Irresponsible Evacuation

As things get clear, it seems to be the captain and his staffs who were responsible for a number of passengers stayed in cabin of the sinking ship off the coast of South Korea. Japanese TV shows keep on reporting the process of rescuing effort of South Korean Coast Guard day after day, blaming the abandonment of the leaders on board. TVs aggressively report how the Koreans are not so sophisticated that they could be responsible at the cost of their lives. Some say the Koreans are not worth developed country. Wait a minute, you guys. Which nation was that community leaders evacuated from the area close to an exploded nuclear power plant, leaving people in need of accurate information three years ago?

TV shows are appeasing their watchers by reporting blind side of South Korean society, which has currently been assertive to the Japanese namely on history interpretation. One report claimed that the ship was overloaded with trucks and trailers in seeking of economic efficiency. It was regarded as excessive ambition for money. Another underscored strong irresponsibility of the captain, revealing that he had evacuated the ship while passengers still talking about excitement of ship’s unusual condition without any information of the situation. On the background of those reports, there was a sense of arrogance looking down the Koreans.

But in one city in Fukushima, Japan, people are still talking about what regional leaders did right after the nuclear accident. According to their stories, people in towns of Okuma and Futaba, where First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is located, evacuated first, because those towns had a number of people who worked for Tokyo Electric Power Company, which had been running the plant. Realizing the accident was fatal, they called each other to escape radioactive materials as soon as possible.

People in other towns and cities could not decide what they should be doing. Some stayed home to avoid exposure to cesium falls, and others left their homes, some of whom went to more dangerous area. In Minamisoma city, located twenty kilometers away from the plant, medical doctors left their hospital without taking care of their patients.

People in the world praised calmness and kindness of tsunami victims of in Japan, who silently made a line waiting for water and sharing foods. The Japanese are proud of it. But there also were people who wandered around without correct information about nuclear accident. Leaders responsible for providing that were absent for protecting themselves. That makes no different from evacuated captain of Korean ship.