SF Action For Justice For The People Of Fukushima and Japan Defend the People Of Fukushima

1/11 SF Action For Justice For The People Of Fukushima and Japan
Defend the People Of Fukushima-Evacute the Children and People
Prosecute the Tepco and Government Officials Who Hid The Facts Of Contamination And Poisoning
Stop The Secrecy Laws In Japan That Will Cover-up The Fukushima Disaster

Saturday January 11, 2013 3:00 PM
Japanese Consulate
Meet 50 Fremont St. between Market and Mission in San Francisco
March to San Francisco Union Square

The Japanese government has just passed a secrecy law which will be used to silence journalists
and to prevent the people of Japan and the world from knowing what is happening at Fukushima
and the other 50 nuclear plants in Japan.
The government continues to work to re-open the plans and also compensate all those who want to
evacuate from Fukushima. They have spent billions of dollars on crooked contractors some run by
the Yakuza to supposedly "decontaminate" the area and also argue that you can "overcome"
radiation.
They are also seeking to militarize Asia and allow the US to continue their military occupation of
Okinawa as well as removing Clause 9 in the Japanese constitution which forbids developing
the military and it's expansion around the world.
The US is supporting the re-militarization which will benefit US and Japanese war profiteers who
want to sell more military weapons and equipment.

Sponsored by No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/

Thyroid cancer rates on the rise in Japanese children, experts warn residents to evacuate
http://www.naturalnews.com/043436_thyroid_cancer_Japanese_children_Fukushima_radiation.html
Wednesday, January 08, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer


(NaturalNews) When Japanese Professor Toshihide Tsuda of Okayama University sat down with leaders from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, talk about citywide evacuation near the Fukushima nuclear breakdown site began. Deeply concerned about rising thyroid cancer rates in Japanese children, these leaders believe that it's time to evacuate the city of Koriyama.

When the two spoke to Japanese government officials, their concerns were downplayed.
The Japanese government remains reluctant to evacuate the city, not wanting to scare citizens, but Professor Tsuda has begun urging residents to evacuate Koriyama anyway.

The epidemiology professor reports, "An incident rate of thyroid cancer on children in Fukushima are from several times to dozens times higher than usual. This is a rash of disease. There is a possibility [it will] increase more in [the] future and we need a countermeasure."

A Japanese judiciary, the Sendai High Court, agrees and "acknowledges a danger of low-level radiation exposure," and it concludes that the only solution is to evacuate or relocate children from the area. They report that changing schools in the area won't prevent radiation exposure over 1 mSv/y. While they believe that there is "no immediate risk on health," it's clear that they understand the long-term risks of exposing children to radioactive particles in the area.

More minors coming down with thyroid cancer

When the March 2011 nuclear disaster went down, no one understood the impact that the radioactive breakdown could have on the surrounding cities and the people, especially minors. Six minors in the area of the disaster have recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, with another ten young ones reportedly now developing the life-threatening cancer. These rates continue to climb, up from 28 affected children last June to 44 going into 2014.

As thyroid cancer begins to show up, the damage has already been done, as the deadly radioactive substances have already pervaded the cells of the young ones, ravaging their smaller, developing bodies faster.

With approximately 360,000 children aged 18 or younger affected by the nuclear disaster in 2011, the Japanese government has begun giving annual checkups and will continue doing so throughout the children's lives.

Japanese government downplaying the rising thyroid cancer rates in children

As radioactive substances accumulate in the tissues and glands of the young children, the government in Japan continues to remain quiet. Japanese officials are now saying that the recent cases of thyroidcancer couldn't have come from the disaster at the Daiichi power plant in March 2011, stating that thyroid cancer from radiation takes several years to develop.

But what the government fails to understand is that these smaller, developing bodies might not be able to handle the load of radioactive isotopes in the same way as an adult body. The smaller, younger generation could be the first to show signs of cancer. Adult thyroid cancer rates may begin spiking in a few years.

After the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, thyroid cancer cases started rising as early as four years after the explosion. Maybe the release from Fukushima is twice as dangerous as Chernobyl, since rising thyroid cancer cases are already pouring in just two or three years after the meltdown.

Or possibly, the new 44 cases of childhood cancer come from children who were already predisposed. This is what the government believes.

Fukushima prefecture government officials report, "It is likely (the 44 children) developed tumors or lumps before the nuclear accident."

Regardless of reason, a shift of rising incidence in thyroid cancer has begun.

According to Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks, "the 2005 Japanese national incidence rate for thyroid cancer in the age bracket 0-18 is given in a recent peer reviewed report as 0.0 per 100,000."

He states that this scientific model could be used to predict that "some 200,000 extra cancers in roughly 10 million of the population in the 200km radius of the site" could come up in the next 10 years, with "400,000 new cases in over 50 years."

