© 2011 by Linda Moulton Howe
“We in Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture, 311 miles (500 km)
from Fukushima, are seeing readings around 0.15 microsieverts on average,
which is around five times what the Japanese government is reporting. My wife
and children will leave Japan as early as possible because I perceive a growing
exodus will come and it might become hard to place kids in schools.””
from Fukushima, are seeing readings around 0.15 microsieverts on average,
which is around five times what the Japanese government is reporting. My wife
and children will leave Japan as early as possible because I perceive a growing
exodus will come and it might become hard to place kids in schools.””
- Frank Daulton, Ph.D., Applied Linguistics, Ryukoku Univ., Kyoto, Japan
Testing citizens for radioactivity in Japan.
Image © 2011 by Reuters.
Fukushima Prefecture (top red circle) is where TEPCO nuclear power plants
exploded and melted down after the March 11, 2011, 9.1 magnitude earthquake and
tsunami. Fukushima, is 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures
(lower red circle), where ground radiation in September 2011 is five times
higher than what the Japanese government says, according to university professor.
September 30, 2011 Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture, not far from Kyoto, Japan - Fukushima Prefecture (top red circle) where TEPCO nuclear power plants exploded and melted down after the March 11, 2011, magnitude 9.1 earthquake and giant tsunami east of Sendai. The distance from Fukushima southwest to Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures (lower red circle) is 500 kilometers (311 miles). Even with the 500-kilometer-distance from Fukushima, one concerned university professor in September 2011 near Kyoto is measuring ground radiation where he lives in Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture, at around .4 microsieverts/hour. That is at least ten times higher than the 0.03 microsieverts/hour background level the Japanese government asserts. That misinformation, the professor says, is because the Japanese government is afraid to tell the truth.
September 29, 2011
“Japan ‘scared’ of telling truth to Fukushima evacueesA former adviser to the Japanese cabinet has revealed the government has known for months that thousands of evacuees from around the Fukushima nuclear plant will not be able to return to their homes.Nearly seven months after the meltdowns at Fukushima, about 80,000 people are still living in shelters or temporary housing.Former special adviser to Japan's prime minister and cabinet Kenichi Matsumoto has told the ABC that the government has known for months that many who live close to the Fukushima plant will not be able to return to their homes for 10 to 20 years because of contamination.... prime minister Kan actually said that Tokyo and eastern Japan might not be able to keep functioning; that it might collapse.”
Three weeks before Australia's ABC News reported that former special adviser to Japan's prime minister and cabinet, Kenichi Matsumoto, really knows the radiation situation in Fukushima and beyond is much worse than the government has admitted, Earthfiles received the following email from Frank E. Daulton, Ph.D., Prof. of Economics and Applied Linguistics at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan, who commutes 20 kilometers from his home in Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture.
From: Frank E. Daulton
Subject: Radiation Cover-up in Japan
Date: September 8, 2011
To: Linda Moulton Howe <earthfiles@earthfiles.com>Dear Linda,I need to report on the cover-up involving nuclear contamination throughout Japan. I have been conducting measurements and experiments near my home in Western Japan, more than 500 kilometers from Fukushima (in Shiga Prefecture). I have found the local soil to be quite and undeniably contaminated. Even ambient radiation levels are around five times government data.However, there is no acknowledgement from the government or media of this situation. The average citizen has no idea of the dangers, and therefore, takes no precautions.The only way to understand how the government can present false data showing absolutely no effect of Fukushima in Western Japan -- knowing that some day the lie will become apparent -- is that things are far worse than anyone has imagined. Indeed in Japan, one does not tell someone with cancer than he/she has cancer; it may 'upset' them too much. I think, in the future, we will be given a similar excuse for the current cover-up.I am writing a paper on the situation and my measures to alleviate the radiation on my property. I have four small children, who I plan to send abroad early next year. They will be among the first of many 'radiation refugees'.As an American Missouri journalism student, I had experience as a science/environment reporter. And my brother, with whom I consult, is a research physicist at Washington University in St. Louis. My data is good. I'm happy to share (or discuss) it with you.Best regards,Frank E. Daulton (PhD)
Professor, Ryukoku University (Kyoto)
The next day on September 9, 2011, the Wall Street Journal headlined: Japan Misstated Radiation.
