Fukushima
Willacy, Mark

RRP
A$32.99

On 11 March 2011, Japan was rocked by the most violent earthquake in her history and one of the largest ever recorded. The quake itself was just the start of a chain of disastrous events, creating a massive tsunami that slammed the shores of north eastern Japan. Close to 20,000 people were killed or disappeared under waves that reached more than 40 metres high as they smashed their way several kilometres inland.

Yet the greatest damage was caused when the tsunami surged over the seawall of Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station, resulting in a multiple core meltdown that released vast quantities of radioactivity into the atmosphere and ocean. At one stage it even threatened the evacuation and irradiation of Tokyo itself, which would have spelt the end of Japan as we know it.

Fukushima is the incredible story behind the twin catastrophes of the tsunami and nuclear meltdown, seen through the eyes of witnesses and victims - from former prime minister Naoto Kan, the plant director and senior engineers of Fukushima Dai-Ichi, the elite firefighters who risked their lives to avert the ultimate nuclear nightmare, to the mother excavating the wreckage as she looked for her daughter's remains.

Author Information

Mark Willacy is the North Asia correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. As the ABC's Middle East correspondent in 2003, he won a Walkley Award for his coverage of the Iraq War. He won a second Walkley for his coverage of the 2011 Japan tsunami and nuclear disasters. In 2010 Mark was awarded the Eureka Prize for exposing corruption inside Japan's whaling program and that same year was named Queensland Journalist of the Year. His previous book is The View From the Valley of Hell: Four Years in the Middle East. Mark has reported from more than 30 countries for the ABC. He lives in Tokyo with his family.