Japan: Kan Considered Evacuation of Tokyo in Wake Nuclear Disaster, but Feared Chaos and Collapse of the State
September 30th, 2011Via: ABC:
Japan’s former prime minister Naoto Kan has revealed he contemplated evacuating as many as 30 million people from Tokyo and surrounding areas during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News, Mr Kan, who was prime minister during the nuclear crisis, said evacuations on such a scale may have led to Japan being unable to function.
Mr Kan has since resigned from the prime ministership and can now speak more openly about the crisis.
He said he asked experts for “simulations of the worst case scenario” at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
He said the experts explained that people living 200 to 250 kilometres from the plant would have to be evacuated.
He said he contemplated the chaos that would have ensued if such a measure had been taken.
”It was a crucial moment when I wasn’t sure whether Japan could continue to function as a state,” he said.
”I felt that the risk was at its highest during the first 10 days [after the disaster struck].”
Mr Kan also said there were no effective safeguards in place because ”we had never foreseen a situation in which a quake, tsunami and a nuclear plant accident would occur at the same time.”
”It was a crucial moment when I wasn’t sure whether Japan could continue to function as a state,” he said.
i can categorically say that Japan ceased to function as a state in the early hours of the morning of 12 March 2011. it’s all over and chaos will ensue. i’m out of here (eastern Japan) as soon as i can get organised, or sooner if need be.
So in the face of what Kan’s administration felt was the potential devastation of millions of people and families, they chose to do nothing, say as little as possible, and hope for the best….
Point taken.
I find it just incredible that Kan admitted this. I mean, 250km places all of Tokyo, The Greater Tokyo Area, in the zone, right? What is that? 30+ million people…
Notice that the “State” is always more important than its people. Rather than give up their power and prestige, those in gubmint will always sacrifice those whom the gubmint is supposed to protect. As von Mises wrote, “There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the maiin source of mischief and disaster.”
greater Tokyo = 33 million
massive hate campaign run by the nucleocracy to oust him. he’s not a saint but he wanted to do the right thing. he has a long history of standing up to the bureaucrats. they despise him and have been trying to bring him down since he first became PM. so they succeeded and now i reckon there is about 12-24 months before all hell breaks lose. the biggest conurbation in the world is about to be ghost-towned.