The "volunteering" firefighters from Tokyo that I mentioned some days ago, probably were not that much volunteers at all, it now seems. German media report about a dispute between the economic minister of Japan and the governor of Tokyo, the latter complained to the prime ministre of Japan about the firefighters having been forced to accept a marching order to the reactor by threatening heavy penalties on them if they don't go.
German link
Meanwhile, German Yahoo News has also reported allegations that Tepco abuses homeless people, foreign guest workers, people living on the streets even before the disaster, and even some juveniles, to work in the highly contaminated, radiating centre areas. When they have gotten a serious ammount of radiation, they get fired, without further compensation or assistance. Several nuclear physicists meanwhile said that to their assessment based on the published values, the teams at the reactors will see a lethality rate of 50% in the forseeable future, with the rest dying over a longer period of time after that.
Reports mirroring or even independently confirming the allegations raised by German ARD-correspondent Hetkämper, have started to be published in a number of news sources and private blogs throught German-tongued Europe, in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
Sending people on a suicide mission, is a desperate measurement in a desperate situation. Somebody has to die in order to try to get the job done - that is the brutal truth in all this. I am not sentimental about this. But still, it leaves a sad feeling inside the heart, and a foul taste in the mouth. Tepco seems to plan to not care for the people it has sentenced to death by abusing their weak social position. And compared to Japan's social reality, even the US is a socialistic paradise.