While the International Commission of Radiological Protection of the Japanese government predicts that "no detectable cancers will be seen as a result of the 'very low doses' received by the population," radiation expert Christopher Busby calls the government's radiological assessment "nonsense."

Many local residents are now questioning the prefecture government's downplaying of radiation exposure risks, the accuracy of its thyroid testing and the means by which information is disclosed.

Sources for this article include

http://enenews.com

http://rt.com

http://science.naturalnews.com


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043436_thyroid_cancer_Japanese_children_Fukushima_radiation.html#ixzz2pv3jn4CS

Thousands protest against Japan state secrets bill at Parliament
http://labornetjp.blogspot.com/2013/12/thousands-protest-against-state-secrets.html
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Thousands protest against Japan state secrets bill at Parliament


The government of ABE Shinzo forced passed the state secrets law in the lower house on Nov. 26. As the news spread, people after work started to gather around the parliamentary building in Tokyo.
About 1000 people chanted calls against the designated state secrets bill in front of the parliament on Nov. 26.
“Shame on you, Abe!”“Say no to country with no freedom,” people called out even louder along with drum beats, while deliberations were on the way in the lower house in the evening.
“People’s voices against the bill may only be ‘loud noise’ to the parliamentarians who are pushing the bill, but for us this IS the citizens’ voices,” one of the participants said. “This law is trying to draw a Coup d’Etat. We must never allow such a law that violates the Constitution and gets the country ready for war.”
At one public hearing the government held in Fukushima City, all seven speakers expressed opposition against the law.
“I can’t believe that the government forced passed the law without carefully discussing the bill. The government shouldn’t and can’t do this to us,” participants screamed in protest and in anger.
Politicians from Japan Communist Party and Social Democratic Party of Japan criticized the government and how it is ignoring public opinion.
“People rule,” the demonstrators chanted. “We will continue struggling in demand for abolishing this bill.”
Leading up to the demonstration against the government’s dictatorial decision on the secrets bill, people from all walks of life protested in front of prime minister’s residence in Tokyo over concerns that their country is diving into a war in the near future.
Journalists from Newspaper Workers’ Unions, workers from All Japan Dockworkers Unions and truck drivers from construction workers unions came together on Nov. 21 to raise their voices against Abe government.
The state secrets bill, they claim, will subject not only the public workers but anyone who leaks classified information that threatens national security in the government’s eyes.
On this day, some 150 union members gathered in front of prime minister’s residence.
In the evening, there was a protest staged at a nearby park in Tokyo, where some 10,000 people gathered.
Bipartisan politicians were among them to vow to strike the bill altogether in solidarity.
“The statute of limitation for the state secrets is now set for 60 years. Who would survive all these years to see the secrets disclosed?” “Stop mocking us! Prime minister can’t be the third party (to check and see the designated secrets are appropriate for classification).”
The bill is so immature and incomplete that drew some anger and laughs from the crowd.
The parties that oppose the bill are the minority in the parliament, but the voices against the bill have been manifested today with the strong commitment to strike the bill.



国会議員は恥を知れ！～衆院本会議の議場に迫った主権者の声
「特 定秘密法 絶対反対」「強行採決 絶対反対」「安倍晋三は 恥を知れ」「自由のない国 絶対反対」「国会議員は 恥を知れ」。打楽器の伴奏に合わせたリズミカルなテンポのコールが、途切れなく続いた。「秘密保護法案」が衆院本会議通過した26日午後8時、国会周辺 は、官邸前・正門前・議員会館前の3ヶ所で抗議集会がもたれ、大コールが繰り返された。傍聴者によれば議場内にも声が届いているという。「賛成派にとって は声ではなく“大きい音”にしか聞こえないかもしれない。でもここにいる私たちこそが民意なのだ」「この法律はクーデター。憲法に違反し戦争する国を準備 するこの法律は絶対に許さない。参院で廃案に追いこもう」。怒りの発言が続く。この日は参加者は1000人を超え、脱原発運動の高揚期を思わせる盛り上が りとなった

ひどすぎる！～「秘密保護法案」衆院特別委員会で強行採決
11 月26日午前の衆院特別委員会で「秘密保護法案」が強行採決された。議員会館前には続々と怒りの市民が集まってきた。官邸前の労働者集会とあわせて500 人に達した。「福島公聴会では反対と懸念の意見ばかり。それを検討する時間もとらず強行採決。信じられない」「こんなことしていいのか、ひどすぎる！」。 口元を奮わせて市民たちは怒りをぶつけた。共産党や社民党の国会議員も次々にマイクを握り、「いまの国会は民意を完全に無視している。主権者は国民だ。参 院で廃案を求めて徹底して闘う」と口々に語った。国会周辺は、各グループの集会や座り込みの人々で騒然とした状態が続いている。



