風評被害を煽る福島みずほと、いさめる元米紙記者 |
昨日のブログで、世界が注視する「フクシマ50」を取り上げたが、世界に恥ずべき福島“現実を”みずほも、相変わらず、いたずらに国難を倍加させるような無責任な主張を展開している。
一昨日(17日)夜、官邸を訪れた社民党の福島瑞穂党首は、原発事故に関連し次の3点の「緊急要請」を行ったという。
1.国内のすべての原子力発電所の停止を決断すること。
2.原子力発電所に対する行き過ぎた報復(いわゆるテロ攻撃)を招きかねない朝鮮民主主義人民共和国への制裁を中止すること。
3.平和憲法を順守し、「非軍事・文民・民生」に徹した支援を行う立場から、自衛隊をまず「災害救助隊」に改組した上で、救助活動に当たらせること。
これは福島の本音を忖度したパロディで、実際の要請文(前書き略)は下記の通りである。関連記事とともに掲げておく。
この社民党の要請を実行しただけでも、被災地周辺地域の混乱は拡大し、「計画停電」の深刻化、「日本は危ない」との国際的風評被害の広がりなど、必至だろう。
「(過剰反応は)被災者への心からのお見舞いの言葉を無意味にし、日本が立たされた苦境をさらに悪くする」という元ワシントン・ポスト記者の言葉に、福島には望むべくもない智恵が感じられる。
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3月17日(木)22時3分配信
<福島原発>福島氏「浜岡原発停止を」 首相に緊急要請
社民党の福島瑞穂党首は17日夜、首相官邸を訪れ、東京電力福島第1原発の事故を受けた緊急要請を行った。福山哲郎官房副長官に対し、東海地震の予想震源域にある中部電力浜岡原発(静岡県御前崎市)を停止させるよう申し入れた。また、屋内退避指示が出ている福島第1原発から半径20~30キロの範囲の住民について、30キロ圏外に避難させることなども求めた。
17日、福山官房副長官に総理宛緊急要請書を手交しました。
2011年3月17日
福島第一原子力発電所の危機的事故をうけた緊急要請
社民党原子力発電所等事故対策本部
本部長 福島みずほ
……
1. 20km~30kmの屋内退避指示圏内の住民を、ただちに30km圏外に避難させること。
2. γ線だけでなく、α線も対象とした広域放射線量モニタリングの体制を早急に確保すること。
3. 東海地震の予想震源域に位置する浜岡原子力発電所の停止を決断すること。
以上
イザ!ニュース
原発事故、冷静さ保って 米紙元特派員
2011/03/19 10:20更新
18日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストは、東京電力福島第1原発の事故に関して「私はなぜ日本を離れないか」と題した神奈川県鎌倉市に住む元同紙東京特派員のコラムを掲載、放射能被害を恐れる声が高まる中、冷静さを保つことの必要性を訴えた。
筆者はポール・ブルースタイン氏で、外国人らが日本を脱出しようとする動きや、放射能被害に効果があるとされるヨウ化カリウム錠を求めて米国内の一部で騒ぎが起きていることに触れ、「原発事故の先行きは分からないが、日本が核分裂性物質の温床のように捉えるのは、賢明でも公正でもない」と訴えた。
日本は危険だとの認識は「経済的、心理的に打撃を与える」とし、過剰反応は「被災者への心からのお見舞いの言葉を無意味にし、日本が立たされた苦境をさらに悪くする」と強調した。(共同)
Why I’m not fleeing Japan
By Paul Blustein,
Thursday, March 17, 11:28 AM
KAMAKURA, Japan
To get some perspective on the earthquake that struck the country to which I moved last year, I hiked a mile and a half Wednesday morning from our house to the Great Buddha of Kamakura, the most famous attraction of this town on the southwest outskirts of Tokyo.
Serenity washes over me every time I gaze at the 44-foot, 13th-century bronze statue. I’m not spiritual, much less a Buddhist. But I went to confirm, with my own eyes, that the Buddha looks the same as usual — that he wasn’t, say, glowing because of deadly rays emitting from the crippled nuclear plants 200 miles to the north.
