The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan unleashed a nuclear
crisis that was as preventable as it was foreseeable. Why is Japan,
one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world, littered with
nuclear power plants ready to spill radiation if damaged?
The latest death tolls show that the earthquake and tsunami killed
over 18,000 people. Recovery from the destruction has been hampered
because resources have been diverted in the effort to minimize
another disaster: radiation leaking from a damaged nuclear power
reactor.
Nuclear power creates energy efficiently (if the costs associated
with safely disposing of nuclear waste are not counted), but with
risks. Within a nuclear reactor, atomic nuclei absorb neutrons, which
results in microscopic explosions that release gamma radiation and
create a nuclear chain reaction. Reactors have cooling systems that
remove
heat from their core to another chamber where the heat is converted
into electrical power, usually by means of steam turbines.
If the cooling system malfunctions, the reactor can overheat,
causing an explosion and release of nuclear radiation into the
environment. This radiation can cause cancer, birth defects, or in
very high doses, radiation sickness and certain death. Japan is the
third largest user of nuclear power in the world, with 55 major
reactors.
On March 11, the tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant, knocking
out electricity and flooding the backup generators used to cool the
reactors. The reactors started to heat, causing them to explode.
The government evacuated the populace within a 12-mile radius
around the plant, although many experts say the radiation poses
dangers for those living 50 miles around the plant. By March 19,
vegetables and milk were found to have illegal excesses of radiation.
On March 23, Tokyo water officials said they had detected too much
radioactive iodine in the city’s water supply for it to be safe for
infants to drink.
Only on March 25 did the government extend a
“voluntary” evacuation to a still inadequate 18 miles. The U.S.
experience with Hurricane Katrina teaches us what a “voluntary”
evacuation means under capitalism: If you have a car and money you
can leave, if you do not, the government will not help you.
Why is an earthquake-prone, island nation covered in nuclear power
plants? The answer can be traced back to the U.S. occupation of
Japan.
Postwar Japan: playground and laboratory for U.S. imperialism
Toward the end of World War II, the Allies demanded the
unconditional surrender of Japan, its occupation by the Allies, and
the complete disarmament of its military. If Japan did not acquiesce,
it would face “prompt and utter destruction.” The Japanese
government refused to comply. The U.S. responded by dropping nuclear
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The attacks killed 150,000- 250,000
people, the vast majority civilians. Thus, the United States
introduced nuclear energy to Japan. On August 14, 1945, Japan
surrendered.
The U.S. government issued the two-part Initial Post-Surrender
Policy for Japan: first, take away all Japanese military sovereignty;
then turn Japan into a western style nation with a pro-U.S.
orientation. For the six years of the occupation, Japan was under the
direct control of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and occupied by 350,000 U.S
troops.
MacArthur left the emperor in place. The Japanese royal family,
which had been instrumental in Japanese fascism, and a strong
opponent of communism, was ready to do business with U.S.
capitalists. The U.S. occupation forces coerced lower-ranking
military leaders to make false confessions and exaggerate their roles
in the war so as to protect the royal family from culpability. Most
fascist leaders, including future prime ministers, were left in place
while underlings were subjected to kangaroo courts and executed by
the United States en mass. The United States imposed strict
censorship, and there was an epidemic of rape of Japanese women by
U.S. soldiers.
The United States oversaw the “reconstruction of the Japanese
economy.” Japan’s capitalist class was disenfranchised and U.S.
corporations overran Japan’s markets. The occupation left behind a
country re-built to offer American capitalists a dependent market and
trading partner.
After the advent of nuclear weapons, capitalists started
investigating ways to profit by using nuclear energy to produce
electricity. The Japanese economy had been turned into a playground
and laboratory for U.S. imperialism. By 1954, with its economy
controlled by foreign capitalists, Japan had already budgeted 230
million yen for nuclear energy, the same energy that had killed so
many Japanese. The dominant capitalists did not even explore the
possibility of utilizing the risky technology in their own countries
till a U.N. conference in 1955.
The centralization of nuclear experimentation in Japan was
especially perverse. The islands that constitute Japan sit upon the
Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where several continental and oceanic
plates meet. The shifting of plates in relation to one another is
what causes earthquakes. Ninety percent of the world’s most severe
earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire. Regardless of Japan’s
geographic position, western corporations such as GEC, General
Electric, and Westinghouse, eventually joined by Japanese
capitalists, were able to profit hugely by making Japan dependent on
nuclear energy.
It has long been obvious to much of the population of Japan that
sooner or later an earthquake would cause severe damage to its
nuclear power plants. For decades, Japanese activists have held
protests and hunger strikes against the use of nuclear power in their
country. As early as 1997, Japanese seismology professor Katsuhiko
Ishibashi coined the term “Genpatsu-shinsai” which translates
into “nuclear power plant earthquake disaster”—predicting the
kind of catastrophe that is occurring in Japan now. The capitalist
corporations heeded none of the concerns of the Japanese people.
According to the logic of capitalism, the maximization of profit for
the tiny capitalist class is all that matters.
Disregard for the safety of the population in relation to the
location of nuclear power plants is not limited to Japan. In
California, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which brings in billions
for Pacific Gas and Electric, was built directly over two major fault
lines. Supposedly, it can withstand an earthquake of up to 7.5, but
the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a 7.9. On March 29, President
Obama bowed to the nuclear industry by guaranteeing loans for further
nuclear power plant construction.
Even the earthquake itself cannot be said to be fully natural.
Capitalism’s thirst for profits disregards the release of increasing
amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing global
warming. The melting
of glaciers and the polar ice caps release more water into the oceans
and create seismic shocks that can make the shifting of plates in the
Pacific Rim of Fire more violent. If this system is left in place, we
can expect only more and more ecological disasters.
