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Take Action at Fukushima: An Open Letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

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Read in Japanese, French, Spanish , Portuguese, or German.

Dear Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

You no doubt observed the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, with terror and worry: what would another nuclear disaster mean for state relations, especially in your home region of East Asia? Fortunately, it seemed, the effects were largely kept to Japan’s islands and were less than many experts anticipated. Within weeks the stories dissipated if not disappeared from the major media outlets, only to be resurrected with personal interest stories of a hero or an especially tragic case of a lost loved one.

But the crisis is not over. Today, Martin Fackler reported in the New York Times that radioactively polluted water is leaking out of the plants and that the site is in a new state of emergency. Mitsuhei Murata, Japan’s former ambassador to Switzerland, wrote a letter last year that brought international attention to the thousands of radioactive spent fuel rods at the site and the danger their vulnerability presents; he has testified to this several times before Japan’s parliament. International experts, independent and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have commented that the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s plans for the removal of the rods from the site and their storage in a safer, if still temporary, location are optimistic if not unrealistic.

The news media has done an adequate if meager job of reporting the many issues the fuel rods present. The radioactive fuel must be continuously cooled in order to stay safe; the improvised electric system that maintains this cooling has failed several times, once for more than 24 hours, both on its own and because of hungry rats.… Continue reading

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Fukushima Needs a Hero: Responsibility and Democracy in Japan

 

Read this article in Japanese.

 

By Akio Matsumura

 

 

Yastel Yamada is 73 years old. He seems a little tired after weeks on the road in the United States. He is trying to save Japan.

One of the first people I have met who can tell the inside story of the Fukushima accident, Yamada is concerned that work is not being done on the three nuclear reactors that melted down last year because the high radiation levels are still keeping TEPCO workers away. The crippled buildings are unstable, still contain nuclear assemblies, and present a long term threat to the people in the area. The cooling systems especially are a cause for concern. Mr. Yamada, founder and president of the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima (Fukushima Genpatsu Kodotai), along with 700 members, want to help clean up the site.

 

The rationale behind the Skilled Veterans Corps is that even if the workers get cancer from the radiation, it may take 20 years to develop, wherein average life expectancy only gives them 12 to 15 years to live anyway. He doesn’t believe they should risk young lives to do work that his group can happily and capably handle. On his current tour of the United States he is gaining support for Americans to pressure the Japanese government into taking a more responsible route with the disaster: his group, as well as an international assessment team, should be let in.

 

Beyond cleanup of the site, Mr.… Continue reading

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What Is the United States Government Waiting for?

By Akio Matsumura

 

Read in Japanese, Spanish, German, French and Russian.

 

We continue to post the opinions of many international scientists on the potential global catastrophe that would result from the collapse of Reactor 4 at Fukushima Dai-ichi. The message now is simple and clear—Japan’s government will not act; it is the United States who must step forward—yet no action has been taken.

I was amazed when I heard that one million Japanese had read our article that introduces Ambassador Mitsuhei Murata’s courageous appeal at the public hearing of the House of Councilors of Japan and Robert Alvarez’s famous figure that there is 85 times greater Cesium-137 at Fukushima than at Chernobyl accident. People from 176 nations have visited our blog and Ambassador Murata and Robert Alvarez have been quoted in online and print media in many of them. Despite this global attention, the Japanese government seems to be further from taking action to deal with the growing dangers of Fukushima Dai-ichi. In April I flew to Japan to meet with government and opposition party leaders to convey how dangerous the situation is. Ambassador Murata and I met with Mr. Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary, who assured us he would convey our message to Prime Minister Noda before his departure for Washington to meet with President Obama on April 30. It was to our great disappointment that the idea of an independent assessment team and international technical support for the disaster were not mentioned publicly. I was also astonished to hear that many Japanese political leaders were not aware of the potential global catastrophe because they were not told anything about it by TEPCO.… Continue reading

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U.S. Senator Concerned with Reactor 4 Urges U.S. to Help

Read the senator’s letter in German.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior member of the Committee on Energy and Natural resources, recently toured the Fukushima power plant site. Among his concerns was the exposed spent fuel assemblies at Reactor 4. Watch him on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown. He issued his concerns in a letter (PDF) to Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki. Senator Wyden also requested Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have their departments prepare reports of what they can do to assist TEPCO in securing the site as quickly as possible.

