Kiwiblog

This is amazing footage, from the Daily Telegraph:

The footage shows the devastation wrought to the fishing community of Kesennuma by a 33ft tsunami triggered by Japan’s strongest ever earthquake.

The port, around 300 miles north-east of Tokyo and formerly home to 74,000 people, was left in ruins after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck on on 11 March 2011.

You really need to watch this. At first things don’t look too bad as the first wave hits and a few cars start floating away. But as the water volume increase and increases it turns into an unstoppable force which rips buildings apart.

This is a guest post by Cole Cameron. Cole, 27, has been living on Tokyo for the last five years. He is a previous Hawke’s Bay and East Coast resident.

MEDIA AND COMMENTARTORS CAUSING A ‘PR’ NIGHTMARE FOR FOREGNERS IN JAPAN

16 March 2011 – Tokyo, Japan – I guess if people hear something often enough they will start to believe it. The international media community are causing a public relations nightmare for foreigners living in quake hit Japan. It would seem that the most exciting images and stories of the quake and devastation which struck the nation last Friday are on a continuous loop. After all, normal people doing normal things doesn’t sell papers!

This is causing major headaches for foreigners in Japan having to dedicate time to calming friends and family back home. It would seem that the images and messages being broadcast by the media are contradictory to what we are telling our friends and family.

It is disappointing to see that the media have given up in some cases on dedicating their air time to the ‘actual’ and have focused their attention to filling any information vacuums with the ‘potential’. This specifically applies to the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. A huge list of ‘experts’ have been contacted and are offering academic and theory based opinions on the subject. In times like this it is difficult for anxious people the world over to filter information and often mistake opinion for fact.

Moreover, in many corners of the world the issue of nuclear energy is controversial. I note the nuclear debate in New Zealand has taken on a new lease of life. My question is whether it is important that this debate is needed to be had right at the moment? Is it possible for it to be postponed until say the week after next? For a lot of people again it is difficult to filter this commentary and debate from the facts of the actual situation here in Japan.

I noted in the Christchurch earthquake and similarly with this Japan situation that these crises pose a prime platform for many debates to be returned to the forefront. The urgency to try and have robust discussion about such issues and for commentators to gather mileage on the subject is concerning. This to me often suggests an element of parochialism and a disrespect and/or misunderstanding for the actual situation unfolding.

It needs to be made clear that the quake and tsunami damage is localised largely to the east coast of the northern part of Honshu Island around the city of Sendai. Most of the rest of Japan is in a state of “business as usual.” The whole nation is not crumbling as some media outlets would lead their audience to believe. My advice for people with friends and family in Japan is to take the word of their loved one in Japan as the most accurate. If the advice is not to panic or worry, then that is most probably the truth.

Many Japanese people are perplexed as to why the rest of the world is panicking so much? Some are beginning to second guess the information sources locally and are wondering whether the rest of the world knows something we don’t.

Many of the foreign community are uploading and encouraging others to change their Facebook profile pictures to the poster used by the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War. It simply says “keep calm and carry on.”

If Sea Shepherd has any remaining supporters, perhaps this might make them reconsider. Paul Watson posted on Facebook how the tsunami is the fearful wrath of Neptune. Or in other words, how the Japanese deserved to die in the tsunami because they hunt whales.

Tsunami

Neptune’s voice rolled like thunder thru the sky
Angrily he smote the deep seabed floor
From the shore echoed mankind’s mournful cry
……The sea rose up and struck fast for the shore

From out of the East with the rising sun
The seas fearful wrath burst upon the land
With little time to prepare or to run
Against a power no human can stand

Its just as disgusting as the moron who blamed the Christchurch earthquake on gay ski week. Except the latter was an anonymous nobody while the former was said by the head of Sea Shepherd.

The nuclear crisis in Japan is nor ranked a six on the International Nuclear Event Scale. This is a logarithmic scale, where each level is around 10 times worse than the level below.

