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They Are the Best and the Brightest, Right?

TGI-ECT

先輩
6 Jan 2007
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So the situation is very clear to an old geezer like myself.

Three very smart men are told that a tsunami might happen that could cause serious trouble for a nuclear power station and those three very smart men stated that they weren't convinced.

The tsunami happened and this nation is now facing an absolutely horrible situation because of that tsunami those three smart men made the decision could/would not happen.

Somebody decided that some highly respected members of this nation should sit in judgment on those three smart men and decide if those three smart men did anything wrong.

The decision: They Did Not Do Anything Wrong.

Now that summary is a tad on the rough side and not at all in all that fancy legal language I guess those highly respected judges used, and in the wrong language, but we can get back to that later.

Here is one source, from The Japan Times, to start:

Former Tepco executives found not guilty of criminal negligence in Fukushima disaster

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday found three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. not guilty of failing to implement safety measures at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant despite information indicating the risk of a major tsunami.

Former Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79, and former Vice Presidents Sakae Muto, 69, and Ichiro Takekuro, 73, were the only people facing criminal prosecution in the wake of the March 2011 disaster triggered when a massive tsunami caused by an earthquake overwhelmed the reactors at the plant.

All three pleaded not guilty to the charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, arguing that the data available to them beforehand was not reliable.


Let us focus on the very easy to understand, "the data available to them beforehand was not reliable." - - - (You must "Click to expand" to see those words.)

I dig into my archives and find this from March 29th in 2011:

The 40-year-old nuclear complex was built near a quake zone in the Pacific that had produced earthquakes of magnitude 8 or higher four times in the past 400 years — in 1896, 1793, 1677 and then in 1611, Tokyo Electric researchers had come to understand.

Based on that history, Sakai, a senior safety manager at Tokyo Electric, and his research team applied new science to a simple question: What was the chance that an earthquake-generated wave would hit Fukushima? More pressing, what were the odds that it would be larger than the roughly 6-meter (20 feet) wall of water the plant had been designed to handle?

That comes from this special report put out by Reuters:

Special Report: Japan engineers knew tsunami could overrun plant

Now we look at a bit of history:

1933 Sanriku, Japan 1933 Sanriku earthquake
Although little damage was produced from the shock, the tsunami, which was recorded to reach the height of 28.7 metres (94 ft) at Ōfunato, Iwate, caused extensive damage, and destroyed many homes and caused numerous casualties.

1944 Tōnankai, Japan 1944 Tōnankai earthquake
The maximum recorded wave height was 10 meters on the Kumano coast.

1983 Sea of Japan 1983 Sea of Japan earthquake
Footage of the tsunami hitting the fishing harbor of Wajima on Noto Peninsula was broadcast on TV. Waves exceeded 10 meters in some areas.

1993 Okushiri, Hokkaido , Japan 1993 Hokkaido earthquake
However, at Okushiri, a small island near the epicenter, some waves reaching 30 meters struck within two to five minutes of the quake.

And we are informed by some individuals who are charged with dispensing justice and also charged with making sure that the people of Earth understand that this is a nation of laws and of smart humans and a nation where all are held accountable when horrible errors are committed; and those individuals just told the rest of the citizens of this planet that three very smart people in a position to be sure a nuclear power plant was safe from a tsunami were not guilty of a mistake when they decided protection from a maximum height tsunami of six meters was plenty safe enough because they studied all available information before they made that decision and they found nothing to contradict the view that a tsunami over six meters could not happen.
 
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we have a saying "stupid is stupid" very easy to understand
Didn't TEPCO quietly shut down 10 reactors about a month ago?
 
musicisgood, .I trust we are okay with having a difference of opinion and that it won't cause rancor between us.

You see, I do not view the decisions made as being in any way stupid. I think they were decisions made based upon cold, hard facts related to expense, and insurance rates that would be applied if the TEPCO officials were to admit they were building a power plant on a piece of land that could be compromised by any sort of tsunami over six meters high.

It has to be a case of money being applied to an equation that went something like, *Can we get away with this? And will the majority of the shareholders support our decision?*

I believe they knew very well that any part of the Japanese coast that directly fronts the Pacific Ocean could be hit by a tsunami higher than six meters. But there had to be some calculation involved that made them feel they should go ahead and make bets against Mother Nature. Or a God. Or many Gods. Those three executives knew very well what they were doing!

Just like the judges that let them off the hook yesterday.

Those judges also know they are rolling the dice on that decision.

Those judges are gambling that the Japanese people, for starters, won't demand accountability of those judges. They are gambling that they can hide behind the law to keep themselves protected and that the Japanese citizens will be so scared of the law that they will not demand a change.

I mean, the kind of demand that takes people out into the streets. The kind of demand like is now considered quite famous and proper that was done by the people of Sunagawa that stopped the Tachikawa Air Base runway from being extended.

Now you will notice that I alluded directly to "Japanese citizens" above, and that is because we are now living in a new kind of world and now it might be possible for citizens of this planet as a whole to also make demands upon certain of the social elite in Japan to answer a few questions.

Personally, I think that is what is going on here; the social elites in the world of the law are protecting the social elites in the world of money. It is the same style that we can read about in the history books. It has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years. Normally the citizens of a nation allow it to happen without too much fuss. When they have not we then read about something that some smart folks label as revolution. And that is illegal and so I should not push that cart on this highway provided to us by the owners of this website, or the owners of this website could get in trouble.
 
Okey-dokey, I knew I would eventually be able to get this, but I have a slight problem. Or maybe more than a slight problem.

I've never placed one of these on an English-language web site before, so I am not sure how to go about working on a translation for those of you that are not able to read Japanese.

Still, let me get this posted and I'll get to worrying about the other problems after I finish some other work.

This is from the Asahi Judiciary:


EDIT: I better make one note, though, even for the Japanese readers of that page; anything you see underlined has been underlined by the Asahi Judiciary editorial staff.
 
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I could use some help from management here, please.

If I can figure out some way to get a viable English translation of all that fancy legal language in/on that page where the link above leads to, am I legally able to post that translation here?

I confess that my work yesterday after that post went way longer than I was anticipating and I managed a reasonable amount of sleep and might have my wits about me to find a government link to be sure the Asahi Judiciary editorial staff has not altered the official documents; so if I can confirm that is the version that has been released by the government it must be legal to translate it for the general public, yes?
 
No, TGI=ECT, you were spot on, it all came down to money. But I truly would wish those of them in charge of lives had/have some conventional wisdom in their dission (sp) making.
I find your thread quite educating actually.
 
Actually, I was sort of waiting to find out if I am allowed to place a very loose translation here of that legal paper put up from the Asahi legal editor site. I didn't know that the Google software will do that length of document without charging us and was able to copy a translation, but I don't know if I am allowed to place it on JREF.
 
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