Accident Mostly Killed Her

How much is the cost of a suicide of a woman who was forced to leave her home in evacuation area around broken nuclear reactors in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant? The answer of Fukushima Regional Court was ¥49 million. Whether or not it was too high or low, significance of the sentence was the court acknowledged the relationship between the nuclear accident and her suicide. The defendant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, has still not shown an apology.

Hamako Watanabe, then 58, evacuated her house in Yamakiya district of Kawamata town, Fukushima, three months after the accident occurred in March 11, 2011. Her house was included in unlivable evacuation area with high radiation, which the national government set. After leaving house, she could not sleep well every night, lost good appetite, and spent her time watching TV. With deep disappointment, she burnt herself in her garden in the morning after temporary one-night home stay in early July of that year.

The sentence found that she lost close ties with her neighbors in the community where she lived for fifty-eight years, had to give up her job in her poultry walk, and forced to live in a small apartment house which she had not felt comfortable at all. “Unbearable stress caused her disappointment and suicide,” the sentence said. “Disappointment on unforeseeable future in evacuation she felt at her temporary stay and mental pain for choosing suicide in her home land were too big.”

There have been one hundred thirty victims who committed suicide related to the earthquake and nuclear accident, which number is still increasing. A rancher in Soma city, Fukushima, killed himself after three months from the accident, leaving message on a wall of his cabin “If only no nuclear power plant here.” “I was encouraged with this sentence,” told his wife, who made a case of demanding compensation of TEPCO.

TEPCO has been attributing suicide of Watanabe to her own weakness. The sentence dismissed its argument, saying “Her weakness only brought an effect of strengthening her stress.” The court admitted that eighty percent of all elements causing her suicide was nuclear accident.

There have been a number of cases of sufferers in the nuclear accident, which were brought in alternative dispute resolution, avoiding time-spending trial process. However, the sentence of Fukushima Regional Court may affect those ADR cases. Disputers are likely to raise their demand for compensation, stressing the relationship of their losses with the fatal accident. Concerning the greatness of responsibility, it is a big mystery that TEPCO still survives.