The Nuclear Dilemma

I have a friend who is currently in Japan gleaning information for a book on the effects of the Atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of the World War II. I had hoped to be there, but it didn't work out this time.

I have another friend who has invited me to participate in a community discussion in Vermont on what individual communities can do to lessen the nuclear risk in their communities and subsequently the communities of the world. I will attend.

The opponents of nuclear power in Japan call themselves the Hydrangea Revolution. Tens of thousands rally against the restarting of nuclear power plants in Japan. So far it hasn't worked for the government of Japan has authorized the re-starting some nuclear power facilities.

The Hydrangea flower is composed of many tiny flowers to create a large blossom that appears as beauty and fragrance in the collective of its totality. Its components are tiny, but the effect is large.

It is a lesson for the human collective. We are ineffectual alone, but we are powerful as a collective. There are other metaphors of equal meaning, but this will suffice.

Perhaps the effect could be global if we continue to spread to the world’s people that the danger at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant is a continual poison to the Pacific Ocean and the earth. Those in power, both in Japan and in the rest of the world continue to ignore the danger for whatever reason.

Albert Einstein once said, “the splitting of the atom has changed everything, except man’s way of thinking, and so we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”

He was no doubt talking about the bomb, but there is little difference between radiation from a bomb and radiation from an accident or a natural catastrophe that exposed lethal radiation. Did we not learn from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?

My friend, Akio Matsumura has been trying to call attention to this potential danger for many years.

One of his blogs put it this way:

 “People are demonstrating against the system of secrecy and backroom influence that steers Tokyo and the rest of the country. TEPCO has influence over policy makers, media circles, and elite scientists. Together these three groups hold enough power, influence, and expertise to say what goes for truth in Japan, even if it is not what is correct. Because of this collusion, freedom of speech has waned in Japan. We Japanese traditionally hope more to save face than speak out against an issue. But now we see that inaction begets oppression. And thus people are speaking out.”

Akio concludes his blog with this statement, and I agree. “ It is time for each member of the media to ask basic questions of the Japanese government and its companies and shed light on the true situation there.”

It is time for all of us to ask those questions of our leaders. Let us all be the human flower of many blossoms, not the wilted collective that deemed itself powerless against perceived authority.