Mayor of Fukushima city in restricted area appeals to world over plight
The mayor of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, a city subject to a government directive for its residents to stay indoors to avoid radioactive fallout from a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has begun appealing to the world over the ''injustice'' of such an instruction.
Speaking in a roughly 11-minute English-subtitled video posted on the video-sharing site Youtube on March 24, Katsunobu Sakurai said the government's directive has made life extremely difficult for local residents.
''Even volunteers and those delivering relief supplies have no choice but to enter (the city) at their own risk,'' said a grim-looking Sakurai, wearing the same sort of protective clothing worn by workers in charge of disaster relief and other emergencies. ''Residents are being forced into starvation.''
The city of Minamisoma is located within a 20-30-kilometer radius of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which is leaking amounts of radioactive material into the air, soil and sea.
While the government has issued a directive for people who live within a 20-km radius of the plant to evacuate, those inside the ring have largely been left to themselves, many of them leaving on their own due to severe disruptions to their daily lives.
Kenichiro Nakata, a Minamisoma resident who made the video, said he wants the world to know that inhumane conditions exist in Japan. ''Residents affected by the disaster don't even know whether they should stay or evacuate,'' he said.
In the video, Sakurai notes that his people have suffered extensive damage from both the tsunami triggered by the earthquake and the subsequent nuclear disaster.
Besides lacking information from the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., as well as manpower and supplies, he said, ''Many residents can't secure any means of transportation'' in the 20-30 km ring.
Sakurai called for more assistance and cooperation, noting that few journalists have ventured into his city and that telephone interviews -- the most common way of contacting residents -- are inadequate for reporting on their plight.
An evacuation directive has been imposed since the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami knocked out power supplies to the nuclear plant's cooling systems and led to massive leaks of radioactive materials, with a directive issued for those living in the ring to stay indoors.
With criticism mounting over the directive for those living in the ring, the government began urging them on March 25 to evacuate voluntarily.
==Kyodo
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