歴史の逆行を許すな！～「秘密保護法」反対集会 1万人の怒りと熱気
「特 定秘密保護法案」衆院採決の危機を前にして、1万人の人々が怒りに立ち上がった。大集会が開かれた11月21日の日比谷野外音楽堂は、集会開始6時30分 の10分前にすでに満杯になり、外に数千人の人々があふれた。身動きがとれない会場で始まった集会。民主・共産・社民・無所属の国会議員、主催団体や各界 の発言は、短い時間に精一杯の思いをこめたもので、どれも迫力に満ちていて感動的だった。「秘密指定期間が60年、いったいこの中のだれが生きているので すか？」「首相が第三者機関、ふざけるな！」。あまりにお粗末な「秘密保護法案」に怒りと失笑が交差した。国会では反対派は少数である。しかし「歴史の逆 行を絶対に許さない」という固い決意をもった人々が、きょう大きく立ち上がった。長い長い請願デモの列。「秘密法はいらない」という主権者の声が霞ヶ関を 包み込んだ。

労働者も「秘密保護法」に反対～首相官邸前で三労組が声上げる
11 月21日昼、新聞記者の組合（新聞労連）、コンクリートミキサー車の運転手などの組合（全日建）、そして港で働く労働者の組合（全港湾）が一緒になって、 官邸前で声を上げた。小谷野全日建書記長は「この問題は公務員だけの問題と思っている人もいるが、そうではない。民間の労働者もすべて芋づる式に調査の対 象とされる。会社や経営者の秘密に迫る労働運動も安心してできない。絶対に廃案にしよう」と呼びかけた。市民の参加もあり、官邸前の歩道はあっというまに 150人近くに膨れあがった。この日は「秘密保護法」反対のさまざまな取り組みがあり、国会・官邸周辺は、プラカードを持った人々の流れが続いた。

Japan TEPCO worker frustrated over company's treatment of employees
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140104p2a00m0na008000c.html

The work clothing that the TEPCO employee wears, which he says he has stopped hanging out to dry following the Fukushima nuclear disaster because he's afraid of what his neighbors will think. (Mainichi)
拡大写真
An employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), who was asked by the utility to return evacuation compensation payments he received for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster, lamented the company's frosty attitude toward workers like him who had devoted themselves to bringing the crippled plant under control.

The employee was among those who worked on the front lines immediately after the onset of the nuclear disaster in March 2011, under the leadership of then plant manager Masao Yoshida. Amid high levels of radiation, the employee and his colleagues trembled with fear as they worked to contain the unprecedented atomic disaster.

Faced with TEPCO's unsympathetic treatment of them, however, young employees are leaving the company in despair. Declining morale among workers is casting a shadow on ongoing efforts to decommission the plant's reactors.

Hailing from outside Fukushima, the employee has developed a fondness for Fukushima after working for many years at the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear plants. "I feel as if this is my hometown," he says about Fukushima, where he is also involved in community activities.

"I can't stand any further contamination of my hometown," he thought in the wake of an explosion at the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on March 12, 2011. He and his colleagues approached the reactor building, trembling. When they returned to a quake-proof building about 300 meters away from the No. 1 reactor after work, Yoshida was yelling angrily in a teleconference with TEPCO's Tokyo headquarters. But he was tender to local staff, often telling them, "You guys are doing great work."

The employee continued to work under harsh conditions, but felt what he was doing was worth it. However, he received a letter from TEPCO last spring asking him to return part of the compensation he received from the utility, and to sign and send back a letter of consent.

"That can't be possible," he thought, and read the letter over and over again. But it was unmistakably an invoice addressed to him by his employer. He shed tears of frustration and suffered sleepless nights. His coworkers had also received similar documents. A gloomy, depressing atmosphere prevailed, significantly undermining workers' morale.

The salaries of TEPCO employees were slashed by 20 percent immediately after the outbreak of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Such cutbacks have been followed by the suspension of compensation payouts to employees in 2012 and the demand to return compensation in spring 2013. These changes resulted in more than 10 employees -- mainly in their 20s -- leaving TEPCO. Among them were employees who worked together with the male employee to bring the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant under control.

"Everyone felt responsible that a nuclear plant that we'd been operating caused this crisis, and we all persevered in our work (following the disaster)," the employee said, adding that motivation among his colleagues waned because of their maltreatment by the utility. The employee says he couldn't tell an outgoing coworker, "Let's hang in there together."

The employee recalls Yoshida telling them, "You guys tried very hard amid high radiation doses. I will look after you properly."

