Suffering in the Name of Protecting: The Case of the Fukushima Population

Abstract

Major nuclear accidents are rare events causing large and long-lasting medical, environmental, economic, and societal consequences. Urgent mass evacuation and long-term displacement of about 165.000 persons and their long-term resettlement after the 2011 Fukushima-1 accident destabilized Japan. As of March 2020, the official number of displaced persons from their home in Fukushima Prefecture was reduced to 40.335, an action that averted a collective effective dose of about 3,000 man^.Sv. Most of the causalities were elderely volunarable pesons, such as patients with chronic diseases, instititionalized individuals, and very poor persons. However, no early radiation-induced somatic effects to public were reported. This article seeks to compare the benefit of the evacuation/resettlement procedure with its cost. The accident-related death toll in Fukushima Prefecture has to  be differantiated from that due to the earthquaque and the tsunami that trigered the foressen and prevenatble nuclear 2011 accident. Taking into acount the ratio of the direct and the indirect deaths at the Miyagi and  Iwate Prefectures, can be assumed that out the 2.313 indirect life losses in Fukushima registered up at to 2020, only about 165 could be attributed to the eartquake and the tsuami, and few tens due to the radiation induced cancer among the dispaced persons. The mass dispacement resulted in increased incidence of severe somatic effects, mental and psychic disorders, social isolation, insecurity, unemployment, poverty, urbanization, and exploitation. Therefore, the mitigation actions, as designed and implemented, led in a secondary tragedy larger than that due the accident itself, resulting among other things to the death of about 2.100 persons in the name of sparing, in theory, about 150 lives with a latency time of decades