Fukushima, Japan, atomic reactor 4 is a nuclear time bomb !

Our RTL coverage of Fukushima atomic plant, today. 

For months I followed the situation in Fukushima and well often it is freaking mad to see what is happening. The news coverage was regular and we have done a lot on my part I have to say. Reporting, investigating, interviewing, trying to go beyond the secrets deployed by Japanese industry, government and those involved in the disaster. Today RTL opened a special chapter regarding the time bomb that Fukushima could be if a new natural disaster happens on the nuclear plant. 

"The typhoon season will start soon in Japan. And it could cause a second Fukushima, far more terrible than the first. We confirm that the nuclear plant destroyed by an earthquake and a tsunami in March 2011, has become a "nuclear time bomb". At the heart of the installations, sleep 260 tons of highly radioactive rods in an unstable and hazardous pool building. A new natural disaster would be absolutely catastrophic for Japan and the whole world environment." 

RTL France "Enquête", an investigation with Bernard Poirette of RTL Paris http://www.rtl.fr/biographie/bernard-poirette
with Th. Charles of the IRSN 
and myself broadcasting from Japan:

"La centrale de Fukushima, une bombe nucléaire toujours instable" Click the URL links in red to listen to our special coverage on the morning news Friday August 24th 2012. 
http://www.rtl.fr/actualites/environnement/article/la-centrale-de-fukushima-une-bombe-nucleaire-toujours-instable-7751851060


I would add that it is obvious that the Japanese atomic industry tries to hide the facts about Fukushima, and when we find about it, the Tepco and Co of the Japanese nuclear village say it is not totally new... Of course! This is why we have serious concerns about safety of the Japanese archipelago. Today Japanese are 60% against the nuclear energy, polls say, and the current prime minister Noda, as his predecessor Naoto Kan, announced desiring a progressive exit of the nuclear energy. Japanese, as I can see, have therefore voiced their concerns not only about this form of energy, but also politically have stated their opposition. It is to be seen if it will follow with effects, I see that the Yamaguchi prefecture governor has said he does not want to see nuclear energy restart. I read that we do not have energy black-out, and therefore the Oi plants seem unnecessary contrary to what it was said then to justify Oi plant in Fukui prefecture restart its reactors.

One politician Ozawa Ichiro (ex king maker of the LDP and the DPJ) stated he wants Japan out of nuclear. It remains to be seen how Japan will maintain its energy independence. Shifting from nuclear to oil and gas in a context where it is controlled geographically by oil producing countries is not easy policy. Other forms of technologies are to be studied, Japan could be a number One in new energy forms in this century. It has the technological and engineering capacity to create a new energy paradigm. It won't be easy.

Here is a GREAT BOOK "Dentsu to genpatsu hodo" written by Mr. Ryu Homma, 48 years-old, ex Hakuhodo Sales Division which reveals how Dentsu and other PR agencies control the Japanese (and foreign) media coverage of the Fukushima accident and the nuclear energy, focus especially on the role of "Dentsu" who keeps the journalists, scientists and opinion leaders who are critical of nuclear energy, away from Japanese media. Homma san wishes to be heard by world media as he wrote on Twitter: Ryu.Homma @desler

http://lnk.nu/amazon.co.jp/24vp/

(Illus: beyondnuclear.org, emsnews.files.wordpress.com)


Asian Gazette Blog of Joel Legendre-Koizumi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Avis de tempête nationaliste en mer de Chine !

Dimanche 19 août, des nationalistes japonais ont brièvement débarqué sur une des îles de l'archipel inhabité des Senkaku - Daioyu, provoquant la colère de Pékin qui a protesté et répété que le Japon devait cesser toute action portant atteinte à sa souveraineté territoriale. Le Japon et la Chine doivent bientôt célébrer le 40e anniversaire de la normalisation des relations diplomatiques. Elle seront ternies en cette année 2012.

"Officiellement, il n' y a pas de querelle territoriale, nous ne la reconnaissons pas, Takeshima est un territoire japonais" hurle Tokyo! Même refrain pour les îles Senkaku de mer de Chine, elle appartiennent au Japon. Tokyo monte au créneau! Pékin, Taiwan et Séoul ne l'entendent pas de cette oreille et multiplient les visites interdites et leurs gouvernements s'insurgent contre le Japon qu'ils accusent d'être manipulé par des minorités nationalistes nippones. Pourquoi un tel vent de colère déferle-t-il sur une région que l'on dit être en plein développement?

Cible? Le Japon est affaibli par son instabilité politique et l'opposition de sa population aux coûteuses réformes de ses finances publiques. Tokyo est  empêtré dans ses contradictions de l'après Fukushima et le désaveu de sa population hostile au nucléaire. Tokyo renâcle dans ses relations stratégiques avec les USA, le dossier des Osprey par exemple. Le Japon souffre d'un mal : il est indécis et démotivé. Dans ce contexte, les japonais sont une cible facile des critiques des nationalistes de l'archipel mais aussi pour les chinois et les coréens sur les territoires insulaires disputés. Les liens entre Chine Corée Japon ne sont que des ponts de papier. Au coeur des conflits, n'est ce pas l'absence d'identité et de valeur communes en Asie de l'Est?

