誰かが言わなきゃならない

1. Information wanted

How is our town going? It is the concern of everybody here. Our mayor’s office in the provisional town building in Koriyama has a big photo on its wall. The photo is a popular cherry flower avenue in the town with full bloom
but no people or traffic lights. The same photo hangs on the corridor wall in the Big Palette. It looks very unusual.
A lot of people, a lot of tourists must be there. The radiation level in the town is another concern. The data in Tomioka-cho or Okuma-cho are rarely made known to the public in comparison with other neighbor towns and villages. The level in the NPP surrounding towns was made public yesterday as 20μSv/hr.
It is still fairly high as compared with the level of 4μSv/hr in I-idate-mura, an evacuation warning zone. In-air radiation level is not the only one; the in-soil radiation level is equally a concern. Are they decreasing? Are they still increasing? Can we grow vegetables in our garden upon return?
How are they harmful to our health? No information comes to us. How will be the levels when our return can get green lights in six-months or one-year time? What should we and how can we prepare for our living back there upon return? What health risks do we foresee? The information the people want to know most is not given.

2. Controlled access

Upon re-designation of the town as the controlled access zone, the people are completely isolated from their own houses and other assets until the control is terminated. If the rule is violated, it becomes a “crime.” The reaction of the people is really big. People had a strong interest in the “short-visit” plan of the government.
Today’s announcement by the cabinet secretary Edano greatly disappointed the people: limited time, one per family, and by bus transport. Little possibility to bring things back, and to repair damaged houses. The distance to the home town has been lengthened to “Very far.”
The TEPCO plan for accidents termination ensured that we have no possibility to return home by the end of this year, and the effected access control cut practically our home visit possibilities. People here had an advantage to access the town in two hours by car, much shorter in time than the people who
moved far to Niigata-ken in the north or Saitama-ken in the south.
This big advantage is being lost. The people’s wish to stay as close as to their home town may be weakened.