Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2013-12-13 06:55 pm
sinnesspiel) wrote2013-12-13 06:55 pm
Entry tags:
Shiki Novel Translations 2.1.0 and notes
Links to Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - 1
Chapter 1 - 2
Chapter 1 - 3
Chapter 1 - 4
Chapter 1 - 5
Cultural Notes
Chapter 1 - 2
But right now without a name to put to the disease, the government won't move. What those guys call an epidemic isn't something spreading around to the people; for them it's a word for an existing contagious disease written into the protocol or manuals.
Epidemic Disease Prevention Act
Chapter 1 - 5
Ozaki cites three large incidents whereby the administration's actions were criticized for not helping the isolated victims, while providing significant assistance only after all was said and done. This is made to highlight that Sotoba could well be wiped out before anyone does anything.
Mount Unzen - Volcanos located in Nagasaki which were active from 1990-1995. There was a major eruption in 1991. There were evacuation orders, and the direct on-site casualties were fewer than 50, and primarily made up of scientists and film crews aware of the danger. However, the pyroclastic flowed out to a much larger area than expected. While the government insisted they had done their duty in providing evacuation orders, they had also allowed residents to return into the evacuated areas for their belongings or to continue farming the land. The members of the media as well as the local citizens expressed, after the fact, that none of them had been lead to understand the dangers of the gas and debris still flowing after the erruption. They had been under the impression that it would be escapable by car, and that because the reports of the post-explosion flow were "geologically small" that it had meant not immediately dangerous to humans. The government failed to influence the reporting on this sufficiently or to communicate the details and length of the danger in their evacuation orders. Long after the devastation, the emperor and family had come to the site to eat cheap survivor meals such as instantc urry and there was much belated support provided for victims through various agencies coordinating with the government and independently.
Okushiri Island - An island in Hokkaido ravaged by an earthquake in 1993, which triggered a tsunami, landslides, and other structural damage. The administration was criticized for not having an evacuation plan in place in advance, and for a poor response to the immediate infrastructural damage. Following the earthquake and tsunami, the cities were razed by fires, and roads, ports and utilities were wiped out. Considerable government funds were spent on rebuilding including building houses on higher grounds, wave defense walls, a tsunami shelter, and memorials to the 200 or so fatal victims. However, locals viewed much of this as "White Elephant" expenditures which didn't account for providing for the livelihoods or local economy.
Matsumoto - Several terrorist attacks with sarin gas in Matsumoto in June of 1994 are referred to as the Matsumoto Incident. The religious cult Aum Shinrikyou was eventually found guilty of the attacks. Motives including testing it for a future attack that took place in Tokyo later in 1995 and trying to kill the judges overseeing court charges of fraud against the cult to delay the verdict. In aftermath to the attacks the government formed risk and medical management procedures for chemical terrorism and instituted analytical instruments in hospitals and police task forces specifically for incidents of biochemical warfare.
However, at the actual time of the attacks, there was difficulty coordinating treatment of the immediate victims. The subways did not cease running despite reports of injured passengers, and fire fighters and police likewise failed to coordinate transportation of victims to hospitals. The hospitals themselves were ill equipped to diagnose or treat Sarin gas poisoning and were not prepared for an emergency flux of patients. It was an independent doctor watching the media who had recognized the reports on victims as being that of Sarin gas and faxed the information to local ill equipped hospitals which were turning many away and unsure what to make of those they had on hand. The media was also criticized for recording and reporting on victims but making no cooperative effort to evacuate or transport them, as well as for focusing more on the interesting cult criminals than on the victims and their aftermath.
Chapter 1 - 1
Chapter 1 - 2
Chapter 1 - 3
Chapter 1 - 4
Chapter 1 - 5
Cultural Notes
Chapter 1 - 2
But right now without a name to put to the disease, the government won't move. What those guys call an epidemic isn't something spreading around to the people; for them it's a word for an existing contagious disease written into the protocol or manuals.
Epidemics and Japanese Health Laws
Epidemic, densenbyou, literally translates to contagious disease. However not all contagious diseases are legally classified as densenbyou (epidemics) in Japanese. Lay people may use the word translated as "epidemic" to refer to a massively destructive and spreading malady. Medical professionals however would only refer to an "epidemic" as those outlined by the government in the Epidemic Disease Prevention Act, as the word implies specific legal duties on their part. The Epidemic Disease Prevention Act was repealed in 1999 and replaced by the reformed Infectious Disease Control Law. A doctor in the 1990s could accurately declare a contagious disease was not an epidemic (legally), which linguistically would be saying that it was not a contagious disease.
Legal Epidemic Diseases: (cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, paratyphoid A, smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever, diphtheria, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, bubonic plague, Japanese encephalitis). These were reported to the health and town officials, and the patient is to be quarantined for treatment at a cost paid by the government.
