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Anonymous Source: Community of 6,000 people were assumed to have evacuated from high radiation area… They had not — Eventually happened 3 months after meltdowns — Gov’t doctor came and said ok to eat local food — “Iitate, I think, is finished”

Published: March 18th, 2012 at 11:07 am ET
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Title: Experts struggle to collect data in Fukushima
Source: Al Jazeera
Author: D. Parvaz
Date: March 17, 2012

  • 6,000 residents of Iitate village
  • One of the village’s former residents (now evacuated), who did not want to be named, said that Tweets sent out shortly after the explosions at the plant indicated that it was assumed that the village had already been evacuated
  • It had not
  • Younger residents in Iitate [tweeted] appeals for media coverage
  • [The unnamed resident] said from March 15 to 18, they were seeing media reports of high radiation in the area
  • Gov’t, which many older members of the community trusted, kept saying that everything was “fine”

Iitate Diary

A diary created by a community group obtained by Al Jazeera includes a timeline of official communication with the village. It shows that, starting March 25 – ten days after the third explosion – the government sent a doctor to speak with residents, telling residents there was no reason for concern.

“Not only did he not say that there wasn’t a problem, he also told us we could eat local produce,” said the former Iitate resident. Then [Shunichi Yamashita] came to Iitate and told people that there was no evidence that being exposed to up to 100mSv in a year was harmful.

Timeline

  • Near the end of March, officials also told Iitate residents that schools would be re-opened
  • They hinted on April 11 that they were considering evacuating the village
  • Formal recommendation to evacuate Iitate did not come until April 22 – five weeks after
  • It took authorities about three months to evacuate the village

Former Resident on Iitate’s Future

  • “Gov’t will no doubt try to create some industry there, so that they will continue to get funding from the (national) government”
  • “But Iitate, I think, is finished”

Read the report here

Published: March 18th, 2012 at 11:07 am ET
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24 comments

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  3. Reuters: Gov’t says biggest radiation dose was OUTSIDE exclusion zone — 19 millisievert average in Iitate — May be even higher December 13, 2011
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  5. NHK: 42% of residents’ radiation exposure tops annual limit — Survey excluded people working in places with high radioactivity — Only used 4 months of data February 21, 2012
March 18th, 2012 | Category: Outside Tokyo, Strange
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24 comments to Anonymous Source: Community of 6,000 people were assumed to have evacuated from high radiation area… They had not — Eventually happened 3 months after meltdowns — Gov’t doctor came and said ok to eat local food — “Iitate, I think, is finished”

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