Reporter Mitsuru Obe summarized a Japan Atomic Energy Agency report that week: “The Japanese government initially underestimated radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in part because of untimely rain, and so exposed people unnecessarily.”
That night Prof. Daulton talked with me on the record about the radiation measurements he was making with a professional Geiger counter on the inside and outside of his home and in the playground of his children's school. He is so concerned that his measurements are consistently higher than what the Japanese government has reported that he no longer trusts any official assurances about the air, water, land or food safety. Prof. Daulton is now preparing to evacuate his wife and four children to either Australia or the United States and knows he and his family are in the beginning of what he expects to be an increasing phenomenon of Japanese radiation refugees.
Prof. Frank Daulton and his family L to R: Ty age 7; Noelle age 11; Mrs. Etsuyo Daulton
holding Yura age 1; and Hanna age 9, at their Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture
home in Japan on September 10, 2011.
Interview taped September 9, 2011:
Play MP3 interview.
“As soon as anyone turned on an actual Geiger counter - if you are close to the ground level so that you are capturing not just the gamma radiation coming from all around you, but the beta particles that stop within a few meters from their contact with air molecules - if you are down at ground level, the measurements are around 0.4 microsieverts/hour. That is about 10 times higher than 0.03 microsieverts/hour background level asserted by official sources.”
Above: Prof. Frank Daulton holding Inspector Alert Nuclear Radiation Monitor close
to ground around his home in Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture, not far from Kyoto and
311 miles (500 km) from Fukushima. The measurement is 0.377 microsieverts/hour.
Below: Another measurement of 0.341 microsieverts/hour near plants in
Prof. Daultons's yard. Images taken in September 2011 by Frank Daulton.
Wikipedia explains the sievert (Sv) and microsieverts (μSv) in the International System of Units (SI) as a derived unit of dose equivalent radiation. It attempts to quantitatively evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation that are characterized by absorbed dose (of gamma and beta radiation).
SI Multiples and Conversions:1 Millisievert = 0.001 Sv1 Microsievert (1 μSv) = 0.000001 SvAn older unit for the equivalent dose, is the rem, still often used in the United States.1 Sievert = 100 rem1 Microsievert = 100 millirem = 0.1 rem1 rem = 0.01 Sv = 10 mSv1 mrem = 0.01 mSv = 10 μSv
Prof. Daulton: “I also have to point out that official measurements are taken from atop tall buildings, which are usually government facilities. In the case of my Shiga prefecture, the (measurement height) is 20 meters (66 feet); in Osaka it is around 30 meters (98 feet).
[ Editor's Note: Wikipedia - The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 subnational jurisdictions. Like states in the United States, prefectures are governmental bodies larger than cities, towns, and villages. The chief executive of each prefecture is a directly elected governor. Ordinances and budgets are enacted by a single-chamber assembly whose elected members serve four-year terms. ]
But the glaring problem is: although gamma radiation is very penetrating and can travel great distances and heights, beta particles - which is the other thing that radioactive iodine and cesium emit - are stopped within a few meters (by air molecules). So, the official data from the start is only reporting gamma radiation, which is only part of the total radiation that tends to be accumulating at ground level.
IT'S VERY CLEAR THAT HUMANS, ANIMALS AND CHILDREN WOULD BE CLOSE TO THE GROUND AND NOT AT 60 FEET UP IN THE AIR.
Yes, on my property we recently have done about $15,000 in work outside my house putting in driveways and changing our garden dirt with new dirt. But it was, and remains to be, quite radioactive at 0.4 microsieverts/hour.
Japan Chooses Denial
“The only way I can understand how the government could be
under-reporting blatantly the data today is that in the future,
they are going to rationalize it by saying, ‘We did not feel it was
in the country's best interests to know right away.”
under-reporting blatantly the data today is that in the future,
they are going to rationalize it by saying, ‘We did not feel it was
in the country's best interests to know right away.”
