Children in Fukushima city received dosimeters at school in autumn, 2011. Image Source: Japan Resilience System.
A local lawsuit over Japanese children's exposure to Fukushima radioactive fallout has sparked the inception of a curious thing: a global online tribunal. There were signs of this phenomenon in relation to this issue in 2012, but this is a new example. Perhaps this is an Internet first. No Internet cause is complete without its Big Names. And now, the intellectual media celebrity Noam Chomsky has lent his name to the cause of evacuating children from Fukushima. Incidentally, at the Daiichi plant on 1 February 2013, radiation levels measured by the press varied between 3.5 and 1,370 microsieverts per hour (Hat tip: ENE News). Fukushima City's tap water is being bottled and sold, with the label that it is "safe and delicious."
A number of posts at the opaquely pro-alternative-energy news aggregator ENE News have been covering the impact of Fukushima fallout on Japanese children (see related videos of radiation fallout around operating schools below the jump). In this case, the stated prevalence of thyroid damage is staggering:
This report comes from the citizens' lawsuit against the city of Koriyama.... about the actual health condition of the children of Fukushima. On September 11 [2012?], the thyroid examinations found abnormalities such as nodules or cysts in 43% out of the 42,000 children tested. The numbers for girls are worse. 54% of girls from age 6 to 10 had these abnormalities, and 55% for age 11 to 15.
The people behind the 14 child plaintiffs also claim that the government has played down the dangers of Fukushima. They assert that there is a general culture of denial about Fukushima in Japan, since expressing alarm over the accident is perceived as a violation of acceptable social norms and national honour. This is a partial source: the defense's counter-arguments, data and documents are not included on the citizens' lawsuit blog.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs called on "the City of Koriyama to evacuate them so they can receive education in a safe place, with less than 1mSv/year atmospheric radiation." The plaintiffs' lawyer compares evacuation standards in Japan to conditions in Chernobyl and find Chernobyl's to have been more rigorous. Details on the court proceedings are online here and here. Supporting documents include statements on the long-term impact of Chernobyl fallout on children in Belarus. The proceedings have already been dismissed and reached an appeal stage before a higher court:
The non-profit people behind the plaintiffs in the case have set up a curious new Web initiative - a Web court of global citizens - in parallel with proceedings in the conventional Sendai court. The Web court asks Netizens (here - scroll to the bottom of the page to participate in the World Citizens' Tribunal Judgment Form) to declare their support for the plaintiffs. The results of online responses are funneled into an Web-based spreadsheet, which you can see here.On June 24, 2011, 14 children in grade school in Koriyama filed a law suit against the City of Koriyama resorting to the court of law, so-called the “last bastion of human rights”, and demanded their right to study in a safe environment. In a response, the Koriyama District Court dismissed the case on December 16, 2011. This court decision is considered to be a damning violation of human rights. It does nothing but endorses the same violation committed by the national and city governments. As this decision was considered to be completely unacceptable, the plaintiffs of 14 the children, in order to correct what is wrong, filed a formal objection at the end of 2011, which is presently pending before the Sendai High Court.
The form of this 'online tribunal' is in fact merely a glorified blog poll and petition; but the contentiousness and seriousness of the poll topic arguably elevates the symbolic significance of this medium: online poll results are labeled at the plaintiffs' site as a "Jury judgment." The idea is that online responses will on the one hand contrast alleged Japanese government cover-ups about the advisable extent of the evacuation zone and foot-dragging over paid evacuation of those who cannot afford to leave radiated areas - with global expectations about protection of citizens in the event of a local nuclear accident on the other hand.
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