Les mini batailles navales livrées pour quelques îles perdues, riches en ressources halieutiques et en hydrocarbures des mers de Chine, attirent chaque année les coups de projecteurs des médias asiatiques et occidentaux, rapportant les faits dans leur parfaite exactitude. Pourtant quelle n'a pas été ma surprise l'autre jour en écoutant un "expert", présenté comme tel, disant une grosse bêtise sur une chaîne TV d'information "Voix et Yeux de la France." Un rédacteur du "Monde Chinois" estimait que "le Japon ne s'est pas excusé pour les horreurs de la colonisation et de la seconde guerre mondiale". Ce monsieur en réalité rabâche la propagande chinoise et ce que des prêts-à-penser déversent sans trop savoir de quoi est fait l'archipel nippon, archipel lui-même assez peu doué en "global communication", en communication avec le monde extérieur. 

En réalité, le Japon passe son temps à s'excuser! Je l'ai lu vu et entendu 30, 40, 50 fois depuis 20 ans. Tous les médias d'outre-mer et même du Japon ne cessent de l'imprimer en se moquant du Japon qui se courbe plus encore chaque année le 15 août, sous les critiques des anciennes colonies asiatiques. J'imagine avec surprise la réaction des français si tous les anciens pays colonisés par la France, obligeaient Paris à courber la tête chaque année pour les milliers de morts, spoliés et tourmentés d'Indochine, d'Afrique du Proche-Orient et continuaient d'exiger des compensations financières pour des crimes datant de la colonisation.

Le Japon s'est prononcé si souvent avec tant d'excuses au point que cela devenait répétitif de la part de Tokyo, l'Empereur Akihito en tête l'a fait chaque année, et il l'a encore fait le 15 Août dernier au Budokan de Kudanshita. Je ne vais pas entrer dans les complexités linguistiques sur "Shazai, Oyabi". Et j'ai travaillé des années durant sur la période de colonisation et de guerre du Pacifique avec des collègues écrivains américains, "I did my homework" comme l'on dit en anglais. J'ai pris la mesure des horreurs commises dans les guerres coloniales au nom de la pacification. Peace-keeping dit-on aujourd'hui?

Sur ces îles perdues des Senkaku en mer de Chine et en mer du Japon (Mer de l'Est en Corée), la réalité est simple, le règlement de ces litiges territoriaux demeure difficile car aucune des parties n'admet avoir de querelle territoriale. Le Japon considère que les Senkaku - Diaoyu (en chinois) et Takeshima - Dokdo (en coréen) sont japonais, la Corée du sud considère que Takeshima Dokdo est terre coréenne et la Chine considère que les Senkaku-Diaoyu lui appartiennent!

Pour l'essentiel, les querelles nationalistes asiatiques éclatent avec récurrence chaque été en hommage aux victimes de la guerre, et aux dates anniversaires de la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale. Je l'ai vu en Chine, en Corée du sud et au Japon depuis 20 ans. 15 août, reddition du Japon. Chacun y va de son attaque 67 ans après, car le traumatisme des horreurs japonaises ne s'est pas effacé, et même si les générations se succèdent, les rappeler permet un devoir de mémoire, est l'occasion pour de nouvelles revendications, corrections historiques, financières, territoriales, même si tout a été scellé, avec beaucoup d'imperfection, par le Traité de San Francisco ou "Traité de paix avec le Japon" le 8 septembre 1951. 

Depuis, les nations d'Asie de l'Est et du Sud Est se battent pour sortir du sous-développement colonial de l'immédiate après guerre, après leurs sanglantes guerres civiles et haines internes, pour ouvrir leurs portes au commerce mondial et recueillir les fruits de leurs investissements. Corée du sud, Chine, Viêt-nam et pays d'Asie du Sud-Est ont des "desseins d'idées". Ces pays ont réussi et cultivent maintenant des ambitions nées des imperfections de l'histoire et de la géographie, des cartes souvent dessinées par d'autres puissances. Mais Pékin veut être la puissance régionale, elle seule et sans alliance extérieure, comme le Japon, la Corée du Sud ou Taiwan avec les USA, aussi les cartes tracées depuis la Chine font aujourd'hui peu de choses des frontières asiatiques ou d'îles abandonnées lorsqu'elles chevauchent les intérêts stratégiques de l'Empire du Milieu, définis comme le disent les experts par: "the entire continental shelf plus the EEZ" around these islands.

La suite demain: "Au-delà du nationalisme asiatique"

Asian Gazette Blog of Joel Legendre-Koizumi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

China Korea Japan "diplomatic war"

Japan hopes to continue talks about a FTA agreement in Asia, in spite of the territorial issue with China and the Senkaku and the Liancourt Rocks called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea, Masaru Sato said today at a Gaimusho briefing held at Foreign Press Center Japan. 

