December 4, 2015
Tokyo 2020 in the Shadow of Godzilla
by Robert Hunziker
Tokyo 2020: “Tokyo Ready to Proceed With $1.3-Billion Olympic Stadium,”
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 2015. (Note: Beijing’s Bird’s Nest cost $414
million.)
When Tokyo was first awarded the 2020 Olympics, Nature News opined: As
Fukushima Radiation Rages, Tokyo Awarded Bid to Host 2020 Summer
Olympics, Hilariously Named the ‘Safe Games’ (Sept. 8, 2013): “Why
would any sane organization vote to host a global event that brings
hundreds of thousands of people to a location just a short distance
away from a collapsing nuclear power plant that is utterly and
completely out of control with no end in sight?” Good question.
According to Bloomberg Business, Debt-Strapped Japan Planning a
No-Frills Olympics, Sept. 17, 2015: “Japan is struggling to control a
public debt (ed. $10.5 trillion) more than twice the size of its $4.6
trillion economy (ed. U.S. public debt, by way of comparison, is $18
trillion in an $18 trillion economy), as social security costs spiral
due to an aging population. With the risk of another recession as his
Abenomics policies fail to boost growth in Asia’s second-biggest
economy, Abe is looking to avoid a public backlash by keeping a cap on
Olympic spending.”
In sharp contrast to the positive funding announcement for Tokyo’s
Olympic stadium, Mitsuhei Murata, the former Japanese ambassador to
Switzerland, claims efforts should focus on the Fukushima crisis “by
retreating from the Tokyo Olympic Games that disseminate the false
impression that Fukushima is under control.”
(Source)
Ambassador (former) Murata: “The lack of the sense of crisis over
Fukushima is in stark contrast to the gravity of the crisis. Fukushima
is now undeniably a global security issue. The unstoppable
contamination of the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere with ionizing
radiation from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear reactors is seriously
menacing the West Coast of the United States.”
As a prologue to Tokyo’s $1.3-billion Olympic stadium announcement,
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe testified before the International Olympic
Committee in 2013, stating the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant
was “under control,” furthermore: “The effect of radioactive substances
in nearby waters is blocked within 0.3 sq. km of the plant’s harbor.”
(Source: Time has Come for an ‘Honorable Retreat’ from Tokyo 2020 Over
Fukushima, The Japan Times, Nov. 4, 2015).
Subsequently, events at Fukushima have turned graver than ever.
Fukushima is an out-of-control monster, like Japan’s iconic pop culture
image of unrelenting horror, Godzilla, conceived (1954) as a metaphor
for nuclear weapons, awakened from the sea and empowered by nuclear
radiation.
As for example, according to The Japan Times, October 30th Edition,
2015: “Extremely high radiation levels and the inability to grasp the
details about melted nuclear fuel make it impossible for the utility to
chart the course of its planned decommissioning of the reactors at the
plant.” Yet, the games go on.
Additionally, making matters worse yet, The Japan Times reported that
deadly 9.4 Sieverts were detected outside containment vessels.
According to that same article: “People exposed to the maximum
radiation dose for some 45 minutes will die.”
And, as for icing on the proverbial nuke cake, TEPCO cannot locate the
hot melted nuclear core (corium) in Reactor No. 2. If in fact a melted
nuclear core penetrates the steel-reinforced concrete containment
vessel and burrows into the ground, it is very likely that deadly
isotopes uncontrollably spread erratically, ubiquitously into
surrounding underground soil and water. As it stands, nobody knows
where the hot melted nuclear core is located, inside or outside of the
containment vessel, but the games go on.
Making matters only worse, PM Abe (doubling down) also said, when
testifying to the IOC (Source: September 2015 issue of Gekkan Nippon):
“Fukushima has never done and will never do any damage to Tokyo.” Au
contraire, according to Mitsuhei Murata, Japan’s former ambassador,
there have already been several incidents showing that Tokyo was
negatively affected by Fukushima, for example, the discovery of
radiation contaminated water at the purification plant in the Kanemachi
district of Tokyo.
Hence, Murata’s plea to PM Abe: “In my recent message addressed to
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, I suggested that he cancel the Tokyo Olympic
Games, announcing at the same time Japan’s candidature for the 2028 or
2032 games. The estimation of the total cost, ¥ 3 trillion (ed. USD 24
billion) according to the Governor of Tokyo, has shocked the public.
