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French Embassy to Begin Evacuation of Citizens

The French retreat from Tokyo has begun:

The French government has urged its nationals living in Tokyo to leave the country or head to southern Japan due to the risk of radiation from an earthquake-crippled nuclear power plant to the north of the capital.

The French embassy in Tokyo said in a statement that its advisory applied with immediate effect to those French nationals who were not obliged to remain in the city.

It added that it had asked Air France to mobilise planes currently in Asia to evacuate French citizens, and two were already on their way.

Because there is no indication that dangerous levels of radiation will leak beyond a 30-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant, no other countries seem to be following the French government’s example of organizing special flights to evacuate citizens.

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41 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 16, 2011 at 6:46 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

Mike

It probably started when some embassy flack freaked when he read that Germany was sending in troops!

Bad Wolf

Ha ha!

Mike

Oui oui! The local Uyoku dantai should drive around town with their loudspeakers blaring:
“Attention! Les citoyens de la France: L’armée allemande est là.”

http://tepido.org LB

I have no problems with the French running away. Why? Because the next level in French Threat Management Philosophy after “Flee” is “Collaborate”.

The last thing we need right now is a bunch of Frenchmen running around shaking things or running into the water, jumping up and down and trying to make waves.
toefoo

Mike, You just made my day! My tea went up my nose when I read that! Great comment

Mike

You’re welcome I hope your nose is OK!

Jordan

Morons.
JEDI_BC

Lovely picture. You should make one with all the nationalities wich are leaving Tokyo. Because of course, people who are leaving Tokyo are not only french (easy to verify on twitter).

Two points :
. The french government has not “urged” people to leave Tokyo. It’s juste a proposal for those who has no needs to stay (precautionary principle).
. Yes there are 2 planes of Air France coming to grab french citizens but only for those who ask for it.

By the way, checking intels seems to be too difficult, trolling is so easy…

butakun

You are right. It really is just a suggestion. But I think it should’ve been an order, that way we’d have fewer hysterical expats in Tohoku now.

PP

This picture and some comments are stupid, but that’s true that no other countries organize special flights to evacuate citizens.
As far as I know, the price for Air France flights is very expensive now, and some French people want to leave Japan, like many other European people. So I’m not sure it’s a stupid idea to organize special flights, even if there is no indication that dangerous levels of radiation in Tokyo…
Ken Aston

It’s interesting that the radiation stops at the 30 km mark.

Tony D

That’s why the metric system is superior- it even accounts for radiation scares!
helical

1m beyond 30km, totally safe.
1m short of 30km, a horrible gruesome death awaits you.
THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

I could make a measured and appropriate response, but being immature is more fun: http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/2011/03/french-embassy-in-tokyo.html

Anglophones are not required to take France seriously, because it sure wasn’t the ‘Free French’ and ‘Résistance’ who liberated France, despite what the the average Parisian waiter may wish to believe, but know isn’t so. By the same token and the same war, Eastern Europeans do not need to take Western Europeans seriously at all.

JEDI_BC

To make a response as immature and as stupid as yours :

People are not required to take Anglophones seriously, because it sure wasn’t for the “mass destruction weapons” and the “anti-terrorism fight” that they’ve gone to Irak, despite the fact that the US government tried to convince every one.

Don’t dare give history lessons when yours is not so clean :-p
leon

France was not liberated. That’s just the average westerner point of view about ww2 history.
Though I gotta admit French ‘resistance’ was a joke (and I’m being nice here).
Usa or Great Britain governments didn’t free anyone (well, except the jews).

Robin

Completely politically motivated. It has nothing to do with radiation levels.
jcpb

insert facedesk picture here
zarghev

“Because there is no indication that dangerous levels of radiation will leak beyond a 30-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant”

1) Ok, then why did the US fleet located at 160 kilometers, flee, after measuring an increase of radioactivity? It’s ok for the extremely brave US army to retreat, but it is not ok for civilians with children to head to southern Japan, instead of staying in an area which will be impossible to evacuate? Yes/No?

2) There is no indication either that dangerous levels of radioation will not leak beyond a 30-kilometer radius.
If you look at Chernobyl radiation map, some places located at 200 kilometers have more radioactivity than same places located at 10 kilometers. And yes, they have been evacuated.

http://tepido.org/ LB

1. The wind was blowing their way, as it often does, which is why if you are 30km on the other side there isn’t such an issue.

And “US Fleet” would mean “Navy”, not “Army”. “Extremely brave US Army” borders on an oxymoron. Speaking as an ex-Marine, that is.

2. Chernobyl was spread by a burning cloud of graphite smoke caused by a large and uncontrolled graphite fire within the exposed reactor core. The reactor was running with all control rods pulled and then had an excursion event after the roof blew off the building and the fires started. There is no comparison between what happened at Chernobyl and what is or ever could happen at Fukushima.

zarghev

“The wind was blowing their way, as it often does, which is why if you are 30km on the other side there isn’t such an issue.”

