Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, deeply apologized for having to cancel the annual Fukushima 2011 commemoration. (Image via DW)

COVID-19 forces Japan to cancel the 2011 tsunami's remembrance

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Sports & Culture
Events & Festivals
Mar 08, 2020
2397
On Friday, the government officials announced that they were forced to cancel an annual ceremony to commemorate the 2011 Fukushima tsunami and nuclear meltdown as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is breaking out on its soil. The decision to postpone the ceremony came just a day after Tokyo and Beijing agreed to postpone the state visit of the President of China, Xi Jinping.

Moreover, Tokyo decided that it will quarantine all Chinese and South Korean (S. Korea) for two weeks on arrival.

Chief Cabinet Secretary and the right-hand man for the Japanese government, Yoshihide Suga, revealed that the Japanese government had considered some alternatives, such as downsizing the event. However, since tackling the COVID-19 is on the top list, Suga said that the government had no other choice but to “give up” on holding the commemoration ceremony.

Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, also apologized for the cancellation. In exchange, the government will hold a minute of silence at 2.46 p.m. on March 11.

Occurred on 11 March 2011, an M9.0 earthquake shook the Tohoku region, causing a tsunami that killed and left 18,500 people missing. The waves of the tsunami also inundated the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and sent its power reactor into meltdown, causing a nuclear crisis in Japan. The crisis was said to be greater than Chernobyl’s.

The nuclear meltdown did not take any lives, but 3,700 people died from the illness due to the radiation or suicide associated with the tragedy.

For the past eight years, families of afflicted by the 2011 Fukushima disaster have been attending the annual event which is televised nationally. The Japanese government already lifted the evacuation order for the region, except for the red-zone areas with high radiation levels.

Source: https://bit.ly/2PW7h4J

Politics , Natural-Disaster , Earthquake , Tsunami , Asia , Japan , Fukushima , Medical , Health , Disease , Pulmonary , Coronavirus , COVID-19 , Shinzo-Abe