdash the Hamaoka station

It was one of several quixotic legal battles waged mdash and lost mdash in a long attempt to improve nuclear safety

and force Japanrsquos power companies nuclear regulators and courts to confront the dangers posed by

earthquakes and tsunamis on some of the worldrsquos most seismically active ground

The lawsuits reveal a disturbing pattern in which operators underestimated or hid seismic dangers to avoid

costly upgrades and keep operating And the fact that virtually all these suits were unsuccessful reinforces

the widespread belief in Japan that a culture of collusion supporting nuclear power including the

government nuclear regulators and plant operators extends to the courts as well

Yuichi Kaido who represented the plaintiffs in the Hamaoka suit which they lost in a district court in

2007 said that victory could have led to stricter earthquake tsunami and backup generator standards at

plants nationwide

ldquoThis accident could have been preventedrdquo Mr Kaido also the secretary general of the Japan Federation of

Bar Associations said of Fukushima Daiichi The operator of the plant Chubu Electric Power Company

61

temporarily shut down Hamaokarsquos two active reactors over the weekend following an extraordinary

request by Prime Minister Naoto Kan

After strengthening the plantrsquos defenses against earthquakes and tsunamis a process that could take a

couple of years the utility is expected to restart the plant

Japanrsquos plants are all located in coastal areas making them vulnerable to both quakes and tsunamis The

tsunami is believed to have caused the worst damage at the Fukushima plant though evidence has begun

emerging that the quake may have damaged critical equipment before the waves struck

The disaster at Fukushima Daiichi the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl directly led to the

suspension of Hamaoka here in Omaezaki a city about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo But Mr Kanrsquos

decision was also clearly influenced by a campaign over decades by small groups of protesters lawyers

and scientists who sued the government or operators here and elsewhere

They were largely ignored by the public Harassment by neighbors warnings by employers and the

reluctance of young Japanese to join antinuclear groups have diminished their numbers

But since the disaster at Fukushima and especially the suspension of Hamaoka the aging protesters are

now heralded as truth-tellers while members of the nuclear establishment are being demonized

On Friday as Chubu Electric began shutting down a reactor at 10 am Eiichi Nagano 90 and Yoshika

Shiratori 78 were battling strong winds on the shoreline leading to the plant here Mr Shiratori a leader

of the lawsuit led the way as Mr Nagano followed with a sprightly gait despite a bent back The two men

scrambled up a dune stopping only before a ldquoNo Trespassingrdquo sign

ldquoOf course wersquore pleased about the suspensionrdquo Mr Nagano said as the strong wind seemed to threaten

to topple him ldquoBut if we had done more if our voices had been louder we could have prevented the

disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Fukushima was sacrificed so that Hamaoka could be suspendedrdquo

Unheeded Warnings

In 1976 a resource-poor Japan still reeling from the shocks of the oil crisis was committed fully to nuclear

power to achieve greater energy independence a path from which it never strayed despite growing doubts

in the United States and Europe

That year as Hamaokarsquos No 1 reactor started operating and No 2 was under construction Katsuhiko

Ishibashi a seismologist and now professor emeritus at Kobe University publicized research showing that

the plant lay directly above an active earthquake zone where two tectonic plates met Over the years

further research would back up Mr Ishibashirsquos assessment culminating in a prediction last year by the

governmentrsquos own experts that there was a nearly 90 percent chance that a magnitude 80 quake would hit

this area within the next 30 years

62

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake residents in this area began organizing protests against Chubu Electric

They eventually sued the utility in 2003 to stop the plantrsquos reactors which had increased to four by then

arguing that the facilityrsquos quake-resistance standards were simply inadequate in light of the new seismic

predictions

In 2007 a district court ruled against the plaintiffs finding no problems with the safety assessments and

measures at Hamaoka The court appeared to rely greatly on the testimony of Haruki Madarame a

University of Tokyo professor and promoter of nuclear energy who since April 2010 has been the

chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan one of the nationrsquos two main nuclear regulators

Testifying for Chubu Electric Mr Madarame brushed away the possibility that two backup generators

would fail simultaneously He said that worrying about such possibilities would ldquomake it impossible to ever

build anythingrdquo After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster Mr Madarame apologized for this earlier comment

under questioning in Parliament ldquoAs someone who promoted nuclear power I am willing to apologize

personallyrdquo he said

In the early days of nuclear power generation in Japan the government and nuclear plant operators

assured the public of the safety of plants by promising that they would not be located on top of active fault

lines Mr Ishibashi the seismologist said in an interview

But he said that advances in seismology have led to the gradual discovery of active fault lines under or near

plants creating an inherent problem for the operators and the government and leading to an inevitable

conclusion for critics of nuclear power

ldquoThe Japanese archipelago is a place where you shouldnrsquot build nuclear plantsrdquo Mr Ishibashi said

Advances in seismology also led to lawsuits elsewhere Only two courts have issued rulings in favor of

plaintiffs but those were later overturned by higher courts Since the late 1970s 14 major lawsuits have

been filed against the government or plant operators in Japan which until March 11 had 54 reactors at 18

plants

In one of the two cases residents near the Shika nuclear plant in Ishikawa a prefecture facing the Sea of

Japan sued to shut down a new reactor there in 1999 They argued that the reactor built near a fault line

had been designed according to outdated quake-resistance standards

A district court ordered the shutdown of the plant in 2006 ruling that the operator Hokuriku Electric

Power Company had not proved that its new reactor met adequate quake-resistance standards given new

knowledge about the arearsquos earthquake activity

Kenichi Ido the chief judge at the district court who is now a lawyer in private practice said that in

general it was difficult for plaintiffs to prove that a plant was dangerous What is more because of the

63

technical complexities surrounding nuclear plants judges effectively tended to side with a national strategy

of promoting nuclear power he said

ldquoI think it canrsquot be denied that a psychology favoring the safer path comes into playrdquo Mr Ido said ldquoJudges

are less likely to invite criticism by siding and erring with the government than by sympathizing and erring

with a small group of expertsrdquo

That appears to have happened when a higher court reversed the decision in 2009 and allowed Hokuriku

Electric to keep operating the reactor In that decision the court ruled that the plant was safe because it

met new standards for Japanrsquos nuclear plants issued in 2006

Critics say that this exposed the main weakness in Japanrsquos nuclear power industry weak oversight

The 2006 guidelines had been set by a government panel composed of many experts with ties to nuclear

operators Instead of setting stringent industrywide standards the guidelines effectively left it to operators

to check whether their plants met new standards

In 2008 the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Japanrsquos main nuclear regulator said that all the

countryrsquos reactors met the new quake standards and did not order any upgrades

Concealing Facts

Other lawsuits reveal how operators have dealt with the discovery of active fault lines by underestimating

their importance or concealing them outright even as nuclear regulators remained passive

For 12 years Yasue Ashihara has led a group of local residents in a long and lonely court battle to halt

operations of the Shimane nuclear plant which sits less than five miles from Matsue a city of 200000

people in western Japan

Ms Ashihararsquos fight against the plantrsquos operator Chugoku Electric Power revolves around not only the

discovery of a previously unknown active fault line but an odd tug of war between her group and the

company about the faultrsquos length and thus the strength of the earthquakes it is capable of producing

The utility has slowly accepted the contention of Ms Ashihararsquos group by repeatedly increasing its estimate

of the size of the fault Yet a district court last year ruled in favor of Chugoku Electric Power accepting its

argument that its estimates were based on the better scientific analysis

ldquoWe jokingly refer to it as the ever-growing fault linerdquo said Ms Ashihara 58 who works as a caregiver for

the elderly ldquoBut what it really means is that Chugoku Electric does not know how strong an earthquake

could strike hererdquo

64

Her group filed the lawsuit in 1999 a year after the operator suddenly announced that it had detected a

five-mile-long fault near the plant reversing decades of claims that the plantrsquos vicinity was free of active

faults

Chugoku Electric said the fault was too small to produce an earthquake strong enough to threaten the

plant but Ms Ashihararsquos suit cited new research showing the fault line could in fact be much longer and

produce a much stronger earthquake It got a boost in 2006 when a seismologist announced that a test

trench that he had dug showed the fault line to be at least 12 miles long capable of causing an earthquake

of magnitude 71

After initially resisting the company reversed its position three years ago to accept the finding But a

spokesman for the Chugoku Electric said the plant was strong enough to withstand an earthquake of this

size without retrofitting

ldquoThis plant sits on solid bedrockrdquo said Hiroyuki Fukada assistant director of the visitor center for the

Shimane plant adding that it had a 20-foot ferro-concrete foundation ldquoIt is safe enough for at least a 71

earthquakerdquo

However researchers now say the fault line may extend undersea at least 18 miles long enough to produce

a magnitude 74 earthquake This prompted Ms Ashihararsquos group to appeal last yearrsquos ruling

Ms Ashihara said she has waged her long fight because she believes the company is understating the

danger to her city But she says she has at times felt ostracized from this tightly bound community with

relatives frowning upon her drawing attention to herself

Still she said she hoped the shutdown of Hamaoka would help boost her case She said local residents had

already been growing skeptical of the Shimane plantrsquos safety after revelations last year that the operator

falsified inspection records forcing it to shut down one of the plantrsquos three reactors

In Ms Ashihararsquos case the nuclear operator acknowledged the existence of the active fault line in court In

the case of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata a prefecture facing the Sea of Japan Tokyo

Electric Power Company or Tepco the utility that also operates Fukushima Daiichi did not disclose the

existence of an active fault line until an earthquake forced it to

In 1979 residents sued the government to try overturn its decision granting Tepco a license to build a plant

there They argued that nuclear regulators had not performed proper inspections of the arearsquos geology mdash an

accusation that the government would acknowledge years later mdash and that an active fault line nearby made

the plant dangerous In 2005 the Tokyo High Court ruled against the plaintiffs concluding that no such

fault line existed

65

But in 2007 after a 68-magnitude earthquake damaged the plant causing a fire and radiation leaks

Tepco admitted that in 2003 it had determined the existence of a 12-mile-long active fault line in the sea

nearby

Weighing the Chances

The decision to suspend Hamaoka has immediately raised doubts about whether other plants should be

allowed to continue operating The government based its request on the prediction that there is a nearly 90

percent chance that a magnitude 80 earthquake will hit this area within the next 30 years But critics have

said that such predictions may even underestimate the case pointing to the case of Fukushima Daiichi

where the risk of a similar quake occurring had been considered nearly zero

ldquoThis is ridiculousrdquo said Hiroaki Koide an assistant professor at the Research Reactor Institute at Kyoto

University ldquoIf anything Fukushima shows us how unforeseen disasters keep happening There are still too

many things about earthquakes that we donrsquot understandrdquo

Until March 11 Mr Koide had been relegated to the fringes as someone whose ideas were considered just

too out of step with the mainstream Today he has become an accepted voice of conscience in a nation re-

examining its nuclear program

For the ordinary Japanese who waged lonely battles against the nuclear establishment for decades mdash

mostly graying men like Mr Nagano and Mr Shiratori mdash the Hamaoka plantrsquos suspension has also given

them their moment in the sun

The two worried however that the government will allow Hamaoka to reopen once Chubu Electric has

strengthened defenses against tsunamis Chubu Electric announced that it would erect a 49-foot high

seawall in front of the plant which is protected only by a sand dune

ldquoBuilding a flimsy seawall isnrsquot enoughrdquo Mr Shiratori said ldquoWe have to keep going after Chubu Electric in

court and shut down the plant permanentlyrdquo

ldquoThatrsquos rightrdquo Mr Nagano said the smallness of his bent frame emphasized by the enormous plant behind

him ldquoThis is only the beginningrdquo

June 12 2011

In Nuclear Crisis Crippling Mistrust By NORIMITSU ONISHI and MARTIN FACKLER

66

TOKYO mdash On the evening of March 12 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plantrsquos oldest reactor had suffered a

hydrogen explosion and risked a complete meltdown Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked aides to weigh the

risks of injecting seawater into the reactor to cool it down

At this crucial moment it became clear that a prime minister who had built his career on suspicion of the

collusive ties between Japanrsquos industry and bureaucracy was acting nearly in the dark He had received a

confusing risk analysis from the chief nuclear regulator a fervently pro-nuclear academic whom aides said

Mr Kan did not trust He was also wary of the company that operated the plant given its history of trying

to cover up troubles

Mr Kan did not know that the plant manager had already begun using seawater Based on a guess of the

mood at the prime ministerrsquos office the company ordered the plant manager to stop

But the manager did something unthinkable in corporate Japan he disobeyed the order and secretly

continued using seawater a decision that experts say almost certainly prevented a more serious meltdown

and has made him an unlikely hero

The convoluted drama has exposed the underlying rifts behind Japanrsquos handling of the worst nuclear

disaster since Chernobyl which eventually resulted in explosions at four of the plantrsquos six reactors

Mutually suspicious relations between the prime ministerrsquos aides government bureaucrats and company

officials obstructed smooth decision-making

At the dramarsquos heart was an outsider prime minister who saw the need for quick action but whose well-

founded mistrust of a system of alliances between powerful plant operators compliant bureaucrats and

sympathetic politicians deprived him of resources he could have used to make better-informed decisions

A onetime grass-roots activist Mr Kan struggled to manage the nuclear crisis because he felt he could not

rely on the very mechanisms established by his predecessors to respond to such a crisis

Instead he turned at the beginning only to a handful of close overwhelmed advisers who knew little about

nuclear plants and who barely exchanged information with the plantrsquos operator and nuclear regulators

Struggling to manage a humanitarian disaster caused by the tsunami Mr Kan improvised his

governmentrsquos response to the worsening nuclear crisis seeming to vacillate between personally intervening

at the plant and leaving it to the operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company known as Tepco

ldquoThere were delays First of all we werenrsquot getting accurate information from Tepcordquo said Kenichi

Matsumoto an adviser to Mr Kan But Mr Matsumoto added that the prime ministerrsquos distrust of Tepco

and bureaucrats ldquointerferedrdquo with the overall response

The early disarray alarmed the United States government enough that it increasingly urged the Japanese to

take more decisive action and to be more forthcoming in sharing information Making matters worse was

67

Mr Kanrsquos initial reluctance to accept the help of the United States which offered pump trucks unmanned

drones and the advice of American nuclear crisis experts

ldquoWe found ourselves in a downward spiral which hurt relations with the United Statesrdquo said Manabu

Terada a lawmaker who served as an aide to Mr Kan at that time ldquoWe lost credibility with America and

Tepco lost credibility with usrdquo

Lack of Experience

Even some supporters say that Mr Kan could have moved faster and more decisively if he had used

Japanrsquos existing crisis management system

The system was created in 1986 and subsequently strengthened by Japanese leaders who had sought more

power for the prime minister Modeled on crisis management in the White House mdash even down to the

Situation Room under the prime ministerrsquos office mdash the system brought together bureaucrats from various

ministries under the direct command of the prime minister said Atsuyuki Sassa the head of the Cabinet

Security Affairs Office in the late 1980s

Critics and supporters alike said Mr Kanrsquos decision to bypass this system choosing instead to rely on a

small circle of trusted advisers with little experience in handling a crisis of this scale blocked him from

grasping the severity of the disaster sooner Sometimes those advisers did not even know all the resources

available to them

This includes the existence of a nationwide system of radiation detectors known as the System for

Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information or Speedi Mr Terada and other advisers said

they did not learn of the systemrsquos existence until March 16 five days into the crisis

If they had known earlier they would have seen Speedirsquos early projections that radiation from the

Fukushima plant would be blown northwest said one critic Hiroshi Kawauchi a lawmaker in Mr Kanrsquos

own party Mr Kawauchi said that many of the residents around the plant who evacuated went north on

the assumption that winds blew south during winter in that area That took them directly into the

radioactive plume he said mdash exposing them to the very radiation that they were fleeing

Mr Kawauchi said that when he asked officials at the Ministry of Education which administers Speedi

why they did not make the information available to the prime minister in those first crucial days they

replied that the prime ministerrsquos office had not asked them for it

ldquoItrsquos more of an emotional thingrdquo Mr Matsumoto said of Mr Kan ldquoHe never trusts bureaucratsrdquo

That is a legacy from Mr Kanrsquos stint as health minister in the mid-1990s when he became wildly popular

after exposing his own ministryrsquos use of blood tainted with HIV which led to hundreds of hemophiliacs

68

dying of AIDS Mr Kan found that bureaucrats and pharmaceutical company officials had long known of

the tainted blood

To Mr Kan the nuclear establishment mdash with politically connected utilities abetted by bureaucrats in the

Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and compliant academics mdash represented the worst example of

this kind of collusion Mr Matsumoto said

Ignoring Orders

The seawater example is telling

In testimony in Parliament in late May Mr Kan said that he asked advisers to weigh the risks that the

seawater injection could cause ldquorecriticalityrdquo a phenomenon in which nuclear fission resumes in melted

nuclear fuel lying on the floor of a storage pool or reactor core Mr Kanrsquos aides said they grew worried after

Haruki Madarame the chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission a nuclear regulator in the prime

ministerrsquos office warned that the chances of this happening were ldquonot zerordquo

On March 12 about 28 hours after the tsunami struck Tepco executives had ordered workers to start

injecting seawater into Reactor No 1 But 21 minutes later they ordered the plantrsquos manager Masao

Yoshida to suspend the operation They were relying on an account by the Tepco liaison to the prime

minister who reported back that he seemed to be against it

ldquoWell he said that was the atmosphere or the moodrdquo Sakae Muto Tepcorsquos executive vice president

explained at a news conference

Mr Sassa the former head of the Cabinet Security Affairs Office said ldquoMood Is this a joke Making

decisions based on moodrdquo But Mr Yoshida chose to ignore the order The injections were the only way left

to cool the reactor and halting them would mean possibly causing an even more severe meltdown and

release of radiation experts said

Mr Yoshida had the authority as the plant manager to make the decision said Junichi Matsumoto a

senior official at Tepco And indeed guidelines from the International Atomic Energy Agency specify that

technical decisions should be left to plant managers because a timely response is critical said Sung Key-

yong a nuclear accident expert who participated in the agencyrsquos recent fact-finding mission to Japan

After revealing in May that he had ignored the order Mr Yoshida explained himself to a television reporter

by saying that ldquosuspending the seawater could have meant deathrdquo for those at the plant

Mr Yoshida 56 according to friends is a square-jawed hard-drinking and sometimes rough-talking man

who is a straight shooter A practitioner of kendo in his youth he also quotes from Raymond Chandler and

enjoys cooking Italian food

69

ldquoIn class if a teacher didnrsquot explain something properly hersquod push for an explanation that satisfied himrdquo

said Masanori Baba a childhood friend

His candor impressed Mr Kan who met him the day after the tsunami when he took a trip on a military

helicopter to the plant They shared a willingness to buck the system as Mr Kan had when he uncovered

the tainted blood scandal And in a country where alumni ties are extremely important they found they

had attended the same college the Tokyo Institute of Technology

ldquoOne or two days later Mr Kan said Mr Yoshida was the only one he could trust inside Tepcordquo Mr

Matsumoto the adviser to Mr Kan said

Last week Tepco gave Mr Yoshida its lightest punishment of a verbal reprimand for defying the order

Distrust and Distraction

Mr Kanrsquos critics and supporters alike say his suspicions of Tepco were well-founded In the early days after

the March 11 disaster Tepco shared only limited information with the prime ministerrsquos office trying

instead to play down the risks at the plant they said

Tepco declined to make senior executives available for this article Mr Matsumoto the Tepco senior

official said at a news conference that the company had provided information as best as it could He

declined to comment on Mr Kanrsquos reported lack of trust of Tepco

Yet the Kan government essentially left the handling of the nuclear crisis in the crucial first three days to