Two major items here: Japan-South Korea swap arrangement and the talks on Japan, China, South Korea FTA (Free Trade Agreement). On the ICJ, Sato announced that Japan proposed Seoul to institute proceedings before the International Court of Justice. 

ROK president Lee on Takeshima Dokdo

On Takeshima Dokdo, we seem to be on conciliation mode. Everyone calls on ways based on international law. Looks like Japan has a case here that ROK does not want to see studied by the ICJ. But the bad news came later for Tokyo as officials of Cheong Wa Dae said, according to press reports at the Blue House, that Lee Myung-bak is likely to return the Japanese prime minister’s written protest against his recent visit to Dokdo that escalated tension between the two countries. ROK is "leaning toward refusing to accept last week’s letter from Yoshihiko Noda" after discussing with experts in international law and foreign relations on the territorial dispute. 

Japan ministry of Foreign Affairs Sato Masaru at FPCJ

“We wouldn’t need to leave a bad diplomatic precedent (by taking the letter) and it carried unjust content that we cannot accept. Also there was a breach of courtesy,” Korean official said quoted by the Korea Herald, referring to the Japanese government’s release of the message to local media in advance of delivery. Courtesy and diplomacy. The Korea Herald writes that "Lee’s visit (to Takeshima Dokdo) has thrown bilateral relations to their lowest ebb in decades and triggered criticism over his apparent populist aim"...

I noticed major US and UK media colleagues attended this briefing event held at FPCJ, in the middle of the crisis.

I'll write more about this diplomatic and nationalistic crisis on my blog tomorrow... We are not yet at the end of this crisis affecting the 3 major North East Asia powers. How ironical on the 40th anniversary of Japan China diplomatic relations!

(Sources: Gaimusho, Foreign Press center Japan, Korea Herald, news agencies)

Mika Yamamoto, killed in Syria while covering the civil war

Mika Yamamoto, a courageous journalist, a free lancer, a Japanese woman of talent and a humanist, she was killed on Monday in Syria covering the civil war. Some of her first reports were in the Unzen Dake, Kyushu, a dramatic volcano eruption where many cameramen and scientists lost their life in June 1991 while covering the catastrophe. She later covered Iraq war, and others, in ex Yugoslavia. When and where she could Mika Yamamoto always testified for the victims, for the people. More and more free lancers die in action nowadays, hired by radio television and press, often without security guaranteed, to cover wars and disasters affecting people's life. Mika Yamamoto felt natural to cover wars after her work on natural disasters and catastrophes. She honorably devoted her life and we feel close to her parents to whom we present our condolences for the painful loss of their daughter.

(Illustration: womennewsnetwork.net)

Non embraced defeat 67 years after World War Two

The Yasukuni shrine, located in central Tokyo, honors more than 2 million Japanese who died in the war, but causes resentment because it includes 14 convicted war criminals who committed atrocities across the region.

China said it would lodge a complaint with Japan after it detained five Chinese activists who landed on a disputed island on August 15 as tension between Japan and its neighbors escalated on the anniversary of the end of World War Two.

Amid a sudden outburst in nationalistic anti-Japan rhetoric, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak fueled it further with a demand for an apology by Emperor Akihito for the repression during colonial time.

The Yasukuni shrine has long been a source of tension between the two countries, but the visits today came amid a diplomatic deadlock that began last week after South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak visited the disputed Takeshima islands known as "Dokdo" in Korean, despite protests from Tokyo. That immediately prompted Japan to withdraw its ambassador from Seoul, ambassador Muto Masatoshi.

Maybe the Koreans used the division of a weakened Japan government as seen today with 2 cabinet ministers of the Democratic party who visited the Yasukuni Shrine, seen as a symbol of Japan imperialism. National Public Safety Commission Jin Matsubara and Transport Minister Yuichiro Hata were the first two high-ranking officials to visit Yasukuni Jinja since the ruling Democratic Party of Japan came to power three years ago.

Every summer, these hostilities are a customary pattern for neighbors nationalistic views. Time has come, though, for authentic reconciliation and cultural tolerance in north-east Asia. These photos were taken at Yasukuni Shrine Tokyo today August 15th 2012, the day when Pacific war ended with Japan defeat, we understand some here do not give up the fight 67 years after surrendering. A non embraced defeat from Japan and a continuing poisonous atmosphere between former belligerents.

A minority some people say, not sure and I see more young people than ever. The memories of uniforms hurt regional sensibilities, Korea, China, SE Asia, in Japan and in the western world. Duty of remembrance is rather seen in this part of Asia as a duty to create and activate anger among Asian nations. Apparently, good reasons to let the two big policemen monitor the region as here the Cold War is still on. And wait, we have not heard about north Korea nuclear bomb threats yet!

Still one has to understand the motives of ordinary people and families who, as one father under 50 and his son told me today, let's call him Hamada-san: "For us it is a day of remembrance, we were crushed in these war events, today we wish to offer our country peace and dignity and some Japanese politicians seem strong enough to defend Japan."

