Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
So how did a nation located in an extremely active seismic region that was
on the receiving end of two atomic bombs (which killed between 150,000
and 250,000 people) wind up with such a well-entrenched nuclear power
regime? he answer to this question helps explain why wind power develop-
ers in Japan have had such a diicult time penetrating the Japan market.
At the end of World War II, a defeated Japan found itself under the admin-
istrative oversight of the United States. On December 8, 1953, US President
Dwight D.  Eisenhower delivered a speech to an assembly of the United
Nations, which came to be called the “atoms for peace” speech. In his address,
Eisenhower announced a US initiative to “encourage worldwide investigation
into the most efective peacetime uses of issionable material.” 5 As a irst step
toward implementing this vision, the United States deemed it to be of sym-
bolic importance for the peaceful use of atomic energy to be irst promoted
in the nation that had been subject to the horrors of atomic energy used
for military purposes. As US atomic energy Commissioner homas Murray
callously summarized, “construction of such a power plant in a country like
Japan would be a dramatic and Christian gesture which could lift all of us far
above the recollection of the carnage of those cities.” 6
On the Japanese side, there was ardent political support for embracing
a technology which, at the time, held the promise of eventually generating
electricity that would be “too cheap to meter.” 7 he nation already had a pool
of experienced nuclear engineers who had been working on military applica-
tions of atomic energy during the war; 8 therefore, policymakers perceived
the main challenge to implementing this vision to rest with the attenuation
of public opposition.
In February 1955, the irst concrete steps were taken to address this
challenge. Matsutaro Shoriki, the colorful owner of the Yomiuri newspa-
per and founder of the Nippon Television Network, ran for a position in
Japan's Lower House at the urging of political allies. He was elected, and
nine months later appointed minister in charge of nuclear energy. Shoriki
had no previous experience in energy governance but that is not what his
supporters needed from him. He was a media expert and entrepreneur—
a perfect person to lead a campaign to reverse adverse public opinion of
atomic energy. his would be a formidable challenge given that, in 1956,
70% of Japanese perceived nuclear technology to be harmful. 9
Between 1956 and 1958, a masterful PR campaign was executed by
Shoriki and his team. his began with a ceremony at a Shinto shrine in
Tokyo to “purify the atom,” followed by a nationwide road show to promote
the public beneits of atomic energy in eight cities around Japan, includ-
ing Hiroshima—the epicenter of Japan's anti-nuclear movement. he
social manipulation associated with many of the PR events is perhaps best
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