And other parents - this is maybe a very unique cultural thing in Japan - other parents would really not want to hear about this now.
DO YOU MEAN THAT THE JAPANESE WOULD PREFER DENIAL THAN FACE THAT THE RADIATION IS GOING TO PERSIST AT HIGHER LEVELS THAT CAN BE DANGEROUS FROM HERE INTO THE FUTURE?
I'm afraid so. An analogy is that at hospitals, if someone is diagnosed with cancer, often the patient is not told of the diagnosis - only the family members. The reasoning is that knowing the truth would trouble the individual too much. We are keeping the truth away from them for their own sake. So on the one hand, citizens themselves don't want to deal with this problem. It's overwhelming. Living in fear is not a step people want to take. Meanwhile, the government for the same reasons has a justification not to tell the public everything. In the end, the only way I can understand how the government could be under-reporting blatantly the data today is that in the future, they are going to rationalize it by saying, ‘We did not feel it was in the country's best interests to know right away. It would create economic chaos and a lot of trouble throughout Japan.’
It will become common knowledge that the contamination has come far beyond what is being reported in the media. Even yesterday, there was a story in the news saying that Japan will begin expanding its radiation monitoring to as far away as 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Fukushima in Nagoya City (Aichi Prefecture). But remarkably in this news story, the monitoring will be done from the air by aircraft and not on the ground. It gives the appearance of the government moving forward. I'm fairly certain that the Japanese government knows quite a lot about this situation.
YOU ARE DESCRIBING A POLICY OF DENIAL TO KEEP A KIND OF PEACE OF MIND WHILE THE RADIATION IS GOING TO BE DOING DAMAGE AT ALL KINDS OF LEVELS.
Yes. The Prime Minister himself in an interview following his leaving office spoke about how he had been worried that Tokyo would receive a lethal dose of radiation and that it would be impossible to evacuate the 30 million people who live there. That for him had been a nightmare scenario. In the interview, one is left with the impression that,‘Yes, we dodged a bullet.’
In reality, though, it's not quite so black and white and none of Japan has escaped the after effects of this nuclear disaster and it is being felt in Tokyo enough so that Tokyo- and the Tokyo area - does receive mention in the media. Hot spots of contamination, especially where water drains off of concrete and in unfinished playgrounds - grass and dirt areas.
Above: Beachside park playground swings near Prof. Daulton's home in
Otsu-City, Shiga Prefecture, not far from Kyoto, Japan. Below:
Measurement of 0.341 microsieverts/hour near ground below swing
that is 500 km/311 miles from Fukushima.
Images taken in September 2011 by Frank Daulton.
Radioactive Food
“... already in Okinawa, for example, people are noting that food
from the Fukushima area is in supermarkets. ... in the future it will be
virtually impossible to avoid contaminated food if one is living in Japan.”
from the Fukushima area is in supermarkets. ... in the future it will be
virtually impossible to avoid contaminated food if one is living in Japan.”
Okinawa residents (lower right circle) report that Fukushima Prefecture
(upper right circle) food products are in Okinawa supermarkets. The Japanese Prime
Minister was concerned that Tokyo (middle right circle) and eastern Japan “might collapse”
as radiation has spread. Prof. Daulton in Shiga Prefecture reports that “Singapore
authorities stopped food from Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture (far left circle near
Shiga Prefecture circle) in far western Japan, about 650 kilometers away from
Fukushima, because it exceeded the radiation limit.
Speaking with a friend of mine from the Tokyo area, I was speaking about the research and measurements I've been doing here and what I've heard. She was surprised, but not so surprised because in Tokyo they are aware that there are big problems. More and more of the problems will be the food supply. But she said something quite astounding - that although most Tokyo residents understand the situation more or less, they don't speak about it. There is almost a taboo of talking about this, which is very remarkable.
And after living in Japan for 23 years, still it was hard for me to imagine what cultural attribute would account for that. I think in the end that by mentioning it to other people, they are afraid of troubling the other person and of troubling themselves. Again there is this urge to deny. But with Japan being a single country with a single food distribution system, the big problem is going to be food itself. One aspect of that is that already in Okinawa, for example, people are noting that food from the Fukushima area is in supermarkets.