"If he (Yoshida) was alive, things wouldn't have turned out like this," the employee sometimes thinks to himself.

While he feels helpless, he tells himself he's going to stick it out for the sake of his "hometown."

January 04, 2014(Mainichi Japan)

AMERICAN Government Forces Re-Start of Japanese Nuclear Reactors
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/it-is-the-american-not-japanese-government-forcing-a-re-start-of-japanese-nuclear-reactors.html
Posted on October 3, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog
Americans Are Largely Responsible for Japan’s Ongoing Nuclear Policy

Archaic nuclear reactor designs such as those used at Fukushima – built by American company General Electric – were chosen because they were good for making nuclear bombs. The U.S. secretly helped Japan develop its nuclear weapons program starting in the the 1980s. Therefore, the U.S. played a large role in Japan’s development of nuclear energy. (See this).

After the Fukushima disaster – in an effort to protect the American nuclear industry – the U.S. has joined Japan in raising “acceptable” radiation levels. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the U.S. will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite the fact that the FDA is refusing to test seafood for radiation in any meaningful fashion. So U.S. actions are helping to protect a pro-nuclear policy in Japan.

Indeed, mainstream Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that it was President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton who have pressured the Japanese to re-start that country’s nuclear program after the Japanese government vowed to end all nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Ex-SKF reports:

Japanese media has been saying for some time that it was the US government who pressured the Noda administration to drop the “zero nuke by 2030″ (which morphed into “zero nuke sometime in 2030s) from its new nuclear and environmental policy decision. Tokyo Shinbun reported it a while ago, and now Nikkei Shinbun just reported it with more details. There is no news reported in the US on the matter.

The difference of the Nikkei Shinbun’s article is that it names names: President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It’s hard for me to believe that this president has time for trivial matters like actually governing the affairs inside and outside the US in the election year (he must be very busy right now preparing for the big “debate”), but that’s what Nikkei Shinbun wants us to believe. The article also mentions Secretary of State Clinton pressuring the Noda administration officials by strongly indicating it was the wish of President Obama and the US Congress that Japan scrap that silly nuclear energy policy.

And then, one added twist: the Nikkei article has disappeared. [Washington's Blog has located a version of the article cached by Google.]

***

Here’s Nikkei article:

The US request that Japan continue nuclear power plant is “the President’s idea”

2012/9/25 0:12

It has been revealed that the United States government was strongly urging [the Japanese government] to reconsider its policy of “zero nukes in 2030s” which was part of the energy and environmental strategy of the Noda administration, as “President Obama wishes it”. [The US objection] was based on the fear that the framework of Japan-US cooperation for non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear energy might collapse [under the new policy]. [The Noda administration] eventually shelved the cabinet decision, but this ambiguous resolution may cause further trouble in the future.

According to the multiple government sources, as the Noda administration was moving in August toward explicitly putting down “zero nuke” in the official document, the US strongly requested that Japan reconsider the “zero nuke” policy, saying the request was “the result of discussion at the highest level of the government“, indicating it was the Obama administration’s consensus, from the president on down.

On September 8, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with the US Secretary of State Clinton during the APEC meeting in Vladivostok in Russia. Here again, representing the US president, Secretary Clinton expressed concern. While avoiding the overt criticism of the Noda administration’s policy, she further pressured Japan by stressing that it was President Obama and the US Congress who were concerned.

The Noda administration sent its officials, including Special Advisor to Prime Minister Akihisa Nagashima, to the US on an urgent mission to directly discuss matters with the high-ranking White House officials who were frustrated with the Japanese response. By treating the new strategy as only a reference material, the Noda administration averted the confrontation with the US with the “equivocal” resolution (according to the Japanese government source) which allowed the US to interpret the Japanese action as shelving the zero nuke policy.

(According to Former Deputy Energy Secretary Martin,) the US government thinks that “The US energy strategy would be more likely to suffer a direct damage” because of the Japan’s policy change toward zero nuclear energy. It is because the Japanese nuclear policy is closely linked also to the nuclear non-proliferation and environmental policies aimed at preventing the global warming under the Obama administration.

In the Atomic Energy Agreement effective as of 1988, Japan and the US agreed to a blanket statement that as long as it is at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, reprocessing of the nuclear fuel is allowed without prior consent from the US. Japan’s most important role [in the agreement] is to secure the peaceful use of plutonium without possessing nuclear weapons.

The current Japan-US agreement will expire in 2018, and the government will need to start preliminary, unofficial discussions [with the US] as early as next year. There is some time before the expiration of the agreement, butif Japan leaves its nuclear policy in vague terms the US may object to renewal of permission for nuclear fuel reprocessing. Some (in the Japanese government) say “We are not sure any more what will happen to the renewal of the agreement.”