EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR CRISIS
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away the west coast of the United States and South America. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful quake ever to hit the country. As the nation struggled with a rescue effort, it also faced the worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl; explosions and leaks of radioactive gas took place in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that suffered partial meltdowns, while spent fuel rods at another reactor overheated and caught fire, releasing radioactive material directly into the atmosphere. Japanese officials turned to increasingly desperate measures, as traces of radiation were found in Tokyo's water and in water pouring from the reactors into the ocean. A month after the quake, nuclear officials put the crisis in the same category of severity as the Chernobyl disaster.
As of April 25, the official death toll had been raised to 14,133, and more than 13,346 people were listed as missing, although there may be some overlap between the two groups. The final toll is expected to reach nearly 20,000. More than 130,000 people remained housed in temporary shelters; tens of thousands of others evacuated their homes due to the nuclear crisis.
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Multimedia: see what happens in a meltdown, a map of the areas of damage, satellite before and after photos, the cause of the quake and readers' photos.
Crisis Timeline
April 30 The embattled prime minister, Naoto Kan, defended his government’s handling of the nation’s nuclear crisis, a day after an adviser resigned during a tearful news conference in which he charged that the government was not adequately protecting the population from radiation. In one of his most damaging charges, the adviser, Toshiso Kosako, drew attention to a recent government decision to allow children living near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to receive doses of radiation equal to the international standard for nuclear power plant workers. That level is far higher than international standards set for the public.
April 29 A senior nuclear adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned, saying the government had ignored his advice and failed to follow the law. He said the government had taken only ad hoc measures to contain the crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
April 28 The latest warning about the country’s fiscal health came when Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on Japan to negative, saying that the costs of rebuilding the devastated areas — which it estimated to be as high as ¥50 trillion, or $609 billion — could lead to a lower credit rating unless the government stepped up its efforts to keep high government debt levels from rising much further.
April 26 As troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and fears over radiation continue to rattle the nation, the Japanese are increasingly raising the possibility that a culture of complicity made the plant especially vulnerable to the natural disaster that struck the country on March 11. Already, many Japanese and Western experts argue that inconsistent, nonexistent or unenforced regulations played a role in the accident.
April 22 The Japanese government earmarked almost $50 billion in emergency spending for the first step in the country’s largest reconstruction effort since World War II. Government estimates put the total damage from the quake and tsunami at $300 billion.
