Bravery of the Fukushima 50

'Please dad, come back alive'

Much has been written about the politeness of Japanese society as a virtue saving the nation from a descent into total chaos. In recent days, we have also witnessed the more noble qualities of honour and sacrifice. The Fukushima 50, as those fighting against a reactor meltdown have come to be known, have touched the world.


Made up of nuclear workers, firefighters and soldiers, they are a band of volunteers who, in a sense, represent the bushido code of the samurai, whose seven virtues include courage, honour and loyalty. They are all that stand in the way of a catastrophe, facing almost certain death if they fail.

One control room technician at the plant told a colleague he is willing to die. If it were not so real, it would read like the script of an action movie, with the "50" representing the heroic character who saves the world from the impending doom of an alien invasion or a life-ending meteor.

"My dad went to the nuclear plant. I never heard my mother cry so hard. People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you. Please dad, come back alive," read a tweet by Twitter user @nekkonekonyaa.

Whatever the outcome of the disaster, the names of this mostly anonymous group should be etched forever in the conscience of humanity. About 200 workers are rotated in and out of the site in groups of 50, hoping to minimize their length of radiation exposure.

The daughter of one worker shared an e-mail that read, "My father is still working at the plant -they are running out of food . . . we think conditions are really tough. He says he's accepted his fate . . . much like a death sentence. . . ."

The volunteers take turns eating and sleeping in a decontaminated area about the size of an average living room. Helicopter pilots are also risking their lives dropping water on the plant.

If they do survive, they potentially face a future of leukemia, cataracts and sickness. The workers in 20 or 30 minutes are being exposed to radiation levels that a typical worker at a nuclear facility would accrue over an entire career, David Richardson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, told the BBC.

Sweating in bulky suits that are hot and uncomfortable, they are armed mainly with a sense of duty.

"It makes me cry," one person wrote in a real-time post on Google. Said another: "Superman wishes he had the courage that the 50 at Fukushima have . . . Our prayers are with them. . . ." As are ours.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald





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