Japan, Earthquake, Tsunami, Radiation and Ignorance

 dear japan
" SUCK SH#T"
thats what you get for killing the Whales.

from the Whales :)

This is some crap that an acquaintance on Facebook wrote during the week about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.  We grew up together, although I was more a friend of his sister’s and he is a few years younger than me.  We haven’t spoken in person since we were kids and obviously if we had I would have slapped him into shape.  One person liked this comment before I wrote:

Hmmm not sure I agree with this... I'm not into killing whales at all, but it's uncool for thousands of people to die and then probably more to die from radiation sickness. PS The Japanese on a whole, in my experience, know very little about the whale/dolphin killings and I speak to a lot of Japanese visitors regarding this. They are just as horrified and outraged as us.

This was followed a comment by a person I don’t know (I didn’t fix up it’s grammar to add to it’s ignorant feel):

Well if that be true, why dont THEY do something about it? . . I think its sad. . , so many innocent people but nontheless they are overpopulated. When is enough enough? I may be rude here but im SOOO glad i live in perth, apart from a few fires and wind damage we and the south west are doing quite well :)

Of course I couldn’t let this be the last word so I added and I can tell you I really wanted to write something a little more “choice”:

Connie have you ever been to an Asian country? In many of these countries the governments hide the undesirable things they do, so the people have no idea what’s going on and can't complain. Yes your opinion is offensive, but you are (unfortunately) entitled to it.

The original poster didn’t say anything further and his next status update was:

  

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Wonder if this was his very intellectual attempt (not!) at swearing at me.

Anyway I have never been to Japan, but we do regularly have Japanese visitors staying with us.  I do speak to them about the whale and dolphin killings and they are truly surprised and shocked.  They are a first world country and to them the killings are an uncool, barbaric practice, like it is to us.  The other thing I note about Asian countries is the young adults are very naïve and appear to know little about the bigger picture.  This is no excuse of course, but if you don’t know something exists or occurs because you are sheltered from it then you cannot do anything about it.

So, my point is just because you kill whales or have a large population, doesn’t mean that you deserve to be paid back by a massive earthquake, tsunami and radiation poisoning.  We have a lovely 21 year old Japanese girl staying with us at the moment.  She was with us, when the disaster occurred.  Her family lives in a neighbouring prefecture to where the tsunami hit - thank goodness they were safe.  She leaves us on Tuesday to return to Tokyo, where she lives. (The picture above is of our current visitor and my daughter.  She also made the cranes in the other pics).

I can truly say I am frightened for her (and all my friends in Japan).  I have asked her to stay here with us, but she is still leaving because her family think Tokyo is safe.  I have mentioned to her that the Australian government is telling it’s citizens to get out of Japan and warning against travel to Japan.  I am frightened because if those, even just one of those nuclear reactors melts down, much of Japan will be subjected to radiation.  You only have to look at how Chernobyl is going 25 years since it’s melt down to know that Japan will be in dire straights if any or many of their reactors go the same way.  If you aren’t up-to-date, check out this article:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/area-around-chernobyl-remains-uninhabitable-25-years-later/article1943614/

The current situation in Japan is frightening, as well as heartbreaking to me.  Many generations to come will be scarred by what is happening now. 

I am unsure if I am partly upset because Australia’s uranium fuels Japan’s reactors. Is it hypocritical that we sell our uranium, but currently don’t have any nuclear reactors of our own and hopefully never will (other than the nuclear medicine, science and research reactor at Lucas Heights which operates with only (!) 30kg of uranium as opposed to 100 000kg of uranium used in electricity generating reactors).

Here are a few emails I have received from my Japanese friends.

hello,Lee-Anne

thank you for your message.

we and our family are all safe.

but so many people died(it is said over 10000...) and missing..
i am very sad.
my friend lives in the town that was completely destroyed by tsunami
and i still cannnot contact with her and her family..
but i hope they are safe.

in japan the information is so complicated and everyone is very confused.
transportation has stopped.
no water, no rice, no paper, no canned foods and no nappy in shops.

the electricity is running short
so there is a blackout for 3 hours a day in my area everyday.

but i believe we all work together and our country will recover from this disaster.

and we really appreciate all your support from all over the world.
thank you so much.

LOVE from yumiko, kazu, emma and baby.

And another:

Dear Lee-Anne and your familys

Hi.
Thank you so much for your kindness and emotional mainstay.
I am so happy to get your Email.
And also ,we deeply appreciated a lot of county give us cooperations.

Fortunately,our place is not close from the focus of an earthquake.
So , we start to work from monday.
Bur traffic has been paralyzed in places by the earthquake.
And there are no food in the market.
I was shocked that I had saw it.
I really anxious about victim ...
The east of Japan area was hit by great earthquake.
I pray that their place is getting better.

I am worry about your friend who living your house now.
Did she contact with her family?
I hope her family is O.K....
If I can possible I want to help her.

I  am also very frightened nuclear power plants and their radiation.
The news always infrom about it.
The goverment indicated to take refuge the neighborhood.
We are afraid of this problem.

We do best !!
Once more , thank you so much.
Love xxx ooo,Mami 

And one more (I have so many more):

Hello Lee-Anne. how are you? we had very very big earthquake and Tsunami...  too much people died...  my hometown so trembled. still tremble （aftershock） everyday. we had blackout and power cut rotation from today.  but dont worry my family and I are fine.  please say hello to your family.  hitomi 

The last thing I want to write is, knowledge is power people.  Please don’t be ignorant.