It’s called liquefaction – the ground is literally turning to water. ibid.
This isn’t the first time that a Japanese nuclear power plant has been breached by an earthquake. ibid.
Japan leads the world in designing buildings that can withstand the earthquake. ibid.
This was a huge earthquake. And comparatively few buildings fell down. ibid.
Ten of the twenty largest cities in the world are located in seismic danger zones. For the millions of people living on tectonic boundaries, the risk of earthquake is inescapable. ibid.
We can anticipate them. And we can build for them. ibid.
Fukushima, north-west Japan. This is as close as you can get to the site of a partial nuclear meltdown six months ago. But the events unfolding here have consequences for us all. Energy is the life-blood of our civilisation. But where it comes from and how we get it is something that touches all our lives. Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Horizon: Fukushima, Is Nuclear Power Safe? BBC 2011
Since the earthquake and tsunami struck over one hundred miles away electricity use has been rationed here. Here in Japan the mood has turned against nuclear power. ibid.
Heat remained in the reactors and they slowly started to cook ... There was a release of steam and radioactive particles. ibid.
This was an old nuclear plant. ibid.
Thousands of people still remain in temporary and makeshift accommodation. ibid.
Radioactive iodine and radioactive caesium. ibid.
Chernobyl ... They are lower than anyone expected ... Thyroid cancer: the numbers are very low. ibid.
They live in constant fear of what the radiation might have done to them. ibid.
Thorium. Some scientists have made great claims for its potential. It’s more efficient. It burns more completely. And it’s more abundant than uranium. ibid.
Yokahama 1898: the first moving images ever filmed in Japan ... Timeless, mysterious and isolated, Japan is beginning to transform itself. The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire, History 2013
It has also been flexing its own muscles on mainland Asia. Japan had waged war against China in 1894 in a dispute over the control of Korea. ibid.
The United States and the Soviet Union will join forces to defeat the rise of fascism. ibid.
It immediately began to suppress the Korean language and culture. And exploit its people and resources. ibid.
A strange mix of the modern and traditional. ibid.
For the past forty years Japan has been in the midst of internal strife. Its military elite is more and more aggressive. The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire II
The inevitable war against China begins in July 1937. ibid.
A massive armada captures the US Pacific fleet unawares at anchor in Pearl Harbor. ibid.
‘Out here I soon gathered that the Japanese were looked upon the way some people feel about cockroaches or mice.’ Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States III: The Bomb, Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, Showtime 2012
This racism prevailed when President Roosevelt in February 1942 signed an executive order calling for the evacuation of over one hundred and ten thousand Japanese and Japanese-Americans from California, Oregon and Washington. ibid.
Almost no-one objected to the slaughter-bombing of Japanese civilians. ibid.
The Ministry of Labour issues a lot of statistics about the working conditions, but most of the statistics, for example statistics on working hours and the lengths of the holidays on so on, excludes the workers who work for the companies which employs less than thirty people, and that means that about 42% of the workers are excluded from the statistics. Those are the most unprotected. Those are receiving the worst working conditions in Japan. Shigeru Wada, National Railway Workers’ Union
All the time you have to prove you are loyal to the company. I know many workers who have never taken any annual leave at all for ten years. Shigeru Wada
I think it’s very difficult for Western people to understand that lack of freedom among factory workers in Japan. Especially freedom of speech. You can’t express your opinion at all. Satoshi Kamata, author Japan in the Passing Lane: An Insider’s Account of Life in a Japanese Auto Factory
In Japan some people think it is better not to teach certain things than to teach everything. And some of the atrocities, some of the invasions, that Japanese Imperial Armies committed during the War are not fully conveyed to the younger generation. Yoshito Sakurai, broadcaster and foreign correspondent
They [Japanese workers] don’t object. That is really the heart of the matter. And they take things, they accept things, that to most of us would be intolerable. And acceptance of very very cruel regimen, at the working place, be it a factory or be it an office ... Will they go on accepting it? ... Might there not be a feeling among their fathers that perhaps it was not worth it? Professor Edward Seidensticker
Japan has a natural right to the Western Pacific and Australia; the white races must cede this area to the Asiatics. We have a natural right to migrate there. Tosuhe Matsouka
The Japanese are occupying all the islands. They will get Australia. The white race will disappear from these regions. Adolf Hitler
We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated. Surrender document
June 1964: Negara Jepang: a 7.5 earthquake strikes. Within moments water bubbles up from below. Tall buildings topple. This is the only episode of fatal liquefaction ever recorded on film: 26 people died. Mystery Investigator: Olly Steeds: Atlantis, Discovery 2010
At 2.46 on March 11th 2011 a massive earthquake struck the east coast of Japan. The quake triggered the largest tsunami in Japan’s history. Japan’s Tsunami: Caught on Camera, Channel 4 2011
Twenty-two minutes after the earthquake Kamaishi was the first town to be hit. ibid.
Kesennuma Port, the economic heart of the region’s fishing industry, began to flood: 3:28:00 p.m. ibid.
‘They [boats] made a crunching sound when the collided with each other.’ ibid. witness
Kesennuma Port was submerged under twelve meters of water. ibid.
It was tragedy on an extraordinary scale. A quake so powerful it knocked the Earth off its axis. Tens of thousands dead. The whole of Japan shifted three metres out of sync. Parts of the coast dropped over a metre. Japan's Tsunami, Eden 2014
An 8.4 [8.9] Magnitude Earthquake has struck northern Japan and triggered a tsunami. US widens the tsunami earthquake warning to the whole of the Pacific except Canada and mainland United States. BBC News 11th March 2011
Town that Vanished: 10,000 Missing In Picturesque Report. The Mail on Sunday 13th March 2011
I believe it’s part of His plan. Ray Cousins, 4thought.tv 201
Josh heads to Japan to investigate a forest [Aokigahara: Suicide Forest) that locals claim is home to lingering spirits. Destination Truth s2e11
Josh heads to Japan where a monster reportedly lurks in the waters of Lake Akida. Destination Truth s2e12
And a ghost town is exactly what the Japanese coal-mining city of Haboro has become. Destination Truth s4e3
In the forty years since the mine has closed countless reports of mysterious lights, unexplained noises and ghostly apparitions have left the residents of the neighbouring town convinced that Haboro is haunted by the ghosts of the miners who died there. ibid.
Chuuk Lagoon on the islands of Chuuck ... During World War II this tiny Pacific atoll was a critical naval base for Japanese forces. Destination Truth 4e4
Nearly seventy years later scuba divers and islanders report tales of unexplained underwater sightings, a feeling of being watched, and sounds of loud engine noises. ibid.
A centuries-old water monster called the Kappa that is part turtle, part demon, has evolved into a beloved national obsession. ibid.
The sun rises on Japan. More than six thousand islands on the edge of the Pacific. Life here is at the mercy of Earth’s most powerful elemental forces. Japan: Earth’s Enchanted Islands, BBC 2015
These islands remain wild, mysterious and magical. ibid.