全1824件 (1824件中 1-50件目)
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 35
1. A life never experienced before This article is the last one of my series “Evacuation Life.” How long the life at the evacuation life will last? I do not know how long: may be one year, may be two years. The people at the camp will move to temporary houses, rent houses or may buy their own houses. People will leave the Big Palette, and two camps may be merged to smaller scales. The life at the camps is gradually improving day by day. After almost two months in evacuation, people here are prepared forspending the days to come here. My diary sketches an evacuation life never experienced before. It is a record of the people who were made to evacuate due to nuclear accidents. The life is different from the evacuation life due to natural disasters, almost no prior experience in Japan. The difference is that: (1) the people were instructed to evacuate all of a sudden on one day, although the house was not destroyed, was not flown away due to tsunami and no casualties; and (2) the people are forced to stay 100km away for an indefinite period. Their stresses are further intensified when the news is reported on the people in the earthquake and/or tsunami hit areas, who are working to restore their hometowns and industries. A closest example of our environment may be a gorilla in a zoocage, which was brought there far from Africa. My interest in the evacuation life is shifting to the analyses of the meaning of the accidents; What should the nuclear stakeholders and the people interested in the nuclear future learn from the accidents and think about will be addressed in my separate paper in the near future. Thank you for your interest in my record of experience in the evacuation camp.The evacuation will continue till… When? I don’t know yet. I do hope no more experience will be made by anybody else in Japan and worldwide. “No nuclear accidents” is the only solution to make this happen. My thanks go to all my JAIF colleagues, as equally to volunteers at the camp, who helped my evacuation life, and especially to Toshio Konishi, who translated my record into English. I hope every person, who read this article, will get lessons from it and learn by himself/herselffor peaceful future.
2012.03.07
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 34
1. Working spirits being lost: A concern of my friend, a shopkeeper He has lived half a month in a resort area in Fukushima Prefecture. He is awarded with an accommodation and two meals per day up to US$50. Theprefecture bears the cost. The scenery around is marvelous, two meals are not bad. Although the lunch costs something, but not much, nothing special to do day after day, TV programs are not effective in killing time. Visited a couple of nearby vista points, but no more places to visit … His job was nothing to do with the NPP. He lost his shop and all customers. He used to get some jobs anyway, although some ups and downs depending on the economy. In low economy, he could find jobs unless he made no selections, while in high economy he could choose what he had wanted to do. But now, living in an unfamiliar location, in a resort area with few people around, he can’t find energy to work. He is not forced to work for living. He can survive for at least three months with no incomes. There is no possibility to return home for months, probably more than one year. Even if he can, there are no certainties at all to go back to his former jobs. Nothing promising to terminate the accidents is foreseen. After three months of this resort life, some other means will take effect for evacuation. Thus, he can spend a year or even longer without doing anything productive. He may lose the energy to work. He is concerned about it.2. Renting of an own apartment was a mistake? A couple of measures have been taken for accommodation by the prefectural headquarters; rent houses, temporary houses (equipped with a sets of five pieces of electric appliance donated by the Red Cross), or three-month secondary evacuation to hotels or ryokan. The people in theBig Palette have applied for all of them. Unfortunately, no measures seem to work in a big scale. All these measures have conditions for selection: a higher priority to a family having an aged member over 75 years old, a pregnant lady or an infant, a very sick member, a member in need of caretaking, or more than three children between 3 and 15 years old, etc. The result so far is zero temporary houses, and less than 1,000 people who moved to rent-houses or hotels. Some bigger spaces are being given these days to the families in the Big Palette. This is not because thenumber of people decreased, but because another big room in the Annex was opened as the evacuation space. A new rule was recently announced: up to US$600 can be awarded per month to the families who rent a house by themselves. Everybody thought they could find their favorite houses to rent. But the reality is the same conditions above are applied. I wonder how many families can usethis new system. The population of Tomioka-cho and Okuma-cho together is about 20,000. People in the evacuation camps are only its 20% or so. Other 80% moved to their relatives in Fukushima Prefecture or Kanto district to stay together or stay at the rent-houses on their own expenses in Koriyamaand other nearby cities. Most of them have a sick member, aged member below 75, education concerns about their children or pets to keep. By various reasons, or having some affordability, they had rented their own houses or apartments. They have to bear the utilities costs. They had to choose this means, because they cannot go and live in their ownhouses. Nobody thinks they are living a gorgeous life. The people staying at a hotel or ryokan with US$50 daily supports have a much more gorgeous life. The conditions and priorities set by the prefectural headquarters exclude most of refugees and save their budget by focusing on the limited groups of people. Priorities to weak people are quite reasonable, but if the system excludes most average people, is it a real relief system? A theory is being argued recently that those in the evacuation camp would get the redress equivalent to the amount for accommodation which those staying at a hotel are paid. If so, it causes the biggest unfairness to those who moved to private rent-houses or apartments on their own expenses. Renting of an own apartment was a mistake?3. Concerns ahead The snow and the climate thaw even in the Tohoku district as May approaches. Shivering coldness is decreasing in the Big Palette, too. Colds, flues and norovirus may be over, but instead, as the tsuyu, rainy season, approaches, new concerns will arise, e.g., food poison or contagious diseases. It is a hard season of a year for refugees under stresses and with lost appetites and strengths. As the evacuation life is prolonged, our houses are also a big concern. The backsides of the houses (in the shade) are easy to get moldy in tsuyu every year. The houses were especially closed tight upon evacuation. No good ventilation is likely. Most houses damaged by theearthquakes lost their roof tiles. Those houses will decay due to rain leaks. Typhoons in autumn will be a big concern. Weeds will cover the gardens. Rice pads and fields will go quickly back to the wild, unless properly farmed. Living environments can be maintained only by constant maintenance. If it is abandoned, the living environments will become miserable in half a year. People’s concerns are endless.
2012.03.07
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 33
1. Why can we stand the evacuation life full of hardships? Many families remain in the Big Palette by being compromised with the environment. One family opted to stay here, after the family was awarded with a rent-house right by the prefectural headquarters and made a preliminary visit to an apartment. The apartment was not bad. It hasthree rooms as well as a dining kitchen on the second floor of a concrete building near the Koriyama Station, not bad. The reason of their choice was that the area was full of pubs or barsfor one, and for the second their children (primary and junior high schools) preferred remaining in the environment close to their school mates in Tomioka-cho staying in the Big Palette. Further,the words the wife dropped off may show the reality.- We have to pay for the utilities (electricity, water, gas),and for other expenditures for meals, etc.- In other words, nothing costs if we stay in the Big Palette. They have to be prepared for the education costs for the children. The husband decided to leave temporarily the Big Palette alone for work. The wife cannot do a side job at home as before but instead got US$4,500 of donation and US$10,000 of advance compensation. Donation and compensation will follow further. They can be saved for future. Such amount of saving was not practical before. The living environment in the Big Palette is being improved one after another: Washing machines and dryers are installed, no more costs for coin laundries; Sleeping conditions are comfortable on mattresses; the living space made of papers and cloths is more comfortable than anticipated with no dusts and external eye sights; Sufficient time for chatting with friends over free coffees and teas, etc. No costs for TV and newspapers, frequent catering service by volunteers are continuing for varieties of hot dishes; gyudon, udon, waffles, miso soup, etc. Living knowhow in the Big Palette is already in hand and the bodies got accustomed to this environment. Being very unlikely to return home before the end of the year, we are prepared for a long life in the Big Palette.
2012.03.07
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 32
1. Living space improved in the Big Palette The Annex Building has significantly changed its inside for better livingenvironment of refugees: Three rows of partitions separated by a corridor inbetween. The new partitions are built by paper-made pillars and cloth walls. Allexternal eyesight is blocked. The open roof keeps the inside bright by the ceiling lights. The paper-partitioned structure is very Japanese. A volunteer paper architect designed it and volunteer students built the “houses.” The floor inside is covered by mattresses. A family nameplate is put on each partition wall and shows who lives inside. It looks as though we walk through a corridor of a primary school. Each family’s privacy is much better secured than before. Cloth walls have sound shielding effects, too. If a power source is available, it will be fairlycomfortable as a living space. The space will be acceptable, as a kind of studio flat for a four-member family. Clothing can be hung from the beam frames. Families in the wall side partitions are even more fortunate. They can lean orhang their clothing on the wall. The environment is much better than the previous ones, more appropriate for a prolonged evacuation life. After some families moved to this annex, the space in the main building can be shared by less people. The number of “residents” on the pathways decreased and the pathways could be a bit broadened.2. Rent houses not popular About 700 applications were received for rent houses as of April 22. But only about 100 families could have found a good one and moved out, according to a person in charge at the town headquarters. A priority goes to a family with an aged member or a member under nursing care. The budget is secured for 1,500 families, but … Properties available in the market are limited: March/April is a high season for people’s migration, especially those in the private industry; good number of properties in Koriyama was also damaged by the earthquakes and needs repair work before rent. Primary and junior high schools started their new semesters in April. It is not practical to change the school for the children just after they started new lives. To avoid the change, their families have to find a rent house near the Big Palette. Houses for those families should have been reserved in March by all means. They have to stay here for the months to come for their children, unless appropriate rent houses can be found for them near the Big Palette. Families with a pet have an extreme difficulty. Appropriate properties for them are quite limited in Koriyama.3. First meal from a convenience shop A box meal was delivered for the first time after one month. At the moment, the meal is only for the evening, but the balance in nutrition is a bit improved. It took more than one month since we filed our complaints about imbalance of nutrition. The meal is still cold with no microwave oven at hand, but the people must have wondered how we could have survived one month withsimple omusubi meals. Evacuation camps for a good number of people for an extended duration like the Big Palette should be well equipped with adequate catering and dining facilities staffed for cooking balanced hot meals as at schools or on cruisers. But it may be impractical due to limited space.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 31
1. Information wanted How is our town going? It is the concern of everybody here. Our mayor’s office in the provisional town building in Koriyama has a big photo on its wall. The photo is a popular cherry flower avenue in the town with full bloombut no people or traffic lights. The same photo hangs on the corridor wall in the Big Palette. It looks very unusual. A lot of people, a lot of tourists must be there. The radiation level in the town is another concern. The data in Tomioka-cho or Okuma-cho are rarely made known to the public in comparison with other neighbor towns and villages. The level in the NPP surrounding towns was made public yesterday as 20μSv/hr. It is still fairly high as compared with the level of 4μSv/hr in I-idate-mura, an evacuation warning zone. In-air radiation level is not the only one; the in-soil radiation level is equally a concern. Are they decreasing? Are they still increasing? Can we grow vegetables in our garden upon return? How are they harmful to our health? No information comes to us. How will be the levels when our return can get green lights in six-months or one-year time? What should we and how can we prepare for our living back there upon return? What health risks do we foresee? The information the people want to know most is not given.2. Controlled access Upon re-designation of the town as the controlled access zone, the people are completely isolated from their own houses and other assets until the control is terminated. If the rule is violated, it becomes a “crime.” The reaction of the people is really big. People had a strong interest in the “short-visit” plan of the government. Today’s announcement by the cabinet secretary Edano greatly disappointed the people: limited time, one per family, and by bus transport. Little possibility to bring things back, and to repair damaged houses. The distance to the home town has been lengthened to “Very far.” The TEPCO plan for accidents termination ensured that we have no possibility to return home by the end of this year, and the effected access control cut practically our home visit possibilities. People here had an advantage to access the town in two hours by car, much shorter in time than the people whomoved far to Niigata-ken in the north or Saitama-ken in the south. This big advantage is being lost. The people’s wish to stay as close as to their home town may be weakened.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 30
1. Home return rush Today Prime Minister Kan visited the Big Palette. Today many of us visited their houses in Tomioka, one of my friends, too. He told me later:In Tomioka, many private cars were running. He did some temporary repair work on his house damaged by the earthquake and brought back nine packs of rice. The Tomioka-cho is re-designated as a caution zone instead of an evacuation zone, and as of midnight today the access to the point within 20km comes under control. Till today, main roads to the town were gated at their main points, but the gates were half-open and the policeman on duty let us go in, if we asked him, “Let us take back personal belongings just a minute.” Frequent visitors, first-time visitors, many people made today their last minute visits to thetown, own houses, filling all the roads to Tomioka-cho and O-kuma-cho. From tomorrow, “authorized” short visits take effect, but under conditions: transfer by coach, not much time for stay, only one from each family, etc. All we can do is limited to check the house conditions and take back limited amount of personal belongings. Most houses of Japanese style lost their roof tilesdue to the earthquakes and covered by blue sheets for protection. But they are very likely to be damaged due to rain leaks in the rainy season to come in a month or two. Nothing can be done in a limited time of short home visits. Pet owners, whohad left them behind, returned home once or twice earlier for feeding, but now have no choice other than taking them back, unless they can desert them.Diary farmers, who own cows, are miserable. If today is the last day for feeding, all the cows will certainly die shortly. Couldn’t it be possible that the National Self-Defense Force, for instance, feed them regularly? It is strange that nothing can be heard from the animal protection groups, who cry out against killing whales or dolphins2. Job seeking or not? Most refugees had a job, except aged people and children. They lost their jobs when the area was designated as an evacuation zone. In the Big Palette, many “Want ads” are on the message board, but most of them are from other prefectures. People have to leave their hometowns in Fukushima, if they take the option. Town office decided to recruit some staff, but the number is quite limited. People can survive here in the Big Palette, as long as they compromise with freefrugal meals of bread, omusubi and volunteer catering services, and free accommodation. It may be easier to stay here, rather than working with stresses. Farmers and shopkeepers may get compensation for lost incomes by showing their past turnout results, but part-time workers may have a problem.3. How the compensation will be paid? I contacted the TEPCO customer service center in Tokyo on April 18 and requested to send by post the application forms and the instructions for compensation (US$10,000 per family). Nothing arrived so far. I contacted the center again and learned the delivery would be around April 27. Ten days for s simple delivery only?! Concerns develop for the future smooth process! The center claims that the center simply forwards the applicant’s information to the corporate headquarters for further processing. At the camp, the Big Palette, the application forms are distributed two days ago. The processing here may proceed earlier. One of my friends also made his application on the telephone, and got nothing, too. The people at the camp are a minority among the refugees. Delayed processing of the applications by phone is a problem. My hope to get compensation by the end of month may be unlikely. A bigger problem is the application by the people in the “indoor sheltering” zone. They can apply for compensation by phone, but the application forms are halted at the post office. The post office even does not inform the recipients that the forms are ready for pick-up. The people have to visit the post office often, sometimes for nothing. And the people are in the “indoor sheltering” zone. This is a headache for those who keep themselves from going out. Tokyo people can’t imagine even such a thing.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 29
1. Advance compensation payment The application process for the advance compensation was started by TEPCO in Hall C. The Hall also accommodates the reception for the application for donation, a branch of the prefecture emergency headquarters and the bar association’s office for free legal consultation. The applications for the donation are processed smoothly and the waiting queue is not very long. The applicants filled the application form in advance. To the contrary, tens of people are seated before the reception for the application for the advance compensation. Today is the first day of explanation and form distribution.The team of TEPCO employees is seated in suits style in front in a row. After the apology message of the team leader, explanations start for each applicant. Their suits style looks a kind of strange in the evacuation camp. They might have wanted to be polite to the people in a feeling of apology. But, theirtop managers were in working suits in interview. Their managers visiting our mayor were also in working suits. Working suits will fit better while thefight to terminate the accidents is still underway. Their suits style looks a bit strange in this atmosphere. Some complaints were heard at the opening from among the applicants about delayed payment. But the process went smooth: US$10,000 for each family and US$7,500 for a single. Some dissatisfaction among recipients: Singles get too much (US$7,500) as compared with families; Unfair that some families get US$17,500 simply because its one member living together is registered as a separate family. Such sort of complaints may come further with time. 2. Evacuation is not compulsory, no penalty “Scheduled” evacuation is provoking. A question and answer when Deputy-cabinet secretary explained it to the people of I-idate-mura:Q; I will NOT evacuate? Will I have a penalty?A; No, you will be not.Q; Thank you, my question is finished.This explains well how the people on evacuation think. The people in the Big Palette are concerned about the report that the “evacuation zone” (our home town Tomioka-cho included) would be re-designated as a “caution zone.” People think:? I have to visit once again (Unauthorized visitors who fetched belongings or fed the dogs),? I have to visit the town once as early as possible before it takes effect (First time visitors).A possibility of authorized short visit is being explored, but nothing becomes clear. This is another frustrating element to the people.3. Volunteer TV-talents and media More or less, TV news is coming back to the routine programs as the days before the disasters. Commercial channels are more so than NHK. Reports on restoration are increasing. TV-talents,professional athletes and other celebrities are often highlighted in the reports. They show up in outdoor catering activities, sport exercises, etc. Some refugees present look merry with those stars and give a pleasant comment, “Very encouraged,” etc. It is obvious that the media manipulates the story for their report. That makes me embittered.4. Our town can survive? Three towns (Tomioka, O-kuma, Futaba) and one village (Kawauchi) in the evacuation zone moved their offices to different locations. My hometown Tomioka-cho has only 1,500 people together at the Big Palette, out of 15,000. All others are scattered. This gives the office a lot of difficulties in administering the town as a unit. People are willing to keep their registration in town for the compensation issue. Everybody of the town (Mayor, town staff, people) wants to keep solidarity as a unity, hoping to return home some day. But in the prolonged evacuation life with no specific time horizon foreseen for it, some may find a job or buy a house in the camp area. The mindset as a town member may gradually decay. Some families may prefer moving to a new place for their children’s high schools or universities. The town may lose its people. Only the house owners and the land owners may be left. It cuts the town revenue and jeopardizes the town itself. If people cannotreturn home for years ahead, even in part of the town, can the town survive?
