Post WW-2-Nuclear Japan

In sharing some of my recent experiences of the 3/11 events and in particular the ongoing aftermath, I heard an excellent summary, a prediction of sorts from my audience.

They are heading into post-WW2 conditions...especially when winter comes around... They had nothing... (paraphrased)

This sounds extreme to someone on the outside of the events, particularly given the highly censored news coming out of Japan.  News that has given birth to dangerously misleading statements such as those sold to the English-speaking world from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) - "Japan is Safe and Open for Business". But given the record of earthquakes over a of Magnitude 5 just in July alone, not to mention the current and worsening energy crisis... "Safe and Open for Business" is not a statement I would put my money on..

No they aren't bombed out of house and home, their fields ravaged to the point that even the topsoil is burned away, yet at the same time, the current situation is vaguely reminiscent. Houses, entire cities, are wiped out, having been swallowed up and carried off in the tsunami. A nuclear reactor has gone beyond critical and officially into a state of meltdown. The resultant contamination of that meltdown alone is far reaching and incalculable.

The location of the Fukushima reactor is in Northern (East) Japan were there is a bulk of the farming and fishing.

However, not only were the areas within the evac zone affected, but I saw how the contamination from the radiation had gotten and still is getting into the water supply through rain and irrigation and is still contaminating both farm animals and the fields far outside the 30 kilometer contaminated evac zone.

A contaminated food supply, coupled with ongoing (and future) earthquakes would be bad enough but the final straw for me, the last thing that finally pushed me out of Japan was the looming energy crisis.  Of course, it was only looming back in April.  I saw it coming and searched for help to counteract the effects of what a lack of energy would bring about.  All to no avail as no one either officially or unofficially seemed to be acknowledging the likelihood of an energy shortage except... me?

Come end of June, however, and then the media and assorted officials finally start talking about it - 6.9% shortage anticipated during the summer. 

Some things you hate to be right about, but there it was.
Fortunately for me and Maru, we already had our respective tickets and belongings packed.  We gave our sad and final (and possibly permanent) farewells to Japan at the end of June.

And this actually brings us back to the beginning of our story, about the correlation between post-WW2 Japan and post-3/11 Japan.  Back stateside, my information was now limited to carefully contrived online news reports.  Of course, with further searching, even now I can find real unaltered information (much like I was able to during the China-Japan Border Battle of 2010).   So it was hardly a surprise then when in the Disappearing Prime Minister Incident, the prime minister himself mentioned winter energy shortages.  Naturally it was in a roundabout way.
Not that there were going to be shortages, but that "if we continue with our energy saving now, we will be able to get through the summer and the winter."

Admittedly,  there was a dead zone between the time when I had access to on-the-ground information before we escaped Japan and the time I heard this statement, but that interval of 17 days aside, this was the first time I had ever heard mention of winter in any context.

Energy shortages in the summer.  Energy shortages in the winter.  At this point in time, both are estimated to be at 6.9%.   (Although that number is brought to us through the strictly censored official media.)

All this brought to mind several stories by my all time favorite author, Dazai Osamu.  Although most of his writing takes place previous to WW2, he lived through WW2 and continued on writing for a few years afterward in post-WW2 Japan.  The images from "Osan" of broken families moving from one relative's or friend's house to another looking for shelter in post-WW2 Japan as their own houses were destroyed and rendered uninhabitable are not unlike the current scenes of the displaced Japanese captured on national TV.   People lost without proper clothing or food, much less homes or jobs going from one evac shelter to another to another and then finally maybe to private but temporary prefab house-like shelters.  Or "Tazunebito", the story of a moving letter written by one of the many homeless beggars of postwar Japan to a kindly young woman he met traveling on a train who gave him some food.  The subtle difficulties of charity, the complexity of something that superficially seems so simple as the giving and accepting of food for these displaced people.

No, it's not so bad over there and probably won't get as bad as post-WW2, but it is eerily similar.



 Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing.  (^^)

All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Know Before U Go: the earthquakes are FAR from over

Before the M9 in Northern Japan on 3/11 the research institutes in Japan were already predicting within the next 30 years, there will be an M9 in SOUTHERN Japan.

That has not happened YET.

And while I was still trapped in Japan, I was living in Southern Japan.  Living in Southern Japan afforded me the privilege of not only seeing first hand how poor the Japanese government responded to a disaster of that magnitude, but also gave me access to information only accessible to the Japanese citizens.

