Former power company president on green technologies

 February 21, 2014

Hibakusha: Ex-power company president ponders energy options in post-Fukushima Japan

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20140221p2a00m0na002000c.html

"I thought I had to complete this project for future generations after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami," former Chugoku Electric Power Co. President Shigeo Shirakura recently told me about a research paper he'd been working on. This was the first time I'd seen Shirakura in three and a half years.

The paper is about green technologies, including "clean" coal power generation with denitrification and desulfurization -- something the 78-year-old engineer has been involved in for nearly half a century.

"We need energy, but the Great East Japan Earthquake stopped nuclear power generation. Renewable energy is problematic regarding its quantity and quality. All we have left, therefore, is coal."

What drove Shirakura to finish his paper at the age of 76, even after an operation for valvular heart disease, were his pride as a power company engineer and his childhood memories of World War II.

Shirakura was a fourth-grade student at an elementary school in Kaita, Hiroshima Prefecture, when the atomic bomb hit on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. He was doing his homework with the windows open and saw three U.S. Air Force bombers flying in the blue sky. Just as he thought, "B-29s are here," the young Shirakura was hit with a great flash.

He immediately hid under a table as the blast wave shattered the glass in the windows and tore up tatami mats.

That afternoon, A-bomb victims began pouring into Shirakura's hometown, more than 10 kilometers away from the hypocenter. Among them were schoolgirls who had been mobilized to work in Hiroshima's factories. Their faces were severely burned and they barely had any clothes on. Shirakura's father, who owned a clothing store, cut up cloth he had in stock into large pieces and quickly fashioned them into rough garments so that girls had something to wear. Shirakura remembers helping his father make them.

On the next day, Shirakura went with his mother and elder brother to the Hakushima area of Hiroshima to look for relatives. The city had been reduced to ash.

"We called the bomb 'pikadon' then -- referring onomatopoeically to the flash ('pika') and the blast ('don') of the atomic bomb. I was simply scared. So, I was really relieved when the war ended. It made me realize how wonderful it is to have lights in towns," Shirakura recalled.

Shirakura had been exposed to radiation as he entered the Hakushima district, about two kilometers from the hypocenter. Because of this, he applied for atomic-bomb disease certification three years ago. His application was rejected, however, as the testimonies of Shirakura and his witnesses did not match.

"I didn't apply for certification because I wanted compensation. I did it because I wanted proof that I was there."

Still, he can't help but wonder about the effects of the bomb as his brother died of cancer. He also thinks about the radiation whenever he gets sick.

Being affected by the atomic bombing and radiation, Shirakura understands how Fukushima residents near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant must feel. At the same time, he is aware that most Japanese people never really questioned the country's energy policy before the meltdowns.

"Each of us Japanese people needs to think about the future of the country's energy policy rather than pushing for a 'no nuclear power' policy just because the Fukushima plant accident happened." (By Hidetoo Okazaki, Kyoto Bureau)

February 21, 2014(Mainichi Japan)