BBCTWO PROGRAMS ON FUKUSHIMA

There were 2 hour long program over the 2 weeks nearer to March 11 anniversary.  I watched the programs.  They were well documented and featuring how children have been feeling from their point of view which was very touching.  I heard lots of good comments from my friends who watched,  especially about the second one with children in Minami Soma-city.   However I was disappointed with these reasons.  First one was focused on first a few weeks of what happened at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, but I think it gave an impression that it was about “the past” because it never mentioned what’s been happening till now even there has been continuous leaking of the radiation into the air and the sea.  What about reactor 4?  It could potentially bring even more catastrophe than ever.   “The greatest tsunami in 1,000 years” which was used by BBC2 program was a phrase once used by Tepco, then later it was criticized as a wrong expression in Japan.  I read a report which said the highest wave that hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was 15m.  In 2008 Tepco submitted their report in which said over 15 m height of wave could hit the plant, but they dismissed their own calculation and did nothing to implement their report.  Tepco shouldn’t have really said one in 1000 years and unimaginable, it is more like one in 100 years, and it showed how un-responsible company Tepco is.   I wonder if BBC did their own research for making these programs.  If you look at Japanese history, there was a huge tsunami with highest wave 38.2m hit the east coast of Japan in 1896 which came after magnitude -8.5 earthquake, resulting in 22,000 people dead.

Also I would like to comment on “Iodine tablet”. Japanese government never instructed citizens in the affected area to take the tablet.  People who took it were Tepco people’s family as they knew the danger, and also citizens in Miharu-machi where they decided to take it voluntarily without waiting for the government’s instruction.  So it is doubtful that in the first program one father giving her daughter the iodine tablet.  Even if he did, it doesn’t represent at all for most of citizens.  Also there isn’t any single case of children who already suffered radiation related symptoms such as nose bleeding, diarrhea 2 months after the explosions.  Children who already have these symptoms are not just worried about their future as it said in BBC program, but worried about what’s happening in their body right now as well. 

It seems that BBC doesn’t want to broadcast anything that might the citizens to stir up anti-nuclear movement.  When there were so many demonstrations going on towards and around March 11 this year, I heard nothing about them in the main stream media.  

(Mia June)