Invasions, war and peace and the impact on societies. Tolstoi was right...

1 minute of silence at 12:00 for the Japanese war victims 

Nationalists in black uniform

Ultra conservative Abe Shinzo former Prime Minister

Abe and his followers

Crowds invade the Yasukuni shrine

1 hour to go from the Tori to the shrine

Nationalists or more... they belong to Yasukuni donators

Like soldiers, they pay respect to the "boss"

Crowds continue their visit of the shrine

The Yushukan museum. Historically correct until Meiji Revolution 

Nostalgic of the "Kamikaze fighters"

Ipadding the fighter plane

When Japan and Germany were allied of the Axis powers

Indian nationalist Chandra Bose is venerated at Yasukuni

Maritime map of the Empire

Yasukuni "Gods" as portrayed by Yasukuni priests

This one was lost in translation time machine, awful.

More peaceful, an harmonious garden at the Chidorigafuchi, ten minutes walk from the Yasukuni and unrelated. It is the national Japanese cemetery for 353.000 unidentified war dead in the Second World War

A lot of police forces deployed at Kudanshita area of Tokyo

-Copyright © JLK 2012 August 15-

I add to this post on my blog this program "Une semaine en Asie : Nouvelles du Japon, "Patriotisme" de Yukio Mishima", aired on the French radio (France Culture) August 15th 2012. Text read by Bernard Lanneau (originally recorded in 1987)

http://lnk.nu/franceculture.fr/24k0

* Territorial dispute, news update. August 17th *

China-Japan: Japanese officials have decided to deport fourteen Chinese activists and journalists accused of illegally entering the country’s territory. They were seized when they landed on an island that Japan controls, but China claims.

South Korea - Japan: About the dispute between Japan and south Korea after South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak visited the islands, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said that his country wants to deal with the dispute calmly, under international law and proposed to the South Korean government that the country take the case to the International Court of Justice. South Korea’s foreign ministry dismissed the proposal.

Genetic mutations affect animals of Fukushima
Scientists say

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, widely covered by world media since a few days, Japanese researchers observed an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape mutations among butterflies collected after the Fukushima accident. The team confirmed the link between the mutations and the radioactive material by laboratory experiments.

"It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation" lead researcher Joji Otaki of the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, told the state-funded BBC. "In that sense, our results were unexpected" he added. The Japanese team collected 144 adult pale grass blue (Zizeeria maha) butterflies from 10 locations in Japan two months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011.

"By comparing mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, scientists found that areas with greater amounts of environment radiation were home to butterflies with much smaller wings and irregularly developed eyes."

Nature cannot lie... a French scientist told me that small animals would be the first visible victims of the atomic radiation, here people all remember this Japanese magazine publishing photos of a cow with 3 eyes after Chernobyl!


An other butterfly effect is the political responsibility of what seems to become an outrageous secret maintained by the "Japanese atomic village" critics say: The "collusion" between industry and politics in Japan, as the Kurokawa Parliament investigation committee stated in its official report recently.

Critics add that people are not told in Japan about the responsibilities of the LDP in the Fukushima atomic accident. Because it happened under the DPJ. But critics add, the LDP ruled the country for 50 years! LDP since 2009 is in the opposition while the ruling DPJ is the result of a scission from the LDP.

I read: "The LDP is the architect of Japan's nuclear policy and doesn't want any plants to be turned off", writes August 12th commentator Philip Brasor in the Japan Times.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20110522pb.html

A couple of weeks ago indeed, 1994 Literature Nobel prize Oé Kenzaburo talked in Tokyo in front of foreign media, extensively, about the connection of the atomic industry with LDP ex prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone -whose daughter married Kajima construction family who built the first nuclear plants according to French sources-

Nobel prize Oé also talked about a former Yomiuri Shimbun (the biggest paper in Japan) president Shoriki: "Working with the CIA, [Matsutaro] Shoriki promoted the peaceful use of atomic energy as a means of "fighting fire with fire": Make the Japanese people tolerate America's nuclear deterrence policy by selling them on nuclear energy" Brasor writes.

As an other sign of what current opponents to the Japanese atomic energy calls a "collusion", here is an other article this time from The Liberty Times from Taiwan, about this political construction of the atomic energy in Japan following Japan surrender August 15th 1945. The article was published 3 days ago on the web in Chinese and English:


《中英對照讀新聞》Japan govt, media colluded on nuclear：Nobel winner 諾貝爾獎得主：日本政府與媒體聯手推動核能發展

Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe said Japan’s post-war government and media colluded to give nuclear power a stranglehold.

曾獲諾貝爾獎殊榮的作家大江健三郎表示，日本戰後政府與媒體沆瀣一氣，讓核能在電力市場取得壟斷地位。

The 77-year-old laureate with anti-nuclear views said the media magnate who controlled mass circulation Yomiuri Shimbun had used his newspaper to promote atomic power, in concert with one-time Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

現年77歲、持反核立場的這位諾貝爾獎得主說，手中掌握了發行量廣大的「讀賣新聞」的媒體鉅子利用他的報紙來宣傳核能發電，與前首相中曾根康弘採取一致行動。

"（Nakasone）said because this country does not have resources, Japan would need to find a new source of energy, which the United States had already invented," Oe told reporters in Tokyo.

