Japan withheld nuclear data,leaving thousands in danger

The winds,in fact,had been blowing toward Tsushima and town officials would learn two months later that a government computer system designed to predict the spread of radioactive releases had been showing just that.

But the forecasts were left unpublicised by bureaucrats in Tokyo,operating in a culture that sought to avoid responsibility and,above all,criticism. Japans political leaders at first did not know about the system and later played down the data,apparently fearful of having to significantly enlarge the evacuation zone and acknowledge the accidents severity.

From the 12th to the 15th we were in a location with one of the highest levels of radiation, said Tamotsu Baba,mayor of Namie,which is about five miles from the nuclear plant. He and thousands from Namie now live in temporary housing in another town,Nihonmatsu. We are worried about internal exposure to radiation. The withholding of information,he said,was akin to murder.

Current and former government officials have admitted authorities withheld damaging information in order,some of them said,to limit the size of costly evacuations in land-scarce Japan and to avoid questioning of politically powerful nuclear industry.NORIMITSU ONISHI