Nuclear Crisis in Japan: A TEPCO Worker Stay and Fight

Photo of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) nuclear plant.

Source: TODAY, Friday March 18, 2011: JAPAN CRISIS

'We're staying and fighting'

This is a translation of a diary entry on a Mixi account, the Japanese equivalent of Facebook, belonging to 22-year-old Michiko Otsuki, who works at the Fukushima nuclear plant. By yesterday, the March 15 posting had been translated and reproduced on several blogs.

This morning I was forced to evacuate from the power plant and now I'm with my family at my relative's house.
For starters, I'm okay.

"You just need to get somewhere safe ..." is what they said to me when the company car left the facility.

(Tokyo Electric Power Company) TEPCO's really under attack lately ... But it's also TEPCO that isn't running away and is continuing this life-threatening work.

So, please don't criticize them.

As a TEPCO employee and staff of the Fukushima No. 2 reactor, I was at the scene till last night. Even with tsunami warnings going off, even though we couldn't see our feet, we were out at 3am in front of the ocean doing repair work. The machines responsible for cooling are out of commission because of the tsunami but everyone's working frantically.

Everyone's tired and hungry and so tired their feet are dragging but they're still working. If we can't get the cooling systems back online, Dai-ichi (Plant 2) would explode just like Dai-ichi (Plant 1).

TEPCO are the ones who are trying to prevent that. If we'd just abandoned the plant it wouldn't end here.

So, we're staying and fighting.

The tsunami's effects were worse than we could have ever expected. If it'd just been the earthquake, Dai-ichi wouldn't have exploded.

People are working without a second thought about their lives.

There's a lot of rumours going around but if you're outside the evacuation zone there really isn't much chance of your health being effected.

The only people whose health is at risk are the workers inside the plant. They're going without sleep, without food.

Don't be swayed by all the rumours if you're outside of the evacuation zone.

My boyfriend has been doing night work at the plant the whole time.

Right now all I can do is pray that everyone's okay.

TEPCO isn't running away.

People who can't contact their families are still working.

Please don't forget about them.

If only one more person knows about them from this blog, it will be enough.

All of us at the plant are still fighting.

I'm sorry that we've made everyone in Japan anxious.

I know what may come of it but I'm including my name.

There are people working at the plant now who would give their lives to protect everyone.

That's what the situation is now, but seeing everyone putting their lives at risk and working together to bring the cooling systems back online, I'm proud to be a TEPCO employees and staffer at Dai-ni.

I hope I can go back to the plant to work soon.

Thimbuktu blog to express:

Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong conveyed this in a message written on Saturday afternoon at the Japanese Embassy, in the condolence book for the March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami.

His message read: "Deepest condolences to the government and people of Japan, and especially the victims and their families, from the government and people of Singapore. We stand in solidarity and support with you. May you recover and rebuild your homes, lives, and country".

The natural disaster on 11 March, 2011 in Japan brought a powerful tsunami caused havoc to people, creature big and small, properties, vehicles, boats and ships closed to the shore was fearful and scary. The destruction by "God's Fury" at the helpless of Man when it happened within 30 minutes.

Different and beyond unpredictable, unplanned circumstances at different places, different times but the same human sorrows, pain and sufferings to Man.

The article by Michiko Otsuki in Mixi (Japanese equivalent to Facebook) reminds the unfortunate, grief-stricken outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during the 2003 in Singapore.

Dr Alexandre Chao Kwang Howe, Vascular Surgeon was infected while working in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He passed away as one of the heroes in the SARS crisis who sacrificed their lives as healthcare workers in the fight against SARS.

While Japan is racing to gain control of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plan here and international nuclear and atomic experts on radioactivity danger save the world.

No one country and one place on this planet is isolated. We only have one earth and we all belong to ONE WORLD, sharing the same open space in air without territories.

Save Japan. Save the World!