Wednesday, January 25, 2012

City Assemblyman in Tokyo to School Children: Don't Be an Egoist, Eat Your School Lunch to Share the Pain of Tohoku

An assemblyman in Itabashi-ku, one of the 23 Special Wards in Tokyo, writes in his official blog that egoism fostered by the post-World War II education system is the root cause of this unscientific, rumor-based hysteria of the parents who want their children not to eat school lunch and instead want them to bring their own lunch boxes and water for fear of internal radiation exposure from contaminated food items used in school lunch.

45-year-old Assemblyman Yoshiyuki Motoyama's main message: "Those of us, who have been spared of the damage from the disaster, must share the pain of Tohoku people."

Japan toward the end of the World War II had a national slogan: All citizens of Japan to die rather than allow surrender - 一億玉砕. Some people seem to want to re-start that campaign.

From the blog post by Yoshiyuki Motoyama, assemblyman from Itabashi-ku, Tokyo on 1/23/2012:

日曜日の「産経抄」にこんな記事がありました。学校給食についてです。

On Sunday column in Sankei Shinbun, there was an article. About school lunch.

戦後スタートした学校給食・・・

School lunch started after the World War II...

当時、貧乏で弁当を持って来られない子どももいたが・・・

Back then, there were children from poor families who couldn't bring bento (lunch box), but...

給食が始まり、みんな一緒に食べられるようになり、そのことでお互いの絆や連帯感が築かれたと書かれていました。

School lunch started, and everyone get to eat together, and that built bonds and sense of solidarity, the article said.


学校給食の教育的意味が、ここにあります。

That's the educational meaning of school lunch, right there.

それが、ここにきて一部の利己主義者によって揺らいでいます。

That is right now being shaken by a handful of egoists.


原発事故以後の放射線問題を絡め・・・

They mix the problem of radiation contamination after the nuclear accident...

食材に含有する放射線に問題があるから、学校給食制度から離脱する自由を認めろ!と言うものです。(弁当や水等持参)

and demand that they be given the freedom to drop out of the school lunch system because there are problems with the radiation in food items. ([They want their children to] bring bento and water to schools.)

正しい科学的根拠を持たずに行政にぶつかって来ます。

They fight the local government without any scientific proof.

これこそが、風評被害拡大の代表事例だと言ってもいいでしょう。

Indeed, this is the epitome of baseless rumor.

我々、被害を免れた国民は、東北の被災者の皆さんの痛みを分かち合うことが大事だと思います。

For us, the citizens of this country who escaped the damage, it is important to share the pain of people in the Tohoku disaster areas.

自分のまわりから不都合を排除すれば、良いのだろうか?

Removing inconvenience around them, is that all they care about?

いつから日本人の中にこう言った利己主義が、芽生えたのだろうか?

When did such egoism take root in the Japanese people?

教育ですね!

I get it, it's education!

He is calling the concerned parents of children in nursery schools, kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools who do not want their children to ingest radioactive materials in food items used in school lunch by bringing lunch boxes and bottled water, and the children themselves, egoists.

This is about half of the post, which reads like a composition by an eighth grader at best. I tried my best, but I probably didn't do a good job of translating it at that level. My blood pressure rose too high to translate the rest of the dribble. Yes, clearly the post-war education system has been a big problem in Japan, as evidenced by this assemblyman.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sadistic teachers are not new,yours have new materials with which to teach.

no6ody said...

The assemblyman from Itabashi-ku, Tokyo should feel free to 'build bonds' by eating whatever radioactive food he'd like other people's kids to eat.

Meanwhile, the 'egoists' can claim they have to eat a restricted, radiation-free diet for health reasons. I'm sure many doctors in Japan would agree with this.

Anonymous said...

> They fight the local government without any scientific proof.

Since it is a fact that the lunches contain radio-rice, we are looking forward to proof that this isn't a problem for young children. Until then we recommend "removing inconvenience".

I lived in Itabashi for a while. It's a great area, but not exactly the most educated of wards, if I may say so. He is 45 years old but sounds like a 75 yo.

Anonymous said...

