ABC doco

More from ABC's Mark Willacy

"In spite of the fact that the Australian Broadcasting report shamefully addressed only radioactive iodine causing thyroid cancer (as if that was the only threat) -- while totally neglecting the Cesium, Strontium, Plutonium, Tritium and all the other isotopes with their related diseases like leukemia, bone cancer, heart attacks, deformities, etc. -- this was a truly compelling human interest piece that actually allowed my heart to connect with someone who is there and suffering.


"For that purpose, it is exquisite and indispensible."

---Mike Ruppert

The Next Wave

Mark Willacy, ABC, Foreign Correspondent

On a stretch of lonely beach in the heavily contaminated no-go zone surrounding the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, one man is on a hopeless but ceaseless mission. His seven-year-old daughter is the only person unaccounted for after a five story tsunami crushed the nearby town of Okuma in March 2011. The authorities stopped looking for her long ago. Norio Kimura has not and never will.

‘I know it’ll be very hard to find Yuna, but I can’t stop. I’ll only stop when Yuna is found, or when I die.’ NORIO KIMURA, father of missing tsunami victim.

It’s unlikely he’ll find his little girl and yet he trudges on, looking for clues.

In a private children’s hospital well away from the no-go zone, parents are holding on tight to their little sons and daughters hoping doctors won’t find what they’re looking for.

Thyroid cancer.

Tests commissioned by the local authorities have discerned an alarming spike in the incidence of thyroid cancer in Fukushima children and while specialists and experts are reluctant to draw a definitive link between the tumours and the nuclear radiation that erupted from the stricken power station, they’re nonetheless deeply concerned.

“The doctors in Fukushima say that it shouldn’t be coming out so soon, so it can’t be related to the nuclear accident. But that’s very unscientific, and it’s not a reason we can accept.” AKIRA SUGENOYA Former Thyroid Surgeon & Chernobyl Volunteer

From the day the waves came, to the now concluding days of his posting, North Asia Correspondent Mark Willacy has covered every corner of this epic, unfolding drama. Among his reporting some very powerful work for Foreign Correspondent including the award winning ‘The Boy On The Bike’ and 'The Fukushima Syndrome'.

Mark’s book ‘Fukushima’ is also a finalist in this year’s Walkley Awards.

Now he returns a final time to investigate worrying new claims a cancer cluster has developed around the radiation zone and the victims are children.

To watch video GO HERE

Reporter in Japan: I’m stunned by brazen cover-up and lies over effects of Fukushima radiation

An epic, unfolding tragedy — Physician: Response has been ‘unthinkable’

ENENews,

5 November, 2013

Title: Japan – The Next Wave – Foreign Correspondent – ABC
Source: ABC’s Foreign Correspondent
Date: Nov. 5, 2013

Transcript Excerpts

At 1:45 in

Mark Willacy, reporter: I’ve been stunned by the brazen and often clumsy efforts to cover-up and lie about the effects and extent of the radiation damage. […] It’s abundantly clear many aspects of this epic, unfolding tragedy are yet to be written — the nuclear fallout will see to that.

At 9:00 in

Tomoko Koike. mother of 2 and 4 year old in Fukushima Precture: We do not know the real situation. We don’t know whats going on. I can’t trust them. […] My children had never contracted influenza before, even without vaccination. But they contracted it last year. Their vulnerability to illness has increased. [...]

Willacy: Her children have already been screened and cleared in tests run by the Fukushima local government. But a follow up screening here at the private Hirata hospital revealed cysts on the thyroid gland of 4 year old Saki.

Koike: A couple of cysts were found. I was very shocked. I don’t know whether the examination by the prefecture was sloppy, or that she wasn’t examined properly.

At 17:15 in

Dr. Minoru Kamata: It was disclosed that the Fuksuhima health investigation committee was having several secret meetings. I feel the response to this issue has been unthinkable for a democratic nation.

Watch the broadcast here