「（中曾根）說因為日本資源短缺，所以必須找到新的能源，而美國已經發明了這種能源，」大江在東京向記者表示。

Nakasone had pushed for nuclear power in the 1950s, and held a number of ministerial posts before becoming prime minister in 1982.

中曾根自1950年代起即大力推動核能發展，他在1982年出任首相前，也曾數度擔任部長級職務。

"The United States offered the know-how, the machines and the fuel -- which became the very first bit of nuclear waste now causing a big problem for us -- for free to Japan."

「美國免費提供給日本相關技術、機器與燃料，而這些燃料後來就變成了第一批現在讓我們很頭大的核廢料。」

Yomiuri tycoon Matsutaro Shoriki -- who had briefly led the government’s science and technology agency -- "jumped at this opportunity" and unquestioningly promoted the technology, Oe said.

曾短暫擔任政府科學技術廳長官的讀賣新聞媒體大亨正力松太郎則「立刻抓住這個機會」，毫不質疑地大力推廣這項科技，大江表示。

"The structure of the Japan in which we now live was set at that time and has continued ever since. It is this that led to the big tragedy" of Fukushima in March 2011, said Oe.


http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2012/new/aug/12/today-int7.htm?Slots=BInt

De Hiroshima à Fukushima: 
le Japon de la discorde

Cette semaine, les médias japonais parlent de deux choses, des commémorations des bombardements nucléaires d'Hiroshima et Nagasaki, et, de la nécessité de redémarrer des centrales nucléaires, suspendues après les événements tragiques des réacteurs de Fukushima Dai-Ichi. Le débat énergétique a démarré, le Japon a depuis organisé des manifestations de masse contre l'énergie nucléaire.

La bataille est menée pour sauver l'économie et l'industrie, près d'un an et demi après l'accident. Pour qui? Les évacués de la région contaminée de Fukushima et les régions voisines n'ont pas l'impression que le gouvernement japonais oeuvre à leur réintégration dans une vie "normale". Pourquoi les sommes allouées aux victimes du séisme et du tsunami ne sont elles pas versées aux bénéficiaires? Effet de manches et mépris pour les gens de la rue de la part de ces élites des beaux quartiers ministériels d'un Japon avare en réinsertion? Beaucoup d'évacués du Tohoku se sont suicidés ou sont morts d'épuisements. Les gens âgés surtout. Drames sans fin. Des rôles héroïques sont révélés avec ces "nettoyeurs" de Fukushima mais apparaissent aussi des scandales et de l'opacité, pire, du secret comme toujours dans le "village  nucléaire."

Les japonais s'interrogent. Comment se fait-il que certains réacteurs atomiques soient aujourd'hui re-démarrés comme les tranches d'Oi dans la région de Fukui? Des dizaines de milliers de personnes en colère ont donc envahi poliment les rues des grandes cités japonaises dans des manifestations massives et pacifiques, depuis des mois. Pas une seule arrestation. En particulier à Tokyo en Juillet, 70.000 voire 200.000 manifestants, des mouvements citoyens, des antinucléaires mais aussi des non politisés,des familles avec enfants, des employés de bureaux, des religieux, des artistes, des intellectuels tels le Prix Nobel de Littérature 1994 OE Kenzaburo le 16 Juillet au parc de Yoyogi, dans le coeur de Tokyo.

Sourds, les industriels, les sociétés de commerce et les fonctionnaires japonais, ceux que l'on nomme le "village nucléaire", déclarent à l'unisson que s'il n'y a pas redémarrage de certaines centrales nucléaires, l'économie industrielle du Japon peut s'attendre à un effondrement à la fin de Septembre de cette année... Information incorrecte, car on n'a pas ici considéré les gigantesques stocks énergétiques et les productions des centrales thermiques notamment mais information reprise en masse par les médias "conservateurs" japonais avec écho outre-mer...

Le Japon de "la discorde" 

Certains plaident en faveur de l'élimination complète de l'énergie nucléaire en tant que telle, une partie de plus en plus croissante de la population japonaise, et d'autres souhaitent la reprise de la production d'énergie nucléaire. Le débat politique devient sérieux. Enfin... pourrait on penser.

C'est dans ce contexte que survient le triste anniversaire du bombardement atomique d'Hiroshima. Le Sankei Shimbun, quotidien conservateur, a fourni des détails inédits sur ces bombardements, sans révéler ses sources: "Les États-Unis pourraient avoir vaincu le Japon en 1945 sans bombardement atomique, mais leurs intentions étaient de lancer un sérieux avertissement à l'Union Soviétique."