Tepco focusing instead on relief efforts for the hundreds of thousands left homeless Mr Terada and other

aides said Then on March 14 the gravity of the plantrsquos situation was revealed by a second explosion this

time at Reactor No 3 and a startling request that night from Tepcorsquos president Masataka Shimizu that

Tepco be allowed to withdraw its employees from the plant because it had become too dangerous to

remain

When he heard this Mr Kan flew into a rage said aides and advisers who were present Abandoning the

plant would mean losing control of the four stricken reactors the next day explosions occurred at the two

remaining active reactors No 2 and No 4

ldquoThis is not a jokerdquo the prime minister yelled according to the aides

They said Mr Kan convened an emergency meeting early on March 15 asking advisers what more could be

done to save the reactors Then he gave Tepco barely two hoursrsquo warning that he planned to visit the

company

At 530 am Mr Kan marched into Tepco headquarters and stationed one of his most trusted aides Goshi

Hosono there to keep tabs on the company

70

Mr Kan gave a five-minute impromptu pep talk said his aide Mr Terada

ldquoWithdrawing from the plant is out of the questionrdquo Mr Kan told them

Advisers said the placement of Mr Hosono in Tepco was a turning point helping the prime minister to

take direct control of damage-control efforts at the plant ldquoFor the first time we knew what Tepco was

debating and what they knewrdquo said one adviser who asked not to be identified

However even Mr Kanrsquos supporters acknowledge that the move came too late

ldquoWe should have moved fasterrdquo said Masanori Aritomi a nuclear engineer at the Tokyo Institute of

Technology and an adviser to Mr Kan Mr Aritomi said that even with Mr Hosono stationed inside Tepco

the company still did not disclose crucial information until mid-May including final confirmation that

three of the plantrsquos four active reactors had melted down

Strains With an Ally

The poor flow of information and ad hoc decision-making also strained Japanrsquos relationship with the

United States which has about 50000 military personnel stationed in Japan

While Japan was quick to accept the American militaryrsquos offers to help victims of the tsunami the

perception in Washington in the early days that it was being rebuffed and misled in the unfolding nuclear

disaster had created ldquoa crisis in the United States-Japan alliancerdquo said Akihisa Nagashima a former vice

minister of defense

Within 48 hours of the earthquake officials from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

arrived in Tokyo but they were unable to get information or even arrange meetings with Japanese

counterparts Meanwhile Washington became convinced that Tokyo was understating the damage at the

plant based on readings that the Americans were getting around the plant from aircraft and satellites

normally used to monitor North Korean nuclear tests said one American official who asked not to be

named

According to this official the Obama administration made a decision ldquoto lean on the Kan governmentrdquo to

share more information On March 16 American officials including the ambassador to Japan John V

Roos informed their Japanese counterparts that the United States would advise its citizens to evacuate an

area 50 miles around the plant mdash much larger than the 18-mile voluntary evacuation zone then established

by Japan

The Americans also began voluntary evacuations of nonessential personnel at their bases and hinted at

more drastic steps even pulling out some essential military personnel if Tokyo did not share more

information said this American official and Japanese officials including Mr Terada

71

To show Washington and an increasingly anxious Japanese public that utmost efforts were being made

Mr Kan deployed military helicopters to drop water into the reactors Mr Terada and other Japanese

advisers said adding they knew this would have only a limited effect on cooling them On March 17 on live

television the helicopters dropped water from the air though strong winds clearly blew much of the water

off course

Still Mr Terada said that Mr Kan personally called President Obama to tell him the operation was a

success Later that day in Washington Mr Obama paid a visit to the Japanese Embassy to sign a book of

condolences mdash a gesture seen in the prime ministerrsquos office as a nod of approval by the American president

Mr Nagashima said the American demands to be better informed ultimately improved Japanrsquos own

response On March 20 he brought a proposal to Mr Kan for a daily meeting between American and

Japanese officials to coordinate information and discuss responses to the nuclear accident

The first such meeting was held a day later at the prime ministerrsquos office Mr Nagashima said the meetings

lasted an hour and a half and usually involved about 50 people including officials from the American

Nuclear Regulatory Commission the United States Embassy and the military as well as a far larger

Japanese group made of political leaders people from five ministries from nuclear agencies and from

Tepco The meeting was led by Mr Hosono who by then had become the prime ministerrsquos point man on

the nuclear response

Mr Nagashima said that even more important was what happened before the Americans arrived the

Japanese met an hour beforehand to discuss developments and to work out what they were going to tell the

Americans Mr Nagashima said the meeting brought together the various ministries and Tepco with

politicians setting the agenda for the first time since the crisis began

ldquoThe Japanese side needed to gather everybody in the same roomrdquo Mr Nagashima said ldquoUS irritation

became a chance for Japan to improve its disaster managementrdquo


June 11 2011

Protests Challenge Japanrsquos Use of Nuclear Power By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash Beating drums and waving flowers protesters in Tokyo and other major cities rallied against the

use of nuclear power on Saturday three months after a devastating tsunami set off a nuclear crisis

Anger over the governmentrsquos handling of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant has erupted in recent

weeks after revelations that the damage at the plant and the release of radioactive material was far worse

72

than previously thought Mothers worried for their childrenrsquos health as well as farmers and fishermen

angry about their damaged livelihoods have been especially critical of the government of Prime Minister

Naoto Kan

The disaster has also prompted a national debate about Japanrsquos heavy reliance on nuclear power despite

the countryrsquos history of devastating earthquakes and a deep public distrust of the nuclear industry In

perhaps his sole move that has won popular support Mr Kan ordered the shutdown of a separate nuclear

power plant in central Japan until it can bolster its tsunami defenses But recent politicking in a gridlocked

Parliament has added to the publicrsquos disenchantment

ldquoWe now know the dangers of relying on nuclear power and itrsquos time to make a changerdquo Hajime

Matsumoto one of the rallyrsquos organizers told a crowd in a central Tokyo square that eventually grew to

about 20000 people according to organizersrsquo estimates

ldquoAnd yes I believe Japan can changerdquo he shouted as the crowd roared back and people pumped their fists

in the air

Supporters of the rally here in Tokyo and in coordinated events in many other cities in Japan say the

demonstration was remarkable not because of its size but because it happened at all in a country that so

values conformity and order

ldquoThe Japanese havenrsquot been big protesters at least recentlyrdquo said Junichi Sato program director of the

environmental group Greenpeace Japan who said he had organized enough poorly attended rallies to

know ldquoTheyrsquore taking the first steps toward making themselves heardrdquo

Many in the crowd said they were protesting for the first time

ldquoIrsquom here for my childrenrdquo said Aki Ishii who had her 3-year-old daughter in tow ldquoWe just want our old

life back where the water is safe and the air is cleanrdquo Her daughter wore a sign that said ldquoPlease let me

play outside againrdquo

Hiromasa Fujimoto a rice and vegetable farmer said it was his first protest too ldquoI want to tell people that

Irsquom just so worried about the soil about the waterrdquo he said ldquoI now farm with a Geiger counter in one hand

my tools in the otherrdquo

ldquoItrsquos insanerdquo he added

And while the rally started in a typically orderly way mdash ldquoLetrsquos all remember good mannersrdquo organizers said

at the start as protesters lined up in neat rows mdash the crowd eventually took a more rowdy turn

73

As protesters congregated in a Tokyo square after several marches through the city there were some

confrontations with the police A police officer who refused to give his name explained breathlessly that

protesters had not been given permission to congregate in the square

ldquoDisperse immediatelyrdquo police officers shouted through megaphones

ldquoShut up and go awayrdquo a young man screamed back

About 9 pm however police officers forcibly moved in to break up the crowd There was some pushing

and shoving but no serious skirmishes

Still Mr Matsumoto the organizer looked elated ldquoWho would have thought so many people would turn

uprdquo he said ldquoI think that Japan is on the cusp of something newrdquo

But some passers-by were less enthusiastic

ldquoWhat can they really dordquo said Airi Ishii 21 a shopper who had stopped to watch the rally with her

boyfriend ldquoIt looks fun but if you think anything will change itrsquos naiumlverdquo

IHT OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

A Battered Nation on the Mend

By KUMIKO MAKIHARA

Published June 10 2011

KESENNUMA Japan mdash Imagine seeing your office building swept away in a wave

and then spending all night on a freezing rooftop watching your beloved fishing

boat on fire drifting back and forth in a murky ocean gone wild The following day

you walk amid the debris calling out the names of your missing colleagues and

friends only to be met by the downcast eyes of residents who tell you hardly anyone

survived from that neighborhood You donrsquot bother to check on your home because

you know that nothing will remain

Yoshiko Iwai 72 whose husband runs a fishing company experienced all of that

when tsunamis steamrolled this port town in Miyagi Prefecture following the March

11 earthquake

She barely shed a tear

Together with other members of the close-knit fishing community Iwai is focused

on reviving the business ldquoWhen my husband seems discouraged I tell him that

fishermen must protect the seasrdquo she says adding with a wry smile ldquous women folk

are talking like thatrdquo

74

Iwai embodies the spirit of Tohoku mdash the northeastern region that includes the

three prefectures hardest hit by the quake Iwate Miyagi and Fukushima Stoic

perseverant and disciplined they are a proud people of few words who shun the

limelight Many observers say those characteristics typically attributed to the

Tohoku people played a big role in the lack of panic following the disaster

ldquoIf the same thing had happened in Tokyo things would not have been so orderlyrdquo

says Hiroshi Hiraizumi director general for commerce and industry of Miyagi

Prefecture He points to the hoarding that took place in Tokyo markets while people

in the northeast stood patiently in line for rations ldquoItrsquos been a chance for us to

revisit the goodness of this traditional Japanese characterrdquo

There are frequent references these days to the Tohoku moral fiber The Japanese

Hollywood actor Ken Watanabe on a Web site he created to encourage victims

recites a poem by the Iwate Prefecture author Kenji Miyazawa The verse describes

Miyazawarsquos aspirations to tend to the sick and needy in his village while he himself

wishes to live unnoticed or dismissed as a fool by others My mother pinned a cloth

with that poem printed on it in front of my desk when I was a child and I have one

framed on my 12-year-old sonrsquos wall

ldquoWe are not going to be defeated by hardshiprdquo said the Japanese hula dancer

Yukari Maluhia last month at an event to promote a water theme park in

Fukushima Prefecture that has been temporarily closed since the quake It was the

second time the resort had sent out its performers on tour the first being when it

opened 45 years ago to replace the townrsquos coal mining business The resolve back

then of the young women who helped turn around a dying town is chronicled in the

Japanese award-winning film ldquoHula Girlrdquo

ldquoTohoku DNArdquo is the phrase one of the worldrsquos top-ranked ping-pong players Ai

Fukuhara uses to describe the source of her grit In an advertisement aired on

trains Fukuhara who is from Miyagi Prefecture is shown as a little girl in bitter

tears after a loss She declares in the video that she didnrsquot give up then and she

wonrsquot now either

Of course while the northern traits should be admired and emulated they are but a

mental weapon in confronting the enormous tasks at hand Workers have been

clearing debris for three months now in Kesennuma but twisted metal collapsed

buildings and squashed cars still blanket the shoreline Many of the large boats that

were washed up remain on land including one that lies in front of the surviving

outer structure of a shark museum A clock on a wall of a building is stopped at 330

pm the time when the waves came roaring in

75

Masaki Takahashirsquos oil transport boat was recovered five kilometers out at sea

Takahashi the president of a fuel retail company is having the vessel repaired so it

can refuel ships entering the harbor Bonito fishing has started down south and he

wants those ships to unload at the Kesennuma port this month even though the

entire industry infrastructure mdash offices storage facilities and processing equipment

mdash has been leveled

There is major debate about how to rebuild the fishing industry Miyagirsquos governor

Yoshihiro Murai is promoting a plan to open up the closed aspects of the sector

such as the limited distribution of fishing licenses to bring in bigger businesses and

investments The small community is wary of giving up its customary ways

In the three months of post-tsunami hard times Iwai choked up just once In late

April she went to the harbor to see off her boat that burned that night in the ocean

The midsized vessel for catching mackerel pike loaded with a bottle of sake that

Iwai had put on board to bless its final journey was being tugged out to be scrapped

in southern Japan ldquoUp until then I had not had any tearsrdquo Iwai said ldquoBut when I

saw that boat going out A ship has a soul you knowrdquo

Kumiko Makihara is a writer and translator living in Tokyo

December 26 2011

Japan Panel Cites Failure in Tsunami By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash From inspectorsrsquo abandoning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as it succumbed to

disaster to a delay in disclosing radiation leaks Japanrsquos response to the nuclear accident caused by the

March tsunami fell tragically short a government-appointed investigative panel said on Monday

The failures which the panel said worsened the extent of the disaster were outlined in a 500-page interim

report detailing Japanrsquos response to the calamitous events that unfolded at the Fukushima plant after the

March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out all of the sitersquos power

Three of the plantrsquos six reactors overheated and their fuel melted down and hydrogen explosions blew the

tops off three reactor buildings leading to a major leak of radiation at levels not seen since Chernobyl in

1986

The panel attacked the use of the term ldquosoteigairdquo or ldquounforeseenrdquo that plant and government officials used

both to describe the unprecedented scale of the disaster and to explain why they were unable to stop it

Running a nuclear power plant inherently required officials to foresee the unforeseen said the panelrsquos

chairman Yotaro Hatamura a professor emeritus in engineering at the University of Tokyo

76

ldquoThere was a lot of talk of soteigai but that only bred perceptions among the public that officials were

shirking their responsibilitiesrdquo Mr Hatamura said

According to the report a final version of which is due by mid-2012 the authorities grossly underestimated

the risks tsunamis posed to the plant The charges echoed previous criticism made by nuclear critics and

acknowledged by the operator of the plant Tokyo Electric Power

Tokyo Electric had assumed that no wave would reach more than about 20 feet The tsunami hit at more

than twice that height

Officials of Japanrsquos nuclear regulator present at the plant during the quake quickly left the site and when

ordered to return by the government they proved of little help to workers racing to restore power and find

water to cool temperatures at the plant the report said

Also the workers left at Fukushima Daiichi had not been trained to handle multiple failures and lacked a

clear manual to follow the report said A communications breakdown meant that workers at the plant had

no clear sense of what was happening

In particular an erroneous assumption that an emergency cooling system was working led to hours of

delay in finding alternative ways to draw cooling water to the plant the report said All the while the

system was not working and the uranium fuel rods at the cores were starting to melt

And devastatingly the government failed to make use of data on the radioactive plumes released from the

plant to warn local towns and direct evacuations the report said The failure allowed entire communities to

be exposed to harmful radiation the report said

ldquoAuthorities failed to think of the disaster response from the perspective of victimsrdquo Mr Hatamura said

But the interim report seems to leave ultimate responsibility for the disaster ambiguous Even if workers

had realized that the emergency cooling system was not working they might not have been able to prevent

the meltdowns

The panel limited itself to suggesting that a quicker response might have mitigated the core damage and

lessened the release of radiation into the environment

ldquoThe aim of this panel is not to demand responsibilityrdquo Mr Hatamura said He also said the panelrsquos

findings should not affect debate on the safety of Japanrsquos four dozen other nuclear reactors

Taro Umemura contributed reporting

July 29 2011

77

Japan Proposes Aggressive Recovery Plan By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash Japan on Friday proposed an aggressive plan to spend 13 trillion yen ($167 billion) over five

years in hopes of bringing about a swift recovery after its recent natural and nuclear disasters

The Japanese government is desperate to pull the economy out of a recession stemming from the March 11

earthquake and tsunami as well as the problems related to the Fukushima nuclear plant The catastrophes

damaged factories disrupted supply chains caused a crippling power shortage and curtailed consumer

spending

But the government has also been pressed to show that it will be able to finance such a plan After years of

stimulus spending Japanrsquos public debt is already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy

Addressing the nation Friday Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that the government would find the money

to support a robust reconstruction drive

ldquoThis plan takes us beyond immediate recovery to the next stage full-scale reconstructionrdquo Mr Kan said

adding ldquoWe will also fulfill the responsibility to secure fundsrdquo

Japan is still reeling from the sheer extent of the damage unfurled by its recent earthquake tsunami and

subsequent nuclear crisis At the end of June damage from the quake and tsunami alone had already

reached $210 billion according to estimates by Munich Re a German reinsurance company

That makes the events of March 11 the worldrsquos costliest disaster surpassing Hurricane Katrina which

caused about $125 billion in economic damage according to Munich Re

The government is also contributing to some of the billions of dollars of compensation to be paid out to

victims of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power

In two emergency budgets the government has already earmarked 6 trillion yen ($768 billion) focusing

on financial aid to local governments compensation payments linked to the nuclear accident and relief for

families and businesses

According to the government plan released Friday new spending will include money for new roads and

ports support for farming and fisheries in the region and help for small- and medium-size companies

In particular the plan would provide incentives for companies to rebuild their factories in the Tohoku

region a bid to stem a stream of companies that are moving their operations overseas In helping to

rebuild towns and villages along Tohokursquos ravaged coast in northeast Japan the government will work to

support the regionrsquos aging population providing public housing to those who are unable to rebuild their

homes the plan said

78

The plan would require reconstruction bonds and extra tax revenue of up to 10 trillion yen the government

has suggested though it did not include that figure in the final plan It did not specify which taxes might be

raised To secure further financing the government will consider selling shares in the phone company NTT

and Japan Tobacco Tatsuo Hirano the minister in charge of reconstruction told reporters The Japanese

government owns 37 percent of phone company NTT a stake worth 21 trillion yen and 50 percent of

Japan Tobacco worth 17 trillion yen

Mr Kan whose ratings have nosedived over his handling of the disaster response so far may not be

around to see much of the plan in action The leader survived a vote of no confidence in June only after

offering a vague suggestion that he might resign

September 12 2011

Civic Paralysis Seizes Tsunami-Stricken Town Still in Shambles By MARTIN FACKLER

MINAMISANRIKU Japan mdash Six months after Japanrsquos deadly earthquake and tsunami the naked steel

frame of the former Disaster Management Center stands like a tombstone over the flattened field of weed-

covered debris that was once this townrsquos center People come from near and far to pray before the three-

story structure turning it into a shrine of sorts for the town officials who died here

Amid the white flowers smoldering incense and bottles of beer and whiskey left to comfort the dead there

are also signs of rancor A long handwritten letter laminated to shed the rain criticizes the failure to tear

down the structure as callous disregard for the families of those who perished

ldquoThis thing should be destroyed right awayrdquo demands the letter which is signed by the father of a victim

The people of northeastern Japan won global admiration for their stoic dignity and communal spirit after

the disaster on March 11 which ravaged hundreds of miles of coast and left more than 20000 people dead

or missing and hundreds of thousands homeless But these days that unity is fraying amid frustration in

remote towns like this one that feel left behind

In some of the tsunami-stricken areas particularly the more prosperous regions closer to the city of

Sendai the removal of millions of tons of debris is progressing rapidly Large improvised disposal facilities

are grinding up broken concrete and wood into landfill material for reconstruction But in the poorer

fishing regions farther north along the mountainous coastline many towns have barely finished the first

basic tasks of survival

Minamisanriku (pronounced mee-NAH-mee-san-ree-koo) has finally finished relocating the last of its

homeless residents into the 2200 prefabricated houses it built in empty fields Most of the town was

without running water or sewage service until a month ago

79

The flattened downtown is still littered with mangled cars the splintered wood of wrecked homes and the

gutted shells of a few surviving concrete buildings looking eerily unchanged from the immediate aftermath

of the tsunami

ldquoPeople want to keep living in this town but look at this messrdquo sighed Minoru Sato 65 who was hired by

the town to pick up debris after the tsunami washed away the sawmill where he had worked

