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Japan should have turned away from nuclear power – says Murakami

Mr. Murakami said Japan, having experienced the trauma of radiation, should have turned away from nuclear power…. those who questioned nuclear power were marginalized as being ‘unrealistic dreamers’,

Murakami Slams Japan’s Nuclear Choice, WSJ JUNE 10, 2011,“……..Accepting an international award given to people whose work helps ”develop cultural, scientific and human values worldwide” from Catalan authorities in Barcelona late Thursday, Mr. Murakami didn’t mince his words. Picking up the International Catalunya Prize (in Catalan), the author described the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi as the second nuclear blow Japan has suffered after the atomic bombings of World War II—and a self-inflicted blow at that, he said, one that should never have happened.

“The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is the second major nuclear detriment that the Japanese people have experienced,” Mr. Murakami said, according to Kyodo News reports. “However, this time it was not a bomb being dropped upon us, but a mistake committed by our very own hands.”

He donated the €80,000 ($117,000) prize accompanying the award to Tohoku relief efforts.

Mr. Murakami said Japan, having experienced the trauma of radiation, should have turned away from nuclear power.

The comments from the man often mentioned as a likely future winner of the Nobel Literature Prize are in line with those made by a number of prominent voices in the arts community.In the week after the disasters, the country’s last Nobel Literature Prize Winner, Kenzaburo Oe, said the country must not “betray the memory of the victims of Hiroshima.” In an interview with France’s Le Monde, he said Japan must face the consequences of using nuclear technology: “The people of Japan, who have been burned by the nuclear fire, must not think of nuclear energy in terms of industrial productivity, they must not try to devise a ‘recipe’ for economic growth from the tragic experience of Hiroshima.”…“Yet, those who questioned nuclear power were marginalized as being ‘unrealistic dreamers’,” he said, according to Kyodo…. http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/06/10/murakami-slams-japan%E2%80%99s-nuclear-choice/

June 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan