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Three years ago this month, our next guest, Navy Lieutenant Steve Simmons was stationed
aboard the USSRonald Reagan off the coast of Japan. The aircraft carrier provided humanitarian
assistance in the days after the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's
northeast coast. Simmons, along with thousands of other emergency responders on the USS Reagan,
were diverted from their naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean and steered to Japan's decimated
coastline to distribute food parcels, clothes and blankets to victims. At the time, they
were unaware they were entering into an unprecedented nuclear crisis: a triple meltdown at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power station. Shortly after returning home, Steve Simmons
blacked out while driving. Then he began regularly experiencing gastrointestinal problems and
soaring fevers. Within months, Simmons' legs buckled. He was no longer able to walk. He's
one of many first responders who say they have experienced devastating health ailments
since returning from Japan, health ailments ranging from leukemia to blindness, to infertility,
to birth defects. Simmons is now part of a class action lawsuit
against the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, that accuses the
utility of failing to disclose the risks of radiation exposure. Navy sailor Lindsay Cooper
and marine Mathew Bradley are also part of the lawsuit.
This degenerative disease in my lower back, and I have no family history of it. And I
have no accident that could have caused it. And I have some digestion problems, as well,
and stomach pain, as well. Right now I have a lot of weight issues and
thyroid issues, issues that I didn't have before I came in and then issues that I didn't
have after I had my child. But I'm just—I personally can't afford to go to a doctor
and get checked out, like the others can. I'm kind of almost nervous, if you want to
say—I'm really nervous to find out what's going to happen.
That was Lindsay Cooper and Mathew Bradley speaking to the Ecological Options Network.
Now, recently obtained phone conversations suggest the U.S. Navy was also aware of the
risk faced by sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responding to the Fukushima disaster. The
conversations, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, feature naval officials
who acknowledge that even while a hundred miles away from Fukushima, the carrier was
exposed to levels of radiation that were 30 times greater than normal.
The transcript also contains discussion of health impacts that could come within a matter
of 10 hours of exposure, including thyroid problems. However, the Navy leadership continues
to deny sailors were exposed to harmful levels of radiation, even though those aboard were
later told to scrub the ship and equipment in protective suits.
Democracy Now! invited a member of the Navy to join us on the show, but they declined.
However, Lieutenant Greg Raelson of the Navy's Office did speak to us briefly, saying service
members who participated in Operation Tomodachi, the Fukushima relief effort, were not at risk
of radiation poisoning. There's no indication that any U.S. personnel
supporting Operation Tomodachi experienced radiation exposure at levels associated with
the occurrence of long-term health effects. The tri-service dose assessment and registry
working group studied the available data. And their report, which was peer-reviewed
by a non-government counsel of subject matter experts, determined that the highest whole-body
dose to any crew member doesn't present any risk greater than normally accepted during
everyday life. Well, for more, we are joined now by three
guests. In Washington, D.C., Lieutenant Steve Simmons
is with us, the U.S. Navy sailor who served on board the USS Ronald Reagan, participating
in the class action lawsuit against TEPCO. This April, Simmons will "medically retire"
from the military. In San Francisco, California, we're joined
by one of his attorneys, Charles Bonner, who is representing the class action lawsuit.
And via Democracy Now! video stream from Yokohama, Japan, we're joined by Kyle Cleveland, sociology
professor and associate director for the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University's
Japan campus in Tokyo. Cleveland's recent article in The Asia-Pacific Journal is called
"Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty." In
it, he published transcripts of the Navy's phone conversations about Fukushima that took
place back in March of 2011, three years ago at the time of the disaster.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Let's go first to Lieutenant Steve Simmons, the
U.S. Navy sailor who participated in the Fukushima relief efforts. Can you talk, Lieutenant Simmons,
about what happened on March 11th, 2011, three years ago? Where were you, and what were you
called to do? Well, after—after the earthquake and tsunami
that devastated the shores of Japan, we—the Ronald Reagan had already been on a scheduled
deployment, and following that earthquake and tsunami, we were called away from our
exercise there in the Pacific to provide humanitarian assistance to the citizens of Japan.
And what happened next? We arrived on, if I remember correctly, the
12th of March, so the following day, which had been after the first reactor had already
melted down. And the understanding of everybody on board was that there was no health risk,
no dangers, as far as the radiation exposure goes. At one point, we had actually sat in
the plume off the reactor for approximately five hours. And another time, we actually
had to secure the water system, because we actually had brought contaminants up into
the water. How close were you to it?
Honestly, at this point, I hear conflicting stories each time. I know the—I've seen
photos where you can clearly see the mountains of Japan right there in the background. So,
if I remember correctly, the human eye can only see about 17 miles on the horizon, so
you're clearly within visible distance. But then there's also reports that we were no
closer than 160 miles. So, at this point, which one's accurate, I'm not exactly—you
know, I would have to believe the photos. : Lieutenant Simmons, at the time, you weren't
aware that you were being exposed to any radiation. When did you start feeling the impact on your
health? And what are some of the things that have happened since?