Exactly. And then wind direction changes. Unpredictably.

“There is no comparison between what happened at Chernobyl and what is or ever could happen at Fukushima.”

Indeed Fukushima is not Chernobyl. Hiroshima was not Chernobyl either. There is not one single unique way for radioactive contamination.
The only thing I know is that some of the worst hit areas of Chernobyl are 200 kilometers from the plant. And, unlike Japan, Ukraine is not even a land of typhoons.

Tony D

“Ok, then why did the US fleet located at 160 kilometers, flee, after measuring an increase of radioactivity?”

Detectable radiation is not the same as dangerous radiation. A banana will set off a radiation detector…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

taka

“The Foreign Office has advised Britons to consider leaving Tokyo and north-eastern Japan following Friday’s quake and subsequent radiation fears.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12765593
shogun

The French are leaving? Bye Bye!
DC

Troops did someone say troops? the french will be one of the first to send them first… # wars 1815-1914: France, 5 (# for Germany, 3; # for UK, 10). and where are the french headed back where? why the country in which the majority of their power is … nuclear!
Mike

I don’t think anyone will miss them. Well, that was a bit selfish… I forgot to think of the perfume business! Sacre bleu!! Future news article:

“Tokyo perfume industry group announces major losses as lack of unwashed people slumps sales.”
Richard Gazzo

Waouh, french poodle? so what’s next, Japanese monkey?

Basic racism and trolling in most comments, making fun of people who want to take precautions and not even checking the intel…. that’s fairly disapointing.

well, i guess that nobody here reads french so you didn’t get the statement right at all, maybe some people understand japanese (i hope)?
http://www.ambafrance-jp.org/spip.php?article4583

the reason for this fuzz is very simple: the official french nuclear security agency overgraded the accident at Level 6, which is extremely serious. (but there is no consensus and other countries are arguing between different levels.)
So as a government, they must provide assistance to their nationals, period. But there is no evacution at all, they just offer help to people who wish to go back home.

I will add that the overaction over radiation clouds is easy to understand. People have the freedom to choose if they accept to take 2, 10, 30 , 100 times more radiations than usual or not, whether some autority says “don’t worry, it’s safe”.
Also, nobody can confirm whether the situation will get better or worse in the next couple days, so precaution is not a stupid thing.

By the way, somebody should ask their opinion to the hundreds lining outside shinagawa immigration office for hours to apply for a re-entry permit…weren’t many french there

Cheeseburgers

French poodles are emblematic of France in the same way that Kangaroos would be emblematic of Australia. Or cheeseburgers for America. On the other hand, monkey imagery for Asians is of a wartime propaganda nature which depicts them as de-evolved, savage, and barbaric.

The contexts and intent are not very comparable.

Richard Gazzo

you’re right about “The contexts and intent are not very comparable” but that wasn’t my point neither.

In this very serious situation, it is really useless & bad taste to use that kind of comparisons/picture and just encourage the kind of stupid comments made earlier.

this website is always very sensitive & critic regarding the image of Japan or Japanese people in western or asian media, blogs…
so the least it can do is to apply the same kind of rules when talking about different countries or nationals.

I think we can agree on that ?
manu

“French poodles are emblematic of France”
No, not really. Croissants, the Eiffel Tower, Bistrots are very common and emblematic of France, not some dog.

http://surrealu.blogspot.com claytonian

We demand surrendering croissant imagery!

Nico

Americans stay calm while french and chinese don’t.
The embassy says there is no danger while french embassy there COULD be.
I’m french, and I don’t think that waiting that the danger increases to do something is very clever. Nobody knows how this will evolve, and everybody knows that in case of a quick worsening of the situation, it would become totally impossible to go anywhere from Tokyo.

Mieux vaut prevenir que guérir. Better safre than sorry…

And oh wait… Did you know guys that these nuclear plants were american ? That would explain why your government, through your embassy, would be embarrassed to admit that there is a problem, and, like the japanese, are praying very strong for the end of this nightmare. This would also explain why Obama (you know, the guy who wished a nuclear weapon-free world) didn’t use this crisis to introduce a public debate about the nuclear power, as we are doing in Europe.

And about french people fleeing, some are, like me, staying in Japan, trying to help as much as they can. I didn’t know we were seen as a people who “flees”, but I don’t think this was appropriate in such a situation. What would you think if a french site titled “Americans are too dumb to react”. It would be untrue and irrelevant.
yankdownunder

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo informs U.S. citizens in Japan who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Asia. This assistance will be provided on a reimbursable basis, as required by U.S. law. U.S. citizens who travel on US government-arranged transport will be expected to make their own onward travel plans from the safehaven location. Flights to evacuation points will begin departing Japan on Thursday, March 17. There will be a limited number of seats available on evacuation flights departing from Narita and Haneda airports on March 17. Priority will be given to persons with medical emergencies or severe medical conditions.

