Archive for March, 2011

Dolphin Trapped in Flooded Rice Field

A Japanese man talks about his efforts to save a dolphin that had been trapped in a flooded rice field since the March 11th tsunami:

Taira found the dolphin struggling in the shallow seawater on Tuesday and after failing to net it, waded in to the field, which had yet to be sown with rice, to cradle the 1.2-meter (four foot) animal in his arms.

“It was pretty weak by then, which was probably the only reason we could catch it,” he said.

Taira and some friends wrapped the dolphin in wet towels and drove it back to the sea, where they set it free. The dolphin appeared to perk up when it was back in the Pacific, he said.

“I don’t know if it will live, but it’s certainly a lot better than dying in a rice paddy,” Taira told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

[hat tip to kobzster]

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Tokyo Water: Now With 200 bq/l of Radioactive Iodine

N-H-K has just reported that radioactivity readings in the water at Tokyo’s Katsushika purification plant now exceed the legal safety limits for infants.

Yesterday, the reading for radioactive iodine 131 was 210 becquerels per liter. Today it was 190 bq/l.

The legal limit for infants is 100 bq/l. For adults and other children, the legal limit is 300 bq/l.

According to the government, a small amount of the contaminated water is not dangerous, but continued consumption of it could cause health problems.

[Possibly relevant note: It rained yesterday in Tokyo.]

Update: TimeOutTokyo has pointed out that Japan’s standards for iodine-131 in drinking water are much stricter than those of the European Atomic Energy Community and International Atomic Energy Agency. Euroatom recommends a limit of 500 Bq/kg for adults, while the IAEA recommends 3000 Bq/kg.

Update #2: Radiation levels in Tokyo have dropped back to safe levels for infants, but Chiba prefecture has some problems now.

Chiba prefecture, adjacent to the capital, has detected radioactive substances in its water purification system in amounts above what is considered safe for infants (131 becquerels per liter of iodine-131), Kyodo said. On Wednesday, radiation levels in Tokyo’s tap water exceeded a safety level for infants and the government urged residents to not give tap water to children under 12 months old. Earlier on Thursday radiation levels above safety norms for infants were detected in another neighbouring prefecture, Saitama, but Kyodo said some two hours later that they had fallen back again.

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Hideaki Akaiwa: The “Scuba” Hero Who Saved His Family?

English language internet sites are abuzz about the amazing accomplishments of Hideaki Akaiwa, a Japanese man who rescued his wife and mother from the deadly Tohoku tsunami, apparently using a scuba suit in the process. Most sites seem to be linking the dramatic retelling of Akaiwa’s story by the writers at “Badass of the Week.”

It sounds like an amazing story, the kind of story that people in Japan would love to hear. Ever since the earthquake, the Japanese media has been heavily reporting on tales of dramatic rescue and survival. Having seen nothing about Akaiwa on Japanese TV, I searched around the internet for Japanese language articles about him. The only article I could find was a short piece of RocketNews.jp, but it used an English language source. How could the Japanese media possibly miss such an incredible story?

Both “Badass of the Week” and RocketNews.jp cited an article by Mark Magnier, South Asia correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, who was presumably rushed to Japan to help the newspaper provide better coverage of the disaster. Here is are the passages bout Akaiwa’s “scuba gear” rescue efforts:

Hideaki Akaiwa, in Miyagi prefecture, has decided not to wait for rescue workers. With a scuba suit on, he waded through flooded streets to rescue his wife, and later his mother. He continues to look for more survivors.

[...]

Akaiwa said he was at work a few miles away when the tsunami hit, and he rushed back to find his neighborhood inundated with up to 10 feet of water. Not willing to wait until the government or any international organization did, or did not, arrive to rescue his wife of two decades — whom he had met while they were surfing in a local bay — Akaiwa got hold of some scuba gear. He then hit the water, wended his way through the debris and underwater hazards and managed to reach his house, from which he dragged his wife to safety.

“The water felt very cold, dark and scary,” he recalled. “I had to swim about 200 yards to her, which was quite difficult with all the floating wreckage.”

