The
Ongoing Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima,
Japan,
and the Culpability of the United States
in the
Destruction of the Pacific Ocean
by Pastor
Paul J. Bern
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The
worst nuclear disaster to strike Japan since a single bomb fell over
Nagasaki in August 1945 occurred on March 11, 2011 at the Fukushima
nuclear power plant following the earthquake and epic tsunami of that
fateful day. The New York Times reported the disturbing news some
months afterwards that a wide area around the Fukushima plant "could
soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a
government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded
safe levels. The formal announcement was the first official
recognition that the March accident could force the long-term
depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that
scientists and some officials have been warning about for months."
Just two weeks later, it was reported that radiation readings at the
site had reached their highest points to date. The wide release of
radiation, and fear of same, has forced the Japanese and others all
over the world to reflect on what happened to the country in 1945,
and the continuing existential threat of nuclear weapons and energy
today.
In its
main story in August 2011 marking the 66th anniversary of the atomic
bombings, the Times highlighted the new activism of survivors of the
bombing (the “hibakusha”) this year; campaigning against nuclear
power, which has provided most of their country's energy needs. No
one in the world can relate to the fears of a wide populace terrified
that they (and perhaps the unborn) may be tainted forever by exposure
to airborne radiation. One may ask how it is possible that Japan,
after its experience with the atomic bombings, could allow itself to
draw so heavily on the same nuclear technology for the manufacture of
about a third of its energy? There was resistance, much of it from
Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. But there was also a pattern of
denial, cover-up and cozy bureaucratic collusion between industry and
government, the last especially notorious in Japan but by no means
limited to that country.
Sumiteru
Taniguchi, now 82 and currently director of the Nagasaki A-Bomb
Survivors Council, recently commented about the above NYT article,
"When the conversation turns to the ongoing crisis at the
Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant it is as if the floodgates open,"
Taniguchi said. "Nuclear power and mankind cannot coexist. We
survivors of the atomic bomb have said this all along. And yet, the
use of nuclear power was camouflaged as 'peaceful' and
continued to progress. You never know when there's going to be a
natural disaster. You can never say that there will never be a
nuclear accident." Taniguchi is perhaps the main iconic
symbol of the “hibakusha” today, thanks to footage of him taken
after the bombing, showing him, months after the attack, still on a
floor, spread-eagled, his entire back an open wound, flaming red. It
was part of footage shot by a US film crew, and suppressed for
decades.
In
April, 2011, five survivors' organizations including Taniguchi's
Nagasaki group submitted a statement to the Japanese government
declaring the collapse of the "safety myth" around nuclear
power and demanding a change in the government's energy policy to
prevent creating any more “hibakusha”. Their statement further
demanded that it distribute health record booklets — similar to the
ones that are distributed to atomic bomb victims and can be used as
proof of radiation exposure — to nuclear power plant workers and
residents living close to them, and also provide periodic health
examinations to those populations. It is a well-hidden fact (thanks
to the lame stream media) that numerous A-bomb survivors over the
decades sought help from the government after falling ill or
suffering cancer and other diseases, allegedly from radiation
exposure, but by many accounts had been abandoned. Will the people
who are suffering from invisible dangers in Fukushima be subjected to
the same treatment? Probably, unless more people start speaking up.
As I
write this, Japan and TEPCO, the Japanese utility company that has
been in charge of this ever-widening disaster, are making futile
attempts to stop the gushing leakage of many tons of radioactive
seawater that is coming from the three melted-down reactors. The
entire northern Pacific ocean is now contaminated by this radioactive
seawater. It will remain this way for a very long time afterward –
decades at the very least. Contrast this to God's original
instructions that he gave to us at the creation of the earth. “Then
God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed
them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of
the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground'.”
(Genesis chapter 1, verses 26-28)
In other words, God put humankind in charge of the planet right from
the start. If a manager did to a company what we have done to the
earth, we'd all be in jail!
The
book of Revelation states quite clearly what will ultimately happen
to those who pollute the earth, such as what happened at Chernobyl in
the 1980's and in 2011 at Fukushima – and what America did to Japan
in 1945. “And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on
their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
saying: 'We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and
who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to
reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has
come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the
prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both
small and great – and for destroying those who destroy the earth'”
(Rev. chapter 11, verses 16-18).
'Destroy those who destroy the earth'? So much radioactive leakage
from Fukishima, Japan has polluted the northern Pacific ocean that it
is now effectively dead. All life from Japan eastward to Midway atoll
and beyond, all the way north to the Aleutian islands and as far away
as the Canadian west coast have been wiped out. And it's all our
fault!
When it
comes to nuclear issues — from atomic weapons to nuclear power —
no two nations could be more irredeemably intertwined than Japan and
the US. The United States is the country that 'introduced' the world
to the splitting of the atom. This has resulted in the proliferation
of nuclear weapons and atomic energy, and it has threatened to wipe
us out as a species ever since. After the atomic destruction of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, despite dissenting voices of some of its own
citizens, America drew mostly wrong conclusions as it plunged into
nuclear expansion. There was a relentless public relations campaign —
unleashed by the Truman administration almost within hours of the
Hiroshima bombing — that led to the erroneous conclusion that
blinded the Americans (and later the Japanese) to the insidious,
long-term damage of radiation. Prominent journalists and media
outlets of the time embraced, with enthusiasm, the so-called “Dawn
of the Atomic Age” and America fell into a kind of nuclear trance
that remains with us to this day.
Psalm
24, verse 1 says, “The earth is the Lord's and everything in
it”, and Psalm 108 verse 5 finishes the thought with, “and
let your (God's) glory fill all the earth”. This planet isn't
ours, we're supposed to be caretakers. We didn't make this place, God
did. So who are we to just wantonly ruin the earth for the shallow
and meaningless goal of profit? Is there anybody who seriously thinks
that God is pleased with us because we have ruined the planet? I will
tell you this much, because this is all I know about what God thinks.
God is furious and thoroughly enraged at what humanity has done. I
warn you all with a sternness you don't always see and hear from me
that the consequences of our actions will define and make manifest
God's response. The first two sets of people God is coming for are
the militaries and rich industrialists of the world. They're the ones
who financed and developed nuclear power. So, when world war three
commences, and it will sooner or later, God is going to let it happen
so He can destroy them all at once. That what Jesus really meant when
he said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”
(Matt. 5: 5) What a great day that will be!
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