Everybody's Doin' The Fukushima

EVERYBODY'S  DOIN'  THE  FUKUSHIMA

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EV - ER - Y   BOD-Y'S   DO-IN'  -  THE   FU - KU - SHI - MA

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE  IT  CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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DON'T   NEED  NO  REG-U-LATION   -   DON'T  NEED  TO  CALL  FE - MA.

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE  IT   CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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 JUST   DANC-IN'   TO  THE  TUNE   OF    THE      N.      R.      C.

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 MAK-IN'    MON -EY     FOR   THE   NU - CU  -LAR    IN-DUS-TRY  

                C                                               G                                                                C

SO    COME   ON ,   COME  ON  -   DO-O   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA   WITH   ME.

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             YOU   GOT   TO   SHAKE  YOUR  BOOT-Y  

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            WITH YOUR HEAD  IN  THE  SAND!

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             WHILE   PLU - TON- IUM    IR-RAD-IATES   YOUR   THY-ROID   GLAND.

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WE  GOT  A    CRAZ-Y  DANCE  CRAZE  -  SWEEP - IN'    THE   NAT -  ION.

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE    IT    CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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SO    DON'T     BE     A - FRAID    -   OF   LEAK-ING    RA -DI - A - TION.

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE   IT   CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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DON'T   WORR - Y    'BOUT    THINGS  THAT   YOU   CAN'T   SEE  

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'CAUSE   YOU'RE   GET -  IN'   THAT   CHEAP    CLEAN     EN - ER - GY,

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SO    COME   ON ,   COME  ON  -   DO-O   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA   WITH   ME.

            BRIDGE          

           

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NOW  COME   ON   EV-ERY   BOD-Y   -   JUST   TA-KE   A   CHANCE,   YEAH.

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE IT  CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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FOR-GET    THOSE    JAP-AN-ESE   FOLKS  -   ALL    DY-IN'  FROM   CANC-ER.

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE  IT  CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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IT'S   SO   EAS-Y   TO   PRE-TEND   THAT  YOU   CA-N'T   SEE,

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MUCH    EAS - I - ER    THAN    LEARN -IN'    'BOUT   RE-AL-ITY.

              C                                                   G                                                              C

 SO    COME   ON ,   COME  ON  -   DO-O   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA   WITH   ME.

      BRIDGE             

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DON'T    FRET    A - BOUT    OB-SOL-ETE      NUC -U -LAR    PLANTS,  NOW

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE IT  CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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JUST     LEARN    TO    DO    -   THE     FU  -KU - SHI  - MA    DANCE,  NOW

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IT   CAN'T  HAPP-EN  HERE,    BECAUSE  IT  CAN'T  HAPPEN  HERE

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AND    WHEN    IT    MELTS  DOWN       WE  KNOW  WHAT  TO  DO

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WE   JUST    START   DANC - IN'  TO   THE      TUNE   OF   WHO    KNEW?

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SO    COME   ON ,   COME  ON.    LET  US   DO   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA.  .  .   

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COME   ON ,   COME  ON.    LET  US     DO   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA.  .  .   

   C                                                                            G                                                                     C

COME   ON ,   COME  ON.   -   LET   US    DO-O   THE   FU-KU-SHI-MA   ON  YOU!   

Exception to the Coup

Why, why, has the American public been so very reluctant to view the events which led to indefinite detention; targeted assassination, suspension of the Right to Privacy, and war-without-end, namely the events of nine eleven as a military/industrial coup?

The evidence is there; it has been placed before the public from every conceivable angle: career airplane pilots; geologists; metallurgists; engineers; firemen; police men; the sources are legion and all converge.  They point to controlled demolition, to the signature pattern of buildings pancaking into their own footprints, and that includes building number seven which the “planes” that flew into the WTC somehow managed to overlook—but which collapsed anyway.  And what was housed in that building? An inquiry as to exactly what it housed yields interesting results, but that is not the subject of this outcry.

From history textbooks—all of which now need to be approved  by the Texas School Board which assures standards of the lowest common denominator to insure that generations of idiots are turned out in the “public” school assembly lines (schools which have long ceased to be public in the sense of serving the public interest) we learn that the United States is:

a shining beacon of democracy

a dispenser of good and largesse to the entire planet

an instrument of good against evil

a force for bringing democracy to every possible corner of the globe

and that it does so with over 1000 military installations throughout the world;

with a military budget that exceeds the combined military budgets of every other country on earth.

