"The current nuclear phobia in Japan is a direct result of exactly that sort of deception by the government and utilities in Japan."

Says Richard Katz

I don't know why Richard Katz, having fed the nuclear phobia by misquoting the WHO report about Chernobyl, persists in his charge that what people call the "nuclear viillage" (presumed to be people interested only in making money or protecting their backs) are the true villains behind the catastrophe.
The nuclear phobia was not recently been created. It has been there ,not entirely without reason, since it was first created by American bombs, first on Hiroshima and then, for experimental purposes, on Nagasaki. That is why there was so much local opposition to the siting of every nuclear station and the quid pro quo had to be that much greater than in, say, a France or a Korea.

Taking a bet on the once in a thousand years tsunami not arriving, and putting the reserve generators underground were clearly mistakes, but I am prepared to believe that they were honest mistakes in the kind of risk assessment that anybody buildiing infrastructure has to make, not the result of knowing deception.

To charge them with the latter is "blame culture"
scapegoating, in which Rick is joining 95% of the Japanese media.. The officials who ought currently to be attacked are the provincial governors who won't risk their political futures to press for restarting the generators, and the Minshuto politicians and the demoralised officials of Meti who are half-hearted about pressing the governors.

Ronald Dore