The Japan Times has published an article regarding a post-mortem on the Japanese government’s handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I have every sympathy for the people who were scrambling to resolve the problems on the ground. I have less for the political paranoia that got in the way.

Part of the problem is hard to blame on the cabinet; there have been some legendary examples of American cabinet officials being shockingly ignorant of the Presidential line of succession, even though they occupy extremely high positions in American government. So, one Japanese cabinet minister not even knowing that a particular agency existed – one that seems meant to warn the public about harmful levels of radiation – can be forgiven.

What can’t be forgiven is that then-PM Naoto Kan, who now parades as a born-again environmental crusader trying to finish off nuclear power for good (regardless of its short, medium, or long-term costs to Japanese civilization), became paranoid and came to believe that none of the information he was getting from the power company or from government agencies could be trusted. So, he started micromanaging, involving himself in the tiniest of details and creating a network of personal minions to “save the country” through his own hands, since he felt he was the only one who could be relied upon to do so.

The report apparently finds the government to have lied by telling the public there was no reason to panic when, upon the command of the cabinet, the government was preparing worst-case scenarios based on assumptions of truly horrible possibilities (no matter how remote). Apparently the government was supposed to tell the public to panic immediately.

Remember when they couldn’t get fresh water into the reactors to cool things off properly and they were going to start using seawater, but the effort didn’t start right away for some reason? Here, Kan “questioned” the effect of pouring anything but seawater, and the head of the Fukushima Daiichi (daiichi = #1) reactor prevented further catastrophe by “disregarding such concerns”.

Kan’s response is that he didn’t order anyone to not use seawater. People, people… in Japan, you don’t need to “order” someone not to do something in order to cause it not to happen. The PM’s “questioning” it was more than enough to put monkey wrenches into the gears for a while. Sounds like things didn’t get worse largely because he was told to jump in a lake on this one.

So after the Nuclear Safety Commission said a hydrogen explosion was unlikely and it happened regardless, the industry minister nudged Kan into completely disregarding what the “experts” said and tried to become a nuclear physics scientist and engineer overnight (likely while staying at a Best Western). All of a sudden, he knew better than everyone else. His decision to shut down all nuclear power was clearly part of his belief that he was saving the country. This is not to say nuclear power is ideal, but Japan has been taking it on the chin economically as a result. It wasn’t the cost-less, painless decision some portrayed it as.

Finally, what I consider his most unforgivable action is heading to Fukushima Daiichi on March 12, 2011, and inspecting the plant. As anyone even remotely connected to a military organization or anything similar will tell you, when a VIP comes to visit, everything stops. No work of any meaning gets done at all. To inflict this situation on an unfolding disaster was reckless, and we are fortunate nothing even worse happened as a result of such interference.

The whole thrust of this suggests a vast immaturity of government. I mean, I understand why this happened from the top of the elected government on down. I don’t understand how they could have allowed it to happen. It’s losing your head. It’s basically panicking. It’s a complete loss of trust in anyone who’s ever studied nuclear issues and is Japanese. They didn’t even accept American experts coming straight into the Prime Minister’s office at first. It’s not said why. Maybe Americans couldn’t be trusted either. Who knows? There is no easy solution to paranoid leadership.

So, I’m sorry to see my worst, most cynical suspicions confirmed. Pots do not boil faster because you watch them, and nuclear crises do not get solved faster because you micromanage them.

As a final note, I recently found out that the whole reason fuel rods were stacked into pools of water within the reactors’ buildings is because environmentalists successfully blocked any political approval of proper disposal of those rods for such a long time that there’s just no place to put them. There is apparently hope that this situation will shut down the entire nuclear industry there even without political dictates to shut reactors down forever. How touching. Fuel rods were the likeliest source of a truly huge disaster. – J

The March 11 (“3/11”) earthquake and tsunami disaster striking Japan has brought into sharp relief the basic resilience and sense of unity of the Japanese people. Whatever the faults of Japan, this is one of Japan’s underlying strengths. Japan’s history includes a lot of respect for nature, in part because nature’s fury is so regularly beheld  through typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, and so forth. Resilience is  therefore a virtue well suited to Japan.

