Toxic water release plan stokes real-life Godzilla fears

TOKYO — Despite ongoing opposition from both home and abroad, Japan has been rushing to carry out its plan of dumping radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, raising growing anger and stoking real-life Godzilla fears among the international community.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, the plant's operator, began trial operations for the equipment discharging the nuclear-contaminated water into the Pacific on June 12. The test run of the discharge facility is expected to finish on Monday. The nuclear wastewater release led by the Japanese government seems to have entered a countdown.

While the radioactive 50-meter-tall Godzilla depicted in one of the highest-grossing films may be fictional, symbolizing the consequences of underwater nuclear tests, the Japanese government's reckless discharge, likewise disastrous, is evoking fears that the allegory of humankind's wrongdoings will come true.