In last autumn, one of my friend Sandra Katzman collaborated with me and wrote a brief article in dialogue about our experiences after the quake.
Today, I would like to post the article in memoriam of the quake.
Thank you, Sandra.
Brief bios:
Sandra Katzman, a U.S. citizen living in Japan since 1996, reports for Platts energy industry news and has written for Reuters Health and for various American Chemical Society journals.
Yoshiko Miwa, a Japanese national, is a doctoral candidate at University of Tsukuba, majoring in the computational simulation of semiconductor nanoprocess. Miwa is a Journalist in Residence of the Mathematical Society of Japan. She has collaborated on books such as A first guide of hardware for software engineers (published by Gijyutsuhyouronsya) and reports for online engineering magazines.
Email miwa@miwachan.info
3.11--Japan’s 9.11
by Sandra Katzman and Miwa Yoshiko
“Cities of death” and “credible threats” describe persistent disaster in Japan and in the United States. The trade minister lost his job for saying the first; U.S. security forces gained respect for announcing the second. At this month’s anniversaries of unkind explosions, Japan lures foreign tourists with sales, and the President says the U.S. is stronger. It’s business as usual.
A Japanese graduate science student who is also a science/technical writer and an American science writer talk about living in Japan after the meltdown in March at Fukushima nuclear power plant. Although each lives with compromised health --the former has been motion impaired since 2004 in a wheelchair due to unknown causes, and the latter has terminal lung cancer—both are upbeat yet skeptical about safety in newly radioactive Japan.
Sandra: I saw on your blog a photo of a bakery in Tokyo selling bread with some purported anti-radiation effect. Can you tell me about that bakery?
Yoshiko: On September 12, I visited the bakery again, and it had closed. The bakery had been under a court-guided rehabilitation process for companies that failed in business, but did not revive and is now awaiting bankruptcy proceedings.
I think the bakery unsuccessfully tried to profit from the Fukushima nuke power plant accidents. And I’m angry that the bakery used the victim of the quake for promotion. It employed a baker who had been a bakery owner at Fukushima before the quake and now that baker lost his job again.
Sandra: My cousin, an American boy, married a Japanese. The girl's father is a gynecologist, and not worried about his grandchild due in May in Tokyo.
Yoshiko: I think the young couple chose well. Slight radioactive pollution of air and water may not damage newborns. Tokyoites can buy unpolluted food and water, and superior employment eases education of children. Wherever we live in Japan, we are not safe from a little radioactive pollution. So it is wise to hold the freedom of choice and take a little risk. Are you well informed about disasters? The media in Japan are not informative enough. We depend on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Sandra: I can read Japanese English-language media: The Japan Times, and English translations of the other newspapers. I also subscribe to websites such as news from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and from the federation of trade unions, Keidanren.
Yoshiko: I have been a member of LinuxChix (the world’s largest female Linux user group) for twelve years. I heard about friends of members in Tokyo who couldn’t get information about daily life, like when the electric power cut would occur, or where water could be bought. So I notified the group about radio broadcasts for foreigners and provided my cell number. It was very odd: People living in Tokyo got help from their friends in the U.S., and the people in the U.S. asked me to help the people in Tokyo. The Japanese government and neighbors were not effective.
Sandra: A few weeks after the disaster, U.S. national newspapers stopped carrying daily coverage about Fukushima; but the Japanese dailies kept running stories.
Yoshiko: I didn't know that. I thought U.S. national newspapers covered Fukushima and its problems thoroughly.
Sandra: I worried about information lack when a U.S. friend told me about the claims of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott, M.D. that the Japanese government was hiding information, and that the situation was much more dangerous than the Japanese government and other official sources let on. So-called “low-level” radiation, Caldicott warned, causes “medical problems of very large dimensions.”
Yoshiko: Familiar with government attitudes, we Japanese guess the truth through very uncertain information. Some Japanese are sponsoring independent journalists.