The senator wrote:

Loss of containment in any of these pools, especially the pool at Unit 4, which has the highest inventory of the hottest fuel, could result in an even greater release of radiation than the initial accident.

TEPCO’s December 21, 2011, remediation roadmap proposes to take up to ten years to complete spent fuel pool removal from all pools on the site. Given the comprised nature of these structures due to the events of March 11th, this schedule carries extraordinary and continuing risk if further severe seismic events were to occur. The true earthquake risk for the site was seriously underestimated and remains unresolved [ed: see this article on the safety assumptions we make with nuclear power.] . I look forward to hearing from you on what efforts can be made to accelerate this schedule and how the United States can be of assistance to the Japanese regulatory agencies to help oversee TEPCO’s response activities.

… Continue reading
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A Lifetime Chasing Osama: Implications and Possibilities for Our Generation

By Chris Cote

I have never fought in a war, but for the majority of my memorable life my country, the United States, has been in one. The United States emerged triumphant in the Cold War shortly after I was born and throughout the 1990s exerted its military power in a number of small affairs throughout North Africa and the Middle East. This involvement in the region expanded and escalated immensely during the 2000s. At the same time, Americans and many others willingly traded in political freedoms and compromised their democracies for nominally greater security. Three recent events—the end of the Iraq War, the continuing Arab Uprisings, and the surprising death of Osama bin Laden—have opened the way for the United States to reflect on its role in the global affairs. I am twenty four years old and I have acknowledged the shifting state in world affairs and America’s necessarily smaller role in them. I am looking forward to a future as an American whose country is not intractably occupied abroad and able to focus on more urgent priorities at home and a more narrow conception of vital interests abroad. Instead of clawing to its possessions and interests abroad, the United States should shrink its role abroad, and polish off its tarnished political system at home, the political system responsible for its initial greatness.

Growing up in Massachusetts

I was born on a snowy April day in the waning years of the Cold War. The long ideological and physical battle between the East and West—like the concurrent struggle between the Celtics and the Lakers—had to come to an end.… Continue reading

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Nation Building at Home: Where is America’s Great Wall?

By Akio Matsumura

President Obama, in his second State of the Union address, said that we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea – the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny.  The president emphasized that we need to work on developing America as a nation.  “Sustaining the American Dream has never been about standing pat. It has required each generation to sacrifice, and struggle, and meet the demands of a new age.”

Indeed, America was founded on an idea, and great ideas inspired and led to the nation we have today. The transcontinental railroad, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the NASA space programs were hallmarks of American leadership and progress.

When my parents visited the US for the first time from Japan in 1979, we toured the East Coast.  They were amazed by the Queensboro Bridge, built before my father was born in 1909; the US Capitol building; and the six lane highways that connected them.  We drove from Niagara Falls to Washington, D.C.—a length of 2,500 miles, or 1 ½ times the length of Japan.  When my father learned that we had not driven into the middle of the US but had stayed only on one coast he asked, “Akio, why did Japan attack such a large country?”  But many of the monuments, bridges, railroads, that amazed my parents were built over 100 years ago, even in the time of the Civil War. America’s leaders inspired by a desire for a Great America—and yes, by extraordinary profits—set their sights far into the future and undertook incredible projects that continue to awe visitors to this day.… Continue reading

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A Dearth of Vision: The Need for a New American Road

By Akio Matsumura

America’s leadership—in Washington and in each state—is gridlocked.  And instead of politicians and economists coming to the rescue, they are the ones causing the traffic jam.  Myopic leadership coupled with recycled policies are clogging the road forward.  Governor Jerry Brown’s victory in California encouraged me greatly.  His bold ideas will help California to close its yawning fiscal and social gaps, but we need individual leadership and creative vision across the board.  Some years ago I missed an opportunity to bring together some of the country’s most visionary minds to discuss our common future. Such a meeting, if held now, would help to energize America enormously.

A Timeless Visionary
In 1984, I went to Los Angeles to meet with former Governor Jerry Brown, who had just finished his two-term governorship of California.  Governor Brown came to my hotel and we sat in the lobby to discuss and share our perspectives for the world for the coming century.  Because I worked at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), I shared my concern for the increasing imbalance between the growing population—then projected to hit 7 billion by the year 2000 and 10 billion later in the century—and the availability and distribution of natural resources.  How would we deal with food, water, and natural resource shortages?  Governor Brown suggested we might send people to the Moon and avoid all of these problems.  Clearly we were discussing big ideas. We went on and on for hours.

