Dog in Japan stays by the side of its ailing friend in the rubble

Brett Michael Dykes

It's a universal truth that dogs are man's best friend, but they're pretty darn loyal to their own as well. Case in point: this tear-inducing video, via the website Jezebel, showing a dog, shivering and disoriented, remaining loyally by the side of a stricken fellow canine amid the devastation of the Japanese tsunami.

You can watch the video below:

You don't have to speak Japanese to understand the sympathetic tones of the two men observing these dogs who are also disaster victims -- and one loyal dog refusing to leave his hurt friend's side. There is so much we don't understand about the emotional lives of animals. But we know they can suffer tremendously, and we know they care for each other.

We wish all the people and animals of Japan heartfelt concern during this incomprehensibly difficult time. We know that the people of Japan will respond like these two friends, never abandoning each other in this time of need. Ganbatte kudasai! ("Don't give up!") -- Global Animal

The video is a stark reminder that, as was the case when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, there will likely be thousands of pets orphaned or involuntarily abandoned due to the catastrophe in Japan. If you'd like to help efforts to help these animals, you can find info on doing so here.

UPDATE: CNN and the UK Telegraph have both reported that the dogs have been rescued since the footage aired, and are both receiving veterinary care; the more seriously wounded dog is at a clinic in the city of Mito, while the protective spaniel-type dog is receiving care at a shelter in the same town.

Here is an English translation of the voice over exchange between the two reporters in the clip (translation courtesy of Toshiyuki Kitamura):

We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty.

He has a collar. He must be someone's pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid.

Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead.

Where?

Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright.

The dog is protecting him.

Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay.

I can't watch this. This is a very difficult to watch.

Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive.

Yes! Yes! He is alive.

He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon.

Oh good. He's getting up.

It is amazing how they survived the tremendous earthquake and tsunami. It's just amazing that they survived through this all.

Japan helicopters dump water on nuclear plant

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese military helicopters dumped water Thursday from huge buckets onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in a bid to douse fuel rods, television images showed.

A total of three twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks of the Self-Defence Forces each emptied more than seven tonnes of water onto reactors three and four, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Engineers were focusing their efforts on restoring the power supply to a quake-damaged nuclear plant in an attempt to reactivate its cooling system and avert a meltdown.

Last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the power supply and back-up generators at the Fukushima No. 1 plant on the Pacific coast, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

The lack of power has sent temperatures soaring in reactors with fuel rods being exposed as the cooling water evaporated and emitting hydrogen gas and possibly radioactive material, triggering fears of a meltdown.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said it was preparing to restore outside power lines and connect its damaged transmission system to unaffected lines.

"At the moment, we are concentrating our efforts on this work," spokesman Naohiro Omura told AFP.

"If the restoration work is completed, we will be able to activate various electric pumps and pour water into reactors and pools for spent nuclear fuel."

The Japanese crews grappling with the world's worst nuclear incident since Chernobyl in 1986 were briefly evacuated Wednesday after a spike in radiation levels at the plant.



Earlier they contended with a new fire and feared damage to the vessel containing one of the plant's six reactor cores.

There are also major fears about pools holding spent fuel rods at the plant, which need water to keep them cool. Unlike the reactors, they have no containment vessels.

Facts on the Japan disaster

Some 70 workers have been using low-capacity fire pumps to pour seawater to cool reactors at the plant, according to media reports. They are using electricity from borrowed power supply cars.

A Japanese army helicopter Wednesday aborted its mission to dump water onto the fuel rods due to the high level of radiation above the reactors.

UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said the situation at the plant was "very serious" as he prepared to fly out to see the damage for himself.

Japan's Emperor Akihito gave a rare address to a jittery nation Wednesday as the nuclear emergency deepened and millions struggled in desperate conditions after the quake and tsunami disaster.

The television appearance by the emperor emphasised the gravity of the crisis gripping Japan after the 9.0-magnitude quake and the monster waves it unleashed.

Akihito said he was "deeply concerned" about the "unpredictable" situation at the stricken power plant.