Sandra: I was on spring vacation skiing in California with my brother and my cousin. Email alerted “EQ Tokyo.” I was reminded of the 9.11email, “terror.” Skiing was very good on March 11. Fun on frozen water was the opposite of the terror of a seismic wave. My cousin’s son sent photos of the newlyweds smiling and swaying in hardhats on the 30th floor of a Tokyo office building.
Yoshiko: On 3.11, I was going to file my taxes when the quake occurred. I told my cats, “Calm down, calm down!" By Internet, I learned about the disaster. I joined the housewives talking in the street. They were worrying about their husbands and children who were working or studying in the heart of Tokyo. I called my aunt in a faraway place to tell that I was OK. By phone, I ordered rice and water before the buyout started. In the evening, I heard that the Fukushima nuke power plant had exploded. I joined the project "Payforwarding" where engineers developed applications to help disaster victims. My role was a document engineer.
Sandra: A friend from the U.S. will visit Kyoto. She changed plans last April, not wanting to celebrate cherry blossoms when Japan mourned. Now she thinks meat and fish are dangerous.
Yoshiko: I thank your friend for her kind attention to us Japanese. The maple leaves will beautiful in October and November, and delicious autumn fishes around Japan can be eaten without danger. We consumers are nervous about food radiation, and distributors are more nervous. Eat only commercially distributed products.
Sandra: A Japanese friend believes konbu, or kelp, will help prevent bad effects from radioactivity.
Yoshiko: Konbu contains a lot of iodine, but how the human body will absorb it is not certain. Take iodine under a doctor’s supervision to prevent uptake of radioactive iodine. I'm afraid that the konbu itself may be radioactively polluted after 3.11. And now, the problem is cesium 137 rather than iodine. Konbu may not be effective for cesium.
Sandra: Before flying back to Japan, I sought advice. “There is no reason to postpone your return to Japan,” my oncologist told me. “There is no influence in west Japan for the present. The nuclear power plant in Fukushima is far from Kyoto, and the leaking radiation level is still low.” Tokyo is 150 miles from Fukushima; Kyoto is about 324 miles from Fukushima.
Yoshiko: I think your doctor made good suggestion. Wherever we live, we are not safe from various threats like terror, accident and natural disaster. So we have to deal with threats, not escape.
Sandra Katzman, a U.S. citizen living in Japan since 1996, reports for Platts energy industry news and has written for Reuters Health and for various American Chemical Society journals.
Yoshiko Miwa, a Japanese national, is a doctoral candidate at University of Tsukuba, majoring in the computational simulation of semiconductor nanoprocess. Miwa is a Journalist in Residence of the Mathematical Society of Japan. She has collaborated on books such as A first guide of hardware for software engineers (published by Gijyutsuhyouronsya) and reports for online engineering magazines.
Email miwa@miwachan.info
3.11--Japan’s 9.11
by Sandra Katzman and Miwa Yoshiko
“Cities of death” and “credible threats” describe persistent disaster in Japan and in the United States. The trade minister lost his job for saying the first; U.S. security forces gained respect for announcing the second. At this month’s anniversaries of unkind explosions, Japan lures foreign tourists with sales, and the President says the U.S. is stronger. It’s business as usual.
A Japanese graduate science student who is also a science/technical writer and an American science writer talk about living in Japan after the meltdown in March at Fukushima nuclear power plant. Although each lives with compromised health --the former has been motion impaired since 2004 in a wheelchair due to unknown causes, and the latter has terminal lung cancer—both are upbeat yet skeptical about safety in newly radioactive Japan.
Sandra: I saw on your blog a photo of a bakery in Tokyo selling bread with some purported anti-radiation effect. Can you tell me about that bakery?
Yoshiko: On September 12, I visited the bakery again, and it had closed. The bakery had been under a court-guided rehabilitation process for companies that failed in business, but did not revive and is now awaiting bankruptcy proceedings.
I think the bakery unsuccessfully tried to profit from the Fukushima nuke power plant accidents. And I’m angry that the bakery used the victim of the quake for promotion. It employed a baker who had been a bakery owner at Fukushima before the quake and now that baker lost his job again.
