Yoshida Testimony Hunting

Media organizations in Japan are now enthusiastic in a treasure hunting for a testimony of former Chief in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. To the interview of the governmental investigation committee for the accident, Masao Yoshida, died with cancer last year revealed what was going on after the plant lost control over the nuclear reactors in March 11th, 2011. Due to huge volume of the testimony, each news organization had to report only few parts of it, causing misunderstandings on what the truth was. They have been accusing of other’s biased reports each other.

In the race for obtaining the document of testimony, Asahi Shimbun got the first prize. It reported Yoshida’s interview late May. According to the article, Yoshida revealed that ninety percent of his men evacuated the site against his order to stay and the evacuation might have caused insufficient management on the accident. Inside the administration led by Shinzo Abe, there were skepticisms that Asahi’s report was wrong.

Sankei Shimbun took the second position this month. As a newspaper firmly supporting the administration, Sankei accused Asahi’s report as fault. According Sankei, Yoshida told “not at all” to the question about order from the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company to evacuate. Citing those facts, Sankei dismissed recognition of Yoshida that his men evacuated against his direction.

Sankei also published a paper by a journalist who had been criticizing Asahi’s report, with which Sankei attached a headline, “Does Asahi Want to Plunge the Japanese with Distorted Facts?” After the report of Sankei, criticisms against Asahi broadly rose up to the public. There was an environment that people were skeptical against Asahi, after it apologized its fault reports on comfort women issue.

Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or NHK, as the third place in the race, reported that there was a major evacuation against Yoshida’s direction, relatively siding with Asahi. But Yoshida thought that the evacuation had been correct at that situation. In short, Asahi reported focusing on Yoshida’s surprise on unexpected move of the workers, while Sankei stressed on Yoshida’s conclusion about evacuation. There seems to be no complete fault in their reports.

Along with one-sided policy management by Abe, newspapers tend to report one thing in different views. This is the reason why Abe is called “Divider in Chief.” The public must be smart enough to distinguish truths from a number of biased reports, which disturb freedom of knowledge.