Friday, April 15, 2011
It's surprising. Which way is better? It's always controversial.
The day before yesterday, right after a Cabinet Secretariat Matsumoto met Prime Minister Kan, Mr. Matsumoto said to reporters "PM Kan reckons that some of the areas from which the government has ordered the residents to evacuate because of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant are likely to become uninhabitable for probably one or two decades. So, we have to think about moving them to another town". When I read the comment in the newspaper, I took no notice of it since given the current situation, the comment was expected. However, the comment became controversial. It sparked outrage among some mayors and residents in these areas. According to the newspaper, one of the mayors insists that politicians are supposed to say that they'll do their best to get the evacuated residents back to their towns. Although I really understand how hard it is for the residents to accept the harsh reality and the fact that they've been very frustrated with the government in the past month, the mayor's response surprised me. To be honest, I don't understand what the mayor said.
About a week ago, I saw some evacuated people saying on TV that they realized they wouldn't be able to go back to their towns. Some insisted that they didn't want to hear hopeful news, and wanted to know the real situation about the crippled nuclear power plant. They added that they had already prepared themselves to accept the harsh reality. Because of this, until I heard the mayor's comment, I had forgotten that there are still many people especially in small towns who don't get used to face the harsh reality or don't like to be told about the reality this way.
Actually, the mayor's response reminds me of the issue of whether or not doctors should tell their patients that they are suffering from cancer when doctors detect it. Until two or three decades ago, in Japan, it was uncommon for patients to be told directly by doctors that they were diagnosed with cancer. Let's say for example that a doctor detected that Mr. Smith was suffering from cancer. The doctor usually only told his family members about his cancer and asked them if and when they wanted the doctor to tell him about his cancer. The doctor and his family discussed the best way to tell him. At the time, many people assumed that patients shouldn't be told that they were suffering from cancer because they would lose their will to live. Many people said that they didn't want to be told that they were suffering from cancer, although these days, many people want to be told so and now doctors usually tell patients about their cancer.
