Dear Friends,
I am sending you, attached below, the message sent by Dr. Brian
Victoria, member of the Research Institute of Buddhism, Oxford
University, supporting my plea for an honorable retreat from the Tokyo
Olympic Games in order to make maximum efforts to bring Fukushima under
control. It was reported by the Japan Times, dated 5 November, 2015.
Civil society, in Japan and abroad was shocked by the recently
announced intention of the IOC to hold the Tokyo Olympic Games next
year, irrespective of the future of the Corona pandemic.
This position is identical with that of the “Nuclear Village”,
neglecting the lesson of the Fukushima accident that requires the shift
of the top priority from economy to life.
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland
(Message of Dr. Brian Victoria)
Japan Times、５November, 2015 （P12）
Time has come for an ‘honorable retreat’ from Tokyo 2020 over Fukushima
Dear Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo,
Let me begin this message by offering you my sincerest condolences.
Condolences for what? For the death of the belief that a trouble-free
2020 Tokyo Olympics would serve to showcase Japan’s economic revival.
Up to this point, the exact opposite has been the case, due to the
scrapping of plans for a very expensive new National Stadium, the
scuttling of the Olympic logo amid charges of plagiarism and newspaper
headlines alleging, for example, that “Japan’s Olympics fiascoes point
to outmoded, opaque decision-making.” Even more recently, Japan sports
minister Hakubun Shimomura offered to resign over the Olympic stadium
row.
Among these developments, the charge alleging “outmoded, opaque
decision-making” is perhaps the most troubling of all, because it
suggests that both of the major setbacks the 2020 Olympics has
encountered are systemic in nature, not merely one-off phenomena. If
correct, this indicates that similar setbacks are likely to occur in
the future. But how many setbacks can the 2020 Olympics endure?
At this point it may be apt to recall the warning of 13th-century Zen
master Dogen: “If there is the slightest difference in the beginning,
the result will be a distance greater than heaven is from Earth.”
One lesson to be learned from Dogen’s words is that in order to
understand the mess you are in now, you should reflect on how you got
into it in the first place. When this is done, the “beginning” becomes
clear, i.e., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2013 statement to the
International Olympic Committee that the situation at the crippled
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was “under control.” The prime minister
went on to tell the Diet, “The effect of radioactive substances in the
nearby waters is blocked within 0.3 sq. km of the plant’s harbor.”
One needs only to look at recent stories describing the torrential
downpours in the Fukushima area to know that this claim, if it were
ever true, is clearly no longer valid. Even Tepco stated: “On Sept. 9
and 11, due to typhoon No. 18 (Etau), heavy rain caused Fukushima No. 1
drainage rainwater to overflow to the sea.” This is not to mention the
high probability that relatively decontaminated areas have been
contaminated once again by the heavy rains carrying radioactive
particles lodged in the nearby mountains down onto the plains. Nor does
it take into account that no one knows the location or condition of the
melted fuel in reactors 1, 2 and 3.
Unfortunately, Zen master Dogen didn’t explain what to do when you find
yourself in a spot where heaven is already far removed from Earth - or
the truth, in this instance. Fortunately, the former Japanese
ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, recently proposed an
eminently reasonable solution. It is time, he says, for Japan to stage
an “honorable retreat” from hosting the 2020 Olympics while there is
still time to select and prepare an alternative site.
In an article in the September issue of Gekkan Nippon, Murata
buttressed his proposal by pointing out another misstatement in Abe’s
IOC testimony, namely, “(Fukushima) has never done and will never do
any damage to Tokyo.” In response, Murata pointed to a number of
incidents showing that Tokyo was affected by Fukushima radioactive
fallout, including the discovery on March 23, 2011, that water from the
purification plant in the Kanemachi district of Tokyo contained more
than 200 becquerels per liter of radioactive iodine, double the
recommended limit for young infants stipulated in the Food Sanitation
Act.
Murata’s major concern, however, was not about the past but the present
and future. He noted the danger still posed by large numbers of spent
fuel rods suspended in spent fuel pools in reactors 1, 2 and 3. Unlike
the spent fuel rods in reactor building 4 successfully removed by the
end of 2014, the remaining rods can’t be removed from the damaged
reactor buildings due to the high levels of radioactivity surrounding
these reactors, all three of which suffered meltdowns.
Murata’s gravest concern is a number of troubling indications of
recurring criticality in one or more of the reactors at Fukushima No.
1. For example, he notes that in December 2014, both radioactive
iodine-131 and tellurium-132 were reported as having been detected in
Takasaki city, Gunma Prefecture. Given the short half-lives of these
radioactive particles, their presence could not be the result of the
original meltdowns at Fukushima.
Murata is not opposed to the Tokyo Olympic Games per se, but finds them
a major distraction to what needs to be done immediately - namely,
gathering the best minds and expertise from around the world and, with
the full support of the Japanese government, doing everything humanly
possible to bring Fukushima No. 1 truly “under control.” This will help
to ensure the Pacific Ocean is no longer used as an open sewer for
Fukushima-produced radiation, and also address the ongoing pain and
distress of the residents of Fukushima Prefecture and beyond.
As Murata noted in the conclusion of his article, “Heaven and Earth
will not long countenance immoral conduct.” Recognizing this, Minister
Endo, will you join the call for an “honorable retreat”?
BRIAN VICTORIA
Kyoto
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