Meltdown at Fukushima
Martin Fackler
May 2026 · Hachette UK
Ebook
416
Pages
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infoThis book will become available on May 7, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
On March 11th 3011, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded sent a five-storey tsunami crashing into Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. It triggered a triple meltdown, displacing over 100,000 residents, and precipitated a seemingly endless ecological calamity.
MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA will also be a universal cautionary tale about humanity's refusal to invest in the prevention of foreseeable disasters, our increasing overreliance on technology, and our deadly penchant for politicking during times of crisis-all of which come at a grave cost to human life, societal health, and environmental stability.
Rich in novelistic propulsion and detail, MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA closely follows four major characters:
Masao Yoshida, the plant manager, who struggled to regain control over Fukushima as the reactors overheated and remained at the helm while others fled, later dying of cancer;
Naoto Kan, the pugnacious prime minister who faced his nation's worst crisis since World War Two;
Katsutaka Idokawa, the mayor of one of the plant's host towns, who led a brave and hasty evacuation of his people as they were already reeling from the massive earthquake and deadly tsunami;
Shinzo Kimura, a government scientist who went rogue during the disaster and later defied the government again by empowering citizens in affected areas to protect themselves.
Each of these characters - along with a richly populated supporting cast - offers a different window into the tragedy and its long-lasting effects for Japan and the world. The cumulative result is a page-turning disaster narrative on an unimaginable scale.
MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA will also be a universal cautionary tale about humanity's refusal to invest in the prevention of foreseeable disasters, our increasing overreliance on technology, and our deadly penchant for politicking during times of crisis-all of which come at a grave cost to human life, societal health, and environmental stability.
Rich in novelistic propulsion and detail, MELTDOWN AT FUKUSHIMA closely follows four major characters:
Masao Yoshida, the plant manager, who struggled to regain control over Fukushima as the reactors overheated and remained at the helm while others fled, later dying of cancer;
Naoto Kan, the pugnacious prime minister who faced his nation's worst crisis since World War Two;
Katsutaka Idokawa, the mayor of one of the plant's host towns, who led a brave and hasty evacuation of his people as they were already reeling from the massive earthquake and deadly tsunami;
Shinzo Kimura, a government scientist who went rogue during the disaster and later defied the government again by empowering citizens in affected areas to protect themselves.
Each of these characters - along with a richly populated supporting cast - offers a different window into the tragedy and its long-lasting effects for Japan and the world. The cumulative result is a page-turning disaster narrative on an unimaginable scale.
About the author
Martin Fackler was in Fukushima the day after the first reactor exploded. He covered the crisis for the New York Times, with he and his team becoming Pulitzer Prize finalists for international reporting in 2012. He is former Tokyo Bureau Chief for the New York Times (2009-2015), for which he is currently Assistant Asia Editor.
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