It wasn't until November of 2011. We returned in September. At the end of November, I had
started noticing something was wrong. The first thing was—I was actually driving into
work. I was driving down Route 50 heading into Arlington, and I blacked out and drove
my truck up on a curb. Following that, I started coming down with what maybe I thought was
just maybe a flu, started running fevers. I dropped about 20 to 25 pounds unexpectedly
and then started experiencing night sweats, difficulty sleeping, and had been back and
forth to the doctor numerous times for lab work and other studies to try to figure out
what's been going on. And from January to March of 2012, I had been hospitalized tree
different times. The first hospitalization, they couldn't figure
anything out. The only thing they supposedly came up with was a sinus infection, and just
kind of blew off the thought that radiation had anything to do with it. In fact, the intern
told me that if it was radiation, I had—I should have seen symptoms long before now.
Three days later, after I was discharged, I was back in the hospital because my lymph
nodes started swelling, and still running constant fevers as high as 102.9.
During the second hospitalization is when I was actually just coming out of the restroom,
and my legs buckled on me. And at that point—from that point on, they hadn't been the same.
It had been—it's probably about April time frame when I started using a wheelchair for
long distances. And then, by the summer of '12, I had to start using a wheelchair full-time.
Every time I would try to stand or do anything, my legs would shake and muscles start twitching.
And it just progressed from there, and now the muscle weakness affects my legs, my arms,
my hands. And now everything is still progressing, and there's now issues with signals going
from the brain to bladder, as well. So that's another issue that I'm dealing with now.
You're sitting in a wheelchair right now? I am.
We also wanted to bring Charles Bonner into the conversation from San Francisco. Charles
Bonner, can you talk about the other people who are part of this class action suit? How
did you find out about them? What are the ailments they are experiencing?
Yes, thank you very much, Amy, for having me on your show.
We initially started out with only eight plaintiffs, eight people who had contacted us as of December
of 2012. By June of 2013, we had 51 sailors and marines who had contacted us with various
illnesses, including thyroid cancers, testicular cancers, brain cancers, unusual uterine problems,
excessive uterine bleeding, all kinds of gynecological problems, problems that you do not see in
a population of 20-year-olds, 22-year-olds, 23-year-olds, even 35-year-olds, as is Lieutenant
Simmons, his age. So, now we have filed a class action for approximately a hundred sailors.
And every day we're still receiving calls from sailors with these various problems.
Just a couple of days ago, I received a call from a father whose son now has lung cancer.
The total number of sailors who responded to this Operation Tomodachi—"tomodachi"
is a Japanese word meaning "friend," so this was an operation helping our friends—the
total number of U.S. sailors who responded was approximately 24,000. But there were a
total of 70,000 U.S. servicemen and women who ultimately were first responders, and
that include servicemen and women who were based in Japan.
So we have filed this class action lawsuit on behalf of all of them, because one thing
is very clear: They all were exposed to radiation. We can debate the level of radiation, and
we are not suing the Navy, and we are not accusing the Navy of having done anything
improper. Of course, no one in the Navy would knowingly expose these young sailors and marines
to high levels of radiation, radiations that one commander measured at 30 times normal,
and 30 times more than what TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, represented to the
public and to the U.S. Navy. The responsible party for these young sailors' injury is the
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the fourth-largest power company in the world.
Tokyo Electric Power Company failed to tell the public, including the Navy, that they
were in an active meltdown. They had a triple meltdown following the earthquake and the
tsunami. They didn't have batteries. They didn't have backup power. They didn't have
any kind of auxiliary water supply to cool these reactors down. They actually called
to the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company for the power company to dispatch
batteries to them, and they did, but the trucks carrying the batteries got mired into traffic
because of the tsunami. So, meanwhile, you had these managers frantically in the dark
trying to figure out what to do. They sent their workers out into the dark to get car
batteries, so these workers, in the storm, raising their hoods, extracting car batteries,
going back in with flashlights, trying to figure out how to connect the batteries to
the water supply so that they can cool the reactors.
Meanwhile, these young sailors on board the USS Ronald Reagan are cruising into this unknown.
They do not know all of this disaster is occurring. But more importantly, TEPCO does not tell
them that they are in an active meltdown, that the reactor number one has melted down
within four hours following the earthquake, and there have been all kinds of explosions.
Major releases are happening. There's radioactive releases, including 300 tons of radioactive
water is being released into the Pacific Ocean. And as Mr. Simmons will tell you, these young
sailors were using this desalinated water. They were bathing in it. They were brushing
their teeth with it. They were cooking with it. And so, they were ingesting this radiation
both through food and water, as well as the air. And now they're all sick. And so, we
have to put the sailors first. This is Operation Tomodachi; now it's operation help our friends,
the U.S. sailors and young marines. They have all kinds of problems.
I'd like to just take one second and read you just a paragraph from one declaration
from one of our young lady sailors. She's 32, and she states that, quote, "During Operation
Tomodachi, I began having migraine headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, knee surgery,
breast surgery and leg surgery to remove unexplained mass from these areas."