Rick Westhead, a South Asia correspondent for the Toronto Star, also met Akaiwa and wrote a story about his rescue efforts. Westhead’s article makes no mention of scuba gear:

If Hideaki Akaiwa’s wife asks him years from now if he still loves her, he’ll have a ready-made answer: Remember that time I put on a wetsuit, slipped into ice-cold black water, navigated broken glass, downed power lines and splintered timber, and spent days searching for you after the tsunami?

He mentions a wetsuit, which could be used for scuba diving, but it says nothing about Akaiwa being a scuba diver. However, a passage later in the article gives a major clue about why Akaiwa had ready access to a wetsuit:

The avid sportsman — he met his wife 20 years ago surfing in a local bay — he looked emotionally and physically spent.

Akaiwa was a surfer. Surfers often wear wetsuits. Nothing in the article about scuba diving.

Could Westhead write an entire article about Akaiwa without mentioning the highly dramatic use of scuba gear? Why did the journalists not take a photo of the scuba gear?

I really can’t imagine that a journalist would deliberately try to remove novelty and drama from such a story. I can, however, imagine a journalist may have heard about a “wetsuit” and incorrectly associated its use with scuba diving.

It’s possible that Akaiwa really did scuba dive his way though the tsunami, and there’s a chance we could hear all the awesome details about it after the Japanese media discovers this story and does some follow-up reporting. However, I leaning towards the idea that the scuba thing may not be entirely true….

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Tsunami Survivor: Ishinomaki’s Statue of Liberty

Last year, the city of Ishinomaki built a 9-meter-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty as a tourist attraction. When the March 11th, 2011 tsunami hit the area, most buildings were completely destroyed, but the statue survived – cracked and damaged, but still standing upright:

Nikkan Sports has an article about the statue’s survival. Although many residents were apparently not very enthusiastic about the statue before, some are now thinking ahead to the future and want to use the statue as a symbol of the town’s recovery.

Another inanimate survivor was Ishinomaki’s statue of the super hero Kamen Rider:

One of Ishinomaki’s other major tourist attractions, the replica of the warship San Juan Bautista, also survived the tsunami. Like the statue, there are plans to use it as a symbol of recovery.

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About 50% of French Citizens Residing in Japan Have Fled the Country

A few days ago, I posted about an interview on the French news site Liberation.fr, in which Ambassador Philippe Faure said that “about 1,800″ of Japan’s 9,000 French residents remained in the country. As pointed out by readers, that French news article was erroneous: the number referred to the Tokyo area, not all of Japan.

Thomas has informed me via e-mail that Le Figaro has an article up with more accurate numbers about the scale of evacuation:

Selon le décompte du Quai d’Orsay, sur les 9000 Français enregistrés dans les consulats, il n’en restait plus que la moitié dans le pays à la fin de la semaine dernière, dont 2500 à Tokyo et 2000 dans le sud de l’Archipel.

Of the 9,000 French citizens registered with their consulates, about 2,500 remain in Tokyo, while 2,000 remain in other parts of Japan. That’s about 4,500 – roughly 50%.

So, my deep apologies to readers who were offended by the error. It would probably be a good idea for a few French speakers to contact Liberation.fr and demand a correction. The original French news article still contains the erroneous and misleading information about 1,800 citizens remaining “in Japan.”

[hat tip to Arnaud for the Diplomatie.gouv.fr link]

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Taipei Sushi Restaurant Offers Radiation Checks

A sushi restaurant in Taiwan is getting some attention from the media after it bought a Geiger counter to reassure customers about the safety of its food:

“When the disaster struck Japan, our owner was very concerned about the subsequent problems. After we were briefed about the Geiger counter, we purchased it right away. This way our customers can put their minds at ease, and I think it is necessary to safeguard them.”

The restaurant’s owner says offering the gauge is as much about reassurance as checking food. Japanese food offered at the restaurant has already been inspected by authorities, and it does not come from the radiation-affected areas of Japan.

Looks like a clever ploy to get some easy publicity by taking advantage of the media’s radiation obsession.

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