Thursday, April 25, 2013

Judgement Day

The judgement on the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial was handed down today.

The case involved school children in Fukushima who were demanding their right to an education in an environment free from radiation.

My documentary 'A2' was submitted as evidence in the case, and I wrote about that HERE. AP reporter Yuri Kageyama wrote a very informative article about the case as the parties involved were awaiting the ruling (article is HERE).

I attended an emergency press conference this evening held by Yanagihara Toshio, the lawyer for the school children.


In a difficult to understand and seemingly contradictory statement, the court ruled AGAINST the children, even while ADMITTING that the children were being exposed to levels of radiation above the government total annual threshold of 1 millisievert.

In its ruling, the court stated that even if the children stopped attending their contaminated schools, they would theoretically still be living in their contaminated homes in the contaminated city.  The court calculated that even without the radiation the children would be exposed to at school, their total annual radiation exposure would still be above 1 millisievert.  Therefore, since their total annual radiation exposure would be above the 1 millisievert threshold even without the radiation exposure at school, the local government can not be held responsible.

In layman's terms: the kids may be in danger, but the local government and schools can't be held accountable.

Mr. Yanagihara, the childen's lawyer, is not giving up.


**************************** April 25th, 2013 UPDATE ***********************

An article has just been published about the court ruling by AP reporter Yuri Kageyama (HERE).

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