Dans la matinée du 6 Août 1945, le bombardier américain B-29 commandé par le colonel Paul Tibbets a lâché une bombe atomique, "Little Boy", équivalent à 13 - 18 kilotonnes de TNT sur la ville japonaise d'Hiroshima. Trois jours plus tard, le 9 Août 1945, une bombe atomique "Fat Man" a été larguée sur Nagasaki par le pilote Charles Sweeney, commandant de la bombardier B-29 "Bockscar". Le nombre total des victimes? Il varie de 90.000 à 166.000 personnes pour Hiroshima et de 60 à 80 mille personnes à Nagasaki. Le rôle des bombardements atomiques dans la capitulation du Japon et la justification éthique de l'attentat continuent de provoquer de vifs débats. (nb: Comme je l'ai constaté sur ma page Facebook) Certes, le 15 Août 1945, le Japon a annoncé sa défaite. L'acte de reddition qui a officiellement arrêté la Seconde Guerre mondiale a été signé le 2 Septembre 1945.

Selon le quotidien japonais Sankei Shimbun, l'accord qui prévoit l'utilisation de l'arme atomique contre le Japon a été signé en Septembre 1944 lors d'une réunion du président américain Franklin D. Roosevelt et de Winston Churchill, à Hyde Park, Londres.

Eté 1945: les États-Unis, soutenus par le Royaume-Uni et le Canada en vertu du "Projet Manhattan" ont achevé les travaux préparatoires pour la création des premiers essais des armes nucléaires existantes. Le 16 Juillet, le premier essai d'une arme atomique est fait et réussi dans le Nouveau-Mexique. La puissance de l'explosion est de 21 kilotonnes de TNT.

Le 24 Juillet 1945, conférence de Potsdam: le président américain Harry Truman a informé Staline que les Etats-Unis a acquis de nouvelles armes de "destructions massives". On peut lire dans les mémoires de Truman que: "Staline lui fit signe de loin, alluma sa pipe, et ne montrent pas d'intérêt particulier." Il était heureux et a exprimé l'espoir que les États-Unis seraient en mesure d'utiliser la bombe contre les Japonais. Churchill, qui surveillait Staline, pense que Staline ne comprends pas alors ce que signifiait Truman...

Provoquer un grave impact moral et psychologique sur Staline

Selon les historiens japonais dont les conclusions sont citées par le quotidien Sankei Shimbun, l'une des raisons du bombardement atomique du Japon était donc de créer, susciter et provoquer un grave impact moral et psychologique sur Staline. Le Japon aurait perdu la guerre sans le bombardement, rapporte le quotidien conservateur japonais.

Si cette version est correcte, alors les Américains ont connu un échec sans précédent car les bombardements du Japon n'ont pas eu d'incidence sur Staline qui est resté fidèle à ses principes, a occupé des îles dans le nord du Japon, au point que quelques années plus tard l'Occident est entré en "guerre froide" avec l'Union Soviétique qui a fait exploser sa première propre bombe atomique le 29 août 1949 dans le Kazakhstan. L’obtention de cette technologie est pour partie due "à un bon système d’espionnage, cela contribuera à un climat de paranoïa aux Etats-Unis qui se traduira par la "chasse aux sorcières..."

Le 13 février 1960, une bombe A, d'une puissance de 70 kilotonnes surnommée Gerboise bleue, a été testée par l'armée française dans le désert du Tanezrouf en Algérie. "Hourra pour la France ! Depuis ce matin, elle est plus forte et plus fière", s'enthousiasmait le général de Gaulle, président de la République. Les Etats du Maghreb réagissent violemment contre ces tests: deux jours plus tard, le Maroc rappellera son ambassadeur à Paris.


Dès ses premières applications, l’énergie nucléaire a donc été marquée par la dualité, le mot est la hantise mais aussi la réalité du vrai Japon: nouvelle source d’énergie abondante, elle est aussi le symbole d’un immense pouvoir de destruction. Le Japon en a fait la très cruelle expérience, 3 fois, à Hiroshima et à Nagasaki les 6 et 9 Août 1945, et à Fukushima au lendemain du tremblement de terre et du tsunami du 11 Mars 2011. (Image)

Le débat est lancé au Japon, mais ira-t-il jusqu'à la tenue d'un référendum démocratique sur la question si simple et pourtant si importante: "Etes-vous pour ou contre la réduction de la production d'électricité d'origine atomique depuis l'accident de Fukushima?"


Avec des éléments sur ce sujet diffusés dans mon reportage sur les cérémonies de Hiroshima du 6 août 2012, avec pour la première fois présent, le représentant du président de la république François Hollande, l'ambassadeur Masset, sur RTL radio
http://lnk.nu/rtl.fr/24d0

Fukushima

Will Prime Minister Noda survive Japanese hot summer?

"Japanese governance is melting down at the moment we cannot make decisions and go forward, so we need a new governance that will decide and move things forward. The old system [of Noda] depending on bureaucrats from the 60s' is too old and we need more dynamic changes in governance, we need a new  realignment and government system, a large coalition, and high speed to make decisions, we must speed up and carry on new policies!" 