Specified epidemic diseases: (polio, Lassa fever). These were diseases designated for treatment identical to the above 11 in the original law.
Required reporting diseases: (influenza, rabies, anthrax, epidemic diarrhea, pertussis (whooping cough), lock jaw, malaria, scub/Bush typhus, filaria, yellow fever, recurrent fever). These were diseases that physicians were required to report within 24 hours to health officials, and treatment could take place either at home or in an ordinary hospital ward.
The Venereal Disease Prevention Law: (syphilis, gonorrhea, chancroid, lymphogranuloma urethritis). These are to be reported to health officials who passed the numbers to national officials.
The Tuberculosis Control Law: A physician must report diagnosis of tuberculosis within two days and their treatment bill will be paid by the government.
Leprosy Prevention Law: A doctor who diagnoses leprosy must report it within 7 days and the potentially effected patients will be put in a sanatorium at the government's cost. This law was also repealed in 1996, designating leprosy as a Legal Epidemic Disease.
The Parasitic Disease Prevention Law was not a part of the Epidemic Disease Prevention Act but is a law stating that the government may spend funds investigating by means of physical examinations or feces exams for signs of parasitic diseases (Roundworm, hookworm, liver flukes, blood flukes (Schistosoma japonicum)) and also in providing treatment for them. This law was repealed in November of 1994.
Without counting parasites as a disease (The Parasitic Disease Prevention Law is actually separate from the Epidemic Disease Prevention Law) that leaves 32 diseases that the government required and took action (read: spent money) on. As the government also does spend money on parasite control Ozaki also mentions that, highlighting the limited expectations had for government intervention on any health matter.
Without counting parasites as a disease (The Parasitic Disease Prevention Law is actually separate from the Epidemic Disease Prevention Law) that leaves 32 diseases that the government required and took action (read: spent money) on. As the government also does spend money on parasite control Ozaki also mentions that, highlighting the limited expectations had for government intervention on any health matter.
Chapter 1 - 5
Ozaki cites three large incidents whereby the administration's actions were criticized for not helping the isolated victims, while providing significant assistance only after all was said and done. This is made to highlight that Sotoba could well be wiped out before anyone does anything.
Mount Unzen - Volcanos located in Nagasaki which were active from 1990-1995. There was a major eruption in 1991. There were evacuation orders, and the direct on-site casualties were fewer than 50, and primarily made up of scientists and film crews aware of the danger. However, the pyroclastic flowed out to a much larger area than expected. While the government insisted they had done their duty in providing evacuation orders, they had also allowed residents to return into the evacuated areas for their belongings or to continue farming the land. The members of the media as well as the local citizens expressed, after the fact, that none of them had been lead to understand the dangers of the gas and debris still flowing after the erruption. They had been under the impression that it would be escapable by car, and that because the reports of the post-explosion flow were "geologically small" that it had meant not immediately dangerous to humans. The government failed to influence the reporting on this sufficiently or to communicate the details and length of the danger in their evacuation orders. Long after the devastation, the emperor and family had come to the site to eat cheap survivor meals such as instantc urry and there was much belated support provided for victims through various agencies coordinating with the government and independently.
Okushiri Island - An island in Hokkaido ravaged by an earthquake in 1993, which triggered a tsunami, landslides, and other structural damage. The administration was criticized for not having an evacuation plan in place in advance, and for a poor response to the immediate infrastructural damage. Following the earthquake and tsunami, the cities were razed by fires, and roads, ports and utilities were wiped out. Considerable government funds were spent on rebuilding including building houses on higher grounds, wave defense walls, a tsunami shelter, and memorials to the 200 or so fatal victims. However, locals viewed much of this as "White Elephant" expenditures which didn't account for providing for the livelihoods or local economy.
Matsumoto - Several terrorist attacks with sarin gas in Matsumoto in June of 1994 are referred to as the Matsumoto Incident. The religious cult Aum Shinrikyou was eventually found guilty of the attacks. Motives including testing it for a future attack that took place in Tokyo later in 1995 and trying to kill the judges overseeing court charges of fraud against the cult to delay the verdict. In aftermath to the attacks the government formed risk and medical management procedures for chemical terrorism and instituted analytical instruments in hospitals and police task forces specifically for incidents of biochemical warfare.
However, at the actual time of the attacks, there was difficulty coordinating treatment of the immediate victims. The subways did not cease running despite reports of injured passengers, and fire fighters and police likewise failed to coordinate transportation of victims to hospitals. The hospitals themselves were ill equipped to diagnose or treat Sarin gas poisoning and were not prepared for an emergency flux of patients. It was an independent doctor watching the media who had recognized the reports on victims as being that of Sarin gas and faxed the information to local ill equipped hospitals which were turning many away and unsure what to make of those they had on hand. The media was also criticized for recording and reporting on victims but making no cooperative effort to evacuate or transport them, as well as for focusing more on the interesting cult criminals than on the victims and their aftermath.