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 28
1. Nursing cares Volunteer nurses for mental care visited us today. They walked around us with their identification tags. They were not very proactively talking to us. Aged people are apt to become demented in such a monotonous life. Shocks by the earthquakes and subsequent evacuation life may increase the risk of dementia. Caretakers should be proactive in talking to them. Some aged people are occasionally seen, leaning on the wall, eating omusumi. They look somewhere far, absent-minded. Such people are recently increasing. Some people are watching TV programs, but not so many, not in a larger group as before. The town office has a list of all of us. They can identify who needs care. They should organize a working system of doctors, nurses, care managers and caretakers for better quality cares. Dedicated space and staff for day-care service are also needed in the building.Children also need cares to check, if they get used to a new environment at a new school.2. Review once, please After one month of evacuation life at the Big Palette, everybody knows by now that the evacuation life will last months ahead. It is the time to review the environment --- hygienic and health conditions or mental conditions of evacuees ---, and tune up the system for an extended evacuation life ahead.TV news tells us of an atmosphere of gradual restoration in the quake hit areas: body search projects; clearance of rubbles and wreckage; new town planning; restoration of industries, etc. The people here, however, cannot stand even at the start line yet. Limited number of the dead and the missing, limited damage of the tsunami, but nevertheless they are “contained” in the evacuation camp for months ahead. How stressful is it to the people? Psychiatrists should analyze it for appropriate cares. Those staying in a hotel or ryokan may have no big issues in life,but similar to the birds in a cage.3. Even if we could return home, … The TEPCO plan for accident termination foresees many items of work in six to nine months ahead. When completed, the reactors are in cold-standby and no more release of radioactive materials to the outside land and ocean. People long for that situation as early as possible, because this is the primary condition for them to return home. The mayor expressed to the press his wish to advance the schedule, while he values the termination plan. Fukushima Daiichi stands in our next town Okuma-cho. In the Tomioka-cho people’s mind, the NPPs there may not be so close to us as to the people in Okuma-cho, but those NPPs damaged and to be decommissioned are next door to us. Many of us were working there. Even more, Fukushima Daini stands in our own town Tomioka-cho. If TEPCO continues to operate the NPPs at Fukushima Daini, what safety measures TEPCO is going to take? Are they trustworthy? Where is TEPCO itself going? Tomioka-cho people get a big issue to think how to coexist with NPPs. Affirmatives and negatives may get fierce in discussing the matter. Time to argue the Yes/No concerning site locations may come back again.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 27
1. Who is willing to spend his/her own money?! Donations and compensation money are being provided soon. The people of the Big Palette look forward to receiving them. Workers of medium and small local firms, shopkeepers, part-time workers, they lost all income sources in March and April, and even longer unless a job can be found here. Some of double-income couples have lost both sources. Some people might have dipped into their savings. Nobody here is willing to use their own money. Some are in a difficulty for the redemption of the house loan, for instance the big firm employees or aged pensioners. Nobody is certain what compensation money will be paid, and what future life waits ahead for them. Everybody wants to cut their daily expenditures. We are not happy with simple meals repeated with bread or omusubi, but that does not mean anybody of us dine out on their own money. A kind of discrimination feeling also exists among the people here. Those who could go to a hotel or ryokan for stay get US$50 daily and enjoy their life. Onthe contrary, we here … Certainly we have to pay for food and utilities, but the life here is not what we were willing to live. I don’t want to spend even a penny of my own. 2. Free legal advice The Fukushima Bar Association operates an ad-hoc office in the Big Palette for free legal advice. Not many visitors, though. The consultants have not much to do, so it seems. According to them, consultations are mostly concerned with compensation. The biggest interest is what will be compensated, especiallywhether the houses and the land in Tomioka-cho would becompensated.- Will TEPCO or the government buy the house and the land?- Are we compensated for the loss? Their price is far down after the accident. We lose a lot even if we want to sell them and move to other settlement.- Even if we decide to return, their values to succeed by children drops. Is it compensated?- We can’t live in our newly built house. Our financial and mental burden is compensated?- What about the mental fears against radiation and the stresses of evacuation life? But these are what the lawyers cannot give specific and clear advice. One difficulty will be how the value reduction can be assessed based on what?A lawyer pointed that the amount of damage cannot be fixed until all issues can be made clear. If so, it will take years before we can submit our request of compensation. A current concern is that some money is automatically debited from the bank account. The lawyer’s advice was: Leave zero in the account, because the payment of disaster victims is authorized to delay.3. Schedule follow-up chart, please TEPCO issued yesterday a blue print of accident termination schedules. Now we can have an image of time horizon for future. The important thing from now is to follow the development and record the progress on the chart. By doing so, everybody can grasp the current situation and take necessary actions to meet the schedule. An example is a meal issue of the Big Palette. No significant improvement is being done in our one-month evacuation life. If the improvement plan is shown on a chart and followedconstantly, it would be done sooner or later before long. This helps us foreseeing the improvement and calming down our frustration.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 26
1. Who is willing to spend his/her own money?! Donations and compensation money are being provided soon. The people of the Big Palette look forward to receiving them. Workers of medium and small local firms, shopkeepers,part-time workers, they lost all income sources in March and April, and even longer unless a job can be found here. Some of double-income couples have lost both sources. Some people might have dipped into their savings. Nobody here is willing to use their own money. Some are in a difficulty for the redemption of the house loan, for instance the big firm employees or aged pensioners. Nobody is certain what compensation money will be paid, and what future life waits ahead for them. Everybody wants to cut their daily expenditures. We are not happy with simple meals repeated with bread or omusubi, but that does not mean anybody of us dine out on their own money. A kind of discrimination feeling also exists among the people here. Those who could go to a hotel or ryokan for stay get US$50 daily and enjoy their life. Onthe contrary, we here … Certainly we have to pay for food and utilities, but the life here is not what we were willing to live. I don’t want to spend even a penny of my own.2. Free legal advice The Fukushima Bar Association operates an ad-hoc office in the Big Palette for free legal advice. Not many visitors, though. The consultants have not much to do, so it seems. According to them, consultations are mostly concerned with compensation. The biggest interest is what will be compensated, especiallywhether the houses and the land in Tomioka-cho would be compensated.- Will TEPCO or the government buy the house and the land?- Are we compensated for the loss? Their price is far down after the accident. We lose a lot even if we want to sell them and move to other settlement.- Even if we decide to return, their values to succeed by children drops. Is it compensated?- We can’t live in our newly built house. Our financial and mental burden is compensated?- What about the mental fears against radiation and the stresses of evacuation life? But these are what the lawyers cannot give specific and clear advice. One difficulty will be how the value reduction can be assessed based on what?A lawyer pointed that the amount of damage cannot be fixed until all issues can be made clear. If so, it will take years before we can submit our request of compensation. A current concern is that some money is automatically debited from the bank account. The lawyer’s advice was: Leave zero in the account, because the payment of disaster victims is authorized to delay.3. Schedule follow-up chart, pleaseTEPCO issued yesterday a blue print of accident termination schedules. Now we can have an image of time horizon for future. The important thing from now is to follow the development and record the progress on the chart. By doing so, everybody can grasp the current situation and take necessary actions to meet the schedule. An example is a meal issue of the Big Palette. No significant improvement is being done in our one-month evacuation life. If the improvement plan is shown on a chart and followedconstantly, it would be done sooner or later before long. This helps us foreseeing the improvement and calming down our frustration.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 25
1. Threats of afterquakes A disaster comes over, when forgotten. Afterquakes come over every day,although the frequency is being down. Fairy big afterquakes are reported these days in Kanto and on the Japan Sea side. A rumor says we will have once again a big afterquake in our region. Many rent-houses in the market are old and have concerns about their seismic safety. The prefectural government does not take such options. We, too, want to be sure about their seismic safety. The Big Palette was also hit and damaged by the big earthquake onMarch 11. Provisional repairs are in place, but precautions are needed, foran emergency, to secure escape routes, emergency doors and anti-drop measures. The Big Palette received too many refugees so far to keep everything in good order. Gradual improvements are needed as the people leave here for some reason or another.
2012.02.29
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 24
1. Population density lowered? Population in the Big Palette seems slightly reduced these days. Pathways became slightly wider. Some people are moving from the terrace area on the first floor to better places on the ground floor. People on the ground floor are moving to a better place in the same hall, too. The most popular space is near the electricity plugs. They can use kettles, or see a mobile private TV. Cold space, too bright or too dark places are hated.“Why people left the Big Palette and whereto” is not known clearly. Did they move to a hotel or ryokan? Did they rent their own apartment? Obviously, few people moved to the town-rented houses. Kids and children remaining here are still many. Could it be because some extra spaces on the ground floor were newly opened for use? Not clearly known why. Some “cardboard partitions” on the first-floor terrace elevated their wall height, especially at colder areas near the glass windows. The inside of the partitions is completely out of sight from outside. You will feel there as if you walk through corridors. There are some people who change nothing from the very beginning, one month ago. Aged people seem indifferent to outsiders, other people’s eyes or passers-by.2. Posters A lot of posters/messages are on the corridor walls at the back entrance. Similar ones are on the stair walls to upper floors. This place is the best “information center” in the building: the free public telephone corner, the free internet desk, a comic library, flyers and pamphlets. Official notifications from the town office and the prefecture, support options, volunteers’event schedules, etc. are recently classified for easy identifications. There are almost no more messages for safety confirmation.3. A sense of self-composure Somebody placed pots of tulip flowers in front of two big TV monitors, cherry twigs too. On the ground floor corridor, some flowers existed from early days. Flowers really impact the mentality of people. Food support is certainly important, but flowers are also welcome. Bread or omusubi are still the base of meals, and side dishes or vegetables are insufficient. The catering system is not even designed yet. The people in a line for omusubi or water do not look so frantic as before. Walking speeds became gentler. Washings on the handrails or stairs for dry will disappear gradually, as the washing machines and dryers are now available in the building. The atmosphere of the Big Palette will change. Somebody put a big cherry photo on the wall. It was taken in Tomioka-cho, where nobody is now for evacuation. Such a photo could be never seen. Usually, the streets with cherry flowers are full of sightseeing buses and visitors. Nobody is there this year. Donations or compensation money are not distributed yet, but when provided, the people will certainly be enriched with a sense of self-composure.4. Working volunteers at night for sorting the commodities After 7:00 o’clock p.m. the surrounding of the Big Palette is quiet with no running cars. Any places are in the darkness, except where mercury lamps light. A group of people were busy doing things. They downloaded the parcelsfrom a truck, unpacked and sorted things taken out. The truck brought in mountains of clothing. They are sorted and folded back for men and women. If this kind of sorting is not done during the night, the morning would be chaotic as in the discount sale of a department. The group was about 10 volunteers. They were quietly working in the chilly atmosphere.Thank you.5. Road damage by the Earthquakes The earthquake shook Koriyama-city, too, leaving damage. Most old houses lost their roof tiles. This explains the earthquake shook the city as violent as it hit Tomioka-cho. Most roads are ok for traffic, but the critical bridge Asaka Bridge could not be used till yesterday. Most other bridges themselves were ok, but here and there ramps were created at their ends with the connecting roads since the roads sank. The running repairs by asphalt are done for these ramps, but the car speeds must be controlled to avoid shocks. House repairs are delayed, because repair materials are in shortage. Rent-houses are on the market under the conditionthat damage will be duly repaired. In Tomioka-cho, too, after the March 11 earthquake, there were: maintenance hatches (manholes) standing above the ground due because the roads sank; dips due to road depressions; collapsed guardrails; leaning power poles with traffic signals, etc. These were provisionally repaired immediately and danger markings were made where necessary. They helped the accident prevention for next day evacuation. The problem was with no traffic lights, the traffic at night was very dangerous. Danger markings with solar-powered lights should be fixed for future.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 23
1. Goods to develop for evacuation life (2): Partitions Everybody lives (sleeps) together in a limited space in the big evacuationcamp like the Big Palette. Perhaps it might be pleasant among familymembers or friends occasionally. But it is not for days. It keeps us restless: other people’s eyes; children’s cries; loud conversations around; coughing sounds; walking sounds of neighbors, etc. Somebody goes to a toilet during the night, one after another. People start to build cardboard partitions andenclose their own living space. Ready-to-build partitions would be helpful, if they are regularly stocked in evacuation camps or potential camp buildings: Clean, sound blocking, self-standing, adequately tall and gently colored partitions. The government, the local governments and industries could cooperate in developing such standardized ready-to-build partitions for future potential emergencies.2. NHK claims, but … An NHK board member claimed this morning on air:? NHK delivered the flash news on the earthquakes, the tsunami and the nuclear accidents starting with the earthquake early warning message;? NHK delivered accurate and fastest information;? The reports were in easy-understandable and non-scaring language in timely manner;? The reports are valued by the overseas media; and? NHK could get a higher profile. No lessons for itself to correct or improve? NHK news on disasters was certainly fastest, but commercial TV stations are faster in reporting on the situation around the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. This is really what the nuclear refugees want to get. No TV programs were delivered to us immediately after the earthquake shock, and news only in sounds in the first evacuation night in Kawauchi-mura on the next day. Couldn’t NHK deploy mobile stations for the people in the disaster areas? Shouldn’t it have prepared mobile power sources (solar-, wind-, or battery-powered) nationwide in order to meet the mission in emergencies as thepublic broadcast? It is not bad that NHK could get high profiles overseas, but before that shouldn’t it get appreciated by the people in the disaster areas of its own nation by delivering the information they need and want?3. Town office must not forget … The town office is kept busy meeting so many visitors all the time. No prior experience of this busy in handling non-routine and diversified issues. The staff deserves hearty support for meeting the needs solicited. They seem pretty occupied by day-to-day work of all sorts of matters. If they could practice the following, their work would be more commendable. Immediate note taking; Immediate reporting; Immediate response; Immediate information sharing; and Collection and analysis of the requests as much as possible. The town staff are so accustomed to daily routine work andnot ready to handle such non-routine work as in an emergency. It is time now to take this approach for improving their service to the town people and collecting relevant information and knowhow for future potential evacuation and/or any emergencies. The practice is helpful in upgrading routine services, too..4. Tsunami impacts on my hometown Tomioka-cho Tomioka-cho faces the Pacific like next towns and villages. It was also hit by the March 11 tsunami but the impacts were limited. Our neighbor Namie-cho had very big impacts in its estuary area of Takase River. Our town also has a fishery port and an estuary, too, but they are small-sized. The big tsunami destroyed the JR Tomioka Station, all buildings and houses built on thecoastal side of Highway 6. But it was limited to just 20 people who died or were missing. Why so? The town generated the hazard map in advance, the block leaders were disciplined to mark constantly the aged and weak people in the block, and had regular drills to let them evacuate first in an emergency. They were all safe. The victims are the police people and the fishermen. The 150 year-old house of the mayor was also destroyed. His family was safe. On the next day March 12, the evacuation in limited information started (Day 1 of evacuation). The mayor had a difficult time: to make the decision to evacuate with little available information; where to evacuate; and his own evacuation journey. He was hospitalized some days later due to high blood pressure. Now he is back to work in his temporary office and moves around for various negotiations and for visiting town people in other four evacuation camps. All mayors did wonderful jobs in handling real nuclear evacuation, the first in Japan after the accidents. Before long, dramatic stories of them and their staff members will be known when the situation calms down.5. A slight hope ahead? TEPCO disclosed its blue print for terminating the accidents. It foresees that radioactive materials will be surely contained in the first three months (Step 1) and that the reactors will be brought down to cold standby (Step 2). Some of us in the Big Palette were, on one hand, disappointed to know it would take more than six months to end this evacuation life. On the other hand, however, a slight hope to return home could be received when Minister Kaieda (METI) touched upon, in his press interview, the possibility of graded (step-by-step) termination of evacuation in the scheduled evacuation zones. Quite a few people are listening carefully to the radiation level measurement results reported on the in-house daily broadcast. Some other people are skeptical, though, wondering if Tomioka-cho would be same, because it is designated as an emergency evacuation zone.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 22