Indeed residents in Minamisanriku say they feel as if they are in limbo waiting for some signal to put the

same concerted effort into rebuilding that they showed pulling one another from the rubble That signal

has yet to come

One reason for the civic paralysis is that the tsunami literally swept away the local government destroying

not just the disaster center but also the firehouse the police station the main hospital and the town hall

with all its records The mayor and other surviving town officials struggled to set up new offices in trailers

parked on tennis courts and the town government is only now getting back on its feet

It has not yet even found anywhere to put the 500000 tons of debris left by the tsunami Work crews have

temporarily stacked some of it along the devastated waterfront separated into tidy towering piles of

twisted metal broken concrete and tires but it cannot stay there permanently

Still people here direct most of their anger at the national government They feel neglected by Tokyo

which they say is too preoccupied with the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant 70 miles to the south or with

the political maneuvering last month over the election of a new prime minister Yoshihiko Noda Japanrsquos

seventh in five years

Town officials say they cannot even settle on how to rebuild much less get started without financing from

Tokyo

ldquoWe have been trying to draw up our own plans but what can we do until the national government makes

up its mindrdquo said Kenji Endo the vice mayor of Minamisanriku ldquoFrustrations are rising because we canrsquot

see any movement toward rebuildingrdquo

The town says that with a budget last year of just $40 million it has no choice but to turn to the central

government to underwrite the huge costs of rebuilding Some in Tokyo have called for relocating

vulnerable towns like this one up onto the sheared-off tops of nearby mountains But others say Japan can

no longer afford to throw money at such projects which would cost $3 billion just for Minamisanriku local

officials say

Until Tokyo sorts that out residents here feel that they cannot move forward

80

In their frustration they are starting to turn on one another There are bitter complaints now about local

officials who kept roads from being cleared without permission or town hallrsquos decision to forbid any

building in the tsunami-destroyed areas until a townwide reconstruction plan is in place

The community is also being strained by the unevenness of the disasterrsquos toll Some homes were wrecked

others were untouched

Resentments have come to a head over the future of the Disaster Management Center whose red skeleton

has become a nationally known symbol of the disaster Some want to preserve it as a monument but others

see it as a too-painful reminder of loved ones lost

ldquoWe cannot let something like this divide the town or wersquoll never recoverrdquo said Ikuko Takahashi 60

whose house was destroyed along with her husbandrsquos medical clinic a block from the center

Minamisanriku was an obscure fishing community that few Japanese had heard of before the 50-foot surge

of seawater made it not only a scene of devastation mdash killing 1000 of its 17000 residents mdash but also a

scene of heroic early rescue efforts

Today the main roads have been reopened and there are temporary bridges over the rivers but only a half-

dozen businesses have reappeared One is the gasoline station of Satoru Abe who cleared away debris and

got one gas pump working by hand at first until electric power was restored in May His office remained a

tangle of crumpled metal and mud

ldquoThey wonrsquot let us rebuild but we cannot just wait for them eitherrdquo said Mr Abe 43 ldquoWe have to eat

somehowrdquo

Dozens of residents in fact said that what worried them most was how to make a living here The waves

washed away the fishing boats and seafood-processing plants that were the backbone of the local economy

Town officials said that more than 1000 people mostly younger residents had already moved away in

search of employment

ldquoMost of the young people cannot wait around for jobs so they leftrdquo said Kiyohiko Goto 36 a fisherman

After the tsunami he found his boat on a hillside a mile inland but could not afford the $200000 cost of a

new engine

ldquoThe town will surviverdquo Mr Goto said ldquobut I wonder how many people will still live hererdquo

December 9 2011

Japanese Islanders Cling to a Life Under Their Volcano By KANTARO SUZUKI

81

MIYAKE Japan mdash ldquoI turn on the machine when the house smells of sulfurrdquo Yuki Kitagawa said pointing

to an air purifier in her living room

ldquoI wondered if we really would be able to live here again but Irsquom used to the smell of sulfur nowrdquo said Ms

Kitagawa 63

Miyake a small island in the Pacific 120 miles south of Tokyo was a penal colony from the 17th century to

the mid-19th century It now draws scuba divers seeking to swim with dolphins and marine turtles

Colorful tropical fish teem in Miyakersquos shallow blue waters

But it is not a typical resort island An active volcano periodically sends islanders scurrying to the safety of

the Japanese mainland most recently between 2000 and 2005 when all of Miyake was evacuated The

islandersrsquo deep attachment to this strange and unforgiving place has kept Miyake alive over the centuries

just as the Japanese attachment to their ancestral hometowns has kept many dying communities across

Japan from slipping into extinction

But the numbers point to an uncertain future for Miyake Six years after the islanders were allowed to

return only 70 percent of the original population has come back The population which peaked at 4700 in

the 1970s has been shrinking and now stands at 2700

The island once had five hamlets each with its own elementary school but have been merged into one

village with one school The student population of Miyakersquos high school has been declining with many

parents sending their teenagers to schools in Tokyo

Like most of the towns in rural Japan Miyake offers few jobs to retain its young people and many young

islanders who got a taste of life in Tokyo when they were evacuated have stayed on the mainland

Even today the subtle smell of sulfur dioxide gas pervades the island and a landscape dotted by trees

killed by the gas and lava flows are reminders that with eruptions occurring every 20 years islanders can

expect to experience several major volcanic events in their lifetimes

Nevertheless because of the Japanese attachment to ancestral homes however inhospitable many

islanders have continued to return here after each evacuation despite the dangers Indeed the forced

evacuation of tens of thousands of people who lived near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after the

March disaster has become one of the most delicate issues facing Japanese leaders who finally told angry

residents recently that they would be unable to return to their homes for decades

For Ms Kitagawarsquos husband Nobuo Kitagawa 65 the volcanorsquos eruption in 2000 was his third Like many

islanders the Kitagawas were evacuated to Tokyo ldquoIn Tokyo there was nothing to do on weekends but to

spend moneyrdquo said Mr Kitagawa as he tended to watermelons and cucumbers and other vegetables in his

backyard ldquoAnyway there was nothing to do after I woke up in the morningrdquo

82

Islanders are required to carry gas masks although few appeared to be doing so on a recent visit and most

residents seem unbothered by the smell of sulfur Parts of the island remain off limits because of high

levels of volcanic gases cars are allowed to pass through the zones but drivers tend to keep the windows

shut Every morning the local government announces the level of sulfur dioxide gas through loudspeakers

spread around the island Blue green yellow and red alarm signals are attached to telephone poles to

indicate the levels of gas in the area

The lingering sulfur has made the remote island even more inaccessible Flights linking Miyake to the

mainland are canceled frequently because winds carrying volcanic gases threaten to damage airplane

engines most islanders rely instead on a six-hour ferry ride to Tokyo Four medical residents run the only

clinic forcing residents to go to Tokyo for any serious illness or injury

Yuichi Okiyama said he had never thought about returning to Miyake after going to college in Tokyo But

after the evacuation order was lifted in 2005 Mr Okiyama 44 visited the island to clean up his ancestral

home The ceiling leaked the garden was overgrown with weeds and a family truck had rusted from

volcanic ash

After the visit he decided to quit his job in Tokyo and move back to Miyake He now operates a souvenir

shop

The recovery of Miyake Mr Okiyama said could not be left to his parentsrsquo generation people who are in

their 70s ldquoI had to stand uprdquo he said adding however that his wife and two daughters have remained in

Tokyo for the sake of the girlsrsquo education

One of Mr Okiyamarsquos sisters Michika Yamada 40 happened to be visiting the island from Tokyo In 1983

the volcano erupted and the flowing lava overran her school home and neighborhood ldquoEverything was

gonerdquo she said ldquoI donrsquot have any pictures of my childhood All my memories are buried under the lavardquo

ldquoI miss the island sometimesrdquo she added ldquobut it always stops me from returning when I think of the risk

that I may lose everything againrdquo

Another person who returned is Kenichiro Kikuchi 36 who owns a bar here As a child he said he had

been obsessed with Tokyo ldquoI really believed that Tokyo was above the clouds because the airplane from

Miyake flew up into the skyrdquo he said ldquoWhen a ferry from Miyake approached the jetty in Tokyo I caught

the whiff of Tokyordquo

To a child growing up on the island he joked the exhaust fumes of Tokyo represented ldquothe most advanced

and fresh smellrdquo

Still after the evacuation was lifted six years ago he chose to return here Asked why he smiled shyly and

said ldquoItrsquos simple I was born here so this is where I come backrdquo

83

November 2 2011

Japan Revives a Sea Barrier That Failed to Hold By NORIMITSU ONISHI

KAMAISHI Japan mdash After three decades and nearly $16 billion work on Kamaishirsquos great tsunami

breakwater was completed three years ago A mile long 207 feet deep and jutting nearly 20 feet above the

water the quake-resistant structure made it into the Guinness World Records last year and rekindled

fading hopes of revival in this rusting former steel town

But when a giant tsunami hit Japanrsquos northeast on March 11 the breakwater largely crumpled under the

first 30-foot-high wave leaving Kamaishi defenseless Waves deflected from the breakwater are also

strongly suspected of having contributed to the 60-foot waves that engulfed communities north of it

Its performance that day coupled with its past failure to spur the growth of new businesses suggested that

the breakwater would be written off as yet another of the white elephant construction projects littering

rural Japan But Tokyo quickly and quietly decided to rebuild it as part of the reconstruction of the

tsunami-ravaged zone at a cost of at least $650 million

After the tsunami and the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima some Japanese leaders vowed that the

disasters would give birth to a new Japan the way the end of World War II had done A creative

reconstruction of the northeast where Japan would showcase its leadership in dealing with a rapidly aging

and shrinking society was supposed to lead the way

But as details of the governmentrsquos reconstruction spending emerge signs are growing that Japan has yet to

move beyond a postwar model that enriched the country but ultimately left it stagnant for the past two

decades As the story of Kamaishirsquos breakwater suggests the kind of cozy ties between government and

industry that contributed to the Fukushima nuclear disaster are driving much of the reconstruction and the

fight for a share of the $120 billion budget expected to be approved in a few weeks

The insistence on rebuilding breakwaters and sea walls reflects a recovery plan out of step with the times

critics say a waste of money that aims to protect an area of rapidly declining population with technology

that is a proven failure

Defenders say that if Kamaishirsquos breakwater is not fixed people and businesses will move away even faster

for fear of another tsunami

ldquoThere may be an argument against building a breakwater in a place with little potential to grow but wersquore

not building a new one mdash wersquore basically repairing itrdquo said Akihiro Murakami 57 the top official in

Kamaishi for the Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism which oversees the nationrsquos

breakwaters ldquoAt this point itrsquos the most efficient and cost-effective choicerdquo

84

After World War II Japan built a line of coastal defenses that was longer than Chinarsquos Great Wall and

ultimately stretched to a third of the Japanese coastline The defenses allowed more Japanese whose

numbers rose to 125 million from 72 million in the five decades after 1945 to live and work hard by the sea

Yet even before the tsunami the affected zonersquos population was expected to age and shrink even faster

than the rest of Japanrsquos contracting by nearly half over the next three decades Critics say that in cities like

Kamaishi where the population dropped from 100000 people four decades ago to fewer than 40000

before the tsunami people should simply be moved away from the ravaged coast

Japanrsquos dwindling resources would be better spent merging destroyed communities into inland ldquocompact

townsrdquo offering centralized services critics say Unnecessary public works mdash Kamaishirsquos reconstruction

plans include building a rugby stadium mdash would merely hasten the tsunami zonersquos decline by saddling it

with high maintenance costs

ldquoIn 30 yearsrdquo said Naoki Hayashi a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power

Industry one of Japanrsquos biggest policy groups ldquothere might be nothing left there but fancy breakwaters

and empty housesrdquo

A Web of Collusion

Even though the breakwater yielded economic benefits only to the vested interests that have a grip on the

construction of Japanrsquos breakwaters sea walls and ports advocates of its reconstruction say it is vital to

Kamaishirsquos future In addition to protecting the city against tsunamis the breakwater was intended to

create a modern international port that would accommodate container vessels and draw new companies

here

The birthplace of Japanrsquos modern steel industry Kamaishi lived through economic booms for nearly a

century but by the early 1970s its major employer Nippon Steel was moving steel production to central

Japan where the flourishing auto industry was concentrated

Construction which began in 1978 was completed three years ago By then Nippon Steel had long since

closed its two blast furnaces Not a single container vessel had come here Dependent on huge subsidies

Kamaishirsquos port was one of the countless unused ports in Japan derided as ldquofishing pondsrdquo because the

lack of ship traffic made them peaceful fishing spots

ldquoIt was good for the ministryrdquo said Yoshiaki Kawata a member of the governmentrsquos reconstruction design

council referring to the Land Ministry ldquoBut the city declined Businesses and people leftrdquo

It was good not only for the ministry but also for its allies in politics and business who joined forces in the

kind of collusive web that is replicated in many other industries

85

For decades Zenko Suzuki a former prime minister who died in 2004 secured the money for this regionrsquos

breakwaters sea walls and ports He was supported by local businessmen like Kazunori Yamamoto 65 the

owner of Kamaishirsquos biggest construction company which helped build the breakwater

Mr Yamamoto once led a youth group that backed the politician with whom he fondly remembered

attending golf tournaments ldquoHe took great care of merdquo he said

A career bureaucrat named Teruji Matsumoto headed the ministry division overseeing the breakwaterrsquos

construction in the early 1980s In 1986 he joined Toa Construction one of the three big marine

construction companies that managed the breakwaterrsquos construction rising to chief executive in 1989

Isao Kaneko a high-ranking manager at Toa said of Mr Matsumoto ldquoMaybe someone looking from the

outside would view it as collusion but he was an absolutely indispensable person for our companyrdquo

Reached by telephone Mr Matsumoto now 84 declined to be interviewed saying he was suffering from

ldquodepressionrdquo and ldquosenilityrdquo

Collapse After First Wave

Despite the breakwaterrsquos failure to halt Kamaishirsquos decline its defenders contended that it was steadfastly

protecting the city from tsunamis by sealing off the bay from the Pacific except for a small opening for

boats The Land Ministry extolled its breakwater in a song ldquoProtecting Us for a Hundred Yearsrdquo

ldquoIt protects the steel town of Kamaishi it protects our livelihoods it protects the peoplersquos futurerdquo the song

goes

On March 11 the tsunamirsquos first wave reached Kamaishi 35 minutes after the earthquake struck off the

northeast coast at 246 pm In a video shot from the third floor of a Land Ministry building facing the port

48 people who have taken shelter can be heard in the background as they watch the breakwaterrsquos collapse

against the first wave

ldquoThe breakwater is failing completelyrdquo one man says softly as the waves spill over the breakwater turning

its inner wall into a white foamy waterfall Minutes later the tsunami roars into Kamaishi sweeping away

nearly everything in its way

The breakwater becomes visible seven minutes later as the first wave starts ebbing out of the city ldquoWow

look at the shape of the breakwaterrdquo an astonished man says ldquoItrsquos collapsedrdquo The camera zooms in on the

breakwater as the top of it lies twisted in fragments As the people brace themselves for the tsunamirsquos

second wave an exasperated man says ldquoThis breakwater isnrsquot working at allrdquo

Those in the building survived but 935 Kamaishi residents died in the tsunami

86

ldquoI was disappointedrdquo said Yoshinari Gokita an executive at Toa Construction who spent 10 years here

working on the breakwater ldquoWe all did our best We used to say proudly that as long as it was there

everyone would be absolutely saferdquo

Kamaishi is a hilly city with little flat land Rising directly behind its port and central district steep hills

have long provided a natural tsunami shelter that was equipped with an elaborate network of evacuation

stairways pathways and resting areas after World War II Most inside the tsunami-prone central district

were within only a couple of hundred yards of the nearest evacuation stairway reinforcing the belief that

despite the 35 minutes between the earthquake and the arrival of the first wave many victims chose not to

flee believing they were safe

Takenori Noda Kamaishirsquos mayor said loudspeakers all over the city had warned people to flee ldquoBut I do

believe that unconsciously the breakwaterrsquos presence did give people a false sense of securityrdquo he said

Conflicting Research

Within days however the Land Ministry commissioned an assessment of the breakwaterrsquos performance

Drawing on the only tsunami data available captured by a GPS tracking system set up 12 miles offshore

researchers used computer modeling to conclude that the breakwater had done its job it had reduced the

height of the first wave by 40 percent delayed its landing by six minutes and saved countless lives

The report released less than three weeks after the tsunami would prove decisive It quickly became

accepted wisdom in Kamaishi It also supplied supporters of the breakwaterrsquos reconstruction with their

main argument

The report was put together by a semigovernmental agency the Port and Airport Research Institute which

until 2001 had been part of the Land Ministry and now lies under its jurisdiction Its ranks are made up of

people who served in the Land Ministry during the breakwaterrsquos construction and joined the institute in a

widely criticized practice called ldquoamakudarirdquo or ldquodescent from heavenrdquo Officials at the ministry and the

institute acknowledged the close ties but said the reportrsquos findings were neutral

Seisuke Fujisawa a part owner of a cement company that benefited from the breakwaterrsquos construction

disagreed ldquoThere is no way that an organization with such close ties to the ministry will say that the

breakwater was a failure and a monumental waste of moneyrdquo he said ldquoWe need a neutral investigationrdquo

ldquoI thought Kamaishi was safe because of the breakwaterrdquo said Mr Fujisawa 66 whose family has operated

various businesses in Kamaishi for seven generations ldquoBut now I donrsquot believe the breakwater was effective

at allrdquo

Recently researchers came to a similar conclusion According to computer modeling by researchers at the

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology a semigovernmental organization with no ties to

87

the Land Ministry the breakwater had no significant effect in decreasing the size of the first wave or

delaying its arrival

Mizuho Ishida the lead researcher and a former president of the Seismological Society of Japan said

differences in interpretation were inevitable because estimates had to be extrapolated from the wave data

collected 12 miles offshore

ldquoEven if you perform a very fine analysis there is no way to know exactly what happenedrdquo Ms Ishida said

With Finance Ministry officials also asking hard questions about the cost of rebuilding the pro-

reconstruction forces pushed back in the spring led by Fukuichi Hiramatsu a city councilman of 40 years

whose family business mdash gravel mdash was a subcontractor during the breakwaterrsquos construction

In an interview in May Mr Hiramatsu who died in July at the age of 80 said the city council passed a

resolution calling for the breakwaterrsquos reconstruction the day after he had urged the council chairman to do

so in a telephone conversation mdash an episode confirmed by other council members

What is more after the mayor publicly expressed doubts about the breakwaterrsquos performance Mr

Hiramatsu said he told him ldquo lsquoInstead of saying that it was barely effective you should mention how

effective it wasrsquo rdquo

Mayor Noda denied that Mr Hiramatsu who happened to be a relative by marriage had influenced him

But the mayor soon sided with Mr Hiramatsu even signing a separate resolution urging the breakwaterrsquos

rapid reconstruction

Land Ministry officials in Tokyo now proclaimed that the people of Kamaishi were the ones demanding the

breakwaterrsquos reconstruction

ldquoWhether the breakwater was a little effective or delayed the first wave by a few minutes mdash itrsquos irrelevantrdquo

said Kosuke Motani a senior vice president at the Development Bank of Japan and a member of the

governmentrsquos Reconstruction Design Council ldquoThatrsquos complete nonsense People should just flee

ldquoWhatrsquos inexcusable is taking advantage of the current confusion to rebuild this breakwater because they

donrsquot want to admit that it was meaningless in the first placerdquo Mr Motani said

Risk of Amplifying Waves

In their push to rebuild bureaucrats brushed aside the possibility that the breakwater had amplified the

destruction of at least two communities

During the breakwaterrsquos design phase bureaucrats commissioned coastal engineers at Tohoku University

to weigh the risk that the breakwater would deflect tsunami waves from central Kamaishi to the north