"I sincerely hope that we can keep the situation from getting worse," Akihito said in a historic televised address that marked the first time he has intervened in a national crisis.

Gregory Jaczko, chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, warned there was no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels.

The US military will send a spy drone to take a closer look at the reactors in the troubled plant, Kyodo News reported.

Engineers have been desperately battling a feared meltdown at the 40-year-old plant since the earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and fuel rods began overheating.

The workers at the plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires, have been hailed as heroes.

"Please don't forget that there are people who are working to protect everyone's lives in exchange for their own lives," said one post on Japanese social networking site Mixi.

Focus: 'No radiation threat' outside exclusion zone'

The government has warned people living up to 10 kilometres (six miles) beyond the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the plant to stay indoors. More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the zone.

The US embassy in Tokyo warned American citizens living within 50 miles (80 kilometres) of the plant to evacuate or seek shelter.

Other foreign governments also urged their citizens to steer clear of the quake-stricken northeast of Japan and the capital Tokyo amid fears of further aftershocks and a widening nuclear disaster.

Focus: Foreign governments urge nationals to leave

Japan's chief government spokesman Yukio Edano however said radiation levels from the plant posed no immediate health threat outside the 20-kilometre exclusion zone.

But as crews battled to prevent a nuclear meltdown, the European Union's energy chief said the situation had spun out of control.

"The site is effectively out of control," energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger told a European Parliament committee, one day after he said Japan was facing "apocalypse."

France's Nuclear Safety Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second only in gravity to the level-seven Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Amano, the Japanese chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had insisted Tuesday there was no comparison to the Chernobyl crisis, when radiation spewed across Europe.



Focus: Fuel-rod pools, the latest threat in Fukushima crisis

Aside from the nuclear threat, the full scale of the quake and tsunami disaster was becoming clear as more details emerged of the staggering death and devastation in the worst-hit northeast.

"The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we do not know how many people have fallen victim," said the emperor, who is held in deep respect by many Japanese. "I pray for the safety of as many people as possible."

"People are being forced to evacuate in such severe conditions of bitter cold, with shortages of water and fuel... I cannot help praying that rescue work is done swiftly and people's lives get better, even a little."

And already jangled nerves were frayed further by a series of aftershocks including a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake that swayed buildings in Tokyo.

The official toll of the dead and missing after the quake and tsunami flattened Japan's northeast coast rose to nearly 13,000, police said, with the number of confirmed dead at 4,314.

But reports continued to come in which indicated that the final toll could be much higher, with the mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki saying the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.

On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK reported that around 10,000 people were also unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku, again in Miyagi prefecture.

Millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food and hundreds of thousands more are homeless, stoically coping with freezing cold and wet conditions in the northeast.

The governor of Fukushima prefecture, home to the crippled nuclear plant, said people were at breaking point.

"The worry and anger of the people of Fukushima has been pushed to the limit," Yuhei Sato told NHK.

With nerves on edge across the world's third-biggest economy and beyond, people across Asia have been stripping shelves of essentials for fear of a major emission of radiation from the power plant on the east coast.

The Japanese government has warned that panic buying in towns and cities that have not been directly affected by the twin disasters could hurt its ability to provide aid to the devastated areas.

Radiation levels in the capital's vast urban sprawl of 30 million people have see-sawed without ever reaching harmful levels, according to the government.
Beyond Japan, Asian nations vowed to crack down on hoax messages warning about radiation spreading beyond Japan, which have helped stoke growing unease over the unfolding crisis.

US increase Japan nuclear evacuation area

AAP March 17, 2011

US officials have warned citizens living within 80 kilometres of a crippled Japanese nuclear plant to evacuate or seek shelter, amid mounting concern of a catastrophic meltdown.

The evacuation order came as the chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Wednesday warned there was no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels.

US officials designated a much wider no-go zone than the 20-kilometre radius perimetre set up by the Japanese after experts reviewed scientific and technical data about the nuclear crisis following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.

"We are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 80 kilometres of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical," the US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement.