Silly? Of course. Not much sillier, though, than many of the reactions I’ve seen or read about in the past couple of days: the hordes of expats shelling out thousands for flights out of the country; authorities in China, South Korea, Singapore and elsewhere screening Japanese food imports for radioactivity; folks in the States clamoring for potassium iodide pills to protect them against atomic particles wafting across the Pacific. I’ve been deluged with messages from loved ones, wondering whether we’re planning to evacuate. Yet while the concern has been touching, we’re staying put.
Particularly because we don’t live in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear plants, we’re confident that we’re as safe here as always — which is to say, extremely safe, the kind of safe that makes us comfortable sending our fourth-grader on a long train and bus commute to school, a fairly common routine here even for much younger children. Aftershocks, power outages, panic food-buying, long gasoline lines — this, too, will pass, and it’s hard to pity ourselves much given the misery that people along Japan’s northeast coast have endured since March 11.
If there is anything to worry about, it is that the perception of Japan as an unsafe country will inflict all kinds of economic and psychological damage. That would compound the tragedy it is enduring, hamper its ability to recover and elevate the challenges it faces just when it is most in need of support.
The Japanese have, for example, woken up in recent years to the need to promote their nation as a tourist destination — but how many millions will forgo visiting Kyoto’s exquisite temples for fear of radiation exposure? Japan’s premium-quality rice, fruit and other foods have begun selling well in the nouveau riche markets of Asia, offering hope that the nation’s notoriously cosseted agriculture sector might become more open and modern. Will those export markets dry up if Japanese food acquires a nuclear taint?
The number of Japanese who study and work abroad must increase so the nation can cope with globalization more effectively — but will this happen if Japanese anticipate being treated as some sort of freaky gamma-ray-emitters? As my former colleague Rob Stein reported Monday, people from areas near past nuclear accidents have been stigmatized and shunned, making them all the more prone to stress-related illness.
I admit that when news broke about the power plants I wondered whether dangerous particulates might drift to our home. But when I read past the headlines, I learned that the risks were negligible for virtually all 125 million residents of the Japanese archipelago (except, of course, the heroic plant workers).
I read, for example, that after the Chernobyl disaster, most deaths resulted from children in the surrounding area drinking milk from cows that had grazed on contaminated grass — a blunder the Japanese aren’t going to repeat. I came to realize that even a “core meltdown” — something that I had always assumed spelled doom for millions — didn’t necessarily mean much adverse effects on human health, certainly not for people living distant enough for the particulates to disperse. Radiation, I learned, is a rather weak carcinogen. Even among the hibakusha, as survivors of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known, cancer rates were not a lot higher than among the general population.
The extent of the troubles at the nuclear plants is still uncertain. But it hardly seems sensible for people like us to pack up and leave. Nor does it seem sensible or fair for people here or abroad to act as if Japan is a hotbed of fissile material. All those heartfelt expressions of sympathy for quake victims aren’t going to mean much if overreaction to the nuclear mess worsens Japan’s plight.
The mood here might not be conducive to tourism for a while. My wife, who is Japanese, has been brushing away tears night after night as she watches televised interviews of people from the stricken coastal areas. Their anguish is the proper focus of attention.
All the more imperative, then, that perspective be kept. If foreigners recoil at Japanese vacations, job postings, products or people because of irrational fears about radiation, they will deepen and prolong the trauma that nature has inflicted. In a few months, Japan should be its recognizable self, maybe even brimming with vitality stemming from a renewed sense of national purpose. The trains will once again be astonishingly punctual; the food will be delectable and plentiful. Once that happens, foreigners will hopefully recognize that Japan — with its Great Buddha and so many other wonders — remains an extraordinarily safe place.
Paul Blustein, a former Tokyo correspondent for The Post, is an author and researcher affiliated with the Brookings Institution and the Centre for International Governance Innovation.