I noticed an article titled: "Food map: Eat your way around Japan
From Hokkaido to Okinawa, we chart the best of Japan's unique regional cuisine" (http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/eat/japanese-food-mapped-your-guide-best-east-436382?hpt=hp_bn7)

I thought it was part of Japan's ongoing attempt to boost radioactive food sales. I checked the comment shown at the time I read the article and it was someone complaining that another commenter 'trashed' the good article by mentioning radiation: "Wow, Dale, you must have a lot of time on your hands since leaving Sendai. Here's a simple introduction to different foods and places in Japan and you trash it all with a radiation ramble. Please, just post one comment with your information/opinion, and leave it at that, will you? This isn't a political site. Thank you."

See? Mentioning radioactive contamination of foods is 'political'? Should not be mentioned on a website advocating eating foods in Japan.
Kind of sounds like the assertion that people who don't want to eat radioactive waste are 'egoists'. Something is WRONG with you if you object to eating radioactive waste?

Anonymous said...

75-year-olds are much smarter. He is about the level of a 4th grader trying to write something at the level of 8th grader.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 1:22PM, what kind of sick joke is that CNN piece? Maybe it is paid for by the Japanese government, as it wants to register the "Japanese cuisine" as World Heritage. Ugghhh

Greyhawk said...

Is this man Tokyo's Newt Gingrich?

Anonymous said...

"Please, just post one comment with your information/opinion, and leave it at that, will you? This isn't a political site. Thank you."

He is a radio-active, an activist.

Anonymous said...

Solution is easy. Parents should form a group, test the food, find some lawyers and with his written statements and recordings etc, sue him under United Nations laws that guarantee the rights of children.
Hopefully it will start a precedent...

Anonymous said...

Move the City Assemblyman and all his family to Fukushima to "share" the pain. That's fair. Once he does that, for 10 months, THEN he can offer advice. Since he's showing a lack of education about radioactivity, he could then show how much he has learned over the months-if he's still alive.

dunrenard said...

shoot the damn guy! Or lock him up in mental, feeding him plenty radioisotopes everyday to his personal satiety and satisfaction!

Anonymous said...

Not only does he show a lack of education about radioactivity, he basically is stating that he received a less than par education from the post-WWII education system. How did he get elected. Did he use a teleprompter also?

Anonymous said...

Since when is sharing cancer patriotic?

Anonymous said...

Its sad to say but i don't think it realy matters where they eat the food from its all proberbally contaminated there is not much anyone can do. Maybe he is suffering from shock and lost hope its his way of excepting the fact that there all going to die whatever. It must be very scary for them all.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 9:56PM, now now, don't talk like Kyoto University's Koide (he is one of those who want older people to eat more contaminated food to save farmers). There are still clean food items available, the whole western half of Japan is not yet contaminated much (until they start to burn debris in earnest). Farmers in Kyushu have caught on to a great business opportunity, and they are selling vegetables they grow to customers in eastern Japan (except Hokkaido) at a reasonable price.

Anonymous said...

@anon @9:56
Correction, it's 'they're all going to die', not 'there all going to die'

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Move the City Assemblyman and all his family to Fukushima to "share" the pain. That's fair.


Well said! Move all the people who want to 'help' Tohoku right up there to contamination ground zero. Let them eat cake and have THEIR grandchildren tested for thyroid cysts, lumps and cancer.
Meanwhile get those who want to leave Tohoku the hell out of there ASAP.
Gobshites want to keep their traps shut imho.

Anonymous said...

Dulce Et Decorum Est
Pro Patria Mori

Feckless politicians.

Anonymous said...

That kind of idiocy is not a legacy from the postwar school lunch, but from wartime propaganda. The collective spirit worked out so well for Japan that millions died and millions more fled the cities, nearly all of which were reduced to ashes. All for one and one for all...

Anonymous said...

By the way, the assemblyman's blog seems to have a place to post comments. If you have any comments on the content of his blog, by all means oblige him by posting them.

Anonymous said...

oh my...
You allow such a mad bull shit...
Share Pain? Then live at Tepco and work for it AND not stay outside!

Anonymous said...

