2024-01-17
The following is a rough draft.
There is no such thing as a 100-percent human being.
Mr. Kunihiko Takeda possesses the discernment worthy of a person held in respect by those two.
However, his remarks concerning the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant miss the mark.
It is no exaggeration to say that they are wrong.
This is because his argument completely omitted the circumstances surrounding GE’s construction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
As I listened to his argument, I was somewhat surprised to realize that he appeared to have read very few of Masayuki Takayama’s articles and books.
One cannot understand why the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident occurred without reading Masayuki Takayama’s work.
Before writing about that, there is something I want to say to Mr. Takeda and to all the people of Japan.
There is no structure in Japan more earthquake-resistant than a nuclear power plant.
With the exception of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, whose fundamental cause lay in defects on the part of the United States and GE in every conceivable respect, this has been demonstrated by every major earthquake Japan has experienced.
Even during the Great East Japan Earthquake, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant did not budge.
Moreover, it became a refuge for local residents.
It is no exaggeration to say that the day a nuclear power plant collapses will be the day the Japanese archipelago itself collapses.
In other words, it is no exaggeration to say that imagining a nuclear power plant collapsing during a major earthquake is thinking at a level below that of a kindergarten child.
We must immediately stop repeating the anti-nuclear argument, which is nothing but a mass of deception, hypocrisy, and anti-Japanese sentiment at the intellectual level of kindergarten children.
Japan is an earthquake-prone country.
At the same time, Japan is a country that has continued to provide assistance on the largest possible scale, equal to or even greater than that of the United States, not only to the United Nations but also to countries throughout the world.
According to Kyodo News, the money Kishida has lavished on countries throughout the world since becoming prime minister exceeds 18 trillion yen.
The late former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui pointed out, “Japan should stop providing financial assistance overseas and instead invest that money in developing infrastructure within Japan.”
It goes without saying that his words were exactly right.
Every time a major earthquake occurs, buildings constructed before the introduction of the new earthquake-resistance standards collapse, repeatedly causing large numbers of deaths.
Had the Fukushima Daiichi accident occurred in the United States, a massive damages claim would immediately have been filed against GE.
As Masayuki Takayama pointed out, Operation Tomodachi, conducted by the U.S. military at that time, must also have had the aspect of camouflaging GE’s responsibility, or of being motivated by a sense of atonement for it.
The circumstances under which the United States reluctantly approved the construction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The circumstances under which GE was chosen instead of Westinghouse (WH), which was regarded as offering greater safety.
The arrogant attitude and gross negligence GE displayed toward Japan during construction, as well as its response during and after the accident.
During the Koizumi administration, GE failed, in Japan alone, to carry out the crucial improvement work it was implementing at the time.
All of these circumstances were completely absent from Mr. Takeda’s argument.
That was its fatal flaw.