Tepco President Offers Bows & Apologies to Angry Evacuees
Masataka Shimizu, president of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), visited Fukushima yesterday and met with and apologized to evacuees. As one might expect, there were few positive reactions:
It was the first visit of its kind, made over a month after the beginning of the nuclear accident. Some evacuees were clearly angry that it took so long for Shimizu to show his face before them. As he got down on his knees and bowed in apology, a shout of “it’s too late to apologize” could be heard coming from somewhere off camera.
From the Mainichi:
At the Big Palette Fukushima convention center in Koriyama, where about 1,650 residents from Tomioka and Kawauchi are taking refuge, President Shimizu crouched down on the floor with both hands and bowed in apology. But residents did not hide their anger, with some saying, “Buy our land” and “Just destroy the nuclear power plant.”
Kazuya Yokota, a 63-year-old unemployed man and one of the evacuees, said, “I wanted him to come here much earlier. My mother in her 90s used to say ‘I wanted to go home’ before dying yesterday due to emotional strain. I’ve cried myself tearless.”
And from the Straits Times:
Tepco has always said, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right.’ Now what is it all right about?’ one elderly woman was shown demanding of him on ATV.
‘Tepco is a murderer,’ charged another evacuee, Kazuya Yokota, 63, who said his 95-year-old mother had died the previous day in the shelter.
‘Eight friends of mine have died in evacuation centres,’ he protested to Mr Shimizu, Jiji Press news agency reported.
Shimizu also met with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato, who was tired of hearing the same old apologies and excuses:
Sato replied, “Compensation must be provided at all cost,” and demanded the firm pay for several kinds of damages, including those caused by rumors.
Regarding the possibility of restarting the nuclear power plant, the governor said it was “impossible under the current situation.”
Sato openly showed emotion when he talked about children who have been forced to evacuate due to the nuclear accident. Sato said about 6,000 children had moved to other prefectures. “How can you understand the feelings of children from the disaster-hit areas? They’ve been scattered across the nation and only want to come home as soon as possible.”
The governor also expressed displeasure about Shimizu’s response to the accident. “Isn’t there a more sincere way to apologize? I don’t want to hear the words ‘unpredictable scale of the tsunami’ ever again,” Sato said.
“[The workers in the nuclear plant] are working harder than the president. They’re the only hope for the residents of this prefecture. I wish their working environment would be improved,” Sato said.
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