Says who? A Japanese radical? No these are the views of House of Representatives lawmaker Takatane Kiuchi interviewed by Shingetsu news agency of my friend Michael Penn, keen analyst of JP politics. Kiuchi is a disappointed politician and he resigned from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan earlier this year, he recently established his own parliamentary group called the Association of Reform Independents.

I am always surprised with Japanese politics, especially in summer when the temperature gets nuts, 35 degrees C. Japanese politics is half way between Shakespeare betrayal's tragedies and the soap opera "Sex and the City". Editors and Diet-men and women are always excited with midsummer nightmares and dramas falling on Nagatacho years after years. Nagatacho it is the hill in center Tokyo where the Diet is located, above the Kasumigaseki ministries compound.

But when I read this news about atomic energy, I thought, that's it. "The Japanese Minister of Industry says it is conceivable that Japan ends completely nuclear power after 2030, without affecting the economy. We can do it" said Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yukio Edano at a press conference." Oh, really? And then this one "Currently Noda withdrew from imposing the consumption tax." This is a sequential change and I wait to see because such moves are not just simple things in Japan. A total reversal of top policy making. The Noda team gives up, and collapses around O-Bon summer holidays or September? Sure something has to be reinforced before the IMF World Bank gatherings in the Autumn.

What I mainly understand here is a configuration which would enable a political operation designed to the destabilization of the current Prime Minister Noda inspired by the dolce-vita of the conservatives and their neo-cons aficionados. Behind all of this summer agitation? No doubt the opposition, LDP and various small parties played by major power breakers, some neo-con over evaluated like the current Osaka mayor Hashimoto, or the DPJ Ozawa recently expelled by the Democrat party leadership of Mr Noda.

So what's the beef? Actually it won't change much to the way Japan is governed but it adds spices to a reconfiguration that Japan likes so much giving the archipelago the impression that things "move on". Reality is more stern. As weekly magazine writes there is an operation and internal turmoil in Parliament, from the conservatives but also and especially Shukan Shincho believes the former flamboyant Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is agitating the Diet work! I wonder.

Meanwhile the Japanese press suddenly discovers that "Surprising poll result shows signs that public is turning against nuclear power" (Mainichi August 7th) As one friend told me at a dinner recently, it is good this country has a strong bureaucracy otherwise the land would turn havoc... Looks like no-one knows where to go. So time for  the meltdown of the current Noda DPJ administration and arrival of a Koizumi style type strong led coalition, an Ishihara (the son not the father Governor of Tokyo) or an agglomeration of small parties led by LDP, it looks like DPJ boss Noda and LDP boss Tanigaki are unhappy since a few days. Something like, "your time is over, go now!"



http://lnk.nu/shingetsunewsagency.com/249t.html

http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/shukanshincho/

http://lnk.nu/lepetitjournal.com/249u.html

Japanese new era of agriculture

Meiji University Kurokawa farm campus

Agriculture tomorrow in Japan after Fukushima atomic accident and spreading of radioactive materials. What is the situation today? I'd say the major impacts are on safety and education. I attended a Foreign Press Center Japan press tour with many Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Singaporean, US, and some European journalists (Swiss, Germany, French) colleagues. I saw how to expect to feed the archipelago, (and how to feed the 7.000.000.000 Earth citizens) in a context of food security and next farming technologies.

I saw also how and why young Japanese students choose a work and life balance and become farmers in Japanese countryside but also in urban areas. Urban areas farming...? Quite awesome but it is a reality in Japan with all these valleys occupying 3/4 of the archipelago. I watched at a food store, Ceresamos, in Kawasaki, that Japanese customers can nowadays check on the board the daily report with amount of radioactivity contained in food. AT LAST!

Daily report of radioactivity in food

Naturally with 1.0 Bq/kg we are in this south Tokyo city well below the maximum limit of 100Bq/kg required by Japanese sanitary authorities. We can see the precious radioactivity monitoring document provided to Japanese consumers by Japan Agriculture Association, "JA".

Maybe an example to follow will be in adding a safety barcode on all agricultural products? Shopping here "is reassuring" this woman told me: "Fresh, safe and economical veggies!"

New agriculture and new students learning how to conceive new models more fair, more transparent, more accurate and in equal balance with the environment. But is it just business guided by the giants of agro-farming corporations or is it a new vision to answer to consumers? More fair trade and here the example was awesome, the cost of fruits and veggies (from producers to consumers) were 30% of the coast in Tokyo. Yen is strong but prices increase outrageously in Tokyo which keeps her citizens jailed in between walls and moats of consumerism with irregular quality, essence and flavor.

The Japanese administration is often seen as guilty not to address the people life issues or unable to answer to the requests (and this is the same in France and the Euroland by the way) and incapable to update when faced to a sudden problem. Remember the water problem for babies in Tokyo after the atomic reactor explosion at Fukushima? What was true what was erroneous? Who could be the appropriate communicator here? Too often the cold machine is paralyzed. I just agree more diversity should be given to cautious consumers and less privileges offered to big food corporations like Ajinomoto, Asahi Group, Snow Brand, Nishin, Morinaga, etc. And as time changes, future will say what consumers choose. I have my ideas about it.