88

After experiments over four years researchers concluded in reports submitted in 1974 and 1975 that the

breakwater would increase the waves directed toward Ryoishi a district behind a narrow bay just north of

Kamaishi Bay and Kariyado a fishing village on a peninsula sticking out east of it A 1976 report states that

the waves reaching Ryoishi would increase by 20 percent

ldquoBuilding a breakwater at Ryoishi became a prerequisite for building the breakwater at Kamaishirdquo said

Akira Mano who assisted in the experiments at the time as a graduate student and now teaches at the

university

Ryoishi which had no coastal defenses until then was shielded with a breakwater in its bay and a 30-foot-

high sea wall along its coast

On March 11 60-foot-high waves mdash twice the height of those seen in central Kamaishi mdash annihilated

Ryoishi and Kariyado Standing at an evacuation spot high above Ryoishi Hajime Seto 66 a retired

banker who is the Ryoishi district leader filmed the destruction while using a bullhorn to warn people to

seek higher ground The tsunami killed 45 people out of the districtrsquos population of 600 but swept away all

but 15 of 230 houses

ldquoThey claim that Kamaishirsquos breakwater had no effect on us but we want at least a proper investigationrdquo

Mr Seto said ldquoThey want to rebuild the breakwater at all cost but under present conditions wersquore

opposed to itrdquo

Meanwhile waves overwhelmed the breakwater in front of Kariyado and reached the middle of a hill where

the house of Kozo Sasaki 80 and his wife Mitsuko 68 stood

The Sasakis who were recently cleaning out their home before its scheduled demolition believed that the

Kamaishi breakwater increased the waves that destroyed their home

ldquoIt was a plus for them over there but over here mdash well everyone here believes that because the waves

were suppressed over there they came hererdquo Ms Sasaki said

Shigeo Takahashi the president of the Port and Airport Research Institute which assessed the

breakwaterrsquos performance for the Land Ministry said he did not believe that the breakwater had

significantly increased the waves at Ryoishi or Kariyado But pressed Mr Takahashi acknowledged that his

institute had performed only a ldquoroughrdquo analysis of the breakwaterrsquos effect on those communities He added

that his institute had no plans to open a full-fledged investigation

Mr Kawata the member of the governmentrsquos Reconstruction Design Council said an investigationrsquos

findings could lead to lawsuits or at the very least impede the breakwaterrsquos reconstruction ldquoFor themrdquo he

said of ministry officials ldquotherersquos just no benefit in conducting an investigation even though some

residents may be asking for onerdquo

89

Mr Murakami the Land Ministry official said he was unaware of the experiments conducted by Tohoku

University in the mid-1970s

ldquoTo be honest whenever we undertake a big project like this we get all sorts of irrelevant complaints

baseless accusationsrdquo he said He had already reassured residents that the breakwater did not heighten the

waves that destroyed their communities

ldquoI told them that our breakwater wasnrsquot that big a dealrdquo


November 11 2011

Report Gives New Details of Chaos at Stricken Plant By MATTHEW L WALD

Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 was stuck in darkness and everyone on site feared that the reactor core was

damaged It was the day after a huge earthquake and a towering tsunami devastated the plant and the

workers for Tokyo Electric Power Company knew they were the only hope for halting an unfolding nuclear

disaster

Another power company tried to help It rushed a mobile electrical generator to the site to power the

crucial water pumps that cool the reactor But connecting it required pulling a thick electrical cable across

about 650 feet of ground strewn with debris from the tsunami and made more treacherous by open holes

left when manhole covers were washed away

The cable four inches in diameter weighed approximately one ton and 40 workers were needed to

maneuver it into position Their urgent efforts were interrupted by aftershocks and alarms about possible

new tsunamis

By 330 in the afternoon the workers had managed what many consider a heroic feat they had hooked up

the cable Six minutes later a hydrogen explosion ripped through the reactor building showering the area

with radioactive debris and damaging the cable rendering it useless

Those details about the first hours after the earthquake at the stricken plant are part of a new 98-page

chronology of the Fukushima accident The account compiled by American nuclear experts is meant to

form a basis for American nuclear operators and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to learn lessons from

90

the disaster But it also provides a rare detailed look at workersrsquo frantic efforts to save the plant portraying

(in measured technical language) scenes worthy of the most gripping disaster movies

The experts who compiled the report work for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations an Atlanta

organization that is an integral part of the American nuclear industry and one that has won praise over the

years for its audits sometimes critical of plants around the country

The authors could provide a deep level of detail because they were able to interview operators and

executives from Tokyo Electric Power Company and had access to many of the companyrsquos documents and

data

The chronology does not draw any conclusions about the accident or analyze the actions taken after the

earthquake it is intended only to provide an agreed-upon set of facts for further study In that way the

document might be more useful for the nuclear industry than for Japanese citizens still hungry for

assurances that they are no longer in danger and angry over missteps documented in the news media that

led to more people being exposed to more radiation than was necessary

One aspect of the disaster that American companies are likely to focus on is Fukushimarsquos troubles with its

venting system meant to reduce pressure and avert explosions when crucial cooling systems fail Another

focus is likely to be the extreme difficulty workers had in getting emergency equipment to the reactors

where they were needed

The report is likely to reinforce the conviction of American companies that operate reactors of the design

used at Fukushima that venting from the containment vessels around reactors early in an accident is better

than waiting even though radioactive material will be released The delays in Japan appear to have

contributed to explosions that damaged the vessels and ultimately led to larger releases of contaminants

It has been clear for months that Fukushima operators delayed venting for hours even after the

government ordered that the action be taken The chronology however suggests for the first time that

some delays were because plant executives believed that they were required to wait for evacuation of

surrounding areas

Because the chronology is based mainly on accounts by Tepco and its workers and company data it is by

nature limited It does not for example relate that there was tension between Tepco and the government

over when to vent as the news media have reported

The report is also likely to incite more debate about how emergency equipment and material are stored and

what types of contingency plans need to be made to ensure equipment can reach reactors in a disaster

Nuclear critics in the United States have long complained that American emergency rules do not take into

account that a natural phenomenon could cause an accident at a plant and make it hard to get help from

outside

91

For example although the plant had three fire engines that could have pumped in vital cooling water one

was damaged in the tsunami and another was blocked by earthquake damage to roads Inspections at some

American reactors after the Japanese quake and tsunami found that they were storing emergency gear in a

way that made it vulnerable to the emergency it was intended for

The report was perhaps most vivid when it was describing workersrsquo often unsuccessful efforts to salvage the

situation In one case plant workers are said to have broken through a security fence to take a fire truck to

unit 1 so it could pump water to cool the reactor (The plantrsquos cooling system by that time was unusable

and without it reactors and fuel pools can overheat and cause meltdowns)

But as often happened during the disaster the workersrsquo struggles only partly paid off Increasing heat

caused the pressure inside the containment vessel to build By the time the fire truck started pumping

workers were able to force in less than 10 gallons per minute not much more than a kitchen faucet puts

out That was far too little to cool the nuclear fuel and reduce pressure

The report also takes note of the human toll the disaster took on workers

It points out that many plant workers had lost their homes and even their families in the tsunami and that

for days after the quake they were sleeping on the floor at the plant soaking up radiation doses even in the

control room Because of food shortages they were provided with only a biscuit for breakfast and a bowl of

noodles for dinner

Working in darkness and without electricity even simple tasks became challenging At one point control

room operators formed themselves into teams of two to dash into high-dose areas to try to open a crucial

vent One would hold the flashlight and monitor the radiation dose while the other would try to get a valve

to move But there was no communication once the team was in the field so the next team could leave for

the reactor only after the first had returned

Eventually the radiation levels got too high and they gave up The first explosion rocked the plant soon

after belching clouds of radioactive materials and giving the world its clearest sense of the scope of the

catastrophe unfolding in Japan

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo

December 14 2011

Japan May Declare Control of Reactors Over Serious Doubts By MARTIN FACKLER

92

TOKYO mdash Nine months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant causing a meltdown at three units the Tokyo government is expected to

declare soon that it has finally regained control of the plantrsquos overheating reactors

But even before it has been made the announcement is facing serious doubts from experts

On Friday a disaster-response task force headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will vote on whether

to announce that the plantrsquos three damaged reactors have been put into the equivalent of a ldquocold

shutdownrdquo a technical term normally used to describe intact reactors with fuel cores that are in a safe and

stable condition Experts say that if it does announce a shutdown as many expect it will simply reflect the

governmentrsquos effort to fulfill a pledge to restore the plantrsquos cooling system by yearrsquos end and according to

some experts not the true situation

If the task force declares a cold shutdown the next step will be moving the spent fuel rods in nearby

cooling pools to more secure storage and eventually opening the reactors themselves

However many experts fear that the government is declaring victory only to appease growing public anger

over the accident and that it may deflect attention from remaining threats to the reactorsrsquo safety One of

those mdash a large aftershock to the magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11 which could knock out the jury-

rigged new cooling system that the plantrsquos operator hastily built after the accident mdash is considered a strong

possibility by many seismologists

They also said the term cold shutdown might give an exaggerated impression of stability to severely

damaged reactors with fuel cores that have not only melted down but melted through the inner

containment vessels and bored into the floor of their concrete outer containment structures

ldquoThe government wants to reassure the people that everything is under control and do this by the end of

this yearrdquo said Kazuhiko Kudo a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University ldquoBut what I want

to know is are they really ready to say thisrdquo

Perhaps to give itself some wiggle room the government is expected to use vague terminology announcing

that the three damaged reactors are in a ldquostate of cold shutdownrdquo Experts say that in real terms this will

amount to a claim that the reactorsrsquo temperatures can now be kept safely below the boiling point of water

and that their melted cores are no longer at risk of resuming the atomic chain reaction that could allow

them to again heat up uncontrollably

And indeed experts credit the operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company or Tepco with making

progress in regaining control of the damaged reactors They say the plantrsquos makeshift new cooling system

built with the help of American French and Japanese companies has managed to cool the reactorsrsquo cores

including the molten fuel attached to the outer containment vessels

93

Experts also say a new shedlike structure built over the heavily damaged Unit 1 reactor building has helped

cap the plantrsquos radiation leaks into the atmosphere The building was one of three reactor buildings

destroyed in hydrogen explosions in March that scattered dangerous particles over a wide swath of

northeastern Japan

Still experts say the term is usually reserved for healthy reactors to indicate that they are safe enough that

their containment vessels can be opened up and their fuel rods taken out But they warn it may take far

longer than even the governmentrsquos projected three years to begin cleaning up the melted fuel in Fukushima

Daiichirsquos damaged reactors This has led some experts to say that proclaiming a cold shutdown may

actually be deceptive suggesting the Fukushima plant is closer to getting cleaned up than it actually is

ldquoClaiming a cold shutdown does not have much meaning for damaged reactors like those at Fukushima

Daiichirdquo said Noboru Nakao a nuclear engineering consultant at International Access Corporation

In fact experts point out damaged fuel cores have yet to be removed from plants that suffered meltdowns

decades ago In the case of Chernobyl Soviet officials simply entombed the damaged reactor in a concrete

sarcophagus after the explosion there in 1986 Some experts said talk of a cold shutdown deflected

attention from the more pressing problem of further releases of radioactive contamination into the

environment In particular they said there was still a danger to the nearby Pacific Ocean from the 90000

tons of contaminated water that sit in the basements of the shattered reactor buildings or are stored in

fields of silver tanks on the plantrsquos grounds

ldquoAt this point I would be more worried about the contamination than whatrsquos happening inside the

reactorsrdquo said Murray E Jennex an expert on nuclear containment at San Diego State University

Mr Jennex said he believed the governmentrsquos claim that the reactors themselves were now stable and

particularly that the resumption of the heat-producing chain reaction called fission was no longer possible

While the discovery last month of the chemical xenon a byproduct of fission in one of Fukushima Daiichirsquos

reactors briefly raised alarms that a chain reaction had restarted Mr Jennex said enough of the

radioactive fuel had decayed since the accident in March to make that unlikely

Other experts disagreed Kyushu Universityrsquos Mr Kudo said that the restart of fission a phenomenon

known as recriticality could not be ruled out until the reactors could be opened allowing for an

examination of the melted fuel But he and other experts said their biggest fear was that another

earthquake or tsunami could knock out Tepcorsquos makeshift cooling system They noted that it was not built

to earthquake safety standards and relied on water purifiers and other vulnerable equipment connected to

the reactors by more than a mile and a half of rubber hoses

ldquoAll it would take is one more earthquake or tsunami to set Fukushima Daiichi back to square onerdquo Mr

Kudo said ldquoCan we really call this precarious situation a cold shutdownrdquo

94

December 31 2011

In Tsunami Aftermath lsquoRoad to Futurersquo Unsettles a Village By NORIMITSU ONISHI

BABANAKAYAMA Japan mdash Freshly carved out of the side of a hill with layers of rock still exposed along

some of its stretches and trees lying nearby the construction project that was supposed to help this fishing

village relocate and rebuild after the earthquake and tsunami in March was optimistically named the Road

to the Future

But so far the road has led nowhere The road and a planned settlement on a flat swath of high ground set

inland from the destroyed village have split this communityrsquos leaders into opposing camps deepening the

uncertainty for its 370 mostly aging residents Unused and unrecognized the Road to the Future lies

covered in gravel with little prospect of being paved anytime soon

The difficulties for Babanakayama and its neighbors help explain why more than 10 months after the

earthquake and tsunami few villages and towns along the devastated coast here have succeeded in doing

what seemed obvious early on finding land on high ground where their communities could be

transplanted en masse

The scarcity of flat land wrangling over the price of privately owned mountains the reluctance to

consolidate into centralized communities and the different needs of a graying population are complicating

plans by many communities to relocate

With little progress increasing numbers of people and communities are simply giving up hope of securing

land on high ground Some people defying the authorities are even starting to rebuild in areas inundated

by the tsunami

In Ofunato for example city officials are strongly discouraging residents from rebuilding in inundated

areas but like their counterparts elsewhere they have not issued a direct ban mdash possibly for fear of legal

challenges With a move to high ground years away if ever new houses began popping up in inundated

areas a few months ago

In one Ofunato neighborhood within a stonersquos throw of the sea a small wooden house sat on a

disproportionately large lot where a much larger home had been swept away by the tsunami Late one

afternoon as winter winds could be felt inside her home Kikue Shida 80 explained that she did not want

to live with relatives or in a prefabricated temporary home So she had asked a younger brother to rebuild a

home for her and she moved there in August

95

Much of her neighborhood remains destroyed But friends drop by regularly for tea and Ms Shida said she

was glad she had not waited to be relocated

ldquoIrsquom already 80rdquo she said ldquoand I may not have that many years ahead Thatrsquos why I decided to move back

hererdquo

Under Tokyorsquos reconstruction guidelines the central government will pay to acquire land on high ground if

at least five households wish to move there together But the land must meet cost requirements established

by local governments With little flat land available most proposed locations will require the authorities to

buy inland mountains from individual owners and flatten them for residential use

The difficulties of even securing an appropriate location were underscored by the experience of

Babanakayama which attempted to do so more quickly and assertively than other communities The

village was even showcased by NHK Japanrsquos national broadcaster as a role model for quick response to

the tsunami because of its community ties and the leadership of one of its two chiefs Kurayoshi Abe 61 a

strong-willed fisherman who led a cleanup without waiting for the government

ldquoWe didnrsquot depend on the government we moved firstrdquo Mr Abe said

But villagers said that the cleanup was the easy part

As the dust settled a group of village leaders began holding meetings at evacuation shelters and planning

for the future Deciding that it was best to move the destroyed coastal houses together to a hilly area

behind the village they undertook the difficult task of asking about 50 landowners in the area for

permission to build the Road to the Future

ldquoThey felt that they had to do it right away when everyonersquos memories of the tsunami were still freshrdquo said

Kaoru Chiba 36 whose father was one of the leaders behind the roadrsquos construction ldquoOtherwise if they

waited they wouldnrsquot get the cooperation of the landownersrdquo

All of the landowners agreed except a critical one Ichiro Miura 60 the other village chief

Like many victims of the tsunami Mr Miura was worried that he would not be able to afford to build a new

house even if land was secured Although the central government will provide land people will be

responsible for building their homes For those unable to do so the government has indicated it will build

public housing mdash a bigger priority than high ground for some

ldquoAll they keep talking about is moving to high groundrdquo Mr Miura said of the villagers supporting the road

construction ldquoBut Irsquom now 60 years old Even if wersquore allowed to move to high ground how will I build a

house there What bank is going to lend me money at the age of 60rdquo

96

Despite opposition by Mr Miura and others the group behind the Road to the Future pressed ahead in

July The road bed was laid down in a matter of days

Ichiro Sasaki 64 a group leader defended the decision ldquoItrsquos not as if we unilaterally went ahead and built

the road We had the landownersrsquo OK mdash well all but onerdquo he said ldquoNow therersquos no progress at all in

transferring the village to high ground neither here nor anywhere elserdquo

Indeed the proposed site along the Road to the Future is not being considered for a future settlement

partly because of a lack of village consensus said Akira Oikawa the head of reconstruction in

Minamisanriku the town that oversees Babanakayama even though there is enough land there ldquoto

accommodate all the housesrdquo

So far no alternative land has come up Owners of mountains here are reluctant to sell to the government

because of the low prices offered though of little value mountains have been passed down for generations

and are of sentimental value to many families

ldquoIf they are offering such low prices no one will sellrdquo said Kunihisa Oikawa 59 the owner of a mountain

here ldquoAny talk of moving to high ground will be swept awayrdquo

More than anything else some villagers say the split that has emerged in Babanakayama makes it

increasingly difficult if not impossible to move together to high ground Perhaps homeowners will be

forced to move up separately or rebuild along the coast

ldquoWe should all be working togetherrdquo Yoshihiro Miura 46 a fisherman said in an exasperated tone as he

wove rope by the port ldquoBut even in this little village therersquos this kind of wrangling Itrsquos just human naturerdquo

January 9 2012

In Japan a Rebuilt Island Serves as a Cautionary Tale By MARTIN FACKLER

OKUSHIRI Japan mdash On the night of July 12 1993 the remote island of Okushiri was ripped apart by a

huge earthquake and tsunami that now seem an eerie harbinger of the much larger disaster that struck

northeastern Japan last March Islanders still recall with horror how a wall of frothing black water raced

out of the darkness to consume entire communities leaving almost 200 people dead

In the half decade that followed the Japanese government rebuilt the island erecting 35-foot concrete

walls on long stretches of its coast making it look more like a fortress than a fishing outpost The billion

dollarsrsquo worth of construction projects included not just the hefty wave defenses but also entire

97

neighborhoods built on higher ground and a few flourishes like a futuristic $15 million tsunami memorial

hall featuring a stained glass panel for each victim

But today as Japan begins a decade-long $300 billion reconstruction of the northeast coast Okushiri has

become something of a cautionary tale Instead of restoring the island to its vibrant past many residents

now say the $1 billion spending spree just may have helped kill its revival

The rebuilding did bring a surge of well-paying construction jobs residents said But that was the problem

having grown accustomed to higher salaries many of the remaining young people refused to return to the

hard life of earning a livelihood from the sea and left the island in search of salaried work elsewhere

That accelerated the depopulation seen here and throughout much of rural Japan as people especially the

young are drawn to cities The number of islanders has fallen faster here than in other rural areas experts

say dwindling to 3160 last year from 4679 when the 1993 tsunami struck

ldquoWe didnrsquot use more of that reconstruction money to invest in new industries to keep young peoplerdquo said