The history books don’t ask what the relationship might be between all that benevolence and that fulminating military budget.  Nor are they designed to promote critical thinking because critical thinking just might be real democracy’s secret weapon.

Americans are Exceptional: they are good people; they do good throughout the world, they spread their democracy and their Fulbright grants everywhere, and they do all these good things with absolute certitude of their goodness and their worthiness.

They are too good ever to include the dark stuff of dictatorships in their celestial landscape, things like political assassinations (they are so good they even have ballistic theories that defy the laws of physics). And they could never, never have such an ugly thing as a military coup.  Coups are for dirty  little countries like Guatemala (Rios Montt); El Salvador (Christiani) Honduras (Porfirio Lobo Sosa); Cuba (Fulgencio Batista); Chile (Augusto Pinochet);   But in the well-fed, well-housed, well-educated, well-medicated  Democracy that exists in the United States, ugly things like that could never happen.

Which is why the events of nine eleven were brought to you by a gang of crazed box-cutting –what? Iraqis? Afghanis? no?  well, Saudis. But anyway, they were not Royal Saudis, they were the wrong kind of Saudis because a real coup, a military coup (where all the scrambling jets stand down) could never happen to us.

TESTIMONY

On June 15, 2012, ten women from among the hundreds of Fukushima grandmothers in Tokyo protesting the projected start of the Oi nuclear power plant were ushered in to what they imaged was Prime Minister Noda’s cabinet office to submit a letter of request to Prime Minister Noda. 

This is a word-for-word transcript of their testimony to the ministers:

First woman: Please don’t restart the Oi Nuclear Power plant.  Since the accident at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant triggered by the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 11 last year, vast areas of Fukushima Prefecture have been contaminated with high-level radiation. The conditions [at] the accident site are yet to be stabilized and. . .radiation leakage still continues. We are forced to live in fear every day. We hear that the safety measures at Oi Nuclear Power Plant are worse even than [at] the crippled Fukushima Daiichi [site]. Forcing the restart means losing many things and smearing salt on the emotional scars of Fukushima people who are still suffering. We absolutely cannot allow the restart of Oi Nuclear Power Plant. Please don’t restart it. This is out request.

Second woman:  Well, honestly---we wish we could meet the Prime Minister himself, but I hope you will convey our messages to him as they are.

Third woman:  it is a great agony to live in a contaminated area. I lost hope to live. But to tell everyone about this agony…now I am trying to live for that purpose.  I don‘t want anyone to go through what I am going through.

Fourth woman: Did anyone take responsibility for Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi accident? Who did? I don't think anyone did. When I heard Prime Minister Noda say, "I will restart  nuclear plants on my responsibility," I realized he's living in a different world. I couldn't understand what he was saying at all. You know restarting is really impossible. We are struggling hard as we speak, to suppress our unsurpressable feelings. Please take our words to your heart and convey them to the Prime Minister.

Fifth woman: I wanted to raise my children with the safest possible meals, so I started organic farming. But all my paddies and fields have been contaminated.

Every day, every time I prepare a meal, I wonder if it's OK to feed my children with cesium becquerel-[contaminated] vegetables. I am worried [that] this might affect my children in the future. Can you understand this feeling? How many times have you come to Fukushima? How much of that contaminated air have you breathed in? How many times has Mr. Noda come? How many hours has he spent there? We are there every day, and every time we see helicopters flying over us, we really fear that something might be [going] wrong with the nuclear plant again.  That's how it is in Fukushima. I don't think he understands this reality at all. If he does, he [won't ever] talk about restarting Oi nuclear power plant [again.] 

Voices of the women: That's right.  That's right!

Fifth woman (cont'd): Why doesn't he try to understand? Why doesn't he come and see Fukushima (crying). Prime Minister Noda is said to be the leader of this country, but he's inhuman and I can never forgive him. I  think he's wrong. Please tell him so. Please be sure to tell him. Please.