In Washington, NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko told lawmakers that a fourth reactor unit at the nuclear complex was giving cause for concern following a hydrogen explosion there a few days ago.

"We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures," Jaczko said, adding that his agency had recommended the wider evacuation zone.

"Based on the available information that we have that for a comparable situation in the United States, we would recommend an evacuation for a much larger radius than has currently been provided in Japan," he said.

The White House acknowledged that the advice went beyond the recommendation Japan gave, but declined to evaluate the Japanese data.

"This crisis is happening in Japan. Obviously, the Japanese government has the lead here with regards to dealing with the crisis and advising its people," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"There are alot of Americans in Japan. When the data that we receive is analysed independently, we are going to give advice based on our analysis," he added.

Carney said that Washington informed Japanese officials of its wider evacuation recommendation before it was released.

US troops and pilots on rescue operations in Japan are barred from venturing into the potentially radioactive area around the stricken Fukushima plant without specific orders, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.

The US military has delivered high-pressure water pumps and fire trucks for use at Fukushima, but has not been asked to join directly in the effort to contain the damage at the atomic plant, Lapan said.

Testing earlier showed 17 US helicopter crew members from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had been contaminated with low levels of radiation.

The military also gave potassium iodide anti-radiation pills to some US air crews who were scheduled to fly within the "vicinity" of the crippled Fukushima plant as a precaution, Lapan said.

Ambassador John Roos in Tokyo told reporters that 34 experts arrived in Japan carrying both ground and aerial equipment to monitor radiation levels.

"We're deploying all these capabilities because there is a crisis going on and it's important to provide as much assistance to the Japanese as possible, and in addition we have our own citizens here in Japan," Roos said.

Roos denied the measure displayed any lack of trust in Japanese capabilities.

The embassy stressed earlier that "there are numerous factors in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, including weather, wind direction and speed, and the nature of the reactor problem" which would affect the risk of radioactive contamination.

Naohiro Omura, a spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told AFP that the company was focusing on restoring power to reactivate the plant's crippled cooling systems "as soon as possible."

The Fukushima No.1 power plant has been hit by a series of explosions since the quake and tsunami knocked out reactor cooling systems.

Japan's nuclear crisis takes most dangerous turn yet

AAP, Reuters & Yahoo!
7 March 17, 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japan's nuclear crisis may have taken its most dangerous turn yet after a U.S. official said one of the pools containing highly radioactive spent fuel rods at the stricken plant had run dry.

One nuclear expert said that there was now even a possibility that the disaster may approach the extent of the Chernobyl accident, the worst ever in the industry's history. When the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded in 1986 it spewed a radiation cloud over a large area of Europe.

And a nuclear engineer said that it may be time to consider ways to bury or cover the entire complex in some kind of material that would stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere.

Triggering the new levels of alarm were comments by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko in Congress on Wednesday. "There is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures," he said.

Japanese officials have been working desperately for two days to try to get more water into the pool to cover the rods, which remain hot for months after they are removed from the reactors and can quickly release radioactive components if exposed to the air.

"If they don't get water to these spent fuel pools in view of the containment breaches in the other plants the actual radiation releases could approach that category of Chernobyl," said Victor Gilinsky, who was an NRC commissioner at the time of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, which was the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

Earlier Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency that radioactivity was being released directly into the air at the pool for the No.4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Experts say the pools could present a bigger threat to public health than the reactors, which appear to be still encased in steel containment systems.

"Up until now they have not been able to get close to the spent rods, as even with protective clothing it only stops workers from breathing in radioactive particles, not from radiation itself," Dr Peter Hosemann PHD of the University of California Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department said Tuesday.

While the building holding the rods has been rocked by fire and a blast, officials in Japan had not said how much water remained in the 40-foot deep tanks.

James Acton, Associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in an interview before Jaczko's comments that it appeared there was a leak in the pool.

"There is either a leak in the spent fuel pool or the rods are hot enough to cause evaporation," Acton said.

Snow piles more misery on Japan's devastated northeast


Heavy snow blanketed Japan's devastated northeast Wednesday, hindering rescue workers and adding to the woes of the few, mainly elderly, residents who remained in the area worst hit by last week's massive earthquake and tsunami.

