Mt. Tsukuba
(Mt. Tskuba at the northeast end of the Kanto Plain and Mt. Fuji over the west end.)History Meeting Nuclear Power
The Fukushima Nuclear Plant Accident is apparently warning from Heaven.
The Fukushima Plant was totally different from the one at Chernobyl, the former USSR.
The Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew up without an M9.0 earthquake and a 14-meter high tsunami.
Only this scale of a national hazard could trigger the Fukushima accident. There is no such a nuclear power plant in the world as could withstand an M9.0 earthquake and a 14-meter high tsunami.
Nonetheless, all the nuclear reactors at Fukushima stopped automatically their operation within a second after the occurrence of the earthquake, activating an emergency system, which the Chernobyl reactor could not. The tragedy happened when the 14-meter-high tsunami destroyed external power sources for pumps to circulate cooling water.
Yet, development of security and safety in tis field must not be stopped with any degree of content. The Japanese power company and authority have failed in developing culture to pursue ultimate safety and security of nuclear power plants.
Anyway, Japan has come to face this nuclear crisis after its long history.
CHAPTER I: JAPAN - Past and Today
The vague beginning of the Japanese history started when the First Emperor of China sent his holy mission to the east sea, or specifically holy islands in the east sea which are identified with the Japanese Archipelago, in 210 BC.
The authentic historical record on Japan is found in the Hanshu or History of the Former Han Dynasty, a classical Chinese history finished in 111 AD, covering the history of China under the Western Han from 206 BC to 25 AD. (It was interestingly in parallel with compilation of the Christian holy book or the New Testaments.)
In AD 57, the Chinese Dynasty Later Han granted a gold seal to a king in Japan. This Japanese king is believed to be a tribal leader in Tsukushi or north Kyusyu. The seal was unearthed in an island of north Kyusyu in late 18th century.
The Japanese myth tells that there were three major political, economic, and religious centers in early Japan: Tsukushi, Izumo, and Yamato.
Through various conflicts and consolidation, the sovereign power of Japan was finally established in Yamato in the Kinki Region around the 4th century. Today Yamato is part of Nara Prefecture, directly south of Kyoto. The imperial authority over west Japan was established in Yamato in this period. The Imperial House of today is thus rooted in Nara Prefecture. However, in east Japan, there were some tribes that did not obey the Yamato Court. Hokkaido was the territory of Ainu people; Okinawa was remotely associated with Yamato. But, the Yamato Court tried to keep its territorail linkage in South Korea, entering war with the Tang Dynasty of China in 663 to be defeated and forced to totally withdraw from the Korean Peninsula.
Yet, the capital of Yamato Japan moved to Kyoto in 794. And, for 300 years, court nobles surrounding the emperor had enjoyed monopoly of power. Noble people in Kyoto developed unique culture leaving the state of cultural subjugation to China, even inventing Japanese letters called kana. But, before 1200, a samurai clan took hegemony all over Japan setting its political capital in Kamakura in the Kanto region, some 100 km west of Tokyo. Along with the rise of the samurai class, Japanese Buddhism started to prevail among ordinary people. The samurai power prevailed in this era over whole east Japan but did not reach Hokkaido. Okinawa was still only remotely associated with Japan proper.
So, for 1000 years since the beginning of its history, the main stage of national activities had been in west Japan. But, next 1000 years to date, the center of national gravity has gradually shifted to east Japan around Tokyo. (When Mongolians or the Yuan Dynasty of China tried to invade Japan in the late 13th century, the Kamakura samurai regime, but not the imperial authority in Kyoto, was in charge of the national defense to succeed with help of great typhoons later called "Kamikaze.")
Till 1868, political, economical, and military power had been in the hand of the samurai class. The last samurai regime under the Tokugawa shogun set its capital in Edo today called Tokyo in early 1600's (after Osaka-based Hideyoshi's unfruitful war with the Ming Dynasty of China through the Korean Peninsula). They started to cultivate Hokkaido and extended power to Okinawa. Tohoku Area became a great agriculture zone though suffering severe famines sometimes. Tohoku Area was regarded as a culturally minor domain in comparison with western cities such as Kyoto and Osaka that had economic power more than Edo.