Suddenly, Governor Brown stopped and asked, “Akio, what time is it?” … Continue reading

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The Death and Rebirth of U.S. Ground Forces

Dear friends:
I have been so fortunate to have the advice, opinions and wisdom of extraordinary men available to me throughout my life.  The three with whom I sought counsel the most were former US Ambassador to the UN, Reverend Dr. Glenn Olds; Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke (D); and Mr. Bradford Morse, former administrator of the UNDP and US Congressman (R). Ambassador Olds served as the White House international adviser for four U.S. presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Fifteen years ago, Ambassador Olds introduced me to Dr. Scott Jones and advised me that Dr. Jones would be able to provide me with top-notch analysis of U.S. policy.  As sadly all three of my initial mentors have gone to another spiritual world, I am lucky to have Dr. Jones’s advice and fair, non-partisan insight on U.S. policy.

In a thirty-year career in the U.S. Navy, Scott Jones was a carrier jet fighter pilot in the Korean War, and later served in Naval Intelligence in South Asia, Europe, and Washington, D.C    For six-years he was special assistant to my dear friend Senator Claiborne Pell.
It is my great pleasure to introduce his article.
Yours truly,

Akio

 

 

The Death and Rebirth of U.S. Ground Forces

A burden too heavy has been placed on the shoulders of U.S. ground forces in the nation’s longest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  No level of respect and verbal support for the young men and women in service of their country can mitigate the mental and physical consequences of repeated combat tours. … Continue reading

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Why Do Retired Generals Become Peace Advocates? Let Us Create a Curriculum for Peace in Our Military Academies

Read in Japanese.

By Akio Matsumura

During September in 1973 I found myself beginning a two hour bus ride, headed for the outskirts of Jakarta. I was with the Japanese Parliamentary Study Mission on Population and Development, headed by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. We had already had very fruitful visits to India and Thailand, and were now moving through Indonesia.

All parliamentarians and three foreign special guests — General Draper, former Maryland Senator Joseph Tydings, and Mr. McDonnell — sat in their own private car, while the rest of us—government bureaucrats, population experts, media and staff—traveled behind by bus. As the youngest member of the group I sat at the back of the bus. Before we departed, a member of the Japanese Embassy staff came to the back of the bus, saying that General Draper was calling for me. General Draper and Mr. Tatsuo Tanaka, Member of Parliament and deputy head of the mission, were sitting together when I got to the car, with the staff member from the Embassy. General Draper wished to speak with me during the trip, and asked me to sit in the car instead of the staff member. Meanwhile, Mr. Tanaka seemed to be uncomfortable next to General Draper, and excused himself to the front seat because he wanted to operate the video camera, so the front seat would be a better location. So, I ended up next to General Draper in the back, to the astonishment of the embassy staff. Mr. Tanaka assured them it was the request of General Draper, and we began the two hour ride.… Continue reading

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Why Did McDonald’s Go the Moon? There Are No Financial Deposits in the Spiritual World

Read in Japanese.

By Akio Matsumura

In September of 1973 I was working down to the last moment to arrange the Japanese Parliamentary Study Mission to Asian Countries on Population and Development headed by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. It was hosted by the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London and the UN Population Fund in New York. General Draper called me from Washington to tell me that Mr. McDonald would be joining the mission and would be arriving the following day in Tokyo from the U.S. I was to meet with him and explain the program for the trip. I didn’t know who Mr. McDonald was, so I asked a Japanese friend who he might be. He said, “Oh yes, a McDonald hamburger restaurant just opened at Ginza, so he might be the owner of the McDonald restaurant company.”

The next day we met and ate lunch at the Hilton Hotel in Akasaka. He was an older gentleman, with white hair, so I asked him at the beginning of lunch, “Mr. McDonald, when you were 31, like I am now, what did you dream of being?” He told me, “Akio when I was your age I was so interested in the universe, and spacecrafts. My dream was that one day man would go to the Moon. And Akio, when we first landed on the Moon in 1969, many of my company’s products went there.” His face was glowing with pride–he was telling me the story as a grandfather would to his grandson.… Continue reading