RTThu, 30 Jul 2015 11:33 UTC
© www.japantimes.co.jpMieko Okubo holds a photograph of her father-in-law, Fumio Okubo, who committed suicide at the age of 102 in April 2011.
The family of a 102-year-old resident of a village near the crippled Fukushima power plant, who committed suicide due to depression over leaving his home, has sued TEPCO, saying the operator should "know the pains that we as his family have to suffer."
Fumio Okubo was living in the village of Iitate, only 38 km from Fukushima Daiichi, when a massive earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the nuclear plant in March 2011. His village was in an area of moderate contamination.A month later in April, the authorities called for the village to be evacuated, but Okudo was apparently emotionally unable to leave the home where he was born and had lived his entire life.
After learning about the evacuation order on April 22, 2011 via TV, the old farmer told his daughter-in-law Mieko Okubo: "I don't want to evacuate... I think I have lived a bit too long." The next day Mieko found him hanging his room.
Now Mieko, 62, says the 102-year-old's family is suing Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for 60 million yen ($485,000) in compensation."I want them to realize the gravity of what happened. A person who lived to become 102 chose to kill himself. We want them to know the pains that we as his family have to suffer," she said at a press conference in Fukushima, adding that the family "will use this opportunity to speak about our feelings."
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday also says Okubo "was not able to think about living anywhere else" because his "acquaintances, property and purpose of life were all in the village." The 102-year-old, who was married and had eight children, rarely left his native village. Still, he was healthy for his age and moved on his own.
"I wonder what grandpa was thinking about when he tried to hang himself," Mieko told
Japan Times.
"I want others to know there were people who died in such a way due to the nuclear accident."The village of Iitate received a moderate level of radiation following the Fukushima tragedy. Afterwards, almost all of its 5,000 residents had to leave the area.
In 2014, the government promised to lift the evacuation orders for several municipalities and villages, including Iitate, but later postponed the measure due to high levels of radiation remaining in the area.
Comment: Sadly, as indicated, there may have been many other residents that took their lives due to the preventable and ongoing disaster of the nuclear meltdown and devastating tsunami. This is a side of the event we need to acknowledge and contemplate.
Meanwhile, back at
Fukushima Daichi, robots are proving the facility is still to "hot" to handle and the radiation leak continues to spread and contaminate out of control.
3 ex-TEPCO execs to face criminal charges in nuclear crisis
Jul 31, 10:42 AM (ET)
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese judicial committee has decided that three former utility executives should face criminal charges and stand trial for their alleged negligence in the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
A document released Friday showed the committee of independent citizens voted in favor of indicting Tsunehisa Katsumata, 75, who was chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at the time of the crisis, along with then-vice presidents Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takekuro, 69.
The 11-member committee's second decision supporting the indictment overrides Tokyo prosecutors' two earlier decisions to drop the case, forcing the three men to be charged with professional negligence. It will be the first criminal case involving the utility's officials from the nuclear disaster to be tried in court. The prosecutors had cited lack of evidence to prove they could foresee the danger of a tsunami and decided not to file charges in September 2013 and again in January this year.
The committee, in its July 17 decision, alleged that the three men neglected to take sufficient measures even though they were fully aware of the risk of a major tsunami at the Fukushima plant at least two years before the accident. It said they should be charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury during the accident and its aftermath, including the deaths of dozens of senior citizens in a hospital during and after the lengthy evacuation. The decision also blamed the three executives for the injuries suffered by 13 defense officials and TEPCO employees during emergency operations at the plant.
The Tokyo District Court will now choose a team of lawyers to act as prosecutors to formally press charges in court. The court said no details have been decided, including the selection of a prosecution team and other steps expected to take several months before the first trial session.
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Good luck trying to get the corporate govt to investigate itself and prosecute itself... same problem everywhere.