1. Why evacuation in Koriyama? Mayor of Tomioka-cho stuck to Koriyama when locating our evacuation camp. His primary interest was to stay close to our hometown. Our next town Okuma-cho went farther to Aizu Wakamatsu City to the north. Futaba-cho went down even farther Saitama Prefecture in the south. Koriyama-city is the busiest city in Fukushima Prefecture, with the population of more than 300,000. Has a Tohoku Shin-kan-sen station, and an Express Highway Interchange. It takes only one and a half hours to get to Tokyo by Shin-kan-sen. Its service was restored on April 12. Frequent highway coaches are in service to Tokyo, Sendai and other cities. People in the Big Palette enjoy the advantages of urban city infrastructures more than the mayor anticipated: abundant supplies, a big DIY center in five minute walk, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. Services in gas stations and supermarkets were paralyzed just a while after our arrival upon evacuation. But they came back to normal soon. We can buy everything we need in daily life except food supplies. The Big Palette stands aside National Highway 4, along which stand all kinds of restaurants, sushi-go-round restaurants, too. Even a department store stands near the JR station. Volunteer workforces are also big in this 300,000 inhabitedcity. Other people in Aizu-Wakamatsu City or other rural areas may live quiet lives, but may suffer from insufficient supplies.2. Washing machines delivered two weeks behind At long last today on April 16, ten washing machines and five dryer machines were installed, already one month from evacuation. The new washing space is where pet cages were placed, about 25 square meter room, maybe a former stock room. Pet cages were moved to three outdoor tents. The delivery of washing machines was scheduled for April 2 by the emergencyheadquarters. Two weeks behind, a typical example of inefficient administration of headquarters. Nevertheless, the machines are very helpful to those who washed by hands and dried the washings in the sun or who need to use nearby coin laundries. In prolonged evacuation life, there is no other way to meet the needs one by one.3. Goods to develop for evacuation life (1): mats A couple of items came to my mind what commodities need to be developed or prepared for an evacuation life. Japan is traditionally, as we were so in wartime, poor at commissariat or rear-echelon support. Spirits tend to be relied upon for compensating material shortage.Adequate equipment and its continuous make-up support are essential for a survival life. Good suggestions were obtained at a nearby outdoor equipment shop. The first is a mat. A gymnasium is often used as an evacuation camp: school gymnasiums,municipal gymnasiums, etc. Large-size exhibition halls like the Big Palette or Tokyo Budokan are also used. Different from small-size school classrooms, such large-size facilities often have an issue of ensuring privacies, warm keeping, etc. The space for the refugees is the same for nights and days. Therefore, the space must be adequate for the night, for sleeping. The floors of a gymnasium are usually hard, or covered by thin sheets for protection. An extra blanket, if available, can be placed, but still too hard for sleeping. Cardboards can work as a cushion. Cardboards are fairly easily obtainable, but not perfect for the people used to beds or mattresses. Why can’t mats be stored at or near the potentialevacuation camp facilities? Limited number of mattresses was stocked in the Big Palette. They were given to weak people first: people under nursing care, sick people, aged people, etc., not for everybody. Light-weight and compact-size air cushions are already in the market and used widely as camping equipment. Sleeping bags will be perfect if prepared, although a bit expensive. They keep us warm, too. I will get my own and keep it in my car for my next evacuation.4. Evacuation termination wanted This is the biggest interest of all evacuees. But nothing is foreseen. The mayor of our town watches every day the radiation monitoring reports. He wonders if the monitoring spots could be increased, too. The radiation levels in our home town Tomioka-cho are reported to be lower than those in some northwestern areas like I-idate-mura Village. The news of contaminated vegetable shipment control being terminated, or the news of intake control of tap water being terminated, gives us a hope that the access control of us to the town may be terminated sooner or later. Our wish is: no more radiation release to outside from the NPP; and west winds continue. Everybody of us wants to ask the experts whether the situation would improve and Tomioka-cho goes back to habitable if the conditions continue to improveas it is now.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 21
1. NHK report, too late! NHK reported in its morning news of April 16 on its survey results of evacuation environment. Surprising! It reported: 44% complaining cold meals, imbalanced menus; and 50% a bath once a week, 4% never, etc. The impact of a nationwide report is big! But already one month since evacuation started. Why couldn’t it covered and made known earlier? NHK could and should have warned earlier. The Ministry of Welfare and Health seems not very concerned, either. The Central Emergency Headquarters in Tokyo do not grasp the local situations. They do not have the philosophy of the minimum level of QOL to secure, either, for the refugees. People here want to say to them: Eat yourself what we eat; Spend days yourself without a bath, etc. The prefecture officials look sorry when they say, “Our meals are normal as before,” responding to our question. The town officials live in the same conditions with us. The Emperor and Empress were reported to live a frugal life in sympathy with the people in hardships. Those government people who went back to suit styles from working costumes, are they taking quality meals, as before?2. School life of children: A story of a grand-kid of my friend The boy started to go to a junior high school in Koriyama, 15 minutes walk away. He had to change the school from Tomioka-cho to Koriyama. There are 500 pupils in total at the school, 20 are from Tomioka-cho, and about 4 per each 30 pupil class are from Tomioka-cho. His younger brother, too, goes to a primary school by a school bus. Two boys come back from school before lunch. From next week, afternoon classes will start. School bags were provided, used ones by their senior graduates, but almost new: Brand new indoor sneakers, too, as well as uniforms for the elder boy. The boy was induced to join club activities of his favorite, but he did no make his decision yet. Back in Tomioka-cho, he was active in basket ball, but now he is in the highest grade (Grade 3) and has to prepare for the next year entrance exams to a high school. Today two boys received a message of Prime Minister Kan and Minister Takagi of MEXT. The message is printed on both sides of an A4 sheet. The content encourages the children, but not in children’s language. School started, butthe Big Palette is not a good place for study. The boy is seeking for a possibility to move and live with his grand parents.3. Cardboard housesPeople here in the Big Palette are keen on enclosing (holding) a place for their living. When a family leaves its place for some reason, the place is immediately occupied by somebody else. The first question to newcomers at the reception is, “Have you found your place to stay in the hall?” Without the space for sleeping, nobody is accepted. From the very beginning, the Big Palette is over populated, “beyond design basis” if such a number is pre-defined.Like in a big town or a city, there are downtown and uptown areas in the Big Palette. The first class spots are in the small rooms. Space in the dining hall is gone first. In the big room (ground and second floors), the wall side apace is also popular, because the wall can be used as a back rest. Space near the vending machines or big TV screens is also popular to some people. Latecomers have to start from an inferior spot, e.g., along dusty pathways. They try to find a better place when someone moves. It was so terrible that the emergency headquarters forbid occupying any space on narrow pathways. Nevertheless, some space is enclosed for sleeping. The congestion seems mitigated a bit in recent days, but still remains much worsethan that of other evacuation camps, the one in Tokyo, for instance, as seen on TV. If someone leaves the space, a poster may be placed there, saying “This space is reserved for a person who needs nursing cares.”Most aged people simply place a blanket on the floor of their space. Many other people enclose their space with cardboard walls. Cardboards can be obtained, free of charge, at thematerial storage. Boxes of aid supplies received can be recycled, too. Certain heights are needed in order to block external eyeshot. Some“cardboard houses” have even roofs and seem tall as though they can reach the ceiling. They look like a tall toy house. They have a disadvantage, too: too little lightinside. Some “houses” on the terrace area on the first floor are covered by “blanket roofs” for warmth. Some “houses” have even hand-made cardboard drawers, a post or shoe cupboard. The big hall seems an exhibition arena for cardboard craftwork. The Prefecture owns the Big Palette. The director allows us to stay as long as we need. Buta new concern comes up: air conditioning in hot summer?
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 20
1. Knowhow from experience Meal delivery is announced one hour before the delivery actually starts.People start to form a line at a corner on the ground floor. The line becomeslong with time. The end of the line can reach the upper floor, when thedelivery actually begins. The top waits for an hour. But once it starts, the delivery finishes in quarter of an hour by many (perhaps too many) volunteers. In these days I wait and join the line when it starts moving ahead.Yesterday I met with a former town office manager, my long year friend, and talked on a couple of topics concerned. He said he stays on the second floor. Such a first time union still happens here after one month of stay, as so many people are staying in a big building, and many ins-and-outs. He is a single and retired last year. According to his explanation, he was inthe town office as a telephone operator on the day of evacuation (March 12). Learning that I needed five hours for evacuation, he said he left Tomioka-cho at 4:30 p.m. and arrived in Kawauchi-mura in only 22 minutes. He left Tomioka-cho after spending sufficient time for selecting the commodities to bring together, loading them on his car and everybody else had left. In this emergency situation, the way in normal life for handling the situation is used by the prefectural government or the town office, so seems to him. In his view, more authorities should be transferred in an emergency to practical levels, and simplified logistics should be in place by trusting the residents and private sectors. Retirees experienced in emergency measures should have been more recruited by the prefecture as well as the town/village, I thought.2. Freedoms lost Winter is leaving and some warmness is coming. Flowers are now seen around the Big Palette. One month in evacuation. While getting fed up with a feeling of how long such a life continues, another emotion comes up to me: Evacuation is what? How our life changed after the accidents at Fukushima Daiichi?What difference do we have? We take meals and sleep every day as the previous days, but not at our home. We can’t do what we want to do with our own household goods, or we can’t take what we want to eat. It sounds as if we are on leisure, but this is not the life we started on our own will. Athome we could spend a day on our own will as we liked. Oh yes, the accidents deprived us of freedoms. If unable to return home, we would lose our houses and all household goods. But that is not certain, yet. What we lost so far is freedoms. Our constitution assures our freedoms. We never lose it unless we are imprisoned. The government instructed us to evacuate for protecting our health. But, in a sense, we are deprived of our fundamental human rights. In fact, there are some people who do not evacuate against the instruction and still remain in the evacuation zone on their own will. To the mindset of evacuees, our evacuation is not caused by a natural disaster, but basically by a human disaster. Controlled access to our houses is different from the controlled access in the volcanic areas for safety protection from the eruptions. People here cannot stand the prolonged infringement of their human rights.3. Temporary residences Fukushima Prefecture decided to build in total 24,000 temporary houses, basically on the public land like school grounds. Concerns: Convenience for shopping, heating, quietness … Materials for building and workforce are not sufficiently available after earthquake and tsunami disasters. No concerns in this regard about the rent-houses or apartments, adequately located, comfortable in living … They are readily available. A living environment of many people together in temporary houses, on the other hand, may cause stresses among the modernized people. Temporary houses are temporary. Basically, they are consumables for one-time use. They may connote wasting money. Rent-houses and apartments are in the market more than adequate nationwide. Why can’t they be used? The agents and the owners may cooperate in discounting. Weak people (aged family, those with no blood relatives, etc.) may be left behind if many healthy families leave for such residences (rent-houses or apartments). More staff workforce can be allocated for the weak people. Besides them, most families are healthy enough to live their independent lives. If they (me, too) remain to stay here with full cares, they may lose the spirit of independence. While in the evacuation camp, they should share some roles to operate the evacuation life. That will help them for independent lives, once the evacuation ends.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life
1. Aid station The station staff seemed to have not much to do. Nurses said the norovirus was dying down and the cold was newly going around. Posters on the wall remind the people of washing hands. Everyday is Sunday for the people here, but for some unknown reasons many patients visit the station on Monday. The increasing visits of ambulances are for the aged people or those in high blood pressure, who are getting discomfort in the prolonged evacuation life. One good thing is that one ambulance vehicle from Futaba-cho area (Three towns of Futaba, Tomioka, and Okuma) is newly available for our needs, and therefore the staff members may feel free in using the ambulance for dispatching our patients. In evacuation, staff members, too, felt guilty to the Koriyma ambulances. With the rainy Tsu-yu season and the summer approaching, duecares are needed for preventing food poison.2. Washing machines, not yet A message was noticed yesterday on the board: Washing machines will be installed, due for April 2, at the designated place in the building. My mind was banged: “What day is it today? April 15!” A lady at the town emergency headquarters said, “Oh yes, it’s April 15 today.”I protested to amanager, “What is the situation? You lose your credibility. Can’t you correct at least the day for delivery foreseen?” His excuse: The prefecture asked one volunteer for delivery and installation. But the one delivered was the one without a dryer portion. I asked him to replace it with the one with a dryer portion. Before installation, we have to find a place to transfer the pet cages, because that is the place for the machine. To my further demand, he replied “the delivery date shall be changed to ‘by next week.’”He and I came up with one point to agree upon. Why doesn’t the prefecture let the people find their favorite rent-house in this area and provide monthly subsidiary of US$1,000 (rent andliving expenses)? It is efficient and people can choose where to stay and where to wash at theirconvenience. There may be some people who try to cheat more or less, and something may be wasted to some extent. But that may be within an acceptable limit in this emergency. Local policies, organizations and authority in an emergency may be a big issue to explore in future.3. What is compensated? The government geared TEPCO to pay US$10,000 to each family on evacuation ASAP.People in the Big Palette wonder why that could not be done earlier. They are very concerned about how the compensation will be done.? If we cannot return home, TEPCO buys the unbroken houses and land? ? Do we get money for resettlement?? The asset values drop, even if we are able to return. Nobody will purchase them. Who compensates the loss?? Shopkeepers can get their compensation for lost earnings during evacuation?? The compensation equivalent to the wages is reduced, if we go working during evacuation? If that is likely, we will not go working.? Farmers and fishermen get the money for restoration?? Products may not be saleable as before, after farming or fishing can be resumed. Is the loss compensated?? Expenditures for evacuation are compensated?? Facilities in the factories and shops, vehicles as well as gardens are too damaged for reuse after a long time of being uncared. Are they compensated?? What connection exists between compensation and our own damage insurance?? What compensation is foreseen for fears of evacuation, mental and physical stresses due to long evacuation? People were occupied with the hardships to survive on evacuation. They gradually start to think about future life plan. Before them stand the issue of compensation and the accidents still to be terminated. The negotiation will take long between the victims and the people to blame. The compensation amount will reach enormous. The government responsibility (compensation) is after all to be borne by the nation (tax). Residents in Tokyo and other consuming regions have enjoyed cheapand abundant electricity. Now they have to bear expenses in the form of electricity rates.4. Posters as administration media The town offices of Tomioka-cho and Kawauchi-mura function now in Koriyama. They disseminate the relevant information to their people, basically through posters on the board.? Report your whereabouts to the office;? Tax payment deadline is extended till further notice;? Visit us for consultation if you have discomforts;? Practice hand washing for preventing norovirus;? Resident certificate can be issued if needed;? A washing machine will be installed by when;? No pets allowed in the hall/rooms, etc. etc. We can’t overlook the board to know what the things are ruled, what services are available, what to do, what not to do, etc. Lots of information sheets, flyers or in-house organs have been distributed till recently as thick as on the ground. No more. No gatherings/meetings forexplanation to the residents living in one place. Posters are one-way communication. A suspicionis born among us the administration by posters might be a best way to prevent complaints or opinions from the residents.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 18
1. Loss of information connection How the information disconnection gave fears to the people and confused them? The chain of accidents of the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accidents brought home to us its crucial importance. The electronic communication contacts were completely lost at the nuclear off-site emergency center in Okuma-cho, Fukushima. It took them the whole rest of the day till midnight for recovery. The person in charge was explaining the day’s history as though it were not his business. Responsibility must be born by the people who had planned and installed the facility. NTT is the same. It was too optimistic in assuming the accidents and the following disasters. How the people were frustrated by inoperable mobile phones in minutes after the quake? Messages were carried by post horses in olden times. In modern society, cars or helicopters could have been used for message transfer if electronic communication is lost. Patrol cars could have accessed Tomioka-cho in two hours if they rush from Fukushima-city. How the police wireless telephones worked? The government, the prefecture or TEPCO were determined to take such emergency measures? I once saw a drill scene on TV for Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP, when Vice-Chairman of TEPCO flew aboard a helicopter to the site from his Tokyo Headquarters. What was that drill for?2. Decentralization and networking Centralization for efficiency can be paralyzed once something serious happens.Decentralization without networking cannot help the paralyzed system efficiently. A best example is the issue of 50Hz electricity in the East Japan and 60Hz electricity in the West. For the investment efficiency, the capacity of electricity transfer is limited to 1,000MWe between the East and the West. This limitation gives a difficulty now to TEPCO after the accidents. Express Highways may be another good example. While the highways and railroads on Pacific Ocean side were all paralyzed due to the big earthquake, alternative routes on the Japan Sea side and some in the central region of the Japanese Archipelago (including part of Tohoku Shin-kan-sen) were helpful for transportation immediately after the disasters in Tohoku district, by surviving the earthquake. It is similar on the occasion of the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in1995. Decentralization should go together with networking. National level issues should be handled by the government level, not depending on private sectors. There can be some issues to be tackled by individual sectors of industry or groups. A precision plastic processing firm in Tomioka-cho delivered its products (lens sheaths for digital cameras) to almost all digital cameramanufacturers of Japan. The firm worked 24 hours a day with many employees. The factory hasno hope to resume its production line, but fortunately the firm had several production factories in other countries in Asia. That decentralization allowed the firm to survive.
