Terry Blanton writes: >> Japan is a nation prone to cover-ups and obscurity, but this scandal >> takes the cake. > >The value of 'face' exceeds that of 'truth'.
This looks like straight out criminality to me. They did not want to turn off the reactors, pay a fine, or deal with the B.S. of regulators poking into their business. One of the documents uncovered was described by the reporter as saying, in summary, "we know that safety is our responsibility, and we are going to have to write regulations and do what needs to be done. We are the experts in reactor safety. Let's keep the government and the public from poking around and telling us how to run our business." In the previous nuclear accidents in Japan, the level of cover-up and audacity of the lies was breathtaking. After a reactor fire, I recall they gave the news media a video showing the insides of the reactor building looking fine. The message was: "See? It's all fixed. Nothing to worry about. Go away." It turned out the video was made before the fire, and the place was a shambles far worse than they had described previously. Their behavior reminds of the government in the Soviet Union around 1970. They are so used to lying it is second nature to them, and they have forgotten how to tell the truth. The nuclear power industry would never get away with that kind of thing in the U.S. The situation in Japan was well described by Alex Kerr, in the book "Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan." The Aneha construction scandal and this nuclear power scandal is even worse than anything he described -- or than I ever imagined. This is a nation & culture rotten to the core. Of course, this kind of thing never continues indefinitely. Sooner or later, societies either reform and become healthy again . . . or they go extinct. The people may survive, but the culture vanishes, the way Japan's pre-modern culture did after 1868. Commentators and newspaper articles often praise the Japanese for "preserving their traditions" but it does not look that way to me. When I read about how my relatives lived in 1902, or 1860 -- what we ate, the kind of books we read, our jobs, marriages and concerns -- it sounds a lot like my present culture. We still wear pants and suits, but Japanese people never wear kimonos anymore. We Americans & Europeans are the ones who honor tradition, and know about the past. In Japan the past is a foreign country, and people have no roots. It is sad. - Jed
