- The forced resignation of the Reconstruction Minister
Ryu Matsumoto is yet another symptom of the political and social disintegration
of Japan in the nuclear crisis.
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- The Japanese tend to be creatures of routine who do
not cope well in crisis. Japanese history shows that between dynamic eras
of unification, Japanese society tends toward atomization, descends into
a Dark Age of ignorance, distrust and fear. That negative tendency is playing
out right now, as individuals retreat into their shells and the social
cogs fail to align into a working machine.
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- Matsumoto, a burakumin (the traditional underclass)
from Kyushu who understands hardship and endurance (and already a target
of the LDP), expressed a frustration with Tohoku authorities who are like
monks with begging bowls, expecting the national government to dispense
a river of golden coins. The central government is in dire debt and besieged
with problems and cannot deliver endless largesse for each prefecture's
wish list, much of which has nothing to do with tsunami victims. Added
to that, the ministries are going in their own directions with nothing
like a coordinated list of priorities or timetable.
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- Right now, beside clearing the rubble and dumping the
radioactive mess into trash mountains, much of the recovery program is
"make-work" - six men cutting grass or repairing slightly cracked
sidewalks. Surplus workers, most doing redundant unnecessary jobs, are
being hauled in from surrounding provinces by the GeneCon (construction
contractors), filling every hotel room in the Tohoku, making it difficult
for volunteers to come in to do other important tasks. In short, we are
seeing a colossal waste of money, manpower and resources for communities
that may be facing permanent depopulation.
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- Fukushima, for example, depends on farming and fishing
(and food processing) and just a little mainly domestic tourism, which
depends on the region's food quality. Radiation from Fukushima No.1 will
threaten and curb all these three mainstays for at least 30 years and,
in many hotspots littered with uranium and plutonium particles up to thousands
of years.
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- Without a viable economy over the foreseeable future,
the local towns have little chance of long-term survival. Therefore, should
the national government be automatically be rebuilding the entire infrastructure
for what will soon be, for economic reasons due to irradiation, ghost towns?
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- That is Minister Matsumoto's point about prefectures
and townships needing to make rational and quite serious priorities, to
develop a plan even under such conditions of stress and distress.
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- Another problem, from my observations, is that long
periods of exposure to radiation causes the deterioration of nerves, harming
eyesight, eye-hand coordination and, worse, cognitive functions. People
in the radiation zone (and even in Tokyo) seem to move much slower and
react tardily - they cannot notice it, but it is clearly visible to me.
I have experienced some of this myself, at least the damage to eyesight
and spent time outside to recuperate with lots of herbal treatment to regain
some vitality. I am not talking about mere stress or fatigue, this is a
physical effect of radiation exposure.
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- While the large Japanese export-oriented corporations,
based in Kansai or Tokai, are greatly benefitting from the disaster bailout
(easy money from Bank of Japan, a holiday from ratings cuts, supplemental
budgets from the Diet), the long-term loss to the national economy will
come from the rise in cancer-related illness over the coming decade and
the deterioration of human functions as a third of the Japanese population
show symptoms of declining mental health and reduced motor functions.
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- The situation and implications are so far gone now that
the government bureaucracy, particularly the Home Ministry or Somu-sho,
- is putting vast effort into fudging the data, outright
falsification and disinformation, media censorship, harassment of journalists,
and electronic surveillance of anyone who dares to seek out the facts.
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- Thousands upon thousands of imported dosimeters have
been damaged beyond repair, apparently by X-ray examination by Japan Customs,
probably deliberately to prevent correct readings, and we can only surmise
that the dosimeters distributed to Fukushima schoolchildren are wrongly
calibrated to show low readings. The government bureaucracy is plotting
against the Japanese people and the international community, which also
is being massively irradiated by the opening and ventings of the melted-down
reactors.
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- In short, Japan is dying and this disaster is killing
people in the biospheres of the Northern Hemisphere, and we cannot put
our hopes on the next generation, many of whom are already doomed by fascistic
unspoken policies reminiscent of the prewar years. The thought may be horrific,
but I am sure that the Health Ministry is already preparing for a massive
wave of abortions to prevent the birth of "monster babies". Much
of the next generation is already doomed.
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