Posted on by Dick

Truth and blame: Big questions for Japanese residents

Truth is said to be the first casualty of war. Perhaps that can be paraphrased for times of emergency or disaster.

Just now is the first chance I have had today to read a bit about the latest from Japan and its continuing crisis with nuclear reactors, a byproduct of the tsunami and earthquakes. Likewise, I have looked in on my friend Paul and his family in Tokyo via Facebook. They are a couple of hundred miles away from the messed-up Fukushima nuclear plant.

It seems difficult to find the truth anywhere from the media or government sources about just what condition Fukushima’s condition is in, with apologies to Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. One would figure going to a prominent piece of the newspaper medium such as Japan Times Online might have the skinny. But this story is so full of jargon it seems as if  some one used a scientific dictionary for skeet practice and the words fell to Earth in shotgunned fragments. Then there are the news aggregators such as Google News:

Add to that, Sky is Falling Says Dr. C. Little.
What does stand out in the Japan Times story is the assertion of Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano that the problem at the plant “will not develop into a situation similar to the (1986 accident at the atomic power reactor in) Chernobyl” in the Soviet Union, even in the worst case. For comparison, Chernobyl is about all there is to go by talking in worst case scenarios.
Elsewhere in Japan the watchword seems to be “recovery” as in body recovery. How do you blame nature for what it has wrought?
Meanwhile, I read on Facebook that Paul managed to buy some food for the family at the local store along with some Jack Daniels and cinnamon rolls. Ah yes, “Jaques Daniel, that famous Cajun sippin’ whiskey what’s made in Tennessee,” the late Cajun humorist Justin Wilson was believed (by me) to have said. Whatever is good for the soul during an emergency is close enough to the truth. That, unfortunately, seems the  best that can be done in such trying circumstances as exists in Japan. Truth, another casualty of diasaster.