Nearly 90 times less funding ¥ 34.5 billion (ed. USD 275 million) has
been spent by the Government for coping with the contaminated water
problem at Fukushima Daiichi. The Tokyo Olympic Games diverts attention
from Fukushima and gives the false impression to the world that
Fukushima no longer poses a threat. The advancement of the Tokyo
Olympic Games comes at the expense of the funds needed to address the
host of environmental disasters created by the destroyed Fukushima
nuclear reactors.”
The former ambassador also sent a June 2015 letter to the president of
the International Olympic Committee (“IOC”), informing the president of
“the worsening situation in Fukushima, which regrettably is being
downplayed by our Government and does not seem to be well known
internationally,” further stating that the Fukushima situation,
“contrary to the assurances of the Japanese Government and TEPCO, the
situation at the site… is not at all under control.” (Source)
The ambassador is not the only prominent person in Japan voicing
concern, Yauemon Sato, president of electric power company Aizu
Denryoku, in an interview with Asahi Shimbun (May 2015) stated: “The
nuclear disaster continues to recur every day,” characterizing the
crippled reactors as “caldrons of hell.”
Additionally, Mr. Murata bases some of his opinion on an interview
(April 2015) with Dr. Norio Iriguchi (PhD Engineering, Tokyo
University) professor emeritus of Kumamoto University, claiming: The
containment vessels for units No. 1, 2, and 3 are broken, exposing
radioactive materials to the external environment. “Cesium 137, a
deadly isotope, within the three vessels is equivalent to 14,000
Hiroshima bombs,” whose radioactivity will last hundreds of years.
Fukushima is a serious existential threat, according to Dr. Iriguchi:
“If molten nuclear fuel rods are exposed through cracks to the
atmosphere due to a mega earthquake or the liquidization [sic] of the
site causing the collapse of the nuclear reactors, Japan’s landmass
would become uninhabitable to a large extent.”
Wherefore, one would think that the slightest, even the very slightest
probability of Japan’s “landmass becoming uninhabitable to a large
extent” would be an all-out emergency situation, ringing crises bells
for Japan’s officialdom to utilize whatever, and all, resources to fix
it before holocaust hits. However, on a dollars and cents basis, the
government’s all-out effort for funding is directed at the upcoming
Olympics whilst kneeling and praying it somehow placates international
concerns about Fukushima.
Lamentably, according to available information, the integrity of the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is about as secure as a warehouse
filled with fireworks located next door to a welding center!
And, spending only USD 275 million on a Godzilla-type out-of-control
nuclear tinderbox in the neighborhood of an elaborate ¥ 24 billion
Olympic event is a slap in the face to 10,000+ attending Olympians. Not
only that but Fukushima Prefecture wants to be part of the momentous
event, possibly hosting the soccer matches, which hopefully fulfills
the Belgium team’s slogan “Expect The Impossible!”
In point of fact, spending 275 million would be absolutely acceptable
vis a vis spending 24 billion on the Olympics (if Japan can really
afford it in the first instance), if assuming, supposing, conceding
that Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was fixed, under control,
but that’s not even close, not even close at all. Rather, it is
totally, absolutely, 100% out of control, beyond comprehension.
Regardless of the horrendously frightening status of Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant, which seems almost hopeless, in fairness to the
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Committee, a spokesman for Tokyo 2020 claims:
“Radiation levels in the air and water of Tokyo are safe… Measures have
been done even before the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima, and they
show that radiation levels in Tokyo are absolutely safe and normal –
comparable to levels in other major cities like London, New York and
Paris,” (Source: Opposition Overshadows Tokyo Olympics Excitement,
Deutsche Welle, Oct. 30, 2013.) Well, okay fair enough, but would
anybody in the whole wide world expect them to say: Radiation may be a
problem.
The question of whether Japan should host the 2020 Olympics is not an
open question, not at all. The decision has been made. The financing is
underway. Japan wants to showcase its country to the world.
Along those lines, showcasing Japan may very well reveal a deep, dark
secret that nobody yet fully understands, an unaddressed problem of
unimaginable magnitude, an unaddressed problem that’s an unaddressed
monstrosity, like Godzilla. Imagine that!
Hopefully, for the hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the
world, the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius (Latin for Faster,
Higher, Stronger) remains true to its centuries-old legacy.
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at roberthunziker@icloud.com
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