Former Japanese PM Nakasone

They were sold on nuclear by those that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and were still a massive military presence in their country.



Well, nuclear weapons certainly "defined the next era" but the "too cheap to meter" promise made when rolling out the US "Reactors-R-US" program was a lie from word one, so that "next era" fizzled away after draining public treasuries and ripping off utility investors of billions of dollars.



"I made sure the public didn't catch on to what I was up to." Is there more that needs to be said?


When asked if he worried about accidents in the May 24th 2011 interview Hakasone responds,


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I'm posting this because earlier tonight I took exception to some people making harsh criticism of the Japanese government/Tepco's handling of the nuclear crisis and I have decided I was wrong to behave as I did.

So, I wanted to do two things: one was to apologize for my comments. They were rude, had no merit and were uncalled for; I apologize.

The second reason for the post was to explain why I reacted that way. This interview is a part of an orchestrated campaign seeking to remove Kan by pronuclear faction within the political, business and bureaucratic establishment. This is being done, I believe, primarily because Kan is trying to move the country away from nuclear power. Most people do not realize how weak the political establishment is in Japan but to understand the way the government functions it is a crucial point to know. The real power lies with the bureaucracy. In most cases this works pretty well since their bureaucrats are an extremely competent, professional class drawn from all strata of society, thereby ensuring that the negative influence of money on policy and society is mitigated to a large degree by values of all economic classes being represented over long periods by highly intelligent people.

In this case, their dedication to an outdated and dangerous policy is, however, not representative of the desires of the people at all. After thinking about my reaction for a bit, I realize that to most observers the nuance I see in the situation is missing and to them, criticism of Kan is a valid act because he represents the current government and that government IS truly responsible for the policies that allowed this travesty to occur.

I would urge those critics, however, to bear in mind the fact that Kan is trying to change the trajectory of the nation in accordance with what most people want done. He is facing incredibly strong opposition, and if possible, I'd hope the critics can take an extra moment to look at events a little more closely and see if there might not be some distinctions worth drawing.

To me, what I see is Kan getting Teabagged on nuclear like Obama was on healthcare. I hope you'll ask yourself if that is something you really want to be a part of.

Nakasone interview: http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105230163.html