Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Radioactive or not, the widespread perception of Fuckushima is that it's a dangerous place to be. Whether that's a correct perception is irrelevant. It's undeniably the perception of many, who will avoid the place. Those in authority saying Fuckushima is safe may well be right, but their credibility is so damaged by all their lying, incompetency and concealment that few believe them even when they are speaking the truth.
People also tend to forget that before the disasters Fuckushima was a depressed, rusting, struggling shithole that few people wanted to visit.
I'm a little surprised by this. I agree that the perception is as you say, and that bureaucratic deception has not helped in the least, but the idea that "Fukushima is ... etc." is just so obviously wrong that it makes me wonder if people are even bothering to look at maps.
First of all, are you talking about Fukushima city, or Fukushima prefecture?
Lets take a look at a map that I have added a couple of details to:
Right ... so there's Fukushima prefecture. Big place!
I have placed a red dot at the approximate location of the nuclear power plant, on the coast, and shaded Fukushima city in yellow.
That big blue splotch in the middle of Fukushima prefecture is Lake Inawashiro, near to the Aizu area and Mount Bandai. That whole area is far from being a "depressed, rusting, struggling shithole that few people wanted to visit." It is a beautiful area, and a popular tourist spot.
Actually, Fukushima city isn't bad either.
Anyway, while we're here and I've taken the time to make some toys, lets play a little game.
Here's a slightly bigger perspective:
That's a pretty large prefecture we have there.
Now let's rotate Fukushima towards Tokyo, using the approximate location of the nuke plant as a pivot point (rotated Fukushima in orange):
Holy shit! That thing reaches way into the Kanto area (which I have roughly outlined in red), and almost all the way to Tokyo! EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!
If I had rotated Fukushima around the intersection of its southern border and the coastline it would be touching Tokyo.
It really doesn't take much imagination to understand this without the graphics, and it stuns me that people who are ostensibly concerned don't even bother. The same goes for the radiation levels, etc.
Anyway, that's enough "work" for me for one day.