Their levels are:

1. Anomaly
2. Incident
3. Serious Incident
4. Accident With Local Consequences
5. Accident With Wider Consequences
6. Serious Accident
7. Major Accident

Initially the situation in Japan was a two, and then a four. It is now just one off the most serious – which has only been Chernobyl to date. Three Mile Island was a five.

Level six impact is described as “Significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures”. Level seven is “Major release of radio­active ­material with widespread health and environmental effects r­equiring implementation of planned and extended ­countermeasures”.

Hopefully the worst outcome can be avoided.

AP reports:

An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor yesterday, amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of northeastern Japan officials are searching for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The confirmed death toll from Friday’s twin disasters was 686, but the government’s chief spokesman said it could climb enormously

AFP is reporting that 9,500 people are unaccounted for in one town alone, Minamisoma. …

The scale of destruction was not yet known, but there were grim signs that the death toll could soar. One report said four whole trains had disappeared Friday and still not been located. Others said 9,500 people in one coastal town were unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

Who knows when it will end. I must say that over the last coupel of days I am glad NZ is nuclear free. I know the reacter hasn’t actually leaked, but still nuclear reactors on fire is a problem you can do without in a disaster.

Of course in some countries nuclear power is a necessity – they don’t have our access to hydropower and the like.

Despite the scale of the tragedy, Japan is well used to disasters like these. Was interesting to listen to a TVNZ report with Kiwi Cole Cameron in Japan. The majority of people are just carrying on with business.

It seems there is little loss of life from the earthquake itself despite being a massive 8.9. The tsunami is what has been so lethal.

What can one say. The video and the photos show Mother Nature as a force beyond our ability to withstand. Planes and cars get scattered and end up kms inland.

The death toll is provisionally around 1,000 but I think anyone who has watched that video coverage would share my fears it will be far more than that.

I read on Wikipedia that Japan has requested USAR teams from Australia, NZ, South Korea and the US. Sort of glad that we can do something to assist, after we got assistance in turn.

John Armstrong reports:

New Zealand ministers have their fingers crossed that a poll of the Japanese public will back Tokyo’s plans to join a Pacific-wide free trade agreement.

The Japanese Cabinet formally approved a new trade policy on Tuesday which will see Japan “gathering further information” before “initiating consultations” with the nine-member Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which includes New Zealand and the United States.

Despite the cautionary tone of that statement, Trade Minister Tim Groser last night described the Cabinet’s position as the most significant development in Japanese trade policy in the last 25 years. …

Japan’s highly-inefficient farmers have long been sheltered behind high tariff walls, effectively blocking foreign exports, particularly rice and dairy products.

However, big business in Japan is firmly behind the Government amidst feelings that Japan risks falling behind the play unless it secures more free trade deals to safeguard its industrial exports.

A poll in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper had more than 60 per cent of respondents favouring Japan joining the TPP and only 18 per cent against.

This would be amazing if Japan agreed to an FTA which includes agriculture.

The EU may remain the last bastion of protectionism at this rate!

The Herald reports:

Father-and-son anti-whaling protesters from Auckland clashed with right-wing Japanese yesterday outside the court where Pete Bethune is being tried. …

Gary Thomason and his son Robert, from Auckland, were moved away by Japanese authorities.

They told the Herald they had gone to Japan to show solidarity for Bethune.

Gary Thomason said: “It’s a personal issue for New Zealanders; New Zealand prides itself on its environment and wildlife and respect for other countries and traditions.”

Ummm if one had respect for other countries and traditions, then one would support the tradition of Japan to hunt and eat whale meat.

I’m not arguing for whaling. I’m just pointing out the contradiction in the statement.

Personally I’m supportive of protests against Japanese whaling, from the likes of Greenpeace as they don’t blow up ships and throw acid at people. I only become more supportive of the Japanese whalers when Sea Shepherd is involved.

Bethune boarded the whaling vessel the Shonan Maru 2 in February. He has admitted trespass, possessing a weapon, damage to property and obstructing commercial activity – charges which carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

But it is believed the prosecution is seeking only 2 to three years.

