Hero or Traitor?

Good leadership means doing a different thing from a top-down type order. Masao Yoshida, who was the director of the First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant at the time of the unprecedented accident of nuclear fuel rod meltdown two years ago, made that definition common in Japan. He died with esophageal cancer on Tuesday. Conceived as a man who made a right decision in a confusion of commanding system in his organization, he also was definitely a part of the cause of accident. It is not Japan to thank him, but Tokyo Electric Power Company.

After the hydrogen explosions occurred in the plant, TEPCO decided to infuse sea water into the reactors for cooling them down. When the headquarters of TEPCO in Tokyo ordered to stop it, with advises from Cabinet office led by then Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, Yoshida agreed with that order in telecommunication, while he actually ordered his men to continue the infusion. As its result, the plants could avoid worsening the situation. That is the story of Yoshida’s right decision in extreme tension.

It is no doubt that he was a distinctive leader with determination, compassion to human, and bravery, since most workers adore his management of disaster. However, TEPCO considered pulling workers up from Fukushima sight to save their lives before the explosions. That’s why Kan became furious and went to TEPCO office and said “Retreat is intolerable.” Yoshida must have been involved in the consideration of TEPCO, as the leader of Fukushima site. If the workers of TEPCO had left the site, Tokyo would not have existed as a capital city now.

Yoshida must have been a man who knows best about what was going on. There are a lot of questions about the disaster. Why did vent before the explosions failed? Why didn’t the government provide correct information about evacuation? What was wrong with the leadership of Kan and TEPCO headquarters? While TEPCO says that his death has nothing to do with the disaster, because it takes five year or more for esophageal cancer to outbreak and Yoshida’s exposition to radiation was within a limit of the workers in nuclear power plant, what is the true reason of his death anyway?

Yoshida’s leadership story caused one of the few positive stories of TEPCO. He actually brought many questions to the heaven, which TEPCO must have answered. Now, TEPCO is keep on looking for its survival as power company, despite the incredible failure of producing 310 thousand of refugees pandemic all over Fukushima area and its own huge amount of deficit. TEPCO needs to ask Yoshida whether it is worth existing.