Takami Shinmura 58 the mayor of Okushirirsquos sole township which bears the same name ldquoWe regret this

nowrdquo

Since the tsunami in March hundreds of officials from local governments in the affected areas as well as

the national news media have descended on Okushiri an island about twice the size of Manhattan to seek

lessons from its reconstruction

But Okushirirsquos message does not seem to be making a difference The country is being driven by an

outpouring of national sympathy for those displaced by the latest disaster even as some Japanese quietly

question whether it makes sense to begin an expensive reconstruction of communities that were withering

long before the 2011 earthquake

Okushirirsquos miles of stout wave walls give the fishing ports behind them the feel of miniature medieval castle

towns with fishermen able to reach the sea only through heavy steel gates

The building boom created other white elephants The fishing port of Aonae part of the town of Okushiri

boasts a $35 million tsunami refuge that can hold 2000 people three times Aonaersquos population The

refuge a raised platform that people would climb up to escape the waves looks like a huge concrete table

overshadowing the boats and docks below

ldquoWe got a great new port and all these big things but no one is left here to fish anymorerdquo said Fumio Sato

75 a dockworker in knee-high rubber boots and a black baseball cap who stacked plastic crates filled with

greenlings and other freshly caught fish

Yasumitsu Watanabe the head of Aonaersquos fishing cooperative said that it had been shortsighted to think

that the island could go back to its original fishing-based economy Even before the disaster catches were

98

declining from overfishing and global warming Worse the number of abalone the islandrsquos cash shellfish

never recovered from the tsunami which damaged their habitat in shallow waters

The number of fishermen on the island has dropped to under 200 from about 750 at the time of the

tsunami he said

ldquoWe need a new source of jobsrdquo he said ldquoFishing alone cannot do it anymorerdquo

Mr Watanabe said he wished the island had built sheltered coves where fish or shellfish could be farmed

Others said Okushiri could have used the government money to build factories to process locally caught

fish which is now shipped elsewhere or to foster tourism on the largely pristine island which has only one

modern hotel

The reconstruction splurge actually made that kind of diversification more difficult island officials said

Besides using government funds Okushiri borrowed more than $60 million for its own building projects a

financial burden that the township will not finish paying off until 2027 That has forced it to postpone

needed improvements like replacing its 56-year-old rickety wooden town hall which many consider an

earthquake hazard

ldquoWe have no reserves left just debtrdquo said Mr Shinmura the mayor ldquoTohoku should learn from our

experiencesrdquo he added referring to the northeast region struck by the earthquake and tsunami last year

Okushirirsquos bitter experiences have prompted some analysts in Tokyo to propose radically different

approaches for rebuilding the northeast Yutaka Okada an economist at the Mizuho Research Institute

said that Japan might fare better if it just gave lump sums to the tsunami victims Some might pocket the

money and leave he said but others would use it to start new businesses the sort of private sector

innovation that Japan often lacks

ldquoThe private sector would come up with better solutions than just building white elephantsrdquo Mr Okada

said

On Okushiri the end of the reconstruction boom has belatedly forced that sort of entrepreneurship

To find new ways to earn money Okushirirsquos largest construction company Ebihara Kensetsu has

branched out buying the sole tourist hotel selling bottled spring water and even opening the islandrsquos first

winery

March 10 2012

99

Japan Finds Story of Hope in Undertaker Who Offered Calm Amid Disaster By HIROKO TABUCHI

KAMAISHI Japan mdash Amid the grief of finding her motherrsquos body at a makeshift morgue in this tsunami-

ravaged city last March Fumie Arai took comfort in a small but surprising discovery Unlike the rest of the

muddied body her motherrsquos face had been carefully wiped clean

Mrs Arai did not know at the time but the act was the work of a retired undertaker well-versed in the

ancient Buddhist rituals of preparing the dead for cremation and burial The undertaker Atsushi Chiba a

father of five who cared for almost 1000 bodies in Kamaishi has now become an unlikely hero in a

community trying to heal its wounds a year after the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged much

of Japanrsquos northeastern coast a year ago Sunday

ldquoI dreaded finding my motherrsquos body lying alone on the cold ground among strangersrdquo Mrs Arai 36 said

ldquoWhen I saw her peaceful clean face I knew someone had taken care of her until I arrived That saved merdquo

As Japan marks one year since the quake and tsunami that claimed almost 20000 lives in the

northeastern region of Tohoku stories like these are being told and retold as mementos of hope even as

Japan struggles through what is expected to be an effort lasting decades to rebuild the region

Mr Chibarsquos story has been immortalized in a best-selling book in Japan which has sold over 40000 copies

and is in its eleventh printing

ldquoThe dead bodies are the most disturbing aspect of any disaster and some people might not want to

rememberrdquo said the bookrsquos author Kota Ishii who spent three months in Kamaishi and its environs in the

wake of the disaster chronicling Mr Chibarsquos work ldquoBut this story is ultimately about how small acts of

kindness can bring a little humanity even in a tragedy that defies all imaginationrdquo

The 30-foot waves that struck Kamaishi shortly after the magnitude 90 quake on March 11 spared the

white statue of Kannon the Buddhist goddess of mercy which looks out to sea from the hills above the city

But the waves destroyed the liveliest parts of the city the bars and restaurants frequented by the arearsquos

fishermen

As the black water receded rescuers entered the cityrsquos devastated streets and started pulling the dead from

the rubble carrying them on trucks to a vacant middle school that had escaped damage The rundown

gymnasium quickly became a large morgue

Mr Chiba in his early 70s whose home was also spared raced to the gym on the day after the tsunami to

look for friends and family but was struck by the state of the mounting number of bodies there Most were

still clad in muddy clothes and wrapped in plastic their rigid limbs jutting out and faces bruised by debris

and contorted in agony

100

ldquoI thought that if the bodies were left this way the families who came to claim them wouldnrsquot be able to

bear itrdquo Mr Chiba said Thursday in an interview ldquoYes they are dead But in Japan we treat the dead with

respect as if they are still alive Itrsquos a way to comfort the livingrdquo

Mr Chiba set to work He became a fixture at the morgue speaking to the bodies as he prepared them for

viewing and then cremation ldquoYou must be so cold and lonely but your family is going to come for you soon

so yoursquod better think of what yoursquore going to say to them when they arriverdquo he recalled saying

He also taught city workers at the morgue how to soothe limbs tense with rigor mortis getting down on his

knees and gently massaging them so the bodies looked less contorted When the relatives of a middle-aged

victim sobbed that her corpse looked gaunt Mr Chiba asked for some makeup and applied rouge and

blush

Mr Chibarsquos attempts to honor the dead quickly caught on City workers put together old school desks to

make a Buddhist altar They lay the bodies of couples and of family members together Each time a body

was carried out workers lined up with heads bowed to pay their last respects

And at Mr Chibarsquos urging Kamaishi became one of the only hard-hit communities to cremate all of its

dead as called for by Japanese custom enlisting the help of crematoriums as far as Akita over 100 miles

away

In all 888 of Kamaishirsquos approximately 40000 residents are known to have died 158 more are listed as

missing and presumed dead

The disaster has been a major blow to the already declining fortunes of the city whose steel industry

thrived during the 1960s and 1970s but has been shrinking ever since The tsunami laid waste to half the

city and a year later streets in the worst-hit neighborhoods are still lined with the shells of buildings and

empty plots

As the city prepared this weekend for memorials to mark the disasterrsquos first anniversary a Buddhist priest

paid tribute to Mr Chibarsquos contribution to the cityrsquos emotional recovery

The priest Enou Shibasaki from the Senjuin Temple in the hills overlooking Kamaishi remembers the

change that came over the makeshift morgue as Mr Chiba and other city workers tended to the bodies

ldquoWhether you are religious or not mourning for the dead is a fundamental needrdquo Mr Shibasaki said

ldquoMourning starts by taking care of the body Itrsquos the last you see of your loved one and you want to

remember them as beautiful as they were in liferdquo

March 9 2012

101

Nuclear Disaster in Japan Was Avoidable Critics Contend By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO mdash A year after a huge earthquake and tsunami caused nearly catastrophic meltdowns at a nuclear

plant Japan is still grappling with a crucial question was the accident simply the result of an

unforeseeable natural disaster or something that could have been prevented

Japanrsquos nuclear regulators and the plantrsquos operator Tokyo Electric Power or Tepco have said that the

magnitude 90 earthquake and 45-foot tsunami on March 11 that knocked out cooling systems at the

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were far larger than anything that scientists had predicted That

conclusion has allowed the company to argue that it is not responsible for the triple meltdown which

forced the evacuation of about 90000 people

But some insiders from Japanrsquos tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and

regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected tsunami in

northeastern Japan and thus failed to take adequate countermeasures such as raising wave walls or

placing backup generators on higher ground

They attributed this to a culture of collusion in which powerful regulators and compliant academic experts

looked the other way while the industry put a higher priority on promoting nuclear energy than protecting

public safety They call the Fukushima accident a wake-up call to Japan to break the cozy ties between

government and industry that are a legacy of the nationrsquos rush to develop after World War II

ldquoMarch 11 exposed the true nature of Japanrsquos postwar system that it is led by bureaucrats who stand on the

side of industry not the peoplerdquo said Shigeaki Koga a former director of industrial policy at the Ministry

of Economics Trade and Industry or METI which both promotes and regulates the nuclear industry

One of those whose warnings were ignored was Kunihiko Shimazaki a retired professor of seismology at

the University of Tokyo Eight years ago as a member of an influential cabinet office committee on

offshore earthquakes in northeastern Japan Mr Shimazaki warned that Fukushimarsquos coast was vulnerable

to tsunamis more than twice as tall as the forecasts of up to 17 feet put forth by regulators and Tepco

Minutes of the meeting on Feb 19 2004 show that the government bureaucrats running the committee

moved quickly to exclude his views from debate as too speculative and ldquopending further researchrdquo None of

the other 13 academics on the committee objected Mr Shimazakirsquos warnings were not even mentioned in

the committeersquos final report two years later He said the committee did not want to force Tepco to make

expensive upgrades at the plant

ldquoThey completely ignored me in order to save Tepco moneyrdquo said Mr Shimazaki 65

102

Mr Shimazaki and others say the fault lay not in outright corruption but rather complicity among like-

minded insiders who prospered for decades by scratching one anotherrsquos backs They describe a structure in

which elite career bureaucrats controlled rubber-stamp academic policy-making committees while at the

same time leaving it to industry to essentially regulate itself

In one of the most widely watched reforms to come out of the Fukushima accident the government is

moving to restore trust in regulatory oversight by separating Japanrsquos main nuclear regulatory agency from

METI In a bill now in Parliament the government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda wants to put the

nuclear watchdog the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency known as NISA into the more safety-minded

Environmental Ministry as early as next month

However many here say targeting a single ministry does not go far enough in ending the murky links

between government and industry Critics like Mr Koga the former METI official point to other broader

problems such as the fact that Japanrsquos regulators are not nuclear specialists but are reliant for expertise

on the very companies they are charged with monitoring

At the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization for example a government agency that carries out safety

inspections on behalf of NISA most of the inspectors are former employees of the power companies and

reactor manufacturers who often wink at safety lapses to protect their former employers says Setsuo

Fujiwara a former inspector

Mr Fujiwara who used to design reactors said he clashed with supervisors over an audit he conducted in

March 2009 at the Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido Mr Fujiwara said he refused

to approve a routine test by the plantrsquos operator Hokkaido Electric Power saying the test was flawed

A week later he said he was summoned by his boss who ordered him to ldquocorrectrdquo his written report to

indicate that the test had been done properly After Mr Fujiwara refused his employment contract was not

renewed

ldquoThey told me my job was just to approve reactors not to raise doubts about themrdquo said Mr Fujiwara 62

who is now suing the safety organization to get rehired In a written response to questions from The New

York Times the agency said it could not comment while the court case was under way

Tepco and its supporters say it is easy in hindsight to second-guess the company They said no one could

have been fully prepared for the magnitude 90 earthquake the largest in Japanrsquos recorded history and

giant tsunami that knocked out cooling systems at three of Fukushima Daiichirsquos six reactors

But many experts and industry insiders disagree saying the plant had ample warning including from its

own engineers

103

In 2008 Tepco engineers made three separate sets of calculations that showed that Fukushima Daiichi

could be hit by tsunamis as high as 50 feet according to the company A Tepco spokesman Takeo

Iwamoto said Tepco did not tell regulators at NISA for almost a year and then did not reveal the most

alarming calculation of a 50-foot wave until March 7 of last year mdash four days before the tsunami actually

struck

Asked why the company did not move more quickly to strengthen defenses at the plant he said that the

calculations were considered ldquoprovisional estimatesrdquo based on academic theories that were not then widely

accepted Officials at NISA said regulators followed their standard procedure of leaving it to Tepco to

conduct so-called back checks of tsunami defenses

Critics say the same hands-off approach prevailed at the committees of outside experts that were supposed

to serve as a check on regulators Many former committee members as well as current and former METI

officials say that bureaucrats not only tightly choreographed the topics for discussion by the committees

but also wrote the final reports on the committeesrsquo findings

This was the case in a crucial revision of seismic guidelines for nuclear plants that was completed in 2006

by the Nuclear Safety Commission said Katsuhiko Ishibashi a retired seismologist at Kobe University who

served on a committee to create the new guidelines for tsunami preparedness

Mr Ishibashi who has long warned of the dangers posed by earthquakes to nuclear plants said he often

felt he was the token critic on the 22-member committee He ended up quitting in anger during the last

meeting in August 2006 after seeing a draft of the revised guidelines that he said contained none of his

warnings

ldquoThe bureaucrats held the real power because they wrote the reportrdquo said Mr Ishibashi 67 ldquoFukushima

Daiichi is a disaster that could have been avoidedrdquo

Yasuko Kamiizumi and Makiko Inoue contributed reporting

MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM

Grief and Love Among the Ruins in Japan

By MARK MCDONALD

HONG KONG mdash It was a year ago this weekend that the earthquake and tsunami tore into Japan and in those terrible first days my

colleague in the Tokyo bureau Martin Fackler reached some of the most devastated towns and hamlets along the northeastern coast

Martin was alongside the first group of search teams that made their way through the muck and the debris through the bodies and the grief

104

It was March 13 a Sunday when Martin got to the battered city of

Natori I was in Tokyo and we collaborated on a story that began this way

NATORI Japan mdash What the sea so violently ripped away it has now begun to return Hundreds of bodies are washing up along some

shores in northeastern Japan making clearer the extraordinary toll of the earthquake and tsunami that struck last week and adding to the

burdens of relief workers as they ferry aid and search for survivors

Farther north but in the same prefecture David Guttenfelder would

make his way to the town of Onagawa

David the chief photographer in Asia for the Associated Press took a

heartbreaking photo of Tayo Kitamura bending to the body of her dead mother lying on a street and wrapped in blue plastic sheeting

A few weeks ago David went back to Japan and revisited some of the places where he had made photographs last March He also returned to

that forelorn street in Onagawa

A striking series of his before-and-after images is located here

Hiroko Masuike a photo producer for The New York Times was in New York when the tsunami hit Japan her native country Somehow

one particular image hit home

ldquoWhen I first saw a small temple that remained standing on top of the

hill amid debris I thought that was a miraclerdquo Hiroko says in a piece by my colleague James Estrin on the Lens blog ldquoEvery single city on

the coastline was destroyed and there was so much debris that everywhere had sadly started to look the same to me But I felt that

temple was calling me to be thererdquo

She quickly returned to Japan and made her way to that Buddhist

shrine the Kongoji Temple in Aramachi She took pictures at the temple and among the displaced but resolute townspeople They

invited her in and shared their food On some nights she slept inside the temple

A slideshow of Hirokorsquos photos is on Lens now and she is back in Japan this week making more pictures

One of the things she has already found is a new perspective

105

ldquoI started to think about what is life and what is familyrdquo says Hiroko

40 who had been back to Japan to see her parents five times in the previous 14 years

ldquoI decided I should see my parents more often and take care of my parents more often and I thought I should get married and build a

family of my ownrdquo

The renowned photographer James Nachtwey also has a year-after

album online at Time magazinersquos Lightbox page and therersquos a useful fadertoggle function on the Atlanticrsquos slideshow

And among the tsunami images on The New Yorkerrsquos Photo Booth blog Dominic Nahr of Magnum has two photographs from Natori

Firefighters searching homes in Onagawa had turned up Ms Kitamurarsquos mother mdash they were in the photo by David Guttenfelder mdash

and Martin watched a similar search team using a sniffer dog in Natori One version of our story ended this way

In one case the spaniel also barked The team began digging in the debris but found nothing ldquoIs there anyone here Is there anyone

aliverdquo They yelled as they dug A member of the team said that there was now a scant chance of survivors and the dogs were finding only

corpses

Off in the distance a small cluster of buildings stood undamaged on

the sad expanse of the mud flats Outlined against the afternoon sky they seemed like tombstones

MARCH 6 2012 542 PM

An Ad-Hoc Solution for Extra Nuclear Safety

By MATTHEW L WALD

As the first anniversary of Japanrsquos Fukushima Daiichi accident

approaches the good news is that the American nuclear industry is moving ahead promptly without waiting for bureaucratic approvals on

stocking up on equipment like pumps hoses and generators that could be useful in a variety of emergencies

At least that is how the industry put it at a news event on Tuesday morning A few hours later a group that is highly critical of nuclear

power said the problem was that the industry was stockpiling the equipment without leaving time for regulators or the public to weigh in

on safety issues

106

When the nuclear power plants were designed in the 1960s and rsquo70s

engineers tried to determine every kind of accident that could happen and to install equipment that would respond to the problem providing

at least two sets of every component like pipes valves and pumps But after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11 2001 they began preparing for

accidents whose dimensions are not known in advance It calls this approach ldquoflexrdquo planning

ldquoWersquore not smart enough to be able to think of every possible thingrsquorsquo said Tony R Pietrangelo the senior vice president of the Nuclear

Energy Institute the industryrsquos main trade association ldquoWersquore trying to prepare for anythingrsquorsquo

Among the ideas now making the rounds among pessimistic engineers are the possibility that a severe solar storm could knock out critical

transformers and shut down parts of the power grid for extended periods Many of the preparations are intended to address the loss of

all alternating current which drives pumps and operates valves

At Fukushima the loss of power resulted from a tsunami which is not

a threat at most American plants But other natural events like earthquakes hurricanes or tornadoes are virtual certainties ldquoIt doesnrsquot

matter how you get therersquorsquo Mr Pietrangelo said of a power loss or other problem

What matters he said is a ldquosymptom basedrdquo approach to addressing an inability to cool a plantrsquos reactor core or spent fuel pool by normal

means

So the industry has bought about 300 pieces of equipment mostly

commercial grade as opposed to certified nuclear grade and is storing the equipment at various sites that are not certified by the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission to be earthquake-proof (After Fukushima some equipment was moved from secure locations in basements to

higher elevations to increase the chances that it would survive intact in a flood)

Charles Pardee the chief operating officer of the Exelon Generation Company the largest nuclear operator and the chairman of the

Nuclear Energy Institutersquos Fukushima response committee said one approach would be to conduct lengthy analyses and figure out the best

way to store the material But for now ldquoa superior option is to buy more commercial grade stuffrdquo he said

107

ldquoYoursquore better off having more of itrdquo he said even if some is lost in an

emergency

The industry is still discussing building a handful of repositories for

extra materials but has not reached a conclusion about where or how many or how difficult transportation would be if a major natural

disaster struck a broad area

Mr Pardee said each plant might spend $1 million to $2 million on

equipment Before Fukushima the assumption was that if two or three reactors sat on a single site only one would have a problem at any

given time now companies are buying enough emergency equipment to cope with simultaneous failures at all reactors at a site he said

But this idea does not sit well with experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists which held a news briefing a few hours later

