Thursday, March 19, 2020

A Growing Terror

25 years ago I lived in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, doing fieldwork for my Oxford doctorate. Early on 20 March 1995 I'd scheduled a research interview, so left home on the crammed rush-hour subway via Kasuga Station & returned via Korakuen.

I blindly traversed disaster among the multitude. As we traveled, tightly packed, deluded terrorists silently released sarin nerve agent (a deadly poisonous chemical weapon) in five Tokyo subway trains, then disembarked.

A toxic Marunouchi-line train continued on its route for one hour & forty minutes, back & forth & back again, calling three times at many stations while splattering poison & fumes. That train passed through my neighborhood twice (and a prior time w/ culprits pre-release)...

地下鉄サリン事件 = Creepy!

Was I injured? Who knows? Japan's system does not care.

Look into Minamata Disease, long-term mercury pollution in Kumamoto Pref. by Japan's Chisso Corp. At least 10,000+ people were harmed (and probably many multiples more).

Though trouble was identified in the mid 1950s, law in Japan is still dealing with it - and very poorly. Just last week a court refused compensation to a number of claimants. More-recent TEPCO Fukushima nuclear liability is similar. People exposed to fallout because of bad design and unsafe corporate decisions, and not allowed to return home, struggle as evacuees. The Abe government clearly hopes to turn the page and ignore the human cost & injustice.

Most are led to believe struggle is futile. 
In Japan, long before achieving proper compensation, you'll die.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/13/national/crime-legal/minamata-disease-claims-rejected-fukuoka-high-court/

BEWARE. Japanese officials & other corporatist governments corruptly interpret JUSTICE. Non-binding apologies, thoughts and prayers ain't worth shit.