Myth Of Going Home

After two years from the tragic accident in the First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (1F), Japanese are getting skeptical on governmental handlings of the reconstruction from the disaster. Although the Ministry of Environment insists on cleansing houses, schools and public facilities in the towns contaminated by radioactive materials emitted from 1F, nobody knows when the forests, which occupies about 70% of land in Fukushima prefecture, will be cleaned up enough to let the residents return back home. People begin to think that go-back-home policy is a myth.

The Asahi Shimbun reported on Sunday the estimations of city governments in Fukushima, which predicts 54 thousands of refugees out of 84 thousands would not be able to go back home within next four years.

Ridiculously unclear cleansing policy of the national government is disappointing them. Main menu in the current plan includes cleaning houses and public buildings with high-pressured water, and remove the surface of soil within a radius of 20 meters radius from them. Because rest of the land is left untouched, rainwater, sand, and fallen leaves are carried to the places once washed up, and contaminate the land again. As long as all the land was not fully uncontaminated, people cannot return home and resume their lives and jobs.

The policy was produced by the bureaucrats in Tokyo under former DPJ administration. Now, LDP administration makes matters worse. The Agency of Reconstruction announced that the local governments were adopting plans for returning home until this summer, while the national government would be in charge of building infrastructures. Bureaucrats, in short, vested on local governments the responsibility of showing when those refugees would be able to go back home.

Although the 1F accident occurred with the omission of safety measures by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the national government is also responsible for it, because it encouraged development of nuclear technology as a national project. It is the national government that is responsible for showing the future.

Considering the broadness of forests, most refugees are pessimistic on returning back home, because of the difficulty of contamination reduction with the effort of national government lagging behind. Some are skeptical on the seriousness of bureaucrats and doubt them as waiting for refugees to abandon coming back home. If the government is sabotaging its effort to help the nation, this is not only the breach of its obligation but also the violation of human rights to live in peace and stability. There will be a number of indictments of sufferers, the scene that may introduce Japan to the world no longer as a developed country.