David Lochbaum an expert on boiling water reactors the type used at Fukushima said voluntary programs do not provide as much

protection as mandatory ones For example he said after Fukushima the Nuclear Regulatory Commission checked on the status of voluntary

steps taken after the 911 attacks a decade earlier

Only about 10 percent of the control rooms of plants had a copy of the

procedures for using that equipment he said and many of the plants had not updated their procedures to reflect changes in the reactors For

example the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee had drafted a procedure for starting up a piece of equipment called a hydrogen recombiner which

destroys hydrogen a gas that can be produced in an accident and is potentially explosive But the plant managers had removed the

hydrogen recombiners

ldquoThe operators are sent down a dead end that wonrsquot help themrdquo Mr

Lochbaum said ldquoIt might hurt them by creating delays in figuring out on their own what the Plan B isrdquo Some reactor personnel had no

training on the procedures that had been voluntarily adopted he said

Edwin Lyman another expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists

said what the industry was doing amounted to ldquoestablishing itrsquos own guidelines and daring the NRC to tell them itrsquos not adequaterdquo

The commission is moving toward requiring the addition of some equipment some of it general purpose and some particularly keyed to

the experience at Fukushima The agency wants water-level instruments in spent fuel pools so that operators will know whether

they are full at Fukushima the operators for a time thought wrongly

108

that one of the pools was empty and diverted extensive resources to

trying to fill it

The commission also wants containment vents on some boiling water

reactors that do not have them

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction


Tony R Pietrangelos last name was misspelled in one instance in an

earlier version of this article

March 3 2012

Japanese Prime Minister Says Government Shares Blame for Nuclear Disaster By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan acknowledged on Saturday that the government

shared the blame for the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant saying that officials had

been blinded by a false belief in the countryrsquos technological infallibility even as he vowed to push for the

idled reactors to be restarted

Mr Noda spoke ahead of the one-year anniversary of Japanrsquos devastating earthquake and tsunami of

March 11 which killed nearly 20000 people in northeastern Japan set off multiple meltdowns at the

Fukushima plant and brought about a crisis of public confidence in the countryrsquos nuclear program

ldquoThe government operator and the academic world were all too steeped in a safety mythrdquo Mr Noda said in

an interview with journalists from overseas news media organizations ldquoEverybody must share the pain of

responsibilityrdquo

But the government will keep pushing to restart idled reactors Mr Noda said Two of Japanrsquos 54 reactors

are still operating with local communities unwilling to restart the others but even they may power down

by May Nuclear energy once provided 30 percent of Japanrsquos electricity needs

In an attempt to ease public worries Japanese nuclear regulators have introduced stress tests that will

focus on the reactorsrsquo ability to withstand an earthquake and tsunami like the ones that hit the Fukushima

Daiichi site But some critics have said the tests which rely on computer simulations are woefully

inadequate to ensure reactors can withstand shocks as unpredictable as earthquakes and tsunami waves

ldquoWe surely hope to regain the publicrsquos trustrdquo Mr Noda said ldquoBut in the end restarting the reactors will

come down to a political decisionrdquo

109

Mr Noda remained largely uncommitted to a pledge by Naoto Kan the prime minister at the time of the

disasters to eventually phase out nuclear power in Japan

While he agreed that Japan should ldquomove in that directionrdquo Mr Noda said officials were still trying to

figure out ldquothe best mixrdquo of power The government should have a better sense of its plans for its nuclear

program by the summer

Mr Noda who took over as prime minister in September also defended the countryrsquos reconstruction effort

from criticism that the government had failed to articulate a clear vision or move quickly enough to rebuild

coastal communities ravaged by the tsunami Amid bitter sparring among politicians in Parliament the

government only last month set up a ministry to spearhead reconstruction efforts almost 11 months after

the disasters

ldquoThe government has been doing all it canrdquo Mr Noda said adding that the almost 500000 people

displaced in the tsunamirsquos aftermath were now safely in temporary homes Manufacturing supply chains

vital to the regionrsquos economy are also back up and running Mr Noda said

One problem he said is that many local communities have yet to decide how they want to rebuild For

example some tsunami-hit towns and villages are still trying to determine whether they want to rebuild in

areas devastated by waves or to move to higher ground

ldquoThe country canrsquot tell them to do this or thatrdquo he said ldquoFor some things the country canrsquot take action

until local communities debate and decide on a plan That takes timerdquo

July 5 2012

Inquiry Declares Fukushima Crisis a Man-Made Disaster By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash The nuclear accident at Fukushima was a preventable disaster rooted in government-industry

collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture a parliamentary inquiry concluded

Thursday

The report released by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission

challenged some of the main story lines that the government and the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi

Nuclear Power Plant have put forward Most notably the report said the plantrsquos crucial cooling systems

might have been damaged in the earthquake on March 11 2011 not only in the ensuing tsunami That

possibility raises doubts about the safety of all the quake-prone countryrsquos nuclear plants just as they begin

to restart after a pause ordered in the wake of the Fukushima crisis

110

ldquoIt was a profoundly man-made disaster mdash that could and should have been foreseen and preventedrdquo said

Kiyoshi Kurokawa the commissionrsquos chairman in the reportrsquos introduction ldquoAnd its effects could have

been mitigated by a more effective human responserdquo

While assigning widespread blame the report avoids calling for the censure of specific executives or

officials Some citizensrsquo groups have demanded that executives of the plantrsquos operator the Tokyo Electric

Power Company or Tepco be investigated on charges of criminal negligence a move that Dr Kurokawa

said Thursday was out of his panelrsquos purview But criminal prosecution ldquois a matter for others to pursuerdquo

he said at a news conference after the reportrsquos release

The very existence of an independent investigating commission mdash which avoids reliance on self-

examination by bureaucracies that might be clouded by self-defense mdash is a break with precedent in Japan

but follows the pattern followed in the United States after major failures involving combinations of private

companies government oversight and technology issues Those cases which were cited by the panel

include the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 the Columbia and Challenger space shuttle

disasters in 1986 and 2003 and the terrorist attacks on Sept 11 2001

The 641-page report criticized Tepco as being too quick to dismiss earthquake damage as a cause of the fuel

meltdowns at three of the plantrsquos six reactors which overheated when the site lost power Tepco has

contended that the plant withstood the earthquake that rocked eastern Japan instead placing blame for

the disaster on what some experts have called a ldquoonce in a millenniumrdquo tsunami that followed Such a rare

calamity was beyond the scope of contingency planning Tepco executives have suggested and was unlikely

to pose a threat to Japanrsquos other nuclear reactors in the foreseeable future

The parliamentary report based on more than 900 hours of hearings and interviews with 1167 people

suggests that Reactor No 1 in particular might have suffered earthquake damage including the possibility

that pipes burst from the shaking leading to a loss of coolant even before the tsunami hit the plant about

30 minutes after the initial earthquake It emphasized that a full assessment would require better access to

the inner workings of the reactors which may not be possible for years

ldquoHoweverrdquo the report said ldquoit is impossible to limit the direct cause of the accident to the tsunami without

substantive evidence The commission believes that this is an attempt to avoid responsibility by putting all

the blame on the unexpected (the tsunami)rdquo the report continued adding ldquoand not on the more

foreseeable quakerdquo

The report submitted to Parliament on Thursday also contradicted accounts put forward by previous

investigations that described the prime minister at the time Naoto Kan as a decisive leader who ordered

Tepco not to abandon the plant as it spiraled out of control There is no evidence that the operator planned

to withdraw all its employees from the plant the report said and meddling from Mr Kan including his

visit to the plant a day after the accident confused the initial response

111

Instead the report by the commission mdash which heard testimony from Mr Kan and a former Tepco

president Masataka Shimizu mdash described a breakdown in communications between the prime ministerrsquos

office and Tepco blaming both sides

ldquoThe prime minister made his way to the site to direct the workers who were dealing with the damaged

corerdquo the report said an action that ldquodiverted the attention and time of the on-site operational staff and

confused the line of commandrdquo

The report faulted Mr Shimizu for an ldquoinability to clearly reportrdquo to the prime ministerrsquos office ldquothe

intentions of the operatorsrdquo which deepened the governmentrsquos misunderstanding and mistrust of Tepcorsquos

response

The commission also accused the government Tepco and nuclear regulators of failing to carry out basic

safety measures despite being aware of the risks posed by earthquakes tsunamis and other events that

might cut off power systems Even though the government-appointed Nuclear Safety Commission revised

earthquake resistance standards in 2006 and ordered nuclear operators around the country to inspect

their reactors for example Tepco did not carry out any checks and regulators did not follow up the report

said

The report placed blame for the tepid response on collusion between the company the government and

regulators saying they had all ldquobetrayed the nationrsquos right to safety from nuclear accidentsrdquo Tepco

ldquomanipulated its cozy relationship with regulators to take the teeth out of regulationsrdquo the report said

Dr Kurokawa reserved his most damning language for his criticism of a culture in Japan that suppresses

dissent and outside opinion which he said might have prompted changes to the countryrsquos lax nuclear

controls

ldquoWhat must be admitted very painfully is that this was a disaster lsquoMade in Japanrsquo rdquo Dr Kurokawa said in

his introduction to the English version of the report ldquoIts fundamental causes are to be found in the

ingrained conventions of Japanese culture our reflexive obedience our reluctance to question authority

our devotion to lsquosticking with the programrsquo our groupism and our insularityrdquo The Japanese version

contained a similar criticism

Shuya Nomura a commission member and a professor at the Chuo Law School said the report had tried to

ldquoshed light on Japanrsquos wider structural problems on the pus that pervades Japanese societyrdquo

Matthew L Wald contributed reporting from Washington

July 23 2012

112

Inquiry Sees Chaos in Evacuations After Japan Tsunami By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO mdash Chaotic evacuations after a tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant left

children in areas where radiation levels were deemed dangerously high while causing unnecessary deaths

among sickly patients who were hastily removed from their hospitals a government-sponsored inquiry

reported on Monday

The inquiry the latest in a series of investigations into the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl came

amid intensifying debate over the human toll of the disaster The 450-page report on the inquiry released

on Monday also said that the governmentrsquos failure to act on computer-aided predictions of radioactive

releases as the disaster unfolded might have caused residents of at least two communities to be led straight

into the radioactive plume

The inquiryrsquos chairman Yotaro Hatamura an engineering professor at the University of Tokyo and an

expert on the study of large-scale failure stressed that he had made it a point to study the disaster from the

point of view of communities affected by it

ldquoAn analysis from the victimsrsquo perspective takes you beyond studying what equipment or systems broke

downrdquo Mr Hatamura said at a news conference ldquoInstead we begin to consider the suffering brought upon

local communities and whether that suffering could have been minimizedrdquo

Mr Hatamura and his 10-member panel detailed how miscommunication among the nuclear sitersquos

operator mdash the Tokyo Electric Power Company or Tepco mdash local officials the police and the Japan Self-

Defense Forces set off chaos as about 340 patients most of them elderly were evacuated from a hospital

facility near the plant Eight patients who spent almost 12 hours on a bus died on board while about 35

were mistakenly left behind at the hospital for two extra days By the end of March 40 patients had died

either from medical complications or from the fatigue of staying at evacuation centers according to the

hospital

Local governments in the 13 municipalities affected by the Fukushima crisis have certified nearly 600

deaths as ldquodisaster-relatedrdquo meaning caused by fatigue or by medical conditions made worse by

evacuation Experts say it is difficult to separate out the effects of the nuclear disaster however because

many of the evacuees were also driven from their homes by the tsunami

The report detailed how the government decided not to act on the computer-aided estimates available 12

days into the disaster which showed radiation levels dangerous for small children in areas to the northwest

and to the south of the plant beyond the 12-mile evacuation zone

113

The report said that Japanrsquos Nuclear Safety Commission considering those projections ldquograverdquo brought

the data to the prime minister at the time Naoto Kan who eventually decided that they were overblown

and elected not to widen the evacuation zone Instead he ordered that all children in those areas undergo

medical tests ldquoto confirm thyroid exposure through actual test resultsrdquo the report said

Those tests so far have not revealed exposure above government limits the report said However some

experts have warned that the health effects of longer-term exposure to low levels of radiation are not well

understood Some of these areas mdash like Iitate village northwest of the plant mdash were not evacuated for over

a month

Earlier government scientists had used the same estimates mdash made by a computer program known as the

System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information or Speedi mdash to discover that plumes

that had been blowing eastward from the plant out to sea were starting to head inland in a northwesterly

direction

Japanrsquos nuclear regulator relayed the predictions to Mr Kanrsquos office which raised no alarm the report

said

As a result in one town near the stricken plant Namie the mayor might have inadvertently led evacuees

northwest into the radioactive plume the report confirms And in Minamisoma north of the plant local

officials probably organized evacuations by bus on the very day mdash March 15 mdash that a radioactive plume

swung into their path the report said

Mr Kan who stepped down as prime minister in September was not immediately available for comment

At the end of May in testimony before a parliamentary inquiry into the disaster Mr Kan defended his

handling of the disaster saying that while he tried to divulge as much information as possible to the public

he was kept in the dark about crucial details by nuclear regulators and Tepco

The report also faults Tepco for failing to give most workers dosimeters that would have kept track of their

exposure to harmful radiation as they fought to contain meltdowns in the early days of the crisis Tepco in

fact had access to hundreds of dosimeters sent from other nuclear power plants across Japan but

managers failed to put them to use mdash a sign that the company paid little heed to worker safety the report

said

The report came after a construction company based in Fukushima admitted that it forced workers at the

Fukushima Daiichi plant to cover their dosimeters with lead plates last year in a bid to stay under a

government safety threshold for exposure The case has underscored the lax safety standards at the plant

which the government has said is in a stable state but remains highly radioactive

114

Teruo Sagara an executive at the construction company Build-Up said that nine workers had agreed to

put the lead coverings on their dosimeters He said the company had thought it would be in their

employeesrsquo interests to underreport exposure so they could work at the plant longer

ldquoWe judged mistakenly that we could bring peace of mind to the workers if we could somehow delay their

dosimetersrsquo alarmsrsquo going offrdquo Mr Sagara said

Japanrsquos Health Ministry said on Monday that it was investigating


January 7 2013

In Japan a Painfully Slow Sweep By HIROKO TABUCHI

NARAHA Japan mdash The decontamination crews at a deserted elementary school here are at the forefront of

what Japan says is the most ambitious radiological cleanup the world has seen one that promised to draw

on cutting-edge technology from across the globe

But much of the work at the Naraha-Minami Elementary School about 12 miles away from the ravaged

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant tells another story For eight hours a day construction workers

blast buildings with water cut grass and shovel dirt and foliage into big black plastic bags mdash which with

nowhere to go dot Naraharsquos landscape like funeral mounds

More than a year and a half since the nuclear crisis much of Japanrsquos post-Fukushima cleanup remains

primitive slapdash and bereft of the cleanup methods lauded by government scientists as effective in

removing harmful radioactive cesium from the environment

Local businesses that responded to a government call to research and develop decontamination methods

have found themselves largely left out American and other foreign companies with proven expertise in

environmental remediation invited to Japan in June to show off their technologies have similarly found

little scope to participate

Recent reports in the local media of cleanup crews dumping contaminated soil and leaves into rivers have

focused attention on the sloppiness of the cleanup

ldquoWhatrsquos happening on the ground is a disgracerdquo said Masafumi Shiga president of Shiga Toso a

refurbishing company based in Iwaki Fukushima The company developed a more effective and safer way

to remove cesium from concrete without using water which could repollute the environment ldquoWersquove been

ready to help for ages but they say theyrsquove got their own way of cleaning uprdquo he said

Shiga Tosorsquos technology was tested and identified by government scientists as ldquofit to deploy immediatelyrdquo

but it has been used only at two small locations including a concrete drain at the Naraha-Minami school

115

Instead both the central and local governments have handed over much of the 1 trillion yen

decontamination effort to Japanrsquos largest construction companies The politically connected companies

have little radiological cleanup expertise and critics say they have cut corners to employ primitive mdash even

potentially hazardous mdash techniques

The construction companies have the great advantage of available manpower Here in Naraha about 1500

cleanup workers are deployed every day to power-spray buildings scrape soil off fields and remove fallen

leaves and undergrowth from forests and mountains according to an official at the Maeda Corporation

which is in charge of the cleanup

That number the official said will soon rise to 2000 a large deployment rarely seen on even large-sale

projects like dams and bridges

The construction companies suggest new technologies may work but are not necessarily cost-effective

ldquoIn such a big undertaking cost-effectiveness becomes very importantrdquo said Takeshi Nishikawa an

executive based in Fukushima for the Kajima Corporation Japanrsquos largest construction company The

company is in charge of the cleanup in the city of Tamura a part of which lies within the 12-mile exclusion

zone ldquoWe bring skills and expertise to the projectrdquo Mr Nishikawa said

Kajima also built the reactor buildings for all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant leading some

critics to question why control of the cleanup effort has been left to companies with deep ties to the nuclear

industry

Also worrying industry experts say are cleanup methods used by the construction companies that create

loose contamination that can become airborne or enter the water

At many sites contaminated runoff from cleanup projects is not fully recovered and is being released into

the environment multiple people involved in the decontamination work said

In addition there are no concrete plans about storing the vast amounts of contaminated soil and foliage

the cleanup is generating which the environment ministry estimates will amount to at least 29 million

cubic meters or more than a billion cubic feet

The contaminated dirt lies in bags on roadsides in abandoned fields and on the coastline where experts

say they are at risk from high waves or another tsunami

ldquoThis isnrsquot decontamination mdash itrsquos sweeping up dirt and leaves and absolutely irresponsiblerdquo said Tomoya

Yamauchi an expert in radiation measurement at Kobe University who has been helping Fukushima

communities test the effectiveness of various decontamination methods ldquoJapan has started up its big

public works machine and the cleanup has become an end in itself Itrsquos a way for the government to appear

to be doing something for Fukushimardquo

116

In some of the more heavily contaminated parts of Fukushima which cover about 100 square miles the

central government aims to reduce radiation exposure levels to below 20 millisieverts a year by 2014 a

level the government says is safe for the general public But experts doubt whether this is achievable

especially with current cleanup methods

After some recent bad press the central government has promised to step up checks of the

decontamination work ldquoWe will not betray the trust of the local communitiesrdquo Shinji Inoue the

environment vice minister said Monday

There had been high hopes about the governmentrsquos disaster reconstruction plan It was announced four

months after the March 2011 disaster which declared Japan would draw on the most advanced

decontamination know-how possible

But confusion over who would conduct and pay for the cleanup slowed the government response It took

nine months for the central government to decide that it would take charge of decontamination work in 11

of the heaviest-contaminated towns and cities in Fukushima leaving the rest for local governments to

handle

In October 2011 the Japan Atomic Energy Agency the state-backed research organization announced that

it was soliciting new decontamination technology from across the country

By early November the agency had identified 25 technologies that its own tests showed removed harmful

cesium from the environment

A new system to trap filter and recycle contaminated runoff developed by the local machinery maker

Fukushima Komatsu Forklift was one of technologies But since then the company has not been called on

to participate in the state-led cleanup

ldquoFor the big general contractors itrsquos all about the bottom linerdquo said Masao Sakai an executive at the

company ldquoNew technology is available to prevent harmful runoff but they stick to the same old methodsrdquo

The Japanese government also made an initial effort to contact foreign companies for decontamination

support It invited 32 companies from the United States that specialize in remediation technologies like

strip-painting and waste minimization to show off their expertise to Japanese government officials

experts and companies involved in the cleanup

Opinions on the triprsquos effectiveness vary among participants but in the six months since not a single

foreign company has been employed in Japanrsquos cleanup according to the triprsquos participants and Japanrsquos

Environment Ministry

ldquoJapan has a rich history in nuclear energy but as you know the US has a much more diverse experience

in dealing with the cleanup of very complicated nuclear processing facilities Wersquove been cleaning it up