The meteorology agency said temperatures could drop as low as -2 Celsius (28 Fahrenheit) in Sendai Wednesday. Scores of people queued up in the snow for drinking water that arrived by truck. Relief workers rationed it at three litres a person.

"We hope that lasts long enough," a grim-faced volunteer said as he helped dole out the water.

"Snow has just come down in a blanket. Visibility is just 40 meters," said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from what remained of Otsuchi, a fishing hamlet.

"People are still working, the army is out here. But the fire service has taken off because they are worried they won't get back to their base because of the snow."

In some parts of Sendai city, firefighters and relief teams sifted through mounds of rubble, hoping to find any sign of life in water-logged wastelands where homes and factories once stood.

But, as they did in most other towns, rescuers just pulled out body after body, which they wrapped in brightly coloured blankets and lined up neatly against the grey, grim landscape.

"The strong smell of bodies and the dirty seawater make search extremely difficult," said Yin Guanghui, a member of a Chinese rescue team working in the battered town of Ofunato.

"Powerful waves in the tsunami would repeatedly hit houses in the area. Anyone trapped under the debris would be drown in no time, without any chance to survive."

In Rikuzentakata, rescue workers used diggers to clear streets strewn with debris congealed by mud and now covered in snow. The fire department said more than 80 percent of the city was flooded, and the situation was likely to get worse due to the snowfall.

Broadcaster NHK offered tips on how to stay warm -- wrap your trunk in newspaper and cling film -- and how to boil water using empty food cans and candles.

Rescuers said their main concern was for the elderly, who make up the majority of the scores of people packed into shelters.

"They are having a very tough time of it," said Fuller.

"They need regular medication and proper care. A lot of the problems, though, are psychological, people are so stressed out. They are getting three meals a day but probably more food needs to come."

In addition to their physical well-being, many elderly people at shelters were traumatised by what they had been through, and just sat huddled on blankets, waiting, but not sure for what.

"Right after the earthquake, I was told to evacuate as soon as possible. I couldn't bring anything but myself," said silver-haired Kiyoko Abe at a shelter in Ishimomaki, Miyagi prefecture.

Her husband sat smiling beside her, occasionally wiping away tears.

(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)



Aussies told to leave

Aussies in Tokyo and other areas hit hard by the Japan quake and tsunami disaster are advised to consider leaving the devastated country unless they really need to stay.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says its updated travel advice, released on Wednesday afternoon, wasn't related to fears of nuclear contamination from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors.

"We are providing this advice because of the continuing disruption to major infrastructure, its impact on the welfare of people on the ground and continuing aftershocks," it said.

That includes interruptions to transport, communications, power and other infrastructure, school closures and continuing aftershocks.

The Australian government is authorising the voluntary departure of dependants of Australian officials from Tokyo.

At this stage, DFAT isn't making any special arrangements for those wishing to leave because of the availability of commercial flights.

DFAT said there had been no reports of Australian casualties but 94 Australians remained unaccounted for - a substantial reduction from the figure of 144 cited earlier on Wednesday.

"At this point, all we know is that we have not been able to contact 94 Australians who we have reason to believe were in the worst-affected areas," DFAT said.

"Communications remain difficult and we are continuing to try to confirm their safety. We also urge anyone who has heard from their family or friends in Japan to contact DFAT so we can confirm they are safe."

Japanese emperor gives rare address

Japan's emperor gave a rare address to a jittery nation on Wednesday as a nuclear emergency deepened and millions struggled in desperate conditions after last week's quake and tsunami disaster.

The television appearance by Emperor Akihito emphasised the gravity of the crisis gripping Japan after the 9.0-magnitude quake and the monster waves it unleashed, killing thousands and crippling a nuclear power plant.

Akihito said he was "deeply concerned" about the "unpredictable" situation at the stricken Fukushima No.1 power plant, which has been hit by a series of explosions after Friday's quake knocked out reactor cooling systems.