The Tokugawa samurai regime had closed the country for 250 years to prevent Christianity from making its way into Japan. But, Western powers, especially the U.S., requested Japan in earnest to open the door in the middle of the 19th century, and then a great civil war was set off among the samurai class. After the Meiji restoration of the imperial power and the start of Westernization in 1868, descendants of samurai however continued to hold hegemony and occupied major seats of the imperial government till 1945, the end of WWII, since the samurai class was essentially bureaucrats since the 11th century. The samurai spirit governed the Empire of Japan from 1860's to 1945.
Then, after WWII, the American Christian-spirit-based democracy was introduced into Japan. Indeed, two atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki really terminated hegemony of descendants of the samurai class in Japan. The Empire of Japan, in this way, collapsed, though the Imperial Family has survived.
Though even before WWII, Japan was already one of great powers in the world since the victory of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), representing non-European-race dominant nations, Japan succeeded in becoming a great economic power after WWII again, through establishing a friendly relationship with the U.S. Around 1970, it became the second largest economy in Western powers, second to the U.S. Around 1980, Japan surpassed the Soviet Union in terms of technology and industry. In 1990's Japan even threated the U.S. in technology and finance.
Yet, due to the limited size of its national land and restriction by its Pacifist Constitution, Japan faced difficulty in further expansion of its industrial base domestically and overseas, unlike in the early 20th century when the Empire of Japan occupied South Pacific islands, Taiwan, Korea, and so on.
So, Japan started to invest hugely into Taiwan, Korea, and China. Especially, a large scale transfer of funds and technology was conducted to China all though 1980's and 1990's and even in 2000's, which has made China grow so easily. Without this capital investment from Japan, China must be still a kind of North Korea today.
Yet, as a salary level in China is so low, this relationship has caused troublesome deflation in Japan through 1990's to today.
And, on March 11, 2011, an M9.0 earthquake occurred in the North Pacific Ocean off the Tohoku region or north Honshu Island, triggering a big tsunami that rose 38 meters high in some village and damaging the Fukushima Daiichi (No.1) Nuclear Power Plant situated 250 km northeast of Tokyo. If the Fukushima Plant fell into a catastrophic state, it could bring about a great disaster directly to 40 million people living in Kanto Area and Tokyo. The scale of economy equivalent to the one of Canada or Italy is really at stake if the Fukushima plant could not be well put under control.
So, this is history of Japan so ongoing.
CHAPTER II: Daily Radiation Level Check
It was a big surprise for Japanese that some foreign countries are checking industrial products imported from Japan with radiological monitors. It is tantamount to checking goods produced in London with radiation detectors while a local nuclear accident happens in Paris.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/radiation-levels.html
The ordinary value of background radiation from the environment is 0.05 to 0.14 micro-sieverts per hour in Japan, of course, without a nuclear accident.
So, around Tokyo there is no danger of receiving unusual radiation.
CHAPTER III: Death on Silk Road
The atomic or nuclear bomb test is more dangerous than a nuclear reactor accident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhaJ7hcwnI0
Japan is one of major countries in the world that has never conducted a nuclear weapon test.
**** **** ****
To tell the truth, I once lived in Fukushima Prefecture.
There are good people and bad guys everywhere.
But, the God must have another measure with which to choose the place for use in manifesting His will.
I also visited an old big hall in Tokyo whose ceiling fell when the 3/11 M9.0 Earthquake occurred to take lives of two people.
There are good people and bad guys everywhere.
But, the God must have another measure with which to choose the place for use in manifesting His will.
That is why I take the 3/11 Disaster as personally significant.
Yet, I have not strong connection with Sumatra and Haiti. Maybe President Mr. Barack Obama and Former President Mr. Bill Clinton might have, if any.
Rev 4:9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.