Summary of Japanese and American Mis-Representations of the Fukushima Disaster

This is my outlined summary of ways whereby the Japanese and US media misrepresented the Fukushima disaster. I will be providing evidence to support each of the claims made below:

•During the early days of the disaster the Japanese press reported

– That no explosions had occurred

–That no more explosions would occur within hours of more explosions

–That no meltdowns had occurred

–That no radiation had been released

–that the effects of radiation released was too small to affect health

–That contamination was limited to people’s clothes

–That no danger was posed by radioactive iodine in tap water

 

•US news media were even less critical than the Japanese press in reporting Tepco and Japanese government assertions and were unable to acknowledge in print

–that meltdowns had occurred

–that melt-throughs were reported

–that cold shutdown is a fantasy

 

•Japanese, American and other nations’ media all systematically under-represented the scale of radiation releases, their ongoing dynamics, and their probable health effects

–In particular, emphasis on “no immediate effects” and “no acute effects” functioned to mislead the public about severity of releases