I will not lie. I have not read through, watched or listened to all of the below. However, I will offer a few comments on what I have checked out:
- The Frontline documentary is required viewing for those who want to get a sense of just how tense the situation was at the Fukushima Dai’ichi plant.
- The Economist review “The death of trust” is the most succinct and readable account of the current state of Japan’s political atmosphere.
- The Fred Hiatt op-ed is fatuous. I include it because I mentioned the Washington appearance of the haiku poet in a previous post. From the quote, she has drawn just about the worst lesson one could draw from the disaster. The irony is completely lost on her: one has to have access to a free air ticket to Washington and likely be put up at a fine hotel in order to deliver a message to a well-heeled audience that post-3/11 Japanese have to learn to live more simply.
- Fackler is himself.
- The Kuhn audio starts off in the direction indicated in the title but ends up nowhere.
- The Jayasuriya and Yamashita piece promotes a false history of the Kan cabinet. The cabinet’s popularity did not fall post 3/11 because of mismanagement of the disaster. It fell because of uncritical media reporting of rumors of spread by unknown forces, most likely TEPCO and members of the bureaucracy, which opposition politicians then made Exhibit A in parliamentary interpellations.
- The SSJ Forum (free registry required) and the WSJ’s Japan Real Time blog contain too many excellent posts on the triple disaster to list.
- Dick Samuels gives away too much for free.
- Sheila Smith is everywhere, which is only appropriate.
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Aldrich, Daniel P.
Fukushima One Year Later: An Interview with Daniel P. Aldrich
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Aldrich, Daniel P.
Social Networks and Japan’s 3/11 Disaster
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Aldrich, Daniel P.
Civil society rising
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Anderson, Kent et al
Nikkei Weekly special online edition
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Auslin, Michael
After earthquake, lessons for Japan and the world
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Auslin, Michael et al
AEI Hosts Conference Around Anniversary of Japan Disasters (video)
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Bader, Jeffrey A.
Inside the White House During Fukushima: Managing Multiple Crises
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Fackler, Martin
Nuclear Disaster in Japan Was Avoidable, Critics Contend
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Fackler, Martin
Japan's Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now
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Frontline
Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown (video)
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Funabashi, Yo'ichi and Kay Kitazawa
Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response
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Green, Michael J.
Post–March 11: Japan's Political and Economic Landscape Now and Ahead: An interview with Michael J. Green
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Green, Michael J. et al
Nikkei Weekly special online edition
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Hiatt, Fred
A year after the disaster of 3/11, Japan looks inward
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Ishii, Sumie
Relief Efforts in Japan One Year Later: Reflections and Lessons Learned: An Interview with Sumie Ishii
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The Economist
The death of trust
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The Economist
Power politics
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Fukuda, Nobuo
Japan's Nuclear Cabal
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Hayashi, Yuka et al
An Altered Japan Marks a Year After Quake
(See also http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/ for numerous other articles by many different authors)
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Kan, Naoto
Former Japanese PM Naoto Kan on the Fukushima Disaster: A Changing View of Nuclear Power
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Kitazawa, Kay and Yo'ichi Funabashi
Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response
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Kuhn, Anthony
Rethinking, Not Just Rebuilding, Japan's Northeast (audio)
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Jayasuriya, Sisira and Nobuaki Yamashita
Japan's 3/11 disaster: one year on
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Masset, Christian et al
Nikkei Weekly special online edition
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Matsumura, Masahiro
Japan's revenge of the mandarins
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MIT Japan 3.11 Initiative
MIT Japan 3.11 Initiative receives grant
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O'Brian, Miles
Near Fukushima, a Big 'Guessing Game' Over Long-Term Risks (video)
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O'Brian, Miles
In Japan, Nuclear Cleanup May Be Mission: Impossible (video)
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Samuels, Richard J.
Policy Change in a Post-Crisis Japan: An Interview with Richard J. Samuels
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Scalise, Paul
ANS Committee Report on Fukushima
(See also various posts on the SSJ Forum at http://ssj.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/)
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Singer, Peter
When Prevention is Better Than Relief
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Smith, Sheila
Japan's political aftershocks
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Smith, Sheila
Japan's Day of Remembrance
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Smith, Sheila et al
Nikkei Weekly special online edition
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Smith, Sheila et al
AEI Hosts Conference Around Anniversary of Japan Disasters (video)
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Tabuchi, Hiroko
An Anniversary of 'Heartbreaking Grief' in Japan
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Tabuchi, Hiroko
Effects of Japan's Disaster Are Still Unfolding
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Tabuchi, Hiroko
Japan Finds Story of Hope in Undertaker Who Offered Calm Amid Disaster
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Takenaka, Heizo
Will the Sun Still Rise?
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Yamashita, Nobuaki and Sisira Jayasuriya
Japan's 3/11 disaster: one year on
Suggestions of other URLs are much appreciated. Also reports of any broken links.
And for a low, low price you can get Reconstructing 311, with yours truly and a cast of rather better characters.
Speaking of false history I'm seeing from all kinds of news sources that the government did not admit to melt-down until two months into the crisis. This is both foreign and domestic press and mainstream to boot. Unless I'm mistaken Edano was using the term 溶融 for the fuel in matter of days. Aside from the necessary disintegration of fuel rods that would have accompanied the generation of hydrogen, which sounds to me like "melting", am I missing something here or does one have to use the unfamiliar (to Japan) メルトダウン, to admit what happened actually happpened.
ReplyDeleteYY
Kan's cabinet was pretty much on the decline before the tsunami. I tend to view his downfall as the legacy of those political problems exacerbated by the disaster.
ReplyDeleteWhile I will admit that the haiku poet is somewhat risible, I have to say that the German Marshall Fund, when it occasionally focuses on Japan, does do a good job of bringing to Washington people whose perspectives that aren't represented within the beltway. That is a very valuable thing in the cloistered atmosphere of U.S.-Japan relations in the city.
Anonymous -
ReplyDeleteSomeone will have to do a Nikkei Telecom search on 溶融 or other similar terms by either Edano or Kan. I, unfortunately, do not have a subscription.
As to the plant roof explosions, it is my understanding that the temperature necessary for the breakdown of the zirconium clading producing free hydrogen is below the melting point of the fuel.
Chrysanthemum Sniffer -
ReplyDeleteBoth organizations sponsoring this event, the German Marshall Fund and the Nippon Zaidan, have a decidedly conservative slant -- and I mean conservative in its good sense, that is, suspicious of change.
However, inviting a haiku poet to talk about Japan post 3/11 fails the salience test. It is akin to asking an agronomist to come and talk about space travel.