Only the Japanese and Americans will build nuclear power stations on major fault lines its only a matter of time for a disaster, They had no thoughts for any children and the public while planning and building them. So my thoughts is that anyone that is in that nuclear field from the universities right up to the governments are the egotists and are to blame. We come on this web site to find out the truth what is going on. Is this the start of a doomsday scenario, are things slowly going to get worse

Anonymous said...

put a contract on this bastard.
make an example of him.
power to the people

Anonymous said...

In the Nostradamus prophecies 21/12/2012 is doomsday it is aslo stated that we should know the beginning of the end 2011. Its also said that it starts in asia are we going to have a total meltdown right to the core of the earth we need to know about a total meltdown. Its also said the the goverment will cover it up as long as they can untill everyone goes crazy in the last few days IS THIS THE END because its looking to me like a total meltdown

Anonymous said...

it's a MOX (Plutonium/Uranium mix) meltdown,
but it travels down slowly - it's not going to open a channel through the crust to create a manmade volcano by december - if that's what your implying.
it will take years - probably far more than the fuel will last.

Anonymous said...

This wanker the assembly man should be tied to the reactors and watch him die of radiation sickness.... Fucking idiot, sadly Japan is full of these fuckwits in government and the media spouting delusional crap....

Anonymous said...

The idiots seem to float to the top in every culture.

Anonymous said...

Yeah shit always floats to the top

tokyokids&radiation said...

http://yasaikensa.cloudapp.net/
www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/...att/2r9852000001cexa.pdf
baseless rumors...
do your homework mr motoyama

Evelyn Oliva said...

It seems the MOX is already making people crazy. Sad!

Anonymous said...

Yes let's ALL share the pain and the stupidity of this disaster! The World is a victim to this idiot's rantings. I hope he dies first to show what happens when you're poisoned with radiation!

Anonymous said...

Well these meatheads in charge are still in a dreamworld. Let's just send them to Daiichi to work on a permanent cap to the frikkin mess. Let them share in the pain if they are so big on that. Meanwhile, from what all has been admitted, it looks very much like TEPCO has managed to melt the ENTIRE fuel load at Daiichi, an astounding tonnage of highly radioactive fuel rods, perhaps ten or twenty times the load at Chernobyl. Unfortunately, a disaster of that magnitude is going to be very difficult to ignore much longer. How can the officials ask undamaged people to share in, being extremely dangerous with the plant left exposed. Apparently nobody in Japan has the slightest clue about entombing this site, which should have happened back in March.
For people who think the site will hydro explode, it WON'T. Such explosions only happen in containers. The radioactive steam is bad enough problem. The fuel rods are now in a big slump of corium under the reactors where they will likely stay forever. The whole mess incl. the plutonium out on the surface, needs to be landfilled over immediately to end this horrible episode. That is the only acton worth sharing in.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
oh my...
You allow such a mad [, mad, mad] bull shit...

FIXED IT

Anonymous said...

force assemblyman Motoyama to resign

Anonymous said...

EVERYONE IN JAPAN ARE GUINNIPIGS NOW. Its the perfect MELTDOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE,ITS THE PERFECT PLACE. All the scientists are loving it because its unknown territory, they wont give a dam, no accident has gone as far as this, every detail will be recorded I think this crazy man knows it he will open his trap to loud and will go down in history just for being stupid. If the place dose go bang he will be the first they will lynch when they go crazy , So don’t worry about him. The Russians did the same but they kept it secret. This one is going to be open for us all to watch and no one can do nothing about it, they already been though a nuclear holocaust and survived. Half of them are mutants anyway RADIATION seems to be addictive THE JAPANESE have got big brains probably the best brains in the world but no common sense. THERE IS NOTHING ANY ONE CAN DO. What you see now we must learn and listen. YES its sad to see the innocent like boys and girls involved but now every other country in the world has got to learn form this. Even us talking on here will be recorded. Nuclear is a very good thing, its cheap power it’s the only power but if you take the piss with it on fault lines and earth quake zones then you can see for your self

Anonymous said...

Have the parents tested the school lunches? All foods contain radiation, more so after the disaster than before, but the question is whether or not the radiation levels in school lunches can be assimilated by young human bodies. Where are parents getting radiation-free foods? Importing everything? Lots of questions still floating around. Are my kids eating radioactive school lunches?

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