2012.02.21
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 17
1. Corporate employees and shopkeepers Compensation for agriculture is a most popular topic these days. Rice padsand fields extend spaciously in Tomioka-cho. It seems very straightforward tothink that the area is a farmland and the major source of earnings is agriculture. The reality is different: 10% primary industries, mostly full-time farmers, 30% in secondary industries, and 60% in tertiary industries. Most farmers are part-time farmers. Farmers will be fully compensated. Majority of 90% town people has envious eyes on that 10% plus. Agricultural and fishery cooperatives will manage to get compensations by all means as they did in the past. Shopkeepers will be also able to show the turnout records as a piece ofevidence for compensation. Employees in factories or commercial firms have a difficulty. Some firms went bankrupt, and some people were fired. They lost their bases for life. The townofficials are the envy of all other ordinary citizens: “You are very lucky, you can get paid entirely as before.”2. Controversial message of Prime Minister Kan“It will be unable to reside (in the evacuation designated area) for some time, or 10 years, 20 years, or perhaps for life.” Controversies erupted when his message was cited by his special advisor Matsumoto. The cabinet secretariat denied immediately this report. This is, for sure, the very subject of everybody’s concern. Nobody can make his/her future plan, because this subject cannot be made clear. It’s quite logical that everybody jumped to this message of the PrimeMinister. It such possibility is likely, tell us straightforward. We can’t stand waiting with expectation and eventually ending in vain. The cabinet secretariat and TEPCO may hide the reality for avoiding controversial issues of compensation. Radiation levels in Namie-cho, I-idate-mura, Koriyama-city and Fukushima-city are reported daily. But no information is given on our own towns Tomioka-cho orOkuma-cho. High radiation level at the NPP entrance point is reported. An adventurous reporter of media, who approached the NPP from the evacuation zone, issued an article and video in which he showed us a radiation measurement devicescaling out. Such information causes our concern. Is the level around my house is also high as reported? What data are being obtained by the monitoring posts of the prefecture and TEPCO? Neither the government nor media tell us what we really want to know.3. A reality of nuclear disasters The reality of nuclear accidents is looming day after day. “Nuclear accidents” was, to many of us, “something sometime somewhere, Chernobyl or Three Mile Island“. To many of us, nuclear accidents were radiation accidents. But before protecting ourselves from radiation hazards, we needed evacuation. It might be questioned if evacuation is a disaster. If a disaster means something (earthquakes, tsunami, fires) that deprives the people of their lives or properties, this is nothing but an evacuation disaster depriving us of houses, household goods or production facilities for protecting our lives. On the NPP site, the radiation impacts are direct and limited in time. In the surrounding areas, on the contrary, radioactivity is gradually built up. Radioactivity diffuses with time on wind. In an exploding accident like the one in Chernobyl, it reaches its worst peak in an instance. The accidents in Fukushima, its termination is being delayed by months, perhaps even years, and the land and the ocean may continue to be contaminated, if the release continues to the environment. The time length of the impacts is determined by the quantity of radioactive materials precipitated and their physical half lives. Marketing prohibitionis a production halt disaster. Radiation hazard causes in general zero-comma-something % increase in cancer risks due to slightly higher exposure to radiation than normal. We can do without specific food materials if they are contaminated. Simply contaminated food should be avoided. Evacuation disasters or production halt disasters have much bigger impacts on our life than radiation hazard. This is areality of nuclear accidents. For sure, people want strongly to be compensated for their evacuation disaster or production halt disaster.4. Where the town goes? The town office of Tomioka-cho claims that all town people’s whereabouts have been grasped. This is a big outcome of the office’s efforts and everybody’s cooperation. The provisional town office opened today next to the Big Palette. Now it can issue the people’s residence certificates, etc. A big concern is how the town policy can be handled. Futaba-cho2 decided to move its whole town to Saitama Prefecture, but not everybody. Some town people may settle, could be for the time being, somewhere else. Can it keep clear who moved in and who moved out of the town? For dealing with the compensation issues, the townhas to keep contact with everybody concerned. Will the government or the prefecture do the business on behalf of the town? If people cannot return to the hometown for years, how the town council can function? Will a town as a legislative unit disappear? Will the town settle somewhere and construct a new town as the unit, as Israeli did in Palestine. This is one unprecedented, never experienced challenge.
2012.02.18
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 16
1. “Radiation levels being stable or lowered” answers to refugees? Most media report, “The radiation levels are stable or being lowered.” They don’t understand at all what the refugees want to know. They want to know, “Does it mean we can return home immediately?” or “How many months do we have to wait before return, if the situation continues as it is now.” Media are in competition with each other in their reporting technique using NPP models, explanatory charts and “nuclear experts.” Hearing the news on the INES Level 7, the same level with Chernobyl, people want to know, “How big was the evacuation zone in Chernobyl?”, “What occurred to the evacuees afterward?”, or “Can it be compared with out case of Fukushima?”, “What are the same and what are the difference between the two?” No useful reports are seen in media, in newspapers, either. The refugees are listening to the reports in strong nervousness and anxiety, “Can we return home?”, “How soon?”, or “Do we have to abandon our rice pads and fields?” and “Do we have to start a new life somewhere else from the scratch?” They have nothing else to think butto think such things all day long very seriously.2. Causes of anxiety “How soon can the accidents be terminated?” This is the most concerned subject of the refugees. The other big subject is the compensation. The counter actions of the government and TEPCO seem always following from behind.Radioactive materials migrate to inland (west) on wind. High dose rate or soilcontamination in I-idate-mura and nearby mountainous areas could have been easily predicted. Contaminated water release to outside and flooding on site is, too, when that enormous amount of water is charged into the reactor building from above. Incredible mistakes with no due consideration happen one after another: radiation over exposure of the workers by skipping radiation monitoring at the working place; work assign without dosimeters for them; or discharge of contaminated water to the Pacific with no prior notice causing complaintsfrom fishery associations and the government of South Korea. As soon as some progress is seen for terminating the accidents, new issues are reported. Repeated incidents like these cause fears among the people whether the government and TEPCO are really capable of terminating the accidents. Everybody has fears of radiation and fears of future life. Theirpsychological stresses are really strong.3. “I-idate-mura is better!” The government designated I-idate-mura as one of the “scheduled evacuation” zones. The village mayor and the villagers exchange views in each settlement. The villagers expressed their wishes concerning the location of evacuation camps and the compensation. It seemsmuch, much better than the people here in the Big Palette. “We had to evacuate immediately. We did not even know where to evacuate. We heard nothing about compensation. If we had one month notice, we could have brought much more items together. The town people could have moved together, not being scattered here and there. We have sympathy to the people ofI-idate-mura why their radiation level is unusually high, why they have to be confused by the government decision of regulation. But they are much better than we are. We had to evacuate here with no belongings.” They are not allowed to return home, being blocked by the invisible barricade of the “evacuation zones” and not able to check their own properties.4. Pets (2) Many walkers with dogs are seen among the refugees in the morning. Many people have them at home as watchdogs. The surroundings are good for having them. But they need daily exercises. Those who had to leave their dogs behind upon evacuation are reminded of them, and feel sorry when they see such walkers withdogs.5. Something questionable Some Koriyama people escaped to Niigata (to the next northwest prefecture) in fears of radiation. Young people in Koriyama are resigned to escape in fears of radiation. Such news is really embarrassing. There are some people outside the evacuation zones who left their hometowns and stay at resort hotels for whom the prefecture or the authority in the resort areas pay. The refugees from Minami-Soma-city (“indoor sheltering” zones), who stay at a ryokan, cost-free, in a village in Gunma Prefecture, are supported with US$25 per each daily. Such news causes the refugees in the Big Pallet to come up with angers, rather than a question why, why such unfairness can happen. Why are we left behind? We should have a higher priority to get such awards. No clear explanations are given. What the prefecture or the town office respond is simply, “We are making our efforts.” Frustrating!
2012.02.18
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 15
1. “Pet bottle” blankets Two fresh blankets in a vacuum-sealed package were distributed to each of us on the first day in Kawauchi-mura. “Two” was really helpful: One was to place on the floor. The other is a real blanket, but one was not enough. I needed another one to avoid coldness for sleeping. These blankets are still with me in the Big Palette. I recently learned why they were not warm enough. They are polyester-made. I further learned they had been recycled from used pet bottles. Ah, we slept under pet bottles! How different it is from a woolen blanket. I wish one woolen blanket at least were distributed. The weather here is still cold at night. Japan sends blankets and other commodities needed in an emergency to other countries, when they are hit by a disaster. Are they also “pet bottle blankets”?2. Life style one month after the accident The first few days passed very hectic, leaving Tomioka-cho, my home town, to the Big Palette in Koriyama-city. Nobody had dissatisfaction for the first week with the hardship with everything in scarcity. Everybody took it for granted. Everybody anticipated the environment would improve fast under the support system to be established. But, but the reality is … Everybody here still spend their nights on the blankets and cardboard on the floor. The cardboard partitions elevated their heights here and there. But that’s all. The people on the first floor still have to stand cold environment. Recently, a visiting scene of Emperor and Empress to the evacuation camp in Budokan, Tokyo, was on TV. The refugees there seem to be in better environment: straw mats on the floor, better structured partitions, and larger space for individuals, etc. Meals remain almost same: buns for use-by-date, omusubi and a bottled of water. The only improvement is: omusubi come from markets, a bit better in quality, occasional supplement together or a pack of vegetable juice. But still no hot meals. Compliments by volunteers are the only diversification in meals, e.g., hot meals, miso-soup, etc. No response is received to my earlier suggestion of launching a catering system, not even its plans. Washing is still by hands. The only other choice is to use coin laundries, not free. Baths are the tent baths built by the Self-Defense Force on the playground. For living expenses, flat rate of US$200 was once provided for each on the “loan” basis with one year repayment term, not given.Very few people moved to a ryokan or hotel. Applications for rented houses on the town budget were received, but no development further.The Big Palette is still full of more than 2,000 refugees. In this congested circumstances,norovirus is getting around. Ambulances come often and pick up aged sick people. No big improvements are visible from the very beginning. Headquarters of the government, the prefecture or the town are not functioning properly. Upon our complaints, the response is simply “We are doing our best.” No outcomes, no help!3. Insincere wording in apology President of TEPCO mentioned to the compensation to the refugees, TV reported,“Compensation is under deliberation.” It is a common skill of wording not to be tripped, among politicians, for instance. How does this wording sound to the refugees? What for deliberating? It can’t be for avoiding payment. If so, why can’t he say straightforwardly, “We will compensate.”
2012.02.18
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 14
1. Children to school Breakfast service time was expanded for children to go to school. Now itstarts at 6:30 a.m. It started at 8:00 a.m. till yesterday. Breakfast thismorning was: a bun, a bottle of milk, a canned sweet and one canned jelly. After breakfast primary school pupils go on a coach to school and juniorhigh pupils on foot. Pleasant faces and voices were seen in front of the Big Palette. It was long time ago for everybody to see such pleasant scenes. But the place the childrenreturn to from school is a small family space in the cardboard enclosure in the Big Palette. Not suitable for “study at home.” One good thing is that children can take lunch under school catering.2. US$2,000 per month per family The governments (central, local) seem self-righteous in planning their support to the refugees. For each of family members, who opted to stay at a ryokan or hotel on the governments’ subsidiary, US$50 per day is paid to the ryokan or hotel owners. Those refugees are very well treated as compared with those staying in the Big Palette. This plan has a second objective to support the hotel or ryokan owners; their business has been also hit by the decreased tourists after the earthquake. Howmuch do they get for each family per month? It reaches about US$1,500 per member and US$6,000 per family with two kids. Even if the cost is halved for a kid, it reaches US$4,500 per month. If a modest house is rented for the family in the market, it costs about US$600 per month. Additional US$1,000 will besufficient for the meals and other needs. In total, much less than US$2,000 can support each family. Most people here want to stay near their homes in Tomioka-cho or Kawauchi-mura. They want to live in a similar life environment as before. They want to cook what the family likes,send their kids to school and wash things with their own machines. Those staying at a hotel are the same. They have to be idle by doing nothing themselves. Only very few people are interested in taking an option to stay at a high quality hotel Akasaka Prince in Tokyo, which offered its unused rooms, free of charge, for temporary stay before the building is dismantledfor reconstruction.3. A story of a family on a hotel top floor The family was granted for a stay at an onsen ryokan (hotel). The hotel area was hit by the earthquake, too. The big hotel bath cannot be used. The family has to manage to use a small room bath. The parking lot is 15 minutes walk far. But the family stays there, because the location is convenient for the kid to go to school. Their problem is the room on the top floor. In aftershocks, the top floor of an old building is strongly shaken and the kids are often scared.They want to move to a lower floor. The family has no right to choose the room to stay. They are “instructed” where (in which room) to stay. Well-considered care should be something to handle the thing to the mindset of the recipient (the family in this case).4. Rent-house markets in Koriyama Koriyama-city is a biggest city in Fukushima Prefecture (about 340,000 residents). Many business firms and rent-houses/apartments exist, more than Fukushima-city where the prefectural government has its headquarters. The market price of rent-houses varies. The average rent for an average family is about US$400 to US$600, or even cheaper. Many properties are in circulation, according to the agents. March to April is a high season of migration of people at large, due to transfers, graduation, etc. Flyers and references are circulated in the Big Palette, too. But, the prefectural project of rent-houses for the refugees is not very active. How come? Different logistics may be more practical, e.g., ask the local agentassociation to make a list of possible properties, or let the refugees find their favorite candidate property. The prefectural people stick to their traditional way of handling everything by themselves, even in this emergency environment.5. Personalities of nuclear people are challenged Nobody of nuclear community is visible; those of electric power companies, nuclear vendors, research institutes and government agencies controlling nuclear powers. Under the pretext of concentrating on terminating the accidents, they don’t show up before the local nuclear refugees, they don’t supply visible supports to the refugees. It is not a good thing at all for the nuclear community. To the local people, nuclear people might look extremely cold-hearted It should be not too late to take visible actions even one month after the accidents. There may be some individuals or organizations who collects donations or contribute supporting materials, but not visible. A Zen-priest Soukyu Genyu of Fukushima Prefecture came back to my mind. He tried to help children understand a relation of their soul and body by letting them say, while lying on the floor, “I’m sorry” to other people. A news report on a scene came to me, too, in this connection. When Emperor and Empress visited the refugees staying in Tokyo, the refugees remained sitting on the floor in “agura” (informal, casual) style, while Emperor and Empressexchanged words with them in “seiza” (formal, polite) style with their knees down on the floor. Their style is the style to show the sincerity and heartfelt sympathy. I am convinced that, when apologizing, man should keep their eye views at the same level with those they are speaking to. President of Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) impressed me when he visited the bereaved families of the victims who had been killed in the nuclear accident of Mihama Unit 3 (of 2004). He kept bowing on the floor and apologizing in stormy complaints of the families and being camera-flashed by the media. If the TEPCO people had taken the style of Emperor and Empress or the president of KEPCO, their sincerity would have been better conveyed to the people. If they want to restart the operation of NPPs, if they want to recover people’s trust in nuclear power, every nuclear stakeholder should show up before the people and behave with a strong determination of sincerity to deal with the matter. Incompetency in humanity means incompetency in nuclear usiness.
