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One Year Later

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Japan-disaster-anniversar-007Yesterday was the anniversary of an earthquake of unimaginable intensity rapidly followed by an inexorable tsunami – in Japan – near a nuclear facility. That’s the context of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi.

Two people died in industrial accidents at Fukushima Daiichi during or directly after the catastrophe. Japan’s National Police Agency currently counts 15,848 people dead and 3,305 people missing as a result of the twin disasters. That’s 19,153, a number that has risen and fallen during the last year.

We’ve talked about the accident at Fukushima Daiichi and its consequences often at this site and will continue to talk about it. But not today.

On the occasion of this anniversary, we should memorialize what the Japanese people will not forget. Nothing can replace loved ones, but surely the country will insist on a continuity of purpose and resolve. The Japanese people will reconstruct what was wrecked materially and we may hope that it will help salve what was damaged spiritually.

The News Observer has a roundup of pictures and captions that show the Japanese marking the anniversary and Talking Points Memo shows truly remarkable before-and-after photos of various locations directly after the earthquake and tsunami and today (including a shot of Fukushima Daiichi).

A boy lights a candle at a memorial service in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. See here for more.

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Bill said…
The city of Tamura is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The radiation levels there are about the same as in some places in the state of Bavaria, in southeastern Germany -- in other words, not high enough to pose an immediate health risk. Still, Hangai's students have recently stayed away from his tutoring school, leaving him with a lot of extra time on his hands. Far from bored, though, Hangai is hard at work -- he's a man with a mission.

Hangai has set out to free the people in his hometown of their fear of radiation. All that is required for his task is some data, his self-accumulated expertise and an infectious laugh.

"A Lonely Missionary in the Radiation Zone"
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,820443,00.html
March 13, 2012 at 2:46 AM
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