The Prometheus Trap / Men in Protective Clothing-6: Policeman forbidden from telling the truth
This is the sixth installment of an eight-part series looking at the fate and experiences of Mizue Kanno in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, and 25 people who evacuated to her home, following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Each installment is interconnected.
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On March 14, Kazuyo Sekiba, 52, fled to her relative's home in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. She had lived in the Minami-Tsushima district of Namie, near Mizue Kanno's home.
Since no instructions for evacuation were given, she returned home on April 2, for the time being. After a few days, a Self-Defense Forces (SDF) jeep stopped in front of her house and an SDF serviceman got out. He said he had come to check on her safety.
Around that time, it had been reported that the radiation levels in Namie were high. Concerned about the reports, she asked nervously, "How high are the readings around here?"
The SDF man smiled and told her the area was fine.
"We're wearing a dosimeter, so we know how much radiation we're exposed to each day."
Sekiba felt relieved after hearing that. She stopped hiding in her house and went out into the neighborhood.
On April 17 when she stood on a bridge near her home, a man walked toward her. It was Naomi Toyoda, 55, a freelance journalist. Sekiba asked him to measure the radiation levels at her home, and he began taking measurements around her yard.
When he measured the area under the rain gutter in her entranceway, he stood up and exclaimed, "Wow. This is too bad."
Sensing his hesitance, Sekiba asked Toyoda to tell her the truth.
He told her, "In two hours, you would absorb 1 millisievert."
According to Toyoda, at that time the radiation level exceeded 500 microsieverts per hour. In just two hours a person would exceed the annual permissible exposure of 1 millisievert.
Upon hearing a specific number for the first time, Sekiba at last realized just how serious it was. She hurriedly prepared to leave and fled her home, seen off by Toyoda.
A few days later, when she returned home to get her cat, a patrol car of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department drove up.
She said to the policeman, apparently in his 30s, "This area had a high level of radiation, didn't it?"
"Yes, it was high. But I was forbidden to tell people by the government," he answered.
Sekiba was shocked. What about what the SDF man in the jeep had told her?
"If I had been his own family, could he have said the same thing? Wouldn't he immediately tell us to get away? Is it just someone else's problem?"
In July, it was revealed that evidence had been hidden in the high-speed train accident in China. The Japanese media sharply criticized the Chinese government's responses.
Sekiba said she is angry.
"The situation in Japan is almost the same as in China."
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Following are URLs for previous installments:
Introduction (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111516734)
First installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111516540)
Second installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011111616820)
Third installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112117045a)
Fourth installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112317049a)
Fifth installment (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011112417236)
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