"I sincerely hope that we can keep the situation from getting worse," Akihito said, in a historic televised address that marked the first time he has intervened in a national crisis.

Japanese crews grappling with the world's worst nuclear incident since Chernobyl in 1986 briefly suspended work after a spike in radiation levels at the plant 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

And already jangled nerves were frayed further by a series of aftershocks including a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake that swayed buildings in Tokyo.

The official toll of the dead and missing after the quake and tsunami flattened Japan's northeast coast rose to more than 12,000, police said, with the number of confirmed dead at 4277.

But reports continued to come in which indicated that the final grisly toll could be much higher, with the mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki saying the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.



On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK reported that around 10,000 people were also unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku, again in Miyagi prefecture.

After the Tokyo stock exchange's biggest two-day sell-off in 24 years sparked a global market rout, the headline Nikkei share index closed up 5.68 per cent on bargain hunting.

The Bank of Japan pumped another Y3.5 trillion ($A43.81 billion) into the financial system, adding to trillions spent this week since the disaster crippled a large swath of the economy.

The evacuation order at the Fukushima nuclear power plant came as a tall white cloud was seen billowing into the sky over the stricken complex.

Earlier, crews at Fukushima contended with a new fire and feared damage to the vessel containing one of the plant's six reactor cores.

The 50 or so workers at the plant have been hailed as heroes.

"Please don't forget that there are people who are working to protect everyone's lives in exchange for their own lives," said one post on Japanese social networking site Mixi.

Japanese military helicopters were due to dump water on the nuclear plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires, to help contain the overheating, but were forced back due to radiation, reports said.

Engineers have been desperately battling a feared meltdown at the 40-year-old plant since the earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and fuel rods began overheating.

But chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said radiation levels from the plant posed no immediate health threat outside a 20-kilometres exclusion zone that has already been evacuated.

France's Nuclear Safety Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second only in gravity to the level-seven Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

However, Yukiya Amano, the Japanese chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, insisted on Tuesday there was no comparison to the Chernobyl crisis, when radiation spewed across Europe.

Aside from the nuclear threat, the full scale of the quake and tsunami disaster was becoming clear as more details emerged of the staggering death and devastation in the worst-hit northeast.

"The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we do not know how many people have fallen victim," said the emperor, who is held in deep respect by many Japanese. "I pray for the safety of as many people as possible."

"People are being forced to evacuate in such severe conditions of bitter cold, with shortages of water and fuel.... I cannot help praying that rescue work is done swiftly and people's lives get better, even a little."

Millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food and hundreds of thousands more are homeless, stoically coping with freezing cold and wet conditions in the northeast.

Aomori governor Shingo Mimura said he desperately needed central government assistance to get hold of oil and relief supplies.

"We cannot possibly get out to rescue survivors nor reconstruct the devastated areas without oil," he said.

"There are a variety of problems, such as shortages of water, food and blankets as well as difficulties in delivering supplies," added Ryu Matsumoto, state minister in charge of disaster management.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said three-hour power outages on Wednesday would affect 10.89 million households.

The governor of Fukushima prefecture, home to the crippled nuclear plant, said people were at breaking point.

"The worry and anger of the people of Fukushima has been pushed to the limit," Yuhei Sato told NHK.

With nerves on edge across the world's third-biggest economy and beyond, people across Asia have been stripping shelves of essentials for fear of a major emission of radiation from the power plant on the east coast.

The Japanese government has warned that panic buying in towns and cities that have not been directly affected by the twin disasters could hurt its ability to provide aid to the devastated areas.



The normally heaving streets and subways of Tokyo were quieter than usual on Wednesday morning. The number of people sporting paper face masks has shot up, although the masks offer no real protection against radiation.

Radiation levels in the capital's vast urban sprawl of 30 million people have see-sawed without ever reaching harmful levels, according to the government.

But it has warned people living up to 10 kilometres beyond the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant to stay indoors. More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the zone.
Beyond Japan, Asian nations vowed to crack down on hoax messages warning about radiation spreading beyond Japan, which have helped stoke growing unease over the unfolding crisis.