117

since World War IIrdquo said Casey Bunker a director at RJ Lee a scientific consulting company based in

Pennsylvania that took part in the visit

ldquoThere was a little of lsquoHey bring your tools over and show us how it worksrsquo But they ultimately wanted to

do it themselves to fix things themselvesrdquo Mr Bunker said ldquoThere didnrsquot seem to be a lot of interest in a

consultative relationship moving forwardrdquo

Japanese officials said adapting overseas technologies presented a particular challenge

ldquoEven if a method works overseas the soil in Japan is different for examplerdquo said Hidehiko Nishiyama

deputy director at the environment ministry who is in charge of the Fukushima cleanup ldquoAnd if we have

foreigners roaming around Fukushima they might scare the old grandmas and granddads thererdquo

Some local residents are losing faith in the decontamination effort

ldquoI thought Japan was a technologically advanced country I thought wersquod be able to clean up better than

thisrdquo said Yoshiko Suganami a legal worker who was forced to abandon her home and office over two

miles from the Fukushima Daiichi plant ldquoItrsquos clear the decontamination drive isnrsquot really about us any

morerdquo

Most of the clients at Ms Suganamirsquos new practice in Fukushima city are also nuclear refugees who have

lost their jobs and homes and are trying to avert bankruptcy She said few expect to ever return

Makiko Inoue contributed reporting from Tokyo


Correction January 10 2013

An article on Tuesday about flaws in the cleanup of radioactive contamination from the nuclear reactors

damaged after Japanrsquos 2011 earthquake and tsunami misstated in some copies the given name of the

president of Shiga Toso a company involved in the cleanup He is Masafumi Shiga not Akifumi Shiga

The article also misstated the name of the construction company in charge of decontaminating the city of

Tamura It is the Kajima Corporation not Kashima The article also referred incorrectly to Fukushima

Prefecture It contains 100 square miles of the more heavily contaminated areas the prefecture itself is

not 100 square miles And the article misstated the year that the Japan Atomic Energy Agency

announced it was soliciting new decontamination technology It was October 2011 not 2012

October 14 2013

Fukushima Politics By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

118

ldquoZero nuclear plantsrdquo With this recent call Japanrsquos very popular former prime minister Junichiro

Koizumi is again in the limelight His bold new stance challenges his proteacutegeacute Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

whose policies would restart as many nuclear power plants as possible (now all shut down) and even

promote the export of nuclear reactors Mr Koizumi deems the pursuit of nuclear power ldquoaimlessrdquo and

ldquoirresponsiblerdquo

Japan should welcome Mr Koizumirsquos intervention and begin a healthy debate on the future of nuclear

power that has not occurred in the two and a half years since the Fukushima disaster The Japanese Diet

did conduct an independent investigation which concluded Fukushima to be a man-made disaster But the

investigation did not lead to serious parliamentary debate

Mr Koizumi whose change of views is startling shows that there is quite a split on the issue in the political

class As a pro-growth prime minister from 2001 to 2006 he was an enthusiastic proponent of cheap and

clean nuclear power Now he declares that it is the most expensive form of energy citing not only the many

billions of dollars needed to clean up Fukushima but also the unknown cost and method of dealing with

nuclear waste

He also criticizes the current governmentrsquos assumption that nuclear power is essential for economic

growth Ever the acute reader of political moods Mr Koizumi argues that a zero nuclear policy could be

cause for a great social movement in a country still gripped by economic gloom after 15 years of deflation

In the wake of Fukushima one would think that the Japanese government could not restart nuclear power

reactors without firm public support Not so

According to opinion polls the majority of Japanese oppose nuclear power even among supporters of the

Abe government A poll last week found that 76 percent of those surveyed said they did not think the

Fukushima plant was ldquounder controlrdquo The government reckons the earthquake and tsunami that struck

Fukushima is a once-in-a-thousand-year occurrence Yet it also estimates that there is a 60 percent to 70

percent probability of a major earthquake and tsunami hitting the most densely populated coastline within

the next 30 years That coastline dotted with nuclear power plants reaches from Tokyo to the southern

island of Kyushu

Prime Minister Abe has been stressing the need to shed the deflation mentality for Japan to lift itself out of

economic stagnation Japan can certainly do with a change in attitude Mr Koizumi makes a compelling

argument that if the ruling Liberal Democratic Party were to announce a zero nuclear policy ldquothe nation

could come together in the creation of a recyclable society unseen in the worldrdquo and the public mood

would rise in an instant

October 1 2013

119

Japanrsquos Nuclear Refugees Still Stuck in Limbo By MARTIN FACKLER

NAMIE Japan mdash Every month Hiroko Watabe 74 returns for a few hours to her abandoned house near

the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant to engage in her own small act of defiance against fate She dons a

surgical mask hangs two radiation-measuring devices around her neck and crouches down to pull weeds

She is desperate to keep her small yard clean to prove she has not given up on her home which she and her

family evacuated two years ago after a 90 earthquake and a tsunami devastated the plant five miles away

Not all her neighbors are willing to take the risk chest-high weeds now block the doorways of their once-

tidy homes

ldquoIn my heart I know we can never live here againrdquo said Ms Watabe who drove here with her husband

from Koriyama the city an hour away where they have lived since the disaster ldquoBut doing this gives us a

purpose We are saying that this is still our homerdquo

While the continuing environmental disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has grabbed world headlines

mdash with hundreds of tons of contaminated water flowing into the Pacific Ocean daily mdash a human crisis has

been quietly unfolding Two and a half years after the plant belched plumes of radioactive materials over

northeast Japan the almost 83000 nuclear refugees evacuated from the worst-hit areas are still unable to

go home Some have moved on reluctantly but tens of thousands remain in a legal and emotional limbo

while the government holds out hope that they can one day return

As they wait many are growing bitter Most have supported the official goal of decontaminating the towns

so that people can return to homes that some families inhabited for generations Now they suspect the

government knows that the unprecedented cleanup will take years if not decades longer than promised as

a growing chorus of independent experts have warned but will not admit it for fear of dooming plans to

restart Japanrsquos other nuclear plants

That has left the people of Namie and many of the 10 other evacuated towns with few good choices They

can continue to live in cramped temporary housing and collect relatively meager monthly compensation

from the government Or they can try to build a new life elsewhere a near impossibility for many unless

the government admits defeat and fully compensates them for their lost homes and livelihoods

ldquoThe national government orders us to go back but then orders us to just wait and waitrdquo said Tamotsu

Baba the mayor of this town of 20000 people that was hastily evacuated when explosions began to rock

the plant ldquoThe bureaucrats want to avoid taking responsibility for everything that has happened and we

commoners pay the pricerdquo

120

For Namiersquos residents government obfuscation is nothing new On the day they fled bureaucrats in Tokyo

knew the direction they were taking could be dangerous based on computer modeling but did not say so

for fear of causing panic The townspeople headed north straight into an invisible radioactive plume

Before the disaster Namie was a sleepy farming and fishing community stretching between mountains

and the Pacific These days it is divided into color-coded sections that denote how contaminated various

areas are and how long former residents can stay during limited daytime-only visits They are issued

dosimeters on their way in and are screened on their way out Next to one checkpoint a sign warns of feral

cows that have roamed free since fleeing farmers released them

Inside the checkpoints Namie is a ghost town of empty streets cluttered with garbage and weeds unheard-

of in famously neat Japan Some traditional wooden farmhouses survived the earthquake though they

have not survived the neglect They collapsed after rain seeped in rotting their ancient wooden beams

Their tiled roofs spill into the roads

Through gritty shop windows merchandise that fell off shelves in the quake can still be seen scattered on

the floor In the town hall calendars remain open to March 2011 when the disaster struck

Officials have reoccupied a corner of the building for their Office for Preparation to Return to the Town

though their only steps so far have been to install portable toilets and post guards to prevent looting The

national government hopes to eventually deploy an army of workers here to scrape up tons of

contaminated soil But officials have run into a roadblock they have found only two sites in the town where

they can store toxic dirt 49 would be needed

Just last month the government admitted that such travails had left the cleanup hopelessly behind

schedule in 8 of the 11 towns which they originally promised would be cleaned by next March Even in the

places where cleanup has begun other troubles have surfaced Scouring the soil had only limited success in

bringing down radiation levels partly because rain carries more contaminants down from nearby

mountains

The Environmental Ministry now says the completion of the cleanup in the eight towns including Namie

has been postponed and no new date has been set

In Namie a town hall survey showed that 30 percent of residents have given up on reclaiming their lives in

their town 30 percent have not and 40 percent remained unsure

Ms Watabersquos visits have been emotionally painful and scary She says her husbandrsquos car dealership was

robbed Her yard was invaded by a dangerous wild boar which she managed to chase off She considers

weeding her driveway so risky that she waved away a visitor who offered to help pointing to her dosimeter

showing readings two and a half times the level that would normally force an evacuation

121

She reminisced about her once close-knit community where neighbors stopped by for leisurely chats over

tea She raised her four children here and her 10 grandchildren were regular visitors their stuffed animals

and baby toys lie amid the debris on the dealership floor

Her youngest son whose own family had shared the house and who was supposed to take over the family

business has vowed never to return He moved instead to a Tokyo suburb worried that even the taint of

an association with Namie could cause his two young daughters to face the same sort of discrimination as

the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

ldquoThe young people have already given up on Namierdquo Ms Watabe said ldquoIt is only the old people who want

to come backrdquo

ldquoAnd even we will have to give up soonrdquo her husband Masazumi added

While their chances of making it back seem low their former neighbors in the townrsquos mountainous western

half are even less likely to return anytime soon The Watabesrsquo house sits in the orange zone indicating mid-

level radiation Most of the west is a red zone the worst hit

The road that winds up a narrow gorge of roaring rapids from the main town seemed idyllic on a recent

visit except for the bleating of a radiation-measuring device Cleanup here was always expected to be

harder given the difficulties of trying to scrape whole mountainsides clean

Near the entryway of her three-century-old farmhouse 84-year-old Jun Owada swept her tatami floor

clean of the droppings from the mice that moved in when she moved out She had returned this day to

perform a traditional mourning rite washing the grave of her husband who died before the earthquake

Unlike the Watabes she has decided to move on and is living with a son in suburban Tokyo even as she

comes back to honor a past she is putting behind her Every time she visits she said she receives a dose

equivalent to one or two chest X-rays even if she remains indoors As she pushed her broom she pointed

out things she could not fix

The terraced rice paddies are overgrown and although her homersquos thick wooden beams have held out

longer than her neighborsrsquo they too are starting to rot

ldquoOne look around hererdquo she said ldquoand you know right away that there is no way to returnrdquo


March 8 2013

What the Tsunami Left Behind By KUMIKO MAKIHARA

para Rikuzentakata JAPAN

122

para THE deserted white apartment building tells its story floor by floor The street level has only gaping open

spaces where there were once floor-to-ceiling windows On the second story pieces of aluminum protrude

across some of those gaps More metal appears on the third floor delineating parts of window frames The

fourth floor has horizontal and vertical metal bars in the gaps but no glass The fifth and top floor reveals

what each level of this 40-unit structure used to look like a parapet of white panels encloses a row of

identical apartments with sliding glass doors that open up to balconies

para The building in the city of Rikuzentakata is a vivid if eerie illustration of the power of the tsunami that

ripped through the structurersquos first four floors the waterrsquos force decreasing with height The city recently

decided to preserve the structure as a testament to the devastation wrought by the earthquake and tsunami

that struck Japanrsquos northeastern coast on March 11 2011

para Near the apartment building yellow excavators work through mounds of debris-filled soil clearing the

grounds for new construction As the regionrsquos massive clean up races along with characteristic Japanese

efficiency the local governments face the sensitive challenge of deciding what if any items should be

preserved as memorials of the tragedy It is proving to be a testing process particularly in the northern

arearsquos conservative culture that reveres consensus

para Much of the opposition understandably comes from residents near the edifices who say they donrsquot need

any more reminders of their losses Japan doesnrsquot have a strong tradition of saving buildings either in part

due to its historical use of wood as opposed to stone in construction A major exception is the lone building

that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima whose steel dome top has become a globally recognized

symbol of the reality of nuclear warfare Opponents also worry that the costs to maintain memorials will

divert funds from reconstruction projects

para The unprecedented amount of visual records of this natural disaster and their widespread dissemination

have opened the debate over preservation to a broad audience People all over Japan recognize the image

of the 330-ton ship washed into the middle of town or the red steel frame of the municipal building from

where a young woman repeatedly broadcast evacuation orders before she too was swept away

para The artist Takashi Murakami started a conservation project after he noticed how quickly wreckage was

disappearing while he was delivering relief goods just after the quake ldquoThe ship on top of the roof the

twisted road signs would be there one week and gone the nextrdquo he said Murakami began collecting

whatever he could fit in his car mdash so far about 100 items such as oil drums fire extinguishers and street

signs The cultural critic Hiroki Azuma formed a group to explore making the decommissioned nuclear

reactor in Fukushima Prefecture an educational tourist destination

para Miyagi Prefecture issued preservation guidelines for its cities The buildings should have helped save lives

or have the potential to educate future generations on disaster prevention They must meet safety

standards and not disrupt reconstruction plans Rikuzentakata located in neighboring Iwate Prefecture

123

decided not to conserve any buildings where people died a stance that some say defeats the purpose of

having the memorials enlighten viewers on the scale of the tsunami

para ldquoEven items of negative legacy should remainrdquo said Akira Kugiko who guides visitors through areas of

destruction ldquoWe need people to know what happened here after we are gonerdquo

para One of those adverse sites disappeared last month when excavators tore down the Rikuzentakata city

office where along with a neighboring building designated as an evacuation spot scores of people died

para The old city office had offered a picture frozen in time of the immediate aftermath Two crumpled cars sat

inside the first floor their wheels half submerged in the debris-strewn ground A large red X was written

on one wall indicating that a body had been recovered there A sign that said ldquoinvestigation completedrdquo was

pasted on a pillar

para Farther south along the coast in the city of Kesennuma lies the famous beached ship its 60-meter-long

hull even more striking today with the surrounding wreckage cleared Many city residents support its

preservation both as a reminder of the enormity of the catastrophe and as a source of revenue from the

steady stream of tourists who visit the site But the city faces difficult opposition from residents close by

including those whose homes were burned when the ship came barreling ashore in flames Squashed

beneath a charred section of the vessel are the metallic remains of a car and its rusty wheels Who knows

what else lies below

para In time for next weekrsquos second anniversary Rikuzentakata officials erected a restored version of what is

popularly called the ldquomiracle pine treerdquo a single tree that remained standing after waves took out the rest

of the shoreline forest The 27-meter-high tree died last year after its roots rotted from exposure to

seawater but it has been hollowed out and filled with carbon fiber and adorned with replicated branches

and leaves The new tree wonrsquot speak to the frailty of people in the face of natural calamities but the city

hopes the majestic replica will be an encouraging symbol of recovery

para Kumiko Makihara is a writer and translator

NOVEMBER 11 2013 536 PM

From the Philippines to Haiti Disaster Recovery is a

Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124

For many millions of people living in the planetrsquos poorest most

populous places a state of recovery from what used to be called ldquonaturalrdquo disasters has become the norm not some exceptional

circumstance The central Philippines now reeling from the impact of Typhoon Haiyan a super storm if ever there was one are just the latest

place in which huge human losses follow a disaster that in a rich country would almost assuredly mainly exact a financial toll See Keith

Bradsherrsquos wrenching reports here and here for details on the damage And the immediate search and rescue efforts are just a warmup for

years of relocation recovery and rebuilding

For another example consider the continuing struggles of hundreds of

thousands of Haitians nearly four years after the devastating Port au Prince earthquake (A great start is ldquoYears After Haiti Quake Safe

Housing Is a Dream for Manyrdquo) They are half a world away but in the same world in many ways My 2011 piece on ldquoThe Varied Costs of

Catastropherdquo explains whatrsquos up

In other parts of the Philippines town-size resettlement and training

centers have been established to deal with a rotating population of evacuees and resettled slum dwellers I visited one near Manila a town

called Calauan in 2012

The video shows a Salesian priest Father Salvador Pablo and others

trying to help thousands of dislocated families build new futures His team offers a mix of job training programs mdash in fields ranging from

shoemaker to bodyguard Father Pablo is a remarkable character a true machine gun preacher who has run a security service and

bodyguard training program for 30 years and has become a proficient marksmen in the process

Sadly this is bound to be a growth industry for decades to come

I wrote about ldquoThe Varied Costs of Catastropherdquo after Japanrsquos

devastating earthquake and tsunami comparing the human and financial losses to those from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

In the first days of 2005 after writing a long team-reported account about the march of waves after the great earthquake off Sumatra I

wrote an essay ldquoThe Future of Calamityrdquo laying out the mix of factors leading to outsize losses when flood waters rise or tectonic plates

heave Herersquos the core thought

125

Many more such disasters ndash from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

to floods mudslides and droughts ndash are likely to devastate countries already hard hit by poverty and political turmoil

The world has already seen a sharp increase in such ldquonaturalrdquo disasters ndash from about 100 per year in the early 1960rsquos to as many as 500 per

year by the early 2000rsquos said Daniel Sarewitz a professor of science and society at Arizona State University

But it is not that earthquakes and tsunamis and other such calamities have become stronger or more frequent What has changed is where

people live and how they live there say many experts who study the physics of such events or the human responses to their aftermath

As new technology allows or as poverty demands rich and poor alike have pushed into soggy floodplains or drought-ridden deserts built on

impossibly steep slopes and created vast fragile cities along fault lines that tremble with alarming frequency

In that sense catastrophes are as much the result of human choices as they are of geology or hydrology

The future is now

2

alarms in individual residences and automatically shut down floodgates to prevent waves from surging

upriver

Critics of the seawalls say they are eyesores and bad for the environment The seawalls they say can instill

a false sense of security among coastal residents and discourage them from participating in regular

evacuation drills Moreover by literally cutting residentsrsquo visibility of the ocean the seawalls reduce their

ability to understand the sea by observing wave patterns critics say

Waves from Fridayrsquos tsunami spilled over some seawalls in the affected areas ldquoThe tsunami roared over

embankments in Sendai city washing cars houses and farm equipment inland before reversing directions

and carrying them out to seardquo according to a statement by a Japanese engineer Kit Miyamoto circulated

by the American Society of Civil Engineers ldquoFlames shot from some of the houses probably because of

burst gas pipesrdquo

But Japanrsquos ldquomassive public education programrdquo could in the end have saved the most lives said Rich

Eisner a retired tsunami preparedness expert who was attending a conference on the topic at the National

Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg Md on Friday

In one town Ofunato which was struck by a major tsunami in 1960 dozens of signs in Japanese and

English mark escape routes and emergency sirens are tested three times a day Mr Eisner said

Initial reports from Ofunato on Friday suggested that hundreds of homes had been swept away the death

toll was not yet known But Matthew Francis of URS Corporation and a member of the civil engineering

societyrsquos tsunami subcommittee said that education may have been the critical factor

ldquoFor a trained population a matter of 5 or 10 minutes is all you may need to get to high groundrdquo Mr

Francis said

That would be in contrast to the much less experienced Southeast Asians many of whom died in the 2004

Indian Ocean tsunami because they lingered near the coast Reports in the Japanese news media indicate

that people originally listed as missing in remote areas have been turning up in schools and community

centers suggesting that tsunami education and evacuation drills were indeed effective

Unlike Haiti where shoddy construction vastly increased the death toll last year or China where failure to

follow construction codes worsened the death toll in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake Japan

enforces some of the worldrsquos most stringent building codes Japanese buildings tend to be much stiffer and

stouter than similar structures in earthquake-prone areas in California as well said Mr Moehle the