Japan impose so heavy tariffs on trade that it is quite impossible to import food to Japan and hard to offer consumers a variety of choices and quality. On one side, Japan says it wants to increase diversity and on the other side provides such a net of protection to its agriculture intermediates thanks to invisible barriers or subsidies that it is difficult to talk about genuine competitive, fair and free economy. Or just hard to see any logical advance in such load of contradictions.

"Production is important in Japan because of government control and high prices but it is a double burden on consumers who pay high prices. And it is especially true for rice, 1.2 million farm-holds received rice granted government aid." So rice is expensive and protected, according to Professor Takemoto of Meiji University. But who gets the benefits? Little exploitations or huge agricultural industries? Time he said to opt for a "good agricultural power."

By the way why don't I see my favorite French Normandie apples or delicious African fruits on my table I asked a Japanese high ranking diplomat? Why? "Because Europe and Africa are far" he said without an hesitation. Pulling my legs. Usual refrain. Then why is wine cheaper than ever? Volumes? Do it for food then. You'll alleviate your ODA spending...

But at a time when we talk about food security and see that CPKO --stands here for Consumers Price Keeping Operations-- is still existing in Japan, and when we see that prices increase outrageously at the supermarket in spite of the benefits of a high YEN, a new element is emerging now among consumers in Japan: the Japanese are now showing their guts and become more assertive to obtain a more reactive market, accurately reflecting reality of prices and quality.

Japanese consumers use their mobile and tablets each second of their daily life and they have access to the society of information. They dare to buy on the Internet their cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini... It frightens bureaucracy! Indeed people have more adequate information especially using technologies, tools of communication and verification process as social networks and surveys show. They go organic too since Fukushima, a lot! Time for Kyushu and Shikoku or Kansai to promote their food.

IT is the answer here too. A new citizenship has emerged. Today Facebook is the third world power in population behind --China 1.3 Billion, India 1.1 Billion, Facebook 955 Millions--

They are the ones the authorities should answer. If not, consumers and voters will show them the door out. As long as we live in democracy. Japan is becoming impatient nowadays, especially young generations.

Have the "made in Japan" politicians noticed eventually?

http://lnk.nu/whatjapanthinks.com/23y3/

 Customers feeling better?

 Food store clerk point at today radioactivity report

Students engaged in new agriculture studies

Studying the new agricultural and farming technologies

Meiji University Kurokawa campus

-- at Kanagawa prefecture, Kurokawa and Kawasaki cities, thanks to Meiji University of Tokyo and to the Foreign Press center Japan --
http://lnk.nu/fpcj.jp/23y2.php

Japanese Parliament under peaceful siege

Thousands of Japanese protesters rallied to demand the government abandon nuclear power after the 3/11 atomic accident of Fukushima

For months resilient Japanese ordinary citizens and anti nuclear activists demonstrated in Tokyo without having any single arrest or violence! After the outstanding demonstration event organized July 16th by Literature Nobel Price Oe Kenzaburo in Yoyogi, Tokyo this Sunday evening was again the theater of an other "Sayonara to the Nukes" massive demonstration held in the overheated Hibiya park, downtown. From 7 PM, thousands orderly formed a human chain around the Japanese Parliament and lighted thousands of candles. Families and citizens imposed themselves peacefully against the police whose orders are to try to marshall the demonstrators, apparently without any effect. The sight of Nagatacho with the Japanese Parliament surrounded by thousands of people and candles was so impressive. NHK gave a 20 seconds coverage after the Judo Olympics from London... Huh! Media have a funny way not to report about news or about information hierarchy!

Today the whole world knows about the Sayonara to the Nukes demonstrations, thanks to the social networks. The "hydrangea" peaceful anti-nuclear demonstrations won't stop here apparently and this citizens' movement is made to last. It is just a question of time prior to impose changes and kick out negligent or... corrupted individuals? Not so easy. Already Tepco is de facto nationalized and will be allegedly seriously monitored but I hear somber plans from other Japanese atomic electricity companies, this is also what angers these demonstrators I guess. Their prime fear is risk of extreme sudden contingency at Fukushima while we know that irradiation continues to spread from Dai 1 reactors, I am also told there are other diseases than leukemia or cancer we start to hear about such cases of heart (cardiovascular) diseases. Asking scientists from Criirad and Acro is quite meaningful. Today Japanese told loudly to their rulers, hiding behind their palaces' windows, that they won't get away threatening children's life. Japanese carry on with their protests... slowly and surely, like the tectonic plates they stand on, an irreversible dramatic move! 


VDO of Kjeld about the demonstration, something the Japanese TV did not show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9rJAdDLe_ng


An article in the US media
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jul/29/anti-nuke-protesters-surround-japanese-parliament/


(Illust. utsandiego)