Sandra: My cousin, an American boy, married a Japanese. The girl's father is a gynecologist, and not worried about his grandchild due in May in Tokyo.
Yoshiko: I think the young couple chose well. Slight radioactive pollution of air and water may not damage newborns. Tokyoites can buy unpolluted food and water, and superior employment eases education of children. Wherever we live in Japan, we are not safe from a little radioactive pollution. So it is wise to hold the freedom of choice and take a little risk. Are you well informed about disasters? The media in Japan are not informative enough. We depend on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Sandra: I can read Japanese English-language media: The Japan Times, and English translations of the other newspapers. I also subscribe to websites such as news from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and from the federation of trade unions, Keidanren.
Yoshiko: I have been a member of LinuxChix (the world’s largest female Linux user group) for twelve years. I heard about friends of members in Tokyo who couldn’t get information about daily life, like when the electric power cut would occur, or where water could be bought. So I notified the group about radio broadcasts for foreigners and provided my cell number. It was very odd: People living in Tokyo got help from their friends in the U.S., and the people in the U.S. asked me to help the people in Tokyo. The Japanese government and neighbors were not effective.
Sandra: A few weeks after the disaster, U.S. national newspapers stopped carrying daily coverage about Fukushima; but the Japanese dailies kept running stories.
Yoshiko: I didn't know that. I thought U.S. national newspapers covered Fukushima and its problems thoroughly.
Sandra: I worried about information lack when a U.S. friend told me about the claims of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott, M.D. that the Japanese government was hiding information, and that the situation was much more dangerous than the Japanese government and other official sources let on. So-called “low-level” radiation, Caldicott warned, causes “medical problems of very large dimensions.”
Yoshiko: Familiar with government attitudes, we Japanese guess the truth through very uncertain information. Some Japanese are sponsoring independent journalists.
Sandra: I was on spring vacation skiing in California with my brother and my cousin. Email alerted “EQ Tokyo.” I was reminded of the 9.11email, “terror.” Skiing was very good on March 11. Fun on frozen water was the opposite of the terror of a seismic wave. My cousin’s son sent photos of the newlyweds smiling and swaying in hardhats on the 30th floor of a Tokyo office building.
Yoshiko: On 3.11, I was going to file my taxes when the quake occurred. I told my cats, “Calm down, calm down!" By Internet, I learned about the disaster. I joined the housewives talking in the street. They were worrying about their husbands and children who were working or studying in the heart of Tokyo. I called my aunt in a faraway place to tell that I was OK. By phone, I ordered rice and water before the buyout started. In the evening, I heard that the Fukushima nuke power plant had exploded. I joined the project "Payforwarding" where engineers developed applications to help disaster victims. My role was a document engineer.
Sandra: A friend from the U.S. will visit Kyoto. She changed plans last April, not wanting to celebrate cherry blossoms when Japan mourned. Now she thinks meat and fish are dangerous.
Yoshiko: I thank your friend for her kind attention to us Japanese. The maple leaves will beautiful in October and November, and delicious autumn fishes around Japan can be eaten without danger. We consumers are nervous about food radiation, and distributors are more nervous. Eat only commercially distributed products.
Sandra: A Japanese friend believes konbu, or kelp, will help prevent bad effects from radioactivity.
Yoshiko: Konbu contains a lot of iodine, but how the human body will absorb it is not certain. Take iodine under a doctor’s supervision to prevent uptake of radioactive iodine. I'm afraid that the konbu itself may be radioactively polluted after 3.11. And now, the problem is cesium 137 rather than iodine. Konbu may not be effective for cesium.
Sandra: Before flying back to Japan, I sought advice. “There is no reason to postpone your return to Japan,” my oncologist told me. “There is no influence in west Japan for the present. The nuclear power plant in Fukushima is far from Kyoto, and the leaking radiation level is still low.” Tokyo is 150 miles from Fukushima; Kyoto is about 324 miles from Fukushima.
Yoshiko: I think your doctor made good suggestion. Wherever we live, we are not safe from various threats like terror, accident and natural disaster. So we have to deal with threats, not escape.
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