Persons interested in departing Japan via USG-chartered transportation should proceed to Narita and Haneda airports or contact the US Department of State and Embassy Japan by sending an e-mail to JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov or by calling 1-202-501-4444. Please provide the following information:

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-warden20110317-02.html

Americans must pay to be evacuated and cannot be evacuated to USA, only to a
safehaven. Such a poor country.
yankdownunder

More than 3,000 Chinese have already been evacuated from Japan’s northeast to Niigata on Japan’s western coast, according to Xinhua News Agency. On Tuesday, Beijing became the first government to organize a mass evacuation of its citizens from the quake-affected area.

So Chinese were first. But they didn’t go back to China. Don’t they want to return to China?
andrew

I think Libyans would find these jokes by americans disgusting.

eh! I not Sure Americans should be making these kind of Jokes considering the people dying in Lybia.
France seems to be one of the only countries pushing for real help there. Americans have been scared (maybe because of their mismanagment from Iraq)to act. Paralysed America.

France is just under pressure politically to act ahead of game re evacuations of its citizens following Tunisia.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

France seems to be one of the only countries pushing for real help there. Americans have been scared (maybe because of their mismanagment from Iraq)to act. Paralysed America.

US military currently has about
- 50,000 fighting in Iraq
- 70,000 fighting in Afghanistan
- 28,000 in Korea and 35,000 in Japan acting as a holding force for DPRK and CCP

- an additional 70,000 forward deployed in Europe

This doesn’t include smaller deployments like MEUs, Haiti, etc. or personnel currently aiding Japan (not all are from within USFJ) which also numbers several thousands.

Like it or not, the United States simply cannot sustain these elevated levels indefinitely. Let alone start occupying various Arab and North African states.
On the other hand, France is just North of Libya — in the same region. How many French soldiers are deployed worldwide ?
We are not a one-stop-shop for Worldwide Police.

On the other hand, France is right next to Libya. They appear to have about 15,000 personnel deployed in active situations. And about 35,000 if you count former states and Germany.
Italy is also right there, in the same region as Libya. And they have about 8,000 personnel deployed.
Nobody in the European Union has room to claim anybody else should be coming to Libya’s aid. They’re on your doorstep, and you have the resources and personnel right there.

andrew

its not about whos going to do the work its about who is holding up UN approval and thus any action.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirkira

Nobody needed UN approval for similar actions in the past — such as Kosovo.
France could’ve pulled the trigger days ago if you wanted to.
In any case, America was shown to be working hard behind the scenes after all.
And I’m happy to see French air power being a (the?) major component enforcing the resolution.
ZZ

As I seem to recall, Kosovo, was a NATO operation. Specifically it met conditions that fall under NATO’s charter and arose as a concern for which NATO was directly suited for. Libya falls outside of NATO’s charter. That said, with modern political and military doctrine teaching that the whole Yugoslavian entanglement was one of the biggest mistake NATO ever made, I think there is a big concern of repeating such an action without a lot of deliberation.

Secondly, France in particular has to be very careful in the area. Between the Algerian conflicts of the past and the general colonial actions in the region, France isn’t the most loved nation in the region. Both the US and France have to be careful with their operations so there is not even a possibility of being misconstrued as trying resume the nation-building or colonialism activities they have done in the past in the region.
http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirkira

Yes, it was NATO, but the point is that France has as much basis to take unilateral action as America does. People always want us to just step in unilaterally and some corners have heavily criticized us for going through UN because it takes time. Well, France / Italy / Germany / Spain / England can act unilaterally themselves. Nobody was stopping them. Outside of Russia and China using it as an excuse to do some bashing in UN — nobody would have cared once the Arab Alliance essentially gave the green light.

Regarding French stigma, America isn’t exactly popular either.
Everyone loves and hates us simultaneously. If we go in, we’re evil. If we don’t, we’re evil. That’s how international rhetoric about these world police actions has always played out. And part of my entire point towards Europeans complaining that America should take action.
As long as there are no boots on the ground (not including the unofficial ones we’ll deny…), I think the nation-building aspect will not become an issue. Rather I expect that when they still struggle, they will say we still aren’t doing enough.
I just hope we don’t arm them — or if we do, it’s with nothing more than standard assault rifles. Arming rebels seems to be a precursor to those rebels turning around and using those same weapons to impose their own despotic government.
What especially interests me is seeing if any of the Arab nations get behind this. UAE has F16s and Mirage2000s while Algeria has Mig29s and Su30s. All of those are a generation ahead of Libya’s Mig25s — and those probably won’t make it off the runway.

Les

(Reuters) –
France recommended its citizens leave the Tokyo region of Japan on
Sunday, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about
the situation at its damaged nuclear plants.

“It seems reasonable to advise those who do not have a particular
reason to stay in the Tokyo region to leave the Kanto (Tokyo) region
for a few days,” a statement on the French embassy website in Japan
said.

“We strongly advise our nationals not to travel to Japan and we
strongly recommend delaying any voyage planned,” it added. (Reporting
by James Regan and Jean-Baptiste Vey)

French Embassy to Begin Evacuation of Citizens

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