I don’t know the Japanese criminal code, but to my mind the four charges above are all pretty minor, and none which should attract jail time. Yes I know Bethune brought it on himself, but boarding a ship without permission and cutting a net are hardly the crimes of the century.

If this is all he is convicted of, then he should just be sentenced to time served and booted out.

He denied a charge of assault, saying rancid butter stinkbombs he threw at Japanese ships were no more acidic than orange juice.

Prosecutors told the court a rancid butter, or butyric acid, stinkbomb caused chemical burns to the face of a 24-year-old Japanese crew member during a February 11 clash and also hurt the eyes of other whalers.

This is the more serious charge, as it actually involved violence and personal harm. And again Sea Shepherd have a long history of violence – blowing up ships and ramming ships etc.

Butyric acid is not like nitric acid – it is a fairly mild acid. But it does cause nausea and can do damage. The Sea Shepherd protesters do not throw it at boats, but at people. It is clearly assault, and if Bethune is found guilty on this charge, there should be enough of a punishment to be a deterrent.

But this I don’t mean years in jail, or even lots of months. Again I have no idea of what the Japanese norm is for sentencing, but I would have thought less than six months is appropriate.

Of course Bethune would have got away with throwing the acid bombs, if he had not chosen to board the Japanese ship. They did not invade the SS boats and grab him off there. He boarded their ship, in the full knowledge he would be arrested and put on trial. He wanted the trial as a publicity stunt.

Herald story is here.

My take:

Japanese Whalers Bad

Sea Shepherd Mad

Audrey Young covers the lighter side:

You’ve got to wonder how much time John Key spends thinking up stunts. Not much I suspect. He just has an eye for a opportunity.

He pulled one last night on Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama just before the two sets of First Couples were about to head into dinner.

Key pulled out a silver fern pin and proceeded to  pin onto his host’s suit lapel. You have to admire it.

There was no question like ‘’would you like this?” It was just out with it and here, this is what you are wearing.  It went down well.

He might be lucky the Japanese PM’s bodyguards didn’t intervene.

And such was the occasion and glare of the photo press corp cameras it would have been churlish of the new PM to say No.  Even better for the snappers, Mrs Hatoyama took over and started pinning it on her husband’s lapel.

Afterwards, the Japan press corp  wanted to know what the silver fern was and what it meant.

Key really doesn’t need a media team!

It was a bit like the idea Key had to take a loaf of Vogel’s bread that Key took to Helen Clark in New York  – just like the New Zealand TV ads).

The slight drawback on that stunt  was that Clark’s people would not allow pictures of the loaf being handed over though there was no objection to him actually telling people he had done so.

I can’t believe they had to negotiate over the bread!

The two leaders last night exchanged rugby jerseys and balls signed by their sides and Key let it slip to reporters  back at his hotel that Mrs Hatoyama had tried on the All Blacks jersey at dinner and wanted to meet Dan Carter on the say-so of Mrs Key.

They should have brought a Jockey billboard over!

Audrey also has an article on the more serious side:

Japan has effectively wiped the slate clean on past agreements by the two countries on a free trade agreement and signalled it is serious about achieving results.

After talks in Tokyo last night, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Japan’s new Prime minister Yukio Hatoyama asked officials to go back to the drawing board.

A previous agreement to study a free trade deal stalled under past Tokyo governments, with Japanese officials being blamed.

In a joint statement issued last night, the leaders indicated that such stonewalling had to stop – they said they had “instructed the [officials] group to deepen discussions in a constructive manner so as to take the partnership forward”.

Now this is just a very early step, but a hell of a promising one. Reducing barriers with Japan would be as important as an US FTA.

The Herald reports:

The left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 or more of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to exit polls by all major Japanese TV networks.

The ousted Liberal Democrats have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955.

Hopefully the end of LDP monopoly on power will be good for the LDP in reforming itself.

The headline says it all.

Hands up if you believe him. I don’t.