2012.02.16
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 13
1. What puzzles me on Day 1 According to the Fukushima Minpo Newspaper morning issue, Tomioka-cho announced at 6:50 a.m. on the day of evacuation via its emergency broadcast, “Dear towners, do evacuate to Kawauchi-mura Village Office for a nuclear emergency. Take chartered coaches without haste.” Further, it reports that Futaba-cho had prepared large coaches and started to transport its people to Kawamata-cho from an earlier stage. I myself was at that time of the day on my fact-finding journey for the impacts of tsunami by my car and looking down, with some other people, the coastal line from a height near the Tomioka Fishing Port. In the sight, Tomioka Station house of the JR Joban Line disappeared completely and the coastal side of the town was almost destroyed by the tsunami. If we noticed the broadcast, we would have started evacuation in a group early in the morning. We did not. Locally, it might have been inaudible due to the equipment failure or something. People, who had evacuated to the primary school from previous night because of the earthquake, took the chartered coaches before doing anything else. The national highway from Tomioka-cho to Kawauchi-mura was full of vehicles from the morning. The traffic on the 20km long road was inching along. Without notice, I was almost at its most rear point.2. A tent bath The Ground Self-Defense Force in Tokyo Nerima Station operates temporary free baths in a tent for us outside the Big Palette: one each for men and for women; kerosene heated; about 400 people per day between 2:30 to 9:00 p.m.; time slots for babies only, too. Inside the tent is lit by temporary lights,cleaned every morning, Towels can be dried outside. Ten officers for the operation stay in the Big Palette.The bath is in operation since March 17, two days after we arrived. No plans to end the operation. The women’s bath is watched by Lady Officers on duty.3. No washing machines There is a washing place near the back door of the Big Palette. With only two taps, many people wash their faces and brush teeth in the morning. In the daytime, it becomes a washing place. Young people go washing to coin laundries in the city by car. But the cost is not small in a frugal life for a big family (US$10 each time), a headache. Aged people are managing at this washing place and dry their laundry on the Big Palette handrails. No washing machines for 2,000 people. A message said onceearlier, they would be installed. But still not, in one month since evacuation life started. How come it takes so long? Who is taking care of such a thing? To s strong complaint, the town emergency center says simply, “That’s true, sorry.” No further development.4. Families in line for a rent house on town budgets: A story ofmy friend He learned the instruction of evacuation at 9:00 in the morning of March 12. He learned it from a father of his boy’s schoolmate by his mobile, when hisfamily was staying at the town primary school for the quake on the previous day.He rushed back to home, loaded mattresses and other items on his car and left for Hirono-cho, the next town in the south, with his family (his wife, a primary school boy, a junior high school daughter, and his step-father). Noticing something awkward in the town, he drove further down to his parents’ home in Iwaki-city. Three days later, his family moved further south to his wife’s parent’s home in Saitama Prefecture. One week later, he decided tojoin the Big Palette in Koriyama-city, where the biggest number of Tomioka-cho people was staying. The then Big Palette was so densely packed that nobody couldbe accepted, unless the living space could be ensured by themselves. He could manage to find a space just enough for five people. He applied fora rent-house on the town budget for his children’s school, but no positiveresponse yet. Perhaps his two-kid family does not have the highest priority, he guesses. Higher priority goes to: a family with three or more children between 3 and 15 years old; a family with an elderly member of 75 years old and above; a family with a heavily handicapped member; or a family with a baby. His family may have to wait still some more time. This system is operated by the prefectural government, but the process efficiency seems different from town to town. Fairly a good number of families of Okuma-cho moved to the assigned ryokan or hotels (up to three months), but only the first group of Tomioka-cho left the Big Palette, while in Kawauchi-mura the application has not started yet. Not clear how the prefecture and the towns share their roles. Food supply distribution is the same. Town offices can do nothing without consent of the prefectural government. Isn’t it practical that individual families identify a property to rent and apply for the subsidiary? The subsidiary can be flat. Subsidiary for meals is the same. Isn’t it practical to issue meal vouches (US$5values, for instance) and letus choose which nearby restaurant to go? What the prefectural governmentarranges is nothing but to distribute Omusubi or bread. Vegetable juice,energy drink or packed meals are occasionally distributed, but never hot meals. No due consideration to the mindset of the refugees themselves.5. Parking lots A warning poster was given on the board; “Be careful about car picking!” As many as 900 vehicles park now in the Big Palette parking lot, so crowded that the access aisles were narrowed to half, but not sufficient enough. Oncea car leaves, the next comes in immediately. Most of them have the Iwaki license numbers.These cars are often used as pet houses, storages for personal belongings and sometimes as a dining place, if the owner does not want to take meals in the congested Big Palette hall. Somepeople enjoy napping in their cars.
2012.02.15
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 12
1. Telephones unable to connect when in real need The Tomioka-cho Town Office was cut off from the external electronic connection when it moved to Kawauchi-mura Village Office immediately after evacuation. It was known today how it could resume its connection later. Interestingly, the wired telephone of the Village Office was working on Day 1 (March 12). The connection was lost just after the Office could have consulted with the Prefecture authority about the logistics of operating the evacuation camp. Mobile phones did not work, either. The connection remained lost until the satellite phones started to work days later. On the other hand, some people found their mobile phones could work if they drove a while to a pass to Tamura-city in the west. No mobiles of the refugees worked, although everybody wanted to contact outside, using mobiles, for confirming safety. By chance somebody found an “au” unit (one of providers) could work in a best direction at a best point in the area. Everybody rushed out to the ground, who had an Au unit, and tried to contact outside. Many others borrowed an au unit from them, and could contact outside for safety confirmation. No possibility was confirmed with a docomo unit (another provider). The majority was willing to switch to an au unit when they renew their mobile next time. Since we moved to Koriyama-city, mobiles are working normal. But once a big afterquake occurs, they lose connections again very easily. The inquiry telephone numbers of the Prefectural Disaster Headquarters, NTT or JR are so congested during their business hours that the connection was noteasy. “Telephones unable to connect when in real need” is another symbolic Achilles heel of the modern society.2. Noro virus The norovirus is going around in the Big Palette from a couple of days ago. About 40 to 50 people were isolated in a separate room, complaining nauseousness. Today about 40 people were in line for diagnosis at the aid station. An ambulance comes oftener than before.Precautions might have been a bit insufficient,despite this was foreseen. As the infection via hands will be the main route, disinfectants for hands are placed at the entrance of the aid station. Precautions are needed as we have many aged and out-of-shape people, who are vulnerable. Precautions are also wanted at the entrance of the Big Palette itself, a heavy traffic point. More and more people are Kitamura (10-12)catching a cold. As many as 2,000 people live densely together in one place. Contacts can happen anytime. Getting warm, food poison becomes another concern. Doctors and nurses do not seem insufficient. Perhaps hygiene experts are insufficient.3. Short home return restricted Various special articles are on the media, on the occasion of one month from the big earthquake (East Japan Big Earthquake). Among them is a report on the government policy of designating the 20km zone as the “Caution zone (No entry zone)” and possible short home returns under control. That means more difficulties in returning on our own risk. Some people returned so far more than 10 times and brought back their valuables, cars, tool kits, etc. Police officers on duty were on their way sometimes but did allow them go in upon strong requests. But recently the control is being tightened by barricades on the street, many policemeneverywhere.4. Job hunting by the refugees Former construction workers staying in the Big Palette are returning to work. Shopkeepers have lost their working spots or can’t return to their shops in the evacuation zone. Craftsmen need their tool kits for work. Outside the 30km zone, in Iwaki-city or Minami Soma-city for instance, workers are being recruited for removing rubbles/wreckage on the coast or searching for bodies. Some people in the Big Palette go to Iwaki-city by private cars and work for debris removal or house repair. In such cases, they rent an apartment in the working place. Their registrations at the Big Palette remain as valid and they come back simply for sleeping. Few people know if they are with us or absent. It is said, body searchers are well paid, say US$1,000 per day. Some of craftsmen returned home to get back their tool kits and cars. The message board of the Big Palette is recruiting job seekers such as carpenters or sheet metal workers who can work in Koriyama. Very few people seem to respond to it with interest, probably because the information ofpotential employers in the unfamiliar area is not sufficient. Many prefer seeking an opportunity to work in connection with their formerjobs in Hama-dori. While some people are willing to go back working, some others seem satisfied with a slow life staying in a ryokan or a hotel upon the prefectural suggestion. The reality is, majority of the refugees remains in the Big Palette, as every applicant cannot be awarded with this option.
2012.02.15
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 11
1. Two volumes of inhabitant registration The Tomioka-cho town office was closed upon evacuation. All staff moved to Kawauchi-mura, together with us. Two volumes of inhabitant registration were theonly valuable brought together. This means, the town office also thought the evacuation would not be too long, which made the decision of evacuation. They had not much time before evacuation after the decision, the same with the people who were instructed to evacuate. They noticed the needs of essential information after moving to the Big Palette. Some staff members returned to the town office, wearing protective gears, and brought back the data server, under special arrangements for being assisted by the Self-Defense Force. No written manuals were in place what to bring out, when the whole office evacuation is needed in an emergency. They also live in the town and have families. They must have been under strong stresses for fulfilling the roles as a town servant.Construction of a provisional town office building of Tomioka-cho and Kawauchi-mura started yesterday (April 11) on the parking lot of the Big Palette. It is due to be completed by April 13 or 14. Some vehicles were told to leave. Such development gives us an impression that the evacuation would last long.2. Coaches for evacuation Only 10 coaches were available to Tomioka-cho for evacuation. About 500 people would fill them. Others needed private cars. The town office could charter additional three coaches from a tourist company in next town Naraha-cho. That’s all for evacuation. Fukushima Dai-ni in Tomioka-cho might have had some available coaches. Usually they have many for employee’s commuting. On Saturday of evacuation, the number might have been less. But there was no means to contact them on a weekend. No coaches were available anyway from Dai-ni.Media reports often on disaster prevention drills that people evacuate by coaches. No coaches can carry 15,000 inhabitants. Even 50 coaches have to shuttle 6 times for 15,000.Even if plenty coaches are available, there will be also some people who want to use private cars: to carry valuables and personal belongings, or bring their pets together.3. People are scattered The biggest evacuation camp Big Palette accommodates about 2,000 refugees from Tomioka-cho and Kawauchi-mura. Still this is only part of the whole towners/villagers on evacuation. Other people have evacuated to three other camps in the prefecture and other farther prefectures. Some others moved to their relatives in Tokyo and its surroundings. It is not easy to contact all of them. Some other people are moving from one place to the next.Once they contact the town office, they will be tracked. As of now, not everybody of the town can be tracked.4. Traffic to Tokyo Current options are two: A highway coach from Koriyama; or a coach to Nasu-Shiobara and then a Shin-Kan-Sen train to Tokyo. No Shin-Kan-Sen services beyond Nasu-Shiobara to Sendai (it is scheduled to be back to normal from April 12). On the coastal side, the Joban Line between Ueno and Sendai is still paralyzed between Iwaki and Sendai. This sector may need more than a couple of years to be back in full service, since the stations and the railways have been damaged by the tsunami and torn to pieces. Construction of the Joban Express Highway is complete up to Tomioka-cho, almost ready to open. But the sectors beyond Iwaki to the north are in the evacuation zone. Unless the evacuation is lifted, the traffic is stopped at Iwaki, no more to the north. Even the restoration work of the Joban Line and the Joban Express Highway is halted until the evacuation is terminated.5. What is a WBC? The refugees are afraid of radiation risks. But they seem to be aware clearly of the difference between internal and external exposures. The information disseminated is the radiation levels at each point in the area concerned. They remain stable or decreasing recently with no hydrogen explosions or vents. External exposures of the refugees do not seem very significant. Recent concerns are about vegetables and drinking water. They may cause internalexposures. Protective gears and masks are to avoid internal exposures, but many refugees seem to believe that they protect them from radiation. A Whole Body Counter is needed to measure the amount of radioactive materials taken into bodies. WBCs are normally used at the NPP for monitoring their radiation workers on a regular basis. WBCs will be an effective means to ease the refugees by measuring their internal exposures. But they are normally available only at some special research institutes such as the National Institute of Radiological Sciences.Seeing is believing. I wonder if there can be a practical system to measure and control theindividual’s external and internal exposures.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 10
1. Nursing functions upon evacuation The biggest difficulty upon evacuation and indoor sheltering fell upon nursing facilities,schools for the disabled, and hospitals. The whole patientscould not be transported in a hurry in a group by bus. It was not possible to carry them, unless adequate facilities and staff are available wherever to evacuate. Healthy people could manage to evacuate in one day, but it took much more time to carry them. Adequate facilities to accept them are not usually available everywhere. Normally they are in short everywhere. Their staffing is not sufficient,either. Those staff may not be able to evacuate together with the patients, they have their own families. It was not rare that some or many of caregivers, nurses and supporting members for catering, cleaning, etc. left the facilities upon evacuation never to return. There were also self-sacrificing people to fulfill their roles even if their homes were also in trouble. In the indoor sheltering zones, many hospitals fell into difficulties to maintain their services due to insufficient materials, medicines and staffing. Lessons: The town should have planned in advance which facility to evacuate where to and have arranged necessary agreements.Everything started from the “unhappy” fact: everybody took it for granted that a situation of whole evacuation due to nuclear accidents would never happen in my life. It was a mistake.2. Our anxiety Recalling back, we had little fears against radiation. The instruction was to evacuate upon emergency. No information was given on what the radiation level was, what type of dispersion of radioactive materials was foreseen, etc. With no information, no images came to us. No evacuees had realistic feeling. The only exception would be the person who said in his TV interview;“I was resigned to death. I felt as if vice might have eventually defeated virtue in Armageddon, when I heard the sound of hydrogen explosion at the hospital entrance in Futaba-cho while carrying a patient.” The persons for traffic control for evacuation were with white protective gears and masks.We simply thought that those people did so as a formality in their position, and that it would be hot, a pity for them. All we tried to do was to keep the car windows closed. We might have thought differently, should we have worn protective gears and masks. Nothing scaring is at the evacuation camps in Kawauchi-mura or in Koriyama. The only visible difference is to practice radiation screening. All we feel realistically is, watching the same TV programs as in Tokyo, that there may a lot of hardships with high radiation back in town. With no sight, we can have no specific fears, despite the word “Invisible fears.”3. “Facilities non grata” NPPs and garbage incinerating facilities are often named as “Facilities non grata.” But the local residents near the NPPs never thought of this trouble-making. No residents would die of radiation or get ill due to radiation. But once an instruction is issued to evacuate from the designated zones, all freedoms are lost. Nobody has a right to use their own houses, rice padsand agricultural fields. Nobody knows how soon they can use them again. If everything were lost by an earthquake or fire disasters, they may be able to have a kind of hope by claiming the insurance money for restoration. The evacuation camps move from one place to another,farther, and nobody knows when they can return home. Skilled workers (craftsmen,technicians, carpenters, painters, etc) may have an opportunity to find a job where they evacuated, but farmers have no such opportunities. All they can do is to watch and follow the development of the situation. Factory employees can do nothing productive, either, unless the factories can be accessed for use. No difference from the lost factories by tsunami. Childrenhave to choose a school to go upon the new semesters. No accidents other than nuclear accidents are so frustrating.4. Escape routes in the area Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture, accommodating Fukushima Daiichi and Daini NPPs, is located in a long zone from the north to the south, the so-called Hama-dori (Coastal Zone),facing the Pacific. Highway 6 connects Tokyo and Sendai through this area from south to north along the coast. Further to the coast side (east to Highway 6) is the Hama-dori Steet and the NPPs stand between this street and the coastline. All four NPP towns (Naraha, Tomioka,Okuma and Futaba) have their town centers on the west side of Highway 6. Most inhabitants live on the west side, too. Very few people live on the east side, on the NPP side. A new prefectural road, the Sanroku Highway, is being constructed to the west of, and in parallel with, Highway 6 for mitigating its traffic load. As a result, three trunk roads arerunning from north to south in Fukushima: Hama-dori, Highway 6 and Sanroku Highway. The earthquake and the tsunami destroyed Hama-dori completely, and tore Highway 6 into pieces.People evacuated to the west (Kawauchi-mura, Miyakoji Area in Tamura-city, Kuzuo-mura and Iidate-mura), using the nearest national road out of three. On their way, Sanroku Highway lies. People could opt to take any of these three roads for evacuation, if they go to north or south on the Sanroku Highway. But most people did not take this option, but took the accessright to the west. There was an opinion to build an escape route, but it did not come true. All done was to build bridges or tunnels on existing roads for dam constructions in the mountainous zones. Still they worked nicely helpfully, as their damage was limited because they were rather new and well maintained.If escape routes are newly explored, they must stand big earthquakes and big tsunmis. And there must be more than one.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 9
