Fukushima on My Mind

For the past several years I’ve averted my eyes from Fukushima.  (Who doesn’t want to make it disappear?)  Then, as the sixth anniversary loomed, I wonder, what could one possibly say?  Hadn’t it all been said?

I ponder – and then make a shocking discovery: In my mind’s eye I’d temporarily misplaced Fukushima.

In fact, I’d moved it!

At some unremembered moment, I’d relocated the nuclear reactors, shifting them from Japan’s east coast to Japan’s west coast.  I’d actually imagined the radioactive elements that are still pouring from the crippled plants as washing towards North and South Korea and thence down toward the coast of China.

We all have tendencies to warp reality to suit our particular preferences.  Members of the grand jury that failed to convict Eric Garner, apparently, did not see the police tackling Garner and choke-holding him to the pavement.  Obama enthusiasts missed his feckless policies in Afghanistan.  Meat-eaters neatly step around the slaughterhouse and lettuce lovers forget the aching back of some underpaid farm hand.

But move Fukushima?  This was full-bore creepy.

Was this a case of succumbing to the near-constant, American drum-beat of propaganda versus North Korea?  Had I unconsciously fixated on a way to undermine Kim Jong-un and his 950,000-strong army? Had I just proved myself deeply racist – preferring to allot harm to the Far East, thereby sparing the US?

Or was this a matter of magical thinking? …

Read more