City Mayor of Minamisoma, Sakurai said "3 microSV is safe"

Original text from Blog of Koichi Oyama in Minamisoma City 04.07.2012 http://mak55.exblog.jp/16237734/

Archive of his accounts at a conference in June (the hearing of his accident response) 

Q: On 25 March, 26 members of parliament ( the representative was a local legislator) demanded the evacuation of babies, infants and pregnant women from the areas within 30 km from Fukushima Daiichi. Did you cooperate with them? 

A: I didn't agree. 

Q: The other towns and villages which are included in the areas within 30 km issued the evacuation order. Why only Minamisoma didn't do that? 

A: I summoned the city officials on March 20th and told them that we wouldn't issue the evacuation order. 

Q: The chief cabinet secretary instructed a preparation to evacuate from the area within 30 km at 7:40 on March 25th. At what time did you receive the instruction? 

A: After seeing his announcement on TV (from 11), I made a call and told him that the government's recognition of current situation had a gap between the reality, and that I was confused by the instruction.  

Q: With the SOS message you uploaded on Youtube, did you intend to barricade yourselves in Minamisoma? 

A: My intention was to report the actual situation. 

Q: The accident has brought the worst scenario (melt-through). There are risks of vapor explosions and the steam continues to come out. Did you have solid evidence that the accident wouldn't continue to worsen?

A: We (the mayor and the executives) decided not to move the administrative institution to somewhere else as long as there are the people staying in the city. 

Q: Did you do anything to prevent a disaster? 

A: I demanded the government to lift the restriction of the areas within 30 km for a resumption of the project. If you ask me about safety, radiation level in Minamisoma was 3 microSV, which was much lower than Fukushima City. 

(unquote) 

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ 

Safety... so it wasn't the top priority for him. 

At the time, the dose of Minamisoma was measured at the east edge (outside of the city area which is by the Pacific). 

The radiation level was much lower by the sea than the mountain area (where is now designated as specific evacuation recommended area and evacuation scheduled area), however, from the very beginning, the mayor kept saying that the doses were low in Minamisoma. 

I have no idea if it was just like he made a conscious effort to make himself believe it, or because he intended to give the impression that Minamisoma was safe, however, it wasn't only me nor the other city councilors but also the citizens of Minamisoma complained to him about his wrong recognition. 

Radiation dose is high in the west and low in the east. Though the mayor lives in the east area, he shouldn't consider that the doses are uniform all over the city. Some spots marked the radiation level as high as Iidatemura village, that is even higher than Fukushima city. 

The restriction of the areas within 20 km has been removed, and the residents of Kodaka district are anxious about it. 

I introduced a house in one of my recent article which is titled as  "75 microSV at a house". I visited them for the first time, as one of my friend asked me to estimate the doses there. 

The mayor accepted the lift of restriction and had no intention to make the people, especially children evacuate because "the level of radiation is low in Minamisoma" according to him. What he did should be curved in the history and his responsibility should keep being examined. 

Such disregard for human life should not be repeated again. 

Courtesy : Koichi Oyama