Victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster expressed outrage and sadness after the Supreme Court upheld the acquittals of two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken nuclear plant.

But for Yoshinobu Ishii, the March 5 decision came as no surprise.

“I expected this because the rulings of the first and second trials were ‘not guilty,’” said Ishii, 80, from Kawauchi, Fukushima Prefecture.

Ishii’s mother, Ei, died at the age of 91 after being forced to flee from the nuclear accident in March 2011.

“My mother is not coming back, even if I blame someone (for her death),” said Ishii, resigned.

The two former vice presidents at TEPCO were charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury concerning the company’s preparations for a tsunami that could hit its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

However, the top court agreed with earlier rulings that said a tsunami of that scale could not have been foreseen and absolved them of criminal responsibility.

Ishii said he was concerned the ruling could further promote Japan’s return to using nuclear power generation for its energy needs.

EVACUATION PLAN ‘USELESS’

On the morning of March 11, 2011, Ishii’s wife, Aiko, 75, visited Ei at an affiliated facility near Futaba Hospital in Okuma, near the nuclear plant.

Ei, who had hurt her back, ate the grated apple and pickled radish that Aiko had brought, and then said her last words to her daughter-in-law: “Be careful on your way home. Come again tomorrow.”

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck that afternoon, unleashing a tsunami that caused the triple meltdown at the nuclear plant.

In the ensuing chaos, patients left behind in hospitals and related facilities were forced to take buses and other means on a harsh evacuation route exceeding 200 kilometers.

A week after the tsunami, the Ishii couple found Ei’s body wrapped in a white cloth in a high school gymnasium. Her death certificate read: “Cause of death: hypothermia” and “Date of death: around March 14.”

The former TEPCO executives were cleared of negligence charges concerning the deaths of 44 people, including hospital patients like Ei who died in evacuation.

Immediately after the nuclear accident, there was a growing movement to move away from nuclear power generation.

Now, however, nuclear reactors are increasingly being restarted around the nation.

“Japan is a country where many earthquakes occur, so ‘100 percent safety’ is impossible,” Ishii said. “That’s why the nuclear accident happened and why the evacuation plan was useless.”

FEELING HELPLESS

A group of victims in Fukushima Prefecture initiated the criminal procedures against the former TEPCO executives.

The group’s leader, Ruiko Muto, 71, ran a coffee shop in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, about 40 kilometers west of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

She had no choice but to close the shop after the accident.

“I wanted to make it clear through a criminal trial who should take responsibility to prevent a repeat of the same mistakes,” she said.

She had sat in the galleries of court rooms since the first hearing of the trial at the Tokyo District Court in 2017.

When she learned on March 6 that the Supreme Court had effectively finalized the not guilty verdicts, she felt frustrated and shed tears.

She fears the acquittals will intensify a sense of helplessness among those affected in Fukushima Prefecture.

“Victims of damage caused by the nuclear accident tend not to speak out,” Muto said.

FOCUS NOW ON CIVIL CASE

Yuichi Kaido, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in both the criminal case and a civil lawsuit against former TEPCO managers, criticized the Supreme Court’s decision at a news conference on March 6.

“Its logic was too rough,” Kaido said.

But he said some good came out of the trial and appeals process, which took more than seven years to complete.

Many TEPCO employees and other related parties testified as witnesses.

“The testimonies at the trial have become invaluable evidence when discussing the nuclear accident,” Kaido said.

In the civil lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court ordered the former TEPCO managers to pay more than 13 trillion yen ($88 billion) in damages over the nuclear accident.

The defendants appealed the ruling, and the Tokyo High Court is expected to hand down its ruling in June.

“It is important to ensure the district court’s ruling is upheld,” Kaido said.

DISAPPOINTMENT

In the criminal case, prosecutors initially decided not to charge the former TEPCO executives.

But a citizens inquest panel twice ruled that they should be prosecuted, and mandatory indictments were applied.

(A third former TEPCO executive was charged, but his trial was terminated after his death in October last year.)

The four designated lawyers who acted as prosecutors in the trial held a news conference after the top court’s decision.

“The Supreme Court did not respond to our arguments,” Shozaburo Ishida said. “I wish they had made a more rigorous decision.”

(This article was written by Susumu Okamoto, Noriyoshi Otsuki, Yuto Yoneda and Takashi Endo.)