This morning, Japan is transfixed by the high stakes operation taking place at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture. Japanese police are dumping seawater from the air on Thursday morning in an attempt to cool down the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima power plant, and soon will bring in high power water cannons to shoot into a …
tsunami
Will Japan’s Nuclear Emergency Really Sour Europe To the Energy Source?
Given the enormity of human suffering and risk of an atomic catastrophe in Japan, it seems almost indecent to be offering up commentary out of safe, comfy Europe. But despite the understandably shocked and fearful reaction to a possible reactor melt down at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power station, it’s probably worth questioning even …
As Crisis Intensifies, Nuclear Refugees Go West
Shigeko Tadano is worried about her daughter’s shoes. They are white leather Converse, about a size 5, and apparently, they are slightly radioactive. Yukie stretches her leg while a doctor in a lab coat and face mask takes a second reading with a Geiger counter. Though her feet are registering 1000 units, the doctor assures her …
Global Briefing Mar. 16, 2011: Conservatives, Closed Doors and Cash Cows
Japan’s Pain —Bill Powell has the latest on the nuclear situation; Michael Schuman weighs in on the global economic impact of the disaster; LightBox showcases pictures of the aftermath.
Bad Times in Bahrain — In a dispatch form Manama, Karen Leigh shows how the country is caught between Iran and Saudi Arabia; On Global Spin, Aryn …
Fears Spiral Near Ground Zero of Japan’s Nuclear Disaster
Captain Yokoyama knows all about nuclear hazards. The Hiroshima native’s great-uncles and great-aunts were killed by the American atomic bomb that leveled the Japanese city at the end of the World War II. Yet here he was in the town of Natori, little more than 50 km from the site of the Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by …
How Japan Copes with Tragedy: A Lesson in the Art of Endurance
Japanese is one of those languages that is full of untranslatable words that define a unique culture. Gaman is one of them. It means something like the art of endurance, with a good dose of stoicism and resiliency mixed in. Gaman is what Japan in the wake of the killer earthquake and tsunami has displayed in abundance.
To riff on …
On a Mission with Japanese Soldiers in the Quake Zone
When Koji Haga looked toward the shore and saw the massive earthquake shuddering through his village of Akaushi on March 11, he knew what would come next. After all, every school child in the area is taught that roughly every 50 years, a seismic seizure triggers a giant wave that engulfs this tightknit fishing community. It had been a …
As Nuclear Emergency Worsens, Death Toll Jumps
Report from TIME’s Krista Mahr in Kesennuma:
There are few good places to be right now in what’s left of this savaged corner of Kesennuma, Japan. But the gymnasium at the Hibiki High School is the very last place anybody wants to have to visit. On a hilltop over the washed-out mud flats where houses stood this time last week, the …
Japan and the Quake: A Long History of Living with Disaster
The tremors of Japan’s monstrous March 11 earthquake are still being felt as state officials and rescue workers come to grips with the rising body count, a scare over a damaged nuclear plant and the prospect of more aftershocks. Concerns also deepen over the health of the Japanese economy, which has been in the doldrums for years. The …
Trying to Get to an Earthquake: Travels in Japan
Here are some initial thoughts on Japan’s disaster zone from TIME’s Hannah Beech and Krista Mahr:
This is a country that lives by timetables, that prides itself on predicting how to get people to places within the minute even under the most unusual circumstances. But no one could have predicted the unleashing of the worst-ever …
How Japan’s ‘Culture of Preparedness’ Saves Lives
Perched on the Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic activity that encircles the Pacific Basin, Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world — but it’s also one of the best equipped to handle them.
Having survived the ‘Great Kanto Earthquake’ of 1923, the utter the devastation of World War II and the 1995 …