GROWN ON FARMS IN THAT REGION IS STILL BEING DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT JAPAN?
Absolutely! One of the first warning signs that I saw in the media early in the year was that Singapore authorities had stopped food from Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture in far western Japan, about 650 kilometers away (from Fukushima) because it exceeded the radiation limit. But even in the news story, no one questioned why that could be - that some place as far away as Hyogo Prefecture in far western Honshu main island, that in the future it will be virtually impossible to avoid contaminated food if one is living in Japan.
Rice flour that is used in ingredients in rice crackers, its origin will never be listed. So, it's very simple to conceal the origin of food. But in reality, food throughout Japan will be contaminated more or less wherever it is grown. However much radiation has come to the land in Japan, much more has gone into the ocean and will be carried both by currents and the large fish like the salmon that travel all across the world.
In my family, we don't eat fish anymore. My wife is Japanese. My children have grown up as Japanese. For Japanese people to stop eating fish is a huge adjustment. Just as 9/11 changed everything - especially in the United States - 3/11 that happened ten years later - 3/11 has changed everything in Japan. And I'm just afraid this has dealt a near-fatal blow to Japan. Japan will never be the same.
Japan Radiation Refugees
YOU WROTE IN YOUR EMAIL,‘I HAVE FOUR SMALL CHILDREN, WHO I PLAN TO SEND ABROAD EARLY NEXT YEAR. THEY WILL BE AMONG THE FIRSTOF MANY RADIATION REFUGEES.’
At this point, I'm urging my wife to make our plans as early as possible because I foresee at some point there will be a large scale exodus at which point it might become hard to place kids in schools. For the moment, it's not happening because most people are in denial.
WHERE WOULD YOU SEND YOUR CHILDREN?
Well, my main worry is that I will probably have to continue working in Japan to provide for my family. So where they are sent to will have to be someplace where I know people and will be a safe environment. And at this point all things considered, Australia where I know someone seems to be the likeliest candidate.
DO YOU FEEL THAT SOME TIME SOON THERE WILL BE AN INCREASING NUMBER OF RADIATION REFUGEES TRYING TO GET OUT OF JAPAN?
Yes, already the exodus of people began immediately, but within Japan from Fukushima. In the local news, there was a story about a family from Fukushima - husband, wife and child - who had moved to my area (Shiga Prefecture) to escape from the radiation. That's the first step in this process, which I think will begin in a larger scale. First from the areas immediately affected and families moving as far away as possible from Fukushima. But, as awareness and release of information increases, you will see people who have the ability economically to send their children abroad. They will begin to do so and it will be just a few people at first. But largely people go on with life because it is difficult to re-locate to a foreign country. The average Japanese person does not speak English or any other language. There might be no other alternative but to keep the whole family in Japan sort of in that gas-mask-type scenario in worst cases, but definitely avoiding certain foods.
I know many foreign faculty that have quit this year and are going back to their countries. But this practice might even come to the attention of the general public. There might be some news story about this phenomenon of people sending their kids abroad. And there might be some tipping point where more and more families do that.
In a really tragic sense, Japan has lost its future. I can't believe this is going on! This is a nightmare that you think you can just wake up from. Everything changed for me that afternoon when the house started shaking, and I don't know about the future anymore.”
June 6, 2011 Earthfiles Update: Japan's NERH Admits Fukushima Nuclear Units 1, 2 and 3 “Experienced Full Meltdowns.”
Deceiving the public and media, TEPCO never admitted the three meltdowns,
but kept insisting it was cooling fuel rods at the core.
but kept insisting it was cooling fuel rods at the core.
Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters (NERH)
announced on June 6, 2011, that the Fukushima nuclear power plant
Unit 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the March 11, 2011,
earthquake and tsunami and is now leaking radioactive water. The “major part”
of Unit 2 fuel rods melted and fell to the bottom of that pressure vessel 101
hours after the earthquake. Unit 3 fuel rods also melted and fell to
the bottom of the pressure vessel within 60 hours.
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