Charming optimism, as a Japanese non-profit group plans for bunkers for the community to be OK in a nuclear war.

2 NPO pushes nuclear bunkers in Japan amid growing security threats

TSUKUBA

Amid growing security concerns over Russia’s nuclear threat and North Korea’s missile ambitions, a nonprofit organization in Japan has built a model nuclear shelter near Tokyo to raise awareness and encourage people to consider digging a doomsday bunker of their own.

While not yet open to the public, the underground concrete structure opened on May 10 in a parking lot opposite the Japan Nuclear Shelter Association’s office in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. It has already hosted about 40 tours by construction professionals, national and local politicians, government agencies and the media.

The association says it aims to see shelters built in Japan to established standards. Interest in its activities has exploded last year, it said, with its membership rising from just two companies to around 30 in over a year.

“We were thinking about building this even before the (Russian) invasion of Ukraine, but decided we really had to from spring last year,” said director Takahiro Kawashima.

The facility is built to specifications from Switzerland, where 1960s legislation at the height of the Cold War required shelters be made available to all citizens.

The structure can withstand a blast like the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, provided it is just under a kilometer or more from the explosion’s center, according to the association.

It says the underground shelter can house a family of four adults, three children and one pet for a maximum of two weeks. While the entire space is about 48 square meters, its living area is around 25.6 square meters……………………………….

it remains unclear how much a system like the one the association is showcasing would cost if it became a national standard.

Construction of the model shelter came in at a total of around 40 million yen ($277,000) to build and outfit but the organization maintains that a more standard price would be around 20 to 30 million yen per unit, not inclusive of the land on which it is constructed…… https://japantoday.com/category/national/npo-pushes-nuke-bunkers-in-japan-amid-growing-security-threats

July 3, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, weapons and war

3 Comments »

In the 1950’s my father resisted building a bomb or “fallout shelter.” He said that surviving the blast or the fallout, would just delay a slow, agonizing death from radiation sickness and/or cancer. So even though neighbors accussed him of being a “communist,” or a Russian lover,” and “unpatriotic,” even though he was an Army veteran who served in World War II. He said if you see or feel the blast, kiss your ass good bye. A limited, partial or full on thermonuclear war, the living will envy the dead. There are no winners in a nuclear war. We are all “cremated equally,” in the end.

Comment by Paul Robert Roden | July 3, 2023 | Reply
When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, my father resisted building a bomb shelter or “fallout shelter,” and despite being an Army Veteran of World War II, he was called “unpatriotic,” a “communist,” a “Russian lover,” and a disloyal. He said to his critics, that in the event of a nuclear attack, just lean over and kiss your ass goodbye. There are no winners in a nuclear war. Any survivers would envy the dead, as they start dying a slow, agonizing death from radiation sickness and eventually cancer. Both Putin and Biden will prove once and for all time, that we are all cremated equally.

Comment by paulrodenlearning | July 4, 2023 | Reply
- to paulrodenlearning. Not a lot of comfort – should we all go together, that Putin and Biden will go too. But perhaps they will emerge from very deep underground bunkers, to a radioactive world with no food or clean water – that could be a worse fate?
  
  Comment by Christina Macpherson | July 4, 2023 | Reply

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