Los Angeles Times TOKYO Veteran fish seller Yoshito Shimada is under siege. At a grocery store in Tokyo?s Shibuya district, mothers pushing strollers demand proof that the daily catch isn?t from the waters off the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. ?I tell them the government checks the fish for radiation, but they don?t trust elected officials or anyone,? said Shimada, his blue shirt stained with fish blood. ?A year after the disaster, Japan is still afraid of its own food.? Even in Tokyo, more than 200 miles from the northeastern region devastated by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that caused radiation to spew from the nuclear plant, residents fear that local schoolyards are laced with dangerous isotopes. Citizen collectives wander streets with dosimeters to make sure their neighborhoods remain radiation-free, conducting spot checks on fish and produce. A year after the worst natural disaster in their country?s history, residents of Japan still are struggling to cope with the staggering toll of a catastrophe that left nearly 20,000 dead or missing. But a more insidious legacy may be a shaken trust ? in their government, in their source of energy and even in the food that sustains them. ?Many Japanese feel they?ve been lied to by their government,? said Mitsuhiro Fukao, an economics professor at Keio University in Tokyo who has written about the public loss of trust. ?In a time of disaster, people wanted the government to help them, not lie to them. And many wonder whether it could happen again.? Even though the tsunami had knocked out the cooling system at Fukushima, leading to meltdowns in three reactors, officials insisted that all was well at the seaside plant. Recently released reports show that was far from true. Seeking to avoid a public panic, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his advisors buried a worst-case assessment by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission that included the possible evacuation of Tokyo. Officials delayed disclosing key data and safety standards, leaving many Japanese not knowing whether their food chain had been contaminated. Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Source: http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/mar/11/one-year-after-tsunami-distrust-lingers-/?mobile
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