1. Information sources Major information sources of the refugees in the Big Palette are posters, TVs and free copies of newspapers. A couple of TV sets stand on each floor, showing mostly the NHK programs. Series of morning dramas or evening history dramas are very popular. No announcements are made by the town office, although all the functions and staff members have moved here, too. Back in town, monthly leaflets with town news or town council briefing were distributed regularly by area-wise group leaders. But nothing like that isworking here. Autonomy group activities in small areas are paralyzed. Bilateralcommunications between the town officers and the people are totally dead here. This abnormal situation is continuing from the very beginning of evacuation. People collect necessary information by themselves: from friends, from the staff at the temporary town office in the Big Palette. No means exists to absorb the opinions of refugees (villagers). Back in town, everything started from the bottom: from women’s groups, from the youth groups, from the junior groups, etc., but no more. People use mobile phones or free telephone services and collect information of interest. How the people of next town Okuma-cho are doing in evacuation, for instance, is fairly well known among our villagers.2. Taxes Little information reaches us from the tax office, much less than that from the prefectural disaster headquarters, insurance companies or post offices. Having a concern about the follow-up of the annual tax return process, which Isubmitted at the end of February, I contacted the tax office. I was told that the relevant information is given on the TV or in the newspapers. But they are not easily noticeable. Under this disaster, the tax agency postponed the deadline of the tax return processes. The new deadline is “Two months after returning to respective homes.” The tax return or withdrawal will follow later. The answer to my inquiry of whether evacuees of the earthquakes or nuclear accidents can be awarded with tax reduction was “Probably yes.” The national revenue maybe dropped significantly, in view of tax exemption to donations, fixed asset tax exemption as reported, tax reduction to refugees and depressed economic activities.3. Afterquakes Yesterday midnight (at 23:32 on April 7) an afterquake of Magnitude 7+ off Miyagi hit us (Koriyama was shaken, too, in Richter scale 6+). It refreshed our fears, especially so because afterquakes were decreasing these days and it occurred at midnight. The Big Palette is a modern building and we believe in its strength against earthquakes, but still the big sounds of steel beams or aluminum frames banging each other are scaring. Sudden and concurrent movements of everybody in the hall at midnight seem to easily cause a panic among us.Most scaring afterquakes were those of a couple of days after the main quake on March 11,when we temporarily stayed in Kawauchi-mura. They were more scaring than the radiation from the accidents, as they came one after another. We got gradually accustomed to quakes. Quakes in Richter scale 3 or so did not frighten us much any longer. On the other hand, we may have become nervous: even vibrations due to running big vehicles could be easily misinterpreted as quakes. When the TV reports Hama-dori (where is my house) was shaken in Richter scale 5+, a concern is raised: my house might have been damaged by big afterquakes, despite it stood the main quake of March 11. Frustrating is that no accessibility in the evacuation zones causes such unnecessary concerns. Furthermore, afterquakes are taking place nationwide: Ibaraki,Chiba, Aomori and the Japan Sea side. Where can we be safe and free from earthquake fears?4. Hierarchical relation: power relationship from top to bottom In evacuation life, the power relationship from top to bottom (from the government to theprefecture, towns and citizens) seems to become saliently visible. This relationship established in normal lives is well kept in evacuation life, too.Often we visit the town emergency headquarters for all kinds of consultation. We bring up with our opinions, requests, proposals, everything. But the staff members there are also our town fellows. As we know each other, we tend to hesitate saying too strongly. As we know their mindset is similar to ours, we well understand their difficultposition. They often say, “We are requesting the prefecture to do so,but ….” When we directly call the prefecture, the person on the other side of the line simply says, “We are requesting the government to do so, but ….” We want to protest in mind from our standpoint, “It is your role to protect us citizns. Why can’t you request the prefecture or the government more strongly? We are not to blame for this life with hardships. It is our right to request, isn’tit? Why the town acts so weak?”Actually none of us can dare to say this strong. The prefecture depends on money from the government, the towns depend on money from the prefecture, and we depend on the towns. Everybody is accustomed to this power relationship, and this constitution is maintained in evacuation life, too. Dissatisfactions tend to be repressed. Few people can be too demanding. Town staff is not too demanding, either. Rather they seem trying to appease us:“I can understand how you feel. But we can’t do anything more. Sorry.”
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 8
1. Cash for daily life Most refugees could bring out nothing but their daily wallets, no passbooks,no seals, no credit cards. Banks took a measure to let them withdraw up toUS$1,000 simply by identifying their names. Every refugee is becoming nervous about expenditures with the decreasing cash in hand. At the beginning of April, the town office awarded a US$200 interest-free loan for living. Most refugees live a frugal life in the evacuation camp, except for some affordable people who rent a house, stay at a hotel, move to another city, or who dine out. But everything cannot be obtained free for daily life. We needsomething from nearby household shops. We need some food stuff to add to the camp meals of simple omusubi. Additional bottled water is also needed. The vending machines of drinks are constantly filled with new bottles for making up consumptions. A long line stands inseconds if volunteers offer free miso-soup or amazake.Volunteer barbers visit us occasionally. They can serve only 20 refugees each time. Not everybody can enjoy their services. Money can solve the problem. Many barber shops and hair stylists stand nearby. At 4.00 a.m. 100 copies of free newspapers are delivered to the camp for distribution. All is gone by 6.00 a.m. A long queue of the people was built when free underwear or clothing for ladies were distributed. A wonder is why we don’t see much stuff for distribution at the camp, although the media report enormous amount of commodities are donated. I’ve never seen a big stock of donated goods at the Big Palette. Upon delivery, theyare distributed. Do we have too many evacuation camps? Do we have too many refugees? Or are they sleeping in the warehouses somewhere. Refugees’ mindset: our hardship in evacuation comes from TEPCO or the government; it is unreasonable for us ourselves to pay; the support of the prefectural government or the town office comes from our own tax; or to spend the money of us, victims, cannot be acceptable. Theoretically, daily expenses are needed whether or not in evacuation. It will be reasonable for them to pay, but psychologically it is hard to understand so.A report says on April 6 that US$10,000 is due to be provided per family as part of compensation, but its schedule remains unknown. The refugees continue their frugal life,consulting with the cash in wallets.2. A tragedy Four towns accommodating the NPP (Tomioka, Okuma, Futaba and Naraha) have most of their residential areas on a height above cliffs. The NPP occupy most coastal sides. This isdifferent from their next door districts of Namie-cho or Minami-Soma City. Casualties are relatively limited, but still 33 were killed and 44 are missing due to the big tsunami (as of April 5). Being designated as the evacuation zone, it became extremely difficult to recover the bodies and search for the missing: impossible by the families, even by the police. Recently,the US Army did a large-scale search operation, but outside 30km from the NPP. For the first time on April 7, the zone (10-20km) was searched by the police, but still no operation within the 10km zone. The people of Tomioka-cho or Okuma-cho are forced to spend days in mental torture. Nuclear accidents cause such unjustifiable consequences.3. Stresses and trouble While some people leave the Big Palette and move to a hotel or a rent-house, the total number of people here does not change much. Some of those who had left for their relatives or friends, or those who settled once in Niigata-ken or other settlements, come back to the Big Palette again. Why? At meeting places in the Big Palette (free telephone corners, for nstance),the complaints of such people can be heard: “We moved and stayed by my relatives upon their invitation, but the things went gradually worse after a couple of days. Gradually it became difficult to get rid of stresses and discomfort.” Such problems can happen even between parents and children or between brothers and sisters, unless they live closely all the time. There seem many such cases. The situation is more or less the same in the Big Palette. A simple cardboard can be the only wall to separate a family from another. Friendly relations can get worse gradually for many reasons:snores, loud radio volumes, unfair collection of supplies,lacking in cooperativeness, etc. Some people take alcohols for stress release, but may get drunk and isolated in a separate room or kicked off the hall.Alcohol is not prohibited in the hall. In all aspects, the environment is not good for children and youths.4. Fire crew Traditional teams of private fire fighters still exist in local communities of Japan. Their average ages are gradually increasing and the members are decreasing. But they are still constantly active in daily fire fighting, security keeping and training. In the first days in Kawauchi-mura, they were in uniform and very supportive, together with volunteers, to us refugees. Since we moved to the Big Palette, they were among us as refugee colleagues.There is an exclusive gathering spot of us in the Big Palette. Always a few of them can be seen there.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 7
1. “Voluntary evacuation,” a confusing notification Upon expanding the evacuation zone (March 12) from 10km to 20km from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, the zone beyond up to 30km was designated as the indoor sheltering zone. Part of the zone was further designated as the “Voluntary evacuation” zone. Minami-Soma-city is an example. The people in the “Indoor sheltering zone” have hardships in life: Very limited supply of daily commodities from outside, no services in the supermarkets, insufficient fuel supplies, etc. Hospitals, schools and public facilities are not working in the area as they were destroyed by the big tsunami. Some people left the zone one after another because of suchdifficulties in living, concerns about radiation, and the economic activities lost the energy. The government decision of “Voluntary evacuation” gave other confusions among the people including the mayor. What is meant by the “Voluntary” evacuation? The people must make their own decision to evacuate or not to evacuate?Ordinary citizens with little nuclear knowledge cannot make such a decision if the evacuation is hinted to avoid contamination due to radioactive materials. If it hints the evacuation due to hardships in living in the area, does it mean no government support or no later compensation? People believe this is an excuse of the government to avoid responsibilities. The number of residents in the “Indoor sheltering” and the “Voluntary evacuation” zones is much bigger than that of the “Evacuation” zone. The government’s follow-up announcement on the possibility of reviewing (redefining) the evacuation zones added further confusion among the people, despite the fact that some people started to return home and the community hospitals resumed their work. The mayor started to take a preparatory step for locating where to evacuate, in case being instructed to evacuate by the government. This leads to a suspicion among the people that the evacuation would be likelihood.“Voluntary” evacuation is a real hardship which keeps the people in agony for indefinite duration. Personally, I am strongly against this concept of the government.2. Hygienic concerns in the Big Palette As many as about 2,000 refugees live in the Big Palette. People walk around in shoes on the pathways just next to the place where other people sit or sleep on the blankets. The shoes bring mud in all the time. Sunlight in the morning or evening shows full of dusts in the air. Masks are indispensable, but not everybody wears it. Toilets are usually cleaned. With so many people, cleaning cannot be dispensed with. A concern is norovirus and respiratory health. Nurses and doctors have no good ideas to deal with, either. Smoking and pets are prohibited in the building. Bottled water has little concern, but without refrigerators foods distributed or stocked in private spaces could decay or breed bacteria.3. Outdated bread A trouble on outdated foods: I noticed a couple of days ago that the sweet buns distributed for breakfast were outdated. They were not distributed by a mistake. The distribution of outdated breads lasted for days. I found at the disaster headquarters that the town staff in charge had distributed them, being aware. To my complaint of risks of food poison, he lost his words. After minutes, he said “I would take responsibility.” What did he mean? Minutes later he promised, by consultation with other staff members, to distribute from the next day before they outdate. According to his explanation why such a thing happens, he receives a lot of breads for use-by date from the prefectural headquarters by a forwarding company, too many to distribute on the day. Some of them are left for the next day distribution. Further in the upstream, I inquired the bread-maker why we got outdated breads at the evacuation camp. The response: “We deliver, on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery,about 60, 000 pieces of bread to the prefectural distribution points: The products leave our factory at 3.00 p.m. and reach each distribution point by midnight.” That means we should have three more days before they outdate. For allocating and distributing to each evacuation camp, this three days are wasted. Distribution at one time for two day use is also a matter of concern. Why can’t the bread-maker directly deliver the products to the evacuation campswith many refugees? Insensibility and laziness of public servants are to blame. From the next day, we could get the pieces for use-by date, and from April 5 we can get the one for use-by next day.4. Schools New semesters started at primary and junior high schools. A week ago, an orientation was held at the evacuation camps, too. All childrenseem to know by now which school they go. A lot of concerns, though: no desks for preparatory and review homework; an environment with TV sets switched on all the day; insufficient school supplies (bags, textbooks and others), etc. Some families decided to leave the camp and rented a nearby apartment or moved to a new settlement.Stronger hardships tend to go weaker groups: agedpeople, handicapped people or children. Families with children should be given a priority to get a rent-house or temporary house. It is disappointing that nobody seems concerned in the legislation and proactive for improvement. What is the prefectural education board doing? The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) does nothing.Nothing is heard of what the Teachers Union is doing.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 6
