I'm determined to remember what I thought about in March on the eleventh of every month, although I know that human beings have an ability to forget in order to overcome difficulties. I feel that I should remember how I felt on the 11th of March since the word "death" first went through my mind and I realized something I hardly realize under ordinary circumstances (At the time, I was in Chiba far from the epicenter. Still, I felt several massive earthquakes). Immediately after the earthquakes, I very much thanked the shop staff at a super market near my house who worked as usual. Their anxiety and fear were written on their faces. They seemed to ease their fear by focusing on their jobs. All in all, I found happiness in small things which I generally don't care about.
Anyway, it's been nine months since the disaster happened. It's been reported that progress is slower than expected at tsunami-stricken areas in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures where many towns were completely washed away. Although there are many reasons pointed out, the main one is clear. The Fukushima disaster has complicated matters further.
I often hear people say that they are not surprised by whatever reports come out on the crippled power plant and radioactive contamination. I've also realized that I'm becoming desensitized to our serious situation, although I've been paying great attention to the plant and radioactive contamination. I often feel that people are getting used to the serious situation like this way. Needless to say, there are many reports on new findings showing that the crippled plant is likely to be more critical than expected or that radioactive contamination is more serious than expected.
Only after the Fukushima accident, I realized that many nuclear-related TV programs had been already aired especially on NHK, the public broadcasting network in Japan. Recently, I saw some of them when they were rerun. These programs show how a lot of people worldwide have been struggling against diseases which were most likely caused by radiation exposure (For example: The victims of the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The victims of the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine and Belarus. The victims of nuclear testing in Marshall Islands. Some residents near the plutonium production reactor in Hanford site in the US).
Recently, there have been many reports on decontamination plans. It seems that our central government gives priority to decontamination work. On the other hand, some specialists have been skeptical about how well decontamination work will go. They have insisted that the government and some people expect too much of decontamination work. They have pointed out that since there are many mountains near contaminated areas, unless the mountains are decontaminated, decontamination work won't go well. Like the outlook proves right, it has turned out that rice crops in fields near the contaminated mountains tend to be more highly contaminated than ones in other fields, even though both fields have the same level of soil contamination. It's been said that water coming from the contaminated mountains likely causes it. I've heard America, Ukraine and Belarus have been having great difficulties decontaminating soil. I think that both the government and Japanese people need to change the way of thinking.
Decontamination work
http://www.jiji.com/jc/d4?d=d4_quake&p=jyo114-jlp11852850
http://www.jiji.com/jc/movie?p=top404-movie02&s=424&rel=y
Contamination map
