Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 15 - 21 [JCP]

JCP town assemblyman speaks of how devastated Namie Town now is

Baba Isao, a Japanese Communist Party member of Fukushima’s Namie Town Assembly, reported about the local situation with the ongoing nuclear crisis. Following are his remarks made at a JCP meeting to promote a movement to put a stop to nuclear power generation on June 12 at the JCP head office in Tokyo.

My major concern is about the town’s future.

As of March 1, Namie Town had a population of 21,431. Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, 8,861 people, 46% of the town’s population, have been evacuated to locations across the country while 53% or 11,383 people are living in other locations within Fukushima Prefecture.

Half of the 1,705 students enrolled in the town’s elementary and junior high schools and their families have left the prefecture. Parents feel anxiety over their children’s exposure to radiation since they know that children are more vulnerable to radiation. They also worry about their future prospects because it is hard to find a place to work within the prefecture.

I’m afraid that those who still live in Fukushima will also go away because they can not find jobs. I really worry what will become of Namie Town.

The state and the prefectural governments as well as Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have never disclosed any information regarding the Fukushima nuclear accident to Fukushima residents.

Namie Town extends from a 10-km radius to 30-km radius from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In the early morning of March 12, following the national government’s order to residents living within a 10-km zone from the plant to evacuate, the town office advised them to move to the town’s Tsushima district which is located outside the 10km zone. Out of 21,000 townspeople, 8,500-10,000 people evacuated to the Tsuchima district. However, it turned out the level of radioactivity in the designated area was particularly high. As a result, those who moved to the area were exposed to high levels of radiation which would have been avoidable if accurate information had been made available.

Furthermore, the town government failed to provide iodine tablets to the residents due to the lack of specific information concerning protecting oneself from radioactive contamination.

Since the national government designated the area within a 20-km radius of the plant as a “no-entry zone” and since this is where the Namie Town government office was located, our town government had to move all its functions to neighboring Nihonmatsu City. Under such circumstances, the most pressing issue for the town government was and is how to maintain the basic function as a municipality.

Restoring Namie people’s lives is another concern.

The vast majority of Namie residents who were forced to evacuate live on temporary compensation payments from TEPCO and relief and condolence money from the state and local governments.

However, the Fukushima prefectural government has stopped paying needy people their entitled livelihood protection benefits because TEPCO’s temporary compensation and relief money is being designated as income. We have to end such cold hearted treatment of refugees.