1. Disaster-victim certificates Upon entry to the evacuation camps, the name and the address are recorded and the certificate is issued to everybody. It will not be reissued. Thiscertificate is said to have advantages: no cost to the express highway, for instance. But it did not mean the right to get gasoline with priority. The priority is given only to emergency vehicles. The certificate seems not very helpful at the moment. It may work in future when the compensation comes on the agenda.When leaving a camp, the date and the destination should be notified and recorded accordingly. Not certain how this process is common to other groups of refugees in the disaster areas.2. Volunteers for help A lot of volunteers are working for us in the Big Palette. The town staff even said once,“Nothing can be done without them.” The pathways on the floor are constantly mopped quietly by young ladies; Refuse is separated even with this big community; Food supplies are distributed; Car traffic is controlled at theparking lot, etc. etc. Volunteers are easily recognizable by their paste-on name tags on theirchests.There are one-time volunteers, too, helping us: kill time, ease fears, mitigate the economy-class syndromes by exercise, etc. etc. Some others cut hairs, play with kids, bring them to entertainment shops in the city, offer body massages to elderly people, entertain the people by songs and music performances, etc. etc. A message offers to take care of the pets for a while. An NTT person helps us, day and night, using free public phones or internet. The reputation of NTT is not good under this emergency condition. The mobile phones had a big difficulty in connection.There seems no control center of all volunteers. The process of distributing food supplies,for instance, differs from person to person. A kind of manuals may be needed for incoming new volunteers in order to keep some orders and qualities. Some volunteers are bureaucratic and rigid in handling the confusing situation. There may be some difficulty to keep themunder control: most of them seem not familiar with or disciplined to follow the systematic group rules.3. The home town now The biggest interest of the refugees is how our home town looks like now. According to some one-time unauthorized visitors, who dared to “invade” the roped “evacuation zones,”the town looks as it was before. Nothing seemed to have changed. No radiation records of Tomioka-cho are even reported. Probably the radiation in the environment is not so serious. No such unauthorized visitors seem to have any desperate perceptionof “jeopardized to dangers,” when they visit the town. The roads may be slightly damaged, but it is so indicated and emergency repairs are done with sandbags or boards for bumps. The low lands of the town, including the JR Tomioka Station, along the coastline across the Highway 6, lost all roads due to the tsunami. All roads in other areas survived and are still usable. Traffic lights lost their power at many points, but they were working in Kawauchi-mura, just before Tomioka-cho.Some field workers were recognized in Kawauchi-mura Village, an evacuation designated area, with no special protective equipment. In Tomioka-cho, dogs were roaming and prowling. Some of them approach the approaching vehicles for preys. Many birds were loudly crying. A lot of private cars were left behind on the grounds of the primary school or the town culture center,when the owners had evacuated after the quake.When a car comes from ahead, the passengers put masks on their mouths and wore rain gears around their heads. Most of them made a short visit to theirhome to bring something back. Other than them,some jeeps were running with a mark on their bodies “Rescue, Self Defense Force”. They met with a couple of police patrol cars on their way but they did not pay special attention to the short home visitors.A rumor said many burglars were hunting out in the town. But no such indications were noticed. No tap water supply. No big visible damage was seen in and outside of the houses despite the repeated afterquakes. No rain leaks were noticed in the houses, because of no big rainfalls in the past weeks, even though they lost their roofs in the earthquakes. Some refugees consider covering their houses with big blue sheets for the convenience of later restoration. It takes about two hours by car from Koriyama to Tomioka, the distance being 100 km one way. On their way back, several police officers were on duty in Tokiwa-machi,but nobody paid attention to them. Short visitors checked the electricity and the house doors for locks, cleared the refrigerators, and brought back: valuables like bank passbooks, seals,cash, credit cards, certificates or spirit tablets, minimum clothing and bed clothing in need for the time being, or tool kits, if he is a craftsman. Some returned to bring back their cars.It is said that the police would strengthen the roadblock for the evacuation zones. Unauthorized home visits would become difficult. That stimulates some people to visit their homes before the situation worsens. The tsunami hit people want to search for missing family members and check the house conditions as soonest as possible. The town authorities are said to be negotiating with the government for letting people make a short return to their homes,but no firm possibility is seen while the accidents are unlikely to terminate in the near future.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life5
1. Lavatory and toilets in the Big Palette The first evacuation camp at a junior high school gymnasium in Kawauchi-mura Village had only one toilet for 500 people: A long queue at all times and dirty. Another toilet next to the tennis court, a couple of minutes walk, was also dirty. The Big Palette is a modern exhibition hall, well equipped with toilets and air conditioners, but no lavatories and bathrooms, because it was not designed for overnight stays. The toilets were not sufficient, either, for the “Beyond-design-basis” population of refugees.No room shoes (sandals) were used at the beginning. Later they are served by volunteers. Few women do a make-up.2. Radiation screening for newcomers First thing for newcomers to do at the Big Palette is to go through the radiation screening.Following the sign of “Radiation Screening,” they visit the inspection station located in a stockroom. The whole body with clothing on and both hands are surveyed in two minutes. The inspection certificate is issued on the spot. It reads simply “Survey done, the Big Palette Fukushima”: No dates, no identification of the inspectee, no official signatures. Dialogue at the reception: “Inspectionfinished? “Yes.” That’s it, nothing more. No request of showing the certificate. Personally I am concerned about its simple procedure. I hope this does not cause any problems in later days. This radiation screening is executed at all evacuation camps: at the very first camp in Kawauchi-mura at its Fire Station, and at the second in Tamura-cho for temporary stay, too.No certificates were issued, but instead we were instructed to write our names and addresses in a separate note. The survey took time in Kawauchi-mura, probably because the location had had a higher background level. My shoes showed a bit high values. I took a second survey after cleaning my shoes with papers. The inspectors kept all the records, and no copies,no explanations were given to the inspectees. The vehicles and their tires were not inspected.No commodities in the car were inspected, either. This is different from the inspections at the check points for the foot-and-mouth epidemics. Two residents, who continued to stay in the evacuation zone of 10km from the NPP and later brought to the camp, showed no abnormal values when inspected. A lot of people in the “indoor sheltering” zones decided to evacuate,not because of radiation fears, but because of insufficient material supply for living. This happened because the drivers from other areas were hesitated to approach the zones for delivery, being concerned about the radiation contamination.A potential problem will be the unclear objectives of the radiation screening and its targetpeople.3. The reality of the evacuation operation The reality of the evacuation plans is really poor and shuddering. How did it start? We spent the night of the quake in the car, napping. At 9:00 a.m. on March 12, the village emergency broadcast shouted:Dear towners, an emergency started at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP! Evacuate immediately to the Kawauchi-mura Town Office. Drive yourself, if you can. If you cannot, take a bus at the town meeting point ASAP. The emergency alert for nuclear accidents was just this one in the morning. This emergency broadcast usually informs us, in quiet and peaceful tones, of the time of children’s return to home from school: Dear towners, it is time for children to leave for home; Please watch the children for safety. The only message from the broadcast we heard this time was the one, immediately after the quake on the previous day. It was repeated more than a couple of times: A big tsunami will hit us in 30 minutes; Please evacuate to a height in the back; Leave and do not approach the coastline.“I have to hurry before losing time.” Upon the nuclear alert, this hasty mindset came to me, not because of fears against radiation, but because of the traffic jam foreseen ahead. Repeatedaftershocks still in the morning also accelerated my hastiness. In 30 minutes, I collected and packed some pieces from the house into the car and rushed to start. I could manage to add a cat cage and some prey for it. I was lucky to have filled my fuel tank of the car the day before.I left the height near the house facing the coastline, made for Kawauchi-mura to the west and crossed Highway 6 in a couple of minutes. The traffic jam started soon after I drove about 100m in a path to Kawauchi-mura, far before the town center. Eventually we needed five hours to get the evacuation camp there. It took little time until the inside of the car became dreadfully hot, with all windows closed. Most vehicles in the long queue seemed private cars.No coaches were seen. The coaches owned by Tomioka-cho for immediate use are very limited. The NPP has a lot of commuting buses for their workers, but nothing of them wasavailable in such a situation. Essentially, private cars are the only means for immediate evacuation of the whole town. Every evacuation camp was full of such private cars on itsopen field.The evacuation camp for us is limited to a location right to the west in the mountainous area. The east is blocked by the Pacific, the north and south routes were destroyed by the tsunami, no other choice but to the west. The escape route is inevitably limited to one. This caused the heavy traffic. Wind direction should be taken into account for evacuation, but no other choice was left to us, but Kawauchi-mura in the west. For the people of Okuma-cho, the only choice was to Tamura-cho and its next-door villages in the west. All the refugees were very fortunate, because the roads to the west had no serious damage to the bridges and tunnels due to the big quake. Depressions of the roads were limited. No roads collapsed seriously. We were very fortunate by chance. It is really surprising to notice that as many as 40, 000 people could evacuate with no panic, although it took them more than a couple of hours to complete the evacuation. Big lessons should be learned from the experience: the evacuation plan and itspre-arrangement; prior dissemination of evacuation logistics to the people; practical training,etc. The people were not well prepared, either.Irresponsibility existed everywhere and everybody. Is the Nuclear Safety Commission right when it says “we need some simplicity for practical evacuation”? Nobody wants to be simplified, but it may be the reality in a war.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life4
1. People’s mentality towards TEPCO It is not good and getting worse. It could be because: (1) Nobody from TEPCO visits us;(2) Time is being consumed before terminating the accidents; (3) No mentioning to compensation; and (4) No TEPCO support to the evacuation camp, etc. Frustrations built intheir deep psychology before the accidents might have been released from their control. TEPCO employees as well as those of TEPCO’s associated companies are well paid, enough to build new houses. On the other hand, sub-contractors’ employees, workers in the local industries and farmers have had envious mentality. Distinction also exists among local shop owners: those who could get contracts with TEPCO (stable earnings) and those who could not (frustrated). TEPCO employees had a reputation of being arrogant and authoritative, well paidfor no significant labor. Some people here claim that the TEPCO people have lost their face to see us. Daily frustrations seem to have erupted. They think: “TEPCO is not capable, they simply acted big”; “Old nuclear units 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi should have been dismantled earlier. They operated these old units with insufficient care. The accident is their bad karma”;or “The TEPCO should come to us for support before voluntary people, but nobody comes from TEPCO. No compliments come to us from TEPCO”.A lot of people support the decision of the Fukushima Governor not to meet the TEPCO President for his apology visit.Most farmers, full time or part time, cannot go back to farming for the time being. Their dissatisfaction might be strengthened, if the compensation is not sufficient.2. Message boards Hundreds of messages are on the boards. Safety confirmation messages are most. They are dropped when the safety is confirmed. The number is gradually decreasing. Other messages are: from the town offices, “Gambaro” messages from overseas, information on nearby public baths, in-camp rules and logistics, various event announcements by volunteers, exemption of NHK TV viewing fees during evacuation, contact points of banking institutions, loanopportunities for living expenses, bath times for tent baths, finger language services, etc., etc. They aare not arranged in chronological order. It is not easy to have a look at every message.Information is complementally needed from private sources. Anexample is how to get the information on gasoline availability whereto get, if badly needed: Go to the express highway service areas.3. Town emergency headquarters It was relocated to the Big Palette. The whole town had to evacuate,including town offices and their staff, to the Big Palette. In the Big Palette, both Tomioka-cho and Kawauchi-mura have their temporary offices. The evacuation is likely to last for some months or even longer. A temporary building is being planned, next to the Big Palette, for the town offices.The temporary town offices function as the emergency headquarters, too, and are responsible for taking care of all sorts of the people’s needs. About 30 staff members are constantly on duty there. Some volunteer staff from other prefectures (Yamaguchi, for instance) also workthere, but not everybody is familiar with the local practices. Occasionally the mayor is seen,but mostly he is on outside duty, for the negotiations or the meetings with the Prefectural government.4. Optional hotel life A new option started to support the refugees who want to stay in a hotel or a Japanese style 'ryokan” with a hot spring. The support is to provide ￥5,000 (US$50)2 per day up to three months. Many refugees took this option: new living environment (from lying on the floor to beds or in “Futon (mattresses)” as in leisure trips); better foods (from simple rice ball meals to certain menus with hot meals), and most importantly the better family privacy ensured in ndividual rooms. The first group left us. Surprisingly, some of them returned to the BigPalette, complaining that the parking was charged, the room conditions were very bad, etc.Daily support of US$50 is not bad, but it causes another distinction among the refugees: those who can afford and who cannot. More than hundred families left the Big Palette. But the Big Palette is still full, probably because of those “returners” and newcomers.5. Pets A dog adrift on wreckages on the Pacific was reported to have been rescued about three weeks after the tsunami and returned to the owner. A lot of people had their dogs or cats at home, but most of them were left behind or released to the field upon evacuation. Some people found, upon their unauthorized short return visit to their houses, many of them wandering in empty towns/villages. Some of them were lying on the street with no care to approaching cars. Many of them are starving with no foods for weeks. They may become theprey of wild animals in the area: foxes, masked palm civets or crows.Some refugees took a risk to return homes to fetch them. But no pets are allowed in the Big Palette. They have to stay outside on a leash. Cats can be kept in the cars or in the pet hotels. The hotels or rent houses allowing pets, however, are not so popular in Koriyama like in Tokyo.The aforementioned message board extends a couple of offers to take care of pets for a while. Pets might be the most affected victims hit by the accidents.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura experience in Evacuation Life 3
1. Transportation About 1,000 private cars stand in the parking lot of the Big Palette. They belong to the refugees who could evacuate by their cars. A problem is those who left their cars behind. Some refugees took an evacuation bus from home, and some left their cars at the first rendezvous point in Kawauchi-mura Village dueto insufficient fuels at the time. Those who brought their cars also had a problem for the first week: No gasoline,no shopping. In about a week, gasoline was purchasable with no limit but after a long line. In ten days, the linedisappeared at the gas station, sufficient fuels are purchasable. Koriyama-city has now a traffic jam problem: full of refugees and cars for emergency restoration. Cars to northern disaster areas (Iwate, etc.) also drive through Koriyama-city.Highway 6 near the coastline is blocked due to the Tsunami and the nuclear accident. All traffic has to use Highway 4 through Koriyama-city, the only surface trunk road to the north,or the Tohoku Express Highway. Koriyama-city is about 100km off Fukushima Daiichi, about two hours by car, so is from Iwaki-city (Highway 49). The town buses of Tomioka-cho andKawauchi-mura are used to transport the refugees to and from the Koriyama-city center.2. Telephones, TV NTT free public phones (about 10 sets) are in service for refugees. Most refugees have mobile phones, but the battery charge is the problem. Most people have no their own chargers.Free charging machines are installed for them.The Big Palette has a lot of power plugs on the wall. Some people connect their portable TV sets or electric kettles. Only one big TV monitor was in the hall at the beginning, but in recent days several sets are installed. Many vending machines also exist for drinks.3. How to kill time A big library of comics is for many children, some adults, too, for a whole day. Volunteers visit us for songs with guitars, light gymnastics to combat economic class syndromes, etc.Yesterday, the Self Defense Force members presented musical performances. Many children play ball games on the ground. But a lot of us simply lie on the blankets or chat with others the whole day. Certainly everybody lacks in physical exercise. Most elderly people do fieldwork at home, but nothing in particular to do here. Once an announcement is made on the events or their plans, everybody starts to move and listen to the speakers4. First-aid station A room on the ground level accommodates the people with chronic diseases, mostly elderly people. A first-aid station is in service there. Town nurses of Tomioka-cho and Kawauchi-mura are always on duty for consultations. Doctors are also in service, but not always. No cost for diagnoses and medications. Fewpeople could have brought their own medications at hand, high blood pressure patients, for instance. As the evacuation continues, more and more people suffer from discomforts. The first-aid station helps a lot. The staff members are alsoconcerned about mal-nutrition of the people. They take similar meals like us. In Kawauchi-mura, the first few day evacuation, the town health clinic was working. Medications were also provided.But its inventory was limited in types and numbers. Fortunately, no such concerns since we settled in the Big Palette.5. People’s mentality towards NPP People who lost their houses due to the quake or the tsunami are minority here. The majority is those who had to leave their existing houses due to the nuclear accidents. They are not allowed to return and they do not know how soon they will be allowed to do so. The people in other disaster areas could have started working to restore their homelands and the people here have no ways to follow. This mentality should be extraordinary. For most of them,real nuclear accidents are totally new and could have never imagined. We accepted NPPs forTokyo and other big cities and we are forced to have this hardship. There were certainly some benefits: increased job opportunities, for instance. But nobody has ever thought of such eventual return for accepting NPPs. We were told that NPPs were safe. But the reality is not. They must be robust for any big quakes or tsunamis.Tomioka-cho accommodates Fukushima Daini, too, with four units, which could survive the quakes and tsunami.How will the local residents make a decision for restarting the operation? The mayor has a leading opinion in Futaba-gun for agreeing with the plutonium utilization in NPPs. He should have a complex mentality and his messages sound slightly different in nuance from other mayors (perhaps bitter disappointment rather than anger).Currently people at large are against restoring NPPs at Fukushima Daiichi (including Units 5 and 6), and for dismantling. The air photo below is a bird-eye view of the plant before theaccident (taken from TEPCO homepage). It is interesting to notice, however, that about a half of interviewees in the NHK survey at the beginning had an affirmative response. This result ismore or less same with nationwide survey by another media. It is possible that some people could get earnings from the NPP or its related industry. But this affirmative response seems being gradually weakened as the nuclear alert is prolonged with no clear indication of termination. New opinions seem developing among them on the needs of non-nuclear businesses in local communities for town restoration.