Resilience in society means coming together for a common purpose. This is by no means a trait unique to Japan; whatever their other divisions, Arabs have an ancient tradition of hospitality that suits a desert people. Japan has an ancient tradition of coming together as a society to rebuild. This includes a high level of social organization. Westerners are familiar with Japan’s famous rallying around government relief efforts and emergency support services, but that is only what can be done in the first hours and days.

As great as the suffering from  the earthquake and tsunami are across the eastern edge of the Touhoku region (Touhoku: lit. “North-Eastern”), the Fukushima nuclear disaster stands out because, quite simply, it’s hard to think of rebuilding when the disaster is still ongoing.  It may be a slow burn rather than a “meltdown” right now, but radioactively speaking, the region is still far too hot for the residents’ comfort.

Fukushima City is in the relative north of the southernmost prefecture of Touhoku.

Since this is a regional disaster in terms of degree, even though the aftershocks can be felt throughout the entire country, events like Comiket (for “Comic Market” verbally mashed together) are still ongoing. In preparation for the next one, in December (official site here), more than one self-published manga has arisen to speak out about the trials and difficulties of the people affected by the “3/11” disaster.

Through art, the resilience of Japanese culture expresses itself,  but it is not an individual expression: it is a call to arms for society to unite after the disaster, not just during it. That,  after all, takes more work, and is a longer-term process.  Of course, for the people directly affected the most, it is still very much an ongoing disaster.  Through manga, certain writers are working to keep these events fresh in Japanese minds outside the Touhoku region.

Some are even working towards English translations of their works to further spread awareness about the tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear plant disaster aftermath to the rest  of the world. I have mentioned it before, but I am helping one group in such an effort. I think the sensationalist, low detail Western media can benefit from being offset by cultural works created by people directly affected.  These are voices that should be heard.

Society coming together is not just a physical act. It is a social and spiritual one. Even so, there are many practical things that will need to be done to support the disaster victims. Over time, I intend to do more to provide tangible assistance in cooperation with Japanese people (or 日本人、nihonjin) themselves, because building bridges across the language and cultural barriers is a large part of what I learned Japanese for. Now is the time to go from theory to practice.

Even so, what we can all do, spiritually, is give our moral support, and that is something I do very freely in this instance.

For example:

頑張って、日本！

(Hang in there, Japan!)

みんなが応援しますよ。

(We’re all rooting for you.)

May Japan recover and grow even more vibrant, as it has done many times before. It won’t be easy – it never is – but rising from disaster is a human trait that,  as a human being, I choose to take pride in.  – J

Reaching the point where I can show people some of what I’ve been working on has come slower than I expected, but I can talk about a bit of it. Mainly, I had been helping a group of Japanese people translate a webcomic about life in the area affected by the Fukushima nuclear plant incident. The author has two kids (daughters, 8 and 11 years old) and has the sort of massive concerns you would expect a person to have.

When the highly abnormal becomes normal, someone desperate for normality might find the situation somewhat mad. I think that’s what the comic reflects. It’s all about normal people and their very natural concerns. As such, I find it all very poignant and something the world should see (in English etc.) as soon as possible.

It’s not quite all set up for unveiling to the West, but the Japanese version (the “Fukushima Radiation Diary”) will be getting bounced around Comiket, Japan’s world-famous self-published comics convention. (This is more accurate than the term doujinshi, which literally means “Story with the Same Characters,” i.e. fan fiction. Clearly, the above webcomic is about events all too real! But it is not carried by any publisher yet.)  Believe me, I’ll let everyone know when this is all ready for the West. People just want their i’s dotted and t’s crossed first.

Aside from that, I’ve been doing the heavy lifting translating, for subtitling, a press conference. I won’t say what yet because a) this’ll be done very soon now, b) I’m not sure how public it should be so I won’t run my mouth. (^^;) Let me tell you, it is a lot easier going by text, or text and ear, than by ear alone. It’s heaven compared. I’m a good translator, but I’m certainly not trained as an interpreter.

If I do more of it, I’ll get better, but some large part of me hopes not ^^;

Aside from that, I’ve just been doing odds and ends helping a startup company, well, start up, but it hasn’t been at a fast pace for a little bit of time. The bigwigs are meeting to change that. Sounds good to me. Being busy is good, if it’s about making money at least. – J