Masao Yoshida, 58, former boss of the Fukushima nuclear plant, "died of oesophagal cancer at 11:32am today at a Tokyo hospital," said a spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the group that owns the Fukushima plant which had meltdown concerns after towering waves from an earthquake and tsunami swamped cooling systems.
Despite panic stories and concern among the public and the media, Yoshida was a classical stoic Japanese and stayed at his post. 8 months later he was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with throat cancer. After surgery for that, he had a brain hemorrhage and surgery again.
Was Fukushima to blame? Not even in the Rachel Carson mythological world where you can spray DDT in your basement and get cancer and die 6 months later. The radiation levels were not that high and such radiation exposure would manifest itself in that way in 5-10 years.
So let's blame his smoking.
“We don’t have the US army fire trucks we need but at least we have got smokes,” he joked while passing out cigarettes to workers in a heavily used smoking room beside the bunker during the disaster.
Heroes aren't always soldiers or firefighters or Spider-Man, sometimes they are guys who just keep calm and do their jobs while the media and the executives at the company above him are losing their minds.
R.I.P Yoshida-san