2012.02.14
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Kitamura in evacuation camp after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accidents2
1. Our evacuation camp Big Palette Early in the morning of March 12, the instruction for evacuation reached the community residents in Tomioka-cho. The first rendezvous point was our next village Kawauchi-mura,from where we moved to the first evacuation camp in a school gymnasium in Tamura-city. A few days later on March 16 we further moved to the Big Palette (an international exhibition center) in Koriyama-city, about 100km to the west from Fukushima Daiichi. About 2,000 residents from Tomioka-cho and its neighbour community Kawauchi-mura are stay at the Big Palette, including the town staff (mayors and the staff). Some town residents (limited) evacuated to three other camps. The Big Palette is fairly big but is full of refugees with no further space to accommodate more. Some refugees took an option and left us to stay temporarily at nearby hotels (up to three months), but some other refugees came back to us from their temporary residence at their relatives or friends. The Big Palette is still constantly full (as of early April).2. Living space Most of the whole floor space of the three-storied Big Palette is occupied by the refugees, who build their own living space on the blankets distributed and cardboard walls around them to isolate themselves from their neighbors. The ground and the second floors have rooms and are kept fairly warm, but the terrace portion of the first floor is a one glass-walled and tented space. It is shivering during the night there. Physically weak people are allowed tooccupy warmer spaces.The individual spaces are taken on the first-come first-served basis. Pathways trough the living space is limited to minimum. At some places it is even hard to walk through. Everybody is bundled together on the floor. To ensure some warm air and privacy, some families build their “houses” with cardboard walls and a ceiling around their space. You can image it if you think of a cardboard house of street dwellers (homeless people). Most elderlypeople cannot build such houses and they live almost in an open environment. It was so cold at the first night; we could not stay in the building and decided to stay in ourown car outside with heaters on. (March 17)3. Baths There were no baths at the first evacuation camp in Kawauchi-mura: no baths for the first three days of evacuation. At the Big Palette, outdoor tent baths were built by the National Self-Defense Force for men and women on the premisesand we could take bath every day from the next day of our arrival. We could also opt to visit a public bath in nearby Onsen hotels by bus. The bath tents are guarded by the Defense Force members. The baths are lamped but not bright enough. Many refugees use the baths and the water is not clean all the time. Some flotage (scurf or something)is on the water surface. Lucky people take clean baths when they visit personal friends or relatives.4. Meals Three meals are provided each day. We stand in a long line to get one an hour before served: One rice ball (Omusubi) or one sweet bun per each. A bottle of water is offered together from time to time. At the beginning, a lunch box of disposable styrofoam was served containing steamed rice and some friedfood, but not any longer, and recently nothing but a rice ball or a sweet bun. Very occasionally, an apple is added and a sweet for children. Today, a piece ofcucumber is distributed, with an instruction to wash before eating. No ressing, no salts. An embarrassment propagated among the refugees. In the first evacuation camp at a gymnasium in Kawauchi-mura, one cup noodle was sometimes the only meal for two people and even further we were told to reuse the cup after cleaning. Even one month in evacuation, meals are more or less the same with no consideration of balanced nutrition: very little protein. Out-of-date products of sweet buns were not rare in recent days. Upon our protests, we got today sweet buns for use-by date In response to our omplaints, volunteer distributors surprised us by saying, “You are treated better. There are many other people at other evacuation camps in inferior conditions” Many neighbor refugees are quietly taking their meals distributed. They seem to have forgotten any expectations. Since long-lasting meal conditions like this will cause health problems, I submitted an opinion to the town emergency headquarters and requested them to launch a system of improving mal-nutrition as in the school catering under nutritionist control. I also requested in writing the Prefectural Headquarters for urgent improvement, but in vain.There are a couple of local restaurants and supermarkets with plenty of foods in Koriyama-city. Some refugees get foods there, if they have money and a car.5. Shopping for daily needs The Big Palette is located along the trunk road Highway 4, a fairly busy street with car shops, DIY centers, housing exhibits, home electric appliance shops and others. In ten minutes, we can drive to Koriyama-city, where the busiest shopping mall in Fukushima Prefecture is. Many shops were closed immediately after the quake. Even at the open supermarkets, the commodities were very limited. Elderly people and those with no cars could not visit the shops even across the Highway 4. Several taxis are standing at the Big Palette, but no clients. No sales in the Big Palette. Local newspapers are placed at thereceptionist for free. Nothing distributed is priced.
2012.02.14
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A refugee life in Fukushima nuclear accidents
This is an experience record of a "nuclear person," experiencing an evacuation life due to nuclear accidents, a unique record of what was experienced, observed and suggested for future. It is not very detail, but it is his real day-to-day records for a month or so since the accidents.Kitamura in evacuation camp after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accidents1Kitamura is a JAIF consultant living 12 years in Tomioka-cho Town nearthe Fukushima Daiichi NPP2. After the accidents his family is among therefugees in an evacuation camp.This is his day-by-day records, including what he experienced, observed,analyzed and how he acted.His house is in Tomioka-cho, 10km south of the NPP site. His first evacuation camp was in Kawauchi-mura Village 20km to the west, further to Tamura-city, 70km away, and the second is in Koriyama-city, 100 km from the site How it started on March 12, 2011 (More details in (4)-3: The reality of the evacuation plans)At 9:00 a.m. on March 12, 2011, next day of the Big Earthquake, the town emergency broadcast in Tomioka-cho shouted: Dear towners, an emergency started at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP! Evacuate immediately to the Kawauchi-mura Village Office. Drive yourself, if you can not, take a bus at our meeting point ASAP.The only prior message from the broadcast was the one, immediately after the quake on the previous day: A big tsunami will hit us in 30 minutes; Please evacuate to a height in the back;Leave and do not approach the coastline. In 30 minutes, I collected and packed some pieces from the house into the car and rushed to start.The evacuation camp for us is limited to just one location to the west. The east is blocked by the Pacific, the north and south routes were destroyed by the tsunami, no other choice but to the west. The roads to the west had no serious damage. We were very fortunate by chance. It is really surprising that as many as 40, 000 people could evacuate with no panic.
2012.02.14
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ご心配をおかけしました
ご心配をおかけしましたが、とりあえず無事です。 皆様、ありがとうございました。そのうちいろいろ書きたいと思いますが今のところはネット環境の点で出来ません。
2011.04.06
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ゼロの焦点
最近、松本清張のゼロの焦点や砂の器など社会派ドラマがリバイバルされている。やや時代が違う感じはするが、やはり今圧倒的に多い２時間ミステリーものに比べると重厚さがある。 今のテレビはやたらに人が殺され、科学捜査によってあるいは規格外れの刑事や検事によって謎解きが行われるものばかり。作り方が安易過ぎる。 これらのドラマはまさに消耗品で、後世に残るようなものはほとんどない。もう少し現代社会の病巣やＩＴやグローバル化の時代の問題点を掘り下げた作品が登場してもよいのではないか。
2011.03.11
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あきれた言い分
島根原発で大量の機器の点検洩れが発覚した。あれほど原発の管理ミスが問題になったあとだっただけに関係者にショックが走り、地元住民も呆れた。他の電力会社の原発も再点検したらやはり同じようなミスがあったというおまけまでついた。 なんでもコンピュータで管理される時代、いくら機器や部品の点数が多いといっても、どうしていつまでもおそまつな点検ミスがなくならないのか。このトラブルで驚いたのは保安院という原発の規制をする役所のこと。 大量の点検は実務を原子力安全基盤機構（ＪＥＮＥＳ）に任せているが、今回、自ら反省の弁はなく、ＪＥＮＥＳに対して「何を検査しているのか」と怒るばかりだった。保安院こそ国民から「何をしているのか」と怒られるべきだ。
2011.03.10
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白モクレン
東北の入り口である白河の関がある白河市がモクレンなど白い花の咲く木をたくさん植える計画を立てたが、これはグッドアイデアだ。全国に桜を植える運動などがあるが、白い花だけにして差別化するのがポイント。木は将来にわたって大きく成長するので楽しみだ。 福島県には個人が所有する「花見山」という四季の花がさく小さな山があるが、これが今や一大観光資源になっている。 「時がたつにつれて素晴らしいものになる」がキーワードだ。 南禅寺の疎水のレンガ造りが良い手本だが、いずれにしても安価な材料やどこにでもある木を植え、そのあとの手入れを怠るなどしていては観光地の競争には勝てない。
2011.03.10
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アメリカ人の認識
世界貿易センタービルが崩壊したとき、ブッシュ大統領は「これは戦争だ」と言ったが、アメリカが真珠湾攻撃を受けたときを思い出してのことだろう。アメリカが奇襲をくらう原因はアメリカ自身が作ったことに思いをいたすことが出来ないのがアメリカ人だ。 ＡＢＣＤ包囲網で日本が石油を調達出来ないようにした連合国。そのリーダーがアメリカだった。エネルギー枯渇による国家破滅の危機感が日本を対米開戦に踏み切らせ、その結果真珠湾が攻撃された。 アメリカなど欧米列強が中東を石油資源の争奪の場とし、イスラエルの建国の後ろ盾をしたことが中東諸国の貧困と混乱を起こした。９．１１はその結果として起きたという認識を持つアメリカ人がどのくらいいるのだろうか。
2011.03.09
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おざなりな安全協定
地域の衛生処理組合によって汚泥処理施設が造られ、それを運転する組合と住民代表との安全協定の案が示された。施設の運転にともなって排出物、悪臭、騒音などの測定を行い、住民に報告すると書かれている。 しかし、どのくらいの頻度で測定をするのか、どのような方法で住民に報告がされるのかについては一切書かれていない。これでは測定が週に一回なのか、年に一回なのか、また報告は測定の都度なのか、まとめて年一回やるのかわからない。 組合側に勝手に解釈できるように、あるいは勝手に決められるようにされているのではと勘ぐりたくもなる。行政側や企業側は後でどうにでも解釈できるようにしたいという気持ちがあるから住民側は十分に注意が必要だ。
2011.03.09
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世代間の資金移動
すでに我が国ではサービス業など第三次産業に従事する人が全労働者の７割を占めている。これから団塊世代を中心となって医療、介護などがますます必要となるため、これらが大きな産業となる。 これらの費用は税金、保険などで賄われるほかは、サービスを受ける本人たちが負担する。団塊世代が長年蓄積してきた年金、保険、貯蓄などがこれに当てられる。 つまり高齢者から若い世代へサービス提供を介して資金が徐々に移動する。高度成長期の団塊世代の努力の成果がこれから何十年にもわたって日本経済を潤すのだ。
2011.03.08
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日本の食材
産地によって食材そのものがなぜかおいしさが違う。野菜やくだものもそうだが、日本の土や天候がつくりだす作物の味は特別のものだ。これは魚や貝など海産物についても言える。 カニで言えば北海道産とロシア産のどこが違うかと思うが、確かに北海道産の方が美味しいし、高価だ。恐らく採りかたや採ったあとの処理が違うのだろう。 サバもノルウェー産と日本近海産があるが、ノルウェーのは脂がきつすぎると寿司屋の旦那が言っていた。日本の産地ではタグを付けたり、シールを貼ったりと本場ものをアッピールしているが、何より大切なのは消費者の舌がしっかりすることだ。
2011.03.08
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大切な農地
世界には１０億人の飢餓に瀕している人々がいるが、今後開拓が可能な土地はそう多くは残されていない。１９６７～２００７年の間に世界の穀物生産量は１１５％増えたが、農地の拡大は８％しか広がっていない。 逆に人口爆発で人口１人当たりの農地は同期間に、１．３ヘクタールから０．７２ヘクタールに減少した。それなのにせっかく千年もかけて耕作地を築いてきた日本では減反があり、耕作放棄地がどんどん増えている。 八郎潟や有明海の干拓など米余りの原因になる開拓も行われてきた。耕作放棄地を不況の建設業に耕作請負をさせて収穫した米を国が買い上げて途上国援助に当てることにすればよい。
2011.03.07
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高齢化社会の処方箋
これから団塊の世代がリタイアして２０１０年から２０３５年までの間、高齢者の数が増えたままの状態が続く。若い世代は年金や介護の費用負担が掛かってくるので大変だ。 この負担を若い人ばかりに押し付けるのではなく、高齢者自身も努力する必要があり、社会システムもそのように変えるべきだ。定年をなくして元気なうちは短時間でも働いてもらう。元気な高齢者が介護を必要とする高齢者の面倒を見るのだ。 さらに小さな子供の世話は高齢者に任せる。今の高齢者の特質は高い教育水準と常識があること。今の若い人に不足している社会的スキルもしっかり持っているから安心だ。
2011.03.07
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採用
大手スーパーのイオングループが今年度１万人の採用をすると発表した。この就職が厳しい時期に朗報だと思ったら、そのうち２５００人は外国人学生を採用するという。 いよいよ日本にも雇用のグローバル化が現実のものとなっている。日本人学生はもう日本企業だから日本人学生を雇用してくれると考えない方が良いようだ。 先日も私大に学ぶ東南アジアやモンゴルの学生が、日本企業に就職することを考えて日本に留学したと言っていた。大学側は外国人学生の受け入れに積極的だが、彼等が日本人の学生にとって就活での強敵であることは間違いない。
2011.03.06
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裏表
イギリスはジェントルマンの国だと言われている。裏を返せばそれだけ強欲で狡猾な性質を特権階級が持っており、それゆえジェントルマン精神が讃えられてきたのだ。 中国で儒教が人の上にたつもののために孔子によって説かれてきたのも、権謀術数、民を苦しめ略奪の限りをつくした権力者がいたという反映でもある。 刑事は被疑者の取り調べに当たって被疑者の発言のうち何回も繰り返されたり、特別に強調されている部分に着目するという。日本人が白黒決着をつけたがる性質を持っているのは、普段はそれだけあいまいなことをしている証である。
2011.03.06
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メンテナンス力
近頃、車を運転していて気になることがある。道路に引かれた停止線、白ペンキのトマレ表示などが薄れている。センターラインや追い越し禁止の黄色のラインなどもそうだ。これらをメンテナンスしてくっきりと引き直すだけの財政的余裕がないことを表している。 ラインならまだ猶予は出来るが、これが県道などに架かる橋などでは危険そのものだ。橋の鉄骨のペンキ塗りを見送れば、錆はどんどん橋の強度を奪っていく。 ニュージーランドの地震による行方不明事故では先日の強い地震後の建物の補修がされないうちに再び強い余震で倒壊したようだ。橋の上を走行するたびに強い地震が起きないようにと念じながら通るようだ。
2011.03.05
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翻訳書
海外の作家や学者の書いたものを翻訳で読むと、いらいらした経験はないだろうか。翻訳者が悪いのではなく、彼等の書いたものに原因がある。 彼らの著作に共通するものは、書き方がくどいこと、前置きが多いことだ。ギリシャ神話になぞらえた話など出てくるとその部分は飛ばしたくなる。事例が一つ二つではなく次から次へと出てきてうんざりする。 それでも日本人のものにはない構想の大きさ、切り口の新鮮さがあることは確かで、我慢して読み続けることになる。日本人のものを外国語に翻訳して出版した場合、外国人はその簡明な書き方に物足りなさを感じるはずだ。
2011.03.05
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原子力の価値
漁師が燃料費の値上がりで漁に出てもほとんど儲けがないそうだ。今のように原油が値上がりしてくると頼れるエネルギーとして原子力の価値がどんどん高まってくるが、依然としてマスコミはソーラーや風力など自然エネルギーの開発を進めるべきとの論調が強い。 ここに来て中東情勢が怪しいのに、遠い将来の話をしても始まらない。それより石油から電気への切り替えを自動車を始めてして推進するべきだ。 そのうち船舶についても電池を積んでモーター駆動のものが開発されることが期待される。原子力で電気というのはエネルギー効率も高く、なにより安定しているのが魅力だ。
2011.03.04
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全1824件 (1824件中 1-50件目)
