Sixth Anniversary of Doomsday

Japan had sixth anniversary of East Japan Great Earthquake and severe accident in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant on Saturday. 123 thousands of people are still evacuating from the devastated area and living their lives in cities and towns as strangers. 34 thousands are living in temporary houses built up in three prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Six years later, Japan is still in a situation of emergency.

National Police Agency released on Friday the data of victims. It counted 15,893 of deaths and 2,553 of missings, marking the worst disaster in post-war Japan. Deaths related to the disaster, including deaths with illness during their evacuation, amounted to 3,523 with additional 116 in a latest year. In Fukushima, those deaths as side effect rose up to 2,086, exceeding the number of deaths directly caused by the great earthquake. Saved lives keep on being lost.

While the number of evacuees has reduced to one third of its peak in June 2012, 79,226 people in Fukushima are still living away from their own home. According to the survey of Mainichi Shimbun, at least 1,400 people have died in shabby temporary houses in these six years. In the community of evacuees without old friends, some died in hospital and others passed away in isolation without anyone who took care of. Although the government of Japan once tried to eliminate those temporary houses within two years from the earthquake, it is currently estimated that they will remain until 2020, the year the Japanese will celebrate Tokyo Olympics.

A number of evacuees do not hope to return home, because of high radiation emitted from the nuclear power plant. Recovery from the nuclear disaster is still not realized. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry estimated total cost of the recovery as ¥21.5 trillion, doubling previous calculation of ¥11 trillion. The cost for extracting melted debris of nuclear fuel in the broken reactors, which method has still not established, jumped up from ¥2 trillion to ¥8 trillion. Compensation for the farmers or ranchers in Fukushima has swollen up from ¥5.4 trillion to ¥7.9 trillion. The cost of nuclear disaster is actually not affordable.

Shinzo Abe administration has eventually been lifting evacuation order for the residents around the broken plant. But, most of those residents are not going back soon, because of delay of infrastructural recovery. The government of Japan promotes further nuclear power generation, defining it as “an important base load electric resource.” Leaving behind the sufferers from nuclear devastation, the government hopes to raise the ratio of nuclear power up to 20% to 22% in whole power resources in 2030. What the Japanese learn from the disaster, anyway?