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In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the foreign media, including the BBC, hailed the men as the "Fukushima 50".
In fact there were never 50 of them. Hundreds of workers stayed at the plant, braving high levels of radiation to bring the reactors under control. Many are still there today.
And yet almost nothing has been heard from them. No awards, no newspaper articles or TV interviews. We don't even know their names.
. . .
Back in the 1960s and 70s, getting rural Japanese communities to accept nuclear power plants was hard.
They were promised new roads and sports facilities. They were promised high paying jobs in the plant. And most of all, they were promised that nuclear power was completely safe.
Now that the lie has been so tragically exposed, the feeling of betrayal is huge.
Before the meltdowns, Seiko Takahashi never thought of activism. Now the middle-aged mother from Fukushima City is a passionate anti-nuclear campaigner. And she admits there is little sympathy for the Fukushima workers.
"They are not heroes for us," she says. "I feel sorry for them, but I don't see them as heroes. We see them as one block, they work for Tepco, they earned high salaries. The company made a lot of money from nuclear power, and that's what paid for their nice lives."
Wow! I can't believe it. Is this how divisive and cynical our world has become? I thought the Fukushima workers who stayed to get the reactor under control were up there with Father Kolbe of Auschwitz in terms of being heroes and sacrificing their lives for others. Then I happened across this article recently which has sort of sent chills down my spine. How can the Fukushima workers be held in any way responsible for the tragedy? Is it a sign of ingratitude? Or were they negligent in some way? Meanwhile many of us who make much more miniscule sacrifices are basking away (in relative terms) in anonymity and public indifference. What is wrong with this world?
PS. Regarding Father Kolbe, I was chatting with someone in another forum who said Father Kolbe was an "idiot" for willingly "throwing his life away" and not fighting tooth and nail against the Germans and that because of the passivity of people like him, more soldiers allegedly had to die fighting the Germans which he refused to.
Maybe we should call our present age the "twilight of Angels". No one is sacred, not even someone who would forfeit their life to save the rest of us.
I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
HexHammer wrote:I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
You've watched too much tv.
And I don't respect those workers a lot. I don't pay for that.
HexHammer wrote:I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
You've watched too much tv.
And I don't respect those workers a lot. I don't pay for that.
HexHammer wrote:I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
You've watched too much tv.
And I don't respect those workers a lot. I don't pay for that.
Why?
I prefer to deal with alive people. I don't want them to die for me.
HexHammer wrote:I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
You are correct, but it wasn’t always that way in the west. Once folks traded their lives and risky dreams in exchange for family security, and the deal was solid. Self-sacrifice for the living is the same outlook as manning the lifeboats - women and children first.
The civilians gave their reasons for the attitude. What’s not to understand? They made a deal with the company. In return for their land they were promised heaven and given hell. No appreciation is a defining characteristic of hell, and in hell the jobs are thankless.
The plant workers also made a deal. Company first. The workers were promised the good life in exchange for duty, loyalty, responsibility, and life-years. The doomed workers continue that deal as company and family representatives.
No thanks for the company representatives? How un-PC.
HexHammer wrote:I respect those workers that stayed behind, it's a typical japanese mentality, the samurai way of self sacrifice for the greater good! We don't really have such thing is the west, where we scorn such people and call them fools and such.
You are correct, but it wasn’t always that way in the west. Once folks traded their lives and risky dreams in exchange for family security, and the deal was solid. Self-sacrifice for the living is the same outlook as manning the lifeboats - women and children first.
The civilians gave their reasons for the attitude. What’s not to understand? They made a deal with the company. In return for their land they were promised heaven and given hell. No appreciation is a defining characteristic of hell, and in hell the jobs are thankless.
The plant workers also made a deal. Company first. The workers were promised the good life in exchange for duty, loyalty, responsibility, and life-years. The doomed workers continue that deal as company and family representatives.
No thanks for the company representatives? How un-PC.
It's just an opinion of a person, one middle aged mother from Fukushima. Nothing more, nothing less. You can call a hero whoever you want.
Honestly, I am tired of the American mentality. West makes heroes from war veterans and other army pawns, who killed dozens fellow human beings, and survived (maybe without a leg or eye)...
In my opinion, such people should never be called heroes. Hero is a person who refuses to go to war, and decides to suffer imprisonment and public mockery rather than killing fellow humans.
But again, it's a point of view, and personal values.
MatejValuch wrote:It's just an opinion of a person, one middle aged mother from Fukushima. Nothing more, nothing less. You can call a hero whoever you want.
Honestly, I am tired of the American mentality. West makes heroes from war veterans and other army pawns, who killed dozens fellow human beings, and survived (maybe without a leg or eye)...
In my opinion, such people should never be called heroes. Hero is a person who refuses to go to war, and decides to suffer imprisonment and public mockery rather than killing fellow humans.
But again, it's a point of view, and personal values.
So, you're saying that these Japanese workers are affected with this construct that you have identified as the American mentality?
MatejValuch wrote:It's just an opinion of a person, one middle aged mother from Fukushima. Nothing more, nothing less. You can call a hero whoever you want.
Honestly, I am tired of the American mentality. West makes heroes from war veterans and other army pawns, who killed dozens fellow human beings, and survived (maybe without a leg or eye)...
In my opinion, such people should never be called heroes. Hero is a person who refuses to go to war, and decides to suffer imprisonment and public mockery rather than killing fellow humans.
But again, it's a point of view, and personal values.
So, you're saying that these Japanese workers are affected with this construct that you have identified as the American mentality?
That's your personal opinion, public opinion is a bit different.
MatejValuch wrote:It's just an opinion of a person, one middle aged mother from Fukushima. Nothing more, nothing less. You can call a hero whoever you want.
Honestly, I am tired of the American mentality. West makes heroes from war veterans and other army pawns, who killed dozens fellow human beings, and survived (maybe without a leg or eye)...
In my opinion, such people should never be called heroes. Hero is a person who refuses to go to war, and decides to suffer imprisonment and public mockery rather than killing fellow humans.
But again, it's a point of view, and personal values.
So, you're saying that these Japanese workers are affected with this construct that you have identified as the American mentality?
That's your personal opinion, public opinion is a bit different.
“Civilian” could be a trigger word inducing tunnel vision. However, in a broader philosophical sense a civilian is not part of the company, nuclear or other. A civilian is not on the football team.
TSBU wrote:
You've watched too much tv.
And I don't respect those workers a lot. I don't pay for that.
Why?
I prefer to deal with alive people. I don't want them to die for me.
That's certainly a very commendable way of looking at things. However, what would have happened had all those workers refused to go back to the damaged plant to bring it under control? Maybe I'm wrong but wouldn't the damage have been far worse?