Sixth woman: Ever since then, worrying about my children occupies my mind so I cannot listen to music. I haven't been able to listen to music since then. I have been tense both mentally and physically. In late June last year, I started to suffer from various health problems one after another. The problems are exactly the same as those found in villages around Chernobyl. I feel really uncomfortable when I have an armpit ache [that lasts] two days. We were already exposed to a critical amount of radiation when the levels were high. Now we are forced to be exposed to radiation internally every day. That's why restarting Oi Nuclear Plant should never, ever be allowed! It's a sin to do it without preparations! And if an accident occurs, that will heap sin upon sin! Fukushima demonstrates it! Please tell him so!

Seventh woman: Now [you are] listening to these women from Fukushima, don't you think they are wonderful? During the past year, women in Fukushima relearned everything. Everything since the beginning of human history. Relearned how foolish humans are. How we have always fought each other. How we dug out the worst thing, the thing called uranium [out of the earth,] and how we started to use it. We have learned these things more than any scientists. We are really risking our lives. You may think I'm exaggerating, but we are here, risking our lives.

Eighth woman: I have an only daughter. She had a baby in late January last year, and then the accident occurred. We [wanted] to flee and [we] tried to figure out the way to do [it.] But at that time in Fukushima [there was so much] confusion. There was no gasoline, no public transportation. The bullet trains had stopped. The airport stopped operating. There was no way for us to evacuate. So for a while we were compelled to. . . be exposed radiation at home. During a little more than a month's time, my grandchild, my daughter and I were [crying]….Excuse me…I didn't mean to be this way. I'm sorry.

Voices of the women: It's OK, it's OK.

Eighth woman (cont'd): My highest priority is to protect children. If you have money to spend on decontamination, please use it for evacuating children [before anything else!]

Ninth woman: We are really living in fear. Please imagine. For example, you can't dry your clothes outside. You can't dry your bedding outside. You can't take a deep breath. I have grandchildren, but I can't let them come to Fukushima, to my city of Koriyama because the radiation levels are [so] high. And in the meantime, swimming classes are starting at school, and a lot of radioactive particles are stuck to the walls of the swimming pool. Concrete walls. A little scrubbing won't remove it. A lot of cesium has accumulated on the bottom. Water itself [has] become' scary. We are exposed to radiation day after day. Particularly children [who] are at higher risk. I think you already know by now how dangerous radiation is. Please [learn] more about Fukushima. If you do, you will never even begin to think about re-starting [the Oi Reactors]. Please address this issue as a human being.

Tenth woman: Prime Minister Noda, what are you looking at? What are you looking at when you decide your policies? You are not looking at us at all!  You put the economy first. You are such a shallow prime minister, [someone] who tries to restart the Oi Plant with shallow words: "It's safe." I can't forgive you. You said, "the ultimate responsibility rests with me." What do you mean by "the ultimate responsibility?" Does it mean [just] giving the go-ahead? How are you going to take responsibility after that?  Can you say you are willing to face a life sentence if anything goes wrong? I think you are an extremely insincere prime minister.

Now it is the turn of the male-authorities  to speak.  (One figure in a suit stands silently next to the speaker; behind him, a safety-helmeted worker.) 

Bureaucrat speaker (After a great deal of bowing and clearing of his throat he begins): Thank you, uh, everyone, uh, for bringing the letter of request, uh, when you are, uh, very busy. We have just heard, uh, what might be called a "sincere outcry from the soul," uh, from each of you. Uh, we will do our best to, uh, compile your "fervent feelings" together with your letter of request and, uh, hand it to. . . .Well, we're not going to hand it directly to the Prime Minister, but to his secretaries. . . .

Tenth woman: Why don't you hand it directly to him. If you can't, please bring Prime Minister Noda here now. What we have told you is not our "feelings." but our actual damages.

Another woman: I would like to believe you will convey our messages directly to Prime Minister Noda so they are felt in his heart. I hope we'll have a chance to hear what he thinks about them and how he answers to them directly from him.

The following day, Saturday, June 16, Prime Minister Noda authorized Kansai Electric Company to re-start the Oi Reactors.

For a link to this YouTube go to: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYQNd2ybiDg&list=PLA062D76527E74690&index=179&feature=plpp_video