Berkeley engineer Japanrsquos building code allows for roughly half as much sway back and forth at the top of

a high rise during a major quake

3







firm


Hamburger said












March 13 2011








4








the nuclear complex

















look for them



March 13 2011

5




television



















dangerous






having difficulties

6


















no leak there







working








7















March 13 2011





together






were missing




8
































9

March 13 2011







tsunami






















10


























the wave






11
































12

March 13 2011




television



















dangerous





13


having difficulties


















no leak there







working






14

















March 13 2011












15












Wednesday



products
















16
































17








trapped







all badrdquo









March 15 2011






18





way

















ashore




Iwate Prefecture






19































20


Kyotordquo





















night




March 15 2011


21









and tsunami







worsened

















22







prices







occurs








affected areas









23










March 19 2011


















24































Miyagi near Sendai

25



























May 15 2011

26





old infant daughter

























27








town employees




washed awayrdquo





















28





















March 19 2011








29




the flooded area










entirely







March 20 2011









30
















nowrdquo
















31











workersrdquo




term impact








demand soonrdquo







made parts

32







ships


any carsrdquo























themrdquo

33


March 19 2011












like a hurricane















34



























shelters





35

















March 15 2011










have imaginedrdquo



36































37


















its outskirts












March 24 2011

38




brood











inextricably linked







makeshift shelters









39































40




















March 31 2011










41

































42














they felt saferdquo
















43










March 26 2011
















44













system





















45

















them











1990s






46





and seismic risk











reactors













2006



47
















time






higher wavesrdquo







March 26 2011


48

































49




























toordquo




50
















comments





from Hong Kong

March 26 2011




chest X-ray





51

















detectors













mathematical units




52






























three eyes




53












APRIL 8 2011 548 PM


By ANDREW C REVKIN







below this point





residents

54



influence over time


















APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM


By ANDREW C REVKIN

55






March 11)


















56


















57

April 11 2011















intact over all



Chernobylrdquo

58








Soviet Union














northeast coast








59










there









Minamisoma




decreased









60




the government





May 16 2011



















plants nationwide



61























Unheeded Warnings










62




predictions




















plants









63















Concealing Facts















64



faults





of magnitude 71






earthquakerdquo

















fault line existed

65



nearby























June 12 2011


66

































67






Lack of Experience











available to them















68


the tainted blood




Ignoring Orders


























69






















remain







company



70

















minister of defense






named





by Japan




71





off course




















June 11 2011






72



Naoto Kan










in the air

















73















By KUMIKO MAKIHARA











11 earthquake






74





































75


















December 26 2011










1986





76























the meltdowns






July 29 2011

77







spending























homes the plan said

78










September 12 2011






















79



of the tsunami





has yet to come













Tokyo








officials say


80



















somehowrdquo







new engine


December 9 2011


81




Kitagawa 63





























82














volcanic ash


shop

















83

November 2 2011































84















A Web of Collusion





here












85


















goes













86



















main argument











at allrdquo



87































88







university










opposed to itrdquo
















89








November 11 2011





disaster







new tsunamis







90








data

















surrounding areas








outside

91

















noodles for dinner










December 14 2011


92

































93




northeastern Japan






























94

December 31 2011





to the Future














by the tsunami










95




hererdquo



























96




















January 9 2012









97














nowrdquo



















98




tsunami he said





modern hotel





earthquake hazard









said




winery

March 10 2012

99
























fishermen








100










blush






away






empty plots








March 9 2012

101































102























renewed








own engineers

103





struck















warnings




MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM


By MARK MCDONALD




104
























105












corpses



MARCH 6 2012 542 PM


By MATTHEW L WALD






on safety issues

106














means








107


emergency
























108


trying to fill it







March 3 2012











responsibilityrdquo










109










the disasters









July 5 2012




Thursday







110



































111









response






said






controls









July 23 2012

112





reported on Monday


















hospital








113








a month




direction


said













said





114








January 7 2013
























115


















industry















116














handle



















117














morerdquo














October 14 2013


118














nuclear waste












island of Kyushu






October 1 2013

119








tidy homes























120
























mountains









121









to come backrdquo



















March 8 2013



122



































123










pasted on a pillar

















Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124
























125










The future is now

3







firm


Hamburger said












March 13 2011








4








the nuclear complex

















look for them



March 13 2011

5




television



















dangerous






having difficulties

6


















no leak there







working








7















March 13 2011





together






were missing




8
































9

March 13 2011







tsunami






















10


























the wave






11
































12

March 13 2011




television



















dangerous





13


having difficulties


















no leak there







working






14

















March 13 2011












15












Wednesday



products
















16
































17








trapped







all badrdquo









March 15 2011






18





way

















ashore




Iwate Prefecture






19































20


Kyotordquo





















night




March 15 2011


21









and tsunami







worsened

















22







prices







occurs








affected areas









23










March 19 2011


















24































Miyagi near Sendai

25



























May 15 2011

26





old infant daughter

























27








town employees




washed awayrdquo





















28





















March 19 2011








29




the flooded area










entirely







March 20 2011









30
















nowrdquo
















31











workersrdquo




term impact








demand soonrdquo







made parts

32







ships


any carsrdquo























themrdquo

33


March 19 2011












like a hurricane















34



























shelters





35

















March 15 2011










have imaginedrdquo



36































37


















its outskirts












March 24 2011

38




brood











inextricably linked







makeshift shelters









39































40




















March 31 2011










41

































42














they felt saferdquo
















43










March 26 2011
















44













system





















45

















them











1990s






46





and seismic risk











reactors













2006



47
















time






higher wavesrdquo







March 26 2011


48

































49




























toordquo




50
















comments





from Hong Kong

March 26 2011




chest X-ray





51

















detectors













mathematical units




52






























three eyes




53












APRIL 8 2011 548 PM


By ANDREW C REVKIN







below this point





residents

54



influence over time


















APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM


By ANDREW C REVKIN

55






March 11)


















56


















57

April 11 2011















intact over all



Chernobylrdquo

58








Soviet Union














northeast coast








59










there









Minamisoma




decreased









60




the government





May 16 2011



















plants nationwide



61























Unheeded Warnings










62




predictions




















plants









63















Concealing Facts















64



faults





of magnitude 71






earthquakerdquo

















fault line existed

65



nearby























June 12 2011


66

































67






Lack of Experience











available to them















68


the tainted blood




Ignoring Orders


























69






















remain







company



70

















minister of defense






named





by Japan




71





off course




















June 11 2011






72



Naoto Kan










in the air

















73















By KUMIKO MAKIHARA











11 earthquake






74





































75


















December 26 2011










1986





76























the meltdowns






July 29 2011

77







spending























homes the plan said

78










September 12 2011






















79



of the tsunami





has yet to come













Tokyo








officials say


80



















somehowrdquo







new engine


December 9 2011


81




Kitagawa 63





























82














volcanic ash


shop

















83

November 2 2011































84















A Web of Collusion





here












85


















goes













86



















main argument











at allrdquo



87































88







university










opposed to itrdquo
















89








November 11 2011





disaster







new tsunamis







90








data

















surrounding areas








outside

91

















noodles for dinner










December 14 2011


92

































93




northeastern Japan






























94

December 31 2011





to the Future














by the tsunami










95




hererdquo



























96




















January 9 2012









97














nowrdquo



















98




tsunami he said





modern hotel





earthquake hazard









said




winery

March 10 2012

99
























fishermen








100










blush






away






empty plots








March 9 2012

101































102























renewed








own engineers

103





struck















warnings




MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM


By MARK MCDONALD




104
























105












corpses



MARCH 6 2012 542 PM


By MATTHEW L WALD






on safety issues

106














means








107


emergency
























108


trying to fill it







March 3 2012











responsibilityrdquo










109










the disasters









July 5 2012




Thursday







110



































111









response






said






controls









July 23 2012

112





reported on Monday


















hospital








113








a month




direction


said













said





114








January 7 2013
























115


















industry















116














handle



















117














morerdquo














October 14 2013


118














nuclear waste












island of Kyushu






October 1 2013

119








tidy homes























120
























mountains









121









to come backrdquo



















March 8 2013



122



































123










pasted on a pillar

















Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124
























125










The future is now

4








the nuclear complex

















look for them



March 13 2011

5




television



















dangerous






having difficulties

6


















no leak there







working








7















March 13 2011





together






were missing




8
































9

March 13 2011







tsunami






















10


























the wave






11
































12

March 13 2011




television



















dangerous





13


having difficulties


















no leak there







working






14

















March 13 2011












15












Wednesday



products
















16
































17








trapped







all badrdquo









March 15 2011






18





way

















ashore




Iwate Prefecture






19































20


Kyotordquo





















night




March 15 2011


21









and tsunami







worsened

















22







prices







occurs








affected areas









23










March 19 2011


















24































Miyagi near Sendai

25



























May 15 2011

26





old infant daughter

























27








town employees




washed awayrdquo





















28





















March 19 2011








29




the flooded area










entirely







March 20 2011









30
















nowrdquo
















31











workersrdquo




term impact








demand soonrdquo







made parts

32







ships


any carsrdquo























themrdquo

33


March 19 2011












like a hurricane















34



























shelters





35

















March 15 2011










have imaginedrdquo



36































37


















its outskirts












March 24 2011

38




brood











inextricably linked







makeshift shelters









39































40




















March 31 2011










41

































42














they felt saferdquo
















43










March 26 2011
















44













system





















45

















them











1990s






46





and seismic risk











reactors













2006



47
















time






higher wavesrdquo







March 26 2011


48

































49




























toordquo




50
















comments





from Hong Kong

March 26 2011




chest X-ray





51

















detectors













mathematical units




52






























three eyes




53












APRIL 8 2011 548 PM


By ANDREW C REVKIN







below this point





residents

54



influence over time


















APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM


By ANDREW C REVKIN

55






March 11)


















56


















57

April 11 2011















intact over all



Chernobylrdquo

58








Soviet Union














northeast coast








59










there









Minamisoma




decreased









60




the government





May 16 2011



















plants nationwide



61























Unheeded Warnings










62




predictions




















plants









63















Concealing Facts















64



faults





of magnitude 71






earthquakerdquo

















fault line existed

65



nearby























June 12 2011


66

































67






Lack of Experience











available to them















68


the tainted blood




Ignoring Orders


























69






















remain







company



70

















minister of defense






named





by Japan




71





off course




















June 11 2011






72



Naoto Kan










in the air

















73















By KUMIKO MAKIHARA











11 earthquake






74





































75


















December 26 2011










1986





76























the meltdowns






July 29 2011

77







spending























homes the plan said

78










September 12 2011






















79



of the tsunami





has yet to come













Tokyo








officials say


80



















somehowrdquo







new engine


December 9 2011


81




Kitagawa 63





























82














volcanic ash


shop

















83

November 2 2011































84















A Web of Collusion





here












85


















goes













86



















main argument











at allrdquo



87































88







university










opposed to itrdquo
















89








November 11 2011





disaster







new tsunamis







90








data

















surrounding areas








outside

91

















noodles for dinner










December 14 2011


92

































93




northeastern Japan






























94

December 31 2011





to the Future














by the tsunami










95




hererdquo



























96




















January 9 2012









97














nowrdquo



















98




tsunami he said





modern hotel





earthquake hazard









said




winery

March 10 2012

99
























fishermen








100










blush






away






empty plots








March 9 2012

101































102























renewed








own engineers

103





struck















warnings




MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM


By MARK MCDONALD




104
























105












corpses



MARCH 6 2012 542 PM


By MATTHEW L WALD






on safety issues

106














means








107


emergency
























108


trying to fill it







March 3 2012











responsibilityrdquo










109










the disasters









July 5 2012




Thursday







110



































111









response






said






controls









July 23 2012

112





reported on Monday


















hospital








113








a month




direction


said













said





114








January 7 2013
























115


















industry















116














handle



















117














morerdquo














October 14 2013


118














nuclear waste












island of Kyushu






October 1 2013

119








tidy homes























120
























mountains









121









to come backrdquo



















March 8 2013



122



































123










pasted on a pillar

















Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124
























125










The future is now

5




television



















dangerous






having difficulties

6


















no leak there







working








7















March 13 2011





together






were missing




8
































9

March 13 2011







tsunami






















10


























the wave






11
































12

March 13 2011




television



















dangerous





13


having difficulties


















no leak there







working






14

















March 13 2011












15












Wednesday



products
















16
































17








trapped







all badrdquo









March 15 2011






18





way

















ashore




Iwate Prefecture






19































20


Kyotordquo





















night




March 15 2011


21









and tsunami







worsened

















22







prices







occurs








affected areas









23










March 19 2011


















24































Miyagi near Sendai

25



























May 15 2011

26





old infant daughter

























27








town employees




washed awayrdquo





















28





















March 19 2011








29




the flooded area










entirely







March 20 2011









30
















nowrdquo
















31











workersrdquo




term impact








demand soonrdquo







made parts

32







ships


any carsrdquo























themrdquo

33


March 19 2011












like a hurricane















34



























shelters





35

















March 15 2011










have imaginedrdquo



36































37


















its outskirts












March 24 2011

38




brood











inextricably linked







makeshift shelters









39































40




















March 31 2011










41

































42














they felt saferdquo
















43










March 26 2011
















44













system





















45

















them











1990s






46





and seismic risk











reactors













2006



47
















time






higher wavesrdquo







March 26 2011


48

































49




























toordquo




50
















comments





from Hong Kong

March 26 2011




chest X-ray





51

















detectors













mathematical units




52






























three eyes




53












APRIL 8 2011 548 PM


By ANDREW C REVKIN







below this point





residents

54



influence over time


















APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM


By ANDREW C REVKIN

55






March 11)


















56


















57

April 11 2011















intact over all



Chernobylrdquo

58








Soviet Union














northeast coast








59










there









Minamisoma




decreased









60




the government





May 16 2011



















plants nationwide



61























Unheeded Warnings










62




predictions




















plants









63















Concealing Facts















64



faults





of magnitude 71






earthquakerdquo

















fault line existed

65



nearby























June 12 2011


66

































67






Lack of Experience











available to them















68


the tainted blood




Ignoring Orders


























69






















remain







company



70

















minister of defense






named





by Japan




71





off course




















June 11 2011






72



Naoto Kan










in the air

















73















By KUMIKO MAKIHARA











11 earthquake






74





































75


















December 26 2011










1986





76























the meltdowns






July 29 2011

77







spending























homes the plan said

78










September 12 2011






















79



of the tsunami





has yet to come













Tokyo








officials say


80



















somehowrdquo







new engine


December 9 2011


81




Kitagawa 63





























82














volcanic ash


shop

















83

November 2 2011































84















A Web of Collusion





here












85


















goes













86



















main argument











at allrdquo



87































88







university










opposed to itrdquo
















89








November 11 2011





disaster







new tsunamis







90








data

















surrounding areas








outside

91

















noodles for dinner










December 14 2011


92

































93




northeastern Japan






























94

December 31 2011





to the Future














by the tsunami










95




hererdquo



























96




















January 9 2012









97














nowrdquo



















98




tsunami he said





modern hotel





earthquake hazard









said




winery

March 10 2012

99
























fishermen








100










blush






away






empty plots








March 9 2012

101































102























renewed








own engineers

103





struck















warnings




MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM


By MARK MCDONALD




104
























105












corpses



MARCH 6 2012 542 PM


By MATTHEW L WALD






on safety issues

106














means








107


emergency
























108


trying to fill it







March 3 2012











responsibilityrdquo










109










the disasters









July 5 2012




Thursday







110



































111









response






said






controls









July 23 2012

112





reported on Monday


















hospital








113








a month




direction


said













said





114








January 7 2013
























115


















industry















116














handle



















117














morerdquo














October 14 2013


118














nuclear waste












island of Kyushu






October 1 2013

119








tidy homes























120
























mountains









121









to come backrdquo



















March 8 2013



122



































123










pasted on a pillar

















Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124
























125










The future is now

6


















no leak there







working








7















March 13 2011





together






were missing




8
































9

March 13 2011







tsunami






















10


























the wave






11
































12

March 13 2011




television



















dangerous





13


having difficulties


















no leak there







working






14

















March 13 2011












15












Wednesday



products
















16
































17








trapped







all badrdquo









March 15 2011






18





way

















ashore




Iwate Prefecture






19































20


Kyotordquo





















night




March 15 2011


21









and tsunami







worsened

















22







prices







occurs








affected areas









23










March 19 2011


















24































Miyagi near Sendai

25



























May 15 2011

26





old infant daughter

























27








town employees




washed awayrdquo





















28





















March 19 2011








29




the flooded area










entirely







March 20 2011









30
















nowrdquo
















31











workersrdquo




term impact








demand soonrdquo







made parts

32







ships


any carsrdquo























themrdquo

33


March 19 2011












like a hurricane















34



























shelters





35

















March 15 2011










have imaginedrdquo



36































37


















its outskirts












March 24 2011

38




brood











inextricably linked







makeshift shelters









39































40




















March 31 2011










41

































42














they felt saferdquo
















43










March 26 2011
















44













system





















45

















them











1990s






46





and seismic risk











reactors













2006



47
















time






higher wavesrdquo







March 26 2011


48

































49




























toordquo




50
















comments





from Hong Kong

March 26 2011




chest X-ray





51

















detectors













mathematical units




52






























three eyes




53












APRIL 8 2011 548 PM


By ANDREW C REVKIN







below this point





residents

54



influence over time


















APRIL 4 2011 1117 AM


By ANDREW C REVKIN

55






March 11)


















56


















57

April 11 2011















intact over all



Chernobylrdquo

58








Soviet Union














northeast coast








59










there









Minamisoma




decreased









60




the government





May 16 2011



















plants nationwide



61























Unheeded Warnings










62




predictions




















plants









63















Concealing Facts















64



faults





of magnitude 71






earthquakerdquo

















fault line existed

65



nearby























June 12 2011


66

































67






Lack of Experience











available to them















68


the tainted blood




Ignoring Orders


























69






















remain







company



70

















minister of defense






named





by Japan




71





off course




















June 11 2011






72



Naoto Kan










in the air

















73















By KUMIKO MAKIHARA











11 earthquake






74





































75


















December 26 2011










1986





76























the meltdowns






July 29 2011

77







spending























homes the plan said

78










September 12 2011






















79



of the tsunami





has yet to come













Tokyo








officials say


80



















somehowrdquo







new engine


December 9 2011


81




Kitagawa 63





























82














volcanic ash


shop

















83

November 2 2011































84















A Web of Collusion





here












85


















goes













86



















main argument











at allrdquo



87































88







university










opposed to itrdquo
















89








November 11 2011





disaster







new tsunamis







90








data

















surrounding areas








outside

91

















noodles for dinner










December 14 2011


92

































93




northeastern Japan






























94

December 31 2011





to the Future














by the tsunami










95




hererdquo



























96




















January 9 2012









97














nowrdquo



















98




tsunami he said





modern hotel





earthquake hazard









said




winery

March 10 2012

99
























fishermen








100










blush






away






empty plots








March 9 2012

101































102























renewed








own engineers

103





struck















warnings




MARCH 7 2012 1021 PM


By MARK MCDONALD




104
























105












corpses



MARCH 6 2012 542 PM


By MATTHEW L WALD






on safety issues

106














means








107


emergency
























108


trying to fill it







March 3 2012











responsibilityrdquo










109










the disasters









July 5 2012




Thursday







110



































111









response






said






controls









July 23 2012

112





reported on Monday


















hospital








113








a month




direction


said













said





114








January 7 2013
























115


















industry















116














handle



















117














morerdquo














October 14 2013


118














nuclear waste












island of Kyushu






October 1 2013

119








tidy homes























120
























mountains









121









to come backrdquo



















March 8 2013



122



































123










pasted on a pillar

















Way of Life

By ANDREW C REVKIN

124
























125










The future is now

Documents

Japan's Strict Building Codes Saved Lives