Information such as the fact that during one of the episodes of "Eye on Kansai"series about the tsunami and earthquakes (an evening TV show about Southern Japan  、かんさい熱視線 ) they discussed how UNPREPARED that region still is for the upcoming mega-quake.  In that series they also mentioned how the research institutes were revising their estimates for that upcoming M8/9 earthquake.  Revising them to estimate an earlier date of occurrence.

In other words, Southern Japan is looking at its own M8/9 not within the next 30 years, but sooner.

This main site through Yahoo Japan will not only give you constantly updated information on tremors and major quakes, but information on past quakes.

The following are only the most recent earthquakes OVER level 5 under BOTH measuring systems after I left Japan on June 27th.
However, do not be fooled into thinking these are irregular occurrences.  Japan has been getting M5 and M6 on an almost regular basis between 3/11 and the end of June.  (You can check the history of the quakes through that Yahoo site)
You don't want to be visiting Japan now or anytime soon.
You want to be LEAVING.

7/31 M6.4

7/23, M6.5:

7/15, M5.5:

7/05, M5.4:

But if you still feel like playing Russian Roulette, we happened upon a nice collection of images and videos of the 3/11 M9 Earthquake-Tsunami disaster.  (And these are not even touching upon the nuclear reactor meltdown and fallout.) 
You don't need to understand the words, just look at the pictures.  :9




Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.

sounding familiar?

I so love the Old Time Radio stories.
The GOLDEN ERA of Radio was truly a Golden Era not just of radio as a medium, but of creativity and thoughtful speculation.  A time when horror was creepy and haunting, not bloody and violent.  When science fiction was more than just special FX and CGI.

By chance recently I found myself listening to an old familiar one I had not heard in five or more years.  And frankly, having just left Asia after working there for around six years now, I found the story eerily appropriately.

If you don't feel this way now, you will in a few years given the continuing job climate and state of world economics.

Just keep repeating to yourself, "Like work here. No complain.
 Like work here. No complain!  
LIKE WORK HERE! NO COMPLAIN!"

And in the meantime, please enjoy a brief glimpse into your future from 1943 with the Light's Out classic, Profits Unlimited.

It IS later than you think.



Cheers! (^_-)-☆

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Radioactive Reporting..... of a different sort

Well, I can post all about the news censorship and information suppression in Japan. Boy, could I post about the things I know and saw.

And STILL see and know even know that me and my fuzz are safely out of Japan. One just has to know where to look because you won't hear any of it on the official TV stations. The one time I did find something, not only did that video disappear when I went searching for it several days later, but they replaced it with a completely DIFFERENT video. But that's a complete other story. Although, for those of us familiar with Japanese "history" and the modern Textbook Wars, it's the ages old business-as-usual in Asia.

Anyhow, just as I predicted way back in April (according to my Twitter account, April 5th, but earlier in actuality), things have been thrown into high gear and started to get really stressed once the calendar flipped over to July.

Like a gear shift.
Or a bathroom light.

Or the ticking of a clock...

Something for consideration for those still hesitating on leaving Japan. Of course, it might be too late already for those trying to travel with their pets.  (add IPATA info links)

High levels of radiation detected in Northwest (USA )rainwater

"... radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
'The level that was detected on March 24 was 41 times the drinking water standard,' said Gerry Pollet....'...the rain water in the Northwest is reaching levels 130 times the drinking water standards,'..."

And those levels are NOW, xx months LATER, an OCEAN APART from the failed reactor.


Safe travels, and hope to see you again.



Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
 
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.

a brief note to plagiarisers

Thank you.

No, really.

THANK YOU.

If you're making any hard $$ off of my works or ideas, I salute you because I sure as he11 am not.
Not that I started writing with the intent to make any money off of it.  That just happened to be a nice little bonus.
A nice little bonus that google was soon to extinguish with its ever changing, ever burgeoning Ad(NON)Sense rules and addendums.

HOWEVER, the sudden end to the ca$h flow didn't halt my publishing.
As time allows, I continue to write what I need to, what I care about.

So if you are making $$ off of my works by repackaging them and in effect selling them on your site, then you are conducting some serious traffic there.

And in the end, my ultimate intention has been carried out - to foster awareness, to get the information to more people that need it.

So, really, I do thank you.


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.