Why You Should Boycott the 2020 Olympics

There are quite a few reasons to boycott the 2020 Olympics, and no, not just because I’m Korean. Here, I’ll explain a few:

1. Japan has committed war crimes, and still has not provided reparations; nor are they accepting the war crimes as truth, such as kidnapping masses of Korean women for so-called “comfort women.” Realistically speaking, they were sex slaves, and the impact of these atrocities are still prevalent in the Korean community. There are still numerous survivors who are now 80+ years old, who are still dealing with the traumatic sorrow, shame, and dehumanization that they were forced to endure, even as young as 13 years old. In addition, Japan took droves of young Korean men as slave workers for major corporations, one of the most prevalent being Mitsubishi. There would be no issues if the Japanese government would cease their attempted manipulation of history, own up to it, and provide support and reparations to the victims; but they simply deny, insult, and ignore. Is this the sportsmanship we want to see from the host of the Olympics?
2. Japan is still killing whales on what they claim to be “Japanese waters,” ignoring many international laws, and numerous orders from the ICJ, as well as the IWC (the International Whaling Committee, made up of several countries who have now outlawed whaling). This show of lawlessness is an attempted power move on Shinzo Abe’s part. Continued whaling will destroy the ecosystem of the East Sea as well as the Yellow Sea. But why do they support whaling? My personal theory is that the meat (it’s gotta go somewhere) is most likely a reserve of cheap mystery meat to be sold in supermarkets and convenience stores as meat fodder. Are they saving the cows for the 2020 Olympics? But why is that meat cheap? It is because the whales have also bioaccumulated radiation and radioactive isotopes in their bodies from when radioactive waste leaked into the ocean in 2011, greatly decreasing the value of the meat. This is also why Fukushima rice and produce is sold for cheap in convenience stores.
3. Japan is using the Olympics to push personal agendas for Japan as a country. Dokdo, as it is known in Korea, was given back to Korea as per a treaty in 1949, but Japan is claiming that a 1951 treaty claims otherwise, when in reality the 1951 treaty does not mention the islands at all. Looking at this history, the islands do belong to Korea, also taking into account that the islands are visible from Korean land with nice weather, whereas it is impossible to see from anywhere in Japan, meaning that it is closer to Korea than Japan. But this topic has been long disputed, which caused the Japanese government to protest the unification flag that North and South Korea competed under in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, which had Dokdo on it. Japan filed a complaint against the flag because of Dokdo being present on it, despite the islands being recognized historically, geographically, and under international law as a territory of Korea. In order to uphold the spirit of sportsmanship in light of the Olympics, Korea decided to compete under a new flag without Dokdo on it. Now the tables have turned. Dokdo is also protected under Korean Airspace, as was demonstrated a couple of days ago when Russian and Chinese aircraft flew over the East Sea. The only planes warding them off from Dokdo were Korean. Japan has put the island on their relay race map as a part of Japan, which of course Korea has filed an official complaint against. Japan has ignored those complaints, which is not a good reflection of sportsmanship, nor diplomacy. They are trying to claim Dokdo as their land because it has military strategic value. Could they not have put that aside for the Olympics and listened to the complaint as the Koreans did in 2018? Sportsmanship was not well demonstrated.
4. Tokyo is irradiated from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant explosion. Shinzo Abe has claimed that the situation in Fukushima is under control, but that simply is not true at all; he is lying to the people, as he is lying to himself. In recent years, he, along with some other Japanese celebrities, was part of a campaign that said, “Fukushima fruits and veggies are delicious!” Many of those celebrities are now ravaged by leukemia due to bioaccumulation of radioactive isotopes such as Cesium 137, and many more that had seeped into the soil and water, and subsequently into the fruits, veggies, and most importantly, the rice (which is being used as cheap rice fodder in convenience stores all over the country). The overall message of the campaign was, “Eat it all up and dispose of it,” which really is not the type of thing you would want to hear about a food that is supposedly “good.” In addition to the food, there is the issue of the nuclear microparticles that are in the wind, being carried at least 300 miles from Fukushima, going well into Tokyo. This is the air that the world’s best athletes will breathe and the food that they will eat. The situation is not under control. All of the discarded concrete from the plant and the irradiated soil containing Cesium 137, as well as several other isotopes are simply sitting in garbage bags in Fukushima. They are not lead-lined bags, they are simple garbage bags that are radioactive. There is so much of the radioactive garbage that they are storing them in water purification plants. This means that the practice sites of the athletes, the places they sleep, the food they eat, and the water they drink will have a heavy toll on their life. By pulling athletes from the Olympics, they are being protected, and by boycotting, you are protecting yourself. Sure a quick visit couldn’t hurt, but over time the bioaccumulation of the isotopes will cause illness such as leukemia and lymphoma.
5. Again, Fukushima is NOT under control. The original safety threshold of radiation levels in populated areas was .30 micro, with the ideal level being 0.1 micro. Even in some parts of Tokyo, there are radiation hotspots that can go up to .50 micro, above what the government used to consider dangerous. The solution? Raise the roof. They are changing the limit of what is legally acceptable, in order to subdue the cost of having to evacuate so many people. The leading cause of death in Japan is cancer. But rumours are just rumouring, right? Wrong. I wanted to confirm these rumours for myself, so I visited Japan myself. What did I find? Not surprising. The family that I was staying with had been living there for over 15 years, and so they knew everything there was to know. They advised me against one thing. Don’t drink the tap water. Why was this the only thing they warned me against? Because the tap water was the only thing avoidable. In Japan, it is practically impossible to avoid food that has, in some way or another, been linked to Fukushima. Food labels are ambiguous with their origins, simply stating “domestic” where the name of the prefecture is supposed to be. In some parts of Fukushima, which was declared habitable, the radiation is 10.50 micro, far too much for humans and animals alike.

Conclusion:

The environment the games are being held in are dangerously unfit, putting the world’s best athletes at risk, the government supports whaling (cheap mystery meat), there is not a good show of sportsmanship and diplomacy so far, and the general public is at risk as it is. Boycott the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Resources

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/22/if-japan-continues-slaughtering-whales-boycott-the-2020-tokyo-olympics/

https://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEsCVgPzes

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=khchojh&logNo=221211014131&redirect=Dlog&widgetTypeCall=true&directAccess=false